There has been a lot of bad news about social media startups lately. Multiple companies, including Twitter alternative Post News, and IRL have shut down. And ShareChat’s valuation has dropped more than 50% after a recent funding round. But amid the negative headlines, the recent exit of French social network BeReal looks like a bright […]
BeReal got its best-case scenario exit Read More »
In order to have users spend more time on the platform and ramp up engagement, TikTok is testing streaks that are similar to what people see on Snapchat. TikTok confirmed that it is testing the feature but didn’t provide any statement related to it. The company said that it is experimenting with the streaks feature
TikTok is testing Snapchat-like streaks Read More »
Instagram confirmed it’s testing unskippable ads after screenshots of the feature began circulating across social media. These new ad breaks will display a countdown timer that stops users from being able to browse through more content on the app until they view the ad, according to informational text displayed in the Instagram app. The change
Instagram confirms test of ‘unskippable’ ads Read More »
Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. OpenAI announced this week that it’s removing Sky, one of the voices used by its new GPT-4o model, after users found it sounded eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson’s AI character
Scarlett Johansson brought receipts to the OpenAI controversy Read More »
Elon Musk’s X is preparing to make “likes” private on the social network, in a change that could potentially confuse users over the difference between something they’ve favorited and something they’ve bookmarked. According to new posts by company employees, the decision to hide “likes” is meant to incentivize engagement, by allowing people to favorite content
X should bring back stars, not hide ‘likes’ Read More »
Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky is officially launching DMs (direct messages), the company announced on Wednesday. Later, Bluesky plans to “fully support end-to-end encrypted messaging down the line,” it also said. The launch comes two weeks after the social network teased it would soon be introducing direct messaging capabilities. Up until now, all
Bluesky now has DMs | TechCrunch Read More »
X, formerly Twitter, turned TweetDeck into X Pro and pushed it behind a paywall. But there is a new column-based social media tool in the town, and it’s from Instagram Threads. Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the social network is testing pinned columns on the web. While the Meta CEO didn’t mention what you can
Meta Threads is testing pinned columns on the web, similar to the old TweetDeck Read More »
Reddit announced on Wednesday that it is reintroducing its awards system after shutting down the program last year. The company said that most of the mechanisms related to awards will remain the same, with some new additions. For instance, there’s a new design for awards, a new award button under eligible posts and a leaderboard
Reddit reintroduces its awards system Read More »
Over the weekend, Instagram announced that it is expanding its creator marketplace to 10 new countries — this marketplace connects brands with creators to foster collaboration. The new regions include South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Israel, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia. Meta first introduced this marketplace to facilitate paid partnerships in the U.S. to
Instagram expands its creator marketplace to 10 new countries Read More »
On April 29, Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-SC) proposed a bipartisan bill to protect children from online sexual exploitation. President Biden officially signed the REPORT Act into law on Tuesday. This marks the first time that websites and social media platforms are legally obligated to report crimes related to federal trafficking, grooming,
Biden signs bill to protect children from online sexual abuse and exploitation Read More »
