To celebrate the holiday season, Instagram released a “Christmas” chat theme that adds a Christmas sweater background to conversations. This sweater pattern features a reindeer, snowflakes and more.

Our guide will show you how to use the Christmas chat theme in the Instagram application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Instagram app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the Instagram conversation you want to customize and tap the conversation name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Theme.”

Step 3: Tap the “Christmas” chat theme. Note: There is no preview screen or confirmation window. Once you tap the Christmas theme, the conversation will be updated.

Ahead of Christmas, TikTok released a “Santa” text-to-speech voice that will allow users to have Santa Claus read the text in their videos.

Our guide will show you how to use the Santa text-to-speech voice in the TikTok application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the TikTok app on iOS.

Step 1: On TikTok’s video editing screen, tap the text icon (the “Aa” icon) on the right side of the screen.

Step 2: Type your desired text.

Step 3: Tap the “text-to-speech” icon (the icon of a person speaking) near the left side of the screen.

Step 4: Tap the “Santa” text-to-speech voice. Note: If you don’t see the Santa option, tap the “Christmas” tab to see it.

Step 5: Tap “Done” in the top-right corner of the screen.

From there, you can continue editing your text and post as you normally would.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei?

A drama-filled weekend at Twitter—clearly because five-day work weeks are not for the hardcore—was highlighted by a poll tweeted by Elon Musk asking if he should step down as “Chief Twit.”

A total of 17,502,391 accounts weighed in—no estimate was presented on how many were bots—and 57.4% (10,063,044) voted yes, versus 42.5%) (7,439,347) who said no.

The poll appeared to be triggered by the reaction to a sudden policy change Twitter revealed Sunday banning links to rival social platforms Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Nostr, Post, Tribel and Truth Social, as well as third-party social media link aggregators Linktree and Lnk.Bio.

Twitter said in a since deleted thread of Twitter Support tweets Sunday, “We will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter. Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.”

The company went into further details in a since-deleted policy update, preserved by Wayback Machine, saying, “Twitter is where the public conversation is happening, and where people from all over the globe come to promote their businesses, art, ideas and more. We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter.”

Twitter provided the following examples of tweets that would violate the new policy:

• follow me @username on Instagram
• username@mastodon.social
• check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username

The company said accounts used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform faced suspension, and attempts to skirt the new restrictions “through technical or non-technical means” such as cloaking or plaintext obfuscation violated its policy.

Examples provided were spelling out dot in order to avoid creating a URL within a tweet and sharing screenshots of handles on platforms covered by the policy.

Twitter said users were still able to cross-post content from other platforms, including those on the prohibited list, adding, “We allow paid advertisement/promotion for any of the prohibited social media platforms.”

Repercussions for violations of this new policy included requiring the deletion of tweets or temporarily locking accounts, with repeat offenders facing permanent suspension, and Twitter wrote, “If violations of this policy are included in your bio and/or account name, we will temporarily suspend your account and require changes to your profile to no longer be in violation. Subsequent violations may result in permanent suspension.”

Musk said in a tweet late Sunday, “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.”

On the Twitter Blue front, Musk tweeted Saturday that block and mute signals from Blue Verified users—and not Legacy Blue users—will be incorporated as downvotes, adding, “To be clear, all user actions will factor into a NN (neural network) model for a tweet and the account tweeting, including positive actions”

He also said Twitter will make it easier for people to see tweets from only users they follow, along with other curation options.

All of this follows the controversy late last week when several journalists were banned from the platform in a dust-up related to their coverage of the banning of an account that shared publicly available tracking information for Musk’s private jet, with most of the affected members of the media reinstated shortly thereafter.

Ahead of the Christmas holiday, Messenger released a “Christmas” chat theme that allows users to add a Christmas sweater background to conversations.

When this theme is activated, the conversation’s emoji will automatically be updated to the Christmas tree emoji. In addition, three word effects will automatically be added to the conversation for the words “tree,” “presents” and “Santa.”

Our guide will show you how to use the Christmas chat theme in the Messenger application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Messenger app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the Messenger conversation you want to customize and tap the conversation name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Theme.”

Step 3: Tap the “Christmas” chat theme.

Step 4: Tap the “Select” button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Meta followed up its rollout of the Facebook Reels API (application-programming interface) in September with this week’s addition of Reels metrics to the Facebook Video Insights API.

Developers can obtain and analyze the following Reels performance metrics for a Facebook page, for each individual video over the lifetime of the content: average minutes viewed, comments, plays, minutes viewed, post reach, reactions and shares.

Meta senior technical account manager Rolando Castanon said in a blog post that the enhancement to the Video Insights API will be available for the current version, as well as all previous versions of the Graph API, adding that it will automatically become available to developers with access to the applicable APIs, and apps will not need to be put through additional App Review.

In 2022, Hanukkah begins Dec. 18, and Instagram is marking the occasion with the release of a Hanukkah chat theme that adds a sweater design to a conversation’s background. A menorah is featured in the center of the design.

Our guide will show you how to use the Hanukkah chat theme in the Instagram application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Instagram app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the Instagram conversation you want to customize and tap the conversation name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Theme.”

Step 3: Tap the “Hanukkah” theme. Note: There is no preview screen or confirmation window. Once you tap the Hanukkah theme, the conversation will be updated.

Hanukkah begins Dec. 18 and, to celebrate the occasion, Messenger released a Hanukkah chat theme that adds a sweater-themed background to conversations.

When this theme is activated, the chat’s emoji will automatically be updated to the menorah emoji. In addition, three word effects will automatically be added to the chat for the words “candle,” “menorah” and “presents.”

Our guide will show you how to use the Hanukkah chat theme in the Messenger application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Messenger app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the Messenger conversation you want to customize and tap the conversation name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Theme.”

Step 3: Tap the “Hanukkah” chat theme.

Step 4: Tap the “Select” button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.