The week in social: Snapchat Memories, Facebook offline video, and sports on Twitter

Facebook testing offline video viewing

In its push to further prioritize users watching video content, Facebook will begin a test allowing users download videos and watch them on the app later, even when they are offline. The feature will begin testing within a small group in India on July 11th, and videos can be synced on Wifi for later viewing. In order to prevent illegal distribution of content, the offline videos can be viewed only strictly within the Facebook app, and content creators will have the ability to lock videos for offline viewing if they so choose.

More information TechCrunch.

Twitter is testing more features specific to brands

On a set of business profiles, Twitter has made available a few new customer service-centric features, letting users see the average time it takes for the account to respond to mentions, and seeing an account-curated list of top tweets, called “Featured Tweets”. Neither of the two features have been officially announced by Twitter to date, and the features are currently viewable on the web and the Twitter apps.

Facebook Messenger is testing end-to-end encryption

In an official post from the Facebook Newsroom, the company announced that they are testing end-to-end encryption for all messages by default to enhance security. This feature was introduced earlier this year for the Facebook-owned Whats App service. In addition, Facebook Messenger will begin offering “secret messages”, which can have timers set to how long a message appears, and the messages themselves will only appear on one device, to a single user. Facebook will not have access to these messages. The options in testing will become available to a larger set of users as the summer season progresses.

Twitter launches livestream sports broadcasts in partnership with Wimbledon

Twitter has just debuted its first sports livestream during the Wimbledon tennis tournament. When a user joins onto the stream, they see the live video broadcast on the left-hand side, and a stream of content tagged with #Wimbledon. Users are able to tweet directly into the conversation without leaving the window, similar to how other streaming service show content. The stream also shows the accounts associated with the event for users to follow for later conversations and content. Twitter has also partnered with the NFL, so users can expect to see similar content in the fall.

Snapchat debuts Memories

In a move to help save the content that users create for later reference, Snapchat has debuted a new feature called Memories. Users can take Snaps or Stories that they have create previously and string them together to view anytime, as part of a personal collection. Memories can also be shared out to friends, and if a Snap that is older than a day contributes to an ongoing Story, it will have a frame around it so the user’s friends know it is from the Memories feature. Memories is being rolled out to a small set of users at first as Snapchat tests its functionality.

More information on Snapchat Blog.

Facebook Messenger account switching becomes available on iOS

For users of multiple Facebook accounts that needed to have access to the Messenger platform on mobile, Android was the only available option until earlier this week, when Facebook made the feature available for iOS. Users can add multiple accounts, and then swap between them on the fly, making the transition between accounts much more smooth than logging in and out. Now all core Facebook services, including the main app, and Instagram, allow users on both top mobile platforms to log into multiple accounts.

More information on The Next Web.

Instagram allows comment moderation on business accounts

To help combat the high quantity of spam and inappropriate comments on celebrity and high follower accounts, Instagram is offering a comment moderation option, available for Instagram Business Accounts only. The feature, when turned on, will remove and “Blocks comments with words or phrases often reported as offensive from appearing on your posts.” While this does not allow for targeted comment moderation, the catch all solution will be helpful for those who are seeking to make the comment thread of posts safer for all users.

More information on TechCrunch.

Facebook updates the Messenger Platform for bot creation and management

Less than three months ago, Facebook created a platform for the creation of bots on the Messenger app, and with currently over 11,000 bots in existence, Facebook is updating the platform for developers in an effort to enhance the experience. Among the new features including the ability for users to rate bots, a menu for each bot that shows some of the top commands so they do not have to be memorized, and the ability to have bots send different types of content such as GIFs and videos. Facebook has also launched a blog that will in the future keep track of all the new things available to bot developers.

More information on Facebook.