Apple has been off Twitter till now, not communicating with the world through social media. But the tech giant has finally launched a Twitter account @Apple just few days ahead of the iPhone 7 launch set for September 7th.
Although Apple hasn’t tweeted anything yet, the account is verified and seems to be ready to go. From the looks of it Apple will live tweet the Apple iPhone 7, 7th September event. The company also recently updated it’s Newsroom for a more card like approach.
Apple has remained very closed about it’s press relations and the company’s approach towards marketing has been very internal and not social media friendly. With a twitter account it seems Apple is ready to change that.
WhatsApp has updated its Terms of Service now that the Facebook control is starting to seep through. WhatsApp says it will start sharing the phone numbers of its users with Facebook, its parent company.
You can Opt Out if you do not want this by going to Settings – Account.
Click to Share
WhatsApp says they want a n easier way for people including businesses to find you. However, there will be no third-party banner ads on WhatsApp nor Spam.
The intention is to charge companies to allow user to make transactions, and get appointment information, things like delivery and shipping notifications, product and service updates, and marketing. Which would make the use of WhatsApp more interactive while allowing the company to finally make some money.
If you are an existing user, you can choose not to have your WhatsApp account information shared with Facebook to improve your Facebook ads and products experiences. Existing users who accept the updated Terms and Privacy Policy will have an additional 30 days to make this choice by going to Settings > Account.
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[toggle title=”Key Updates”]Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA. Since we started WhatsApp, we’ve built our Services with a set of strong privacy principles in mind. In our updated Terms and Privacy Policy you’ll find:
Information that is easier to understand. Our updated Terms and Privacy Policy are easier to understand and reflect new features such as WhatsApp Calling and WhatsApp for web and desktop.
We joined Facebook in 2014. WhatsApp is now part of the Facebook family of companies. Our Privacy Policy explains how we work together to improve our services and offerings, like fighting spam across apps, making product suggestions, and showing relevant offers and ads on Facebook. Nothing you share on WhatsApp, including your messages, photos, and account information, will be shared onto Facebook or any of our other family of apps for others to see, and nothing you post on those apps will be shared on WhatsApp for others to see.
Your messages are yours, and we can’t read them. We’ve built privacy, end-to-end encryption, and other security features into WhatsApp. We don’t store your messages once they’ve been delivered. When they are end-to-end encrypted, we and third parties can’t read them.
No third-party banner ads. We still do not allow third-party banner ads on WhatsApp.
New ways to use WhatsApp. We will explore ways for you and businesses to communicate with each other using WhatsApp, such as through order, transaction, and appointment information, delivery and shipping notifications, product and service updates, and marketing. For example, you may receive flight status information for upcoming travel, a receipt for something you purchased, or a notification when a delivery will be made. Messages you may receive containing marketing could include an offer for something that might interest you. We do not want you to have a spammy experience; as with all of your messages, you can manage these communications, and we will honor the choices you make.
Instagram’s new feature Instagram Stories takes on what Snapchat does best. With the new stories Instagram is targeting it’s 300 Million Active users, which is double of what Snapchat currently holds.
Although Facebook, Instagram’s Main Company, is known to take “ideas” for new features, Snapchat will still hold on to a lot of exclusives.
Thanks to the acquisition of Face mapping app Looksery, Snapchat’s exclusive filters like the dog face filter are not coming to Instagram soon.
The format is pretty similar, images stay for 24 hours and then they are gone, you can add filters, stickers and even draw on your images. What’s more now while you capture on snapchat you can save your snapchats and re-post them on Instagram stories.
When watching your own story, swipe up to check out who’s seen each photo and video. You can even choose to feature a particular part of your story by posting it on your profile, which means if you decide to keep an image it goes permanent on your Instagram.
More control means you can also easily hide your entire story from anyone you don’t want to see it, even if they follow you.
Instagram seems to have found a good recipe for the 24 Hours storyline, however, this does not mean Snapchat is going anywhere soon. Instagram seems to have a completely different audience, which might change now. Also we might see a new Lawsuit headed Facebook/Instagram’s way.
Come December 2016, WhatsApp will end all support for handsets running Symbian, Nokia S40 and all Blackberry operating systems. The Facebook-owned chat application will also remove support for those running on older versions of Windows mobile, Android and iOS.
The full list of operating systems :
BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10
Nokia S40
Nokia Symbian S60
Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
Windows Phone 7.1
iPhone 3GS/iOS 6
The company did apologise for ending the services but, claims that if it is to offer newer services including encryption and voice calling, users will need to upgrade to newer gen handsets.
This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.
WhatsApp has also started pushing messages to those on the mentioned platforms notifying users that they will not be able to use WhatsApp post 31/12/2016
A server side update on the popular messaging app, WhatsApp, has allowed the ability to replay to certain messages by selecting them and then pressing the reply text popup.
This then includes the message you are replying to , to make more sense in chaotic group chats. WhatsApp also previousl allowed you to include some basic formatting in your messages inlcuding Bold Text, Italics text and Strikethrough.
• Bold: Add an asterisk (*) before and after the specific words or phrases you want to embolden e.g. *hello*
• Italics: Add an underscore (_) before and after your chosen words or phrases e.g. _hello_
• Strikethrough: Add a tilde (~) before and after the words or phrases you want to strike a line through e.g. ~hello~
Twitter has officially confirmed rumors surrounding the removal of media and @replies from the 140 character count.
Media attachments, such as photos and videos, will no longer count toward the character limit. @names in reply to Tweets will be removed from the count and people will now be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet themselves, enabling them to resurface any of their previous Tweets and add new commentary. In addition, any new Tweet beginning with a @name will be seen by all followers.
We’re not giving up on the idea of Twitter being in the moment. That concept of brevity, speed and live conversation – being able to think of something and put it out to the world instantly – that’s what’s most important. We’re always going to look for opportunities to make Tweets a lot more expressive, and enable people to say what they want to say. As long as things are fast, easy, simple and expressive, we’re going to look at what we can do to make Twitter a better experience. – Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO
While app updates will follow to enable this feature Twitter’s website will have this running immediately.
Twitter inc. is making several changes that will affect its users in a good way. While the 140 character limit has stayed a major reason for its popularity, it was originally set for use with text messaging or SMS service.
Twitter had earlier considered raising the tweet limit to 10000 characters, but the company realizes that the length of the tweets has majorly been the reason for the popularity of the now “trend” network.
Now, however the company is planning to exclude the media and links attached from the counted characters in the tweets. this will free up more space for actual wordage.
Twitter is also, much like facebook, betting big on video and live video streams that will help generate not only new users but large revenue.
While there are much more heinous things in the world, like crime and terror. It seems that the world has taken a strong stand against the redesign of one of the most popular apps on everybody’s smartphone today.
Leave it up to Facebook to take something you love (like your profile page) and replace it with something millions have to get used to (like the Facebook timeline). Agreed at first this bitter change in unacceptable, but then most people do what they should; accept it and not do a single thing about it.
The same is the case with Instagram’s new brand redesign. While the App may not be half bad, the icon itself is the center of all terror. To be honest, we couldn’t agree more :
At this very moment, the largest debate in the world is around Whatsapp and their brand new End to End Encryption.
With the Apple vs. FBI debacle just barely out the door, a new threat to “National Security” of many governments is the encryption of messages on the world’s largest messaging app. This app which daily carries personal data of nearly a billion users has just pushed a major upgrade that will encrypt the messages, files, images, videos, etc. of each chat from a point of origin to a point of receiving.
How does it work?
If both users of a Whatsapp message (i.e. the sender and recipient) have updated to the latest update, then their message is encrypted with a 256-bit algorithm. Which in turn means that, apart from the sender and the recipient of said message, no one will know what message was sent, including WhatsApp.
WhatsApp uses what’s called public key encryption: To send a message to User B, User A asks a WhatsApp server for a public key that applies to User B. User A then uses the public key to encrypt the message. User B’s private key—only available on User B’s phone—decrypts the message.
Image via Wired
The encryption method is so diverse the service will encrypt all messages, phone calls, photos, and videos moving among them. And that’s true on any phone that runs the app, from iPhones to Android phones to Windows phones to old school flip phones.
To get more information on how this works you can download WhatsApp’s Whitepaper here.
Why Did it Happen?
Jan Koum, WhatsApps founder, was one of the first to voice support for Apple in the Apple vs. FBI debate. The company has been encrypting some of the information on the messages since 2013.
Facebook, which is WhatsApp’s parent company, is also trying to implement encryption in their messaging systems, and with WhatsApp’s encryption out the door, this may happen sooner than later.But, why is all of this important for us as users? The answer to this question lies within our thought processes. After the biggest information leak by Edward Snowden, it has become apparent that governments have become careless in combating terrorism. To the point where they are breaking the fundamentals of privacy and collecting data on each of their citizens, breachings the basics of the law systems set in many countries.
We’ve been working for the past two years to give people better security over their conversations on WhatsApp… People deserve security. It makes it possible for us to connect with our loved ones. It gives us the confidence to speak our minds. It allows us to communicate sensitive information with colleagues, friends, and others. We’re glad to do our part in keeping people’s information out of the hands of hackers and cyber-criminals. – Said Jan Koum
But, why is all of this important for us as users?
The answer to this question lies within our thought processes. After the biggest information leak by Edward Snowden, it has become apparent that governments have started collecting personal analogue and digital data, which is an equivalent of hundreds and thousands of email, calls, personal images, videos, and messages.
Snooping in on private moments has been the biggest conversation of the past few years. With WhatsApp adding a no backdoor system the data on the service becomes completely private. No requests by the governments will be entertained, and WhatsApp has made that loudly clear.
This will ensure privacy to a billion users of the largest messaging application in the world. Which means no matter what moment you share on this app with the latest update, you can be assured no one is snooping in on it.
But it is not only the governments that this information encryption is trying to prevent. Hundreds of hackers and cyber-thieves are constantly on the lookout for an easy payday. This encryption will protect sensitive data from being easily taken and used against you. This also prevents identity theft and many other cyber crimes that one may have become a victim to in the past.
What About the Security Risk?
Many Governments and security agencies will debate, that this will help terrorists communicate easier, and security will mostly be broken. In pushing back against end-to-end encryption, the US government argues that it’s merely trying to maintain the status quo—that it has long had the power to issue a warrant for communications data.
With no backdoor, WhatsApp data will not be decrypted; no information apart from timestamps and metadata of when the messages were sent and possibly who they were sent to will be available to the app makers themselves.
Encryption is one of the most important tools governments, companies, and individuals have to promote safety and security in the new digital age. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about encrypted services and the work of law enforcement. While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cybercriminals, hackers, and rogue states. – WhatsApp
For the time being it seems that the free world citizens are winning the battle over privacy. But the security agencies and governments are not ones to sit back and watch quietly. For one there remains a significant vulnerability for privacy-concerned people using WhatsApp to communicate. The metadata about communications is not secret. The government, could, for example, demand to know from Facebook/WhatsApp with whom a particular user communicated, when he or she did so, and how frequently. They may even be able to tell where the parties to a conversation were located when the conversation took place.
The metadata and timestamps about communications are not secret. The governments could demand to know from Facebook/WhatsApp with whom a particular user communicated, when he or she did so, and how frequently. They may even be able to tell where the parties to a conversation were located when the conversation took place.
Blackberry is not doing so well, proof of that is the fact that WhatsApp and Facebook are officially killing App support for the platform. Previously known as RIM, Blackberry has not seen a good record in the past few years. With almost all their devices not doing well, either due to price or specifications.
The news which is about a month old has left Blackberry in disappointment. The apps are supposed to end their support end of 2016 leaving any Blackberry users fending for themselves, as no more updates will be available post that. However, devices like the company’s Priv, that work on Android will not be a part of this end of service, and will continue to enjoy updates at the same time as any Android device.
In a blog post, Lou Gazzola, senior manager in charge of BlackBerry’s App Ecosystem and Developer Outreach team, said they are disappointed as they know so many users love these apps (Facebook and WhatsApp).
We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands (but let them know how you feel on social media, using the hashtag #IloveBB10Apps) Our commitment to BlackBerry 10 and to developers has not changed – we know our developer community continues to be one of the strongest proponents of BlackBerry 10 and they are creating thousands of apps every month
Facebook has always tried to reach out to the most, if not all, of the human population on earth. Facebook currently has around 1.6 billion monthly active users. Seeing as how Facebook also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, it is evident that the company doesn’t want to leave out a single human being. However, despite a world hungry for social media sites, there are still millions who are unable to jump in due to slow internet speed or limited amount of data. To solve this problem, a team of Facebook engineers worked on ways to make the site accessible to those who were left out.
What came out of it was Facebook Lite, a tiny Android-only app that is lighter and less cluttered compared to the original. The app was launched in June 2015 and recently crossed a 100 million mark. That is the magic number that tells us how fast users have accepted the lighter app in just a few months. The app is less than 1MB in size and practically takes no time at all to download.
There are certain design changes with the ‘Lite’ version but the core functionality is uniform in both the Facebook app and its lighter version. Features like News Feed, status updates, photos and notifications on Facebook Lite are almost identical to the original version.
Facebook Lite is the company’s push to make basic Facebook services available in developing countries at the lowest price possible. There are places in the world where buying internet data isn’t the easiest as it is expensive. The app works fast with any device, and is data efficient, providing the same features as you would find on the original app only with less data consumption. It’s like Facebook with an in-built Data Saver mode.
As it works even on slow mobile networks, the page loads comparatively faster. Users can upload, download and check photos instantly, for which users had to wait for more than a couple of minutes on 2G networks. Users can have a real-time conversation with friends – either one-on-one or in group – on the slimmer Facebook edition.
One of the best features about Facebook Lite is that the app helps conserve battery life. Facebook has been recently in the news for being one of the most battery draining apps out there, especially for iOS users. As is the case, we could be seeing a Facebook Lite for iOS in the near future, unless Facebook does something to reduce battery consumption in its original app.
Vijay Shankar, Product Head, Facebook Lite said that the app was made for developing countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Philippines where slow internet speeds is still a major issue. One of the biggest chuggers of mobile data is videos. To solve this, the team behind Facebook Lite offered users the option to see how large a video so that they may decide whether to view the video or not. There is also the option to view a video later so that you may continue to browse the News Feed and come back to the video once it has been downloaded. Both the features are extremely helpful for users on 2G speeds as it means not having to wait around for a video to load.
It is still unknown as to when Facebook Lite will be available for iOS and Window phone users. As of now, Shankar and his team want to get the Android experience right before moving on to the next step. It is still early in the day but the fact that 9 months on the app has reached a 100 million users means that the app does what it was intended to do – provide a social media experience at an affordable price.
Gone are the days when one would simply express joy, pleasure, happiness, agreement with a simple like button on Facebook. After all, human beings have a lot more expressions than that. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has finally accepted the fact and has globally launched 5 new emotions, called ‘Reactions’, alongside the “Like” button.
Zuckerberg took to Facebook (obviously) to announce the launch of the new feature.
“Today is our worldwide launch of Reactions — the new Like button with more ways to express yourself.
Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don’t like their posts. People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions.”
As seen above, the 5 new reactions include love, haha, wow, sad, and angry. Facebook still doesn’t feel the need for a dislike button to propagate more hate on social media than it already exists. To access the other emotions, all you have to do is move your cursor over the “Like” button and the new faces will appear. For iOS and Android users, you’ll need to press and hold the “Like” button until the “Reactions” pop up.
“Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something that’s sad, like whether it’s something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you, or a family member passed away, then it may not be comfortable to ‘like’ that post,” Zuckerberg said in a public Q&A.
So far, users have taken well to the new emoji reactions, and, according to Zuckerberg, the “Love” reaction is the most popular of them. “Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me!”
Now, while this new feature is a breath of fresh air for users all over, it is also a very interesting new feature that will benefit Facebook in monetary terms as well. As you must be well aware by now, Facebook always collects user data by seeing the user’s interests, likes and whatnot. It uses the data collected to bring you tailored advertisements and suggestions based on user’s interests. You can now, image how the algorithm will work once it starts collecting data from the ‘Reactions’ features.
The company gathers more and more data on how the user reacts to posts and is able to provide richer content on the user’s News Feed based on the user’s interest. So far, Facebook was abe to gather data from the “Like” button, but will now be able to get a more precise idea with the help of the new emoticon reactions. Now, “loving” a post could mean you’re more interested in something that you only “liked” before, and this, over time, will help Facebook prioritise and see on the top of your Feed what you’re more likely to ‘love’ rather than just ‘like’. The feature has already begun rolling out globally and will hit India soon enough.
Privacy scare is high in the virtual space lately and rightly so. Incidents of personality theft and phishing on virtual media platforms are only rising with every passing day. As a result, it’s become imperative for various social media platforms to up their privacy. Having said that, Instagram’s announcement about two-step verification for its users comes less as a surprise and more as a welcome, much-awaited development.
Instead of requiring only the username and password to log in, this two step verification would also require a unique code to log into Instagram. There has to be a verified mobile number mentioned in your account details. When you try to log in, a code would be sent as a message to this number which would then be required to log in.
If a hacker does indeed end up with your account details, the new security tool would ensure that you are still protected by way of a code sent on the verified mobile number. If your Instagram account is about posting pictures of your last meal, you can ignore this update and move on. But if there truly are some trade secrets hidden behind those pictures, it is for you.
As Instagram continues to increase its user-base, with many celebrities and businesses using official Instagram accounts, this new verification process is a relevant development. Users can definitely feel safer about their Instagram identity now.
The entire song and dance around Facebook’s Free Basics has finally come to an end as the company officially announced its end in India today.
“Free Basics is no longer available to people in India,” explicitly states the emailed statement.
The entire issue has attracted immense attention the last couple of weeks, both from media and the average user alike. While people ‘voiced their opinion’ on Facebook, rest of social media went crazy trying to attention to the fact that the campaign was in direct contradiction of net neutrality.
It was finally on the 8th of February that TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) announced its final verdict and sealed the fate of Free Basics once and for all. It was banned by the Indian authority and even though it seemed like the end of the road, Mark Zuckerberg went on record just the next day saying he will not give up on it just yet.
The picture seems to have altered a lot in a matter of two days now that Free Basics has unceremoniously exited from India. Net neutrality: one, Free Basics: zero.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has spelled doom for Facebook’s Free Basics campaign by banning it from India. So much for all the voiced opinions in the last couple of weeks.
Though this is big setback for Internet.org, Mark Zuckerberg refuses to let it douse his spirits. In a post he put up earlier today, he says,
“Our work with Internet.org around the world has already improved many people’s lives. More than 19 million people in 38 countries have been connected through our different programs. Connecting India is an important goal we won’t give up on, because more than a billion people in India don’t have access to the internet.”
One cannot help but question Facebook’s ‘altruistic’ intentions, or ones it cannot stop talking about when it comes to Free Basics. With its infinite resources can’t Facebook simply set up a company that provides Internet to remote locations for free? Wi-Fi powered stations that provide connectivity can be used to help with these attempts. Once there are a substantial amount of people involved, there can surely be a way figure out a way to make money without necessarily compromising on net neutrality.
It is a fact that Facebook has provided some sort of Internet connectivity, mostly through the platform of Free Basics in 38 countries. But in the future, both Internet.org and Free Basics are expected to face the same trouble it did in India elsewhere as well over net neutrality.
