Meta adds ‘Community Chats’ on Messenger in a bid to boost engagement 

Meta is rolling out a new ‘Community Chat’ option for Facebook groups, enabling group members to chat using Messenger.  

With various reports of engagement on the app in decline, the new feature will encourage more engagement stemming from Facebook groups that will facilitate topic-based discussion groups within Messenger. 

Community Chats, which was recently launched in testing with a limited number of users, will enable people to create a Facebook Group, start chats and audio channels, and invite others to join their new group, all from within Messenger.

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Instagram launches end-to-end encryption in direct chats 

Some Instagram users are now able to activate end-to-end encryption in their direct chats with Meta moving to the next stage of its Full Messaging Integration Plan. 

The plan for end-to-end encrypted messaging across all of Meta’s messaging platforms, which has launched in select countries, is causing concern for the Government with fears that it could shift criminal activity out of sight and impede police investigations. 

With Instagram following in the footsteps of Whatsapp and Messenger, the next step of the plan is a universal inbox, with all your IG, Messenger and WhatsApp chats in it which could be coming by the end of the year. 

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Twitter is the best social media platform for media outlets 

Media outlets were found to have the biggest followings on Twitter out of all social media platforms according to an analysis of the 82 publishers. 

The analysis looked at social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn and TikTok and saw Twitter come out on top with the largest audiences. Despite some outlets finding quick success on Tik Tok in regards to post engagement, their following is still relatively small. It was also found that roughly one quarter of the outlets analysed didn’t even have an official Tik Tok account. 

However media success varied depending on publisher type, with the top LinkedIn publishers by follower count being business and finance accounts while the top Youtube publishers by follower count were national news outlets. 

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Social media checkouts found to be the post painstaking for shoppers  

New research into consumers’ top check-out annoyances has found that roughly 60% of shoppers encountered some form of issue during their last social media check out experience. 

Grievances ranged from glitchy/slow technology, unexpected shipping costs and excessive requests for personal information. The rate of dissatisfaction with social media shopping was found to be more than double the level found in any other channel. 

However the survey found that features commonly used in social media check outs such as social media sign in, simple multi-factor authentication tools and real time inventory check were favourably mentioned by shoppers. 

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