The world of social media is constantly changing and evolving. However, we’ve seen a lot of major developments and break-through innovations over the past few weeks. Here’s a quick look back at the biggest news stories that stuck with us the most.
Twitter dreams big with plans of 24/7 live-video broadcasts
Twitter was the latest social media platform to join the live-video bandwagon, after finally merging its Periscope functionality into the main Twitter app back in December 2016. Live-video in mainstream social platforms was first introduced by Facebook in April last year, followed by Instagram in November.
Last month, in an attempt to counterbalance the setback it suffered after losing the right to stream Thursday night NFL matches, Twitter has confirmed it’s working towards streaming live content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, broadcasting news, sport and entertainment. It’s yet another step towards positioning itself as an online news network rather than a social media platform.
Facebook launches augmented reality Camera Effects platform
Facebook recently announced the launch of its new Camera Effects tool, now claims it will push beyond Snapchat’s limits by opening its creation tool up to all developers, allowing people to make and use thousands of different overlays. The first effects are available inside Facebook’s Camera feature on iOS and Android, including masks, frames and interactive filters for both photos and videos.
Jumping on the news, Manchester United has announced it will be launching its own real-time 3D effect filter giving football fans the chance to mark their team’s victories with custom colours and iconography.
This is just one of the many innovations we are going to see from Facebook – the social platform is also being designed to be compatible with augmented reality hardware further down the line, so we expect even more elaborate sports celebrations on Facebook in the near future.
Instagram Stories hits 200 million users
Since launching in August 2016, Instagram Stories has gone from strength to strength, now averaging around 200 million daily users. Meanwhile Snapchat – the original instant images messaging app launched in 2011 – has somewhere around 158 million daily users, according to figures published in February. It seems the apprentice has now become the master, making it yet another milestone for the Facebook-owned app, just 8 months after its launch.
We’re intrigued to see what Snapchat will do to combat the growth of Instagram Stories. Perhaps it will jump on the live-video trend it has so far decided to steer clear from.
https://parall.ax/blog/view/3231/24-7-broadcasts-3d-filters-other-social-media-news