by Stephanie RamsdaleWhat a week it has been in the world of social media, from David Attenborough breaking a world record on Instagram to TikTok launching a 2020 US election guide. Who would have thought it?
Here are some of the key social media headlines from the past week.
Join in the conversation with us over on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
If you haven’t seen that David Attenborough has joined Instagram, then where have you been?
Making his debut on Instagram last week landed him the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to reach 1 million followers. It only took 4 hours and 44 minutes to break the record, previously held by Jennifer Aniston. Since then, his followers have more than quadrupled. Pretty impressive.
View this post on Instagram
In order for WhatsApp to keep up with its competition, they have been trialling the use of the ‘Expiring Media’ feature, which can cause an image, video or gif to disappear after being viewed.
When creating a message, the sender will have the option to enable the 'view once' feature, so that when the media appears on the recipient's phone, it is only visible in the chat and will expire once they leave.
Currently, the feature is still under development and it is not yet clear when the release date may be.
WhatsApp updates by @ADCuthbertson for The Independent
Facebook Messenger has announced that Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Warner Bros. are bringing new content to their recently launched Watch Together feature.
The feature allows people to view videos, movies, television shows and other content at the same time in a Messenger video call or in Messenger Rooms.
TikTok has launched an in-app guide to the 2020 US elections, to provide access to authoritative information, as they continue their work to protect against misinformation.
TikTok recognises that they are not the go-to for breaking news and political advice, but it is still a place where Americans express themselves, and they are focused on supporting their users with information on important issues.
TikTok's in-app guide to the 2020 US elections
Since introducing the voice Tweets feature earlier this year, Twitter has faced various criticism around their accessibility.
As a result, voice Tweets have been rolled out to more users and Twitter is working to have transcripts available.
It’s still early days, but Twitter is making a commitment to make the platform more inclusive.
We’re rolling out voice Tweets to more of you on iOS so we can keep learning about how people use audio.
Since introducing the feature in June, we've taken your feedback seriously and are working to have transcription available to make voice Tweets more accessible. (1/2)
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 29, 2020
