New Features on Social Media | July 2021

Whew! It's been another busy month for social media platform updates. Here's a summary of the latest feature releases from July 2021:

Clubhouse 👋 | New Features | July 2021

• Officially launched its direct messaging feature called Backchannel.

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Discord 💬 | New Features | July 2021

• Released threads for both public and private side conversations.

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Facebook 👍 | New Features | July 2021

• Also testing threads on select "public figure" pages.

• Announced a $1B fund for Facebook and Instagram creators to be spent through the end of 2022.

• Unveiled a new prayer feature in Facebook Groups that lets worshipers submit prayer requests.

• Restricted ad targeting to users under 18 solely by age, location, and gender (removing the ability to target underage users by interests or web activity).

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Instagram 📷 | New Features | July 2021

• Testing an anti-harassment feature called Limits to temporarily restrict comments to reduce targeted abuse from groups.

• Enabled creators to link their IG Shops in their personal profiles.

• Introduced Sensitive Content Controls to reduce "upsetting or offensive" content on a user's Explore page.

• Extended the maximum length of Reels from 30 to 60 seconds.

• Added audio-to-text translations for Reels in English, with more languages coming soon.

• Testing a re-share sticker on Stories to discourage users from copy/pasting feed posts to Stories.

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Pinterest 📌 | New Features | July 2021

• Allowed creators to tag products in their Idea Pins and include affiliate links.

• Added a "Paid Partnerships" label for promoted posts.

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Snapchat 👻 | New Features | July 2021

• Acquired Vertebrae to help brands turn their products into 3D assets.

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TikTok ♪ | New Features | July 2021

• Extended the maximum video length from 1 to 3 minutes.

• Added a seekbar to allow users to rewind and fast forward longer videos.

• Testing a new features called Shoutouts that lets fans pay for custom videos from their favorite creators (a la Cameo).

• Expanded its live tools with new features, including the ability to schedule events, co-host live streams with other creators, share Q&As, and more.

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Tumblr 📝 | New Features | July 2021

• Announced Post+, which allows creators to paywall exclusive content for paid supporters.

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Twitter 🐦 | New Features | July 2021

• Floated ideas for new privacy features, such as a privacy check-in, an unmention feature to remove a tag, and the ability to hide your account from public discovery.

• Enabled users to change who can reply to a Tweet after its posted.

• Testing a Shop Module to enable e-commerce from Twitter profiles.

• Testing new vocal effects for Spaces.

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YouTube 🎥 | New Features | July 2021

• Allowing creators to experiment with custom rules for their comments section.

• Testing timestamped reports of community guideline violations to be more transparent with creators.

• Partnered with Emojam to support custom, sound-enabled gifs.

• Unveiled a "New to You" feed on mobile to improve personalized discovery.

• Rolled out YouTube Shorts globally.

• Released subscriber-only chats, live polls, and its clips feature for channels with more than 1,000 subscribers.

• Testing achievement cards to memorialize creator milestones.

• Rebranded Applause as Super Thanks and rolled it out to 68 countries.

• Acquired Indian social commerce startup Simsim and is now testing shopping from live streams.

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Did we miss any new social media feature in our breakdown? If so, let us know!

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