Peggy K's Creator Weekly
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Peggy K's Creator Weekly: Hangouts End, YouTube Live Mobile, Twitter Circle

Peggy K's Creator Weekly: Hangouts End, YouTube Live Mobile, Twitter Circle

September 03, 2022

This week there are new features from Twitter (circle posting, pinned replies, and Tweet editing), video tips from Facebook, new ways to manage your mobile live streams on YouTube, and more. We also have a date for Hangouts last day 😢. Plus more tips and updates for video creators, web publishers and more.

Read this post on the web.

The End of Hangouts

There is finally a date for the final transition from Hangouts to Google Chat. Beginning November 1, hangouts.google.com will redirect to chat.google.com.

The “Google Apps Team” sent out emails this week notifying users if some of their conversations will not be migrated to Google Chat. And people using a Brand Account with direct sign-in for Hangouts were notified that they will not be able to use Google Chat,

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to move from Hangouts to Chat.

YouTube and Video

You can now manage your mobile live streams in Y ouTube Studio Live Control Room. Add an editor or manager to your channel so they can manage your live stream from behind the scenes.

The latest video trend: shooting video with “dual camera” mode, using your front and back camera at the same time. Snapchat just added the dual camera option to their camera. Instagram launched dual camera mode for Reels a couple of months ago. I expect to see that feature everywhere soon.

Meta shared a guide to the signals that affect video distribution algorithms on Facebook. Positive signals include:

Originality
Videos that capture attention and get people to watch to the end
Creators that have a loyal following
Content that inspires conversations in the comments, authentic sharing, and likes

You can use the metrics in Facebook Creator Studio to see how your Page’s videos are doing.

Negative signals that may reduce video distribution on Facebook:

Videos with static images that feel like slideshows
What Facebook calls “manufactured sharing behaviors”, including artificial re-shares, often for pay
Baiting tactics, including engagement bait, watchbait, and clickbait

Pages that follow best practices may be able to monetize their videos.

Web Publishing

Kurt Gessler explains why it’s probably not worth creating an AMP version of your site (via Laurie Voss)

WordPress.com now has a dedicated “Sites” page (wordpress.com/sites ), where you can manage all your sites hosted on WordPress.com or connected to Jetpack.

Social Media

Features come, features go…

Everyone can now have a Twitter Circle for more limited Tweet sharing. Your Circle can have up to 150 Twitter profiles. This is less like Google+ Circles (which were unlimited, and let you both filter your incoming stream and who could see your posts), and more like Instagram’s “Close Friends” list.

Dr. Pete Meyers has relatable feelings on that:

Now, we're all paranoid that no one has put us in their Twitter Circles, when the reality is that we're all too lazy to set up our Twitter Circles and/or don't know what they are and/or don't care yet.
— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete)
3:41 PM • Sep 1, 2022

It’s finally happening: Twitter is testing Tweet editing. While it will initially be available to paid Twitter Blue accounts, eventually it will roll out to everyone. Currently Tweets can be edited multiple times within 30 minutes of publication, and will have a label showing that it was modified.

Twitter is also testing the option to pin a reply. It sounds like this may be a useful feature to highlight an informative or interesting response.

Casey Newton reports on Twitter’s plans to create an OnlyFans competitor, and how Twitter’s problems dealing with non-consensual sexual content and child exploitation prevented it from launching.

Pinterest has a hit with its invite-only Shuffles collage-making app. The app lets you create video “mood boards” that can be shared on TikTok (or elsewhere) and also links back to Pinterest.

Facebook is cleaning house: Facebook’s Nextdoor-like app Neighborhoods will shut down October 1, and the Facebook Gaming app will stop working October 28.

Instagram is testing the ability to hide posts in Explore that you aren’t interested in, as well as hiding posts with specified words, phrases and emojis.

Snap - the company behind SnapChat - is laying off 20% of its workforce. A number of initiatives will be affected by the staff cuts, including in-house production of Originals, its gaming platform, and several apps from acquired companies.

Meetings and Virtual Events

Google Meet can now automatically adjust the volume of meeting participants to make sure everyone is participating at the same volume. This is only available to accounts with the noise cancellation feature.

Vimeo introduced Vimeo Events, a platform for webinars, virtual conferences and other online events. Unlike some virtual event platforms, no special software is required. You can manage your live event from your browser. This is available with paid Premium and Enterprise plans.

Messaging

You can now share an invite link to group chats in Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

Productivity

Easily insert emojis in Google Docs. Type @: for the emoji list. 👍