LinkedIn Updates 2026: New Features and What No Longer Works

Updates I covered in depth

The features below have their own write-ups, together with the status each one holds today. LinkedIn regularly announces things it never ships, ships them as tests, or withdraws them months later — so the announcement date on its own tells you very little.

How to read this register

LinkedIn announces more than it ships, and ships more than it keeps. The announcement date on its own tells you very little — what matters is the state a feature is in today. So every entry carries a status:

• Announced — LinkedIn has said it is coming, but nobody sees it yet. Not the moment to rebuild a process around it.
• In testing — live for some accounts, often unannounced and with no promise it stays. Worth checking whether you have it, and nothing more.
• Live — rolled out broadly, safe to build on.
• Withdrawn — LinkedIn reversed course or quietly changed its mind. This is the most instructive category, because it shows what was not worth the effort.

That last category is why this register exists at all. With the in-network / out-of-network metric, LinkedIn did not just ship later than announced — it backfilled the data by a year, which changed the conclusions of everyone who had already built on those numbers.

What no longer works on LinkedIn

A separate list, because “what stopped working” gets asked more often than “what’s new”. The following still circulate in guides and no longer hold:

• Engagement pods. LinkedIn never banned them — it did something more effective, showing content from such groups only inside the group. Members inflate each other’s counters while real reach falls. I unpack the mechanism in the piece on how the algorithm actually works.
• Coordinated engagement bursts. A hundred reactions in the same minute from a link dropped into a group chat is a trivially detectable pattern.
• Hashtags as a reach channel. Since LinkedIn retired hashtag following they are a topical label, not a lever. Two or three relevant ones are enough.
• Posting for frequency. The algorithm rewards topical consistency and real dwell time, not how many times a week you publish.
• Treating the feed as chronological. LinkedIn prioritises relevance over recency — a good post can return to circulation days later.

Where this information comes from

Three sources, in this order: my own accounts and client accounts, where I can see what actually appeared; LinkedIn’s official announcements; and people who track the platform as closely — in particular Kevin D. Turner, who catches interface changes faster than anyone.

The rule I hold to: an entry gets into this register only once I have seen it myself or verified it on a client account. That is why this list is shorter than round-ups running to hundreds of items — and why you can rely on it.

Full update register

Date	Title	Description	Implications
Nov 2025	AI Training-Data Policy Update	LinkedIn announced that user data (profiles, posts, resumes) will be used to train AI models starting Nov 3 2025 in select regions (UK, EU, EEA, Canada, Switzerland) with opt-out options.	Members and companies should review privacy settings; brands should prepare for stricter EU compliance and potential client queries about data use.
Oct 2025	Company Page Analytics Changes	Free company pages now limited to 1 competitor tracking slot; advanced analytics moved to Premium tiers where up to 9 competitors can be tracked.	Companies lose visibility into competitors; agencies should budget for Premium analytics or use external monitoring tools.
Oct 2025	Post Metrics: “Saves” and “Sends”	New engagement metrics show how often a post is saved (bookmarked) or shared in messages.	Enables tracking of “deeper” engagement beyond likes/comments. For some industries like Executive Search, this finally enables conversion tracking since job seekers rarely liked recruiter posts. Content marketers analyzing ROI get new KPIs and should focus on these metrics.
Sep 2025	Algorithm Update – Expertise & Dwell Time	Feed now prioritises content from consistent topic experts and longer dwell time rather than recency.	Post fewer but higher-quality updates; double down on niche authority and native formats (text, carousel, video).
Aug 2025	BrandLink Video Ad Program	Expansion of video ad network with creator-led shows (LinkedIn paying creators for the first time, similar to YT and Meta) and new pre-roll ad format among selected publishers initially.	Marketers should allocate budget to video formats and creator collabs; video reach ↑ 36% YoY.
Jul 2025	Campaign Manager AI Draft & Auto-Targeting	Added AI features that auto-generate ad copy and target audiences based on objectives and landing page.	Small companies gain access to faster ad setup; marketers should validate AI outputs for tone and brand alignment. I use this feature to check if AI understands my ad copy and landing page as intended. If AI suggestions don’t align with my assumptions, I start changing the copy.
May 2025	AI Recruiter Global Roll-Out	AI agent for recruiters suggests candidates and auto-drafts messages in English (beta expanding to other languages).	Reduces recruiter workload; companies should train teams to review AI communication for bias/tone. Can be used for Polish language work by connecting with translation systems - I use DeepL.
Apr 2025	Verified Badge on External Platforms	Verified LinkedIn users can display a “Verified on LinkedIn” badge on other platforms (e.g., Adobe Behance).	Boosts credibility and cross-platform trust; creators and brands should complete ID verification.
Mar 2025	Company Intelligence API Beta	API gives marketers access to company engagement and employee data updates for CRM integration.	Enables ABM automation and cross-channel reporting; developers can embed LinkedIn signals into sales dashboards. I’m heavily testing this but limitations include high licensing costs, so it will likely only be adopted in large corporations.
Feb 2025	Mini Sudoku & Casual Games	Added engaging logic games to increase session duration and diversify LinkedIn experience.	Part of LinkedIn’s “stickiness” strategy; brands could see more non-professional traffic time on feed as LinkedIn will report longer session times. I understand the decision - let the first person throw stones who didn’t farm crops in FarmVille on Facebook in 2010 - but I consider this a poor decision.
Jan 2025	AI-Powered Job Search	Users can find jobs with natural-language queries (“marketing lead remote Europe”) vs filters.	Works only in English but generally works better than filters, so you can see job offers you wouldn’t know about due to poor filter selection. Employers should optimize job posts for semantic search phrases and test them!
Dec 2024	AI Summaries for Posts and Articles	Experimental AI feature summarises long articles and comment threads for readers.	Improved content discoverability and Skill Graph matching. Long-form creators (articles and newsletters on LinkedIn) should create clear structure for AI summaries. This taught me to write blog texts so they’re visible later in ChatGPT. I don’t see these suggestions in October 2025 so I’m not sure if this feature still works.
Oct 2024	Collaborative Articles - I won’t translate this name	“Collaborative Articles” (feature pairing LinkedIn editors + expert contributors) expanded globally and we could use it in Poland.	Great feature where LinkedIn AI created titles and table of contents for articles and then invited users to fill with content or comments. You got expert badges in specific industries for this. Unfortunately, after a few months, the badge awarding feature was removed due to hacking by Asian users. The record holder I saw had 330 industry expert badges and “Open to work” status.
Jun 2024	Newsletter Importance Boost & Subscription Analytics	Improved newsletter tools: auto-subscribe on follow + insights into open & read rates.	Essential for content marketers; promotes loyal audiences vs one-off posts.
Apr 2024	B2B Product Search Listings	Pilot of LinkedIn Product Pages showcasing B2B software/services in search results and LinkedIn Sales Navigator ecosystem.	Opens new SEO-like opportunities for SaaS vendors (currently only software can be added). After adding a product to LinkedIn database, you can search for it in Sales Navigator, e.g., find people looking for our or our industry software. In 2025, ads were also added to this.

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