Hello, social friends and welcome to another week of updates. This week brings more creator options across Instagram and YouTube, including personalized Reel thumbnails and voice replies, respectively. Let’s take a deeper dive and see where these tools can be most beneficial.
Instagram will now let users edit the little preview thumbnail that shows up on profile grids for each post. Before, the app chose the thumbnail automatically, but now users can pick how each image or video looks on a profile so it fits the way they want it to look. See an example here.
This is part of a bigger push to give people more control over how their profile appears, especially since Instagram switched to bigger thumbnails that match the look of full-screen Reels, Social Media Today reports.
Instagram also announced that more creator tools are now available to everyone, not just big influencers. That means more people can use analytics, schedule posts, see trending audio and similar options that help build an audience.
Meta is rolling out a new parental alert feature that will notify parents if their teen repeatedly searches for terms related to suicide or self-harm on Instagram.
These alerts are designed to give parents timely information so they can check in with their teens and offer support, and they’ll also include expert-backed resources to help guide those conversations.
This will begin rolling out in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia for families who use Instagram’s parental supervision tools, with more regions to follow later.
X
X has added two new ad size options for ads that show up in users’ feeds. In addition to the sizes advertisers could already use, brands can now upload ads in 4:5 and 2:3 aspect ratios, which are taller formats than some older options.
This makes it easier for companies to reuse posts from other social apps without having to crop or change them first.
For advertisers, this means more flexibility and creative options when making ads on X, and it could help more marketers try running campaigns there. The update is part of ongoing efforts to improve X’s ad offerings as the platform tries to attract more business.
Threads
Threads is testing a new way to start direct messages more easily. If you’re in the U.S. or Canada, you can type “DM me” or “Message me” in a post, and that will turn into a clickable shortcut right in the feed to your messages. Other people can tap it and go straight to messaging you.
YouTube
YouTube has a new feature called Voice Replies. This allows creators reply to comments using their own recorded voice instead of just text. It’s now available for all YouTube creators, so anyone can start responding to comments with a voice message right in the YouTube app or YouTube Studio
YouTube is also testing new AI remix tools for Shorts that let creators change or build on existing videos in more creative ways.
A small group of creators will see two new options in the Shorts Remix menu. The new options are “Add an object” and “Reimagine.” These tools use prompts (and optional reference photos) to either add things into a short clip or turn a single frame into a brand-new video.
Any Short made with these tools will automatically link back to the original creator’s video, so credit stays intact. Creators who don’t want their Shorts remixed can opt out. For now, this is just a limited test, but it shows YouTube moving deeper into AI-powered creation for Shorts while trying to balance creativity with creator control.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
