Snapchat Launches Loyalty Badges for Snap Map Locations
Snapchat introduced place‑loyalty badges that award gold, silver and bronze icons to users who rank in the top 25 % of visitors to a location over the past year. The badges appear only to the individual user on Snap Map, but can be turned into shareable stickers for friends. Snapchat says the feature will encourage repeat visits and generate richer foot‑traffic data for brands. The rollout includes highlighted listings of the most‑visited spots in Los Angeles and New York.
X Introduces Topic-Based Custom Timelines
X has launched a Custom Timelines feature that lets users pin AI‑curated, topic‑based feeds to their home tab. The option offers 75 of the most discussed subjects, each personalized by X’s Grok system based on individual engagement. It replaces the...
Meta Expands Access to AI Business Assistant
Meta is rolling out its AI business assistant globally, adding local‑language support for advertisers and agencies in the United States, EMEA, Asia‑Pacific and Latin America. Integrated in Meta Ads Manager, the assistant delivers instant, data‑driven answers and campaign recommendations without...
LinkedIn’s New Tool Lets You Test the Outputs of Various AI Models
LinkedIn has launched Crosscheck, a new feature for Premium members in the United States that lets users test prompts across leading AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and others. The tool presents two anonymous model responses for each prompt...
Social Media Usage Can Impact Kids’ Reading Skills
A six‑year longitudinal study of over 10,000 children aged 10‑16, published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, links frequent social‑media use to slower gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary. While platforms such as TikTok and Instagram boost data‑processing speed,...
Snap CFO Steps Down
Snap announced CFO Derek Andersen will leave the company on May 8, ending an eight‑year tenure that saw the firm navigate the pandemic and a shift to a more robust ad platform. The departure follows a 16% workforce reduction and comes...
Meta Sued by Consumer Federation of America
The Consumer Federation of America has filed a lawsuit accusing Meta of profiting from scam advertising, estimating roughly $16 billion a year—about 10% of its revenue—from prohibited promotions. The complaint cites ads targeting users with fake checks and free‑government iPhone offers,...
Meta Previews Updates for Its Edits App
Meta marked the one‑year anniversary of its standalone video‑editing app Edits with an invitation‑only webinar, unveiling a slate of upcoming features. The company highlighted recent Threads enhancements—new fonts, color adjustments, and better project management—that complement Edits’ creator toolkit. Meta also...
Pinterest CPG Promotions Outperform Benchmark ROIs
Pinterest released research, commissioned by the platform and executed by Circana, that examined 17 matched market tests of Pin ads for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands across multiple regions. The study found that 82% of campaigns generated positive incremental ROI...
Meta Tests New Add-On Package WhatsApp Plus Subscription
Meta is piloting a new subscription add‑on called WhatsApp Plus, offering premium stickers, custom themes, icons, expanded pin limits and other personalization tools. The service is being tested with a monthly price of €2.49 (about $2.35) and appears alongside a...
Judge Sides with Plaintiffs in Case Against Online ICE Trackers
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to the “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland” Facebook group and its companion “Eyes Up” app, allowing them to continue publishing publicly sourced information on ICE agent movements. The ruling finds the plaintiffs likely to...
Threads Will Add Broadcast Channels-Style Feature Called Live Chats
Meta's Threads announced a new "live chats" feature, a read‑only, one‑to‑many conversation stream similar to Instagram's Broadcast Channels. The tool lets creators add a few collaborators who can post, while followers subscribe and watch without replying. Announced at Coachella by...
TikTok’s US Joint Venture Gains Security Infrastructure Certification
TikTok USDS Joint Venture has secured ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, confirming its information‑security management system meets global standards. The certification follows the 2024 Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which forced the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a U.S.‑owned...
YouTube Adds Custom Timestamp Sharing for Mobile
YouTube is adding a "Share at Timestamp" feature to its mobile app, letting users send video links that start at a chosen moment. The update replaces the Clips tool introduced in 2021, which let users create short segments from longer...
The Latest xAI Updates Highlight Major Development Push
xAI rolled out new speech-to-text and text-to-speech APIs, a coding‑terminal preview, and raised API fees while teaming with OpenClaw. The moves aim to generate revenue as the Musk‑backed firm, which has raised over $45 billion and awaits a larger cash infusion...
Facebook Wants to Scan Users’ Camera Rolls for Content
Meta has begun testing an opt‑in camera‑roll suggestion feature for Facebook users in the United Kingdom. The tool scans a device’s photo library, identifies standout moments and proposes ready‑made collages, videos or story drafts that can be posted to Feed,...
Threads Updates Reply Format and Web UI
Threads is introducing indented replies on iOS and testing them on Android to make conversation threads clearer. The platform is also overhauling its web interface, shifting the main feed to the right and adding a left‑hand panel for Direct Messages....
Instagram Expands Your Algorithm Tool to Explore
Instagram is extending its "Your Algorithm" content‑recommendation tool from Reels to the Explore feed, allowing users to fine‑tune the topics they see across both surfaces. The feature, first tested on Reels in October, now appears for English‑language users in Explore,...
Meta Raises the Price of Its Quest VR Headsets
Meta announced price hikes for its Quest VR headsets, raising the Quest 3 from $500 to $599 and the Quest 3S 128 GB model to $349, with the 256 GB version now $449.99. The company attributes the increases to soaring memory‑chip costs and broader...
X Launches New Cashtags Format on iOS in the US and Canada
X has rolled out a new Cashtags format to all iOS users in the United States and Canada, extending the feature globally shortly thereafter. The update embeds real‑time market data, price charts and related posts directly into a tweet‑like stream,...
Social Media Has Positive Benefits for Teens
New Pew Research data from April 2026 surveyed 1,458 U.S. teens and a parent each, examining usage of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. The study finds teens turn to TikTok for entertainment and product information, while Snapchat is favored for private...
Grok Faced Potential Removal From the App Store
Apple privately warned Elon Musk that his AI chatbot Grok could be removed from the App Store after the tool was found generating nude and sexualized deep‑fake images at scale. Bloomberg research showed Grok was producing more than 6,700 suggestive...
LinkedIn Expands AI-Powered Conversational Search
LinkedIn is extending its AI‑powered conversational search from Premium members to the entire user base, allowing anyone to type natural‑language prompts and receive context‑aware results. The upgrade adds typo tolerance, nickname matching, and personalized ranking based on profile data and...
Meta Simplifies Ad Performance Elements
Meta introduced AI‑enhanced tools to simplify its Pixel and a one‑click setup for the Conversions API. The new Pixel feature automatically adds product names, availability and business details to event data, reducing manual coding. The Conversions API can now be...
Snap Lays Off 16% of Its Full-Time Staff
Snap announced a 16% reduction in its full‑time staff, laying off roughly 1,000 employees and closing over 300 open positions. The cuts are projected to shave more than $500 million from the annualized cost base by the second half of 2026,...
EU Officials Explore Plans for Teen Social Media Bans
EU officials, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, are advancing a proposal to prohibit social‑media access for anyone under 15 across the bloc. The plan, discussed with Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, mirrors...
Reddit Launches New Public Beta Integration with HubSpot
Reddit has launched a public‑beta integration with HubSpot that lets marketers create, schedule, and monitor Reddit campaigns from HubSpot’s Social tool. The integration adds post publishing, sentiment‑based mention tracking, and performance analytics within HubSpot’s dashboard. By bringing Reddit’s high‑signal conversations...
YouTube Expands C-SPAN Partnership
YouTube has expanded its partnership with C‑SPAN, adding the network’s three primary channels to all YouTube TV packages and streaming live events on the main YouTube platform. The move aligns with YouTube’s America 250 celebration, aiming to broaden civic‑content access for...
Snapchat Highlights Opportunities for Insurance Brands
Snapchat and Ipsos released a study of 1,513 U.S. social‑media users showing that 80% of Snapchat users already own at least one insurance policy, making them 1.4 times more likely than non‑users to be policyholders. The research also found that 82%...
Meta Updates Threads API with More Third-Party App Integration
Meta announced a major overhaul of the Threads API, adding new post‑type support, deeper analytics, and real‑time controls. The updates let third‑party social‑media‑management tools schedule ghost posts, GIFs, and Instagram Story shares, embed public Threads without tokens, and filter content...
Advocacy Groups Warn Against Adding Facial Recognition to Meta AI Glasses
Meta is preparing to embed facial recognition into its AI‑powered smart glasses, prompting a coalition of more than 70 civil‑rights, domestic‑violence, reproductive‑rights, LGBTQ+, labor and immigrant advocacy groups to publicly demand the feature be scrapped. The groups argue the technology...
Reddit Expands Reminder Ads Globally
Reddit has rolled out its Reminder Ads feature to every advertiser on the platform, allowing brands worldwide to add a “Remind Me” button to their campaigns. When users tap the CTA, they receive two push notifications—one day before and one...
Mark Zuckerberg Continues His Pursuit of AI Human Clones
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is training an AI replica of himself, using his speech patterns and daily decision‑making data, so the bot can interact with employees and possibly the public. The effort builds on Meta’s 2024 AI Studio, which already...
X Boosts Incentives for Original Content Creators
X announced a revamp of its creator revenue‑share program to prioritize original content. The company will cut aggregator payouts to 60% for the current cycle and plans a further 20% reduction in the next cycle. New detection tools will allocate...
TikTok Publishes First Transparency Report on EU Hate Speech Removal
TikTok released its first EU transparency report under the Digital Services Act, detailing hate‑speech removal efforts. The platform reviewed 88.7% of user‑flagged content within 24 hours and removed 96.3% of violating material before a report. In the second half of 2025,...
X Eliminates Thousands of Accounts in New Bot Purge
X’s product team announced a fresh bot purge, suspending roughly 208 accounts per minute. The effort follows an October sweep that removed 1.7 million spam bots and builds on Musk’s 2022 focus after discovering that about one‑third of profiles were automated....
WhatsApp Partners with Arsenal Football Club
WhatsApp announced a partnership with Arsenal Football Club to deepen fan engagement through an official WhatsApp channel and a new documentary titled “It’s Official.” The collaboration launches the film across WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, while offering exclusive digital experiences...
X Brings Back DM Voice Replies
X has reintroduced voice notes to its revamped X Chat messaging platform, allowing users to send audio replies in direct messages. The feature, originally launched in 2020 and removed last year, returns alongside a broader back‑end overhaul that adds optional end‑to‑end...
Meta Removes Ads that Encourage Litigation Against the Company
Meta has removed more than a dozen Facebook and Instagram advertisements placed by U.S. law firms that were recruiting plaintiffs alleging harm from social‑media use as minors. The ads, from firms such as Morgan & Morgan and Sokolove Law, were...
TikTok Launches Education Program with International Chamber of Commerce
TikTok has partnered with the International Chamber of Commerce to launch the Digital Commerce Labs, an education program aimed at small and medium‑size businesses in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. The initiative will teach merchants how to use TikTok’s...
Instagram Adds Comment Editing
Instagram announced a new comment‑editing feature that lets users revise their replies within a 15‑minute window. The edit option appears beneath each comment and can be used unlimited times during that period, with an "edited" label shown but no version...
YouTube Tests 90-Second Unskippable Ads on CTV
YouTube is piloting 90‑second unskippable ads for content streamed on connected‑TV (CTV) devices. The test follows earlier experiments with hour‑long ad blocks that only appear when ad‑blockers are detected. YouTube’s CTV audience now exceeds a billion hours per day, putting...
LinkedIn Adds Video Playback Speed Controls
LinkedIn has introduced playback speed controls for in‑stream videos, letting users watch at half speed or double speed. The feature, previously limited to LinkedIn Learning, is rolling out quietly to all users after weeks of testing. LinkedIn reports a 36%...
TikTok Is Building a Second $1.2 Billion Data Center in Finland
TikTok announced a $1.2 billion data‑center project in Lahti, Finland, marking its second facility in the country. The Lahti site will store EU user information locally, eliminating the need to transfer data back to China and aligning with EU data‑localization rules....
TikTok Launches Updated Integration for Wix Users
TikTok has released an updated integration for Wix, now available through the Wix App Market, that lets merchants connect their sites directly to TikTok for Business. The upgrade simplifies adding the TikTok Pixel and Events API, enabling real‑time visitor data...
Snapchat Makes a Push for Snapcodes as a Marketing Tool
Snapchat is promoting its Snapcodes—a branded QR‑code format that embeds logos and links to interactive experiences—as a core tool for advertisers. Available since 2017, Snapcodes now support AR lenses, instant coupons, and detailed performance analytics. The company argues that these...
X Expands AI Translations and Adds In-Stream Photo Editing
X announced that its Grok‑powered AI auto‑translate is now enabled for all users worldwide, replacing Google Translate as the default engine. The platform also rolled out a new reply setting that allows Premium users to let second‑degree connections comment on...
Instagram Looks to Grow Notes Engagement
Instagram is expanding its Notes feature so that any follower, not just mutual connections, can view a creator's brief comments. The change follows strong adoption among teens, who post ten times more Notes than older users. Earlier attempts to place...
Snap Promotes Group Topic Chats
Snapchat has expanded its platform with public Topic Chats, letting users join themed group conversations. The #marchmadness chat alone drew over 45,000 participants, peaking at 40,000 concurrent users. This marks a strategic pivot from Snap’s traditionally private, friend‑centric messaging to...
YouTube Expands Media Kit Insights and Adds AI Tools
YouTube has upgraded its Media Kit, now including family‑status and household‑income metrics to give creators richer audience demographics. The enhanced kit helps creators produce data‑rich PDFs for brand‑sponsored deals. In parallel, YouTube’s Create app gains Google’s Nano Banana AI image‑generation, letting...