This week in Social Media, Facebook began pushing into YouTube territory, while also testing Snapchat-style ephemeral posts on its flagship network. Meanwhile, Twitter began rolling out the long-rumored "buy" button, WhatsApp added a bunch of new features, and Snapchat settled with one of its co-founders, conveniently while everyone was paying attention to Apple.

It's time for Social Media Saturday!

Facebook: Pushing Video, Testing Snapchat-style Posts

Facebook is now known for much more than just sharing pictures with friends, as it's become one of the largest engines of commerce online. Now Facebook might be targeting another well-known promotional, commercial engine: YouTube. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook has been recently been courting major content producers on YouTube to distribute their videos on the big blue social network.

With the recent introduction of video ads and now this bit of news, it's clear Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to do more with online video -- but on Facebook's turf, not Google's. Already known for referral traffic to websites like YouTube, Facebook is now pushing for direct uploading of videos so that fans can watch them without leaving the walls of Zuckerberg's massive social network. That means more eyes on Facebook ads and more revenue.

Facebook is keeping quiet about their plans for online video, only saying, "Our partnerships team regularly has conversations with content creators about how to best utilize all of Facebook's offerings, video included," a Facebook spokeswoman said to WSJ. "Beyond that, we don't have anything to share at this time."

Meanwhile, the social network is reportedly experimenting with a feature to bring back Snapchat enthusiasts -- an important young, active demographic. Along with its Snapchat clone app, Slingshot, Facebook has now been testing posts with expiration settings on the flagship iOS app, according to CNN. Some users have noticed the new feature, which basically makes a post similar to Snapchat's "ephemeral messaging," but Facebook is only saying it's a "small pilot" project, available only for a few users at the moment.

WhatApp: Photo Captions, Archiving, and Other New Features

Speaking of Facebook copying Snapchat, Facebook-owned WhatsApp quietly added a slew of features to its popular messaging app on iOS this week -- most notably, the ability to add captions to photos and videos.

Among other changes is a new, dedicated fast camera access button to encourage photo sharing, new location sharing options, slow-motion video sharing for the iPhone 5s, and the ability to archive chats, according to TNW.

We're still waiting on that free voice calling though.

Twitter Raises Funds and Rolls Out Buy Button

Twitter finally officially announced this week what everyone had been suspecting for a while: It's testing a "Buy" button to allow users to make purchases directly from promotional tweets.

"This is an early step in our building functionality into Twitter to make shopping from mobile devices convenient and easy, hopefully even fun," Twitter Group Product Manager Tarun Jain wrote on the company's blog.

Twitter also wants the process to take as few taps as possible between you and your impulse buy. As Jain explained, "In our test, an entire purchase can be completed in just a few taps. After tapping the 'Buy' button, you will get additional product details and be prompted to enter your shipping and payment information. Once that's entered and confirmed, your order information is sent to the merchant for delivery."


Not many details are known about the "Buy" button (check out their announcement for a list of early merchants using the feature), but you can be sure it's going to help with Twitters ad and promotional marketing department, which the now publicly traded company is undoubtedly hoping will help its bottom line. Also helping its bottom line, $1.8 billion raised this week in a Wall Street maneuver explained in more detail by Forbes.

Snapchat Settles With Former Frat Bro During Apple Announcement

This week was quieter on the social media news front, of course, because it was Apple's week to shine. As the company announced its new iPhone 6 models and the smartwatch everyone had been waiting to see, Snapchat and its frat-bro-founder and CEO, Evan Spiegel, slipped out a press release announcing the settlement of one of one of the company's longest and most unpleasant disputes.

Reggie Brown, a former fraternity brother of Spiegel and Snapchat CTO Robert Murphy, had been claiming he came up with the idea for Snapchat but was unfairly muscled out of the company, which is now valued at a ridiculous $10 billion. He's finally settled with his former bros, for an undisclosed but likely ample sum.

Snapchat's own language in the press release credits Brown with the original ephemeral picture messaging idea, with Spiegel quoted as saying, "We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter in a manner that is satisfactory to Mr. Brown and the Company. We acknowledge Reggie's contribution to the creation of Snapchat and appreciate his work in getting the application off the ground."

Whether mending friendships or fences, obviously it's easier when your company joins the 10-figure club.