August’s passing, we saw some interesting developments in digital! Here are our picks for the top 15 new things in digital– August 2018:

1. Send Private Messages along with Friend Requests on Facebook (Just to let the person you want to add know that your intentions are perfectly honorable)

2. Your WhatsApp groups got a lot more fun (and Chaotic) as WhatsApp introduced video and voice calling on groups. It’s great to note that calls are end-to-end encrypted and also optimized to work well under different (read: Poor) network conditions.

3. Business, events and other pages on Facebook got a face lift on mobile – More than 80 million business pages were updated to make it easier for people to interact with local business and find what they need most. The update improves recommendations about businesses by making text, photos and tags more prominent. Also introduced were features to show menus, book appointments and actions. Events and job application features were expanded and Facebook Stories was rolled out to all pages. Mobile users can now browse for local businesses near them, see recommendations and which events their friends are going for.

4. LinkedIn will feature Career Histories in Experience Section on profiles – Consecutive positions within the same organization will now be automatically grouped in the experience section of profiles.

5. (Oh Snap!)chat – The service lost 3 million users in Q2 of 2018! :-O Maybe Snapchat ain’t so snappy anymore!

6. Facebook launches Mentorship to Facebook Groups – This really cool feature, which was tested out last year allows people in existing Facebook Groups to share one-on-one guided support. This is great for groups that focus on parenting and professional and personal development, which are the kinds of groups Facebook is targeting this new feature at presently.

7. Story Highlights now on your Facebook profile (Just like Instagram) – Similar to the feature on Instagram, the highlights option provides another way to re-use your Facebook Stories content, showcasing the best of your Stories efforts directly on your profile.

8. Stalk less on Facebook as you’ll soon be able to see things that are common between you and people you don’t know on a public post – So you might see labels above selected comments from non-friends like ‘You both went to Royal College (or whichever meets your fancy)’ or ‘You’re both from Colombo’ or ‘You were both at a particular protest err… we mean event’

9. Ability to convert still image ads to video ads – This will provide an easy framework to add lightweight motion to still images to create more compelling and effective direct-response ads.

10. New expandable featured snippets from Google (so a simple search can now more fully turn into a trip down the rabbit hole. We’re just kidding, this is a great

feature!) – The feature aims to show you more useful aspects of the topic around your search. You’ll now get a handful of expandable snippets below the main featured snippet with more information.

11. Google posts added to local listings for some branded queries – If you search for a branded query, Google will now show a ‘Tap for Posts’ option, which will show Google posts for that brand.

12. Get your spammers in line with Facebook’s new Comment Moderation Feature for Page Admins – This feature isn’t fully out yet but when it is, it will be the answer to the prayers of Page Admins worldwide. You’ll soon be able to put spammers in their place with an automated tool that filters out spammy or other volatile comments. Page Admins will soon be able to focus more on engaging and responding to genuine users and spend less time ‘troll-busting’.

13. LinkedIn is rolling out Groups (Again!) – The service is to be re-launched with the aim of streamlining services, reducing spam and increasing efficiency.

14. Facebook to remove 5000+ ad targeting options to stamp out discrimination – In a continued effort to clean up the platform and reduce the potential for abuse, Facebook will be removing 5000+ ad targeting options to stamp out discriminatory ad targeting.

15. New Job Listing tools including an option to search by remote working opportunities from LinkedIn – LinkedIn has rolled out new updates to its Job Listings, which are designed to make it easier to find the most relevant advertised roles and get more insights into salary expectations.

And there you have it! These are the 15 most noteworthy developments in digital as we see it. What do you think? Have we missed anything? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!