What’s Hot?

This week, we’re checking out our Snapchat horoscopes, spotting the difference between Instagram and TikTok, video calling on LinkedIn, spending hours on PunHub, and refusing to unfollow Jesy.

Is Snapchat spying?

Back in November, the mystic Megs among us were delighted with the introduction of Snapchat’s Astrological Birthday feature. This nifty feature included insights into whether you were compatible with your Snapchat friends and offered 12-page horoscopes, summarising everything from your love life, to money management to your untimely death… (okay 12 pages is a lot – no one knows what was on those last five. We can only assume.)

However, this week Snapchat has been under fire with people realising the app knew their exact time and date of birth – spooky! While it’s unlikely Snapchat spoke directly to your mum or sneaked a look at your passport, users were worried about what data Snapchat has access to. The answer? Data you manually inputted yourselves… Snapchat is now over 10 years old, meaning some of us entered this data back in the days of choosing the four subjects to take for A-Level. It’s fair enough that we could forget sharing these intimate details with the app, given I can’t even remember what my GCSE results were. So fear not guys – Snapchat isn’t sneaking through hospital records. You handed over that info for free.

Audio vs Sounds

‘Audio’ and ‘Sounds’ are words that are not exactly the same but mean much the same thing. Like ‘Instagram’ and ‘TikTok’ then.

Instagram has launched Audio searching, where you can find Reels based on the tracks used within them – perfect for trends or dances. Of course, this is exactly what TikTok offers with the ‘Sounds’ tab. It’s not major news and is not particularly innovative, but it does re-enforce the statement from last month that “Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing platform”, with more and more emphasis coming to video and in particular Reels.

LinkedIn gets native video

LinkedIn had a huge year in 2020, aiming to support people through the global pandemic – from events to profile stickers, to video conferencing partners, to support networking and interviews from home. This week, LinkedIn rolled out its own video option within the messaging tab, meaning people no longer need to exit the app and download a Zoom/Teams app.

The option also highlights someone’s LinkedIn profile below them as they speak, focusing on experience and job roles. We can definitely see a Clubhouse-style panel future in this, with different professionals chiming into a chat to explain their views, with their credentials proving why they have a reason to speak up. Let’s see what happens next…

Jesy Nelson cleanses her gram

There was big news this week in the form of Jesy Nelson deleting her whole Instagram feed (though let’s be honest – she would have archived it) even removing her profile image and bio. A simple pink icon replaced her glorious face, but she’s kept hold of 8.2mil followers and her blue tick. Phew.

Rumours are stirring as to why, and we can only hope it’s the classic artist-deleted-everything-and-posts-a-big-album-cover-that-takes-up-nine-images. That’s right, it’s almost time for Jesy to release the much anticipated Gruffalo Soldier.

The account to follow: PunHub

Yeah, you read that correctly. PubHub. A twitter account that’s less about step-Moms and more about Dad jokes, according to its own bio. Expect stock images, lots of conversations with Doctors, and some real hit and miss puns.