Social media is constantly evolving, and 2022 is set to bring in some big changes. Here are some of the biggest social media announcements you should know about.

TikTok Extends Video Length to 10 Minutes

With the explosive popularity of TikTok, many social media platforms are racing to incorporate short-form video content as part of their features. Some of TikTok’s imitators include Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts.

Ironically, while everyone else is focusing on shorter content, TikTok is making the shift to long-form videos.

Previously, the maximum length for a TikTok video was 3 minutes. Now that length has been more than tripled, as the company announced it will be expanding upload lengths to 10 minutes.

In a statement to the press on February 28th, a TikTok representative said, “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience. […] Today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.”

Since that announcement, 10-minute uploads have been made available to all TikTok users globally.

Instagram Announces Closure of IGTV & Removal of In-Stream Ads

Since the launch of Instagram Reels in 2020, Instagram has put an increasing amount of focus on short-form content, in an effort to compete with TikTok.

And the company’s latest announcement is another step in that direction.

Later this year, Instagram will officially shut down its IGTV app, as well as remove all in-stream ads. The decision isn’t entirely unexpected, since Instagram retired the IGTV brand last October and merged it with its other video options.

The full statement from Instagram says, “As part of our efforts to make video as simple as possible to discover and create, we will no longer be supporting our standalone app for IGTV. Instead, we will focus on having all video on the main Instagram app.”

Content creators have mixed feelings on the closure. While it benefits creators who mainly focus on shorter videos, users who make long-form content will no longer be able to monetize their videos on Instagram.

LinkedIn Previews New Post Analytics & Reaction Emoji

If there’s one thing to know about social media, it’s that metrics are highly important. Regularly looking at your analytics helps clue you in what content works, what doesn’t work, and how you can boost your numbers.

Sites like Instagram and Facebook already let users monitor their analytics, and LinkedIn is set to join them soon.

A recent post by LinkedIn’s Chief Product Officer, Tomer Cohen, announced that the upcoming analytics feature is being added by popular demand. “We know it’s important to understand what content is resonating with your audience and our team has been hard at work building new analytics for our creators. Soon, creators will be able to get analytics on their individual posts and overall performance, across content & audience,” said Cohen.

LinkedIn’s analytics will give users the ability to see exactly who is viewing their content. Readers can be filtered by job title, industry, and location, which lets content creators see if there is any overlap in their audience.

In addition, LinkedIn users will be getting a new reaction option: a 😂 emoji. Because there’s no better way to show you support an article than with a good laugh!

Instagram Adds Auto-Generated Captions

Tired of manually adding captions to your Instagram videos? Now Instagram will do the hard work for you! The social media platform recently announced that it will be adding options for auto-generated captions to videos, following yet another trend inspired by rival platform TikTok.

It’s as simple as flicking a switch. Instagram users just have to go into the advanced settings, and they’ll see an option to toggle captions on or off.

Captions will be available in 17 languages at launch, with plans to add more in the future. The main benefit of the feature, according to Instagram, is that captions will make the platform more accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing users.