TikTok is testing more mini-games, including one from Aim Lab

TikTok is conducting a broader test of games in its all-conquering app. The company recently added a way for creators in some markets (including the US) to append one of nine mini-games to a video by tapping the Add Link button and choosing the MiniGam…

Tim Hortons wants to settle location-tracking lawsuits with coffee and doughnuts

Tim Hortons has agreed to settle multiple class action lawsuits that accused the company of tracking customers’ locations through its app without consent. Under the proposed settlement, which requires a judge’s approval, eligible customers in Canada wi…

Twitter’s latest test lets people cram video, images and GIFs into one tweet

Twitter has been testing out a few experimental features lately, including tweets that can be co-authored by two accounts and an AIM- or MySpace-style status label. For its latest trick, Twitter is toying around with a way for people to pack a single tweet with multiple images, videos and GIFs.

“We’re testing a new feature with select accounts for a limited time that will allow people to mix up to four media assets into a single tweet, regardless of format. We’re seeing people have more visual conversations on Twitter and are using images, GIFs and videos to make these conversations more exciting,” Twitter told TechCrunch in a statement. “With this test we’re hoping to learn how people combine these different media formats to express themselves more creatively on Twitter beyond 280 characters.”

Although we haven’t seen these tweets in the wild as yet, app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi previously shared screenshots of what the tweet composer looks like when adding several forms of media. It looks similar to the existing method of attaching multiple images to a tweet, with the option to add and remove photos, videos and GIFs and to shuffle the order of them around. Having multiple videos or GIFs in a single tweet could end up looking messy, though, and it might cause havoc on people’s data plans.

Snapchat will pay indie musicians up to $100,000 per month for popular songs

Snap has set up a new grant program to pay indie musicians behind popular songs on Snapchat. It created the Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund to “recognize emerging, independent artists for the critical role they play in driving video creations, inspiring internet trends and defining cultural moments,” according to a blog post.

Starting in August, the fund will give artists who distribute music on Snapchat Sounds via DistroKid up to $100,000 in total each month. For now, the program is limited to 20 songs each month. The artists behind each of the songs Snapchat selects will receive $5,000. “We want to support the independent and emerging artists that are driving creation on Snapchat,” said Snap’s global head of music partnerships Ted Suh said. 

Artists need to be at least 18 years old to be eligible (or 16 if they have written consent from a parent or guardian). Snap says artists can’t apply for a grant and it will decide recipients at its own discretion.

Snapchat started letting users attach music to snaps through the Sounds feature in October 2020. Creators have made more than 2.7 billion videos with music from Sounds and have accrued more than 183 billion views in total. The Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund seems like a reasonable way to reward musicians whose work has become a viral hit on the platform or helped creators to express themselves.

Instagram backpedals on full-screen feed and recommended posts

Following a significant backlash from its users, Instagram is walking back some major changes. Last month, Instagram started testing a full-screen display for photos and videos. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri told Platformer that test will be wound down over the next couple of weeks. “For the new feed designs, people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great,” Mosseri said. “So there I think that we need to take a big step back, regroup and figure out how we want to move forward.”

Along with getting rid of the full-screen feed, the app will reduce the level of recommended content that you see, at least temporarily. “When you discover something in your field that you didn’t follow before, there should be a high bar — it should just be great,” he said. “You should be delighted to see it. And I don’t think that’s happening enough right now.”

On Tuesday, Mosseri said the full-screen design was “not yet good” and needed more work before Instagram rolled it out to everyone. However, he noted that Instagram would become more video-focused over time, since that’s the kind of content people are sharing these days.

Mosseri also tried to justify the prevalence of recommended posts in the app, noting that they’re important to help creators build their audiences — whether or not you care about seeing content from them in your feed or Stories. You have the option to switch off all recommendations for a month, he noted. 

In an earnings call on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said around 15 percent of the posts people see on Facebook (and even more on Instagram) are recommended by algorithms. He expected the volume of recommended posts to double over the next year or so.

Instagram brought in the full-screen feed and larger number of recommended posts in a bid to compete with TikTok and to contend with the pivot from photos to videos. The time spent people watch Reels grew by 30 percent last quarter and Mosseri said users’ gradual embrace of video is a “paradigm shift that we’ve seen for many, many years now.” Still, many people have revolted against the full-screen change. High-profile users like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian this week called on Meta to “Make Instagram Instagram again.” 

Mosseri said Instagram’s data showed that users weren’t on board with the changes and that’s a key reason why it’s reversing course. However, the walkback on the full-screen feed and recommendations won’t be permanent. Mosseri told Platformer he’s confident that Instagram will improve the ranking and recommendation algorithms so that it can “start to grow again” after taking this step back.