KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 ― There’s just something about Spotify’s own "year-end-review”, Spotify Wrapped, that makes us look forward to it every year. But I can’t say the same for the Year in Reviews on Facebook and Instagram. Still, the two platforms are rolling out their own end-of-year features that have remarkably similar vibes to Spotify’s version.

Okay, so here’s why I’m not the biggest fan of Facebook’s, or Meta’s, Year in Reviews — which they have done quite a few times before. I don’t use Facebook all that often, so my "Reviews” would just be shared links and posts of me asking people where I can find "the best baked goods in KL”. It truly doesn’t feel all that personal. There’s also a possibility that the "Reviews” would just bring back bad memories like Covid-19-related events.

Instagram’s would be slightly better, as I would usually post the best of what’s going on in my life. But since we were mostly stuck at home during the lockdown, the "Reviews” might not be as appealing as well. Spotify Wrapped works because we would almost always listen to music more often, through bad times and through the good times. There’s also something personal about sharing our music tastes to our friends online — although some people might not see it that way.

In any case, we’re getting Year In Reviews for Facebook and Instagram anyway. On Facebook, your personalised "Year Together” card reflects on your year on the platform and curates it into a shareable card. The card highlights "the friends, feelings, places and people that mattered most” in 2021. It hasn’t shown up yet on my feed, but the feature is rolling out globally, and will be accessible until 30 December 2021.

On Instagram, you can share a custom end-of-year "Playback” time capsule to your Stories. The feature uses your Stories Archive, so you can customise and select up to 10 stories to share with your followers. To be eligible for this feature, you need to have posted more than three stories this year or have Stories Archive turned on. The new feature will also be available to users for several weeks.

Before this, Instagram has another end-of-year trend that went around. Users would create their own version where they would post their top nine images in a photo grid, so I expect that it will be a popular feature for users when it does roll out to more of us.

Both the features have not yet shown up on my own app feeds, but let me know if they have shown up for you. ― SoyaCincau