The week in social: Tumblr live streaming, Twitter Engage, and 500 million on Instagram

Twitter allows posting of longer videos

Announced through an official blog post earlier this week, Twitter is extending the length of videos users can post straight to the platform from 30 seconds to 140 seconds, in what could be considered a play on the 140 maximum character count for tweets. This does not include organizations that work through Twitter’s publisher tools, which allow videos of up to 10 minutes in length. The same new 140 second constraint will soon apply to Vine videos as well, but this will only apply to a small group of creators, likely larger-scale influencers. The feature will first be rolled out on the iOS and Android mobile apps.

More information on Twitter Blog.

Tumblr joins other networks with an offering of live video

Tumblr is the latest in a long line of social networks that will now allow users to post live video into the dashboards of all followers. Tumblr has partnered with other services to make this possible, including YouNow, Kanvas, Upclose, and YouTube. Features with live video on Tumblr include being able to reblog the videos, allowing users to watch later through saved broadcasts, and notifications to all followers when a new live video starts.

More information on Tumblr Staff Blog.

Twitter launches companion analytics app Engage

A new app that works along with Twitter helps users uncover real time insights around their audiences on the platform and more. Engage, released earlier this week, helps users track the most important follows and mentions from influencers, make it easier to filter different views of performance, and even see audience demographics. In an enhancement over the standard Twitter analytics, users can also track post by post engagement whether its a photo, GIF, video, or general status update.

Foursquare partners with Twitter to show posts from precise locations

As an enhancement to what Twitter offers for location tagging, the company has partnered with Foursquare to offer precise locations when a tweet is posted;however, this is only available on iOS at the moment. Users can now pick a specific place to mark their tweet, and browsing users can see these locations on the timeline and on profiles, allowing them to potentially tap a location and see a listing of content from those places. The features are being powered by Foursquare, and in return the company gets linking back to their own location rating pages in their app. This is an extension of the partnership that the two companies announced back in 2015.

Instagram reaches half a billion users

In a blog post announcement, Instagram revealed that they had reached 500 million users from across the world. Among the stats provided in the post, the company noted that 80 percent of the user base resides outside of the United States. 300 million of the users access the service every day, making it a 60% rate of daily active usage. The post went on to share examples of unique content from various creators featured in other previous blog posts from the service.

More information on Instagram.

YouTube improves support for Creators

As part of the proceedings at VidCon, one of the industry’s largest conventions around the online video space, YouTube introduced new ways that it is going to work to support Creators. First, for all Creators that are part of YouTube’s partner program, they will now have full time access to a real person as part of the support offering for questions. The Creator’s hub has also been updated, and now offers Creators different programs and tools to help make content creation easier and better. The company also launched YouTube for Creators, where all Creators receive benefits for different levels of subscribers.

Facebook launches brand new creative hub

In an effort to help marketers and advertisers make better ads, Facebook has launched a brand new creative hub. The hub will allow marketers and their agencies to work together on campaigns and ads, and even preview video ads in-situ prior to them going live. The goal is to expand the hub’s features to allow communication between the agencies and marketers in an effort to cut down on traditional communications. Facebook took advice from several agencies before launching the hub, and it was first debuted in Cannes, France.

More information on AdWeek.

Instagram introducing translate button

Off the heels of the announcement that Instagram reached 500 million users, 80% of which are outside of the United States, the company also announced that in the coming month, a new translation tool will be made available that will let users tap a button that will translate any posts from the native language into the user set language. The announcement was made on Instagram’s official account and references the Help page to search for more information.

YouTube live streaming now available on mobile

A brand new feature on mobile, YouTube is bringing live streaming to its smartphone app for the first time. Live streaming on YouTube has been available since 2011, and various hallmark events have been streamed live on the service, but this is the first time it will be available on mobile, likely in response to heavy competition from other social apps. The feature will be built right into the main app. Users just have to take a photo to act as a thumbnail for the video, and will be able to broadcast and use chat features on the app as well.

More information on YouTube Creator Blog.

Facebook set to expand live broadcasts with dual-person streaming

In a bid to stay ahead of the competition, Facebook is introducing new features to its live streaming offering, chiefly among these the ability to do a dual-person remote stream. The updates were announced at VidCon, and verified profiles will be the first ones that are able to test this feature, likely to draw top-level influencers to use the feature. Another feature to be introduced is waiting rooms, where broadcasts can be pre-scheduled, and users can gather in rooms and chat among themselves prior to the streams starting.

More information on Social Times.