Amazon Ads has entered into an exclusive deal with Roku that will provide “advertisers access to the largest authenticated CTV footprint in the U.S.” The offering will be powered by Amazon DSP — the company’s omnichannel marketing solution. The integration combines Amazon Fire TV users with Roku’s customers for logged-in reach to what Amazon estimates is 80 million Connected TV households, which equals just over 80 percent of CTV households, according to Comscore data. Addressability will also be enhanced across top streaming services integrated with the two operating systems. The deal was announced during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Continue reading Amazon Teams with Roku for Exclusive CTV Advertising Deal

Meta Platforms is opening its WhatsApp messaging service to advertising. The company revealed that three ad modules will roll out gradually. The ads will be positioned under WhatsApp’s Updates tab, a section discreet from WhatsApp’s users’ message inboxes and private chats. The Updates tab is also the entry point to WhatsApp’s Status feature, which lets users share photos, videos and text that disappear after 24 hours, similar to Instagram Stories. Meta says the Updates tab gets 1.5 billion visitors per day. The company is also seeking to monetize WhatsApp’s Channels feature by offering paid subscriptions and promoted Channels. Continue reading Meta Platforms Is Gradually Bringing Advertising to WhatsApp

Snapchat has introduced new editing tools designed to make it easier for creators to produce and share content on its platform. Capabilities of the new “Timeline Editor” include generating videos from saved Memories and viewing video content in a chronological way, making it simpler to move and rearrange clips. The “Create a Video” feature provides templates that let users select Memories vids, pick a song from the Snapchat Sounds library and generate a custom video compilation. The ability to auto-save public Stories to profiles has been added as Snapchat seeks to build-out creator tools to compete with Instagram and TikTok. Continue reading Snapchat Expands Its Video Editing Tools and Adds Analytics

Meta is launching a generative AI video editing tool, available in the Meta AI app, via the Meta.AI website and in the Edits app for Facebook and Instagram. Users are now able to transform 10 seconds of video using preset AI prompts that can change an outfit, location, style and more. The company says the feature is “inspired by” its Movie Gen models and promises it is the “first step toward our goal of bringing you AI video generation and editing across our apps and products,” with Meta AI video editing able to handle individualized text prompts later this year. The free tool is now available in the U.S. and about a dozen countries around the world. Continue reading Meta Rolls Out AI Video Editor Available via App and the Web

HP has unveiled the HP Dimension, a 65-inch display created for use with the 3D Google Beam videoconferencing system. The $25,000 light field display system features six high-speed cameras built into the bezel, delivering what HP calls “true-to-life” 3D video of callers. Formerly known as Project Starline, Google Beam was rebranded last month in anticipation of the enterprise rollout. Designed to bring “natural eye contact, spatial audio and adaptive lighting” in 3D to small- and medium-sized meeting spaces, HP’s retail price does not include the Google Beam software, which must be licensed separately. Continue reading HP Debuts a 3D Videoconference Display with Google Beam

YouTube has loosened its rules regarding content moderation, instructing its moderators to prioritize “freedom of expression” over perceived risks of harm in assessing what to take down for the popular video platform. Although the move hasn’t been widely publicized, it was gleaned through leaks of moderator training material that made its way to the media. YouTube becomes the latest in a string of social platforms that have relaxed content moderation standards. Unlike Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, YouTube and its parent Google have refrained from public comment on the move. Continue reading YouTube Latest Social Platform to Loosen Content Moderation

Snapchat is offering experimental augmented reality and generative AI tools through its new Lens Studio iOS app and web tool. According to the company, “you can generate your own AI effects, add your dancing Bitmoji to the fun, and express yourself with Lenses that reflect your mood or an inside joke.” The app responds to text prompts, producing filters that can be published to Snapchat. Snap previously offered generative AI capabilities only to professional creators as part of its Lens Studio. The company has also launched an app that lets users read and reply to messages using their Apple Watch. For professional developers, Snap’s Lens Studio has added tools to build Bitmoji games. Continue reading GenAI Powers Snapchat Tools for Creating AR Lenses, Bitmoji

Chatbot platform Character.AI is rolling out its video generator, AvatarFX, in general release after a month in closed beta. It’s also adding a sharing feature called Scenes and Streams that will serve content to Character.AI’s community feed, coming soon to mobile. Users can now tap AvatarFX to create up to five videos per day, starting by uploading a photo, choosing a voice and writing dialogue for the character. Character.AI started as 1:1 text chat in the summer of 2023. Now the company is “expanding into a multi-modal world” with “more ways for creators to build immersive narratives and dynamic experiences.” Continue reading Character.AI Goes Wide with AvatarFX, Adds Mobile Features

China’s Manus AI has unveiled a text-to-video generator it says can transform “prompts into complete stories — structured, sequenced, and ready to watch. With a single prompt, Manus plans each scene, crafts the visuals, and animates your vision,” the company announced last week. Manus generated buzz in March for its agentic approach to AI, and now it is putting that autonomous technology to work on generative AI, promising story generation within minutes. Last month, the firm that developed Manus, Butterfly Effect, reportedly secured $75 million in funding led by U.S.-based Benchmark for a nearly $500 million valuation. Continue reading Manus AI Takes an Agentic Approach with Its Video Generator

AMC Networks has partnered with Runway to use the AI startup’s models and technology in the TV studio’s marketing and development processes. The Cablevision-owned AMC Networks brand — home to cable TV hits such as “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” that have found new audiences on the AMC+ streaming service — plans to use AI in everything from identifying key scenes for promotional use to ideating new ideas, previsualization and special effects. Lionsgate entered a similar deal with Runway last year that had the reciprocal benefit of allowing the AI company to use the studio’s content to train models. Continue reading AMC Networks the Latest to Partner with Runway for AI Tools

Bytedance-owned social video platform TikTok is improving ways in which users can customize their For You feed, letting them increase emphasis on subjects of interest with Manage Topics and adding AI-powered Smart Keyword Filters to suppress content they don’t want to see. While the social platform has featured keyword filters for some time, the new filters are smart enough to catch a broader range of unwanted content. Users can now include up to 200 filtering keywords and let AI do the rest “to capture additional videos featuring similar words, synonyms and slang variations” that reduce unwanted content in the For You feed. Continue reading TikTok Adds Features Letting Users Fine-Tune ‘For You’ Feed

ByteDance-owned TikTok is officially launching its TikTok for Artists music insights tool two months after reports surfaced that the service was testing the resource in select countries. Billed as an “all-in-one” analytics platform, the company says TikTok for Artists provides detailed data about the performance of an artist’s music and posts on TikTok, as well as insights into how the community is engaging with the performer’s content. In addition to providing actionable marketing support, the tool is designed to help artists boost fan engagement and inform content creation. TikTok is also launching a new Pre-Release tool designed to help artists promote upcoming material. Continue reading TikTok for Artists: New Analytics Platform Gets Official Launch

Hollywood heavyweight Jeffrey Katzenberg has thrown his support behind an AI advertising startup called Creatify, leading its Series A round with $1.5 million via WndrCo. Katzenberg is also taking a board seat at the two-year-old firm, which claims more than 1.5 million global users and 10,000 teams using its tech to create social media-centric video ads, leveraging AI avatars and real-time testing. Marketing teams can use its tools to “spin up high-quality video creative in minutes (not weeks),” the company claims, mentioning a client that uses Creatify to generate 1,000-plus ads per month. Continue reading Katzenberg’s WndrCo Invests $1.5M in AI Ad Startup Creatify

Twitch is upgrading its presentation capabilities with the addition of vertical viewing and dual-format streaming. The popular Amazon-owned gaming platform is also adding 2K video in open beta for all partners and affiliates, broadening accessibility for high-definition formats. In January 2024, Twitch began experimenting with HD including 4K, which remains in closed beta for select users. The format tests were part of Twitch’s Enhanced Broadcast initiative with Nvidia and OBS Studio, purveyor of the open broadcaster format. Creators with access to Enhanced Broadcasting in Twitch Studio can use dual formatting to simultaneously stream in horizontal and vertical formats. Continue reading Twitch Announces New Features to Enhance Mobile Viewing

Google is celebrating 10 years of Google Photos by introducing a redesign of the Photos editor, including helpful new tools. The Photos editor gets some AI editing features previously available only on Pixel phones as part of its generative AI Magic Editor. The Photos platform is also expanding access to its AI-powered text-to-image Reimagine and automatic framing and related features first introduced with the Pixel 9. The company explains there are currently more than 1.5 billion monthly Photos users that have stored 9+ trillion photos and videos. The updates reflect Google’s AI push as it continues to integrate Gemini across its growing family of products and services. Continue reading Google Photos Rolling Out Redesign and New AI Editing Tools