Meta updates and changes

Meta unveiled three new advertising features at its Brand Building Summit: Ads Super Burst for time-window exclusivity, First Impression Ads for first-feed positioning, and Aggregated View Time for video performance measurement.

Affects: Ads Super Burst, First Impression Ads, Aggregated View Time

Meta now lets advertisers target specific age ranges and genders at the individual creative level within a single campaign.

Affects: creative-level age targeting, creative-level gender targeting, third-party platform integrations

Meta's WhatsApp Cloud API will discontinue marketing message delivery on Oct. 13, 2027, requiring businesses roughly two weeks to integrate a replacement.

Affects: Marketing messages on WhatsApp Cloud API, Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp, Marketing templates · Effective: October 13, 2027

Netflix added 4 million data segments and a pixel for Trade Desk buyers, plus 20+ conversion events to its conversions API.

Affects: Netflix ads targeting on Kokai, Third-party data segments, First-party audience onboarding, Netflix Pixel · Effective: November

Meta is rolling out a feature that lets advertisers set different age and gender audiences for each ad creative within a single ad set.

Affects: per-creative age and gender audience assignment, default toggle for Sales campaigns

Meta's per-creative audiences feature requires ad sets to target ages 25–65 across all genders, with API access beginning October 19.

Affects: Choose an audience for each ad creative, creative_audience_pairing, creative_audience_pairing_persona · Effective: Monday, October 19

Meta will block new political ads from October 27–November 3, 2024, though pre-approved ads can still run with limited edit options.

Affects: political ads, election ads, social-issue ads · Effective: October 27

Meta has added audio-linking and reference-reel features to its Edits video-editing app for creators.

Affects: Audio links, Reference Reels, Custom kit options, Creator insights

Meta is enabling product browsing directly within Facebook and Instagram ads starting October 28, following a test with over 117,000 advertisers.

Affects: Product browsing, Advantage+ Creative settings, Existing ads · Effective: October 28, 2026

Meta unveiled new advertising options at its brand building summit, including a First Impressions ad format and expanded Reels placement capabilities.

Affects: First Impressions, Reels ads

Meta announced new advertising features at its 2026 Brand Building Summit, including Ads Super Burst, First Impression Ads, expanded Reels Trending Ads, and Aggregated View Time metrics.

Affects: Ads Super Burst, First Impression Ads, Reels Trending Ads, Aggregated View Time · Effective: this month

Meta announced Ads Super Burst, a new feature allowing advertisers to reserve between 3 and 24-hour ad slots on Facebook and Instagram during high-traffic moments.

Affects: Ads Super Burst, First Impression Ads, Aggregated View Time

WhatsApp is letting account holders invite non-users to chat via shareable guest links, though guests will have limited call functionality.

Affects: Guest call links, Group calls

Facebook rolled out a chatbot-based interface that lets users adjust their feed ranking by adding or removing interests in plain language.

Affects: Your Algorithm controls, Interested / Not interested follow-up questions, Chatbot prompt for interest changes

Meta released updated guidance on ad placement control options as it continues automating its ad display systems.

Affects: Ad placement exclusions, Placement controls, Placement value rules, Multi-media ads and media customization

Threads is expanding parental supervision features to let parents see which accounts their teens have blocked.

Affects: Threads parental supervision tools, View of teen blocked accounts

Meta is retiring its separate access verification process for third-party developers and consolidating review under Business Verification and App Review.

Affects: Access verification for third-party apps, Business Verification, App Review

Xbox is exploring TV-style advertising, and Meta is testing a monetization model tied to link sharing.

Affects: external links in posts, external links in comment sections

Meta is restricting political ad placements in the week leading up to U.S. midterm elections.

Affects: Political and social issues ads, Ad edits during restriction period, Ad authorization and disclaimer approval · Effective: Oct. 27, 2026 through Nov. 3, 2026

Meta is testing a Reels-first feed variant on Facebook in India, expanding trials of a feature it's already running on Instagram.

Affects: Reels-focused feed layout

Instagram is testing a read-only viewing mode that prevents users from liking, messaging, or following accounts.

Affects: Read-only profile viewing mode, Instagram Plus add-on

Instagram now lets users add liked or saved posts to Stories via a new Threads sharing sticker.

Affects: Threads sharing sticker for Stories

Meta's Threads is testing new visual options for quote posts, bringing the feature closer to what TikTok and X already offer.

Affects: quote post visual formatting options

Instagram now lets creators directly boost livestreams through the app, matching the promotional tools already available for posts, Stories, and Reels.

Affects: Livestream boosts

WhatsApp added parental control tools to help parents monitor what groups teens join and how they use in-app features.

Affects: Parental controls, Group monitoring, In-app feature tracking

Instagram is expanding its School Partnerships program with direct safety-issue reporting for educators and new school-focused in-app hubs.

Affects: School Partnerships program, school in-app hubs, verified students, student banners and directories

Meta is adding contributor badges and topic labels to its Forums chat app to encourage participation and improve content discoverability.

Affects: Forum app contributor badges, Cross-group answer display, Topic labels

Meta's Threads is adding live reactions and a raise hand feature to its live chat functionality, with web-based live chats coming soon.

Affects: Live Reactions, Raise hand feature, Web-based live chats, Live chats in Australia

Threads has rolled out the ability for users to add animated and static stickers to their profile bios.

Affects: Threads profile bios, Stickers

Meta is introducing Threads-specific permission controls to let businesses manage marketing team access separately from Instagram.

Affects: Threads profile access permissions, Threads ads without an Instagram account, Business portfolio management tools · Effective: Starting in September 2026

Meta rolled out four subscription tiers for One Business, bundling verification, support, and link-sharing allowances—most notably capping free monthly link shares at two and monetizing higher volumes.

Affects: Meta One subscription tiers, Free link share limit, Scheduled posting, Human support cases

Meta is decoupling Threads and Instagram ad account requirements, letting advertisers run Threads campaigns without maintaining identical usernames on both apps.

Affects: Threads ads, Matching Instagram username requirement · Effective: Starting in September 2026

Meta's One for Business subscription is limiting Pages to two free link posts per month, forcing paid promotion of additional links.

Affects: Facebook Pages unpaid link posts, Meta One for Business subscription packages

Threads is rolling out new tools for podcast creators to promote their shows and letting users save favorite episodes for later.

Affects: Podcast profile and post banners, Episode picker and link cards, Podcast transcripts and guest cards, Podcast Insights

Meta has expanded its Creator Marketing hub with new discovery and outreach features to help creators manage partnerships.

Affects: Creator Marketing hub, discovery features, outreach features

Meta launched Edits Plus, a paid subscription tier for its video editing app available standalone or bundled with Meta One Business.

Affects: Edits Plus, Meta One Business bundle

Meta announced new tools at IAB Global Creator Week designed to streamline advertiser and agency connections with creators.

Affects: Meta Creator Marketing Hub, Creator Marketplace API, Partnership Ads, Instagram Live video ads · Effective: beginning September 29

Meta is rolling out Community Notes, its crowdsourced fact-checking feature, to 16 Latin American countries as part of its content moderation expansion.

Affects: Community Notes

Instagram is letting users add posts they've been tagged in directly to their profile grids to enable easier collaboration.

Affects: Tagged posts displayed on profile grids

WhatsApp has added bill payment functionality in India as part of Meta's broader push to build a WeChat-like ecosystem.

Affects: Bill payments in India

Meta has launched a new Automatic Events feature in Events Manager that resembles a four-year-old tool of the same name, but both toggles remain active, creating confusion about their differences and purpose.

Affects: Automatic Events, Events Manager, Meta pixel · Effective: New pixels created after August 3, 2026

Meta streamlined its Facebook login process to let returning users verify credentials with a single tap.

Affects: One-tap sign-on, Limited Login flow, iOS fast app switch, Facebook Login SDK

Meta is testing an automated direct-message response feature triggered by keywords in Instagram ad comments.

Affects: Instagram ad comment auto-responses, Keyword-matched direct messages

Instagram's new First Draft feature automatically assembles Reels by selecting and trimming the best segments from multiple video clips, letting creators focus on creative editing rather than technical setup.

Affects: First Draft, Reels creation tools

WhatsApp is letting users add multiple passkeys per account and switch from six-digit PINs to longer passwords.

Affects: passkeys, two-step verification, call display caller information

Jon Loomer reports that Meta is testing a "Reply to Keywords" feature that automatically sends private messages to Instagram users who comment on ads using specified keywords.

Affects: Reply to Keywords

Meta is removing the ability to exclude individual placements, platforms, devices, and operating systems from ad sets, pushing advertisers toward bid value rules instead.

Affects: Placement exclusions in ad sets, Device and operating system exclusions, Bid value rules for placement adjustments, Advantage+ Placements

Instagram has refreshed its wordmark with a sharper, more modern design after ten years.

Affects: Instagram wordmark

Meta is rolling out new editing tools including speed curves, color correction, and folder organization to beta testers.

Affects: Speed curve adjustments, Color correction, Folder organization

Meta is testing two features—sequenced events and preferred lead answers—designed to help advertisers improve lead quality from instant forms on the platform.

Affects: Sequenced Events, Mark Preferred Lead Answers, Instant forms

Meta launched a Holiday Insights Center and marketing playbook with consumer survey data to help small businesses plan their 2026 holiday ad campaigns.

Affects: Holiday Insights Center, Holiday Marketing Playbook for SMBs