We’ve been busy scrolling through socials to find all the latest platform updates and have compiled a list of what we think to be the most noteworthy of the month. Kicking things off with the best social platform, BeReal (trying not to be biased).
BeReal
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have to have heard of BeReal, the social media app that is taking Gen Z by storm. Unlike other platforms, BeReal offers an unfiltered, unplanned social experience.
So, how does it work? The BeReal app sends a push notification — ⚠️ Time to BeReal. ⚠️ — to all users at a random time each day. Users in the same time zone get the alert simultaneously. They then have two minutes to take a photo and share it with their followers. It uses your front and back cameras to snap a selfie, along with whatever you’re doing, at the same time. The two-minute countdown means no planning, no primping, and no content-batching. You just share whatever you’re doing when the notification comes in — which may be 11 AM one day and 4 PM the next.
And if you’re a lurker, you’re out of luck. You can still use the app, but you won’t be able to see any of your friends’ photos without posting your own.
Here are some stats on the hottest new platform:
- BeReal’s app currently, as of August 2022, has over 10 million daily active users.
- At the moment, companies are not allowed to create profiles on BeReal. The app’s terms of service state that “Users must agree not to use BeReal for advertising or commercial purposes”.
- BeReal has been downloaded 50 million times since its launch, with most of those downloads happening in 2022.
Now this is where the problems start. As with any popular social update, all other platforms are jumping on the bandwagon and creating their own knockoffs of BeReal. Can’t anyone have their own ideas anymore? Instagram, Snapchat AND TikTok have all announced new platform updates going by the names of IG Candid, Snapchat ‘dual’ camera and TikTok Now.
TikTok have released some rationale behind the idea theft. They said, “Making possible deeper connection and entertainment in a fun format, TikTok Now invites you and your friends to capture what you’re doing in the moment using your device’s front and back camera. You’ll receive a daily prompt to capture a 10-second video or a static photo to easily share what you’re up to.”
Will TikTok users enjoy having BeReal in the app that they’re already using?
That’s really the key lure – while social platforms are continuously copying and stealing elements from each other, the main aim here is the dilution of differentiation, giving people less reason to go and download another app. TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat might keep a tiny fraction of their audience from downloading BeReal by replicating its core elements.
You probably know people who refuse to download TikTok but scroll through Instagram Reels regularly. That’s the audience and behaviour that this approach is aimed at- keeping users in their apps for longer. So, it doesn’t need to be as good, and the platforms don’t care that people might scoff at their blatant duplication because it does work by keeping some users from downloading other apps.
Meta Call Ads
Meta has enhanced its Call Ads, an ad tool that lets brands add a ‘Call Now’ button to their ads on the platform, and now the company is testing a feature that gives customers the option to request a call-back if their call goes unanswered.
Customers can leave a customised message when requesting a call-back, such as a preferred contact number, day and time. Once they’ve sent the message, it becomes part of a Messenger chat thread.
As explained by Meta, “Running a business means juggling a lot, and sometimes that means being unable to answer every call in the moment. Potential customers might lose interest if their calls aren’t answered, so we are testing a feature on Messenger that gives customers the option to request a call-back from a business. This can show potential customers that you value their time and business and provides business owners flexibility for when a conversation happens.”
Meta’s also adding a 60-second call optimization option within various objectives, enabling businesses to “optimize their ads to reach people who are most likely to engage in a longer conversation”, which probably means older people because most young people are allergic to actual phone calls. (Please I beg you, just text me).
How this can help businesses improve their lead quality
Sometimes it’s not possible to answer every customer call you get, but potential customers can lose interest if this happens.
Call-back requests mean customers can easily provide you with a way to contact them, helping you retain leads. It also shows potential customers that you value their time and business.
TikTok downvotes
After TikTok announced it was testing comment downvotes in April this year, the feature is now available to all users globally. TikTok says the downvote feature will “identify irrelevant or inappropriate comments” in order to encourage “genuine and authentic interactions”.
TikTok explained further, “We’ve started testing a way to let individuals identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate. This community feedback will add to the range of factors we already use to help keep the comment section consistently relevant and a place for genuine engagement. To avoid creating ill-feeling between community members or demoralize creators, only the person who registered a dislike on a comment will be able to see that they have done so.”
As with any social platform the comments section can be a scary, spammy place. Negative comments on organic or paid posts can take away from its original messaging, which can be quite frustrating. So, hopefully this new update will be a valuable way to detect rising negative trends.
Instagram 60 second stories
More users have reported access to Instagram’s longer Stories feature after it was first spotted in testing in October last year.
Instagram will no longer split video clips into separate 15-second segments, as long as the video is under a minute long. You’ll get a notification letting you know that your videos in Stories will no longer be cut up, making it a more seamless viewing experience. Video uploads over a minute long will automatically become a Reel unless the video is split manually into separate clips before uploading.
What this means for your stories
This is an update that seems to put users on the fence regarding practicality. For example, it means users can’t skip through small clips of a video to find a particular segment.
It could also complicate branded content. Before, Story content could be measured by the number of slides or clips needed. If you’ve agreed on 3 Story clips for an influencer partnership, for example, these will need to be manually uploaded.
