RE: Instagram’s birthday

Instagram was launched on 6 October 2010, meaning it will be 10 years old next week 🥳. It got me thinking about just how much the platform has changed in that time…

Instagram’s original slogan when it launched in 2010 was “Capture and share the world’s moments”. Today, Instagram says it is "Bringing you closer to the people and things you love”. This change neatly encapsulates the way the platform has evolved over the past 10 years….

What was once an app to help you quickly capture, filter, and share beautiful images, has now become something far bigger and more powerful with a global community of over 1 billion users. Today, Instagram is far more than a humble photo sharing app. For many creators and influencers, it provides them with a platform to make a living on. Influencer marketing is now a $10 billion industry. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is estimated to earn over $1 million per post! 

He may be an exceptional case, but as a platform, Instagram in 2020 enables its users to do so much more than just sharing breathtaking photos. Shopping at your favourite brand’s Shop, watching engaging news updates from a diverse range of publishers, viewing live celebrity videos, the list goes on… and with the recent addition of ‘Reels’ (aka Facebook’s TikTok clone), Instagram is establishing firm foundations to maintain its dominance with a new generation of users for the next 10 years.

We shouldn’t overlook how Instagram benefits hugely from being owned by the world’s most popular social network, Facebook. In a shrewd strategic move to further leverage that corporate relationship and maintain its dominant position, Facebook is currently working at speed to integrate all its messaging apps (Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram). A move which hasn’t gone unnoticed by regulators, rival platforms, and high profile Facebook critics.

For many reasons (too many to list and dig into here), Instagram’s second decade won’t be as easy as its first. Whether it’s tighter government regulation, greater competition from rivals like TikTok, a failure to adequately address platform issues such as bullying and harassment, or just simply failing to understand what its users want… Instagram will need to continue to innovate and adapt at an ever increasing speed, or risk becoming just another social network that was a big deal, for a while.

ANYWAY….

Let’s crack on with all this week’s news and updates in the world of social media. Some awesome new features have been spotted or launched. Social media managers, rejoice!

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We knew it was coming, and here it is at last: Facebook has introduced the ability to message between its different platforms. For now, it’s only between Instagram and Messenger, though.

You might have expected this would mean the two apps would now share a unified inbox, but no — you’ll simply be able to send a message from one app to a user on the other, and chat as if you were using the same app.

The feature comes as part of a welcome upgrade to Instagram’s messaging features, with disappearing messaged, emoji reactions, watch-together, and other basics of a fully fleshed-out messaging app in 2020.

But it seems like WhatsApp won’t be joining the party any time soon. Facebook’s EMEA tech comms manager says the company is “still determining how cross-app communications will work with WhatsApp” and that it “will continue to remain a separate, end-to-end encrypted app at this time.”

It sounds like technical issues may be the issue there, but given this whole cross-app initiative is tied to Facebook’s desire not to be broken up by regulators, I’m sure Zuck will be pushing for a solution.

The new Instagram features and cross-platform messaging are launching in “a few countries around the world” first, and then rolling out globally “soon,” according to Facebook.

The latest attempt by the US government to kick TikTok out of app stores went right down to the wire, with a judge blocking the move just a few hours before it was due to come into force.

Your reminder about this complex situation: the Oracle deal still hasn’t been approved by the US or China, and an outright US ban is due to come into force in 12 November if a resolution isn’t found by then.

And judging by Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin’s words this week, the White House is in no mood to back down.

Twitter is testing a curious NEW feature it calls ‘Birdwatch’. I stumbled upon it being tested this week, but the company is keeping its beak firmly (and suspiciously!) shut about what it is and how it will work.

Is this Twitter’s answer to the never-ending calls for an edit button? It seems like it will allow you to attach notes to a tweet, although it’s not clear if they’ll be public or private.

One entirely plausible theory is that it enables users to pin notes to a tweet to show typo corrections, additional context for a tweet, or other similar info once a tweet has been published. You could then select a tweet to 'Add to Birdwatch’ to keep track of any such updates. A useful new feature for journalists, and others I would imagine. This is definitely something to watch (through binoculars, behind a bush). I suspect we’ll be hearing more about it soon.

If you know more about Birdwatch and want to share (on or off the record), just hit 'reply’ to this email and get in touch with me!

What will you be asking Santa for this Christmas?

I put this out on Twitter earlier today. the responses are, well, you can probably imagine 😆

Go take a look and add your own suggestions…

I always wonder how many people read right to the end of my newsletter 😆

Let’s find out? If you did, tweet me by tapping this link

BTW…Don’t forget to join my Geekout group on Facebook, You’ll love it, I promise!

Right, now clear off and have an awesome weekend!

Goodbye geeks 😎

This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant.