Hello, geeks!
So… What do we all think about that new Instagram logo?
Instagrammer-in-chief Adam Mosseri dropped the new word mark yesterday.
And judging by his reply to my post about the new logo, he knew what was coming:
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Instagram’s design team revealed it had considered a number of different versions for the redesigned word mark.
Some were wilder than others:
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But they landed on this one:
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And the internet reacted. Because we all saw the same thing:
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But if nothing else, it gave brands something to play with — and social media managers didn’t disappoint. More on that below!
For what it’s worth, my take on the new logo? I think it’s modern, fresh, and true to the original. I quite like it.
But WTF do I know about good design.
What do you think? Drop me a reply with your thoughts.
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p.s… i’m still road-testing Meta’s Ray-Ban Optics.
i will drop my honest review of them in Geekout in the coming weeks.
are they a useful bit of tech — or just a power tool for perverts? 🤓
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Two clients. One AI voice. Why does the gym sound like the skin clinic?
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If you run social for multiple brands, you know the drill…
Monday you're a skin clinic. By lunch you're a gym.
You switch brand voices all day. Your AI never does: it has one voice and uses it for every client.
So you rewrite it. 3 posts a week is 150 rewrites a year. 5 clients? 750 rewrites. That was supposed to be the AI's job.
Sydium trains a separate voice for every client, based on that brand's published posts.
So the skin clinic’s posts read like the skin clinic, and the gym still sounds like the gym.
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Your client's voice, not a slider. Each voice learns from their own published posts
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↳ Connect your brand → Drafts land in its voice → Edit lines, not pages.
U.S. court rules Meta must face lawsuits over social media addiction [LITIGATING]
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word AI manifesto [VISIONEERING]
X killed its creator revenue sharing program, replacing it with original content rewards [DE-SLOPPING]
Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses banned from courts in England and Wales [OUTLAWING]
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Geekout is read by the world’s top social teams at Netflix, TikTok and Disney, every Friday.
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They open this newsletter religiously, and click on the things that make their jobs easier.
It’s trusted by the big players in the industry to keep them up to date on everything new in social every week:
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Can we trust Meta to be our personal assistant?
Mark Zuckerberg, like many Silicon Valley leaders, likes to write long, grandiose manifestos about where things are going.
They’re great to show shareholders that you plan to keep growing, and that you’re the kind of visionary leader the tech industry loves.
And so it wasn’t a surprise, in the midst of an industry-wide debate over how the US should fight back against rapidly improving Chinese AI models, that Zuck published a 6,500-word blog post about why Meta’s approach to AI is the right one.
The Verge has a good breakdown of the key points he makes, but a core one is the idea that everyone will have their own AI agent.
As Zuck wrote:
“Everyone will have an exceptionally capable personal agent that understands you, your goals, and everything you care about. Your agent will work 24/7 on your behalf to improve your relationships, health, career, finances, home management, hobbies, and more. It will free up time for the things you enjoy, and help you accomplish more than you could otherwise.”
But as Andrew Hutchinson over at Social Media Today points out, as good as that sounds, if you don’t have the public’s trust, they’re not going to trust your tech to run their lives.
Public trust is something that rises and falls where Meta is concerned. The Cambridge Analytica scandal was massively overblown, but it knocked public trust in the company then known as Facebook.
It also, rightly, shone a light on just how much data the company has about its users, and how that data might be used or abused by others.
That was a problem of Meta’s own making. And now it’s walked right into another, as the company’s name is widely associated with ‘perverts’ and ‘creeps’ in popular discourse thanks to its camera-equipped smart glasses.
There’s a criminal complaint about them in Germany. In the UK, they’ve been banned in some courts and shops, while popular pub chain Wetherspoons has had to tell punters to refrain from filming others with them.
But like any tech, smart glasses can be useful. Florida cops are using them, and Meta is giving 15,000 AI glasses to visually impaired people in Ireland.
These are professional and assistive use cases that I think many people would be far more comfortable with (even if some people would also like to film the cops, just in case).
But then you can’t necessarily make a HUGE business out of helping businesses and visually impaired people. And the quest for uninhibited growth at the expense of everything else is always where Meta trips up.
Careful of that tripwire, Mark.
Meta
/ Facebook
Facebook charging for links in comments | Credit: @liveloveruntravel
Meta is now charging Facebook + Instagram users for the basics: including adding a link in comments, credit for original Reels, and impersonation protection
Meta is now promoting a new “Grow followers automatically” feature for Meta One subscribers
Facebook now lets group admins control whether members can use nicknames
Meta is heading into a $1.4tn trial over whether social media addiction is even “real”
Meta is testing potentially huge upgrades to lead-gen ads
Meta is adding more premium features like a bold follow button, richer profile options, and auto-invites for follows
Meta now lets brands create Custom Audiences that can only be used to stop specific groups of people seeing ads
Meta’s Ray-Ban Display neural band can now understand handwriting from your finger
Messenger appears to be working on a new feature called Homebase, but it’s not clear what it is
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Instagram
Instagram’s ‘Caption’ sticker for story videos | Credit: @theahmedghanem
Instagram is widely rolling out the ‘Caption’ sticker for Stories, making it easier to automatically add captions to your Story videos.
Instagram now lets you run an ad that won’t appear on your profile
Instagram is expanding its TV app to Samsung Smart TVs in the US
Instagram now shows the upload percentage for each Story while it’s being uploaded
Instagram now lets you schedule content directly from the web
Instagram’s Instants has some new effects, Fisheye, Kaleidoscope, Pixelate, Chromatic Aberration
Instagram Edits is getting speed curve testing, one-tap colour correction, and more
Instagram Edits has renamed ‘Beta’ to ‘Labs’
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WhatsApp
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Threads
Credit: Meta
WhatsApp is testing scam detection without reading your chats, checking messages from unknown contacts for likely scam patterns
WhatsApp is making it much easier to search inside long chats on iPhone
WhatsApp is testing automatic welcome messages for group chats
WhatsApp is making it more obvious how to set up parental controls
WhatsApp on the web has new features like downloading customer form responses as CSV files directly from the web, and direct PDF support
WhatsApp is testing custom emoji reaction trays for WhatsApp Plus subscribers
WhatsApp is testing animated chat wallpapers on iPhone
WhatsApp is working on new chat themes on Android
Threads now adds a related-topic search prompt beneath some posts
Threads now has an app for Meta Quest, letting you browse feeds, post, reply, repost, search and watch videos inside VR
Threads is now pausing notifications on certain posts to minimise notification noise
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X / Twitter
Credit: X
X will now reveal if its algorithm is throttling your post’s reach, as it open-sources its core ranking system, filters, and signal weightings
… X’s new 'Under the Hood' tool will show users whether labels or ranking systems affected their posts. You can download the data and ask an AI to explain what happened
X now lets you add text overlays to your videos on iOS
X now labels ‘Ask Grok’ in the main mobile apps as an ‘AI agent’
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TikTok
Credit: Beehiiv AI
Taylor Swift has removed another song from a Trump-affiliated TikTok video
TikTok is testing group chats within LIVE, allowing creators to create private groups for a select circle of viewers
TikTok is introducing new insights for Bulletin Channels
TikTok is introducing new editing tools for desktop users
TikTok’s Campaign Calendar is now showing a much clearer way to view upcoming campaigns, challenges and LIVE opportunities.
TikTok is expanding its Voice Typing feature to video posts
TikTok now handles verification requests in-app, rather than on the web
TikTok is inviting users to unlock an exclusive Whee-themed chat bubble
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YouTube
Credit: YouTube
YouTube is making ad revenue twice as hard to unlock for creators. From Feb 2027, new applicants need 8,000 watch hours or 20m Shorts views in 90 days
YouTube is annoying some users by opening straight into Shorts
YouTube is testing static image ads during horizontal mobile viewing
YouTube is again showing the ‘Search inside this video’ button below the Comments section.
YouTube is bringing creator shows to the Toronto International Film Festival
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Google
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LinkedIn
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Bluesky
Credit: Google
Google is making Search Profiles available to more creators. The follower requirement has dropped from 100,000 to 35,000 on YouTube, Instagram and X.
Snapchat now lets advertisers add up to three disclaimer CTAs alongside a main ad link in pharma ads
LinkedIn is starting to rank post comments based on personalised data like your interests, connections, and past engagement
LinkedIn now shows the job title and company of each user who viewed your profile in the ‘Who viewed your profile’ section for Premium users
Bluesky now lets you hide reposts from that annoying person you follow with a ‘Hide reposts in feeds’ option
Bluesky is testing thread numbering
Bluesky is testing much longer video uploads of up to 10 minutes
Signal has launched automatic key verification for encrypted chats
Twitch streamers can now opt out of having their content train Amazon’s AI
Facebook has officially launched its standalone AI-powered Creator Studio app.
The app is designed to help creators work without getting distracted inside Facebook itself
Its AI assistant uses account-specific data to give personalised growth and performance advice
It can draft replies in your tone, with creators able to edit or reject them before posting
Meta wants to stop creators from drifting to TikTok, YouTube, and third-party tools.
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Also spotted this week…
YouTube is expanding its AI chatbot to all US users
TikTok is doubling the length of AI-generated video ads from 15 to 30 seconds
Meta has launched Muse Glimmer, an open-weight AI model that can run on a laptop
Claude is adding invisible, machine-readable watermarks to AI-generated text. They can survive copying, pasting and some editing, and will apply worldwide.
SpaceXAI and Cursor have launched Grok Bot, an AI “teammate” with its own computer. Bots can work across apps, inboxes and websites, then finish jobs without constant supervision
I helped The Sunday Times make sense of why Gen Z loves a celebrity lookalike contest.
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Also:
I spoke to The National about why Threads, Bluesky have not managed to kill Elon Musk’s X
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MrBeast’s bizarre dance video is now the most reposted TikTok ever.
The video has passed 250m views, 32m likes and 10m reposts.
The meme started with AI videos of MrBeast dancing to a fan-made Russian song.
He then recreated the trend for real, using staff and contractors rather than AI.
The clip barely relies on language, making it instantly understandable worldwide.
The creator lesson: sometimes the low-lift meme beats the expensive production.
@mrbeast Btw this dance took me hours to learn
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Also viral this week:
TikTok has a smelly new dating trend: “pheromone maxxing”
Social media may be supercharging an intense form of romantic obsession. Limerence involves intense fixation, vivid fantasy and moods tied to another person’s behaviour
Instagram’s rebrand was perfect bait for other brands.
We quickly saw social media teams leap into action…
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You can find more brands jumping on the trend here.
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More brand news and views:
Brands are piling into the internet’s bizarre obsession with the new movie Wicker.
TikTok Shop is increasingly attracting brands selling high-ticket items
UK PM Andy Burnham has been told by advisers to make his social content less “blokeish”… but would that make him less authentic?
Hollywood movie studios want creators. But do creators want them?
“If it’s opt-in, nobody would opt-in.”
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Also quoted this week:
"You will effectively be the parents of the AI. It will inherit your thoughts and ideas and beliefs, and I think that's a good thing"
- Elon Musk tries to sell SpaceXAI employees on Grok being trained on their data
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“I don’t want to get the stat wrong, but it’s about a third of American adults get their news from Facebook. That is very dangerous. We’re no longer agreeing that the sky is blue and two plus two equals four.”
- Aaron Sorkin speaks out against Meta ahead of the release of his new film ‘The Social Reckoning’ in October
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“Looking at the big picture, falling behind in AI overall would almost certainly be a larger and longer term national security issue than any specific issue we’ll face in its development.”
- Mark Zuckerberg argues for the type of AI future that directly benefits Meta
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“Removing X would have had to be a decision made at the very top, a decision that you’re willing to suffer the political consequences, including a very irate Elon Musk.”
- Law professor Anupam Chander on why Apple keeps banning Telegram but never X
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“I hope that what we do with our extra time is do even more and cooler stuff for the users who use our products every day."
- Meta CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth thinks Meta employees shouldn’t get more time off thanks to the time they save with AI. Instead, they should do more work (as usual, the idea of greater efficiency leading to more leisure time for workers is a myth!)
MrBeast’s old pitch decks show just how wildly his business ambitions have evolved
In 2021, plans included NFTs, podcasts, Beast Games, and a $9.95/month fan platform
By 2024, the vision had expanded into theme parks, movies, animation, and consumer products
By 2025, Beast Industries was focused on media, CPG, and software, while exploring fintech and mobile
His business has since acquired banking app Step and is developing a creator platform and Beast Mobile
Jeremy Strong went VERY deep preparing to play Mark Zuckerberg.
He emailed Zuck after landing the lead role in The Social Reckoning… and got a reply!
He says he studied years of interviews, podcasts, speeches and congressional testimony.
He even created a Facebook account to read Zuck’s posts from the beginning.
Strong says he doesn’t want to condemn Zuck, despite calling him a “reviled person.”
…oh, and he stayed in character as Zuck through the entire shoot!
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More WTF this week:
US law enforcement is monitoring anti-surveillance chatter on
TikTok and Instagram, tracking posts about Flock license-plate cameras and upcoming DeFlock protests.
An ex-Googler says up to 35 people once worked on YouTube’s Twitter account 🤯
Mark Zuckerberg’s superyacht reportedly refused to help a boat that ran out of fuel last weekend, despite being the nearest vessel. Meta says it was a mixup (and Zuck wasn’t on board anyway)
Social media is supercharging GLP-1 weight-loss culture among teens
TikTok’s recently launched tool to measure off-site sales has a bit of a flaw…
It completely skips a lot of the places people buy off-site. 🤔
The Bank of England is hiring a Social Media Lead. [London, UK]
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More social media jobs:
Yahoo Finance needs a Social Editor [Remote, USA]
Monzo is looking for a Growth Marketing Manager, Paid Social [London or remote, UK]
OLIPOP is recruiting a Community Manager [Remote, USA]
Meta has quietly discontinued its custom AI creation feature in Facebook and Instagram.
It always seemed unlikely to take off…
Credit: Radu Oncescu
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Also this week:
Bumble has killed the dating app rule that made it unique. Now anyone can send the first message, not just women. Apparently, many women prefer this new approach.
It’s the question marketers around the world are asking: how to get your brand cited by AI chatbots.
Now LinkedIn has published a playbook on that very topic in the B2B space…
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Also this week:
Meta says holiday advertisers should stop relying on one creative format
Meta published its 2026 holiday marketing playbook
Reddit says holiday travel planning starts months earlier than brands might think
Adobe says AI is making brand “taste” more important, not less
8.9 BILLION
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More social stats:
BRIT TUBE: UK YouTube viewing on TV sets has doubled since 2022, from 9 to 19 minutes per person daily, according to new Ofcom data
Across all home devices, YouTube now averages 41 minutes a day, up from 33 minutes.
Even over-75s are watching more, with weekly reach rising from 28% to 33%.
BIG MOVE: YouTube users watched 1.6 BILLION hours of college move-in videos in the past year
BIG SHOP: TikTok Shop now accounts for about 2% of all US online retail spend, that’s more than Target, Costco, or Home Depot
POST POSTING: 55% of Americans say they post less than 5 yrs ago. For Gen Z, 60% say maintaining an online presence feels like pressure
PREDICTABLE: Of 8,672 high-reach accounts posting about recent UK civil unrest, just 45.3% were located in the UK
BIG-ISH BUCKS: A study found 51% of shoppers had bought an item costing $100+ on TikTok Shop
CHECK IT: Half of US shoppers now check AI-generated product recommendations against Reddit
CHANGING HISTORY: 19.7% of LinkedIn users edit past roles long after leaving them, typically around four years later
Threads is pulling away from X and Bluesky on mobile, according to estimates from SimilarWeb…
Threads MAUs hit ~495m in June, versus 302m for X and 10.4m for Bluesky, according to Similarweb.
Threads grew ~21% YoY, while X fell ~3% and Bluesky dropped 27.2%
Bluesky has now lost around half its MAUs since its late-2024 peak
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Also charted this week:
HYPED OUT: The fleeting nature of social platform hype
BAN ‘EM: Most Americans support banning under-16s from social media
BELOW MINIMUM WAGE: Most creators still make less than $10,000 a year as a side hustle
BIGGER MONEY: TikTok is for the creator middle class, but top earners favour Instagram
SHOPTOK: TikTok is now the No.1 social platform for purchasing in the US
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…this comes after social media spurred a refugee crisis between Spain and Morocco. [New York Times $$$]
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Also spotted this week…
Meta says it has shut down 750,000 under-16 accounts in Australia. [Meta Newsroom]
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are forcing their way back into AI’s top tier. [Axios]
Donald Trump has been sued over Truth Social’s $100k-a-month early-access feed. [The Guardian]
Truth Social’s parent company posted a loss of $238.1m in Q2 on a mere $1.7m in revenue. [Variety]
TikTok is calling most US staff back to the office five days a week. [Business Insider $$$]
OnlyFans says it will “never” use AI to replace creators. [The Information $$$]
Gen Z dating apps like Ditto are ditching swiping in favour of AI matchmaking. [TechCrunch]
Influencers are collateral damage in the war against AI slop. [Business Insider $$$]
UK children are reporting a surge in explicit AI deepfakes of themselves. [The Guardian]
Malaysian kids are easily dodging age gates to beat the country’s under-16 social media ban. [New York Times $$$]
New features and tests:
Instagram Instants now appears directly in the + Create menu and alongside the other creation options. [@jonahmanzano]
Instagram has updated the UI for the ‘Likes & views’ share sheet on iOS. [@oncescuradu]
Meta Business Suite is giving desktop users the option to reorder the tools in their menu. [@theahmedghanem]
WhatsApp is adding usernames directly into new contacts. [WABetaInfo]
Threads has added an ‘Add Sticker’ option to the contextual menu when creating a post. [@theahmedghanem]
TikTok is again testing a new UI for the profile page. [@oncescuradu]
TikTok has added a new ‘+’ button to the comments section of each post, for additional comment-related features. [@oncescuradu]
Reddit is making its ads easier to buy alongside other platforms. [Reddit Business blog]
Pinterest is teaming up with Zillow to sharpen its ad targeting. [Social Media Today]
Spotify is testing a button that could let Premium users skip some podcast ads. [Mashable]
Spotify is turning Twitch into a new distribution point for video podcasts. [TubeFilter]
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Also worth a read:
“A TikTok PM may seem laughable – but reaching young people like me might just keep Labour in office”
The backlash to social media bans has already begun
Top creators’ secret weapon? Indian video editors
You can’t be messy on social media anymore. Where to next?
Not content with fighting for his vision of the future of AI…
Mark Zuckerberg is back fighting a UFC champion on a floating barge.
If that sounds familiar, he did the same thing in 2023.
Well, everyone’s got to have a hobby…
And on that bruising end note… That’s everything worth knowing about this week.
I’m heading off to build Ikea flat-pack furniture all weekend.
My weekends are so rock-n-roll.
Goodbye, geeks!
And remember…
P.S. This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant
