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Friday Social: GIFS on Insta, V2 Gossip and Greenpeace’s New Fan

  • Social Media

Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days.  Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf

Get your GIF on with Instagram stories

Instagram has added a new GIF feature to spice up your Instagram stories. Hundreds of GIFs are now available now for users so they can add and pin them to any of their Instagram stories.

To access the GIFs, tap the ‘add sticker’ button at the top of Stories and select the new GIF option. You can browse trending GIFs or search through the library.

Instagram is also planning to allow users to upload photos and videos of any size to Stories – avoiding the need to crop it to fit the annoying 9:16 (portrait) format. Keep your eyes peeled for this new feature launching soon.

Twitter’s new video tools

This week, news spread that Twitter is working on a new tool that aims to make it easier for users to post videos. The social media platform aims to cut down the number of taps it takes to upload videos or broadcast live.

Twitter could be upping its game to rival Snapchat and Instagram, which require just one swipe or tap to open the camera.

There’s no word yet on when the new feature might be rolled out just yet, so we may have to wait a while for this one…

V2 Details Emerge

Some details about video app Vine’s successor – V2 – have been revealed this week. Dom Hoffman, co-founder of the original Vine, told TechCrunch that whilst V2 doesn’t have a specific launch date yet, it should be unveiled later this year.

V2 is expected to be similar to the original Vine, giving users the chance to share videos of between 2 and 6.5 seconds long on a loop.

Vine was sold to Twitter in 2013 but was discontinued in 2016.

https://twitter.com/dhof/status/955624914576396288

https://twitter.com/v2app/status/955614548983271424

Watch this space.

BuzzFeed Sparks Twitter Debate

An investigation by BuzzFeed News this week identified more than 1,700 Twitter accounts that were blocked in at least one country. Buzzfeed claims the list provides a glimpse into the social media platform’s collaboration with national groups and governments, and provides new details about a surge in blocked accounts in Germany, France, and Turkey.

It’s an interesting read – check it out for yourself here:

And Finally…

We’re big Stranger Things fans in the Umpf office, so we were pleased when one of the show’s stars, David Harbour, took to Twitter to help promote a good cause – and make his wish come true.

What was that wish, I hear you ask…? To dance with penguins. Obvs.

David, who plays police chief Jim Hopper in the show, asked Greenpeace if he could hitch a ride on one of their Antarctica trips. Check out the thread here:

After Greenpeace said he could join them on the trip if he got 200,000 retweets, his fans helped him smash the total – and now David will be joining them in February.

We can’t wait to watch what happens!