10Yetis - Weekly Dose of Social - Google changes, Instagram changes & viral videos

Happy Friday! It’s that time again, where we look back over the past week and take in all of the social media happenings. That’s right! It’s your Weekly Dose of Social! *cue audience applause*

This week has been a big week for Google. Since the launch of Alphabet, the new umbrella company which includes Google, there have been a few changes, most notably of which is a new logo. This is the biggest logo change in some time for Google; the font has completely changed and there is a new more colourful G as a standalone avatar logo.

Also more of a fun new feature, Google have now added a random fact generator into their search engine. All you need to do is type in “fun facts” to the search bar and a randomly generated fact will appear in card form at the top of search results. At the bottom of this card is an “Ask Another Question” button which allows you to get another fact, you can do this until you get bored. We got the rather interesting, “How do snakes hear if they don’t have ears?”

Moving swiftly from Google to related company Android, this week it was announced that Android Wear smart devices (watches) are now compatible with iOS devices! Watch out Apple Watches, Android is coming for you! This means that you can now use an iphone with an LG, Motorola or other smart watch brands. In a subtle dig at the Apple Watch they reference how easily you can personalise the Android watches, and that there are many different styles available. When linked up to an iPhone the Android Wear device will be able to show you push notifications, track your fitness goals and will link up with Google apps to give you helpful device such as traffic notifications and weather information.

Instagram have added new features to their Instagram direct service by allowing pictures you see in your feed to be shared with others. Now underneath photos in your feed you’ll see a new symbol which looks like a share arrow. This allows you to share the picture in a direct message to friends and then carry on the message with further photos, videos and text. You can now also create group messages on Instagram and rename them so you can keep easier track of who and what you’re talking about.

Talking of messaging, WhatsApp announced today that it had reached 900 million monthly active users. Which is an incredible amount of growth considering that only 5 months ago they had 800 million users. This has all happened since Facebook bought the company for $19 million in 2014. It’s clear to see that this has contributed greatly to the apps huge growth.

One of our highlights from Social Media this week is a series of videos made for Glamour magazine. The project is called “The And” project. The video has gone viral with 7 million views in 3 days. It shows two exes discussing questions about their relationship. It does get quite deep and both of them get quite teary during the confrontation. There are earlier videos in the project series but these haven’t hit as well as this most recent one. I think the fact that it’s extremely relatable as well as the fact it was heavily promoted on Buzzfeed has helped the video’s success.