38th Week Roundup: Microsoft Copilot AI, Whatsapp Avatar Stickers, X to Discontinue ‘Circles’, and more! 

Welcome to our latest tech roundup, in which we highlight Snapchat’s image-based valuation system, Meta multi-profiles, Microsoft Copilot AI assistant, Google AI-powered search ads tools for search ads, as Bard enhancements from Google. All these updates are changing the digital landscape, so let’s dive in and look at what is trending within tech right now.

 

Snapchat Developing Image-Based Valuation System for Collectibles

Snapchat is exploring an innovative method of engaging its users by offering an image-based valuation system. A patent filing shows Snap’s development of such an idea; users could estimate item values using Snap camera scans alone! Using computer vision technology, this innovative system recognizes items like trading cards or comic books to determine their value as collectibles – and then searches online listings with similar products before providing price estimation based on basic identifiers such as condition or authenticity status.

Even though Snap has yet to reveal where its valuation data comes from, eBay seems like an obvious candidate, given its prominence in the collectors market. This new feature could prove invaluable for collectors seeking immediate valuation information while helping improve ad targeting capabilities by gathering insight into users’ interests. Although not central to Snapchat itself, niche communities could benefit greatly from having immediate valuation data available within seconds and potentially expanding utility and increasing ad targeting capabilities; details surrounding development status or long-term plans still need to be explored.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/snapchats-working-new-systemprovide-a-valuation-collectibles/694299/

 

Meta Introduces Animated Avatar Stickers to WhatsApp

Meta continues its mission of ushering users into the metaverse where digital avatars play an essential part. One new step toward realizing its goal involves the addition of animated avatar stickers on WhatsApp; users now can add animated versions of themselves into WhatsApp conversations for increased interaction within Meta’s ecosystem.

The experts from the leading social media agency say that Meta is on an aggressive trajectory to integrate avatars more deeply, offering avatar profile pictures, simulated backgrounds, and video calls featuring avatars as one form of communication with users. By encouraging communication through virtual representations of individuals, such as avatars in video calls or messages, they aim to familiarize people with this form of exchange while drawing them closer to their digital identities – which Meta hopes will one day form the core of human interactions! These avatar engagement options serve as stepstones towards this ambitious goal!

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-adds-animated-avatar-stickers-whatsapp/694290/

 

Meta Unveils New WhatsApp Business Tools to Bolster Presence in India

Meta is intensifying its efforts to use WhatsApp as a key platform for interactive and transactional exchange, particularly within India, where WhatsApp boasts over 500 million users. At the Conversations conference in Mumbai, Meta unveiled “WhatsApp Flows,” an innovative new business option that will empower global businesses with expanded functionality within this app.

With Flows, users can conduct various transactional processes within WhatsApp, such as booking appointments or selecting seats without leaving their chat thread. This move fits with Meta’s goal to develop an advanced messaging platform comparable to WeChat that gives users more activities within its ecosystem – similar to WeChat! Likewise, WhatsApp recently expanded payment methods in India so users could add items directly into their cart and pay using multiple methods simultaneously, further strengthening its position within India’s digital commerce landscape.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-announces-new-business-tools-whatsapp-continues-expand-india/694174/

 

Meta’s Upcoming Ray-Ban Stories Glasses Set to Redefine Live Streaming and AR Integration

The leading social media agency informs you that Meta is gearing to launch their Ray-Ban Stories glasses soon; an FCC product ID listing indicates this fact. These camera-equipped sunglasses were developed jointly with Luxottica – the owner of Ray-Ban – with fashion and technology in mind; updated Ray-Ban Stories will likely provide streaming capability directly onto Facebook or Instagram, along with features allowing viewers to interact directly with wearers while streaming.

This innovation could particularly appeal to live-stream video creators, enabling them to engage in interactive experiences and potentially take up viewer dares, further cementing Ray-Ban Stories into the evolving content landscape. Although its initial version proved limited success, these smart glasses represent an integral step for Meta’s full-feed AR glasses – they may attract streamers and spark new content trends with real-time immersive video experiences that reignite viewer enthusiasm for real-time experiences.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/the-next-iteration-metas-ray-ban-stories-glasses-close-launch/694018/

 

Microsoft Advertising Expands Reach with Video and CTV Ads at DMEXCO

Microsoft Advertising unveiled their latest offering at the DMEXCO conference: Video and Connected TV (CTV) ads aimed at tapping into the rapidly developing digital video landscape. People are expected to spend an estimated daily average of 3.5 hours watching digital video by 2024; with advertisers expected to increase spending an additional 1 hour every day by then!

Multi-screen usage continues its upward trajectory as studies reveal a significant percentage of consumers use multiple screens when watching television programs or reading news online during TV time viewing sessions. This addition allows advertisers to directly create video and CTV campaigns via the Microsoft Advertising platform while multi-screen usage is rising accordingly allowing campaigns directly for maximum effect – just when multi-screen usage has seen its most efficient time for success!

Microsoft offers advertisers access to vast first-party data sets and machine learning algorithms that enable advertisers to target their ideal audiences based on factors like product preferences, demographics, and browsing history. Microsoft ads will appear across platforms and media outlets like Max, Hulu, MSN, Huffington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Their programmatic video advertising spending is projected to surge 30.2% between 2023-2025, providing marketers with a user-friendly tool with enhanced audience engagement capabilities.

Read more: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/microsoft-advertising-unveils-video-and-ctv-ads-at-dmexco/496672/

 

Google Bard Enhancements: Integration with Google Apps, Improved Responses, and Multilingual Support

Google recently improved its exploratory AI chatbot Bard by integrating it with its suite of applications and services. The goal was to give Bard more tailored responses that exceed current capabilities – something they achieved via reinforcement learning by fine-tuning PaLM 2, which powers Bard into more intuitive responses for user interactions.

With these updates, Bard can now collaborate on projects, support over 40 languages, and offer more accurate coding assistance. Google also introduced Bard Extensions for English-speaking users; these extensions enable Bard to access information from products like Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, YouTube Flights & Hotels, which may help with trip planning to job searches as well as simple continuous conversations between Bard and its user. Furthermore, having over 40 language support makes Bard even more accessible and versatile worldwide!

Read more: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-bard-now-integrates-with-google-apps/496627/

 

Google Enhances AdSense Site Management with Real-Time Verification and Meta Tag Method

Google recently unveiled several updates to AdSense designed to ease site management for publishers, speed up site ownership verification, and track ads.txt status better. The experts from the leading SEO company in Mumbai will tell you that Real-time site ownership verification now replaces manual review processes, which could take days; this enables publishers to set up ads faster when adding a property to their AdSense accounts.

AdSense now introduces an additional meta tag verification method as an alternative to traditional AdSense code snippets, making it convenient for those wishing to eliminate ads from their homepages. Publishers simply add this meta tag code between HTML tags of any webpage to verify ownership without embedding AdSense codes directly on the homepage. Furthermore, its interface now shows crawl date/time information and a manual update button that helps publishers ensure proper implementation. These enhancements streamline managing sites connected with the AdSense network.

Read more: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-streamlines-adsense-site-management-with-new-tools/496596/

 

Elon Musk Highlights Decrease in X Posting Activity Compared to Twitter

During an interview, Elon Musk recently addressed the changing landscape of X usage, providing some fascinating insights. While boasting over 253 million daily active users and 540 million monthly users, Musk noted that users posting significantly fewer daily tweets on X than Twitter recorded at that time, approximately 100 to 200 million daily posts for both platforms.

This decrease may be attributable to several factors, including efforts to remove bots from X and exclude re-posts while reflecting an overall trend toward reduced public posting across social media platforms. It suggests X relies more heavily on highly engaged users for engagement than in years past, illustrating an opportunity for competitors to enter this market and challenge its dominance regarding posting activity.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/elon-musk-says-x-users-posting-fewer-posts-per-day-people-been-tweeting/694043/

 

Meta Introduces Multi-Profiles on Facebook for Varied Interests and Privacy

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, recently unveiled its multi-profile feature to allow users to tailor their online identities according to different interests and audiences. Utilizing “Create Another Profile,” users can build custom, interest-based profiles, allowing for easier engagement across different forms of media while maintaining separate friend lists and feeds for each. Users can create up to four personal profiles, each with their username and feed, providing greater privacy while encouraging comfortable discussion on different subjects.

Though this feature reflects an increasing tendency toward compartmentalizing social media activity and sharing less publicly, it offers users greater control in managing their digital identities. The development aligns with changing user behaviors as more individuals utilize private messaging apps or seek opportunities to interact more selectively on social networks.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-will-now-allow-users-to-create-multiple-profiles-to-explore-differ/694408/

 

YouTube Unveils Innovative Creator Tools, Including AI-Generated Features

At its “Made On” event, YouTube announced various creative tools. AI features that enhance video production possibilities, including AI-generated image or video backgrounds for YouTube Shorts through Dream Screen and text prompts-based creative elements that expand video production possibilities. YouTube joins other platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram, exploring generative AI features as it experiments with this groundbreaking creative technology.

A leading social media marketing agency will tell you that YouTube Create is a new free video editing and creation app like TikTok’s Capcut that offers various editing features like audio clean-up, auto-captions, filters, effects, and transitions, access to royalty-free music as well as AI ideas generator, assistive search in Creator Music and an automatic dubbing tool to facilitate content production on their platform. These innovations aim to empower creators while encouraging more imaginative content on YouTube.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-announces-new-creator-tools-including-generative-ai-options-at-m/694418/

 

X to Discontinue ‘Circles’ Feature by October 31st

X, the former Twitter, has officially announced the discontinuance of their Circles feature introduced last year to respond to user trends for more private group interactions. Circles allowed users to create limited access groups within their network for sharing and discussions; however, Elon Musk, owner of X, has long expressed plans for its removal, given low usage and other alternatives for private interactions.

The leading social media marketing agency experts inform that by October 31, 2023, users will no longer be able to create new posts specifically targeting Circles, and adding people will also become disabled. For users wishing to maintain their Circle contacts without losing them completely, X recommends unfollowing then following the profiles in question again, effectively turning those circles back into regular contacts – marking yet another step toward transforming this platform under its new ownership.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/x-announces-that-its-shutting-down-circles-as-of-october-31st/694444/

 

Google Expands AI-Powered Tools for Enhanced Search Ads

Google is expanding its AI-driven tools for Google Ads, the company’s search advertising platform. These AI tools include conversational ad creation using AI technology as well as asset creation using machine learning algorithms. Following months of pilots with small groups of advertisers, improvements were made to conversational ad experiences before expanding beta testing initially in English in both countries in the coming months.

Advertisers using English assets in these regions will also see automatically generated assets created with generative AI to further boost ad relevance based on user queries. This increase of automatically created assets will span multiple languages, including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish – providing advertisers with easier ad creation while improving relevance using Google Ads. These updates aim to streamline creation while improving relevance with each update implemented via Google Ads.

Read more: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-expands-ai-tools-36085.html

 

Microsoft Set to Launch Copilot AI Companion This Fall

Microsoft plans on integrating its AI assistant, Copilot, into multiple products, including Windows 11, the Bing Search Engine, Edge Web Browsers, and Microsoft 365. Copilot provides context-sensitive assistance, drawing insights from web activity, work data, and on-device actions while prioritizing privacy and security. Its seamless integration across various Microsoft products sets Copilot apart for a unified user experience.

Copilot will roll out with free updates to Windows 11 starting September 26 and is planned for Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365 deployment later in the fall. Copilot streamlines workflows while simplifying tasks and adapting to various screen sizes – providing a comprehensive tool suitable for professional, educational, or personal use.

The leading SEO company in Mumbai says that Microsoft will roll out Microsoft 365 Chat, its AI assistant for enterprise customers, on November 1, 2023, to boost workplace productivity by streamlining interactions between multiple applications in complex work environments. Their continued incorporation of AI across services promises improved workflow automation and productivity among professionals.

Read more: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/microsoft-will-roll-out-copilot-ai-companion-this-fall/496862/

 

Conclusion of the Roundup

In this news roundup, the digital landscape is evolving rapidly. Snapchat is exploring an image-based valuation system, while Meta introduces features like multi-profiles on Facebook and animated avatar stickers on WhatsApp, aiming to reshape online interactions? Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant is set to enhance user experiences across various products, while Google enhances its AI-powered tools for search ads. Google Bard, the AI chatbot, has become more versatile and integrated, and Google also streamlines AdSense site management.

Finally, X discontinues the Circles feature, showing the platform’s transformation, and YouTube empowers creators with new AI-driven tools. These developments reflect the dynamic nature of the tech industry as companies innovate to meet evolving user needs and preferences. If you like this blog check out our previous blog on Google Ads’ Multilingual Assets: Now in 7 Languages.