After several years, Twitter has revamped its Quote Tweet feature to include more space, as demanded by its users. Twitter has finally announced the new update, ‘retweet with a comment’, that will allow users to add a comment to any tweet. Twitter began testing this feature last summer and it was officially released on 6th April. It is currently rolling out for iPhone and web users.
One of the main complaints about ‘quote retweets’ in the past was that the users hardly had any characters left to add a comment. The new update allows users to embed a tweet in their tweets and add up to 116 characters to any tweet, regardless of the fact of how many characters the original tweet contained. This will allow them to share and comment on tweets without having to shorten the original tweet, that means that the context and the meaning remains unchanged.
Right now, the update is being rolled out to iPhone and web users.
It’s barely been a few days since Facebook gave an adrenaline boost to its Messenger platform by opening it for third-party developers. The independent platform gave users freedom to interact with businesses and made it an all-around service. The social networking giant is now making one more modification to the messaging tool that will incorporate WhatsApp to Facebook.
According to a report by Geek Time, Facebook is testing a new feature on its app for Android operating system that will mark the first major integration of WhatsApp to it parent company Facebook. The company has reportedly added a ‘Send’ button to Facebook’s latest version 31.0.0.7.13. The new feature is a part of the status actions buttons that appear beneath every status update, and it looks exactly like the WhatsApp icon.
As per the source, the button is spotted at the right side of the window for some users (for left-to-right languages) in the recent update. The pictures depicting the new feature inclusion is provided below:
It’s just the first glimpse at how Facebook is planning to play its WhatsApp acquisition. The same report also confirms of a deeper integration between the two that would allow users to send messages directly from Facebook Messenger to WhatsApp. It took Facebook more than a year to merge its buyout with its central tool, but it seems like the parent firm was mulling over on how to use it wisely. The social networking tool seems to be making slow but steady moves, towards becoming the ruler of the messaging market.
Without leaving its ground, Facebook is firming its grasp into several other domains as well. Recently, we reported that Facebook is also developing a new caller ID and call blocking tool ‘Phone‘ and has built a solar-powered drone to beam down internet to the earth.
A few months back, YouTube introduced the 60FPS video playback. Now YouTube has taken a step further by introducing 60FPS video on YouTube, at 4K. The video baron has started to experiment with videos that run smoothly and are ultra high-def.
First spotted by TechCrunch, a low-key secret playlist of only 6 videos has been put out by YouTube which can be played at 60FPS in 4K resolution. For the videos to work in full resolution, the devices playing them must be capable of displaying ultra HD resolution. In addition to sharper video, the movement appears far smoother in comparison to common frame rates of 24fps and 30fps.
At present, there are many 4K displays in the market but there isn’t enough content out there to do justice to these high definition displays. The internet connectivity is also an issue in a country like India which is known for its dismal speeds. But it would still be encouraging for people who has invested heavy sums of money in 4K televisionsto know that the most prominent streaming service now has content that makes full use of the high-def displays’ capabilities.
Here is the series of 4K videos that are available on YouTube.
At the two-day F8 Developer Conference at Fort Mason in San Francisco, Facebook shared with the world its plans for year 2015. Yesterday we surfaced the news of Facebook extending Messenger support to third-party apps allowing users to interact with businesses. Now, the social networking giant announced that it will be building drones to help accomplish its Internet.org project.
According to The New York Times, the unmanned aerial vehicle will be V-shaped and are codenamed as Aquila. The drones have got their name from an eagle in Greek mythology. The wingspan of Aquila would be as wide as a Boeing 767 jet airliner, but will weigh as much as a compact car; thanks to the lightweight material to be used for its construction.
The unmanned aerial vehicle will reportedly stay in the atmosphere for almost three months and will use solar power for its operations. Staying in the air, the drones will push internet access to 60,000 and 90,000 feet via lasers. During their suspension in the sky, the aerial vehicles will communicate with each other so that they cover the maximum area on the earth. According to the source, the first flights will begin in summer this year, however, the commercial deployment of these drones fleet may take time.
Facebook’s drone initiatives are powered by its buyout of Ascenta, a drone maker in 2014. But it needs external support to build its fleet of drones. Facebook is seeking partners to fund its Aquila project to take off, and in turn the company will offer the data and technology to the supporters.
Until now, Facebook was recognised as a social media entity, but looks like it wants to be the leading powers of the technology busines. Facebook inaugurated the limited free internet service across the world in August 2013 and today, it’s shaping itself to give maximum benefits to the people. It recently brought the internet.org initiative to India in a tie-up with Rcom. There are several initiative underway to offer low cost, high speed access to the entire population of the planet. Apart from Facebook’s drone initiative, Google is making headway in the arena with its Project Loon. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, in cooperation with Google also plans to cover the planet under a constellation of internet beaming satellites. The human population will soon become a connected civilization.
At the Facebook F8 developers conference recently, the social media powerhouse announced a slew of new updates for the Messenger app to make it a formidable messaging tool. The addition of third party apps to the ecosystem is the most prominent upgrade to the new Messenger platform. But Apple might prove a major hindrance to Facebook’s plans.
Facebook inducted third party apps on its Messenger platform to make it a more powerful messaging tool.
Apple, the makers of iOS devices, have strict policies in place for apps on its App Store. Section 2.25 of the App Store Review Guidelines, states, “Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.” The addition of support for third party apps on the Messenger platform puts it directly in conflict with the above app store policy.
The gist of the policy is that Apple doesn’t allow apps to set up their own app store on their ecosystem. If the policy is enforced against the Messenger platform, it will be a major downer for Facebook. As of now Apple has given no indication about its policy towards the new messaging platform. But we might get to hear something soon as Apple might still be studying the situation. Considering the massive market for Apple devices, Facebook is likely to get a deal sorted out to prevent a rejection from the App store.
At Facebook’s F8 Developer conference yesterday, the CEO of the company Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to announce the future of its Messenger Platform. The company recently spun off Messenger into its own independent app. Messenger will now become a superpowered messaging app that can become the most formidable competitor in the market.
Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the new service at the conference –
It’s a new platform that developers can use to build apps that help people connect.
Facebook introduced 40 new apps for the Messenger Platform. These apps come within the Messenger service and adds up to the vast ecosystem of apps on Android and iOS. The newly developed tools allow users to interact with businesses like online retail brands, where they can place their order directly and get details about the order through chat. Also, you would be able to send messages to the Messenger app store to download an application. Facebook can use its reach and introduce a Messenger tab on major websites to speak directly with businesses or content creators. By opening up Facebook Messenger platform, the social networking platform has given the third-party apps access to the millions of Facebook users. Besides, it has made Facebook Messenger a strong contender among other messaging platforms like WeChat and Line, who are all-round services that offer for gaming, e-commerce, and of course, communication. The new platform is said to be open for all the developers, but the company has already finalised 40 launch partners. Some of them includes ESPN, Imgur, The Weather Channel, and Giphy.
A while back, Facebook detached Messenger from its smartphone app and asked the users to install the new independent app. The decision by the social networking giant led to mass disapproval at that time, but it has now begun to make sense. Facebook was preparing its user-base to explore the new developments of the Messenger store and its scope for business communication.
Th company has been continuously building up its Messenger platform. Few days back, Facebook announced a new payment feature that allows you to send money via instant message. Messaging app will soon become the center of future communication and might replace tools like e-mails and become our primary mode of communication. Facebook also said that Messengers new features can act as a model for WhatsApp in the future. The future of messaging apps looks great.
Twitter today inaugurated a tweet-powered digital media service called ‘Twitter Samvad’ in India in association with the Narendra Modi government. The new service allows users to get daily updates via tweets and SMS on their handsets.
Through Twitter Samvad, anybody who is registered for the service can get updates on government policy, services, and activities from the government and national leaders’ Twitter handles. Anyone who owns a mobile phone can sign up for Twitter Samvad with each of the 16 launch partners. The signup process is easy and doesn’t rely on internet. Anyone with or without a net pack can register by giving a missed call to the phone numbers allotted to each of the partners.
Lets deepen our connect! Give a missed call on 011 3006 3006 & get my Tweets on your mobile as SMS.
The Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, put forward a vision to digitize India, and Twitter Samvad is a step towards the right direction. Moreover, it will help government bodies to connect directly with the citizens.
The CEO of Twitter Dick Costolo talked about the launch –
Based on Indian technological innovation, Twitter Samvad is dedicated and specially built for the largest democracy of the world. The Lok Sabha election of 2014 was the first-ever Twitter Election in India and we want to continue contributing to the development of digital governance in India. As part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative, this Tweet-powered service enables citizens to be the first to know about the government’s actions by receiving political content in real-time on their mobile devices anywhere in the country.
This is another major announcement of the day after the decision of Supreme Court to cease Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Today, the Supreme Court of India made the judgment in favour of internet freedom, saying that it has been guaranteed by the constitution.
The list of 16 government partners contributing in Twitter Samvad, along with their phone numbers, is given below:
Instagram, the photo sharing app has been growing rapidly. It has overtaken Twitter in terms of the number of subscribers on its service. Its success has lead to a number of third party apps which let users add elements like collage, stickers and other add-on’s on their “grams”. The company has now introduced a new standalone app called Layout which lets users create collages from their camera rolls.
We checked it out, so you didn’t have to:
With Layout, Instagram seems to want to take on the multiple apps that its subscribers use for their photos on the service. Instagram users have been found to proactively use apps like Pic Stitch, Pic Collage, InstaCollage, PhotoGrid, and others. By having its own collage making app, Instagram can keep those users in its own ecosystem.
The first thing you see when you get into the app is the camera roll. Here you can select the pictures you want to include in your collage. Once you select the images you want to use, Layout gives you custom layouts that you can choose from. At once, a user can select up to 9 images. Each selection is instantly visualized in the photo grid.
Choose a layout
Instagram wanted to give a better user interface to the users in comparison to the conventional collage makers in the app store. Layout packs in unique features like faces, photo booth and easy to use editing options.
With Faces, you can filter out the unwanted snaps in your camera roll and keep only the ones with people’s faces in them. Instagram found that 90% of all the collages on its service consist of faces, so it makes it easy for users to skip through the random WhatsApp images and only have pictures with people in it.
Choose a layout
The Mirror feature
The Mirror Feature
Easy Sharing
The Photobooth feature was essential for an app like Instagram and its one of the most fun things to do at a party. The photobooth button on Layout starts a countdown timer and then takes a bunch of images which are laid out on the grid.
Layout makes editing the collage real easy. It offers intuitive options which most users will find easy to use. It lets you pinch and zoom the images to define the size and also enables you to pan the snaps. A replace option allows you to go back to the photo roll to change an undesired image. Layout also allows you to mirror the images and add some creative elements to your collages.
Once your images are done, you can save them on your device or share them on your preferred social networks including Instagram. At present Layout is only available for iOS users but it will be available for Android soon.
Facebook might have accidentally popped a small glance at the next major app coming from its stable. A message popped up on the Android app of some Facebook users which gave an indication that the social media giant is working on a new app called “Phone.”
The feature popped out with a FB-only tag and showed a dialer icon. However, on tapping the icon, it led to a ‘no page found’ error. It is said that the feature is still in works and the link might have accidentally showed up in the users feed. A report from Android Police stated that the Phone button seems like a replacement for a dialer and will automatically block spam calls and show detailed information about the incoming calls.
Whatsapp, which was acquired by Facebook last year, has also rolled out their version of the calling feature that allows you to make voice calls to one another using data connection or WiFi data. As of now, the only problem Whatsapp may be facing regarding the calling feature is the lag-time in between a call.
Facebook has already rolled out voice calling feature on Messenger. Android and iOS users in can call anyone through this app, consuming only cellular or WiFi data. The feature came to India last year. Now we hope Facebook doesn’t force us to download a whole new app to clutter our devices again. Instead they can include the feature in their existing app like Whatsapp did with their latest update.
The world’s largest social network Facebook is a powerful tool to connect with billions of people across the globe at any given time. With an active user base of 1.39 billion users, the responsibility for establishing the proper code of conduct for the website gets really tough for Facebook. This is why the biggest social network in the world has to constantly update its community policies. Facebook has now clearly spelt out what kind of actions are likely to get a user suspended from using their service.
The social networking giant has set a standard to make sure no nuisance befalls on the website and today the company has updated its community standards section to make clear what all is prohibited on the site. The company didn’t change the policy and instead provided details ‘on what is and is not allowed’.
Gratuitous nudity and violence will definitely get you banned from the website
Without seizing the freedom to share and freedom of free expression from the users, Facebook gave a detailed policy description for nudity and hate speech; “We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks.” It said that “images of female breasts if they include the nipple” is unacceptable “but we always allow photos of women actively engaged in breast-feeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.”
Facebook banned the terrorist organisations like ISIS a while back, and they also made clear that encouraging groups that show violent, criminal or hateful behaviour is also prohibited on their platform.
These measures have been taken to put an end to online bullying. Posting tailored images to degrade a person, and threatening someone for financial or physical harm is illegal and banned. The company has also opted strict rules for revenge porn videos where intimate images or videos of women are shared online without their consent to degrade them in public.
Meanwhile, it should also be taken into account that there is no set method to scan the image automatically and remove the offensive content once posted on Facebook. The previous method of reporting abuse still follows, and once a user reports about an abusive post, it will take about 48 hours to eradicate the content from the website. Monika Bickert from Facebook talked about the rules saying:
Sometimes the best way to share information about atrocities in the world is Facebook. We recognize that is a very challenging issue.
Along with updating its rule book, the company also released its ‘transparency report’, which had requests by governments of each country for user data. The overall governmental applications were 34,946 in the first half of 2014 and 35,051 in the second half. The government of India, Turkey and Russia made most of the request, while the western countries including UK and the US, showed a decline in applications.
Overall, the new announcement shows the kind intentions of Facebook. With a medium like Facebook where videos go viral in a matter of minutes, 48 hours is too long skip a prohibited content from eyes of the 1.4 billion users. Facebook wouldn’t be able to stop the content from being posted as its a matter of freedom of speech. Also as it has a massive varied user-base raging from different regions of the world, it would be difficult to have a one size fits all policy. So as of now, the user complaint based feedback model seems like the best way let Facebook know of your discomfort with the content on their website.
The video streaming services have exploded in the recent years. For many of the internet users, online video services have replaced the need for a television as the primary entertainment source. Services like Vimeo, NetFlix, Hulu and others have become a prominent source for folks looking for original or premium content. YouTube is said to be considering plans to raise its dominance in this competitive video streaming arena by launching a subscription-based video on-demand service.
YouTube might rope in its YouTube stars to create videos under the YouTube Originals banner. As it would be subscription based service, the content would be ad-free. It is said that the new service would resemble the YouTube Music Key that offers ad-free access to select music video and free streaming from Google Play Music all for a monthly charge of $7.99.
Fan Funding is mutually beneficial for the content creator as well as the company
A subscription-based service will definitely bring in more revenues for YouTube. The service requires heavy investment on the part of Google but doesn’t bring in huge revenues for the Silicon Valley giant. The increased use of Ad-blocks has also made it difficult to attract ad revenue on the website. YouTube is said to be finally breaking even, ten years after it began offering its service. The increased revenues garnered through subscriptions would also bring more income in the hands of the content creators thus encouraging them to create more engaging content.
In the long run, YouTube should also look into creating original series like the ones on NetFlix. Google has deep pockets and it should seriously look into competing in the original shows segment of online video market that has offered some amazing shows, such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. By putting its foot in this arena, YouTube will come closer to its goal of making scheduled television obsolete in the near future.
Google is the most prominent advertising platform of the internet. With its broad range of offerings, Google provides multiple advertising venues for companies. Google will be debuting its ‘Behind the Scene’ series to showcase the power of branded video content on its YouTube platform. The series will be launched today, with Clean&Clear’s ‘See the Real Me’ campaign, which debuted last year on YouTube. The central idea of ‘Behind the Scene’ series is to showcase the brands and agencies on how to create more gripping video content.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”David Mogensen” author_title=”Head of YouTube Ads Marketing”]
Increasingly we’re hearing from brands that they want to become better content creators on YouTube, but they’re not exactly sure how to do it. We thought instead of telling them how to be better content creators we can show them by highlighting a brand that’s going on the same journey.
[/quote]
This move is targeted at attracting more marketing personal who are focusing on creating branded online content to reach the masses. YouTube is keenly interested to be a beneficiary of the branded content push. The ‘Behind the Scene’ series will be the first of its kind for YouTube. Mogensen said that more of such series could help in educating brands on creating exciting content that strikes a chord with the audience.
Clean&Clear is a Johnson & Johnson skincare owned brand. It launched its ‘See the Real Me’ series on YouTube last year to showcase how real girls, social media influencers and celebrities tackle personal challenges. Clean&Clear produced more than 120 videos and was viewed by almost 30 million viewers.
The ‘Behind the Series’ will include videos on ‘how to create content strategy’, ‘how to spark a conversation with the audience using content’ and ‘how to operationalize content creation’. It will also feature interviews with the executives of Johnson & Johnson and the story of the conceptualization, production and launching of the campaign. This series will also help marketing and advertising students to understand the nitty-gritties of online marketing using the power of YouTube and other social media services.
When we speak of Instagram, the first thing that hits our mind is a picture-oriented app that narrates stories by means of single pictures. It has been designed to upload one picture at a time with a little description if you want. But now, Instagram is changing the very base of its foundation to help advertisers describe stories through multiple pictures.
The online mobile photo and video-sharing app has debuted a slideshow feature called ‘carousel’ that lets users view to flick a series of photos. From now on, a series of dots will appear below the post to depict that it’s a carousel. One can swipe the pictures left and right to see more images.
The facility to load multiple photos at a time is restricted to advertisers only.
The company wrote on its blog post:
One way to look at it is carousel ads bring the potential of multi-page print campaigns to mobile phones—with the added benefit of taking people to a website to learn more.
Also, there is a ‘learn more’ button at the bottom of the dots that takes user to the advertisers’ website. The format is still not fixed and the company is working for a more systemic and appealing design. The new button will directly push a huge chunk of customers to the advertised website, profiting their business.
The spokeswoman of Instagram announced that it was cracked for brands for experimental purpose, “Once we iterate and see how people engage with the content, [we] may explore the possibility of bringing it to other types of users on Instagram.”
Well, this clearly shows that a stable version for users will soon follow. You can watch the below video to have a clear picture of how carousel works:
Facebook’s non-profit initiative to connect the world, Internet.org, is successfully running in six countries. The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is quite happy with providing limited free internet to remote areas and is planning to expand the service to 100 more countries by the end of this year.
Chris Daniels, VP of Internet.org at Facebook said in a statement –
The ambitious goal this year is to roll it out to 100 [countries]. We don’t want to focus so much on the number, but we want this to spread to additional countries, operator groups and… see more people coming online, buying data and voice and SMS bundles. The number is indicative of our ambitious goal.
Internet.org is a Facebook-led free internet program that works with data suppliers to provide free internet to people who can’t get online. It allows users to access basic sites like Wikipedia, job and health sites, and Facebook, of course. The service was launched back in 2013 and now it connects 7 million people of six nations across the globe – Zambia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Colombia and India.
Zuckerberg thought ahead and his idea really worked. Countries provided with free internet have seen a sudden jump of 40% in the internet data demand. People are willing to get associated with the world around seeing the power of internet via little demo, that is Internet.org.
Facebook’s step will draw more nations closer to each other and is a way to transform the developing nations into developed ones. Meanwhile, Facebook has teamed up with Google for Project Loon in establishing high-altitude balloons, a satellite-based network, to connect to connect people in rural and remote areas.
Uploading videos on YouTube have always been super easy. Just make a selection, and the video-sharing service will do the rest. However, now you can even choose which part of the video you wish to crop and how much your subscribers can see. YouTube recently added a new feature for Android phones that allows you to trim videos before uploading them.
From now on, before you upload a new video to your channel, a timeline will appear at the bottom of the video. It will come with two control points that can be moved to fix the starting point and end point of any clip. Not only this, but also YouTube has given users the freedom of precision. One can crop the clip frame by frame and can exhibit exactly what they want.
Once the video is trimmed, the YouTube app offers a preview option where you can see the content before making it live. This is a pretty appreciable and long awaited feature, which has now landed on the Android platform. The company has started rolling out the same, but it may take some time for the feature to reach all the users across the globe. As earlier said, it has arrived for Android ecosystem only; iOS users can expect to receive it soon after.
The company recently launched YouTube Kids app where children can watch the entertainment as well as educational content for free. Along with that, Offline viewing service was also initiated a few weeks back that permits viewers to watch their favourite chips within 48 hours timeframe once they have downloaded it.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that YouTube has further plans to introduce Instagram-styled filters and licensed music to replace audio. The company is working on embedding it onto the app.
