Meta is making a lot of changes, as promised. The focus on short-form video and “the next chapter of the internet” is coming with big changes. They’ve canceled F8 this year while thy “gear up on new initiatives.”
Meanwhile, Twitter is Twittering with the incoming Elon Musk influence and TikTok is still crushing everyone on downloads and setting in-app spending records.
1. Third-party apps are now enabling sharing to Facebook Reels
In an effort to gain traction on Facebook Reels, Meta is inviting 3rd party apps to enable sharing directly to Reels.
Enabling Sharing to Reels makes it easy for people to share short-form videos directly to Facebook. Once integrated, third-party apps will have a Reels button so people can share short videos, then customize with Reels editing tools like audio, text, effects, captions and stickers. Instead of downloading their video content and uploading it later, they can now create and share video seamlessly with one tap of a button.
2. Meta cancels this year’s F8 conference
They’re pausing it for the time being to focus on other initiatives. From Meta:
Similar to years past, we are taking a brief break in programming and will not hold F8 in 2022 while we gear up on new initiatives that are all tailored towards the next chapter of the internet, and the next chapter of our company too: building the metaverse. Similar to the early stages of the web, building the metaverse will be a collaborative effort at every stage – with other companies, creators and developers like you.
3. Twitter is testing an “unmention” option
The long awaited feature is on its way.
4. Instagram has removed in-stream ad options
The push to Reels continues. Instagram is now moving in-stream video ads to Reels. From Social Media Today:
Instagram’s taken another small step towards its next evolution, with ad partners now being informed that in-stream video ad placement is no longer available as an option in the app.
5. TikTok is still leading app downloads
Not only are they at the top of the download charts, they’re seeing record in-app spending.
TikTok ranked #2 by downloads, #1 by spend, and #5 by average MAU in Q1 2022. We forecast that TikTok would surpass the 1.5 billion MAU milestone in 2022, and after just 1 quarter in 2022, TikTok has indeed shattered that prediction
