Friday Social: Snapchat Custom Lenses, Falcon Heavy and ‘That’ Kylie News

  • 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

Snapchat Introduces Customisable Lenses

Snapchat lenses. From the classic dog ears to the flowery headband, they’re mainstays of the social network – and now they can be completely customised by you!

Included in Snapchats new (slightly confusing) update is the ability to choose from over 150 templates, pieces of headwear, types of ears and crazy decorations to create a customised filter that’s all yours. You can then add your own text and location – perfect for birthdays, celebrations or simply passing the time.

#FalconHeavy Erupts on Social

This week, billionaire entrepreneur, philanthropist and all-round mad-genius Elon Musk launched the biggest rocket the world has ever seen, Falcon Heavy, into space – and social media naturally went into meltdown.

The launch was streamed live on YouTube to over 15 million people and performed near perfectly, even managing to successfully land both of its rocket boosters back on earth at the same time.

Tweets came flooding in from around the globe of onlookers young and old watching in awe at the fantastic live event – and rightly so too

Kylie Jenner Unveils ‘That’ News – and Breaks Instagram

Fans of the uber-famous Kardashian family were overjoyed, and incredibly relieved, this week when it was officially revealed via social media that youngest daughter Kylie Jenner has in fact been pregnant, and has given birth to a baby girl.

The news, which wasn’t exactly surprising, comes after months of speculation regarding whether the cosmetics mogul and reality star was avoiding photos and the public eye to hide her pregnancy from the world.

Kylie, of course, used Instagram to reveal the news. A few days later she took to the social media site once again to reveal the name of her daughter, Stormi Webster, which gathered over 15 million likes and broke the record for most likes on a single Instagram post. What ever will we talk about, now?

Snapchat Livestreams Winter Olympics

Over in America, Snapchat has partnered with American TV channel NBC to livestream segments of the Winter Olympics, paving the way for TV platforms to work alongside the social media network.

For the first time in the app’s history, live segments of NBC’s coverage of the games will be able to be viewed in the Discover section of the app – and will act as a testing period for possible TV collaborations in the near future.

Snapchat currently has over 187 million daily active users, however threats from rival companies have forced it to keep updating its services. Is TV the answer? Let’s find out.

 

More Emoji Are Coming

And lastly, you’ll soon be able to say EXACTLY how you feel in true 21st century style, as more emoji are on their way.

From mangos to llamas, and finally some smiling redheads – the glaring omissions of emoji that once would have drove you round the bend, now may be brought to life.

157 new emoji have been put to Unicode, the committee of emoji experts that decide their fate – and the lucky additions will be chosen and released in the near future.