by Google
Here we are again with a lot of news that you definitely shouldn't miss during this period. While some platforms are pushing their AI tools forward, others are already fully preparing for the biggest sports festival of the year. Let's take a look at the most interesting things from the digital world!
Instagram finally allows you to clean up your grid!
Probably every one of us has at some point deleted or archived a great photo with a tear in his eye just because it ruined his perfectly tuned feed in terms of color or composition. This nightmare of every aesthete and social media manager is now over! After years of pleading and promises, Instagram has finally listened to us and launched the function of rearranging posts directly on the profile.
This whole new feature, called “Reorder your grid” in the app, works on a completely simple drag-and-drop method. In practice, this means that you can grab and move your photos or videos exactly as you see fit. For content creators and brands, it is an absolute game-changer. Not only is it the ultimate aesthetic rescue for the feed, but it is also a great tool to strategically highlight the best and most important content, regardless of when it was published. The feature is currently being gradually rolled out to all users, so if you don't see it on your profile yet, just wait a moment and make sure you have the latest update downloaded.
Hackers tricked Instagram's AI support
Artificial intelligence is a great servant, but it can sometimes make big mistakes. Meta could tell you something about that right now, as she had to deal with a big mistake. Its AI chatbot, originally deployed to streamline customer support, inadvertently gave clever hackers access to more than 20,000 user accounts.
How did they do it? The attackers went through regular communication and literally "talked" the AI bot into sending them sensitive verification codes from other people's profiles directly to their own email addresses. Meta quickly patched this massive security hole, but the entire incident serves as an important wake-up call. It showed us how fragile and easily manipulated current chatbots can be in critical situations. While a regular human support worker would have stopped such a blatant fraud attempt immediately, artificial intelligence was caught quite easily.
TikTok puts a stop to AI voices in shopping streams
While artificial intelligence is jumping out at us from every side all around us, TikTok is going the opposite way in live shopping and has decided to take strong action against artificial avatars. The platform's new rules now strictly prohibit the use of any "non-real-time" interactions in live streams. In practice, this means a definitive end to AI generated voices or various pre-recorded audio tracks.
The reason for this step is completely logical - the platform is trying to actively fight the unstoppable flood of automated streams that run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and just mechanically repeat the same sales phrases over and over. The message from TikTok for sellers is so clear. If you want to continue to successfully sell your products through TikTok Live, you have to be 100% authentic and show your viewers your real face and real voice.
Meta's "Edits" app is heading to the desktop!
If you create a lot of videos and you always break your fingers when editing on a small phone screen, this news will definitely please you. The video editing application directly from Meta called Edits is finally getting its full desktop version. The move from mobile to a larger computer screen will not only make life much easier for busy social media managers, but will also help integrate this application into your daily workday much more smoothly.
As a very nice bonus, this update also brings a new production assistant powered by artificial intelligence (AI production assistant). Based on detailed analytics of your profile, it can proactively advise you on relevant ideas for additional content and alert you in time to current trends that are currently moving social networks.
The 2026 World Cup will dominate Meta networks
The World Cup in football is here and Meta has fully prepared for this huge sporting holiday. It is currently pumping a bunch of special fan gadgets into its key applications, the main goal of which is to draw users directly into the center of the action. Big things are coming, for example, on the Threads network, where dynamic live chats are coming, real-time score notifications are coming, and dedicated communities for football enthusiasts are being created.
Instagram is not far behind, with significantly improved search for football content and new AI-powered voice effects in DMs. Facebook is also getting in on the action with a brand new “Football Mode”, which you can activate by simply double-clicking on the app logo. As an additional bonus, it adds a clever AI tool, thanks to which you can have your own photo generated directly in the virtual jersey of your favorite team.
Meta and the controversial facial recognition in smart glasses
Smart glasses from Meta have become a huge sales hit, with a respectable seven million units sold last year alone. However, along with the massive success, serious questions about privacy protection are increasingly starting to arise around this hardware. The latest report by the investigative technology magazine Wired has indicated that Meta is quietly negotiating behind the scenes to integrate advanced facial recognition technology directly into these AI glasses.
Representatives of Meta are currently trying to mitigate this information by stating that nothing has been definitively decided at this stage, but at the same time openly admitting that they are intensively investigating this option due to the enormous technological potential. This opens up a fundamental debate about whether we are on the verge of creating a walking and continuous surveillance network, or whether this is a natural and inevitable development of modern technologies. This topic will undoubtedly resonate in the digital world in the coming months.
Great Britain is going to ban social networks for those under 16!
And finally, here is some absolutely fresh news from the world that could trigger a massive global domino effect. Great Britain has officially announced a blanket ban on the use of popular social networks such as TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat for all children under 16. This radical step was announced by the British Prime Minister in mid-June with the clear aim of actively protecting children's psyche and mental health from addictive algorithms and potentially harmful content.
The prepared legislation should come into force early next year, thus firmly joining Britain in joining Australia, which only recently introduced a similar ban. For marketers and brands focused on the youngest Alpha generation, this represents a huge turning point. In practice, this means that we will have to rethink completely new strategies from the ground up and look for innovative ways to safely and effectively reach this specific target group in the near future.
The world of social networks never sleeps for a second, and we at Vidad are constantly monitoring it for you. Which of these news items got you the most? Don't forget to follow us so that you don't miss the most important digital gadgets next time.
Source: SocialMediaToday, AlJazeera
