Facebook launches Messenger Codes

Facebook is planning to extend its near-ubiquitousness with changes to its Messenger app. Users will soon be able to find new friends and add them with ‘Messenger Codes’. These codes, similar to Snapchat QR codes, will allow users to add people by scanning other users’ phones. This development is equally interesting from a business perspective; adding this technology to the Messenger app paves the way for businesses to allow users to scan codes directly in-app. This will help the Messenger app bring many other features ‘in house’, for example scanning boarding passes. Much like China-based alternative WeChat, the Messenger app will presumably change how and why people communicate via the app. WeChat has been a roaring success after users interactions with business – users can order takeaway, make store returns, as well as scanning the local area for new users. Is the Messenger app looking to follow suit?

Facebook looks at reading time

Facebook has also announced plans to tweak its algorithms relating to articles; it now plans on accounting for how long people actually stay reading the article when calculating users’ interests. Measuring how long users stay on articles, whilst also taking into account loading time, will help Facebook understand how much users did (or didn’t) engage with the content. The new algorithm will help overcome users who spend time reading content, but do not feel obliged to like or ‘react’ to the post. This is good news for publishers as ‘engagement’ with articles will no longer just be judged on likes, shares and comments and should still provide newsfeed visibility.
However, businesses and bloggers – be warned. If your article isn’t engaging, or the title isn’t reflective of the actual article, your engagement levels may be likely to drop and the new algorithm may push your content further down newsfeeds.

Is Twitter in trouble?

Twitter has actively pursued a younger audience – launching live-video platform Periscope, installing younger CEO Jack Dorsey, replacing ‘favourites’ with ‘likes’, adding polls. None of these initiatives seem to be translating into higher growth or profitability. After reporting another month of incredibly slow growth – just under two per cent – shares in the company fell by another 16%. That’s a total drop of over a third across the year. Just how well will Twitter fare in the coming months and years.

Video profile pictures

Following Twitter’s pursuit into video, Facebook has now launched a new video feature that may well take off in a big way. Users are now able to change their profile pictures to a video loop gif. Other apps, such as Vine and Boomerang (developed by Instagram), are able to load their content directly into Facebook profile pictures. This is an interesting development, and will create for some exciting creative opportunities. Just how well will businesses be able to harness the power and allure of video for their Facebook pages?

Facebook Expands

In big collaborative news, Facebook has announced plans to further integrate its Messenger app into users’ lives. Facebook can now boast over 800 million users on the Messenger app, and wants to keep them there for longer. Big names in technology, namely Uber and Spotify, are now able to integrate their services into Messenger. Users will be able to share songs with friends via Spotify, and order cabs on Uber, without ever having to leave the Messenger app. Allowing users to send songs, make payments, order cabs, and play games within the app helps Facebook maintain its position as the preeminent social media platform.

Not all the news is rosy for Facebook. After the devastating terrorist attacks in Lahore, Pakistan, Facebook was caught short as it used its ‘check in’ feature to ask people thousands of miles from Pakistan if they were affected by the attack. Described by Facebook as a “bug”, many users were left confused and frightened after a Facebook push notification asks if they are safe. However, users were mostly satiated by Facebook’s subsequent apology. Facebook began the feature in 2014, following a large earthquake in Nepal, and has been widely hailed as a success. Mark Zuckerberg issued the apology from his own Facebook page.

Twitter’s Big Birthday

The tenth birthday of Twitter fell in March, with users using the hashtag #LoveTwitter to reflect on iconic, funny, and outrageous tweets from the last ten years. However, as Twitter enters a double-digit age, difficult times lay ahead. There has been backlash to Twitter’s move away from a chronological Timeline and towards a personalised feed that isn’t in real-time. Users even started the hashtag #RIPTwitter. These users felt the very essence of Twitter lies with a real-time chronological feed. Twitter CEO @Jack has responded (in a series of tweets, fittingly), explaining that the new out-of-sync is an optional feature. Therefore, users now have the ability to decide whether or not to use this new feature, or use it alongside the traditional chronological feed. The best of both worlds, perhaps?

Instagram Changes

Similar to Twitter, Instagram has changed its users’ home feeds from their current chronological feeds to a personalised algorithm. Based on users’ likes and pre-existing relationships, Instagram has introduced the new feed to overcome the 70% of content that users miss whilst they are not online. The move will widely be welcomed by advertisers but not, perhaps, by companies and individuals who don’t have available budget. Organic reach, as we know it, is becoming a thing of the past. The changes make Instagram more sustainable and profitable as it overcomes the problem that comes with ever-expanding amounts of content; in 2015 Instagram boasted over 400 million users. It seems unlikely that general disgruntlement at changes will materialise in any mass exodus. After all, people still use Facebook following the change to a personalised-feed years ago.