Time again for the need-to-know social media updates that we saw rolled out through October 2025. Not such a drastic sea of changes this month, a number of feature updates that will be propagated across the apps through November and you won’t believe it, but there are some further AI enhancements made to TikTok and LinkedIn… So here is the scoop on this month’s updates.

ICYMI: September 2025 Social Media Updates

Facebook Updates

Friend bubbles and easier partnership and monetisation features.

Friend “Bubbles” on Reels

You may have already noticed this when you’re doomscrolling – Meta has now launched friend bubbles on Reels. This means that on reels you can see at a glance which friends have liked or reposted that content with the intention that it will “bring us back to our roots”. I actually do quite like this feature because I can see my weirdo friends are also enjoying similar weirdo content. Interestingly, Meta are also expanding functionality within reels with an “AI-powered suggested search on select reels to discover more content about a topic you love, all without leaving the reels player.”

Brand Deals

Facebook has also now added a feature called “Brand Deals” under the monetisation feature of Facebook, this signals to brands that you are available for partnerships and could potentially open the door to making it easier to find you for Creator partnerships.

Instagram Updates

A number of app and functionality updates for Instagram through October, improving quality of life on the app but nothing that is going to change the game.

“Expiring Soon” Stories

Instagram is trialing notifying users when stories are expiring soon. This will give users a nudge to look at stories before they have gone forever, helpful for increasing the amount of viewers on stories and ensuring your well thought out content doesn’t go unseen. Remember, Stories are a great place to engage your existing followers with behind the scenes and unfiltered content.

Share Videos From a Specific Time

A nifty feature that will allow you to cut through the noise of a Story or Reel, Instagram has announced that you will soon be able to share a story or reel starting at a specific point. This is very helpful for longer form content, or for highlighting a specific element of a video. Although, if you don’t have the staying power to watch all of a 20 second video then I think you need to have a long look in the mirror.

Edits App New Features

The Edits app is continuing to be improved, with the intention of getting people away from third party video editing apps and staying in the Meta ecosystem. Enhancements such as:

• Over 250 new sound effects, including seasonal options for Halloween, plus the ability to search.
• An option to download an Insights summary that’s easy to share with brand partners and others.
• New text presets combining different styles, animations, and effects.
• A custom font designed by JENNIE, available exclusively on Edits.

TikTok Updates

AI Powered Creation Tools

TikTok unveiled several key updates aimed at simplifying content creation and boosting monetisation for users. The changes, announced at the U.S. Creator Summit, centre on new AI-driven tools and an enhanced revenue model.

Smart Split, a new AI-powered editing tool, dramatically streamlines the editing process by automatically clipping, reframing, and transcribing long-form content (over one minute) into multiple short videos ready for immediate upload. This makes it easier for creators to repurpose vlogs and podcasts efficiently.

Additionally, AI Outline now assists creators with ideation by generating video titles, hashtags, and structural outlines from simple prompts, helping to structure content for better engagement.

Finally, TikTok announced a revenue share update for Subscriptions, allowing top creators who meet specific engagement requirements (10K followers, 100K views, etc.) to receive up to 90% of the profit payouts, rewarding community building and exclusive content.

Portfolio Feature

TikTok is also launching a portfolio feature, this will allow users to showcase their best content to brands on a single page. Similar to the Brand Deals feature released by Facebook, this will help put you in the shop window and make securing partnerships easier!

LinkedIn Updates

Collaborators On Job History

LinkedIn has introduced collaborators to job history, this allows you to further validate the experience that you’ve listed by allowing your employer to verify that what you’ve listed is legitimate and you are definitely not making things up to look better on LinkedIn.

AI Writing and Ad Enhancements

On desktop only, you are now able to use AI to help write your posts! No more moving over to ChatGPT for helping draft your posts, you can do it all from within the app!

In addition you can now use AI enhancements to build ad campaigns on LinkedIn. As explained by LinkedIn ““Imagine a small B2B software startup looking to grow. Rather than spending hours tinkering with targeting settings to build a precise audience, the team simply provides LinkedIn with a few key signals – like a URL for what they’re advertising, a list of conversions or customer contacts, or the core industries and job functions they’re looking to reach. From there, Auto-Targeting combines the team’s inputs with LinkedIn’s professional signal intelligence to instantly build a high-value audience.”

Final Takeaway

AI Simplifies Video: TikTok’s Smart Split and AI Outline tools make it faster to create multiple short videos from one longer piece of content, solving the problem of constant high-quality output.

Instagram’s Focus on Friends: New “Friend Bubbles” on Reels signal a push toward sharing and personal connection, encouraging highly relatable content that people send to their circle.

Partnership Ease: New “Brand Deals” (Facebook) and Portfolio features (TikTok) make it easier for brands to find and be found by micro-influencers.

Better Editing: The improved Edits app encourages creators to stay in the Meta ecosystem for streamlined, high-quality video production.

Struggling to keep pace with the changes and what they mean for your social media strategy? We have capacity for new clients in January 2026.

Chat to us about social media management.