Social Media Platform Updates To Know As We Start 2026
As a small business owner you likely use multiple tools and platforms to run your business, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t cover a complete list of social media platform updates that took place in 2025. These are the things you must keep in mind heading into 2026.
Artificial Intelligence Is Everywhere
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a formidable force in 2025. In fact, we at VVITCH believe this year will go down as an “AI-driven year” — but not without major problems.
With many lawsuits against OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, companies rolling out AI policies for employees and social platforms, and social media platforms figuring out how to best utilize AI, the changes to the way we live our lives are far and wide — and, according to an MIT study, often for the worse.
What does this have to do with social media platform updates? Every platform has taken a slightly different approach to AI — there is AI-assisted caption writing, AI-driven ad tools that use machine learning to optimize ad targeting, and, unfortunately, AI-powered job matching.
While some of these features aren't that different from the algorithms that powered these platforms throughout the years, some of these AI “innovations” definitely feel invasive. For example, TikTok’s Symphony Creative Studio — it’s an AI-powered video generator that turns simple inputs into TikTok-style videos in minutes.
Users Are Collateral with AI-Focused Social Media
With all of these priorities on AI from social media platforms, what happens to and for the user? Well, users remain rightfully skeptical.
According to Sprout Social, everyone, regardless of demographics, is most concerned with non-disclosures from brands when posting AI-generated content as well as companies mishandling their data. In particular, Gen Z and Millennials ranked AI content disclosure highest among their biggest concerns over data security.
It should come as no surprise that things change rapidly on social media To help you understand the multitude of social media platform updates that happened in 2025, we present our complete guide of platform updates for small businesses and non-profits who make organic content. Dive in and explore these updates so you can stay on track with your business marketing plans.
Key TikTok Platform Updates
With TikTok there is the never-ending feeling of will-they-won’t-they continue in the United States as the TikTok users know. The most recent update is that TikTok has another extended deadline to sell to a U.S. based company by December 16, 2025.
Scheduled Posts: For small business owners using the TikTok Studio app, you can now schedule your content rather than manually post it.
Location Reviews: TikTok added location reviews, such that when users search a location on TikTok and watch a video highlighting that location, they’ll see a new tab next to comments called Reviews. This displays reviews from other users about that specific location.
New Accessibility Features: TikTok released new features for alt-text on photos, increased color contrast, and added bold text support.
Hashtag Limits: TikTok now limits users to five hashtags. Keep it short and simple!
Bulletin Boards: Brands can promote bulletin boards on the For You Page. You’ve likely started getting tons of invitations!
Watermark-less Downloads: This new feature from TikTok allows creators to download videos without a watermark (i.e. TikTok logo mark). This supports cross-platform sharing to Instagram, YouTube, and others, but it also helps brands increase their reach and the appeal of their content.
What’s Changing at Threads
Tagging: Users can now tag their friends in images on Threads, similar to how you can tag anyone in an image or video on Instagram.
Testing Ads: Threads is testing ads in users’ feeds for those based in the U.S. and Japan.
Add Interests: Threads users can add their interests to their profile to show what they’re passionate about.
Multiple Links: Your Threads profile can now host multiple links. This means for your brand you can add up to 5 different links to your Threads profile.
Cross-posting: Threads deeply wants you to cross-post on Instagram and now have an option that allows you to cross-post your content into your Instagram Story.
New Accounts: You can now make an account on Threads without Instagram. If you don’t have an Instagram account or want to keep them separate, you’re in luck!
Photo-sharing: Threads added the ability for you to send photos in your Threads DMs.
Instagram Platform Updates that Matter
One update you have already likely seen is the controversial 5120x1080 format on Instagram. It’s an ultra-wide aspect ratio for their continued prioritization of Reels. This has come as no surprise considering how much Instagram has done this year to keep up with TikTok! Other updated dimensions were included for carousels, Reels, and Stories, with 4:5 layout for feed.
Views Metrics: Instagram has new metrics for views that include View Rate and View Over Time. View Rate is the percentage of your followers and non-followers who watched your content over 3 seconds while Views Over Time is how many views your post received compared to the average amount of views your content typically gets in the same period of time.
Reel Playback Speed: Instagram added double speed playback for Reels, which means for avid-watchers you can now watch your favorite Reels at 2x the speed.
Edits App Release: Instagram released the Edits app earlier in the year as a video editing app for content you plan to use on any platform.
Livestream Access: Instagram restricted users' access to livestreams, now requiring an account to have at least 1,000 or more followers to stream on Instagram.
Reposts: Instagram released reposts as an easier way for users to repost their favorite content, whether image in feed or a Reel.
Pinning Comments: Users can pin their own comments on their Instagram posts now, which was a highly requested feature from users.
Music on Profiles: Users can add songs or music to their Instagram profile, which is a new level of personalization that can help brands. Your brand can reflect on its identity and connect more emotionally with your audience through music you choose. This one also makes us very nostalgic for the days of MySpace.
Carousel Image Expansion: Instagram expanded the number of photos or videos allowed in a carousel post to 20 in a single post. The update was perfect for brands that needed to showcase more products or tell a comprehensive story.
Notable Updates from Meta
For small business owners who use Meta as a social media marketing channel, there were significant updates made to the web version of the Professional Dashboard. This included a new home screen experience and simplified navigation.
AI Audio Translations: Meta released their AI-powered audio translations for video to help you automatically dub and lip sync Reels into another language.
Copyright Check: Meta added a copyright check for accounts creating Reels on Facebook.
Music with Text Posts: Users now have the option to add music to their text posts on Facebook.
Linking In Comments: Meta is urging Facebook users to add links in their comments. There might be a warning the next time you create a Facebook post with a link in the caption as Facebook claims adding a link there is distracting and could hurt your reach. Instead, they want users to put links in comments.
All Videos are Reels: Every video on Facebook is now a Reel. If you upload a video to Facebook it will automatically post as a Reel.
Return of Friends Tab: Facebook brought back an OG feature, Friends tab. This tab shows you content that’s only from your Facebook friends, without recommended content.
Livestreams Are Gone: You can no longer go live on Facebook as Meta makes changes to the storage times for livestreams. They want to reduce the cost of video data, and any Facebook livestreams that you have will be removed from the platform after 30 days.
Third-Party Fact-checking Discontinued: Meta announced that the U.S. will no longer have access to the third-party fact-checking program. Instead they’re moving to a community notes model to allow more speech without restrictions on topics, but they will focus on enforcing illegal and high-severity violations. This includes a personalized approach to political content for users who want to see more of it in their feeds. This is obviously concerning, especially in the age of AI, where it is already hard enough to know what is factual or not.
Scheduling Tools Expanded: Meta Business Suite has enhanced scheduling tools that allow brands and marketers to plan their posts, ads, and Stories across multiple platforms within Meta’s portfolio with improved flexibility. This includes advanced analytics predictions for best times for engagement to maximize the reach of your brand’s content.
Important Updates on LinkedIn
With LinkedIn videos being watched 36% more on the platform, they have added more video updates to their rollouts. Have you been posting more LinkedIn video content? Check out their updated video requirements. Other updates include:
Comment Impressions: LinkedIn now allows you to see how many impressions comments on posts have, whether the comment is your own or that of other users.
Video Tab: LinkedIn moved the video tab into the Videos For You feed on desktop as well as made it possible for users to see a snapshot of someone’s profile within the full-screen video player.
New Metrics: Users now see the number of saves, sends, and profile views and followers any LinkedIn post has brought you.
CapCut Integration: For brands creating LinkedIn videos, you can now export directly from CapCut to LinkedIn.
Post Notifications: LinkedIn users now receive notifications for increased profile views or new followers generated from any post they make.
Newsletters: LinkedIn allows all users to create newsletters on their platform, with no restrictions to follower count.
Our Final Thoughts
With this complete guide, you can stay ahead, and on track, as a small business owner by knowing the updates that happened on social media platforms this year, but the authenticity of how your brand’s presence and participation on each squarely rests with you. This might be the most important thing you need to consider, especially heading into 2026.
Authenticity continues to be at the forefront of consumer issues. Did you know that 55% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand that’s 100% committed to publishing social content made by a human versus AI? That sentiment actually rises to 62% for Millennials and 61% for those who identify as politically liberal.
It might not always be that clear as to who is responsible for disclosing when social content is AI-generated, but there are clear indicators when content is human-made — such as spotlighting the people who are behind the content, or crediting stylists, artists, photographers, etc. who bring their social posts to life on our feeds.
How do you plan to keep your small business’s brand authentic?
What are your social media marketing plans in this constantly changing, AI-obsessed marketing landscape?
Hire Us to Create Your 2026 Marketing Plan
If you’re unsure of what your 2026 marketing plans should be for social, book a discovery call with us. We offer social media coaching, or even full content creationg and community management.
Find out more about the social media marketing services we offer by contacting our team.
SOURCES:
Meet the Authors:
Kate Schaefer - VVITCH Digital Brand and Marketing Strategist
Kate has worked in digital marketing and publishing for seven years. In 2013, she identified a hole in the wedding market and started H&H Weddings, a wedding resource specifically for the LGBTQ+ community.
Kate believes every business should thrive and is dedicated to helping marginalized folx even the financial playing field because capitalism is a bitch.
Brittinee Phillips - Copywriter
Brittinee has worked in marketing for a little over ten years. She has a passion and talent for storytelling. Brittinee's philosophy is that storytelling is the most integral part of the consumer and product experience, which is why she makes it a focal point in her approach to product and brand messaging.
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