Jan 2023 Social Platform Updates

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Discord acquired Gas . Instagram announced major design changes. And YouTube prepared for Shorts ad monetization.

Here's everything you missed from social platforms last month:

Amazon???

? Started paying creators to post short vertical videos to its Inspire shopping feed.

Discord???

? Acquired anonymous compliment app Gas , which quickly rose to popularity among teens.

Facebook???

? Meta removed advertisers' ability to target teens by gender on Facebook and Instagram (though they can still target by age and geo).

? Signed a new deal with Shutterstock to use its visual and audio content library to fuel its AI tools.

? Reportedly working on Reels ad monetization for a Q4 rollout.?

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Instagram???

? Announced plans to remove the Shop tab and return Compose to the center of the navigation bar in February.

? Reportedly shutting down Creator Studio and merging it with Meta Business Suite.

? Introduced quiet mode, which mutes notifications and sends an auto-reply to DMs.

? Added new parental controls so parents can see teens’ IG account settings.

? Rolled out its Notes feature in Europe and Japan.

LinkedIn???

? Added a subscribe button and link for creator newsletters.

Snap Inc.???

? Leaked plans to charge $0.99 to restore a broken Snapstreak (consecutive days that friends have exchanged Snaps).

Substack ??

? Added Pledges, which allows readers to commit to a paid subscription when a writer starts to monetize.

? Announced private publications, which require authors to approve newsletter reader requests.

TikTok??

? Will soon allow creators to restrict videos to 18+ viewers.

? Partnered with IMDb to allow US and UK users to link their favorite films and shows in TikTok videos.

? Added a Talent Manager Portal to its creator marketplace to allow managers to take actions on behalf of their clients.

? Testing sleep reminders.

? Testing video-scrubbing thumbnails to make it easier to identify a certain point in a video.

? Testing a podcasts feature that continues to play audio even when the app is in the background.

? Started applying state-controlled media labels to 40 markets around the world.

Twitter???

? Announced relaxed rules for its cause-based advertising policy.

? Launched a default For You view of tweets, though users can still swipe to a tab for tweets from followed users.

? Suspended third-party bots and apps (e.g. Tweetbot).

? Shut down its CoTweets feature.?

YouTube???

? Announced it will start sharing Shorts ad revenue with eligible creators on Feb 1st.

? Enabled Shorts users on Android to pick the preview image for their video.

? Added location tags for Shorts.

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