Snapchat to revamp itself to attract users over 34


Snapchat is getting a new look. After the roll-out of 280 characters on Twitter, Snapchat is being freshened up in a bid to seek wider audiences. Although the photo-sharing app is popular with young people, it will undergo a revamp in hopes of becoming easier to use for everyone else. CEO of Snap Inc., Evan Spiegel said, “We don’t yet know how the behaviour of our community will change when they begin to use our updated application. We’re willing to take that risk for what we believe are substantial long-term benefits to our business.”

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, did not provide further details on the upcoming changes. During the third quarter, Twitter averaged 330 million monthly users, up just one per cent from the previous quarter while Snapchat added 4.5 million daily users in the quarter to 178 million, which amounts to a three per cent growth.



YouTube to crack down on bizarre content targeting kids

Previously in August, YouTube announced that it would no longer allow creators to monetise videos which “made inappropriate use of family-friendly characters.” Now it’s taking another step to try and police this genre.

Juniper Downs, YouTube’s director of policy said, “We’re in the process of implementing a new policy that age-restricts this content in the YouTube main app when flagged.” The video-sharing website stated that age-restricted content is automatically not allowed in YouTube Kids. The company also shared that it’s been formulating this new policy for a while, and that it’s not rolling it out in direct response to the recent coverage.

The first line of defense for YouTube Kids are algorithmic filters. After that, there is a team that reviews videos which have been flagged. If a video with recognisable children’s characters gets flagged in YouTube’s main app, which is much larger than the Kids app, it will be sent to the policy review team. If the review finds the video is in violation of the new policy, it will be age-restricted, automatically blocking it from showing up in the Kids app.



Instagram Stories allows uploading content older than 24 hours

Instagram is rolling out an update that will allow users to upload any video or picture from their library – regardless of whether it was taken within the past 24 hours. Earlier, the workaround was to re-save, screenshot, or edit the metadata on the image or video, so that it appears new in your library, tricking Instagram into thinking you’d just captured some fresh new content.

The fun of the disappearing story formats, pioneered by Snapchat, was how it made users feel like they’re following along a person’s day in real time, but since so many people (particularly celebrities and influencers) were finding ways around the 24-hour limit, Instagram has decided to get rid of the time restraint altogether. In case you don’t want to completely misinform your followers, however, Instagram will still offer stickers that let you stamp the date when the photo or video was originally taken to add as context.

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