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Showing posts from July, 2024

Instagram now lets you add up to 20 songs to your Reels

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Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Instagram will now let you add up to 20 audio tracks to your Reels, according to an update spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra . When you add different tracks to a reel, Instagram will label the audio mix as belonging to you, allowing other users to share and reuse it. Before this update, you could only add one track to your Reels. But now that you can include multiple tracks, you can sync different audio to the text, stickers, and clips that appear in your Reels, potentially making for an even more chaotic video. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators) To use the feature, hit the new “add to mix” button that appears in Instagram’s video editor. From there, you can choose the tracks you want to include, which portions of the songs to use, and where to place them in your video. After you post a reel, other users can see all the

Instagram is sticking to short videos, says Adam Mosseri

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram isn’t going to focus on longform video because it might “undermine” the platform’s “core identity to connect people with friends,” Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says in a video . Yes, you can technically post Instagram videos to your feed that are as long as one hour, and yes, Instagram did try to push for longer videos with IGTV before shutting the app down ! But now, shortform is where it’s at, Mosseri argues. Mosseri says that Instagram’s two main jobs are to help you connect with friends and to help you explore interests “usually through shortform video.” He says that those two jobs are “symbiotic” because you might send a video that you like to a friend who might also like it. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) On the other hand, longform videos (think videos that are longer than 10 minutes or feel more like TV shows) are “less symbio

Facebook and Instagram’s ‘pay or consent’ ad model violates the DMA, says the EU

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Image: The Verge The EU has formally charged Meta with violations of its Digital Markets Act (DMA), marking its second such charge in as many weeks. The European Commission writes in a preliminary ruling that the “pay or consent” advertising model that launched last year for Facebook and Instagram users runs afoul of Article 5(2) of the DMA by not giving users a third option that uses less data for ad targeting but is still free to use. Regulators found in their investigation that Meta gives users a “binary choice” that forces them to either choose to pay a monthly subscription fee to get the ad-free version of Facebook and Instagram or consent to the ad-supported version. Where Meta runs afoul of its rules, it says, is by not letting users opt for a free version that “uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the ‘personalised ads’ based service” and by not allowing them to “exercise their right to freely consent to the combination of

Instagram’s ‘Made with AI’ label swapped out for ‘AI info’ after photographers’ complaints

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Image: Meta On Monday, Meta announced that it is “updating the ‘Made with AI’ label to ‘AI info’ across our apps, which people can click for more information,” after people complained that their pictures had the tag applied incorrectly . Former White House photographer Pete Souza pointed out the tag popping up on an upload of a photo originally taken on film during a basketball game 40 years ago, speculating that using Adobe’s cropping tool and flattening images might have triggered it. “As we’ve said from the beginning, we’re consistently improving our AI products, and we are working closely with our industry partners on our approach to AI labeling,” said Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin. The new label is supposed to more accurately represent that the content may simply be modified rather than making it seem like it is entirely AI-generated. The problem seems to be the metadata tools like Adobe Photoshop apply to images and how platforms interpret that. Af