Hello and welcome to 448 Studio’s social and digital news weekly blog! I will be writing it (me, Laura, arguably the most important part of 448 Studio) and it will cover weekly updates from the social media world, digital releases and trends. Basically, I will gather all the digital “stuff” I find worth of my (and your) time and try to make it as simple and as accessible as possible.
I am sure all of you have noticed how fast things move in the magical online world, and I guess sometimes it can be hard to follow all the updates and all the new features that apps and social media platforms launch. These weekly blogs will sum up all the news of the tech world that a Social Media Officer (yes, that is my new title, and yes I am definitely flexing it. PS. Lesson number 1: If you don't know what it means, Google it) considers important in just one place. Convenient, right?
So let’s get started!
This week opens with some amazing news from Oculus. For those who do not know it, Oculus is the VR (Virtual Reality) branch of Facebook.
Oculus just held its annual 'Oculus Connect' conference, where it's showcasing the latest VR innovations and tools that it's working on to take VR to the next level.
The biggest innovation announced on day one of the event was hand-tracking, without gloves or controllers.
It feels like the future we have seen only in Films and TV series is finally here. I am beyond excited to see the possibilities of hand-tracking applied to AR (augmented reality) too!
Facebook is also developing an app called Horizon. Facebook Horizon is a cartoonish VR world where users will be able to establish a presence, and connect with others virtually. Before stepping into Horizon for the first time, people will design their own avatars and magic-like portals called telepods will transport people from public spaces to new worlds filled with adventure and exploration. At first glance people might mistake Horizon for a gaming platform, but I see the potential of it is as far reaching. Companies could organize VR meetings with employees all around the globe, even team-building experiences. University could hold online courses requiring attendance. Old friends could reunite and watch films together, or simply play multiplayer games.
Facebook is also rolling out some major changes to its own platform:
It started hiding total like counts on Facebook posts in Australia, following the changes applied to Instagram. The removal of public like counts, according to Mosseri, Instagram’s chief, could reduce social comparison and its associated negative impacts.
It is applying changes to live video broadcasting: Through the Live API, publishers can now use a “rehearsal” feature to broadcast live only to page admins and editors in order to test new production setups, interactive features and show formats before going live to a full audience. Publishers will also be able to trim the beginning and end of a live video, and can live broadcast for as long as eight hours, double the previous limit of four hours. This is a great add for everyone who uses Facebook Live and has been struggling with the “unpredictability” of it. Now page managers will be able to test if their intended set up works in advance and eventually make the necessary changes to deliver an efficient Live broadcast.
There are a few new updates for its co-watching feature, Watch Party, which include the ability for Pages to schedule a party in advance to build anticipation, support for “replays” that will let others enjoy the video after airing, the ability to tag business partners in branded content and new analytics.
Two new metrics are being added to Creator Studio: Minutes Viewed and Unique 60s Viewers (total number of unique users that watched at least 60 seconds in a Watch Party). These complement existing metrics like reach and engagement and are incredibly valuable data to collect.
Instagram is adding branded content tags for IGTV. This will allow users to show their paid sponsorships in their IGTV videos, and businesses to be more visible.
Google announced an update on how it handles videos in search results. Instead of just listing relevant videos on the search results page, Google will now highlight the most relevant parts of longer videos, based on timestamps provided by the video creators. This will be especially useful for how-to videos or documentaries. Now that everything is being transformed into video content, it was about time that Google changed something about its video search feature.
And this is it for this week’s Digital News! I hope you enjoyed the read. If there is anything you would like me to cover more in details, please do not hesitate to drop me a message on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook or Instagram. You can also email 448 Studio directly.
See you next week!
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