ICYMI: Should Meta Ray-Bans be on your holiday wishlist?

Morning. As part of the Q4 countdown to the new year, I want to know which platforms and content formats YOU care about?! It’ll help us all when planning for next year. Please take the ICYMI 2025 Survey and I’ll share the results soon!

⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

• CapCut announced CapCut Commerce Pro, a desktop editing tool

• TikTok report: Brands with high cultural relevance grow nearly 6x more than brands with low levels

• The Canadian government has shut down TikTok's Canadian offices due to national security concerns

• Australia is planning a complete social media ban for kids under 16

• Instagram has more users than Facebook in the EU

• YouTube will now recommend tagged content from Shorts creators to brands

• Roblox has a TikTok competitor that’s already got 8M MAUs (monthly active users)

• Resource: a LinkedIn guide to creating scroll stopping video

• FYP feeds are just one of the things that failed us on election night

• A review of Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses

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💻 ROADMAP

📲 TikTok Updates

• CapCut is going after Adobe and Canva. TikTok’s sister company announced CapCut Commerce Pro, a desktop solution for e-commerce sellers, small businesses, and creators to produce ads and branded content. 

  It's now available in the US, UK and other select markets with a freemium offer for the first 200 seconds of video free and then $26 / month or $250 annually. For that price you get video tools, photo tools and commercially licensed creative assets. 

  CapCut is often credited as one of the better short-form video editing apps. But for this Commerce Pro version to succeed beyond just TikTok-friendly brands and creators, they’ll need to prove their success isn’t just tied to simply one platform or video format.

• TikTok released a new “Share to TikTok” feature that allows users to directly share tracks from Apple Music and Spotify to their For You feed, their Stories, or DMs.

• TikTok released a guide to Q5 marketing — the period that begins right after Christmas and extends through January.

• TikTok released a thought paper titled: Unlocking business impact through personal and cultural relevance. It’s 35 pages with one clear message: social marketing now means being extremely online. Brands with high cultural relevance grow nearly 6x more than brands with low levels, according to a source they cited. The report provides a framework for being relevant, insights on how to be selective about the trends you jump on and the value of creators for increasing relevance. 

• TikTok announced a third season of TikTok LIVE: On Air Podcast. Comedian and TikTok creator Parker Pannell will be joining as the new host.

• The Canadian government has shut down TikTok's Canadian offices in Toronto and Vancouver due to national security concerns. TikTok says it will challenge the order in court. Despite the drama, Canadians will still be able to use the app.

📲 Meta Updates

• Meta is working with the US government on AI solutions, including agencies that are working on defense and national security applications. Not concerning at all. 

• Instagram announced that paid boosts can now include GIFs and stickers and will give you the option of swapping out copyrighted music to make posts eligible for boosts.

📲 YouTube Updates

• YouTube is launching the ability for creators in YPP with more than 4,000 subscribers to send video linking requests for Shorts to advertisers via YouTube Studio.

• YouTube is testing "data stories," a new analytics tool to show creators their video's first 24-hour performance in a visual format.

📲 Roblox Updates

• Clip It is a TikTok and YouTube Shorts lookalike that operates exclusively within the Roblox platform and lets creators post clips from the game or create their own. Since launching in August, it’s got over a billion views and 8 million monthly active users and aims to be a challenger for social ad dollars.

• Roblox said it would block kids from accessing certain types of experiences following reports about child abuse linked to the platform

📲 Snapchat Updates

• Snapchat launched subscription gift cards available at major retailers this holiday season for gifting app users (presumably tweens and teens) who want to personalize their custom chat wallpapers, get early access to new features and pin their #1 BFF.

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🕶️ META RAY-BAN REVIEW

Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses aren’t new, but now that I’ve added prescription lenses, I’m finally ready to review them for anyone who’s on the fence: should you put Meta Ray Bans on your holiday wishlist?

Disclosure: I planned to buy these but Meta gave me a free pair of Wayfarer glasses. Retail value $329. I then paid $300 myself to get prescription lenses added.

Meta Ray-Ban glasses are augmented reality (AR) eyewear developed by Meta in partnership with Ray-Ban. They combine the iconic Ray-Ban frames with Meta’s “smart” tech. It’s a fashion-forward wearable — which is something the tech industry has struggled with.  

Features:

• Take photos and videos

• Livestream from your glasses

• Make hands-free calls

• Listen to music

• Ask Meta AI for basic answers

Pros:

• Be in the Moment: I’m constantly taking pictures — funny billboards, the farmers market, people’s sneakers — so I love the hands-free spontaneity. I spoke to one dad who said he used his glasses at Disneyland, capturing key moments with his kids without needing to pull out his phone.  

• Battery Life: A single charge lasts four hours and comes with a portable charging case. Except carrying the case around and taking the glasses on and off to charge might get annoying, so this one is a draw.

• Quality Calls: Having the ability to take a hands free call — with excellent audio quality — while wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses is a nice perk. No more lost Airpods.  

• Messaging: Similar to Siri or Google Assistant, you can dictate texts and even send photos to your contacts. Except the messages are sent through WhatsApp, which means convincing your friends and family to use the service.

Cons:

• Image Quality: With a 12 megapixel camera versus my iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 48 megapixels, photos are noticeably lower-res. It’s fine for Stories, but I’d stick to my phone for any once-in-a-lifetime photo opps. 

• Social Posting Limitations: You’ll need the Meta View app to import photos and videos to your phone, and it only imports when on Wi-Fi. If you want to post directly to Instagram or Facebook, you can share real-time images with the voice command “Hey Meta, post a photo to Instagram.” But it snaps and shares whatever is in front of you — with no option to edit or add stickers.

• Storage Limits: The glasses hold “500+ photos and 100+ 30-second videos,” so you’ll need to regularly clear out your Meta View app.

• Basic AI: Meta AI was hit or miss. I was able to ask for the temperature outside but it couldn’t tell me the location of the nearest Starbucks. It was actually easier to turn on Bluetooth, launch Google Maps and then listen to directions using the Ray-Ban speakers. 

Verdict: Meta Ray-Ban glasses are a splurge, especially if you need prescription lenses. 

If you’re a casual social media user, the glasses are a nice-to-have rather than a need-to-have.

But if it’s in your budget and you love to capture disposable content for Stories or to share in the group chat, the glasses are a lot of fun.

I’d upgrade that status to potential game changer deserving of a spot on your wishlist if you’re a content creator who films follow-along videos.

UPDATE: This contest is now closed, congratulations to Chris Ryan

🌟 GIVEAWAY 🌟 I was just gifted an extra pair of Meta Ray-Ban Headliner glasses when visiting the new Meta pop-up shop in LA on Thursday night — so I’m paying it forward. Hit reply to this email and send me a message and after 24 hours I’ll select one ICYMI reader at random to win the Meta Ray-Ban Headliner smart glasses! (US only.)

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👆🏻 CLICK THRU

‘For You’ feeds fail on election night, offering outdated information

Social media — among other things — failed us this week. For You feeds “offered a disjointed, outdated, and nearly unusable experience on election night in the U.S. as they highlighted hours-old posts that no longer reflected the current state of the race,” wrote TechCrunch.

Legislation may resolve some issues in other countries. For example, regulators in Europe are requiring TikTok to offer an option without a highly personalized FYP feed. And Australia is planning to ban social media for anyone under 16 to prevent platforms from “doing harm” to kids.

There are no rules in the US but it’s possible the trend towards private spaces and niche communities continue to gain even more traction, in part, as people decide they're done with letting algorithms and billionaires founders decide what content they consume.

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🧰 RESOURCES

▶️ How to stand out with video on LinkedIn

LinkedIn put together this guide to help people on the platform learn why and how to create scroll-stopping videos.

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👀 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT HEADLINES

• Instagram has more users than Facebook in the EU -Social Media Today

• Where is Threads’ audience coming from: International markets -The Information

• YouTube ads revenue could soon match that of the entire broadcast advertising industry for 2024 -Fast Company

• Linktree’s affiliate marketing program now allows creators to monetize their Target recommendations -Chain Store Age

• TikTok Shop is relying on exclusive product drops and bigger brands to attract shoppers -Retail Brew

• Australia is planning a complete social media ban for kids under 16 -BBC

• 3 brands that understand Gen Alpha’s humor — and what they’re doing right -Marketing Dive

• Why the ad industry is redefining what it means to be a creator vs. influencer -Digiday

• What does a second Trump presidency mean for tech? -We Are Digital Diplomacy

Thanks for reading, especially this week. I try to avoid politics but this one is going to affect us all and I’m at a loss for words over the magnitude of the situation we find ourselves in.

My process is to focus on what I can control in the foreseeable future. Professionally, that’s the people and brands I work with and the quality I want to maintain for this newsletter.

Please don’t forget to take the 2025 survey on the platforms and content formats we should all be focused on.