The week in social: Facebook Watch, LinkedIn audience network, and Snapchat in Europe

Instagram is testing pushing stories to Facebook

While Instagram Stories is incredibly popular, seeing usage in excess of 250 million people per month, Facebook Stories does not have quite the same traction, although a new test from the social giant could help change this. With an undisclosed group of users, Instagram is testing allowing Instagram Stories to be pushed directly to Facebook. There are no additional details around the test, and it remains to be seen if it will be launched to all users anytime soon.

More information on Mashable.

LinkedIn introduces its own audience network

LinkedIn now offers to advertisers a similar feature that has been available on other social advertisers platforms such as Facebook for a long time: the ability to serve sponsored content on other native sites outside of the social platform itself. This can come in the form of sponsored content on news sites, tech sites, apps, and more. The program first released in beta, where over 6,000 advertisers tested the program.

Facebook is testing comments with colored backgrounds

A small set of Facebook users are now able to add colored backgrounds to comments they place on posts. It works in a similar way to colored text image statuses that Facebook started testing last December. Facebook has commented to The Next Web that they are testing the feature as a new way to connect users, but there are no official details on when it will be released to a wide audience.

Snapchat expands on-demand geo-filters in Europe with mobile purchases

As Snapchat aims to make the process of purchasing geo-filters even easier, it now allows users in several European countries to buy them straight from their mobile devices. Countries that now have access to this feature courtesy of Snapchat Creative Studio include UK, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Users in the United States have been able to purchase on-demand geo-filters from their mobile devices since this past June.

More information on The Next Web. .

Facebook now has round profile photos

A move that is similar to what Twitter previously has done, profile photos on Facebook are now round for all users. The change was available to a small set of users as early as last month, but now has wider availability. The round profile image will appear in the news feed and the home profile feed, but Facebook has said that the profile photo in the cover area will remain as a square. Facebook has noted that the look will be more engaging, but there are not yet any metrics that support this.

YouTube adds more features to make live streaming better

With the increase in social networks adding feature to the live streaming experience, YouTube has announced a host of its own feature improvements to remain competitive. Based on an official blog post, the first of these new features is ultra-low latency, meaning that the delay between input and output of a live streamer is lower, which has the potential to improve engagement between broadcaster and viewer. Additional features that are now available include in-line moderation, holding inappropriate content for review, and shared hidden user lists.

More information on YouTube Creator Blog.

Twitter brings ‘Night Mode’ to desktop

A popular mode for mobile users, Twitter had debuted Night Mode for all desktop users. Previously it was available for mobile on iOS and Android. Twitter provided details and instructions in a tweet and added more information about the feature to the Twitter FAQ.

More information on Twitter.

Facebook Watch is now available to all users in the US

Billed as a new video channel for original content, Facebook Watch is now available to all users within the US. The service saw a limited roll-out about a month ago, with more and more users being added every week since. The service is available across most Facebook platforms, and users can subscribe to shows for easy access and notifications. Suggestions are given to users based on what is trending, personalized matches, and more.