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The Week in Social: Tunes, Voter Enrollment, and More Tunes

29 Oct 2018 Vincent Varney

The week in social

Facebook gets musical

In a deep cut for any MySpace veterans out there, songs can now be pinned to the top of Facebook profiles, giving users a chance to share their anthem or, better yet, Rickroll their friends. Also recently added to Facebook is the ability to inject tunes into Stories. Users can sift through a catalog of songs to accompany their photos or videos by using the “music” sticker, providing yet another precious Rickroll opportunity.

Snapchat enrols over 400K Americans to vote

Snapchat’s user base might be in decline, but that doesn’t mean its influence is waning. The app has managed to help 418,000 Americans enrol to vote in the upcoming US midterm elections through its partnership with registration website TurboVote.org. It’s an impressive feat, given that young Americans tend to be the least consistent of the country’s voters, and one that’s fitting of a service focused on sharing and communication – as Snap’s head of public policy stated, “There is no more powerful form of self-expression than the ability to vote.”

New Messenger UI starts rollout

Facebook has begun phasing in its new look Messenger, and it might be the most significant revamp in the app’s history, despite not adding much in the way of features. Most notably, the interface has been drastically simplified, with its nine (nine!) tabs consolidated into a more manageable three. Within chats, boring ol’ colors have been replaced with gradient options, because 2018, and a dark mode reskin is also on the horizon.

Twitter hit with steepest ever user drop

News of Twitter’s third quarter earnings call was headlined by a big number, and not in a good way. The company announced that its monthly active users have dropped to 326 million, down nine million from the previous quarter. Not only is this the second straight quarter that Twitter’s MAU has decreased, it’s also the steepest plunge in the platform’s history. It wasn’t all bad news, though: daily active users are up nine percent, and Twitter generated $US758 million in revenue in the past three months, beating analyst expectations.

‘Follow’ feature comes to Google Maps

Google Maps has long boasted a robust set of community tools, but its latest addition moves it much closer into social networking territory: a ‘follow’ button. Android users can follow their favorite businesses, allowing that business to send updates – such as information about sales and events – to their followers, which will live in the app’s ‘For you’ section. In the same update, Google Maps has started allowing businesses that haven’t yet opened to claim their presences, also intended to keep users in the know.

SoundCloud gets in on Stories

SoundCloud has jumped aboard the Stories bandwagon, but not by launching its own ephemeral content format. Instead, the SoundCloud app now has Instagram integration, allowing artists and fans to share songs from the music platform to their Stories. Unlike with the aforementioned Facebook Stories feature, though, the songs themselves won’t be playable within Instagram – rather, a nifty, SoundCloud-branded sticker will be generated, which links to the relevant tune when tapped.