Real News You Can Use: May 2025 📰

So, as always every month here’s the TOP bits of 2025 news I’ve digested for you that WILL actually help you, or your business!

Google Assistant Upgrades to Gemini on Mobile: Over the coming months, more mobile users will be upgraded from Google Assistant to Gemini. Google will also be upgrading tablets, cars, and devices that connect to phones (headphones, watches) to Gemini. Later this year, the classic Google Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available for new downloads on mobile app stores.

Reddit Hide an Ad Feature: The update will allow Redditors to hide an ad from their feed, automatically hiding future ads from that advertiser account for at least a year. Users can hide ads for any reason but should use the "report" option if they believe an ad violates Reddit's policies. Reporting an ad will also automatically hide it and future ads from the same advertiser. The 'Hide' option will be available for any ads that appear in feeds, such as home or subreddit feeds. The update will gradually roll out across iOS, Android, and the Reddit website over the next several weeks.

YouTube BrandConnect Updates: To help brands connect with creators, a dedicated space within Google Ads called "Creator Partnerships" now allows brands to manage creator collaborations.

Instagram Meta AI-Generated Comments: Some users on the platform can write comments with the help of Meta AI.

TikTok Introduces Security Checkup: The all-in-one security tool lets users manage backup login methods, enable 2-step verification, see which devices are logged into their account, and update sign-in preferences from a single dashboard.

YouTube Tools and Features Updates: The platform is experimenting with visual guides in the Shorts editor to show creators where elements appear relative to what viewers will see. The video copyright details page in YouTube Studio has been redesigned to make finding key information about copyright claims easier. Some creators will be invited to help build AI protection tools by submitting video selfies, which will only be used for developing tools to detect and manage AI-generated content showing creators' faces. YouTube is updating the channel membership tab content feed on mobile to improve new member activation and content discovery.

Skipping YouTube End Screens: YouTube is currently testing a new feature both on mobile and desktop that allows viewers to hide end screens. If you're part of the experiment group, you'll see a "Hide" button in the top-right corner of the video when end screens start to appear. If you tap it, the end screens will be hidden on a per-video basis, giving you more control over your viewing experience. If you want to make the end screens re-appear, just tap the "Show" button that is also located in the top right of the video.

Anthropic Adds Search Capability to Claude: Web search gives Claude access to the latest information, improving accuracy for tasks requiring recent data. Claude provides direct citations when using web information, allowing users to fact-check sources easily. The assistant processes and delivers relevant sources conversationally rather than showing raw search results. Web search is currently available in feature preview for paid Claude users in the United States, with support for free users and additional countries coming soon. To use web search, users must toggle it in their profile settings and start conversing with Claude 3.7 Sonnet. When applicable, Claude will automatically search the web to inform its responses.

LinkedIn's Skills on the Rise 2025 Report: The platform released its inaugural "Skills on the Rise" list, identifying 15 of the fastest-growing professional skills in today's rapidly changing workplace. According to LinkedIn data, 70% of skills used in most jobs will change by 2030, making skill development crucial for organisations and professionals. Four of the top five skills tie heavily into AI literacy and adaptability: Understanding and utilising AI tools for business purposes, continuous learning and resilience amid rapid change, improving operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness, and creative problem-solving in the AI-transformed landscape.

Meta AI Rolling Out to 41 European Countries and 21 Overseas Territories: The initial release includes an intelligent chat function in six European languages, with plans for expansion. Meta AI will be free across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, accessible via a blue circle icon. Users can summon Meta AI in group chats by typing "@MetaAI" followed by their query, starting with WhatsApp and expanding to other platforms soon. The assistant can help discover relevant content across Meta platforms, including reels and posts from friends. Meta AI includes web search capabilities, providing information with context in a conversational format. The company plans to eventually bring additional features to Europe, such as personalisation and AI Studio, already available in other markets.

New Threads Features: The platform now allows users to add up to ten topics to their bio, showcasing favorite communities and interests on their profile. Tapping a topic on someone's profile leads directly to related conversations, making connecting with people sharing similar interests easier. When drafting new content, users will now see prompts to add suggested trending topics or ones related to previous posts. Threads has redesigned the timely topics tag to make it more prominent in the For You feed for faster topic access. Starting today, users can allow replies and quote-posts only from their followers, building on the Quote Controls feature introduced in November 2024. Users can now personalize the order of their feeds, such as setting a custom feed as the default when opening the app. The media player has been enhanced with new pause, play, and skip buttons that simplify video watching. A pinned progress bar has been added to the video player, making it easier to navigate backward and forward in videos.

TikTok Academy Updates: The platform unveiled a new learning experience with an upgraded interface and enhanced curriculum. New features include curated learning paths that organise essential TikTok marketing knowledge into comprehensive sequences for TikTok basics, building brand awareness, driving website conversions, promoting mobile apps, and generating leads.

TikTok Media Mix Modelling Updates: API integration is now in open beta, eliminating manual data pulls and allowing automatic TikTok data access for MMM systems. Advertisers can join a list for early access. Additionally, earned data from Branded Mission and Branded Effect packages is now available for integration alongside traditional paid metrics (spend, impressions, clicks, conversions). These updates build on TikTok's existing partnerships to improve data quality.

OpenAI Launching New Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech Audio Models: The new speech-to-text tools can turn spoken words into written text more accurately, even with different accents or background noise. For the first time, developers can tell the text-to-speech tool how to sound when it talks - like friendly, excited, or calm. All developers can use these new voice tools now.

xAI Adds Image Generation Capabilities to API: Only one model currently exists in the API, "grok-2-image-1212." The model can generate up to 10 images per request when given a caption, with a limit of five requests per second. Images are delivered in JPG format and cost $0.07 per image. According to xAI's documentation, the API doesn't yet support adjusting image quality, size, or style. Prompts in requests are subject to revision by a "chat model."

YouTube Video Quality Issue: The platform acknowledged an ongoing issue affecting video playback quality across our platform. The issue includes videos and Shorts defaulting to low resolution (144p or 360p) despite strong internet connections, buffering when switching to higher quality settings, and quality issues affecting iOS devices, desktop browsers, and Smart TVs. Engineers are prioritizing a fix for this widespread issue.

I hope this news digest helped you, even if only one part!

Q&A

• So, are you ready to harness the power of using this new news for your business?

• Do you have any pain points I can help you with smoothing out regarding any of the news above?

• Which of the above do you think you could utilise from the most and how would it impact your business?

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

1. Book a {10 MINUTE} Business Power Call with me, to arrange working together to make your social media videos stand out online as I tweak your approach, and analyse how to improve your current video, business strategy or marketing.

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Until next Friday, love to you all!

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