Social Media
Snapchat’s new ‘Topic Chats’ feature 👻 invites you to join the public conversation on your favorite trends 📈
Snapchat has rolled out a new feature dubbed “Topic Chats,” inviting users to dive into public discussions surrounding the latest trends 💬. While the platform has historically prioritized private messaging, Snap acknowledges that the rising popularity of its TikTok-rival Spotlight signaled a clear user desire: people want a public space to talk about the things they love ❤️.
Initially rolling out to users in Canada, New Zealand, and the US 🇨🇦 🇳🇿 🇺🇸, Topic Chats will pop up across the app as a prominent yellow button 🟡 inviting you to “Join the Chat.” Tapping that button drops you into the conversation, where you can also explore relevant Spotlight videos. To illustrate the potential, the company highlighted topics ranging from Formula 1 racing 🏎️ to the reality series Below Deck as examples of the conversations users can expect 🛥️.
The feature is designed to keep you connected 🔗, showing you exactly when your friends are active in a specific chat 👥; any discussion you join gets pinned to the top of your personalized Topic Chat page. Safety remains a priority, however 🛡️. Snap confirmed to TechCrunch that it is deploying Large Language Models (LLMs) 🤖 alongside other tools to keep discussions appropriate. Crucially, user profiles stay private to non-friends 🔒, a move Snap promises will block unwanted DMs and friend requests.
You can expect Topic Chats to go live over the next few weeks 📅. Keep an eye out for them in Chat shortcuts, the Stories page, or whenever you are searching for 🔍 or watching Spotlight content 📱.
Social Media
Ultimately, X accounts are limited to 50 posts and 200 replies a day unless they pay for a blue checkmark. 🔚✅
🚀 X has rolled out a strict new incentive to push users toward paying for “verification” ✅ on its platform, though the sudden limitation is already sparking backlash 😠 among longtime users. According to recent reports across X and Reddit 📱, the platform has quietly throttled 📉 the daily posting allowances for accounts lacking a blue checkmark. The official X Help Center page 📄 detailing platform limits has been updated to state that posts are now restricted 🚧 to “50 original posts and 200 replies per day for unverified accounts.” 🔢
This marks a drastic reduction ✂️ from the platform’s previous rules. Cached versions 🕰️ of the same Help Center page show the old limit generously permitted up to 2,400 posts per day—a figure that, confusingly ❓, is still referenced on the newly updated page. Despite the contradictory text, X is actively enforcing 👮 the lower caps, serving users a specific error message ⚠️ that informs them exactly when they hit the new limits and which threshold they have exhausted. 🛑
This aggressive cap is likely the latest front in X’s ongoing campaign to cut down on spam and bot activity. 🤖🧹 It follows similar transparency measures 🔍, such as the “about this account” feature launched in October, which publicly reveals where an account is based. 📍 Still, critics unhappy with the new restrictions warn 🗣️ that the added friction could drive even more users to leave the platform. 🚶♂️🚪 For those determined to stick around and post to their heart’s content, unlocking these limits requires subscribing to X Premium ✨; the entry-level Basic tier currently costs $3 a month or $32 per year. 💸💳
Social Media
X is taking a page 📖 from Bluesky’s playbook with the launch of its own “Starterpacks.” 🚀
In the coming weeks, X will roll out this new feature to all users 🌐, as announced by the company’s head of product, Nikita Bier 📢. The tool offers compilations of accounts tailored to specific interests 🎯, designed to help new users get settled on the platform 👋. If the concept feels familiar, it is essentially a mirror 🪞 of Bluesky’s “starter packs,” which debuted in 2024. However, there is a distinct difference in approach: while Bluesky empowers ordinary users to curate and share their own custom lists of up to 50 accounts via QR codes 📲, X has decided to compile and curate these lists internally 🏢.

#Starterpacks
According to Bier, the company “scoured the world 🌍 for the top posters in every niche and country” 🗺️ to build these collections. The objective is to help new users discover the best accounts—regardless of their follower count 📈—that align with their passions ❤️. X is joining a growing list of platforms that have adopted Bluesky’s model. Threads 🧵 introduced a similar feature in late 2024, inserting collections of recommended profiles into the feeds of new sign-ups. Mastodon 🐘 followed suit in 2025, though it distinguished its version by giving existing users the agency ✅ to decide whether or not they want to be included in the lists.
Social Media
Meta is rolling out Threads ads to users worldwide 🌎📢
Threads has finally reached the scale necessary for Meta to fully integrate it into its advertising ecosystem. 🚀 On Wednesday, the company announced that with the platform now boasting 400 million monthly active users 👥, ads are expanding to all users globally. 🌐 This anticipated shift follows a pilot program conducted in 30 countries earlier last year. 🧪

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The ads appearing on Threads are driven by Meta’s AI-powered advertising infrastructure. 🤖 They will utilize the “same level of personalization”—essentially the same tracking and profiling mechanisms 🎯—found on Facebook and Instagram. 📱 Users can expect to see image, video, and carousel formats appearing natively within their feeds. 🖼️🎥
Meta indicated that this expansion begins next week 🗓️, though a complete rollout will span several months. ⏳ “Ads on Threads expansion to all users will be gradual, with ad delivery initially remaining low as we reach global user availability in the coming months,” the company stated in a blog post. 📝
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