It Took 15 Years ⏳

TODAY’S EDITION

• What Instagram’s new iPad app means for creators

• Instagram and TikTok expand their messaging tools

• Threads gets a new lead and adds support for longer text

• YouTube will let creators opt out of AI enhancements for Shorts

• LinkedIn partners CapCut on a new integration

• A new AI tool to help creators grow their LinkedIn presence

• Adobe brings pro video editing tools to mobile

DEEP DIVE

Instagram Finally Launches a Dedicated iPad App

Instagram has officially launched a native iPad app, which has long an afterthought for the platform.

How It Works

• The app opens directly to Reels, with Stories featured at the top.

• A new Following tab lets users sort content by All, Friends, or Latest, with the option to set any as the default.

• A navigation bar on the left provides quick access to Search, Explore, Messages, and more.

• Comments can be expanded while watching Reels in full size.

• Messages can be viewed at a glance, including specific conversations.

Why It Matters

After 15 years, Instagram has delivered a dedicated iPad experience, moving beyond the scaled-up iPhone app. The new app is designed for immersive Reels consumption while keeping comments and messages, two of Instagram's most important engagement features, easily accessible.

People tend to use apps on larger devices like the iPad for longer sessions, which aligns with video consumption habits, as Adam Mosseri noted. Around 20% of Instagram users’ time in the app is spent watching Reels, so opening the app directly into Reels reflects these patterns.

Earlier reports suggested Instagram was considering a Reels-only app. While that has not materialized, the iPad launch could be seen as an iteration of that plan, giving users with larger screens an experience centered on Reels.

Instagram follows TikTok, which launched an enhanced tablet app in 2023, Snapchat, which rolled out an iPad app last year, and YouTube, which has long supported tablets. With an Android tablet version also on the way, Instagram is bringing its experience closer to parity with competitors and may even be laying the groundwork for a rumored Instagram for TV app by offering a more lean-back viewing option beyond mobile and desktop.

What It Means for Creators

Unlike YouTube, where viewers spend the most time on TV screens, tablet usage is unlikely to surpass mobile for Instagram. Still, creators and brands should keep a close eye on how their content appears across Instagram’s expanding experiences. If any of these surfaces gain traction, it would be a clear signal to prioritize content for them. What’s immediately clear, however, is that Reels remains Instagram’s top format. Even with recent investments in Carousels, focusing on Reels will likely give creators the best bang for their buck.

What Could Be Next

It may have taken Instagram a long time to reach this point, but rapid iteration is likely. One of the first updates could build on its recently launched Reels linking feature, such as creating a dedicated space for discovering multi-part Reels, which would align with the longer viewing sessions that tablets enable.

In the short term, a simpler but equally valuable update would be adding a breakdown of insights for Reels based on where views come from across devices and surfaces. Similar to YouTube, creators could see how views are split across TV, mobile, desktop, and tablet, helping them optimize content strategies for each environment.

EVENTS

Boston Creator Economy Summer Mixer

Last week, I co-hosted our second creator economy mixer with Courtney Duffy. Over 100 people came together, including creators, influencer marketing managers from brands like Wayfair, agency and platform pros from Edelman, Acceleration Partners, Capiv8, and Vidovo, as well as talent managers and founders.

After hosting and attending several events this year, I’m convinced these in-person experiences—whether happy hours, mixers, dinners, or coffee chats—are some of the best investments you can make. Conversations go deeper, relationships form faster, and you leave with more than just new LinkedIn connections.

We’ll keep running these mixers quarterly and explore new ways to spotlight Boston’s creator economy. Subscribe to our event calendar if you’d like to stay updated, and reach out if you want to get involved.

In the meantime, here are other upcoming events worth checking out:

• Break Room by Work Friends (Sept 10, Boston, MA): Panels, coworking, and networking for client services professionals. Speakers include brand leads from New Balance and Bob’s Red Mill, plus local creators.

• Vantage Boston by Sprout Social (Sept 16, Boston, MA): Live case studies, panels, and collaborative discussions on how brands and creators can work together more meaningful. I’ll be speaking!

• Instagram Summit by ManyChat (Sept 19, Hollywood, CA): Keynotes, panels, and Q&As featuring top creators sharing their Instagram strategies. Use code GAMBLE50 for 50% off tickets.

NEWS & UPDATES

Meta

Instagram announced Direct Messages updates for Professional accounts and personal accounts with over 100K followers. Creators can now use multi-select filters, customize shortcuts by reordering default pills, and create or customize folders to better organize their inbox.

Instagram launched an educational series for Edits. Led by creator Adrian Peter, the 20-episode tutorial series offers step-by-step guidance on the video editing app’s key features. The first five tutorials cover Keyframes, Camera, Teleprompter, Ideas, and Inspiration, with the remaining episodes rolling out through the end of the year.

Threads’ new lead, Connor Hayes shared that creators and communities will be his focus in the coming months. This includes improving the experience for creators and helping users discover communities that matter to them.

Threads rolled out support for longer text via a text attachment feature. Users can attach up to 10,000 characters of formatted text to their post (such as excerpts from newsletters, blog posts, books, etc.), along with a prominent link.

Threads added the ability to send videos, GIFs, and stickers through DMs. Users can record a video or pick one from their camera roll, and easily search for stickers and GIFs to share.

TikTok

TikTok now lets users send voice notes up to 60 seconds long and share up to nine images or videos from the app or camera roll, in both one-on-one messages and group chats.

TikTok added text images. When creating a post, users can select the Text option to have AI transform their written content into an image complete with background designs and emojis and can be shared as either Stories or photo posts.

TikTok shared resources for TikTok Shop creators, including a Creator Pilot Program to guide new sellers, a Creator Health Rating to track compliance with shop rules, and a Video Pre-Check tool to flag potential violations before posting.

YouTube / Google

YouTube liaison Rene Ritchie revealed that YouTube will soon give creators the ability to opt out of deblurring and denoising Shorts.

YouTube added a way for creators to share links to their Communities. From the Community page on mobile, creators can copy a link, use Quick Share to share on Instagram, Reddit, and more, or tap a QR code to share a scannable link.

Google announced a trio of AI-powered features to Google Vids, its AI video creator and editor. Updates include an image-to-video tool powered by Veo, AI Avatars that can read scripts, and automatic transcript trimming to remove filler words and pauses.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn and CapCut launched an integration that lets creators publish videos edited in CapCut directly to LinkedIn. These videos will automatically be eligible for LinkedIn’s Video Trends and carry a “Made with CapCut” label on mobile that links viewers to the app.

Reddit

Reddit expanded its Reddit Pro Trends tool to mobile. It also added performance insights for comments in the Performance Hub, highlighting metrics like total views, upvotes, and replies, and published a Reddit Pro Organic Playbook.

Beehiiv

Beehiiv introduced an upgraded Ad Network. It features a new dashboard with upcoming placements, earnings and payouts, an inbox for pending ad offers, and a weekly email highlighting new ad monetization opportunities. (Get a 30-day trial and 20% off for the first three months here.)

Patreon

Patreon will launch an upgraded newsletter experience later this year. The company is reportedly working on making it easier for creators to draft newsletter content, along with access to backend analytics.

Adobe

Adobe announced Adobe Premiere for iPhone. Built after its desktop experience, it features multi-track timeline editing, automatic captions, 4K support, and watermark-free exports to social media platforms. AI features Adobe Firefly are available via AI credits.

Netflix

Netflix updated Moments, its mobile only feature that lets viewers share clips from movies and TV shows in its library. Now, viewers can set both a start and end point when saving a scene, as opposed to being limited to only choosing the starting point.

TOOLS

Meet Stanley, Your New AI LinkedIn Content Coach

Who isn't trying to build a presence on LinkedIn these days?

Who isn’t trying to build a presence on LinkedIn these days? Creators from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are expanding to LinkedIn. Marketers are realizing that sharing their expertise opens doors to new jobs and speaking gigs. CEOs are also discovering that having a voice on LinkedIn is good for business. CEO posts are up 23% year over year.

I’ve been creating on LinkedIn since 2017, so I know firsthand how much work it takes: deciding what to post, figuring out what your audience actually wants, and formatting content so it stands out.

One tool that’s made this easier for me is Stanley, a LinkedIn AI content coach. I was an early beta tester and found it genuinely helpful, especially for understanding which of my posts perform best and why.

Each week, Stanley sends me an email recapping my performance. It highlights what worked, what didn’t, and what to focus on next. It also analyzes top-performing posts daily, surfaces what’s working in your niche, and can even repurpose past posts so they sound like you.

If you’re looking to grow on LinkedIn, Stanley is worth exploring.

*This is a referral link

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