X Launches CTV App; Snapchat Adds New Ad Placements; Amazon’s AI Shopping Assistant Arrives to UK

Today’s news: X Launches CTV App; Snapchat Adds New Ad Placements; Amazon’s AI Shopping Assistant Arrives to UK

In a post on Tuesday, X announced that a beta version of its CTV app is now available on several app stores. The platform sees this as a “massive leap forward” in its mission to transform into a video-first platform. The app, with a very similar design to YouTube’s CTV layout, displays an overview of all video content available on X. Details for advertisers regarding formats and placements are expected to be announced soon.

Snapchat is one step ahead in catering to advertisers, announcing the introduction of two new ad placements: Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places. Both placements are designed to leverage the platform’s full-screen, vertical video format, enabling advertisers to automate placements across its services without the need to make bespoke creatives. Snap explains that Sponsored Snaps will appear in users’ chat inbox as a new Snap (without a push notification). Additionally, the social giant states that in the coming months it will “start surfacing more unique and actionable insights to advertisers based on the diversity of engagement on Snapchat.” It plans to bring separate insights together into a single self-serve tool, and to help convert them into actionable recommendations for advertisers.

Meanwhile, Rufus – Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant – has arrived to the UK. This follows the feature’s initial launch for the retailer’s US users. The chatbot, which appears at the bottom corner of a user’s screen on the Amazon Shopping app, assists users with broad questions and comparisons between different products, or questions about individual items. Within the coming weeks, Amazon intends to continue rolling out the chatbot to additional customers.