2020 is the “Year of the Virtual” as the COVID-19 pandemic generated more social media use than ever before. As people have been cooped up in their homes, they are turning to social media to safely interact with others.

With recent events, social media companies have changed, updated, and added new features to their platforms – Facebook is no exception. As a result, Facebook brought in several changes, updates, and useful features to help users communicate with and ease tension during COVID-19 and the Presidential election.

Here’s a look into the changes the platform made in 2020.

Facebook Avatar

At the beginning of quarantine in March, Facebook launched Facebook Avatar for users to make animated versions of themselves.

Competing with the app Bitmoji, Facebook Avatar provides a way for users to post their animated selves on their timeline posts, in Messenger, and on other posts’ comments.

Messenger and Instagram DMs Collide

Online interaction is becoming more and more common with the rise of COVID cases. As a result, Facebook made private messaging with their friends and family easier by integrating Messenger with Instagram DMs.

With this update, users are now able to communicate across the two apps without having to switch to Instagram.

The merge of Messenger and Instagram brought new features. These include:

• Vanish Mode: Users can make their messages disappear after reading them
• Watch Together: Friends can watch videos on Facebook Watch or IGTV together from the comfort of their own homes.
• Selfie Stickers
• Chat Colors
• Animated Message Effects

Battling Misinformation

During the spread of COVID-19, social media platforms have been monitoring the spread of misinformation.

In April, Facebook began taking action against COVID-19 misinformation by flagging information as said by fact-checkers to be false.

Image Credit: Facebook

In addition, to help their users get truthful information on the pandemic, the platform has directed over 2 billion users to credible health sources, such as the World Health Organization, through their COVID-19 Information Center.

Forecast

In the political and pandemic-filled climate of 2020, virtual predictions can make uncertain times a little more fun.

In October, Facebook released a prediction platform called Forecast in the US and Canada. Users can make predictions to questions on not only politics or COVID-19, but business, sports, and pop culture.

Image Credit: Hootsuite

On Forecast, users can not only make predictions but talk with each other on the “prediction market”. Facebook calls the “prediction market” a place where people can share their own insights on issues and events.

During the most virtual year the world has ever seen, Facebook made changes to help users connect with each other in a socially-distanced environment.

In today’s virtual climate, No Time for Social understands the importance of keeping up-to-date with social media platforms, like Facebook, to optimize content for our clients. Interested in learning more? Read more of our case studies and blogs or contact us for a free social media evaluation!