Social media updates from February 2025

Social media platforms have been under more scrutiny than ever, and there have been updates after updates. But don’t worry, we’ve rounded up the top updates from the month and brought them together for easy reading!

From AI-powered enhancements to user experience improvements, platforms are continuing to roll out changes that could boost engagement and refine content discovery. Are you ready to dive into this month’s social media platform news?

Snapchat

We’re kicking off with a quick update from Snapchat, that are integrating in-house AI image generation. Snapchat has developed its own AI model specifically for mobile, enabling fast, high-quality image creation. Generating high-resolution images in under 1.5 seconds on an iPhone 16 Pro Max! Now, that’s pretty fast! This technology will support features like “AI Snaps” and “AI Bitmoji Backgrounds,” and should be rolled out later this year.

TikTok

Over to TikTok next, and it’s been another quiet month.

As debates continue over its future in the US, TikTok is available for download on App Stores for US users. The reinstatement follows official assurances to companies that they will not face penalties for providing access to the app.

As we’ve mentioned before, the ban doesn’t impact users in the UK. But, our recommendation to repurpose your content to other shortform platforms still stands!

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has introduced new vertical video features to enhance its appeal to content creators. This move will position LinkedIn closer to the TikTok-style format as video-sharing continues to gain traction. And with growing pressure on professionals to establish personal brands, this seems to be a logical step for LinkedIn!

LinkedIn is also experimenting with a new feature that lets users customise their feed by focusing solely on updates from their first-degree connections.

The test introduces two feed options: “All”, the current default experience, and “My Network”, which will filter content to display only posts from your direct connections, followed people and pages. While this update aims to provide a more personalised experience, it could also boost engagement across the platform too.

Next, LinkedIn has rolled out another new feature that allows users to see how many people have viewed their comments on posts. This update highlights the importance of engagement beyond original content. Let’s not forget – comments play a key role in boosting visibility and building connections.

Let's stick with analytics

LinkedIn has two new analytics features for newsletter creators. Previously, the focus was only on views and subscriber growth. These new insights offer more ways to measure and optimise audience engagement. This update gets a big thumbs up from us and if you’re using newsletters, you’ll get deeper insights into audience behaviour.

Meta

Over to Meta next, and it's updating the livestream storage policy. Now, this may not sound like much. But it's cutting down the time broadcasts remain available to 30 days. After that, they’ll be removed! The change is part of an effort to reduce video storage costs, so if you want to keep your past livestreams, we’d recommend downloading and saving them elsewhere as soon as possible!

Next, Meta users have started noticing a new pop-up in the app, introducing its latest AI chat features. The message serves as a disclaimer on data privacy, letting users know that Meta AI can now be accessed across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Sounds pretty straight forward, right!? Well, there’s a catch – any information shared in these chats could be used for AI training! Keep this in mind, like with all free AI tools, before you start firing off your questions and inputting data!

Meta is also testing a simplified Advantage+ campaign setup, eliminating the choice between manual or Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns. If this update is rolled out, Advantage+ optimisation will apply across all campaign elements, making ad management far more seamless and efficient for users.

It’s been a busy month for Meta

Meta has begun introducing its AI Images feature on Instagram in India, allowing users to share AI-generated visuals directly within Stories. This new update would be found in the Instagram Stories interface. The new “AI Images” option provides a selection of pre-generated AI images for users to post. Additionally, users can create custom AI-generated images by providing a description to Meta AI, tailoring visuals to their preferences before sharing.

You may think this isn’t really relevant, but Meta is always testing new features in different countries before rolling them out wider. So, watch this space!

Meta is also preparing to roll out Community Notes, which replaces third-party fact-checking (in the US) with a user-driven approach. The company released an overview detailing how the feature will work, and it will give users the ability to flag and annotate posts to challenge misinformation. Please note that this feature will not apply to ads.

Instagram

We’ve got a couple of major pieces of social media platform news from Instagram this month!

First, Instagram is testing a dislike button for comments, allowing users to ‘downvote’ irrelevant or unhelpful replies. This is currently being trailed on Reels and Feed posts, but the feature won’t display a public dislike count. However, it's been confirmed that dislikes will influence comment ranking over time and is similar to Reddit’s downvote system.

Next, Instagram is reportedly considering launching a standalone Reels app. Adam Mosseri recently proposed the idea to internal teams, exploring whether Reels could function as a separate platform. With Reels now allowing videos up to three minutes in length, the expanded content options could make a standalone app a viable option. We’re not 100% sure on this update, so we’ll keep you updated on any additional news!

A couple more updates worth mentioning

Instagram may introduce a convenient way for users to manage their to-dos. The new “Create Task” feature within direct messages is being tested and could be helpful to users! If rolled out, it would allow users to turn key conversation points into actionable tasks.

Instagram has rolled out several new features to enhance direct messaging, including message translation, music stickers, scheduled messages, pinned content and group chat QR codes. These updates aim to make it simpler and more engaging for users to connect with friends and family through DMs and seem to bring it inline with how WhatsApp operates.

Threads

Threads has reached another milestone! Now boasting 320 million active users, Zuck remains confident the app is on track to reach a billion users. While that milestone may still seem distant, Threads’ increasing popularity is drawing more attention – including from marketers.

According to the latest Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 53% of marketers are already posting on Threads, with another 23% planning to establish a presence this year. So, if you’re wondering whether to start using Threads, it could be a good time to review your strategy!

Next, Threads has just rolled out a long-anticipated media tab, making it easier to view all your uploaded photos and videos in one place. Alongside this update, the platform has also introduced a markup tool for resharing posts and photo tagging. These are just a couple of the ways Threads is giving users more interactive ways to engage with content.

And lastly for Threads, they have a new feature that lets users share custom feeds with friends. This update makes content discovery even easier and is similar to BlueSky’s Starter Packs.

X

It’s all AI focused news for X this month with the latest AI model, Grok 3 now available to some users. Trained on 200,000 GPUs, the new model boasts more than 10 times the computing power of its predecessor. According to X, this advancement positions Grok 3 ahead of competitors, like ChatGPT, in several key performance benchmarks.

Following the launch of its Grok 3 AI model, X unveiled two new automated ad creation features. These features are designed to optimise creative and targeting strategies. “Prefill with Grok,” is one of those features and is now available to select advertisers within X Ads Manager. This allows X’s AI to generate promotional content for businesses based on a provided URL, streamlining the ad creation process.

BlueSky

BlueSky will soon give its users more control over who can reply to their posts. Confirmed by Paul Frazee, a new “followers only” setting that users can configure to limit replies. Additionally, they will create a way for users to set their default reply settings. That means if you want to always limit your replies to followers only, for instance, you could. This is a good update from BlueSky and could help the platform to further differentiate itself from Threads and X.

Flashes

Last but certainly not least, we’re talking about Flashes, an Instagram alternative brought to you by BlueSky! Like Threads and Instagram, Flashes is connected to your BlueSky account and briefly launched in beta before being removed from the test store. According to the developer, the app was taken down due to technical issues. We’ll bring you more information on this app once we have it, so make sure to check back for updates!

Relevant resources

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