Hello social media enthusiasts! This week we have many updates, most of which are focused on harnessing AI to improve ad targeting, reach and personalization. As we head into the final weeks of the year, let’s see how these tools can improve your 2026 social media strategy.
YouTube
YouTube is rolling out a new feature called Brand Partner Video Access to help creators work with brands more easily. This replaces the old “video linking” tool and gives creators and brand partners an official way to share access to videos for collaboration and sponsorship deals.
YouTube also announced new tools to help creators earn more money from brand deals. The platform is testing a “flexible way for creators to add and swap sponsored segments in long videos” so they can sell the same space to different brands over time.
For Shorts, creators will soon be able to add direct links, helping viewers find products and giving creators better data to show how their content drives traffic and sales.
Additionally, improvements in YouTube Shopping with AI product tagging should help boost sales and make it easier for creators to show products in their videos.
YouTube has also added new AI creation tools inside the YouTube Create app to help people make and edit videos more easily. These tools let users generate short video clips from text descriptions and use AI to edit footage with features like music, captions and effects. These AI tools are still experimental and are only available to some creators right now, YouTube says.
The tools include a Veo 3 Fast model that can create vertical clips from prompts and an AI editing feature that helps polish videos with voiceovers and other enhancements.
YouTube also reminds users that any AI-generated content must follow its Community Guidelines.
Reddit has begun testing a new Verified Profiles system that adds a small grey checkmark next to the usernames of prominent people and businesses to show they are who they say they are. The checkmark will appear in a variety of places, including search results and the main feed. It will replace the old business badge.
This feature is starting with a limited group of “public figures and trusted partners” and is meant to help users know when they’re reading a real expert, journalist or official brand post.
Reddit says the checkmark doesn’t give extra access and everyone must still follow the normal rules. For now, users cannot request verification and Reddit hopes this helps reduce impersonation.
Reddit has also announced stronger safety protections for teens under 18, partly in response to new laws in Australia that ban children under 16 from having social media accounts.
The company will now use age checks and prediction tools to help keep younger users away from adult content, require birthdate verification for new accounts in Australia and suspend accounts for users under 16 there.
Reddit says it cares about youth safety but also disagrees with the law and is challenging it in Australia’s High Court, saying the rules may harm privacy and free expression.
Instagram has started automatically creating AI-style headlines and descriptions for users’ posts that show up in Google search results, even when the original post had no caption. Instagram currently doesn’t ask users for permission before doing this and the headlines only appear in search results rather than on Instagram itself, the outlet reported.
These generated titles are meant to help Instagram content rank higher in search, but many users say the headlines are inaccurate and misleading and don’t reflect what they actually posted, according to 404 Media.
Creators and experts have criticized this move because the AI-generated text can misrepresent
X
X has added new home screen widgets for iPhone users that lets people see parts of their X feed without opening the app.
Social Media Today reports that the widgets can show the latest posts from accounts users follow as well as trending topics, making it easier to stay updated from a phone home screen.
These widgets will give users faster access to content. They are part of X’s ongoing updates to make the app more useful and engaging on mobile devices, the outlet said.
Meta
Meta has introduced several new AI tools to help brands and creators work together more easily on Facebook and Instagram.
Businesses can now use updated features in the Partnership Ads Hub to find and turn organic creator content into paid ads while checking metrics like views, likes and shares before boosting posts.
Meta also added creator discovery APIs so brands and agencies can search for creators by audience data and engagement, making it easier to match with the right partners.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
