media update’s Aisling McCarthy looks at the social media developments for the week and what they mean.

Snapchat launches a new tagging feature

Snapchat announced the launch of a brand new feature that allows users to tag friends in their snaps. Sound familiar? Yes, that feature is available on Facebook and Instagram.

The tagging feature hasn’t been rolled out to everyone just yet, and it’s not clear who has it and why. TechCrunch published an article about the feature, saying that Snapchat confirmed to them that they were testing the feature, but did not disclose any more details.

TechCrunch posted about Snap’s experimentation with the feature, with explanatory screenshots taken by actor and comedian, Matt Rappaport.


When taking a photo in the app, some users are able to use the ‘@’ symbol and type another person’s username to link them to the story. However, unlike on Facebook and Instagram, there is no dropdown menu, which means you won’t be able to tag someone unless you have their Snapchat username.

If the person tagged also has the unofficial feature, they’ll receive a notification. Anyone who views the tagged photo or video will be able to click the tag and will be redirected to the tagged person’s profile.

Twitter is working on a blue tick verification for all

News in the Twittersphere is about the blue verification badge that some users have been able to get. The blue tick has long been used as a way to identify prominent users who really are who they say they are.

Politicians, celebrities and the like have used the “blue tick” to show a real account from a fake one. It was used as a way to stop people from believing information they are exposed to via fake sources. However, not all real accounts were awarded with the “blue tick”.


Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants to change all that. In a Periscope livestream on Thursday, 8 March, Dorsey said that he wants to verify everyone on Twitter. This is a continuation of the plan they laid out a few years ago when it asked users to apply for verification online.

The initial programme was suspended, but Dorsey says he is open to relaunching some version of it once Twitter figures out how it should work. Historically, the problem for Twitter was that its verification process served as an endorsement by Twitter – making them responsible for the content that users shared.

David Gasca, one of Twitter’s product directors, says that is not what the verification is intended for.

“The main problem is, we use it to mean ‘identity’. But because of the way it was originally started, where it was only given to certain very large public figures, celebrities, etc., it came to have a kind of status associated with it as well,“ he reportedly said in an article by Recode.

“They think of it as credibility. Twitter stands behind this person, Twitter believes that …what they’re saying is great and authentic, which is not at all what is meant by the checkmark.”

WhatsApp beta and ‘delete for all’

WhatsApp is offering users the option of becoming beta testers, allowing them to experience the app’s latest features before they are officially rolled out. This feature is available to South African users.

However, be warned. Because the testing features haven’t been rolled out to the public yet, your WhatsApp may regularly crash.

If you want to become a WhatsApp Beta Tester, all you need to do is:
  • Open the WhatsApp beta test page on a browser,
  • Log into your Google account linked to your android device,
  • Click on "become a tester", and
  • You will then get an updated WhatsApp application.
WhatsApp beta has reportedly been crashing on smartphones running on Android 7.0, but this can be fixed instantly by downloading the latest version of WhatsApp and installing the messaging app manually.


WhatsApp has also made changes to its “delete for everyone feature” that it launched late last year. The feature allows users to recall messages after they have been sent.

The initial roll out last year allowed messaged to be deleted within 7 minutes of sending.

The new update gives users an hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds to delete their messages, as long as it hasn’t been read within that time.

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Missed out on what’s been going on in the social media world for a while? Find out everything you need to know in our article, Social media news you missed: Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.