TikTok is now rolling out its Snapchat-style stories to more users

TikTok’s experiment with Snapchat-style stories is continuing, with the company further rolling out the feature to a larger group of users. If you’ve gotten the feature, you’ll be greeted with a new banner when you launch the app encouraging you to create a story. In a statement provided to TechCrunch, TikTok noted that “Currently, we’re expanding a pilot test, which provides creators with additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community,” although that doesn’t say how many users are currently included in the test or what the future rollout of the feature will look like. Adding a video or photo to a story works extremely similarly to taking a photo or video for TikTok’s standard feature, with the same editing tools, effects, filters, and sounds. Unlike a regular TikTok video, though, stories won’t show up directly on your profile or feed and disappear after 24 hours. TikTok stories are also missing a major feature that others offer – critically, it lacks the scrolling bar of stories from the accounts you follow to tap through.


Instagram’s promised new parental control feature is ready to arrive in the US

Instagram’s new parental controls, announced in December, are launching in the US. The service’s head, Adam Mosseri, refers to them as the company’s “first set” of parental supervision tools, allowing parents and guardians to view and set limits on the amount of time their teens are spending on Instagram, get updates on which accounts they’re following and being followed by, and receive notifications when they report another user. The controls are being introduced after the Meta-owned social network came under fire for its impact on younger users. Leaked internal research from the company suggests that Instagram usage has detrimental effects on the mental health of its younger users, particularly teenage girls. Shortly after the research was made public, the company announced it was pausing work on a version of Instagram aimed at children under the age of 13. It also rolled out a feature that encouraged users to take a break from the app after set periods of time. Instagram’s tools are part of a wider push from Meta to offer more support to parents and guardians concerned about their teens’ use of its products.

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