Friday Social: New emojis, Google fidget spinner and Instagram Live replay

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/@natashagraham_

Google creates virtual fidget spinner

With the fidget spinner craze showing no signs of slowing down, it’s only right that Google gets in on the action. The toy took off in popularity this year after being touted as a positive relief tool for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and autism, but the spinner has since become popular with the masses.

Google released a digital version of the toy this week – helping those who couldn’t get their hands on the frequently sold out toy. If you want to have a go for yourself, simply search “spinner” in the Google search bar. The digital game is available on both desktop and mobile.

Pinterest focuses on visual search options

Social media platform Pinterest announced its camera search tool Lens back in spring, but this week it has released its updated version of the feature. The tool allows users to open their camera within the app and snap a picture, and search for items/colours/locations similar to those in the image.

The feature’s new look is more streamlined and user-friendly, with the options to tap on the screen to focus the camera for before snapping away, pinch to zoom, and a selection of lenses to try. Alongside those updates, users can also tap the new capture button at the bottom of the screen to find suggested ideas and objects related to the photo.

Emojis get some new additions

Mermaid fans rejoice! Your prayers have been answered – Unicode 10 has been announced, revealing some of the new emojis coming to your keyboard, and mermaids, dinosaurs, and vampire are all included…

In total there will be 56 new emojis to choose from, but users will have to wait as there hasn’t been an official launch date announced. Some sources are speculating they will be available by the end of the year. Watch this space…

Instagram drops re-watch option for live content

It was back in 2016 that Instagram launched its Live feature, which had taken on a unique approach, whereby users would share live content and, after it finished, the video would disappear entirely. Not anymore!

Instagram is now introducing the option to replay live-streams, but only within 24 hours of the stream ending. The videos will then be put alongside other users Stories at the top of the app. Instagram explained the update:

“When someone you follow shares a replay, you’ll see a play button under their profile photo in the stories bar. Tap it to watch the video and see comments and likes from the original broadcast. You can also tap the right or left side of the screen to go forward or back 15 seconds, or tap “Send Message” to reply.”

And finally…

Spotify has built a playlist sharing function within Facebook Messenger. Users can now create a playlist with friends in a chat within Messenger, or even share singular tracks.

To start sharing tunes with friends, open up a conversation in Messenger, tap on the + button on the bottom left corner, tap the Spotify app, and get sharing! Don’t have Spotify? Fear not, you don’t even need to have the app to share music from there. The update is ready to use from this week!