Instagram Updates Eligibility, Twitch Discount, X Chat App, and Rakai's New Shoes

Good day and welcome to this week's newsletter! All the regular stuff you come to expect in today's edition, but with an added category as I deep dived into Twitch's Roblox Conundrum. If it's not something you're interested in, just scroll on by, but I find it fascinating. How can a category have so many streamers, but no viewers? Let me know your thoughts at the bottom of the post (on TOS.gg!) And with that, let's get into it!

🟪 TWITCH

• Twitch has anointed 50 new ambassadors.
• Twitch is beta testing 1-month self-paid sub discounts targeted at individual viewers.
• New Badges: Ditto ($), RedNoseDay
• Twitch Rivals shared a promotion for an upcoming Women's Day event. It received negative feedback because the game was Overcooked 2, and the promotion featured no women. Rivals addressed it in a statement saying the Women's Guild voted for the game, and then shared a new promotional video.

🟥 YOUTUBE

• YouTube is expanding Direct Messages to 29 more countries.
• YouTube is testing "Station" channels that create 24/7 radio-style live playlists.

⬛ TIKTOK

• TikTok will not implement End-to-End Encryption (E2EE), arguing that it would make users less safe.
• 49% of users now use TikTok as a search engine.

🟦 OTHER STREAMERS

• Discord is now enforcing E2EE on non-stage Voice and Video calls.
• Discord shared its March Patch Notes, including changes to \@everyone, bug fixes, and chat improvements.

🟧 SOCIAL PLATFORMS

• Instagram is making it easier to unlock account features like Scheduled Content and Insights.
• Twitter X is rolling out the ability to block Grok from modifying images in replies.
• Twitter X is launching Exclusive Threads, which allow you to limit parts of a thread to paid subscribers.
• Twitter X will suspend users from monetization for sharing AI-generated war footage.
• Twitter X is testing a standalone chat app.