Social Media Sunday: Facebook Takes on Periscope, Twitter Has Worst Week Ever
This week in social media, Facebook took on Periscope by opening up live streaming on iPhone to everyone, while Twitter had one of its worst weeks ever. Meanwhile, Snapchat made it easier to add friends in an update to its app.
It's time for another round of Social Media Sunday!
Opening Livestreaming to Everyone
This week, Facebook officially opened the livestreaming feature it had reserved for public figures and celebrities to everyone. Well, anyone in the U.S. with an iPhone, for now.
The move, as Wired noted, is squarely aimed at (seemingly the only strength of) Twitter, and its live video streaming app Periscope. Those with Facebook on their iPhones will notice a new icon under the status update section, showing an upper body with a double halo over its head, which is the new live video button. Facebook said the feature would be rolled out to its Android app in the near future.
Taking on Uber?
While Facebook seems to be doing a great job of trouncing its chief rival, Twitter, there are signs it might try to take on Uber at its own game. As Quartz reported, a patent application has surfaced online that shows a design for ride sharing through the Facebook platform, similar in setup to Facebook's event screen.
The application details that users could select what type of transportation they plan on taking to get to a future event, and Facebook would match them to other attendees that plan on getting there the same way -- complete with a mapping system for drivers picking up other Facebookers.
The company didn't comment on the application, and it certainly could be one of the myriad technology patents that hint at a tantalizing product that never materializes. At least for now, you can always call an Uber through Facebook Messenger.
More Than Like Coming "Pretty Soon"
The much-anticipated expansion of Facebook's iconic "Like" looks to be on its way to a timeline near you, "pretty soon," according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The new reactions have been extensively tested outside the U.S. in the past few months, after Facebook decided to create new ways to react to friends' posts.
While Facebook denied the possibility of including a "Dislike" the expansion beyond "Like" is motivated by the fact that liking some posts on Facebook is an awkward way to show support, for example, in the event someone posts bad news. There will be six new reactions coming to Facebook, including "angry," "sad," "wow," "haha," "yay," and "love."
Top Twitter Execs Jump Ship
Twitter got off to a terrible start this week, as the company's CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted late Sunday that four of Twitter's top executives were leaving the company. Katie Jacobs Stanton, head of media, Kevin Weil, head of product, engineering chief Alex Roetter, and HR executive Brian Schipper had all decided to leave the company, according to Reuters.
In the announcement, Dorsey made a point to say they had "chosen to leave," while praising the departing executives and saying that they would be missed. General manager of Vine Jason Toff later announced his departure for a job at Google.
Jack Dorsey Rallies the Troops
With so much churn at the top of Twitter, along with its continuing terrible performance with Wall Street investors, CEO Jack Dorsey hosted an all-hands meeting for Twitter employees on Thursday. The "epic pep rally" as Re/Code called it, featured Dorsey in motivational speaker mode, while employees were encouraged to tweet about why they love Twitter.
Boosting morale was obviously a big necessity at Twitter this week. But as The New Yorker showed in a long report on the company's many deep problems, "The End of Twitter," Dorsey and his troops have a lot of work to do (and fast) if Twitter is to survive, much less recoup its losses over the last year or so.
Snapchat
Adding Friends Just Got Easier
Snapchat is great if you already have an extensive list of friends that are using the service, but adding new friends was always an incredibly overwrought process.
As Gizmodo noted, to add a friend, you'd have to open the app and get your personalized Snapcode from the menu bar, have your friend open their Snapchat app, engage the app's camera feature, point it towards and focus it on your smartphone's screen, and take a picture.
Now you can just send a link with a unique ULR or you "Share Username" generated by the add friends menu. And you can send it using any messaging service or via text message, thanks to a quiet update Snapchat recently pushed to its app.
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