iGyaan Network

Category: Social Media

  • Facebook, Whatsapp, And Instagram Restore Services After Widespread Outage

    Facebook, Whatsapp, And Instagram Restore Services After Widespread Outage

    On April 14 2019, a multitude of users faced issues while connecting to popular social media website, Facebook. The connection issues were not limited to Facebook, however, because Instagram and Whatsapp users were confronted with similar problems. This is not the first case when Facebook services have been down for a long time. Previously, in the month of March 2019, Instagram and Facebook faced a global outage that lasted for a long period of time (more than 24 hours). This time, the outage lasted for a shorter duration, but questions were still raised regarding Facebook’s vulnerability to external attacks.

    Facebook InstagramFacebook’s spokesman stated that the company is acknowledging the issue faced by users and that all steps are being taken to resolve the issue. Apologizing for the inconvenience, the spokesman refused to divulge the cause of the outage. Rumours are floating around, which state that the reason for the outage of Facebook services was most likely a DDoS (Denial of Service) Attack. In a Denial of Service attack, multiple network nodes try to disrupt the server by accessing it at the same time. 

    Downdetector Reports

    Downdetector.com indicated that at the peak time, over 12,000 users reported issues with Facebook connectivity throughout the world. Regarding other applications, Instagram had an outage count of over 7,000 users, whereas Whatsapp peaked at 3,000 user reports. The live outage map on the website clearly exhibited that the majority of issues arose from the Asian and European continental regions.

    Also Read: OnePlus 7, OnePlus 7 Pro To Launch On The 14th Of May

    Considering the popularity of the social media website, a downtime of even a few minutes is a cause of issue amongst its users, and when this happens on a regular basis, it turns into a matter of concern. A lot of people in the US did not face a similar issue, which hints towards the fact that maybe the Asian and European data centres for the company were attacked or disrupted because of some reason. Users may still face outages in the future, but as of now, the issue has been resolved as per the company. 

  • Snapchat Releases A Rebuilt Android App Promising Faster Performance

    Snapchat Releases A Rebuilt Android App Promising Faster Performance

    Snapchat, a popular multimedia messaging platform has faced its fair share of problems previously. The Android version of its application has always been complained about not being on par with the performance of its iOS counterpart. While the app was fairly stable and easy to work with on the latter, the former faced a lot of lags and continuous slowdowns which resulted in a sub-par experience. The company has freshly announced a new, rebuilt version of its Android application which promises a more refined, lag-free user experience. 

    Snapchat’s New Android App

    The new Snapchat app for Android OS is a complete overhaul of the platform. However, it doesn’t bring any drastic visual changes to the table but instead relies on fixing the problems it faced on the inside. Notably, the Android and iOS versions of the messaging platform were identical visually and feature little to no differences in terms of controls and usability. The issues that users faced, as mentioned above were mainly performance related, which Snapchat claims will be fixed with the new update, and bring it on par with the iOS version. Interestingly, previous issues with fixing the Android app according to the company was the diverse range of devices that the platform boasted of, with each running on different internals and sporting differently sized displays. This made optimisation difficult for each device.

    Also Read: Best Fitness Trackers Available In India Under Rs. 3,000

    Another issue that the users faced previously was the disparity between feature distributions. While the iOS app received new features including filters and menu options right as they were announced, it took weeks and sometimes even months until the said feature made its way to the green side. The company has said that in future, the Android version may even get features faster than its iOS counterpart. Previously, due to the aforementioned issues, users of Snapchat on Android were reported to switch to rival platforms like Instagram, which caused a substantial dent in the company’s revenue last year.

  • Snapchat Launches Snap Games, Snap Original Shows & Upgrades Lens, Snap Kit

    Snapchat Launches Snap Games, Snap Original Shows & Upgrades Lens, Snap Kit

    Snapchat was first released in the year 2011, and over time, the application became popular because of its interesting Instant Messaging platform. The app allows users to send messages that vanish once the user on the other end has viewed the same. 8 years later, Snapchat is an application with a host of features such as Snap Map (which allows users to view the locations of their friends on the world map) and the Discover tab, which shows stories and video content from celebrities and creators across the world. On its Snap Partner Summit held on April 5, 2019, Snapchat unveiled a plethora of new features that will soon be added to the application. 

    Snap Games

    https://youtu.be/LWD4mfKx3eE

    A few weeks back, Snapchat teased a mobile gaming integration within its application. At the event, Snapchat shed light on its new gaming platform, known as Snap Games, which is a platform to play multiplayer games with friends. Furthermore, users can use text or voice chat while playing all those games. At the time of launch, Snap Games is rolling out with a total of 6 games, which are listed below:

    • Bitmoji Party

    • Tiny Royale (Zynga)

    • Snake Squad (Game Closure)

    • C.A.T.S. Drift Race (ZeptoLab)

    • Zombie Rescue Squad (PikPok)

    • Alphabet Hustle (Spry Fox)

    Snap Originals

    https://youtu.be/oKU99fWC1xs

    Interestingly, 2019 seems to be like an year where a lot of brands are trying to enter the show space. First Apple, and now Snapchat has announced its upcoming feature, Snap Originals, which will portray original programs and shows made by Snapchat. The shows will play in portrait mode, surprisingly, and will follow the ‘Stories’ trend of Snapchat. As of now, Snapchat has genres ranging from Teen dramas to documentaries and comedies as well. A total of 10 shows were announced at the time of launch, with a promise of new shows coming up soon.

    Snap Lenses

    As some users may be aware, Lenses are Augmented Reality effects that can be applied onto images or can be used with the Live Camera to create amazing filters. Lenses and filters are one of the most defining features of this application, and Snapchat has upgraded the same for a better experience.  As per the teaser video by Snapchat, the new Lens feature can be used to look up music, products, solve math problems and have fun with landmarks. Moreover, with the new Lens Studio, users can create their own lenses and share them in an active AR community, Snapchat says. Users can find out more about Snap Originals here

    Snap Kits

    https://youtu.be/a7sfJ8ei25o

    Also Read:  Samsung Launches The Galaxy A20 In India

    As the last announcement of the event, Snapchat stated that it will incorporate new upgrades to the Snap Kit. Snap Kit is a set of development tools that allow developers to embed Snapchat based features in their own applications. Previous apps using Snap Kits are Tinder and Houseparty. Additionally, Bitmoji Kits will allow users to implement Bitmojis (animated avatars) in other applications too. The aforementioned features may be available in an official update very soon, however, Snap Originals will roll out in the upcoming months. 

  • WhatsApp For Android Finally Gets A Dark Mode

    WhatsApp For Android Finally Gets A Dark Mode

    After countless speculations and leaks, popular instant messaging application WhatsApp has started testing out the highly anticipated dark mode for Android. This feature has limited availability and was spotted in the Beta build of the software. Leaked screenshots reveal how the alleged dark mode will look like in WhatsApp.

    WhatsApp Dark Mode

    The leaked screenshot of the WhatsApp dark mode feature has been claimed to be of the version 2.19.82 of the software. Even though the feature is live, many Beta users have claimed that the feature is not available on their devices. A few weeks ago, it was reported WhatsApp is redesigning the settings page of the Android app. It has since been insinuated it was done to ensure compatibility with the new feature.

    The dark mode feature that has been leaked on WhatsApp for Android is currently only available in the settings menu. There have been reports that the chat window will retain its signature green accent colour for the foreseeable future. It is been speculated that the developers are trying to incorporate a better, darker version of the already existing chat window. The dark mode feature is expected to be rolled out in the following weeks in the stable version of the software.

    Also read: Samsung Galaxy A2 Core Gets Bluetooth Certification, Launch Imminent

    The dark mode feature has been included by many developers and manufacturers in their software lately. This is because it supposedly helps in saving battery life on OLED displays because the darker areas of the screen require little to no pixels to light up. It also helps in reducing the strain on the user’s eyes in dark environments. However, instead of a solid black colour, the dark mode of WhatsApp on Android is more of greyscale in nature. This will help in reducing the eye strain but might not be of much help in increasing the battery life of the smartphone. 

  • WhatsApp Updated ‘Forwarded’ message feature Will Keep A Check On Fake News

    WhatsApp Updated ‘Forwarded’ message feature Will Keep A Check On Fake News

    WhatsApp is constantly testing out new features to improve the user experience on the application. The app was reported to be testing out features like Reverse Image Search and in-app web browsing. As per reports, the instant messaging service is testing out a new feature which will allow users to see the number of times a particular message has been forwarded. This will help users to reduce the amount of fake news spreading across the web since the user can figure out if a message is a part of long forwarding chain or an authentically drafted message.

    About The Feature

    The new update being tested out will consist of two different features, called “Forwarding Info” and “Frequently Forwarded“. As the name suggests, the “Frequently Forwarded” label will be seen on top of those messages which have been forwarded more than 4 times, ensuring that fake news does not spread like wildfire via the application. 

    WhatsAppAs per the source, if the message is forwarded more than 4 times in a single chain, the “Forwarding info” label will be removed from the message and will be replaced by the “Frequently Forwarded” label. This means that users will not be able to see the complete chain of forwarding in such a case. Instead, users will have to rely on their instincts to judge whether the message is legitimate or not.

    WhatsApp Samsung

    Availability

    Also Read: WhatsApp Business Now Rolling Out To iOS Devices

    Since both, the features are in a developmental phase. The feature was first spotted on WhatsApp’s beta app version 2.19.80. Noteworthy, no such feature was spotted on the iOS TestFlight program, so it’s unsure about the availability of the feature on Apple’s platform. However, the feature may be rolled out for Android devices soon enough.

  • WhatsApp Business Now Rolling Out To iOS Devices

    WhatsApp Business Now Rolling Out To iOS Devices

    WhatsApp business is an application aimed towards integrating various businesses with the WhatsApp platform in order to facilitate transactions between users and the respective company. Many Indian businesses like redBus and MakeMyTrip have already become an integral part of the platform. It was previously launched for just Android in the month of January 2018. Now, an iOS version of the same has been launched by the company.

    About WhatsApp Business

    As per sources, the first instance of the app was seen on the Mexican App Store. Shortly thereafter, the app was also spotted in France, Brazil and Panama. As mentioned before, the app provides direct connectivity between clients and businesses. WhatsApp business offers companies the option to create a tailored profile which can exhibit information regarding the business, like store hours, website link and a short “info” section that helps the user know more about the company.

    Companies can even program some quick replies that will automatically be sent to customers when they message the business via the application. A greeting message can be created for clients to give the impression that the service is actively performing. Moreover, companies will be able to categorize their “WhatsApp customers” and label them as per their agenda. Also, the statistics option lets the business keep a check on how many messages it is receiving and how many sent messages have been read. 

    Pricing And Availability

    Also Read: WhatsApp Co-Founder Urges Students To Stop Using Facebook

    Businesses can use the service for free if they aim to reply to every customer in a 24-hour time frame. However, a fee is charged for a longer time period. It is very peculiar to see that WhatsApp took its fair share of time for bringing such an application to the Apple App store since this is one of the very few sources of revenue for the company. Global availability for the application hasn’t been achieved yet, although just like Android, WhatsApp Business will be available worldwide soon enough.

  • Netflix Starts Testing Rs. 250 Monthly Subscription Plan In India

    Netflix Starts Testing Rs. 250 Monthly Subscription Plan In India

    Netflix, ever since its venture into the video streaming business in 2007 has changed the way movies and TV shows are consumed. The company started its operations in the Indian market in the year 2016. To ascertain growth, it also started handing out free trials and even tried its hand in media production. Unfortunately, the monthly plans were still considered too expensive in the country which made the service inaccessible for most Indians. In the latest bid to change the aforementioned problem, Netflix has started testing out a monthly subscription plan worth Rs. 250 per month for mobile users.

    Netflix To Get More Affordable

    The new Rs. 250 monthly subscription plan for Netflix will only be applicable for mobile consumers in the official app. Like the most affordable plan currently, it only can be used to stream on one mobile device at once. The plan allows streaming in Standard Definition (SD) quality, which generally refers to as streaming in 480p resolution. This more affordable subscription plan is aimed at making the streaming platform accessible to more users in India. 

    The current plans for Netflix in India start from Rs 500 per month for the base plan. This offers SD quality video on one device at a time; this device can be either a computer, TV or mobile device. The next plan is available for Rs. 650 which allows HD streaming and two devices support at the same time. The most premium subscription is the Rs 800 per month plan, which bumps up the resolution to Ultra HD and streaming on four devices simultaneously. With the new subscription, Netflix is targeting the ever increasing mobile customers in India. 

    Also read: Inbox App By Gmail Officially Making Its Exit On April 2

    Even with the new Rs 250 a month subscription plan, Netflix is still considerably more expensive than its competitors in India. For example, Amazon Prime Video is available at Rs. 129 per month or alternatively Rs. 999 per year. Hotstar, another video streaming platform is available starting Rs 199 per month. Both these services, despite having a significantly smaller media library is more affordable than Netflix. It is expected that the company will see a notable increase in subscriber count with the new plan.

  • Facebook Fixes Glitch That Exposed Users’ Passwords To Employees

    Facebook Fixes Glitch That Exposed Users’ Passwords To Employees

    Facebook’s indiscretions regarding their users’ security policies have been quite frequent over the last few months, a fresh serious loophole has been detected in the social media platform. As per the sources, the American organization admitted to a bug that apparently exposed all user passwords to the employees of the company. And on top of that, all the passwords were stored in plaintext, not in an encoded manner. Reportedly, the passwords date back to 2012.

    About The Encryption

    facebookOrganizations usually encode user passwords with a process called hashing, which includes the transformation of a string of characters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key that represents the original string. Doing so encrypts the passwords and only allows access to those who have the encryption key/hashing key. In this case, Facebook failed to take the necessary steps for the same and ended up making a mistake that could’ve provided hackers with an unlocked playground.  

    Effects Of The Bug

    Facebook’s VP stated that the flaw was detected as a part of a routine security review in the month of January. He also stated that Facebook’s login technology employs a different strategy that doesn’t risk the exposure of sensitive data. Also, he mentioned that the company had found no evidence of the data being accessed improperly and that the passwords were never visible to any person outside the organization. After being brought to light, the company itself came forward with a statement that it will notify all the Facebook and Instagram users regarding the bug, and how it has fixed all instances of the same.

    Previously in 2018, crackers stole a bunch of data files from almost 50 million users. This was done by accessing the account access tokens of users, which gave the attackers access to the account details. Consequently, this information was further processed, which led to the discovery of the aforementioned password exposing bug in the internal system.

    Also Read: Apple Launches Updated AirPods With New H1 Chip & Wireless Charging

    Facebook cleared up things by saying that all the exposed passwords were stored in different places on the platform, indicating that they weren’t vulnerable to any one single form of attack. Also, the company stated that the passwords were not captured via login credentials, instead, a lot of internal mechanisms like crash logs had given birth to plaintext passwords. It is interesting to see how Facebook will keep up with the loopholes emerging in the systems since social media security is a huge concern these days.

  • Snapchat May Soon Launch A Gaming Platform Like Facebook

    Snapchat May Soon Launch A Gaming Platform Like Facebook

    Snapchat may be familiar to a lot of users as an application that can be used to send “disappearing” messages. Initially intended only for the aforementioned purpose, the app has gone through a lot of updates since then. Some of them are the “discover” tab, where users can see interesting and engaging content, and the snap map, which geotags all the user’s friends on the world map, allowing them to keep track of their vacations, travels and a lot more. Reports say that the company is now planning to announce a gaming platform for its developers in April, 2019.

    About The Project

    Initially codenamed “Project Cognac“, the mobile gaming platform will be integrated into the application itself and will showcase a number of games designed by developers who are specifically working on Snapchat-based add-ons. This project will be unveiled at the company’s first ever summit in Los Angeles, which is being held especially for Content and Developer partners of the company. On April 4, new video content will also be announced for the platform.

    In 2018, Snapchat acquired an Australian Gaming Studio called Pretty great for almost US$ 8.6 million. Reports say that one of the employees of the studio was a part of the hit mobile games “Jetpack Joyride” and “Fruit Ninja”. It was also reported that Snapchat has invested a confidential amount of money in the studio for venturing into the gaming initiative.

    Collaboration With Tencent

    In 2017, Tencent acquired 10 percent of Snapchat’s public market shares. The Chinese tech giant has published some hugely popular games like League of Legends and PUBG Mobile, aiming towards the idea that Snapchat may have collaborated with Tencent for the launch of their gaming platform. Snapchat has already been exhibiting interest in AR (Augmented Reality) games since early 2018.

    Also Read: Huawei P30 Pro Leaked In Sunrise Red Colour, Full Details Revealed

    Since the Gaming boom is on the rise, Snapchat could make a substantial amount of progress with its new gaming initiative. The platform may also act as a source of revenue for the company via advertisements. As per reports, Snapchat’s revenue has been on an upward rollercoaster since the past months. Project Cognac may just be a sweet addition to the wide host of features that Snapchat already provides.

     

  • Whatsapp Co-Founder Urges Students To Stop Using Facebook

    Whatsapp Co-Founder Urges Students To Stop Using Facebook

    Students of Stanford University were urged to delete their Facebook accounts by Brian Acton, the co-founder of Whatsapp on March 13. While speaking at a panel in the University, he explained his reasons for selling the hugely-popular Instant messaging app to Mark Zuckerberg for a whopping sum of US$ 19 billion in 2014.

    His Statement

    Brian Acton accused Facebook users of giving power and control over to the company. Reportedly, he also involved a former Facebook software engineer in his comments, stating that he still held strong differences with the Social Media company. He also stated that he left the company at the end of 2017 because Facebook was planning to add advertisements to the Instant Messaging Platform, thus integrating a business viewpoint directly with the users of the app. 

    https://twitter.com/brianacton/status/976231995846963201

    The 47-year-old Stanford alumni previously tweeted “It is time. #deletefacebook” in March 2018. At Stanford, he further pinpointed that Facebook’s current reach is outrageously high because it owns Instagram and Messenger as well. The total number of users across all these platforms are well over a billion, although the popularity of the social media app itself has reduced drastically in recent months. Facebook and Instagram suffered major outages worldwide on March 13. A lot of users were hinting at a DDoS attack, however, Facebook clarified to its users that the issue was not related to any form of DDoS attack.

    Also Read: Facebook Mobile Application Update Introduces Dedicated Gaming Section

    The former Yahoo employee mentioned that he also had to think about his employees and the money that they would make from the sale of Whatsapp. Furthermore, he also had to take his investors and his own minority stake into consideration while making the deal.

  • Facebook Mobile Application Update Introduces Dedicated Gaming Section

    Facebook Mobile Application Update Introduces Dedicated Gaming Section

    In a survey, it was discovered that Facebook Live Streams generated almost three times more views than those videos which are not live. Facebook live streaming is a major thing now, with content creators flocking to get their content noticed on the world’s most popular social media platform. More and more users have becoming aware of the fact that Facebook can be used for much more than just sharing images and posting comments. To address the growing gaming community, the American social media company has added a dedicated gaming section in its smartphone application.  

    Features Of The Update

    With an approximate 700 million users interacting with game-based content (as per Facebook), live streaming is becoming a platform to connect with gamers over social media. Previously, users discovered new gaming channels via their news feed, where they followed the streamer’s page and got notified every time they went live. To make it easier to find live games at one place, Facebook is rolling out an update which adds a gaming tab in the app navigation bar, using which gamers and other users can discover popular games being streamed around their area, as well as gaming content from the creators they follow.

    The newly added Facebook Gaming Tab enables the user to:

    • Play Games: Facebook has a host of fun games that users can check out when there are no notifications waiting for them. Using the tab, gamers can play games, start chats with other gamers, invite their friends to play and share high scores with each other.
    • Watch Live & Offline Gaming Videos: If the user has followed a particular streamer/gamer, he/she will see the most recently published videos from that account. Moreover, as mentioned before, popular videos posted by game publishers and esports organizations will also be showcased in the tab. Based on the user’s preferences, Facebook will also recommend users new gaming content developers in the gaming tab.
    • Join Dedicated Gaming Groups: There is a huge number of gaming groups on Facebook for almost every game out there, where users can directly interact with like-minded people. The company states that Gaming groups are the most engaging communities of Facebook, so it would be interesting to see how Facebook will integrate gaming groups in the new tab.

    Also Read: Twitter Camera Makes Sharing Photos And Videos Easier

    Facebook stated that it is rolling out the new update in small batches to the 700 million people who enjoy gaming. The company also plans to launch a standalone Facebook Gaming app on Android, the beta testing for which has already begun.

     

  • Twitter Camera Makes Sharing Photos And Videos Easier

    Twitter Camera Makes Sharing Photos And Videos Easier

    Popular microblogging service Twitter has announced the latest feature to its smartphone application. Called Twitter Camera, this enables users of the app to share pictures and videos instantly with their followers. The feature will be released in phases for users of the Twitter app for Android and iOS. The company announced the rollout on its official Twitter handle.

    Twitter Camera

    https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1105815777616191489

    The new Twitter Camera can be accessed from within the official application by swiping left from the home screen. It reveals a similar layout to the Facebook camera, a rival counterpart of the feature. With the new addition, users can now click a picture by tapping the shutter button on the bottom. A long press of the button will record a video, which again can be shared instantly. Another option on the bottom right reveals a ‘LIVE’ button, which, as the name suggests, allows sharing live videos. There is also a flash toggle and an option to switch cameras on the top right corner.

    In the new Twitter Camera, sharing the media from the app will also look different than before. Instead of the text being on top and important elements of media hidden away; the new update will make the media stand out on its own. The text embedded in the tweet will be shown below it and the size of the tweet will also be substantially larger.

     

    Notably, the Twitter Camera feature draws heavy inspiration from Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, which also allows similar content sharing technology. However, the latter applications have additional features like AR stickers and hands-free recording. Twitter hasn’t announced what new features it will incorporate in the future, but it may add the aforementioned functionalities in later versions of the app.

    Also read: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Down For Users Around The World

    The new Camera feature on the Twitter application is one of the biggest updates the microblogging website has incorporated on its platform. This move is seen as a reply to the ever-increasing hold of rival services.

  • Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Down For Users Around The World

    Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Down For Users Around The World

    Popular social networking website Facebook and its sub-services including WhatsApp and Instagram have been facing a service outage for a few hours in several regions. Hashtags labelled #WhatsAppDown, #InstagramDown and #FacebookDown have been trending on the microblogging website Twitter. 

    The Social Media Outage

    While the cause of the outage hasn’t been revealed, it was speculated to be a DDoS style attack. The aforementioned attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic to a web property where multiple compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan computer virus, are used to target a single computer system. However, a post shared on Facebook’s official Twitter account dismissed the claims. The outage mainly affected parts of New England; the US; parts of Latin America; the UK; India; and the Philippines. Some cases of it were also reported in from Canada and Turkey. 

    Facebook’s advertisement section was also reported to be not functioning, and it prompted an error message when users tried to buy an advertisement set on the platform. It was also suggested that the website is weighing in on the option to return the advertiser’s money because of the issue, but no official statement on the matter has been released yet. With the desktop website of Facebook down, people also reported posts on the Instagram application not loading. The Stories function of the service also was reported to be down, as was the button to post new media. 

    Also read: Best Wireless Earphones In India Under Rs 2,000

    Similarly, Whatsapp was also not working for users when they tried sending a message. Notably, if users try to log in on apps like Spotify, Saavn through Facebook, the functionality would be down. All the services that went down were owned and managed by Facebook Inc. As of now, the services seem to be restored for the majority of users. Also, one can check the affected areas by visiting the following website. 

  • YouTube Music And YouTube Premium Launched In India

    YouTube Music And YouTube Premium Launched In India

    In a bid to regain the market captured by the barrage of music streaming services in India, YouTube has launched two new services. These services are YouTube Music and YouTube Premium. While the former will be a standard music streaming service similar to the likes of Saavn, Apple Music and Spotify; the latter is an ad-free, feature-laden paid YouTube subscription.

    YouTube Music 

    YouTube Music is a music streaming service from the popular video sharing platform. Besides offering official songs and albums, there is a range of different covers and remixes that the company claims the users may not be able to find elsewhere. While the app is currently free to download and is ad-supported, users can also purchase a premium subscription for Rs. 99 per month which will get rid of the advertisements. The existing subscribers of another music streaming service from the company, Google Play Music will get a free subscription to the newly launched YouTube Music Premium. Notably, Play Music will exist as a standalone application.

    YouTube Music was first launched in the year 2014 under the name Music Key and provided ad-free music streaming to users in the United States. Interestingly, it has arrived in India a few weeks after the launch of Spotify, another popular music streaming service.

    YouTube Premium

    YouTube Premium is a feature rich version of the traditional YouTube, offering features that weren’t previously available on the platform. Buying a subscription will cost Rs. 129 per month. Pleasantly, there is a three month free trial for the service available at launch. The YouTube Premium subscription has all the benefits of YouTube Music but adds on a background play mode ad-free videos on the platform, more downloadable videos available and access to YouTube Original content.

    Also read: Redmi Note 7 Pro To Go On Sale For The First Time In India Today

    Notably, YouTube Premium was originally called YouTube Red which was launched in the year 2015 in the United States. The launch of the service was long overdue and much awaited in India for a while. The YouTube Music will exist as a separate application while the contents and features of YouTube Premium will be available in the regular YouTube app once the user logs in with a paid subscription. 

  • YouTube Rolling Out Fact Checking Feature To Combat Fake News

    YouTube Rolling Out Fact Checking Feature To Combat Fake News

    In a bid to eliminate fake news from its platform, YouTube has started rolling out a fact-checking feature in its smartphone application. The feature is currently available for limited users as part of a testing program. While its public rollout is also expected to follow soon. As of now, the feature is only confined to Indian smartphone users, with a worldwide release to follow suit. 

    YouTube Fact Checker

    The fact checks on the YouTube app will be displayed in the search results of queries which are most susceptible to be fake and manipulative. Videos based on the query, explaining the real information will be displayed on the top, inside the information pane. The fact checks will appear as content from YouTube’s partner sites concerning the particular search query. Results are available in the Hindi and English language currently, with more languages to be added soon.

    Notably, YouTube will use information from around six verified services in the country to exhibit the aforementioned panels in India. Many of the same services are also working with Facebook to check misinformation on its platform and in apps like WhatsApp and Instagram. YouTube has been trying hard to curb malpractices on its platform. A few weeks ago, it started demonetizing and disabling comments on videos which had objectionable content. This move by the company to curb fake news is seen as a positive step and may prove to help in dispersing true and unadulterated information to the audience via the globally used platform.

    Also read: Google To Add More Smartphones To The Android Q Beta List In 2019

    Interestingly, YouTube is not looking to ban the objectionable content it is targeting. Fake news has been a problem in the online space particularly in India for the past few years. Previously, WhatsApp also tried to curb the spread of false news on its platform via advertisements cautioning its users. And, as the General Election have also been announced, the spread of misleading information on platforms like YouTube, Whatsapp and Facebook may increase in the following weeks.

iGyaan Network
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.