Creator Weekly: TikTok (sort of) restored in the US, Instagram Reels & Profile, YouTube Premium

This has been a very long week. 

TikTok and CapCut are mostly back in the US, at least for a few months. Instagram launched a slew of features positioning itself as a TikTok (and CapCut) alternative, and changed the layout of profile pages, making many creators unhappy. Many other platforms launched video feeds. 

There are new features for YouTube Premium subscribers, and new insights shared about the YouTube algorithm for creators. 

Plus there are updates for WordPress, Beehiiv, Substack and more.

Top news and updates this week

• TikTok, CapCut and other ByteDance apps were disabled in the US, and then re-enabled after a 75 day reprieve. They still aren’t available in the Apple app store or Google Play Store. 

• Instagram launched 3 minute Reels and a feed of Reels liked by your friends.

• Instagram announced Edits, a free mobile video editing app. It will be available in March. 

• Bluesky, X, and Tumblr have new video feeds. 

• YouTube shared how the algorithm works in 2025, with tips you can use. 

• Improvements to YouTube Shorts templates.  

• YouTube Premium subscribers can try more YouTube experimental features, including 4x playback speed on mobile and higher quality audio on music videos. There’s also a Google One+YouTube Premium deal. 

• Google is “pausing” monetization of AdSense and AdMob accounts in Belarus. 

• WordPress dot com moved users to the standard wp-admin interface, and has a new Reactions block to show engagement from the Fediverse.

• Beehiiv has a fancy new website builder. 

• Substack launched the Creator Accelerator Program to support and subsidize creators moving to the platform. 

• PixelFed is raising money for its Instagram (PixelFed), TikTok (Loops), and Snapchat (Sub) alternative Fediverse apps. PixelFed also now has mobile apps.

• Instagram unexpectedly updated profile pages, with the image grid now vertical images, rather than squares. Also coming: customizing thumbnails, rearranging the grid, posting directly to the grid, and a highlights tab.

• Threads rolled out Insights, and is adding post scheduling, reshare-with-markup, and, of course, is testing ads.

• Read to the end for updates from Gemini and OpenAI, interviews with YouTube creators, insights into monetization and more. 

Ten Years Ago This Week

What was happening 10 years ago last week? The Google Glass Explorer program shut down, Google Domains was integrated with Blogger and promoted for businesses, and the Twitch Music Library launched.

What happened 10 years ago this week? Join Creator Weekly Live on Sunday to find out! 

To Do & Try

• YouTube wants your feedback on the YouTube Studio Dashboard. Fill out this form.

• If you are a YouTube Premium subscriber, there are new experiments to try. Check out youtube.com/new for your options. (Details of the experiments below)

• On January 30th, watch the all-star FireAid benefit concert for victims of the recent LA fires. It will be streamed on multiple platforms, including YouTube

TikTok is (sort of) back in the US, TikTok creators wooed by Instagram

It has been a wild week for TikTok, CapCut and other ByteDance apps in the US. Read my writeup of the current situation for all the details.

The short version: since last week’s news roundup: 

• ByteDance blocked US access to its apps, including TikTok and CapCut. Notices suggested they were working with soon-to-be inaugurated President Trump.

• ByteDance restored access to US users on promises that the law would not be enforced. 

• After taking office Monday, President Trump issued an Executive Order that ordered at least partial non-enforcement of the ban for 75 days. This is not a repeal of the law.

• The Google Play Store and Apple App Store have not restored US access to the apps. The Executive Order did not make clear the legal status of restoring the apps.

• Instagram, Bluesky, X and other platforms rolled out updates that make clear they want TikTok creators and viewers.

Instagram Rushes Out Reels Updates

There was a flurry of Reels updates from Instagram last weekend:

• The Instagram Reel editor can create videos up to 3 minutes long (up from 90 seconds) that will be recommended to non-followers (previously longer Reels were not recommended).

• There’s a new feed of Reels your friends have liked. 

• Instagram is working on a new stand-alone free video editing app called Edits, that sounds like a direct CapCut competitor. It will be available in March, and can be pre-ordered in the iOS App Store today (yes, there will be an Android version too).

• Meta also launched a Breakthrough Bonus Program to woo mobile video creators who are “new to Facebook and Instagram”. They reportedly reached out to TikTok creators directly to invite them.

It all seems very rushed, like Meta only realized a week ago that this was an opportunity. 

Video Feeds

Everywhere you go on social you can now get a new video feed: 

• On Instagram, in addition to the usual Reels feed, there’s a new feed of Reels liked by your friends.

• There’s a Bluesky feed of trending videos that you can pin to your home screen.

• Surf Social created the SkyTok feed of Bluesky videos, along with topic-specific feeds like GamerTok and RetroTok.

• X launched a new “immersive” video feed in the iOS app. It will also be available on Android and the web soon.

• The Tumblr TV tab fully launched, which is mostly notable because it’s been an “experiment” since 2015. 

All about the 2025 YouTube Algorithm

There’s a new interview with YouTube’s Todd Beaupre, head of Growth and Discovery, about how the YouTube Algorithm works. I recommend watching the video, but here are some key take-aways:

• YouTube isn’t pushing out videos, it’s pulling in videos to each viewer. It tries to understand what each viewer wants to watch, and is trying to optimize for viewer satisfaction.  

• Think of the algorithm as “automated word-of-mouth”. They try to understand what viewers like you enjoyed watching, and then recommend those videos to you. 

• Videos that don’t have an audience now can sometimes find an audience in the future. 

• Recommendations are not just based on interests, but also the time of day and what device (phone, TV, computer) is being used. 

• Remember that YouTube Analytics shows aggregate performance of your videos, like average view duration (AVD) and click through rate (CTR). This is not telling the full story, and YouTube does not use those average numbers for recommendations.

• YouTube applies a large language model (LLM) to help give a more nuanced understanding of video content, which makes recommendations better.

And tips for steps you can take as a creator: 

• Look at how your subscribers are viewing your video from the non-algorithmic subscription feed to see how it's doing with your core audience.

• There is a natural ebb and flow of views, so it’s worth looking at Analytics over longer time spans to spot seasonal changes, spikes in views and trends.

• If you dub your videos, also translate titles and descriptions, and be sure to dub your back catalog too. Make it easy for people to find more of your videos in their language.

• Remember that some videos just have a smaller audience. Keep in mind your specific goals rather than just focusing on views.

Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates

Two improvements to YouTube Shorts templates: import photos during the template creation flow and toggle the countdown timer between 3 and 10 seconds (previously only 3 seconds). Get more details from Creator Insider.

YouTube Premium subscribers can opt in to more experiments, including high-quality 256 kbps audio on music videos, picture-in-picture and Smart Downloads for Shorts on iOS, “jump ahead” to the “best parts of videos” on the web (previously only available on mobile), and 4x playback speed on mobile. There are also new features for playlists and AI-powered tools.

There’s a new offer in the US with a discounted price for YouTube Premium if you subscribe along with Google One with at least 2 TB storage. Honestly, it’s not that great a deal. You save $2 per month if you usually pay monthly, but it’s still more expensive than paying annually.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy spoke about the difficulty of moderation in “subjective” areas like sexual content and nudity.

The new Live Switcher Mobile app from Canon makes it easy to switch between video feeds from iPhones and iPads. 

Web Publishers and Search

Google stopped new AdSense, AdMob, and Ad Manager account signups in Belarus in December, and is pausing monetization for Belarus-based accounts. Monetization of Russian accounts was paused last August.

The Google Search mobile search results will no longer show “breadcrumbs”. Instead it will just show the domain of the search result. I’m not that keen on it, as I really like to know where a link is leading exactly before I click or tap, but maybe it won’t make much of a difference. (As an aside, the Google Search Central post about this on LinkedIn has tons of comments that are just wordy restatements of the announcement. They look like bots or lazy AI-generated answers, and it makes LinkedIn useless to see what people are actually discussing about the update.)

WordPress (dot) com (paid WordPress hosting from Automattic) has moved users from their custom interface to the standard wp-admin WordPress interface. This is part of their move towards a “core” WordPress experience.

WordPress now has a Reactions Block. Add that to your blog layout and likes and reposts from the Fediverse (like Mastodon) are automatically added to the end of your posts. It isn’t clear to me if this is only available on WordPress (dot) com, or if it is generally available.

The Beehiiv newsletter platform has a new website builder in beta, with drag-and-drop customization. It’s currently only available to users with paid Max and Enterprise plans.

Substack posted “Now is the time for creators to build on their own land” (yes!), to creators affected by the TikTok shutdown. And apparently the solution is to cultivate a following on Substack (that seems like it should be a no?). 

Substack also launched a Creator Accelerator Program, to lure creators from other platforms. Creators in the platform with paid subscribers are guaranteed 100% of their previous annual revenue for a year after they transfer their subscribers to Substack.

Social Media

Fediverse photo sharing platform PixelFed launched a Kickstarter on Wednesday almost immediately fully funded. Their request was fairly modest, and now they are aiming for $1 million, with the slogan "No ads, no algorithms, no tracking – just pure photography and authentic connections." The funds go to develop ActivityPub enabled platforms PixelFed (Instagram-like), Loops (TikTok-like), Sup (Snapchat/messaging), and PubKit (ActivityPub developer tools).

Pixelfed, the Activity Pub-based Instagram alternative, now has mobile apps. Jeremy Gray at PetaPixel says Open-Source App Pixelfed Aims to Recapture What Made Instagram Fun  

Instagram changed the profile page grid layout and there is more to come. From its start profiles have been a grid of square images, which allowed for creative displays. Last week, without an announcement, Instagram changed the grid to vertical 3:4 images (with images in the feed 4:5). It was not a happy surprise, despite “most” posted photos and videos being vertical. 

Other changes coming to the Instagram profile grid: customizing thumbnails of grid images, moving highlights to a tab on your grid and being able to rearrange the grid, plus being able to post directly to the grid (bypassing the feed). Changes will be launched over the next few months. 

Adam Mosseri shared 3 signals used to rank Instagram videos: watch time is the “primary driver”, followed by likes and sends.

Threads has fully rolled out Insights post analytics on mobile and the web. You can access your stats at https://www.threads.net/insights .

Threads is rolling out built-in post scheduling (but I don’t see it yet on the web or in the Android app).

Threads also now has a reshare-with-markup feature (so you can draw on the post). (I also don’t see this feature yet on the web or in the Android app).

Threads has begun testing ads (no surprise). The first advertiser is Louis Vuitton.

You can now add links to third party platforms to your Facebook Profiles and Pages, including YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, that display follower counts on those platforms.

Fun times: Elon Musk's Nazi salute sparks widespread Reddit revolt with large subreddits banning links to X. 

More AI Updates and Tips

Gemini Live now connects to Samsung apps on the new Galaxy S25 phone, including Samsung Calendar, Notes, Reminder and Clock. 

404 Media: Viral 'Challah Horse' Image Zuckerberg Loved Was Originally Created as a Warning About Facebook's AI Slop.

Microsoft and OpenAI are continuing to work together, including partnering on the Stargate Project. Stargate is a new company which “intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.”

OpenAI announced Operator, “a research preview of an agent that can use its own browser to perform tasks for you.”

More Reading (and watching)

Jon Youshaei has a great interview with Cleo Abram: Why Every Cleo Abram Video Goes Viral (Interview). If you are interested in visual journalism and storytelling it’s a must-watch.

NiemanLab: What the creators of Howtown learned in their first few months on YouTube.

Joan Westenberg writes for The Index: Silicon Valley’s ‘Broken Deal’ is a Myth. Marc Andreessen claims there was a social bargain  “that tech would deliver innovation and progress while the world would respond with positive press coverage, minimal oversight and the thanks of a grateful nation.” He’s now unhappy there is oversight on tech.

Emanuel Maiberg at 404 Media: Why This OnlyFans Model Posts Machine Learning Explainers to Pornhub (it pays better than other platforms). Images are SFW. 

Fujifilm short documentary: The Promise of Spring, about Sarah Oliphant, photography backdrop artist, and her daughter Violet.

Smithsonian Magazine: When a Deadly Winter Storm Trapped a Luxury Passenger Train Near the Donner Pass for Three Days : “In the 1950s, you had this mid-century hubris—technology could conquer all,” says Ty Smith, director of the California State Railroad Museum. “Part of the reason this episode happened was this unyielding optimism that we could solve every problem. In the face of a blizzard in the Sierra, that just wasn’t true.”

Thanks for reading! 🌼