Campaign Middle East rounds up the latest platform updates on social media and content and streaming platforms from December. Here are the key highlights:
LinkedIn:
Building professional connections can be challenging, and LinkedIn is introducing new features aimed at addressing this.
Within its in-app Games offering, the platform has launched a Connections Leaderboard, allowing members to view how they rank in LinkedIn Games against others in their professional network.
Recent updates add personalised insights, including progress indicators and contextual ranking information, intended to help users track their activity levels, including during periods of lower engagement. Members can also search for tailored “nudges” designed to encourage new connection moments.
Also, LinkedIn has fully rolled out Gmail contact sync as part of its Address Book Import feature, making it simpler for members to find and connect with people they already know.
These platform updates indicate a broader effort by LinkedIn to create more intuitive, motivating ways for professionals to grow their professional networks and stay connected.
LinkedIn has launched its annual Year in Review feature, offering members a personalised summary of their activity on the platform over the past year. The overview includes information such as new connections and followers, profile activity, skills and certifications added, and general usage patterns, including the times of day users are most active.
Snapchat:
Snapchat has launched a new in-app video editing feature called Quick Cut, which is designed to simplify the process of creating short, edited videos from existing content.
The tool allows users to select multiple photos or video clips from Memories or their camera roll and automatically generate a beat-synced video preview, replacing Snapchat’s previous multi-step editing workflow. The feature is intended to speed up video creation by reducing the number of manual editing steps required.
The feature automatically applies music from Snapchat’s Sounds library and syncs it to selected clips. Users can further customise videos by choosing alternative tracks or applying Lenses through the Lens carousel.
Quick Cut is currently available on iOS, and will eventually be available on Android as well. The launch formed part of a broader set of platform updates, following earlier changes to Snapchat’s creator tools, including the introduction of the Timeline Editor in Director Mode, as the company continued to expand its in-app video editing capabilities.
WhatsApp:
New Year’s Day is WhatsApp’s biggest day of the year, with each year breaking new records for how people text and call their friends and loved ones.
This year, on 1st January alone, WhatsApp expected over 100 billion private messages and 2 billion calls to flow through the platform. For context, this would be equivalent to every person in the UAE sending 27,000 messages, or everyone making 200 calls each in one day.
Ahead of the New Year period, WhatsApp introduced a number of temporary product features tied to the celebrations. These included a themed 2026 sticker pack and new video call effects, allowing users to add visual elements such as fireworks, confetti and star animations during calls.
The app also enabled animated confetti reactions in chats when the confetti emoji is used. In addition, WhatsApp rolled out animated stickers for Status updates for the first time, offering a New Year–specific layout designed for the occasion.
Spotify:
Spotify has rolled out a series of product updates alongside the launch of its 2025 Wrapped annual review.
New features include smoother playlist mix transitions, allowing users to customise how tracks blend together, and in-app messaging, which enables music, podcast and audiobook sharing directly within the platform.
Spotify Wrapped is now available to both Free and Premium users across most markets via the mobile app. This year’s edition adds several new elements, including a “Listening Age” comparison, an interactive Top Song quiz, and Top Albums, which highlights repeat listening. Audiobook and podcast listening are also more prominently featured, with summaries of top genres and creator clips from selected authors and podcast hosts.
Additional features include visualisations of how top artists changed throughout the year, global fan ranking leaderboards, listening-style groupings known as “Clubs”, and an AI-powered Listening Archive offering personalised insights into standout listening days. Spotify has also introduced Wrapped Party, a new interactive experience designed for shared participation with friends.
Beyond the app, Spotify is supporting the campaign with around 50 pop-up events in cities worldwide, featuring artist-focused activations in locations including Manchester, New York and Mexico City.
YouTube:
YouTube launched YouTube Health in Arabic, an initiative designed to make it easier for users searching for health-related topics to find reliable and credible video content.
The rollout was introduced in phases, beginning in the UAE, with plans to expand to additional countries and regional partners over time.
As part of the initiative, searches for certain health conditions, such as diabetes or breast cancer, triggered dedicated health content shelves at the top of search results. These shelves featured videos produced by accredited health organisations and government entities. YouTube also introduced health source information panels, providing additional context about the organisations behind the videos.
Initial content partners included healthcare providers such as Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and Burjeel Hospital Abu Dhabi, which produced Arabic-language content intended to be culturally relevant and medically reviewed.
