Instagram Merges Disappearing and Permanent Messages: What’s Hot in Social Media

April 14, 2017

In 2017, a dominant trend among social media channels has been adding similar features to their competition in a bid to attract users from each other’s growing user bases. This week is no exception. Instagram is adding disappearing and permanent messages in Instagram Direct, modeling it after the success of Snapchat. LinkedIn is finding new ways to add value, from photo filters to trending storylines. Meanwhile, Twitter is introducing a ‘lite’ mobile version to accommodate lower network speed users.

More details on why this matters, and what else is happening in social media below.

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Instagram Merges Disappearing and Permanent Messages

Instagram is looking to one-up Snapchat on one more feature addition. After cloning Snapchat Stories, the platform is combining disappearing ephemeral photo and video messages with traditional permanent text and image messages in the same thread.
Why does this matter?
Instagram Direct usage recently spiked from 300 million to 375 million monthly active users in November. Somewhere in that timeframe, Instagram decided disappearing messages were popular enough to unite the two communication types in a single inbox.

LinkedIn Expanding More Features to the New Desktop Experience

Nearly one month after releasing a new desktop redesign, LinkedIn announced plans to add more features to increase user value. LinkedIn has already released productivity tools such as notifications, photo filters and trending storylines.
Why does this matter?
LinkedIn is looking to increase value for users while also appealing to a younger demographic by adding photo filters and trending storylines. LinkedIn also plans to add back features that were earlier taken away. Those features include top versus recent stories in the feed, expandable profiles and publishing tools.

Twitter Introduces Twitter Lite, Makes 140 Character Change Official

NTwitter announced last week it will release a ‘lite’ version of its platform. The new lite version is aimed at those who may be on a slow mobile network, expensive data plan or lack of storage on mobile devices.
Why does this matter?
FEven though smartphone adoption grew to 3.8 billion connections by the end of 2016, nearly 45% of mobile connections are still slower than 2G network speed. Along with Twitter Lite’s release, the platform also made it official that adding someone’s @username won’t count toward your tweet’s 140 characters.

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