The biggest updates in social media | December 2024
It’s time for your final news roundup of 2024. Find out what happened in the world of social media during the month of December.
Social media news
Meta
Meta gives Broadcast Channels an interactive update
Live soon
Meta is in the process of rolling out broadcast channel replies which will enable members of a channel to engage with each other as well as with the content in the channel. However, it’s worth noting that this engagement will be threaded to each individual comment and is only visible when the comment is tapped. Additionally, new chat prompts will allow channel followers to respond with text or photos for up to 24 hours to encourage further engagement, while new broadcast channel metrics are also being rolled out to help channel owners understand how their content is performing with insights into total interactions, shares, and poll votes.
Meta expands penalty avoidance to Instagram
Live soon
Meta is expanding its approach to penalty notices to Instagram allowing first-time/minor offenders who receive a penalty to complete a survey-style course to better understand the rules and get the warning removed.
Meta tests option to hide views on Reels and replies on Threads
Live soon
New options will allow users to hide the view count for Reels content on Instagram, while another option on Threads will allow users to choose whether their post replies are visible on their profile.
Meta tests “No Edit” tag for untouched images
Live soon
Some users can now add a “No Edit” tag to images posted on their Stories to clarify that their image has not been edited in the app.
Meta experiments with “Avatar Quests”
Live soon
In time, Meta’s “Avatar Quests” may allow users to use their digital avatars to engage in interactive games or world exploration.
Instagram launches trial reels
Live now
Instagram is rolling out the ability to post Reels as a “Trial”. This will enable creators to share their new Reels with a selection of users that don’t follow them to see how it performs before sharing with their usual audience.
Further reading: Guide to Instagram Reels
Instagram tests scheduled DMs
Live soon
Users on Android can now schedule DMs by drafting their message and then long-pressing the send button. Users can then choose a date and time to send the message.
Instagram shares coming AI video elements
Live soon
Via an integration with Meta’s Movie Gen engine, users will be able to create edits of their video clips by switching the background, changing outfits, creating Muppet versions of themselves, and more.
Instagram adds screenshot blocking for view-once media
Live now
Instagram will now block screenshots for all DMs exchanged in “Vanish Mode’ or when “View Once” is active.
X (Twitter)
X tests file attachment in DMs
Live soon
Users may soon have the ability to send files in X DMs in addition to images, videos, and gifs.
X updates requirements for Creator Revenue Share Program
Live now
X has now said that users will need to have at least 2,000 verified followers to qualify for the Creator Revenue Share Program (up from 500).
X adds labels for parody and fan accounts
Live now
Parody and fan accounts can and will be labelled as such going forwards in X to help users understand the purpose and ownership behind each account.
X adds follower versus non-follower engagement data
Live now
A new element in X’s analytics will allow you to see how your engagement is split between followers and non-followers in the app.
X makes Grok AI chatbot available to all users
Live now
Grok AI is now available to all X users, as opposed to being available to only X Premium subscribers.
Further reading: What is X Premium
X rolls out updates to Grok AI
Live soon
X has integrated X and web search data to improve Grok’s answers to questions by allowing Grok to include reference links and citations. Grok’s image generation model has also been improved while a Grok button has been added to X posts to make it easy to request context about any X post using Grok. X is also said to be working on making audio queries possible allowing users to communicate with Grok verbally.
X increases the price of Premium+
Live now
As of December 21st, the price of Premium+ has been increased by 30% in order to provide an ad free experience, higher usage for Grok AI models, and the ability to pay creators using its revenue share model.
LinkedIn adds revolving slideshow to banner images
Live now
LinkedIn is rolling out a new option that will allow users to create a slideshow of images to be used as the banner on their profile.
LinkedIn gives users summary of mini-game performance
Live now
LinkedIn games playback overview will tell users which games they have played most often, when they most often played, and how they compare to other game-players in the app.
LinkedIn tests new larger video display
Live soon
LinkedIn is testing a new video display that will allow users to tap on any video in-stream for the video to be enlarged and to transport users to a TikTok-style feed within the LinkedIn app.
LinkedIn tests paid boosting for personal updates
Live soon
Some users now have the ability to pay to boost their personal posts on LinkedIn, in addition to their business page updates.
LinkedIn adds new elements to campaign manager
Live now
LinkedIn has replaced their “Company Engagement” report with a new “Companies” overview to provide insight into how other companies interact with your brand on LinkedIn, while a new data-drive attribution report will provide insight into how specific elements of your marketing are influencing your lead generation. A new “Measurements Insights” tab will provide information on member, company, campaign, and ad format data, while “Qualified Leads Optimization” will allow marketers to tailor campaigns to target leads that meet specific criteria.
TikTok
TikTok updates “Donation” feature
Live now
TikTok’s updated donation feature now lists various causes that users can add to their content using donation stickers.
TikTok offers Shop Credits
Live soon
TikTok continues its push to increase in-stream shopping and is now offering an incentive in the form of TikTok Shop credits to users who invite friends to join the app, as well as rewarding them for using the app themselves.
Further reading: How to make money on TikTok
Key takeaways
- Instagram broadcast channels get an interactive update allowing users to reply to updates and engage with other members.
- Meta allows users to hide view count on Reels and replies on Threads.
- Meta adds new ability for users to post Reels as a “trial” to test content with non-followers.
- You can now schedule DMs on Instagram.
- X makes Grok AI available to all users.
- You can now boost updates from your personal LinkedIn profile.