Category: Social Media

AIM To Shut Down On December 15th

One of the pioneers of the instant messaging apps, AOL Instant Messenger is shutting down on December 15th 2017. The news comes 20 years after the launch of AIM, which became a wildly popular feature of AOL, the largest internet provider at the time.

Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 and merged it into a unit called Oath in 2017. VP of Oath said:

AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed. As a result we’ve made the decision that we will be discontinuing AIM effective 15 December, 2017. We are more excited than ever to continue building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products for users around the world.

AOL cut off access to AIM from third-party chat clients in March 2017, hinting that a shutdown is inevitable.With the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat taking over social media, it’s hard to imagine that many people are still using AIM. Keeping that in mind, it seems unlikely that this shutdown will affect anyone or anything.

This is not the first time that a classic IM app has shut down. MSN Messenger shut down in 2014, and Yahoo Messenger shut down in 2016 however, Yahoo launched a new messaging service under the same name.

One of the most widely used instant messenger back in ’90s and early 2000’s, AIM bridged the gap between friends who had moved to different places. With time, AIM fell down the pecking order as the era of smartphones reached the fore. Text messaging has taken over precedence over desktop instant messaging apps, and increasingly, social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram, are taking over text messaging in certain ways. Nowadays, everyone is connected to their long lost friends and relatives on Facebook which provides instant messaging solutions on the go.

October 7, 2017
Messenger Lite For Android Launched In US, Canada And Other Countries

Facebook has launched the ‘Lite’ version of its data inhaling app, Messenger for Facebook in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland. The app is an Android-only app so far and was primarily targeted at people who live in areas where the internet isn’t equipped enough to handle the data intensive tasks of the regular Messenger app. But, the expansion of the app to Facebook’s top developed markets mean that people who want to save data charges like teenagers can take advantage of the app. However, Facebook has no plans as of now to introduce the app for iOS devices.

We’re excited to bring Messenger Lite to Android users in four new markets, including Canada, Ireland, the U.K. and the U.S. Messenger Lite is a slimmed-down version of Messenger that offers the core features of the app, while giving everyone the opportunity to stay connected to their friends and family, regardless of device or quality of internet connectivity.

Lead by India and Brazil in terms of downloads, the Messenger Lite was first introduced in October 2016 in five countries before its near global expansion in April. As mentioned earlier, this rollout could be beneficial for Facebook as potential low data costs could help the company attract teenagers who are active on the social media platform and want to stay in touch at all times. The Messenger Lite app could help them make full use of the app’s core features while skimming out on the data charges.

One of the main reasons cited by Facebook to introduce Messenger Lite was that there are over a billion people who still don’t have access to high speed 3G or 4G network. This move to bring the Lite app in developed markets with proven high speed internet means that the company can now target people who like to cut costs but, not necessarily like to give up using their phones for chatting.

October 3, 2017
Facebook Is Working On Its Own Facial Recognition System

Facebook is working on it’s own facial recognition system. According to a screenshot shared by a social media researcher, this feature is in its testing phase right now. Facial recognition system is really picking up its pace in the tch industry after a series of iris scanners found in likes of Galaxy phones and most recently, Apple adopting facial recognition to replace fingerprint sensors in its upcoming iPhone X.

If you get locked out of your Facebook account, the feature will help you regain access by using your face to verify your identity. That could be especially useful if you’re somewhere that you can’t receive two-factor authentication SMS due to network issues, like if you’re on a hike or while traveling abroad, or if you lose access to your email account. TechCrunch reached out to Facebook and received a response:

We are testing a new feature for people who want to quickly and easily verify account ownership during the account recovery process. This optional feature is available only on devices you’ve already used to log in. It is another step, alongside two-factor authentication via SMS, that were taking to make sure account owners can confirm their identity.

In its testing phase, Facebook is testing how robust the feature is and the failure rates. If the new feature proves to be reliable helpful isn’t fooled by hackers or images of the owner, Facebook could potentially roll it out to more people. This feature will add another dimension to Facebook’s account recovery process. Already, if you get locked out of your Facebook account, you can either use the two-factor authentication SMS or email, or you can designate several “trusted friends” who receive a code that you can ask them for to unlock your account. In some cases it asks you to identify photos of your friends to prove you’re actually you.

Any form of biometrics used by a social networking site can cause in people’s minds but, if it is used to privately get your account back then the new facial recognition might be welcomed by the Facebook community.

September 30, 2017
Facebook Introduces New Feature To Help Increase Blood Donations In India

Facebook has introduced a new feature in India in a bid to connect blood donors across India with hospitals and organisations in need of blood. Facebook cites “shortage of safe blood” in India as the reason behind this step. In a blog, Facebook said that users in India already use the wide spread platform to connect donors with donees. Facebook will use its network to help both the parties here by helping donors sign up and work with NGOs, health industry experts to make sure the method useful.

In the blog, Facebook posted about the process and how the feature will work:

Starting October 1 — National Blood Donor Day — Facebook users in India will be able to start signing up to be blood donors. To help encourage participation, we’ll show a message in News Feed or people can edit their Profiles to sign up. All information will remain private and set to “only me” by default, but people can choose to share their donor status on their timelines.

In the next few weeks, in order to easily connect blood banks, hospitals or NGOs with donors, Facebook will introduce custom posts wherein all the necessary details can be given. Facebook will then notify potential donors near to the entered location. Donors can then review the request and, if they wish to respond, contact the requestor directly through WhatsApp, Messenger or a phone call. To maintain anonymity, the person who needs blood won’t be able to see any information about the donor, unless the donor explicitly provides it when he/she reaches out to the person in need of blood.

The post continued:

We hope this new feature helps people come together in ways that weren’t possible before. By raising awareness and growing the number of blood donors in India, we want to make it easier for people and organisations to give and receive blood.

If you want to sign up for the program or learn more about the initiative, log on to facebook.com/donateblood.

September 28, 2017
Twitter Is Testing A 280-Character Limit For Tweets

If you are an avid twitterati and the 140-character has always annoyed you, then you’re in luck. Twitter has announced that it will be testing a 280-character limit for tweets for some people. These people will be randomly chosen and the duration of the testing phase has not been announced yet.

Back in 2016, Twitter chief Jack Dorsey was asked about the 140-character limit and its future, and he replied with a firm “It’s staying.” All this seems to have changed within a year as the 280-character limit testing phase picks up pace. The company has said that only a “single-digit” percentage of its users will get the opportunity to double their tweet’s character. Twitter has over 328 million users, so, basically millions will get that opportunity.

There is no direct cause for action here, according to Twitter. But, in a recent blog post Aliza Rosen, Product Manager at Twitter pointed out something. She said that in languages like Chinese, Korean, Japanese you can convey about double the amount of information in one character as you can in many other languages, like English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French.

We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming (which is all except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean).

As is evident from the quote, the 280-character limit will roll out in all languages except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. The process of choosing these “small percentage” of people has not been revealed by the company yet.

Rozen continued to state, “Also, in all markets, when people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people Tweeting – which is awesome!” This basically means that Twitter is willing to flex the character limit to reach out to more people. In doing so, it is also willing to give up something that has been quintessential to its growth so far and has been a part of the company’s identity since the very beginning.

The roll-out has happened and if you are one of the millions to be able to tweet in 280 characters, let us know in the comments below!

September 27, 2017
You Will Soon Be Able To Recall Sent Messages On WhatsApp

The instant messaging app WhatsApp has long been a fan favourite and the most successful IM app in the world right now. WhatsApp has added a lot of new features in 2017 to keep the consumers interested and the latest feature spotted might be the most important of them all. WhatsApp will finally add an ‘Unsend’ feature to recall sent messages. A WhatsApp fan site that tests new features of the app tweeted that the Facebook-owned company is testing this feature and will enable the feature worldwide in the coming months.

A report about the same feature reveals that users will be able to ‘unsend’ the message within 5 minutes of sending it. The feature will be applicable for images, videos and GIFs as well. However, it is worth noting that the feature will only work if the message is not read by the recipient in that time frame of 5 minutes.

DELETE FOR EVERYONE NEWS!
[AVAILABLE SOON!] pic.twitter.com/GQ6eqbNvSn

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) September 12, 2017

The news of WhatsApp testing this long awaited feature is not new. WABetaInfo had said that the feature will roll out in WhatsApp version 2.17.30 onwards. Even though this version is already available on App Store, the recall feature is nowhere to be seen. Let’s hope the Beta testing is a success and this new feature makes its way to our smartphones soon. We could all make full use of this feature!

September 14, 2017
YouTube Starts Rolling Out HDR Support To Select Android Devices

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is not new in the world of tech, but, it is no longer restricted to high-end Televisions anymore. YouTube has started rolling out an update for HDR support to select Android devices.

The feature was made available to HDR televisions last year and now phones like the Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, Galaxy Note8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, and the LG V30 will have HDR support as well. Since YouTube has not officially announced the update yet, there are doubts over other handsets getting the update. The feature was observed to be available in videos starting 144p resolution.

Even though the update is a useful upgrade and will surely bump up the video viewing experience, all doesn’t seem rosy for the users of aforementioned devices, According to SlashGear, Reddit users are reporting stuttering videos and battery-draining brightness levels. Some users have also claimed that the update gets rid of the option to switch to full screen.

HDR videos have a wider colour gamut with the shadows having more details than the usual non-HDR video formats. HDR images are supported a more accurate representation of what a human-eye can see. Netflix has also jumped this ship and the Netflix CEO said, “Starting with the LG G6 phones that support both Dolby Vision and HDR 10 streams, Netflix would be supporting HDR on mobile devices” during the 2017 Mobile World Congress.

A more aggressive push with fixed bugs expected to be rolled out by Google to more devices in the future, but, as of now, if you own any of the devices currently supported, click on the three dots while playing a video and select the desired resolution.

September 9, 2017
Polygram : A New Social Network Powered By Facial Recognition

While the internet is flooded with social networks like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Polygram, a new photo-sharing social network comes packed with some unique and innovative features. The photo sharing social network tracks your facial expression to choose an emoji which corresponds to your reaction. So instead of looking at user picked reaction to a particular post, Polygram lets you view the actual emotional reactions people have to the photos you post.

But that is not all, along with face-controlled emojis, the app offers geographical and demographic analytics which let you determine the location and the gender of your viewers. Few other features include filters designed by plastic surgeons to make you look more attractive, for private images, the app provides a “wipe-to-reveal” function which covers the image with fog-like covering. In order to see the image, the viewers will have to wipe away the blur, but that blurriness rapidly reappears so the viewer is unable to see the whole picture. In case a viewer tries to screenshot or take a photo with a second camera, only the currently visible section will be recorded. You will also receive a notification along with a copy of the image they captured or took a screenshot of.

Official Video

Even with all these new features, Polygram might have a hard time breaking into the scene. Company’s co-founder Faryar Ghazanfari believes that the app can will gain popularity amongst the millennials as no other social media platform offers facial detection and analytics.

Ghazanfari says that “Influencers and content creators are the oxygen in this ecosystem,” and “We have white glove service for influencers, with full-time employees that just create custom features for them.” So if the app can deliver enough usage and views, Ghazanfari thinks people might start purposefully sharing on Polygram too.

Though the company managed to raise $2.1 million in seed funding, Polygram will still have to sign up substantial number of users and ensure that they invest time in this platform to compete with the likes of Instagram and Snapchat. The app is currently available on iOS only.

September 2, 2017
Instagram Hack Affects Millions Of Accounts

What seemed like a hack affecting only the verified accounts on Instagram, has turned out to be equally dangerous to millions of other users, as well. A bug in the social media company’s API reportedly allowed hackers to gain access to account holders’ phone numbers and email addresses. Following this report, Instagram assured everyone on August 30 that it was only the celebrities who were targeted during the attack. But, new reports suggest that as many as 6 million accounts were affected, including the non-celebrity users.

It’s worth noting that Instagram has about 700 million active monthly users and any percentage of users affected by a hack is still a lot of people. Later, Instagram issued a statement to address the fact that the hack was more serious than what was assessed in the beginning

We recently discovered that one or more individuals obtained unlawful access to a number of high-profile Instagram users’ contact information—specifically email address and phone number—by exploiting a bug in an Instagram API. No account passwords were exposed. We fixed the bug swiftly and are running a thorough investigation. Our main concern is for the safety and security of our community. At this point we believe this effort was targeted at high-profile users so, out of an abundance of caution, we are notifying our verified account holders of this issue. As always, we encourage people to be vigilant about the security of their account and exercise caution if they encounter any suspicious activity such as unrecognized incoming calls, texts and emails.

According to a report, the people responsible for the hack have created a searchable database, namely, Doxagram, allowing people to find contact details of any of the affected users for USD 10 (paid in BitCoins).

Instagram has cautioned everyone to be “vigilant” and “cautious” regarding the security of your account as the hack has turned out to be way worse than it was initially assumed.

September 2, 2017
WhatsApp Coloured Text Status Now Rolling Out to Android and iPhone

WhatsApp has added a new feature to its ranks, quite similar to Facebook’s colourful status update. Apparently, now you can change our WhatsApp status update to suit your mood. The Users will now be able to update their statuses with more than just images or videos, and use colourful meme-like text posts.

The new feature which is rolling out to Android and iOS devices, lets you write a snippet of text, choose a background color, and customize the font. This feature is specifically for WhatsApp’s Snapchat Stories clone. The Snapchat-like status update which disappears in 24 hours, was first introduced in February. Last month, Facebook announced that WhatsApp status feature has hit 250 million daily users, exceeding the Snap’s main product.

Much like Facebook, the new WhatsApp update allows you to link out to other websites from within a text post. Seems like Facebook is handing down similar upgrades to its messaging app, which the social networking website acquired for 19 Billion dollars in 2014.

Though WhatsApp has confirmed the new colourful text update, all may not be able to use the new feature as it has been remotely activated, and full-fledged rollout is still awaited.

For iPhone users, the pen icon appears next to the camera icon in the new Status bar. For Android users, the floating pen icon shows up at the bottom of the Status tab, above the camera icon.

The option to type a status, choose a font, emoji, and the background colour as well shows up by clicking on the pen icon. After writing the status and making necessary changes, press the green arrow key to send the text status. The status will then be published on WhatsApp for all your contacts to see. As usual, you can control who sees your status and know who viewed it by clicking on the ‘eye’ icon at the bottom of the screen.

August 23, 2017
WhatsApp Hits 1 Billion Active Users Per Day

The most popular messaging application in the world just hit a mammoth milestone. WhatsApp announced that it has hit the daily 1 billion active users mark and the growth is incredible! Compared to the numbers from last year where WhatsApp had 1 billion active users every month, this jump is massive and quite astonishing. To add to that, WhatsApp’s rendition of Snapchat stories has hit the 250 million daily active users mark as well. Interestingly, this is much more than what Snapchat itself enjoys currently.

The Facebook-owned company shared this news in a blog post, stating that active users per month have reached 1.3 billion. Moreover, about 55 billion messages are shared every day in 60 supported languages. 1 billion videos and 4.5 billion images are shared every day on the messaging platform that has steamrolled every other messaging app in the market right now.

WhatsApp has come a long way in the last few years. In 2014, it had monthly 450 million active users when Facebook acquired it for $19 billion. Since then, it has managed to almost triple its daily active users from 350 million to now 1 billion.

A noteworthy development is the rise of WhatsApp status feature which launched in early-2017. It has hit a staggering daily 250 million active users. To put this stat into context, Snapchat as whole experiences about 166 million daily active users. And WhatsApp status feature was set out to be a ‘Snapchat Stories’ clone. Instagram stories, another Snapchat clone hit the 250 million daily active users as well.

India is WhatsApp’s largest market with 200 million active users. In fact, back in February WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton visited India in order to gather insights from people on how WhatsApp can contribute to the country in a more prominent way. WhatsApp is even looking to foray into the digital payment space in India.

July 27, 2017
OnePlus Just Blatantly Copied Moto’s Advertisement

Yesterday OnePlus posted a media on their social media platforms showing the OnePlus 5 in a grey colour with the 50 Shades of Grey tag “Mr. Grey will See you now” with one small change, with the word “grey” spelt “Gray” which is a more American way of writing the word.

No resisting this ? pic.twitter.com/ExXXQ3IqMw

— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) July 12, 2017

This image seems to be an exact copy of an image Moto tweeted for the “grey” Moto M. While the meme for “Mr. Grey will see you now” is a popular and open concept. It seems that not only did OnePlus get inspired by the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus as far is design is concerned, the company is also seeking inspiration in creative campaigns for social media.

Mr. Grey is ready to see you all, are you? #HelloGrey.
Unveiling #motom in grey.
Sale starts on 6th February at 12pm on @Flipkart. pic.twitter.com/SWhUdOmeR9

— Moto India (@Moto_IND) February 3, 2017

The OnePlus 5 was launched on 22nd June in India, and was highly criticised for its design which looks similar to the iPhone 7. The OnePlus 5 runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and features 6-8 GB of RAM. The OnePlus 5 also has a dual camera setup on the back which has been laid out much like the iPhone 7 plus.

See the original Mr. Grey will See you now image below.

July 13, 2017
WhatsApp Launches Video Calling for Everyone

WhatsApp has finally enabled video calling for everyone using their app with voice calling already enabled. This feature is available through the voice call button, once you tap that button you will get an option to choose either voice call or video call.

We’re introducing this feature because we know that sometimes voice and text just aren’t enough. There’s no substitute for watching your grandchild take her first steps, or seeing your daughter’s face while she’s studying abroad. And we want to make these features available to everyone, not just those who can afford the most expensive new phones or live in countries with the best cellular networks.

The video calling feature has been in rumors for a very long time, and it works a lot like FaceTime or Skype, even Google hangouts. During the call you can with between the front or rear camera, jump to messaging or mute the call.

The update will be available across regions in a systematic manner, so you may not see it immediately.

November 15, 2016
The Government Will Soon Ask WhatsApp and Gmail To Store and Share Data

In a move that goes against all norms of public privacy and modern moral sense, the Government of India is making plans to ask intermediary services like Gmail, WhatsApp, Snapchat and even Flipkart and Amazon to not only retain sensitive and private user information but also to share with the Government as per requests raised.

This amendment will be made into the Section 67C of the Information Technology Act of India by a committee that has been working on this for a while. According to this new rule, put initially into motion in 2008, all electronic companies operating in India will require to follow the govt. rules which will spell out what type of data has to be stored, in which format, and for how long. Meaning it should be stored in a specific archaic format set by the Government in 2008.

Not only will this be an invasion of privacy, but should this data leak or get hacked, it will be a huge social, private, public and central Government security risk, also a major risk to high profile individuals and companies who use these services daily.

Using Apple’s example, the committee stated on the matter:

Even if it is for national security reasons, how much are these companies answerable to the Indian security establishment? And we do know how Apple refused to unlock the phone even for FBI.

The implementation of such services may not technically be possible in certain cases, where WhatsApp encrypts chats with 256 bit hex while Snapchat never stores informations beyond seconds. This may either lead to huge resistance of the bill or general shutdown of services used by modern India.

While the Government is still mixed on how and why the data needs to be stored, the problem for how long is what may take more of a biting, the Department of Telecommunications required data to be stored for 6 months, the Registrar of Companies mandates for one year and income-tax for seven years.

Security is important, however, privacy and freedom of citizens is important too Click to Share

Either way, we all should be aware of the consequences of government data storage, a bill that is nearly a decade old, and policies that could send the growth trajectory of Modern India spiralling down. While national security is important, privacy and freedom of citizens is important too. At the end how much policing, is too much ?

October 14, 2016
Lenovo and Moto Bring Back Hello Moto

Lenovo may have fully acquired and integrated with Moto (previously Motorola), but it appears the chinese parent wants to keep the heritage of the Moto brand alive. What appears to be a reimagined sound for the original “hello moto” slogan was now tweeted by Moto and you can find the tweet below.

This also just comes shy of the 4th October launch of the Moto Z and Z Play in India. The company wants to build the brand around the new logo language and you may see excessive use of the #hellomoto branding hashtag. Either way, it does bring back some exciting memories of the Moto Razr, which we though Moto will release, but they won’t. So the “Hello Moto” jingle works for the time being.

New. fresh. and full of all the things you love. say hello to the all-new moto. #hellomoto #differentisbetter pic.twitter.com/0oW1JYcuXO

— Moto India (@Moto_IND) September 29, 2016

September 29, 2016