It’s getting loud on your social media feed: Notifications are making a lot of noise, a recent glitch spooked Facebook users, and Google is looking to lift livestream to the next level with YouTube Connect. These are some of the social media headlines in the news this week.
Notification Noise
Your friends may not be begging you just yet, but bloggers and brands are buzzing Instagram followers ahead of the new algorithmic feed. We told you recently about the Facebook-owned Instagram switching to an algorithmic-based feed. The shift will place posts at the top of your feed based on what the algorithm thinks you want to see. But you don’t need to panic if you like to scroll through and catch everything in the timeline. You will see some non-chronological items at the top, but then your feed will look like it always did. An Instagram spokesperson confirmed that your feed will not be missing any posts.
To turn on or off your notifications, just click on the down arrow in the upper right corner and find the notifications section. But again, you don’t need notifications on, to receive all of the posts in your timeline. Turning posts notifications off will mute the noise, but not your feed.
Facebook Glitch
Facebook users were gasping over a glitch in the platform’s “Safety Check” feature. The system is designed to notify users in the immediate vicinity of a disaster or emergency situation. Those users are then able to respond, letting their family, friends, and followers know that they are okay. After the recent deadly terror attacks in Pakistan, the alert deployed to numerous accounts not in the vicinity of the attacks. Some of the recipients were halfway around the world. Facebook sent a message apologizing for the glitch. It previously had successfully used the service after the terror attacks in Paris, Turkey, and Nigeria, as well as during the India floods and China earthquake. While there is no way to opt out of the feature, you can click “not in the area” if you receive one of these messages.
Google Upping the Live Streaming War
For people who love to live stream and thought that the battle between Periscope and Meerkat finally settled things (until Facebook Live arrived), think again. Venture Beat reports that Google is working on an app for the masses called YouTube Connect. The app would use your existing Google or YouTube account to stream from your smartphone. Users would have a newsfeed and they’d be able to tag videos and chat with friends and fans. There is no timetable on the release, but experts predict that we will see it introduced before the Google I/O developers conference in May.
To stay up to date on social media news and how it can help your business, follow us on Facebook!
