We love our monthly updates, so we’re sorry this edition is coming in a little late! August tends to be one of those months every year, where due to holidays, trips and the general excitement of the summertime, nothing seems to happen. Or, of course, everything happens at once. It’s always one of those months that you often can’t apply a formula to. August 2020 was no different. The news in digital was generally uneventful, but we’ve still picked a few of our favourite bits to highlight.
Enjoy!
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August saw the introduction of Instagram’s suggested posts feed. Once you make your way to the bottom of all of the recent posts. You find the ‘you’re all caught up’ message from Instagram. After this, they have decided to judge by the content you engage with to offer suggestions as to other content and creators you may like.
Let’s get our heads around this. This move is essentially Instagrams way of keeping you on the platform once you’ve caught up with everything new. Which is cool, and they say we hang around anyway, whether that is looking at funny pictures of cats or stalking someone’s profile. However, Instagram now sees this opportunity to keep us around with the sort of content we actually value. The one addition is that like the rest of your feed, this section may contain ads… ahh now we get it!
“Alexa, help our creatives.”
In August creation positive platform TikTok announced the integration with Alexa voice activation. Now, this is cool, especially if you are a creative or you’re just really into the dance crazes. You can now set up your camera and say, ‘Alexa ask TikTok to start my recording.’ TikTok will begin to capture your hilarious creations instantly.
The sample video released by TikTok highlighted not only the start and stop Alexa command but also an integration where you can ask TikTok via Alexa for things like tutorials. Of course, there are restrictions to what can or can’t be done and without an Alexa compatible device, you can’t use Alexa voice activation.
Snapchat originals
August was also the month that Snapchat announced it would be looking into various ways to reach a broader audience. We don’t know what this means yet, but sometimes using Snapchat comes with a stigma attached. Maybe because it’s generally associated with a younger demographic.
If you aren’t aware, or you don’t use Snapchat. The platform creates what would be best described as original shorts. Kind of like the Pixar ones at the beginning of the film which is as cool as the film itself. But Snapchat creates real-life shorts, so think mini-documentaries. If you know the platform, you’ll likely know about the ridiculous amount of annoying adverts that litter these videos.
The actual problem of sharing Snapchat content away from the app itself has been accessibility. The links send people back to the app, which is nothing short of unusable on a desktop computer and still appears in phone format, which is a bit rubbish.
But as Snapchat looks to bridge these boundaries, we can’t help but feel a little excited. We have enjoyed countless videos on the platform and would have loved to share some of the shorts. So maybe now is the time we see Snapchat move towards the mainstream.
Thanks for reading this month’s edition of ‘Last Month in Digital’. For weekly updates on the digital trends going on constantly, check out our Instagram stories where we post the latest headlines for all our followers. We hope you stick around, check out some of our work, read some other blogs, or come back in October for the September edition.
For more news and information about the digital world, take a look at some more of our blogs for helpful tips, tricks and advice:
