How are major product updates changing the social media landscape this week?

Discover updates to major social media platforms, plus:

• First voice-first social media,

• California’s politics is going transparent using AI,

• Substack’s new podcast features are not popular with users,

• WordPress’s Data Liberation makes content migration easy,

• and Digiday's interactive cookie deprecation primer.

🛑 Major Social Media Product Updates

This week in social media, several platforms are rolling out updates to better connect with users and solve ongoing problems. From Twitter’s plan to cut down on bots to Instagram’s new AI features, these changes show how platforms actively try to improve their user experience in different ways.

Twitter considers charging new users (trying to avoid bots)

X is taking strange steps to solve its bot attack issues by requesting a small fee from new users. This initiative started as a test in New Zealand and the Philippines and is now being rolled out for everyone. If you’re new, you must pay this fee before you can engage fully with the platform’s features, such as posting and liking – although browsing and following accounts will still be free​​. Elon Musk tweeted about this too, saying it is a necessary step to stop bot attacks since “...current AI (and troll farms) can pass “are you a bot” with ease.” At Refact, we have been creating new ways to protect publishers and media companies from smart bot attacks with proprietary tools and methods.

Truth Social turns into a streaming platform despite plummeting stocks

Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, is expanding into streaming. Amid a significant drop in its share value, the platform aims to offer a new service focused on hosting news networks, religious broadcasts, family-friendly films, and other content that may face suppression (“canceling”) on other platforms. This move represents an effort to go beyond its existing microblogging services. It plans to integrate this content into the existing Truth Social apps and websites, followed by dedicated streaming apps for mobile devices and smart TVs​​.

Facebook Marketplace thrives where Facebook itself is losing traffic

Facebook Marketplace has become a significant growth area for Facebook, showing a 15% increase in U.S. desktop visits YOY, even as overall traffic to Facebook itself has come down by nearly 4%. This product is a ray of hope for Facebook, particularly with its challenges in staying relevant among younger users. The platform allows users to buy and sell items within their communities, which has proven increasingly popular.

Instagram lets top influencers use a GenAI chatbot clone

Instagram is piloting a program called “Creator A.I.” that allows influencers to get in touch with their followers using an AI-driven chatbot. This chatbot mimics the influencer’s voice to automate direct messages, potentially expanding to handle comments. The aim is to reduce the workload for influencers with large followings by handling high volumes of fan interactions. However, the messages will initially disclose their AI-generated nature. Meta’s broader strategy includes embedding AI across its products to streamline operations, improve user engagement, and make ​influencers-follower contact scalable​.

Meta is testing GenAI in Instagram’s search bar

Meta is testing a new Gen AI feature in Instagram’s search bar to improve the search experience. This innovation aims to make search results more intuitive and tailored to users’ preferences by leveraging AI technology. By integrating advanced AI algorithms, Instagram hopes to provide a more engaging and relevant browsing experience, which could keep users on the platform longer and increase interaction rates. This move reflects Meta’s ongoing strategy to incorporate AI across its various platforms to stay ahead in the competitive social media landscape​​.

🎁 New Media Products

Voice-first social media app AirChat

AirChat is a new social media platform that focuses on voice instead of text. This app lets users talk to each other in real time, aiming for a more natural and direct type of interaction. This move taps into the increasing interest in voice-driven platforms, which emphasize making digital connections feel more like in-person conversations.

Digital Democracy

CalMatters’s Digital Democracy project uses AI and big data to enhance transparency in California’s policy-making processes. This tool offers an easy-to-use interface that lets the public and policymakers access and understand complex legislative data and decisions. The goal is to empower citizens with more information about the actions of their government.

GMP+ reduces advertising’s carbon footprint

​​GMP+ is the revamped version of the Green Media Product, and it is trying to decrease the environmental impact of digital ads by removing “problematic ad placements” that contribute to unnecessary carbon emissions or energy expenditure. Introduced by Brian O’Kelley’s Scope3 and supported by Sharethrough, GMP+ utilizes a Global Placement ID to track and optimize ad placements across the digital ecosystem. This initiative seeks to improve ad viewing efficiency. It aligns with broader industry efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of digital operations, marking a significant step towards more sustainable advertising practices.

🗞️ Publishing Product Updates

Substack is extending its podcast and video support

Substack now supports podcast and video capabilities, catering to creators who want to move away from text or add some diversity to their content. One of the new features in the new product update is an essential integration with Spotify. This lets creators monetize their podcasts in new ways. There is also the ability to add transcripts, separate audio files, and previews for video podcasts across RSS feeds. These updates are designed to make the platform more in-tune for media-first creators. Simply reading the comments on the product update announcement, however, you will see it has received negative reactions from some users. The general opinion seems to be that Substack is extending itself to become an “everything” platform, which will destroy its niche appeal and function. Users also accused Substack of creating these tools only because its top earning users requested it.

WordPress’s podcast talks about the data liberation project

WordPress’s Data Liberation project enhances users’ control over their content by simplifying the import and export processes. This initiative aims to make it easier for users to bring their digital content into WordPress from various platforms and, if desired, to move it out again freely. The project is especially user-centric, allowing people to own and manage their data without constraints typically imposed by other platforms. Through tools like the Data Liberation repo and other enhancements, WordPress is making significant strides in ensuring that content not only moves into their system seamlessly but also can be exported without hassle, catering to the needs of those who wish to archive, transfer, or transform their digital work in other environments​​.

👀 What caught my eye this week

I have talked about cookie deprecation in many issues, and this week, I happened to see Digiday’s interactive cookie deprecation primer. It’s attractive, and it’s invaluable for anyone that wants to learn about it.

Follow Product in Media for more tech and product updates from the news and media industry.