• SocialChain
• 21 September 2026
• 0 min

Social in Six 108

1. Meta has launched its first ever personal AI agent

The story:

• Meta has launched Muse, a new personal AI agent designed to do more than answer questions. Meta says it can help you manage tasks, take projects off your plate and turn longer-term goals into action plans.
• Powered by Meta’s most powerful AI model Muse Spark, Muse can work across the apps people use every day, including WhatsApp, and is designed to take actions like sending emails, booking travel, filling out forms and working in the background until it needs user approval.
• Privacy and security features include: a dedicated personal computer running Muse in the cloud; approval processes for tasks like payment and sending emails; secure data storing that prevents Muse reading sensitive info; the ability to manage access to specific apps and permissions to perform tasks.
• Muse is rolling out in the US on iOS, Android, and muse.ai, and coming soon to AI glasses. It’s a free plan, supported by paid subscriptions for advanced usage.

So what?

AI is moving from something we use to something that may start working for us. If AI agents begin navigating apps, admin, travel and commerce on our behalf, brands need to think about how they show up beyond the feed. Clear product information, useful social content, reviews and distinctive brand signals all become more important when AI is helping people research, compare and act. The big shift is AI as assistant becoming AI as proxy.

2. Australia could enforce a default chronological social feed

The story:

• Australia’s government has confirmed plans to introduce 2026 legislation requiring social media platforms to give new and existing users the option to choose a chronological feed by default, rather than one shaped by personalised recommendations.
• Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Reddit have chronological feed options, but no major social platform offers the chronological feed as the default experience for mobile. Users can set the “Following” feed as the main option on the desktop versions of both X and Threads.
• The proposal could become one of the largest real-world tests of algorithm-free social media, with the government also looking at rules around addictive features, AI chatbots and harmful content categories.

So what?

Australia is challenging one of social’s biggest assumptions: that the algorithm should decide what matters. If users get more control over the order of their feeds, brands can’t rely as heavily on algorithmic distribution to do the work. That doesn’t mean recommendations disappear, but it does make genuine audience demand more important. The job becomes creating content people choose to follow, return to and share.

3. YouTube is testing an upgrade to its personalised video feed experience

The story:

• Following the launch of the Custom Feed option in May, YouTube is expanding the feature to a test group of US mobile and desktop users, allowing users to create multiple personalised video feeds and pin them to their Home display.
• Users with access to the feature can switch between up to eight active feeds, with each feed shaped by a user-generated prompt that can be edited to refine the recommendations.
• The feature is designed to give users more direct input into what they see, combining explicit prompts with YouTube’s recommendation systems to create more personalised discovery.

So what?

Personalisation is shifting from something platforms do for users to something users can shape for themselves. If people can tell YouTube exactly what they want to see, generic content becomes less useful fast. Brands and creators will need clearer messaging, stronger expertise and content that fits specific interests or moments. It also means content architecture matters more, because users may effectively build their own micro-content ecosystems.

4. Instagram now lets you add tagged posts to your profile grid

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A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)

The story:

• Instagram now lets users add posts they are tagged in directly to their main profile grid.
• When viewing a tagged post within their Tagged photos profile feed or within DMs, users can long press to see the “Add to grid” option. Added posts appear on their profile grid with a tag icon in the top right of the thumbnail.
• The update works for both photos and videos and is rolling out now to all users.

So what?

Instagram is blurring the line between owned and earned media. Content other people create about you can now become part of the first impression you make on your own profile. For brands, that makes being tagged more valuable, especially in categories like hospitality, travel, fashion, beauty and food. It’s a reminder to build campaigns around participation, not just broadcast.

5. TikTok is adding new comment formats including voice notes and image carousels

The story:

• TikTok is rolling out new comment tools globally, including voice notes, image carousel comments, live photo replies and comment polls.
• Voice comments, rolling out globally in September, allow users aged 18+ to leave audio responses of up to 60 seconds, with the audio displayed alongside a translated text version.
• Creators can add polls in comments with up to five response options as of now, while users can add up to nine photos to a comment that expands into a swipeable carousel, also rolling out globally this month.

So what?

The comments section is becoming more than a reaction layer. It’s turning into a richer content surface where people can respond, create, vote, show context and build on the original post. For brands, that changes how we think about community management. The strongest brands won’t just moderate conversations; they’ll start them, join them and use comments as a source of UGC, insight, prompts and creative briefs.

6. Instagram launches First Draft for Reels

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A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators)

The story:

• Instagram has launched First Draft for Reels, a new tool that automatically creates an initial Reel from existing video clips.
• Users can select multiple clips, and First Draft will cut pauses and dead audio, trim footage and arrange the strongest moments into a single starting point for a Reel.
• Creators can still edit, reorder and customise everything before publishing, with Instagram positioning the feature as a way to reduce friction in the Reels creation process.

So what?

This could narrow the gap between brands that have the capacity to make content and those that don’t. If AI-assisted editing can create a decent first cut, editing becomes less of a differentiator. The advantage shifts to the idea, the source material and the point of view. It also lowers the cost of experimentation, making it easier to test hooks, narratives and formats without over-polishing one asset before it goes live.