Are you on top of the latest social media tools and features?! You should be! Here’s a look at this month’s social media roundups:

Instagram Shop is now being rolled out for public testing in the US.

Instagram Shop is a new tab which will allow users to make in-app purchases without having to leave the platform.

The page has been designed to help users discover products and brands on Instagram.

Users will be given personalised recommendations based on the brands that they currently follow and will be able to shop from different collections.

You will also be able to see collections that have been curated by Instagram’s own shop team, which Instagram says is designed to promote: “emerging businesses and the creators behind them.”

However, it is not clear yet how collections may be monetized in the future with sponsored campaigns but let’s wait to see what plans Instagram will have.

Twitter launches quick access to DMs.

Twitter is in the process of rolling out and testing a new feature that will allow users faster access to their DMs.

Currently, a small percentage of global users are able to view their DM inbox and conversations through a docked drawer when using Twitter in widescreen.

Twitter’s goal is that users will be able to view their DMs without having to navigate to the DM inbox making all of our lives much easier!

TikTok announces new measures for detecting and removing false information from the platform in the lead up to the US election.

TikTok has made its policy around inauthentic behaviour more transparent and is strengthening its policy which prohibits synthetic or manipulated content that misleads users.

The app has added an election misinformation option to its in-app reporting feature which will make it easier for users to report content or accounts for review.

TikTok is also expanding its partnership with PolitiFact and Lead Stories, which are fact-checking websites, to improve its fact-checking processes, with a specific focus on US election misinformation.

In addition to this TikTok is also working with the US Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Foreign Influence Task Force, helping to share information and insights with the group to improve the task forces detection methods.

A new way to go live on Facebook.

People can now go live on Facebook from Messenger Rooms turning their chat room into a Live Facebook broadcast.

Messenger Rooms are joinable group video calls that can host up to 50 people and are accessed using Facebook Messenger. You can now create a room that can go live from and invite anyone to join, even if they don’t have a Facebook account.

The room creator can broadcast their room to a profile, page or group, and invite people to tune in. By merging Messenger Rooms and Facebook Live together, Facebook hopes they are “unlocking new ways for people to connect and create content even while they’re apart.”

People who are invited to the room will receive a notification inviting them to join the live broadcast and they can choose whether to participate. They can also choose to leave the room before it goes live.

Capitalising on the influx of video conference since the pandemic, we see this being a strong competitor to Zoom, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams.

We’ll be back next month with more updates you should be aware of!”,