The week in social: Instagram comments, Periscope HD, and Facebook year in review

Periscope adds HD broadcast saving option

A new feature exclusive to the iOS version of Periscope, users now have the option to save their broadcasts in HD. The feature was announced through Twitter through Periscope’s official help account. The option comes with a warning that it will use more data and disk storage, so users with limited data plans (if they are saving from a location without WiFI) would need to be careful.

LinkedIn introduces conversation starters

As a way to help users reconnect with colleagues or start conversations with new connections, LinkedIn has added a feature on its messenger that allows conversations starters to be created based off of qualities in the recipient’s profile. The three core conversation starter types include updates in a connection’s activity, any shared experiences, or any shared connections. It is likely that LinkedIn is making a greater push to support messaging as more online users are switching to messaging platforms as their top apps of choice by time spent.

Facebook is testing a new way to serve post comment threads to users

As a way to get users to engage with comment threads on posts more frequently, it appears that Facebook is testing serving post comment threads in chat windows on the desktop version of the service, similar to how Facebook Messenger threads appear. Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature was being tested with a small set of users. If a user has already commented on a thread, the window will appear as minimized so as not to further obstruct the browsing experience.

More information on TechCrunch.

Pinterest introduces a new way to qualify shared content

A new feature that Pinterest is calling Tried and True, allows users to state when they’ve tried something (like a recipe) that is featured on a pin, and furthermore say whether or not they liked it. Users themselves can mark if they have tried the action related to the ping, and a green smile face signifies a “like”, while a red frowning face signals “dislike”. Users who recommend the pin can even leave a comment with their “like”.

Users can tweet Emojis at Google for relevant local results

A new way to utilize search based on emerging communication habits, users are now able to tweet at Google with a variety of emojis to receive relevant local news/information. Examples include tweeting a burger emoji to find burger restaurants nearby, or an umbrella emoji to find out the weather. There are 200 emojis users can tweet at Google for a response, out of 1,400 generally accepted codes for emojis.

More information on CNet.

Facebook launches its yearly summary videos for users

A continuing trend for the world’s largest social network, Facebook has released its 2016 year in review videos. The videos take the highest engaged posts that featured the user in question and stitches them together in a short highlights video. The videos are viewable instantly, but only the user can see them unless he or she chooses to share.

More information on Mirror.Co.UK.

Instagram introduces even more comment control features

Recently, Instagram debuted the ability to censors specific words from comments to avoid spam and abuse, but this week the network added more features to help make the comments section more engaging. Users are now able to reply to comments, and in the coming weeks also like comments, much in the way it works for individual photo and video posts. Comments that are liked will have a heart next to them with the number of likes they have received. The biggest new feature addition is the ability to turn of comments completely, that is already available for users.

Reddit updates how up-votes affect the popularity and positioning of content

In an effort to create greater transparency with its up-voting system, Reddit has reorganized the rules of how the system works. Reddit removed rules that it deemed unnecessary and shared with the community an overview of the rules as part of a post earlier this week. Reddit has said that the change in these rules will affect how content is shuffled in terms of popularity of the course of the next week. As another minor update, when content reaches over 1,000 votes, the number with be stipulated in “k” versus having the zeroes afterwards, to make the appearance cleaner.

More information on Reddit.com.

Facebook adds a Wave feature to Nearby Friends

In an effort to help users make better use of the Nearby Friends feature, Facebook is testing within a small group the ability to send a waving hand emoji as a greeting or sorts when a friend is within close proximity. There is no official word on if the feature will see wider distribution, or a timeframe for it.

More information on Social Times.