Happy New Year! (is it too late to say that?) It might be a new year, but the Weekly Wins are back to regularly scheduled programming. With that being said, strap in for news about Facebook’s latest redesign, how Instagram is optimizing stories for desktop and a bevy of AR features in social.
Cheers to a brand new year with some brand new digital news.
Facebook Unlikes the LIKE button
The term “smash the LIKE button,” will soon be a thing of the past for Facebook Pages as the Zuckerberg-ian social network has gone through another redesign. The main focal point of the change is that LIKES have become an irrelevant metric for brands and creators. The new design will funnel users to FOLLOW pages instead. Other key updates include a News Feed which allows Pages to interact with followers like a typical user, a new Q&A format borrowed from Instagram, as well as a brand new set of admin tools.
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IG Stories on Desktop
Even though Instagram is predominantly a mobile app, designers and developers are still trying to optimize the desktop experience. Specifically, the way we access Instagram Stories on desktop is quite cumbersome… Until now. This week Instagram rolled out a plan to revamp the way we watch and interact with Stories on a bigger screen. The new design functions like a carousel where users get a glimpse of the stories they’ve seen and what’s ahead. As most of us continue to work from home offices, checking the ‘Gram from a computer is becoming more and more common, so giving some UX love to the Stories experience is a great idea.
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TikTok AR For iPhone
One of the world’s most popular video platforms is getting on the Augmented Reality train, but they’ve done it with a bit of a twist. This week TikTok released their very first AR feature that focuses on celebrating the new year. Albeit a few days late, the feature is specifically tuned to take advantage of the iPhone 12 Pro’s LiDAR sensor. LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging, and helps the phone understand and translate the world around you. But technology and science aside, TikTok and AR just makes sense for 2021.
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Snapchat AR
Speaking of social media apps and augmented reality, Snapchat shared the most used AR campaigns in 2020 in a recent report. Some of the highlights include brands like Gucci and NYX developing features where users can literally try on products. In the entertainment space, Verizon premiered an entire concert through AR. The LA Rams debuted their new uniforms via Snapchat AR. Reeses let users build their own at-home Easter Egg Hunt. And Rebuild Foundation teamed with Snapchat for the “Raise Your Voice” campaign that allows users to show their support for Black Lives Matter by dawning an AR mask.
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KFC Goes Gaming
This month we’re honouring and paying tribute to successful brands, campaigns and people who do things the unconventional way. And what better example than to celebrate the weird and wonderful way that fried chicken brand KFC released a video game console. The KFConsole is a video game console and fried chicken warmer. It sounds like a joke until you realize that the KFConsole is built by Cool Master, known for building powerful gaming processors. Although video games and finger licking good might not mix well, we’re definitely saying tuned into this one.
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Facebook Unlikes the LIKE button
The term “smash the LIKE button,” will soon be a thing of the past for Facebook Pages as the Zuckerberg-ian social network has gone through another redesign. The main focal point of the change is that LIKES have become an irrelevant metric for brands and creators. The new design will funnel users to FOLLOW pages instead. Other key updates include a News Feed which allows Pages to interact with followers like a typical user, a new Q&A format borrowed from Instagram, as well as a brand new set of admin tools.
IG Stories on Desktop
Even though Instagram is predominantly a mobile app, designers and developers are still trying to optimize the desktop experience. Specifically, the way we access Instagram Stories on desktop is quite cumbersome… Until now. This week Instagram rolled out a plan to revamp the way we watch and interact with Stories on a bigger screen. The new design functions like a carousel where users get a glimpse of the stories they’ve seen and what’s ahead. As most of us continue to work from home offices, checking the ‘Gram from a computer is becoming more and more common, so giving some UX love to the Stories experience is a great idea.
TikTok AR For iPhone
One of the world’s most popular video platforms is getting on the Augmented Reality train, but they’ve done it with a bit of a twist. This week TikTok released their very first AR feature that focuses on celebrating the new year. Albeit a few days late, the feature is specifically tuned to take advantage of the iPhone 12 Pro’s LiDAR sensor. LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging, and helps the phone understand and translate the world around you. But technology and science aside, TikTok and AR just makes sense for 2021.
Snapchat AR
Speaking of social media apps and augmented reality, Snapchat shared the most used AR campaigns in 2020 in a recent report. Some of the highlights include brands like Gucci and NYX developing features where users can literally try on products. In the entertainment space, Verizon premiered an entire concert through AR. The LA Rams debuted their new uniforms via Snapchat AR. Reeses let users build their own at-home Easter Egg Hunt. And Rebuild Foundation teamed with Snapchat for the “Raise Your Voice” campaign that allows users to show their support for Black Lives Matter by dawning an AR mask.
KFC Goes Gaming
This month we’re honouring and paying tribute to successful brands, campaigns and people who do things the unconventional way. And what better example than to celebrate the weird and wonderful way that fried chicken brand KFC released a video game console. The KFConsole is a video game console and fried chicken warmer. It sounds like a joke until you realize that the KFConsole is built by Cool Master, known for building powerful gaming processors. Although video games and finger licking good might not mix well, we’re definitely saying tuned into this one.