This Week in Social: The Biggest Social Media & Content Marketing News Stories

Instagram Opens AR Filter Creation Tools to All Users 🤳

This week, Instagram announced that anyone can now create their own Spark AR effects. In short, this means that anyone can build AR experiences for Facebook and Instagram, with no coding experience necessary.

Instagram AR filters

The Effect Gallery will showcase niche effects from up-and-coming artists from the creator community. To discover and try new effects yourself, simply select “Browse Effects” at the end of your effects tray in the Instagram Camera.

Twitter Discusses Coming Features, Including Topic-Based Streams and Searchable DMs 🔎

The news from Twitter this week came from a press event in San Francisco, where Twitter’s product team discussed a few projects they’re testing:

  • Topic Lists
  • Subscribing to Conversations
  • Re-Order Attached Images
  • Support for Live Photos

Topic Lists enable Twitter users to subscribe to subject-based curated listings in a new swipeable format. Twitter’s curation team build Twitter lists of key accounts to follow for selected subjects (e.g ‘marketing’, ‘football’, or ‘Game of Thrones’, and curate those streams to ensure the streams remain relevant to the focus topic.

Subscribing to Conversations This one’s simple: users can subscribe to unfolding threads so they don’t miss out on replies to specific tweets.

Reordering Attached Photos will allow users to drag and drop to rearrange images when composing a multi-image Tweet.

Support for Live Photos will upload iPhone’s live photos to the platform, which record 1.5 seconds either side of the main frame, creating a miniature video.

They also mentioned their ongoing work to improving user safety, including how they can provide more insight into censorship decisions.

Snapchat Announces Spectacles 3 👓

Meanwhile, Snapchat announced their Spectacles 3, which are glasses that have dual cameras designed to ‘capture the world in 3D’, as well as augmented reality creative tools in-built.

It’s easy to reimagine your favorite moments with a suite of new 3D Effects. Create your own magic moment, or add new lighting, landscapes, and other magical effects to an entire scene with a swipe.

Snapchat

Facebook Adds Instagram Scheduling to Creator Studio 📸

This is a bit of a biggie. To ger started scheduling Instagram posts and IGTV broadcasts via Creator Studio, you’ll need to link your Instagram business account to your Creator Studio dashboard.

You can’t schedule Instagram Stories yet (but you can via SmarterQueue if you have an iPhone!)


It’s worth noting that scheduling via Creator Studio doesn’t allow you to preview your grid the way that SmarterQueue’s Instagram scheduling feature does, or give you the same level of power to categorise your posts and schedule to other platforms at the same time.

How to Find Your Best Times to Post on Social Media – 2019 Update

ICYMI: On the SmarterQueue blog this week, we’re discussing the definitive way to identify your best posting times on social. Give the method a go, and let us know your results!

That’s all for this week! See you same time next week.

Team SmarterQueue

Suzie Ryan

Suzie is a Content Marketer for SmarterQueue based in London, UK. She loves helping brands and businesses find their voice through content and storytelling; and is particularly fond of the creative possibilities of social media as a platform. When she’s not writing, she’ll be found somewhere in North London, seeking out the bars that serve G&Ts in goblets. 🍸