This week’s focus is on end-to-end encryption in video and chat apps. Consider what’s more important to you — more privacy or more features?

Plus there are updates for YouTubers, social media mavens and more.

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End-to-end Encryption

Why would you want end-to-end encryption of your messages and video calls? That prevents your messaging platform provider, malicious actors, hostile governments (Meta started with accounts in Ukraine and Russia), law enforcement, or anyone from accessing the content of your messages. It can also help businesses comply with data privacy requirements.

Why wouldn’t you want it? Many features in video calling platforms are managed through Google’s or Zoom’s or Microsoft’s servers, so aren’t available in end-to-end encrypted calls. And it can be technically confusing.

The Google Duo app icon and name are updating to Google Meet. The original Google Meet app should now be green and labeled Meet (original). The Duo app won’t change until you launch it, read the notice, and say you “Got It”. Note that no Duo features are going away, and you’ll be able to access both Duo-type video calls and Meet meetings in the one mobile app.

One great feature: 1:1 and group video calling Duo-style, rather than meetings, are automatically end-to-end encrypted. This is on by default and prevents Google from viewing, hearing, or saving the video and audio of your call. Meet meetings use cloud encryption, with the data encrypted in transit between your device and Google’s servers (but read on about client-side encryption).

Some Google Workspace customers will be able to use client-side encryption with Google Meet. This prevents Google from being able to access your video (including screen sharing) and audio under any circumstances. The tradeoff is that some features won’t work in client-side encrypted meetings: recording to Google Drive, live streaming, using a phone for audio, in-meeting chat, polls, whiteboarding, meeting room hardware and mobile apps, and inviting participants outside your organization.

Meanwhile Meta is expanding end-to-end encryption to more conversations and video calls in Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs. They are also adding features like secure storage to backup your end-to-end encrypted conversations and more.

What about other platforms? Zoom announced the availability of end-to-end encryption for meetings last month. Microsoft Teams offers enterprise customers end-to-end encryptions for one-to-one video calls as of December.

For chatting, Apple’s iMessages (if not backed up to iCloud) and Android Messages RCS chat are end-to-end encrypted, but SMS text messaging is not. And WhatsApp and Signal have end-to-end encryption for chats, voice and video calls.

It’s becoming the standard, which I think is (mostly) a good thing.

YouTube and Video

Mention a location in your YouTube videos and viewers may be able to see it on a map. YouTube will automatically show Google Maps of Places Mentioned on mobile devices and tablets, including restaurants and cafes, travel, recreation and businesses. You can opt out of this for your own videos. Learn more from Creator Insider.

YouTube is also rolling out the ability to edit your channel details in the YouTube Studio mobile app, including name, avatar, banner and description. Learn more from Creator Insider.

Creator Insider interviewed Rene Ritchie, YouTube’s new Creator Liaison. He talked about how he’s settling into the role and what he plans to focus on.

In a surprising (to me) move, Twitch announced a change in COVID policy for San Diego TwitchCon in October. Now attendees will need to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test, and masks will be required in indoor spaces. Masking should reduce the cases of “con crud” too.

Web Publishers

If you are still using classic Google Sites, be aware that classic Sites will no longer be viewable online starting September 1. It’s time to convert your classic site to the new Google Sites.

Social Media

LinkedIn really wants you to spend more time on the platform. Now when you search you will not only see your search results, but also recommendations for people to follow, newsletters to subscribe to and curated videos and other content to look at.

Meta engineering explained how Instagram suggests new content. They use Suggested Posts as a middle ground between the Home Feed Ranking System (people you follow, ranked using factors like engagement, relevance and freshness) and the Explore Ranking System (public posts that may or may not be relevant to you). Instagram tries to figure out your interests and show you relevant posts by considering the content you engage with, and to a lesser extent the content the people you follow have engaged with. As a content consumer, that means it’s worth liking and sharing content you enjoy to get relevant suggestions.

Meetings

Google Meet is getting a new control that will let you mute and unmute yourself using the controls on your USB headset or speaker-mic. Bluetooth headsets are not supported with this update.

Productivity

Google Docs is now making it much clearer that there may be compatibility issues if you are editing a Microsoft Word document.

What I’m reading

Kristin Robinson in Billboard: How did two unknown Latin music operators make $23 million from YouTube? The IRS says they stole it. If you are thinking “by claiming music via AdRev”, you wouldn’t be wrong. It’s a wild story.

Patreon is now restricted in Russia. They are suggesting Russian creators and patrons use a VPN.

Google is using MUM (the AI Multitask Unified Model) to understand whether a fact has a consensus from multiple high-quality sources to surface high quality content in snippet callouts in the Search results.

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Image: Shells by MrGajowy3 on Pixabay. Free for commercial use.