Playing catch-up
Just Another Day in Social Media. 😉
My heart goes out to the social media manager in charge of the Twitter account for @CBCTheNational. Imagine the panic that person must have felt last week when they realized the account had been hacked, and an inappropriate tweet was posted. (I'm getting sweaty just thinking about it 😥). If you want to know what was said, here's a hint — the 'c' word — or look at this screen capture. I wish all of you a hack-free week (and if you don't have multi-factor authentication on your accounts yet, get it now!)
Here are today's top stories:
An Instagram video feature that was 'a long time coming'
TikTok goes long
Changing your username, in a Snap
And I see you, March Breakers
Read on ⬇️
Caption This
You get a caption. And you get a caption. Everyone gets a caption! (Sorry for the Oprah earworm). But it feels so true right now. While many social media companies have already integrated auto-generated captions into their platforms, Instagram had a big gap — it's Feed. That's changed now. Here's what you need to know...
Instagram Adds Captions to Feed Videos
Last week, Instagram began rolling out a new feature that automatically generates captions for videos uploaded to the Feed. This is the first time this feature has been available for this type of post, and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri admitted in a recent tweet that this update was "a long time coming." This now means that creators don't have to use a third-party app, or upload a transcript separately — a huge time saver! According to an article in The Verge, the captions are currently available in "select languages" and Instagram expects the wording to become more accurate as more people use the captions, and the AI gets better at understanding what's being said. (I did a quick test, and it actually seemed pretty good — MUCH better than YouTube's auto-generated captions).
How it Works
The captions are on by default. Here's how it works:
Open the app
Click on the "+" sign in the top right-hand corner
Select "Post"
Choose a video from your camera roll
Watch the captions start to roll!
Note: I didn't notice an option to "edit" the captions.
Turning off captions: During upload, on the final screen before you click "Share" — scroll down to the bottom of the options and go to: Advanced Settings > Show captions, and turn off the toggle. Or, to change this on an individual post, click on the ... menu, go to Edit > Advanced Settings > Show captions.
Why Captions?
It is very important to make sure that your videos are accessible to those in the hard-of-hearing and deaf communities (see note below). But including captions may also help with engagement. Ever since Facebook introduced auto-play on videos in its News Feed, many of us have been watching videos with the sound off. Only if we noticed something/someone interesting, did we turn the sound on. I feel like I still do that on Instagram, so this update could be a game-changer for the Gram. On TikTok, where the sound is basically always on, I still appreciate the auto-captions in case I need to turn down the sound.
*FYI: if you live in Ontario, AODA legislation requires that any videos on webpages includes subtitles or closed captioning. So if you haven't been uploading/editing those YouTube videos shared on your site, you now have a summer project 😬 (and trust me, you need to review YouTube's auto-generated captions; that AI needs a bit of work).
A Quick Timeline
March 2022 — Instagram announces auto-generated captions for videos in the Feed
May 2021 — Instagram launches a captions Sticker for Stories (which was later rolled out to Reels)
April 2021 — TikTok announces auto-generated captions
February 2020 — Facebook rolls out auto-generated captions for Facebook Lives
March 2019 — Twitter announces the ability to upload a .SRT file to create closed captioning on videos
January 2017 — Facebook introduces auto-generated captions for Page videos (following videos ads in 2016)
SOCIAL SNACKS
TikTok Gives Us 10 (Minutes of Video)
TikTok is giving users globally the ability to upload videos of up to 10 minutes in length — up from the current three minutes. This is according to a recent report from TechCrunch, which cites a spokesperson from TikTok as saying: “Today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.” When TikTok first launched, the max video length was 15 seconds. The company later upped that to 60 seconds, and most recently it was three minutes. This latest 10-minute update pits the app directly against YouTube. But Google-owned YouTube was already clearly worried about the impact of TikTok, and launched its own competitor called "Shorts." It will be interesting to see what happens next...
Change Your Username, In a Snap
If you grabbed your Snapchat username a long time ago and it's been bugging you, good news — you can now change your username. And in fact, you'll be able to update your username to any unclaimed handle once per year, according to a blog post from Snapchat. The change won't have any impact on your activities on the platform (Memories, Streaks, etc.), and all friends and conversations will continue as normal. "This highly requested feature is an important, and long requested one from our community," says Snapchat.
Want to update your Snapchat username? Go into the app and head to your profile. Click on the gear icon in the right-hand corner (Settings) > tap on Username > enter your new name (and pray it isn't already taken!).
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ICYMI
🔴 Facebook is killing off Campus, its section for college students [The Verge]
🔴 Twitter says it's building a better Birdwatch [Twitter Blog]
🔴 Meta launches a free digital security course for journalists [Meta Blog]
🔴 TikTok faces investigation into the impact of the app on young Americans [CNN]
🔴 LinkedIn introduces a new way to present career breaks [LinkedIn Blog]
APP-LIKE
I See You, March Breakers
The ArriveCan app, which all Canadian travellers are required to download and use, has recently made it into the top 5 of most downloaded free apps in Canada, according to AppAnnie. It's currently the second most-downloaded app in the App Store, behind what looks like a Wordle knock-off app. It didn't even appear on the list 30 days ago. Also in the current top five: TikTok, Google Maps, and YouTube.
HAPPY-LIKE
Like the Calm App, But Cuter
Like many of us, I'm always on the lookout for something sweet to break the doomscrolling. Here's one video that I keep going back to: Enjoy.
I wish all of you a kind and happy week. ❤️
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If you really liked it, why not forward it to a friend. 💌