The week in social: Snapchat listens, Facebook Stories, and Zuckerberg schools

Turns out Facebook users are pretty chill about stuff

Apart from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg having to trade in his trademark jeans and grey shirt for a suit and tie, and the internet gaining some pretty entertaining footage of a millennial schooling congress on how the internet and social media actually work, not many changes have come from Facebook’s heavily-reported senate hearing.

The infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal has seen many experts call for big change and even the sparking of a #DeleteFacebook campaign. But, at the end of the day, Facebook users seem almost “meh” about the whole thing.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the fiasco hasn’t translated into any meaningful shift in Facebook user and advertiser behaviour, and Facebook has reported that it doesn’t expect any major changes in its revenue.

During the hearings, Zuckerberg agreed to work with Congress on legislation that would regulate Facebook and other social media platforms.

Snap’s helping publishers earn more bling

Snapchat’s making money moves recently, with reports it’s testing a commerce function within a handful of Snapchat Discover publisher channels. The new feature lets users swipe up and buy a product from within the recently-launched Discover store. Looks like the platform is taking advantage of souring relations between publishers and Facebook thanks to its news feed changes, and implementing something that’s been on the cards and a priority for some time. In a letter to Discover publishers from earlier this year, Snap’s platform content lead, Mike Su hinted at these advancements, saying: “… content is one of our top three priorities in 2018, and your success on Snapchat is at the heart of that. So we’re going to push harder and be more proactive with helping you succeed on Snapchat.”

Facebook is working hard to get users Stories-ing

Facebook is competing with Facebook-owned Instagram to get people posting to Facebook Stories natively, rather than simply cross-posting from Instagram Stories… that was inspired by Snapchat. Mildly-to-mostly confusing as it all may seem, the move comes with new two new features to entice users: Boomerang GIFs (an Instagram feature), as well as AR doodles, which lets users doodle and scribble on videos before or during recording for a little added extra to video content. This comes after other efforts to make Stories more popular, including making Stories available to brands, merging it with Messenger Day (another Snapchat clone), and hinting at the possibility of allowing users to create Stories on PC.

Vero vies for attention of disillusioned Facbook users

For the apparently small portion of Facebook users who are worried about their personal info (as per story above), subscription-based social media platform Vero may be the answer. This ad-and-algorithm-free answer to social media currently has four million users (up from 150,000 at the end of January), and its CEO Ayman Hariri says: “We’re not here to use people’s data; we’re not here to monetize on it.” The platform has six core functions: users can share photos, links to music, movies, TV shows, or books, as well as location. They can also create different social circles to share to: close friends, friends, acquaintances and followers. Since the app is chronological and ad-free, Hariri says it’s immune to other social media problems like fake news and bots (though that doesn’t mean users won’t ever post fake news to share with their friends).

OG Snapchat back by popular demand

Maybe Snapchat truly believe the user is always right, or maybe it’s responding to the hit Snap Inc’s shares have taken since it introduced its latest redesign, the chronological and algorithmic ordering of Stories in particular. Either way, high five the person closest to you and send them a snap of your happiest dance because the people have won – the social platform is bringing back its much-missed reverse chronological order once again. The change hasn’t been rolled out to all users yet, but some are seeing the reverse chronological ordering of Stories in both versions of the app.

Snap is said to be working on a new set of Spectacles

If you never got get your hands on a pair of original Snap Spectacles, A) there are apparently hundreds of thousands of pairs just sitting on warehouse shelves so not all hope is lost; and B) don’t even worry because version 2.0 is said to be on its way to your face. Word on the Snap street is that a new FCC filing has surfaced for a “wearable video camera.” It doesn’t give us many details but its name “Model 002” hints that it might be a second version of something. From what the tech community gather from the filing, the new Spectacles will have faster file transfers and a redesigned frame (maybe). Some sources are even saying there are two new versions underway, one with smaller tweaks to the existing version, and another, pricier product with GPS and dual camera.