August 2025 Social Platform Updates

Hey Social Navigators 🖖

Instagram rolled out exciting metrics like retention charts and carousel insights, while LinkedIn stepped up its game with fresh GIFs for anniversary announcements and job updates.

Meanwhile, Grok4 is now free for everyone, YouTube is testing collab videos, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

Here’s the complete rundown of what happened in August on social!

Instagram 📷

✦ The biggest update of the year is here, Reposts! Now you can share public posts and Reels, and they get their own section on your profile.

✦ Edits added keyframes, slick new text effects, voice clean-up, smoother transitions, and handy sticky-note project tools.

✦ Only public accounts with 1,000+ followers can go live now on Instagram.

✦ Instagram shared that Reels and Carousels help reach new audiences, Carousels, Photos, and Stories deepen engagement, while Lives and Channels nurture loyal fans.

✦ A new Friends tab in Reels shows what your friends have liked, commented on, or created.

✦ The newly launched Instagram Map lets you share your last active location with selected friends to discover nearby activity and coordinate meetups.

✦ New Instagram metrics include:

• Exactly when people liked your Reels or Carousel slides

• Post-level demographics

• Track which content drives followers

• Measure actual viewers instead of just accounts reached

✦ Creators can link Reels into a series to follow multi-part content with a “Watch Part 2” button.

✦ Send a Preview feature resurfaces again. You can share a Reel draft with friends for feedback before posting.

✦ A new Picks feature lets users select favorite topics like movies, books, or music and see which friends share similar interests.

✦ A new feature could count screenshots as engagement, helping measure deeper interest when users share content outside the app.

✦ Virtual pets are now available to adopt and customize for both Instagram and Horizon Worlds.

✦ Longer captions won't boost reach, but they’re fine to use, says Adam Mosseri.

✦ Instagram adds a new Retention chart for Reels, showing exactly when viewers drop off, as well as replacing “View Rate” with “Skip Rate” to help creators fine-tune their content.

✦ Instagram has quietly upsized posts from 1080 x 1350 to 1080 x 1440.

LinkedIn 🤝

✦ Connection-based leaderboards are coming to in-app games for players to see how they stack up against friends.

✦ LinkedIn has reported record engagement levels, with a 9% revenue increase and a 7% rise in sessions. Video uploads have grown 20%, and comments are up more than 30%.

✦ A new infographic shows video content drives higher engagement and the platform now reaches over 1.2 billion members.

✦ LinkedIn has introduced 16 new animated GIFs for professional announcements.

✦ Visibility of comments made via automation or excessive posting may now be limited to reduce fake engagement.

✦ Post analytics now include 3-day and 7-day notifications for profile views, followers, and impressions to track engagement.

✦ AI-assisted job summaries are available to Company Page managers in the US, India, UK, Canada, and Australia.

✦ Brands can sponsor user posts linking to LinkedIn events through "Thought Leader Event Ads," amplifying organic content from speakers or industry experts.

✦ Newsletter access is open to all users, and a Premium Business Suite for SMBs is being tested with ad credits and engagement tools.

Meta ♾️

✦ Teen safety measures expand for adult-managed kid accounts.

✦ Meta revealed that over two-thirds of Instagram’s recommended content in the U.S. is now from original posts, showing its push to spotlight real creators.

✦ Creators can auto-translate and lip-sync Reels in their own voice, starting with English and Spanish, using Meta AI. 

✦ Meta enhanced its AI-powered ad recommendation system, boosting ad conversions by about 5% on Instagram and 3% on Facebook.

✦ All new Value Rules let advertisers adjust bids based on audience traits like boosting spend for high-value demographics or placements to prioritize conversions that matter most.

✦ Create multiple avatars under one profile to easily switch between different looks across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.

✦ Meta and Deloitte released a report showing 80% of U.S. consumers are more likely to buy with tailored ads.

✦ Meta now recommends embracing all ad placements across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, and the Audience Network.

✦ Brand Rights Protection Manager got a refresh with new UI, easier reporting with an “Other” violation category, AI-powered image matching, improved filters, and single sign-on support.

✦ AI ad creation tools now generate images from text, create videos from images or descriptions, add product backgrounds, and auto-generate ad copy to boost performance.

✦ Access earnings, content performance, and audience insights and new metrics like views over time, view rate, and retention with a “Popular with your followers” module with Professional Dashboard on web. 

✦ Meta is deprecating “Impressions” in its Page Insights API. Starting November 15, 2025, it’ll be replaced with a unified “Views” metric for more consistent measurement across platforms.

✦ Meta charges your full ad budget upfront at launch.

✦ Advantage+ campaigns now use average spend limits per ad set instead of fixed minimum and maximum thresholds.

Pinterest 📌

✦ Pinterest advises creators to post fresh weekly, ride trending vibes, hit key life moments, and sprinkle in keywords to get discovered.

✦ Pinterest hits record 578M MAUs and $998M revenue in Q2 2025, with Gen Z now over half its audience.

✦ Fall Trends Report highlights Gen Z's shift towards sustainable fashion, with vintage prep, Art Deco decor, and nostalgic beauty leading the way. 

✦The launch of the Thrift Shop feature offers a curated space for secondhand finds, reflecting the growing demand for eco-conscious shopping.

Reddit 👽

✦ Reddit is unifying its search and AI Q&A features into a single, user-friendly interface to become a community-driven search engine.

Snapchat 👻

✦ Latest Snapchat research revealed that most users focus on the first 2 seconds of an ad, with Gen Z maintaining attention over a longer period.

✦ Buddy Passes now allow Snapchat+ subscribers to gift a free 7-day trial to friends, aiming to expand its 15 million-member base.

Threads 🧵

✦ Creator insights just expanded, showing view sources, engagement over time, and follower growth all in one place.

✦ Meta has officially ended the Threads creator bonus program, which previously paid creators anywhere from $500 to $5,000 per month based on post counts and views.

TikTok ♪

✦ Add music directly from YouTube Music using the “Add Song” feature.

✦ A new feature in the Family Pairing tool sends parents instant alerts when their linked teen shares public content like Videos, Stories, or Posts.

✦ New creator safety and management tools rolled out to filter harmful comments, manage live chats, preview content before posting, and better organizations of messages and fan chats.

✦ TikTok just expanded out-of-home ads, putting content on screens in taxis, malls, storefronts, and water stations, partnering with Curb, Westfield Malls, Rockbot, and Hope Hydration.

✦ Footnotes launched in the U.S., letting eligible users add and rate extra context or fact-checks.

✦ Creators with 1,000+ followers can earn commissions or vouchers by promoting hotels, restaurants, and local experiences directly in the app.

✦ The Campus Verification feature lets college students add their school and graduation year to their profiles to connect with classmates and discover peers.

✦ TikTok Pro just launched in Germany, Portugal, and Spain. It is a streamlined, ad-free app that turns your video engagement into real charitable donations through its built-in Sunshine Programme.

✦ Community Guidelines feature simpler, clearer policies that crack down on AI-fueled misinformation, tighten bullying rules, ban automation abuse, and boost transparency around enforcement.

✦ TikTok limits each post to just five hashtags, aiming to reduce clutter, curb spammy tag abuse, and boost discovery with sharper relevance.

✦ Viewer Wishes for Live lets creators set up to six actions like shoutouts or reactions that viewers can trigger with donations.

X 🐦

✦ DM app, XChat, is getting upgrades with search, typing indicators, reactions, and improved notifications.

✦ X Premium users can join the waitlist for Imagine, an upcoming AI-powered text-to-video tool from xAI.

✦ Elon Musk outlines a revamped advertising strategy, featuring AI-driven targeting via xAI’s Grok, improved brand safety, and a new “aesthetic score” that rewards visually appealing ads.

✦ Grok 4 is now free for all users worldwide.

✦ Grok's auto-translate feature is now available to all U.S. users, replacing Google Translate for in-stream post translations.

YouTube 🎥

✦ New audience insights just dropped, showing whether your viewers are new, casual watchers, or regulars.

✦ Creators can add up to 4 others to a single video. Everyone gets credited, and the collab reaches all of their audiences.

✦ Post shelves just launched, giving your posts their own spot under Shorts on channel pages if you have shared at least two.

✦ AI-based age verification just dropped in the US. Your video habits, search history, and account age help estimate whether you are a teen or an adult.

✦ As of July 29, 2025, YouTube updated its monetization policy to allow videos containing strong profanity in the first seven seconds to still earn full ad revenue.

✦  YouTube has released brand partner tagging for creators to tag brand partners with their videos. This will also provide brands with access to organic performance metrics and the ability to promote content as Partnership Ads.

Others 📝

✦ Meta Verified, X Premium, and Snapchat+ all dropped big discounts with first month, annual plans at 30% off, and half-price trials this summer. 

✦ LTK and ShopMy just launched new features to make shopping more social. LTK added public profiles and two-way messaging, while ShopMy introduced Circles for curated creator groups.

✦ Google lets you choose your favorite news outlets as “Preferred Sources,” so their articles show up more often in your Top Stories and a new “From your sources” section.

✦ The Washington Post has launched its Creator Network led by Sara Kehaulani Goo.

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