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Tag: Social

  • TikTok launches text posts in an attempt to take on X

    TikTok launches text posts in an attempt to take on X

    Despite the social network bleeding users, Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, took some questionable decisions over the weekend. After rebranding Twitter’s logo to “X” and promising to bring a bunch of new features that no one asked for, Musk’s is now facing another big problem: the stiff competition.

    Meta’s attempt to take on Twitter hasn’t been entirely successful, as Threads still needs a lot of features to offer a similar users experience. But another contender to take Twitter’s place has just made its first step toward fulfilling its plans.

    TikTok has just announced text posts, a new feature that offers users a Twitter-like experience. This will allow creators to share their stories and other types of content in a different, simpler way. The new feature is available starting today and doesn’t involve too many clicks to make it work.

    When you access the Camera page, you can now choose from three options: photo, video, and text. Tapping on the text option will direct users to the text creation page where they can type out the content of their post. It’s not as fast and smooth as tweeting a message but considering that TikTok is a video-first platform, this will have to do for now.

    In addition to creating posts, TikTok users can also customize their content by including Sound, tagging a location, enabling comments, and allowing Duets. It will enrich the text posts and make them more dynamic beyond what Twitter offers currently.

    For example, TikTok users can add stickers to their text posts, tags and hashtags, as well as background colors and sounds. On top of that, it’s also possible to save drafts and store them with other unpublished posts for later editing or discard them if you’re not content with how they end up.

    It’s a neat new feature that will probably not attract many of Twitter’s users, since Musk’s social platform caters to a different type of audience, but you might as well try in out before the ship sinks to have some alternatives to retreat to.

  • Facebook and Instagram with new parental tools to enhance teen safety

    Facebook and Instagram with new parental tools to enhance teen safety

    Today’s teens are digital natives in an Internet-centric world. They experience the benefits of online exploration, self-expression, and staying informed, but also encounter negative experiences like bullying and harassment. In a move to prioritize the safety and well-being of young users, Meta has unveiled a range of new parental control tools across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.

    Meta’s Family Center will offer new parental tools, featuring a hub in Messenger for parents to oversee their teen’s online activities. The tools also enable blocking unwanted messages on Messenger and Instagram to prevent harmful interactions and send reminders to teens to take breaks from their online engagements.

    These newly introduced tools grant parents or guardians access to their teen’s privacy and safety settings, enabling them to monitor changes in the Messenger contact list and assess the amount of time spent on the app. Parents will also receive notifications when their teen reports someone.

    If, for example, your teen reports someone, they can choose whether or not to notify you by sending a notification. And if you wonder how to react, Meta’s Education Hub is available to parents and provides guidance on addressing issues and supporting their child in the best possible way.

    In addition to the parental control tools, Meta is implementing notifications to alert teens when they have spent 20 minutes on Facebook, encouraging them to set daily time limits, which can also be set by the parent. For Instagram users, the company is exploring a new feature that prompts teens to close the app if they have been scrolling through Reels late at night.

    Given that teenagers spend an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes per day in front of screens, this feature might just be what all other online platforms should have.

    While Facebook has long provided parental controls for its Messenger Kids platform, the new tools are specifically designed for the main Messenger app, catering to parents with teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18.

    It is important to note that using these parental control tools requires mutual consent and awareness between the parent and the teenager. Either the parent or the teen must initiate an invitation to enable the tools.

    The new parental controls will be launched in the US, the UK, and Canada. However, Meta has expressed its commitment to expanding the availability of these tools to other regions across the globe. And this initial batch of parental supervision tools might be just the beginning, as Meta plans to introduce additional features and enhancements over the next year.

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  • Hundreds queue to buy social housing in Hanoi

    Hundreds queue to buy social housing in Hanoi

    At a building in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District on Wednesday evening, many queued up outside to register to buy an apartment at NHS Trung Van, a new social housing project that has been available since the end of March.

    The project is being built on a 2,700-square-meter area in Nam Tu Liem. When completed it will have 32 floors and two underground levels, with 275 apartments, in which 225 are social housing units

    The developer of the project, NHS, has received over 1,000 registrations since March 28. It had been accepting only 40 registrations each day, with the figure rising to 70 in the last few days due to high demand.

    Nguyen Tuan Long from Ha Dong District said: “I have been waiting for four days but still I have not been called to submit documents. I don’t know if I will be on the buyers’ list.”

    A NHS employee calls out the names of the people who register once every three hours to check if anyone has left. If someone does not respond after three calls they are removed from the list.

    Some people came to register after finishing their work day. Lien in Hoang Mai District said: “I have been coming here every day for the last four days. Some days I was not quick enough to be in the queue and had to leave.”

    A social housing apartment is legally required to only be sold to those on low incomes, though there have been reports of the middle-classes buying them.

    At NHS Trung Van, apartments are sold from VND19.5 million ($831) per square meter, substantially lower than an average project in Hanoi. The smallest apartment is priced at VND1.39 billion (nearly US$60,000).

  • Meta is pulling the Facebook Messenger app from the Apple Watch

    Meta is pulling the Facebook Messenger app from the Apple Watch

    After this month is over, Meta is pulling the Facebook Messenger app from the Apple Watch. Starting on June 1st, Apple Watch users can no longer send or receive messages using the app. The news got out after some users of the wearable spotted a notification on the Apple Watch Messenger app titled “Changes to Messenger on Apple Watch.” The notification said, “After May 31st, Messenger won’t be available as an Apple Watch app, but you can still get Messenger notifications on your watch.”
    A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the news and pointed out that those who want to send and receive messages using Facebook Messenger can still do so via the iPhone app, through their desktop, or by using the website. For some reason, Meta hasn’t shared this decision with many and it has yet to release a public statement. Apple is expected to release watchOS 10 in September, focusing on widgets instead of third-party apps.
    I also remember back in the day when Facebook had special integration so that you could make posts and upload photos directly without having to open the app. Obviously this meant people didn’t need to open the app as much, and that meant less ads, so they removed it.”
    If you use the Facebook Messenger app on your Apple Watch, you have less than three weeks to enjoy using it unless Meta changes your heart. Since its decision to eliminate the Apple Watch app might have to do with money, please don’t hold your breath hoping for Meta to reverse its decision.
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  • Snapchat doubles down on Family Center, adds new controls for parents

    Snapchat doubles down on Family Center, adds new controls for parents

    Introduced last year, Snapchat’s Family Center was one of Snap’s most important steps toward allowing parents to control the accounts of their offspring. Today, the social app announced more improvements are coming to Family Center, which includes additional controls for parents who aren’t content with what they received in 2022.

    Suggestively dubbed “Content Controls,” the latest feature for Family Center allows parents to limit the type of content their children can watch on Snapchat. Surprisingly, this wasn’t available when Family Center was launched last year, but at least the feature if finally here.

    Particularly, the newly added controls enable parents to filter out Stories from publishers and creators that they feel are not a good match for their kids. Either they’re creating sensitive, suggestive content or their views are in contradiction with what parents believe about a particular topic, it’s now possible to filter out Stories based on who creates them.

    Snap’s policies are designed to prevent “unvetted content from going viral,” so it’s harder for certain content you can find on TikTok or other social networks to share widely on Snapchat. Not to mention that Snap moderates public-facing content from creators and Snapchatters before it’s eligible to get reach on Stories or Spotlight.

    Of course, to take advantage of the latest feature for Family Center, you’ll need to have an account set up with your child. The Family Center account is free and can be created in just a few minutes.

    In related news, Snap revealed plans to add even more new features to the Family Center. Some of these upcoming features will be built around My AI, Snap’s experimental chatbot, and are meant to provide parents with more visibility and control around their children’s usage of My AI. Other new features might be in the pipeline too, but these are the only ones we know of so far.

  • Google Messages’ new icon now appearing for more users in the notification tray

    Google Messages’ new icon now appearing for more users in the notification tray

    The Google Messages icon was updated to a fresh look late last year; however, for most users, the notification icon for the app didn’t quite follow the same design change. This now changing as the notification icon has been changing widely for more users to reflect the new style.

    The reports of the new icon making its rounds initially came from the Google Pixel subreddit where users started noticing the change overnight. It turns out that a subset of Pixel 6 and 7 series users were experiencing an issue where the old Messages icon would appear in the notification tray and on the lock screen, even after the actual app icon had changed.

    The new Google Messages design adopted the same style as the Phone and Contacts app, featuring two overlapping rounded speech bubbles. This was in contrast to the old rectangular briefcase design that felt very outdated.

    The new design was announced as part of the #GetTheMessage campaign Google started to bring awareness to the benefits of using RCS instead of SMS and to encourage Apple to add RCS to its Messages app, complementing iMessage. On top of that, Google also announced a slew of updates to the app that would enrich the experience for RCS users that receive messages from iMessage users, particularly those involving message reactions. Unfortunately, this campaign has had little to no success in changing Apple’s mind.
    As far as the bug where the iconography is inconsistent between the app icon and the notification tray, it thankfully appears to be suddenly resolved with what appears to be an app or server-side update. This isn’t a huge deal as it doesn’t affect functionality, but for those who prefer a more cohesive experience, it was a bit of an eye sore.
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  • Telegram introduces profile photo maker

    Telegram introduces profile photo maker

    Telegram typically pushes out major updates once a month, and February is no exception. After adding the ability to hide spoilers in media content and other features in late 2022, Telegram recently released yet another update that brings even more new features to Android and iOS users.

    The highlights of February’s update include a profile photo maker, real-time message translation, and emoji categories. Depending on how you’re using Telegram, some of these new features might be more important than others.

    As the first Telegram update of the year, the new piece of content introduces no less than 10 major features. With the new profile pictures maker, Telegram users can turn stickers or animated emoji into a profile pictures that can be used for accounts, groups, and even channels. The new feature is not locked behind the Premium subscription, so everyone can use it once they updated to the latest version of Telegram.

    Another premiere for Telegram is the ability to translate entire chats, groups and channels in real time. The Translate bar at the top of the app will make this complex task a breeze. You can even hide the bar and control which languages are translated. The bad news is you have to pay for Premium to be able to use real-time chat translation.

    For those who are obsessed by data, the update makes it possible to see how much data has been used by the app with detailed pie charts for both mobile data and Wi-Fi. You can even adjust the auto-download settings the way you want.

    There’s also a new menu from where Telegram users can control when media is saved automatically to the gallery based on size, type and which chat it was received from. Additionally, the menu makes it possible to filter your media by using exceptions.

    Telegram has so many emoji that more often than not it’s hard to find what you want. The latest update introduces emoji categories in the panel. You can also hold any emoji to zoom in to get a better look at it before sending.

  • SEC Searching for More Whatsapp Offenders

    SEC Searching for More Whatsapp Offenders

    Last year, the SEC imposed fines worth billions of dollars for violations of record-keeping requirements in banks’ communications with their customers. It seems more firms are being targeted.

    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ordered some large hedge funds to review the personal cell phones of certain employees for evidence of trades made through unauthorized channels. Among those targeted are Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel.

    Last year, the SEC imposed heavy fines on banks after months of investigations into a series of corresponding cases. A total of 16 financial companies, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, paid a total of $1.8 billion.

    Credit Suisse and UBS also had to pay $200 million each. Employees at each of the firms were accused of communicating with customers about business matters via chat programs and applications such as Whatsapp.

    If customer contacts were conducted via the private devices of bank employees and not recorded accordingly, there were in violation of the banks’ documentation obligations.

    The hedge funds contacted by the SEC were asked to search the devices of certain employees for evidence of business dealings on unauthorized channels, the sources told «Bloomberg». The SEC is also investigating the practices of brokerage firms, asset managers, and private equity firms.

    Reuters reported last October the SEC was looking to expand its investigation to other financial firms. From the SEC’s perspective, the retention and documentation of communications between institutions and clients serve market integrity.

    By imposing the fines, the authority wants to ensure communications about business matters are handled exclusively through official channels and be tracked accordingly.

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  • TikTok banned on government devices in Kansas

    TikTok banned on government devices in Kansas

    The saga of TikTok and its security issues has taken yet another turn. After news broke that TikTok admittedly spied on journalists a few days ago, US government officials have started to take serious measures against the popular app. First, TikTok was banned on US House of Representatives-issued devices, and now the app will disappear from government devices in the state of Kansas.

    Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has announced a ban on TikTok on state government devices due to national security and data mining concerns. Kelly stated that TikTok could make users’ data available to the Chinese Communist Party.

    15 other states have already banned the app, but Kansas is among the first Democratic states to implement such a ban. TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown called the ban “politically motivated” and said it was based on “unfounded falsehoods.”

    TikTok is the second most popular domain on the internet right now, after Google. It has grown quickly and now has more users than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat combined. Things might become even bleaker for TikTok users in the US if the proposed bipartisan bill helmed by Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, passes.

    The legislation from both parties is called “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act)” and Rubio officially stated that “The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This isn’t about creative videos; this is about an app collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day.”

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  • Twitter will soon tell you if your posts have been secretly restricted

    Twitter will soon tell you if your posts have been secretly restricted

    Elon Musk’s revamping of Twitter continues with full force. As the man himself announced via a tweet, the platform is currently working on an update that will show “your true account status,” so you will know if your account has been shadowbanned. In addition to that, you will receive information explaining why your account has been restricted and how you can appeal the ban.

    Now, Musk didn’t explain what it means to be “shadowbanned” on the platform. However, journalist Bari Weiss, who has been given access to corporate files, explains that Twitter employees prevent tweets made by disfavored accounts from becoming trending and restrict the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics. All this happens secretly, without informing the affected users.

    Disfavored accounts get added to various blacklists, such as the “Trends Blacklist,” which prevents tweets from becoming trending, and the “Search Blacklist,” which Weiss doesn’t explain what it does but most likely restricts tweets from appearing in searches. Weiss also notes that Twitter doesn’t call these techniques “shadow banning.” Instead, employees call these methods “Visibility Filtering,” or “VF.”

    To better understand what VF does, a senior Twitter employee told Weiss that this is a way for Twitter employees to “suppress what people see to different levels.”

    Interestingly, Instagram recently launched a similar feature to what Twitter is working on. The platform now informs users with professional accounts if their posts have been restricted from appearing as recommendations to others. If there are indeed posts that violate Instagram’s recommendation rules, creators and businesses can edit or delete them to become eligible again, or they can appeal the decision.

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  • Snapchat+ officially launched a premium subscription

    Snapchat+ officially launched a premium subscription

    Snap has just announced the launch of a new premium tier for customers who want a little bit more features and faster support. The announcement comes less than a month since another social app, Telegram introduced a similar service for those who want extra features.

    Snap’s new premium tier is called Snapchat+ and is available in Snapchat for $3.99/month. Unlike Telegram that already informed customers about what they’ll get for the premium tier, Snap’s announcement is rather vague.

    According to the social company, Snapchat+ will offer “a collection of exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features.” As far as the reasoning behind the premium tier, Snap claims that the subscription will help the company provide fans willing to pay with new Snapchat features and “prioritized support.”

    For the time being, Snapchat+ will only be available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. However, Snap confirmed plans to expand availability of its premium tier to more countries over time. Is this something that you’d pay for because it’s useful or do you think it’s just a cash grab?

  • TikTok wants you to stay away from the app some time

    TikTok wants you to stay away from the app some time

    TikTok wants its users to find other things to do instead of spending all day creating short-form videos and browsing through the app. In a message to the TikTok community that the company disseminated on Thursday, TikTok announced some steps it is taking to help users develop positive digital habits. Users can already set daily screen time limits and in a few weeks, they will be able to control the amount of time that they spend on TikTok in a single setting by enabling regular screen time breaks.
    These prompts will remind TikTok users to take a break from the app after a certain amount of uninterrupted screen time has passed. The amount of screen time can be set as long or as short as the user desires. TikTok members aged between 13 and 17 who have used the app for more than 100 minutes in a single day will be reminded the next time they open TikTok that they can use the screen time limit tool.
    Carolyn Bunting MBE, CEO of Internet Matters, said, “The research showed that younger users would welcome the introduction of built-in features and settings that prompt them to both think critically about the time that they are spending online, but also encourage them to use settings to actively manage the time they spent on the app. It is important that they feel in control of their online experiences and are helped to make considered choices. We look forward to TikTok developing further features that will put children’s wellbeing at the heart of their design choices.”

    The Digital Wellbeing screen time summary shows the amount of time users spent on TikTok during the daytime and during the night. As TikTok recently stated, “We love working with talented creators to educate the TikTok community about online safety, wellbeing, and the tools and options available to them. The energy and enthusiasm these creators have for their community helps them connect with other users and leads to a better understanding of the platform.”

    TikTok was the most downloaded app globally during the first quarter of 2022. It also was just the fifth app in history to record lifetime installations of more than 3.5 billion; the other four apps were all developed by Meta (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger).
    Earlier this year, TikTok made some major changes to its short-form video platform. Looking to take on YouTube, TikTok increased the length of its maximum videos from 60 seconds to 180 seconds (or from one minute to three minutes). It then increased the video length once again from 180 seconds to six hundred seconds (3 minutes to ten minutes). Now, the more than one billion monthly active users on the app have a reason to spend some more time on TikTok.
    On August 1st, 2020, then President Donald Trump, in the middle of his trade war with China, announced that “We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things. There’s a couple of options. But a lot of things are happening, so we’ll see what happens. But we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”
    Eventually, Trump decided that he wanted TikTok to be owned by a U.S. company and said that for the app to be allowed to be used in the states, it would have to have U.S. ownership. Three U.S. firms appeared to be interested including (quite surprisingly) Oracle and Walmart. Microsoft also had a strong interest in buying the U.S. version of TikTok.
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  • Facebook fights misinformation with new set of group tools

    Facebook fights misinformation with new set of group tools

    Meta’s Facebook announced that it has taken another step in trying to prevent misinformation from spreading by launching a new set of tools for group admins. These new features are not only meant to identify false information, but they will also help reduce admin workload and, ultimately, make them more efficient while they manage their groups.

    The first and most important new feature introduced this week is the ability through Admin Assist to automatically decline incoming posts that contain false information. Secondly, the “mute” functionality has been further improved and renamed to “suspend,” so admins and moderators can now temporarily suspend group members from posting, commenting, reacting, participating in a group chat, and creating or entering a Room in a group, not just mute them.

    To help admins manage their groups much easier, Facebook added a new feature that enables them to automatically approve or decline member requests, based on specific criteria. Also, the Admin Home design has been updated with a new overview page on desktop, a new layout, and an insights summary on mobile.

    Furthermore, Facebook announced it has added QR codes support, which will allow admins to download or copy/paste from the Share menu and advertise their groups. When scanned, people will be directed to the group’s About game where they can join or request to join. Also, a new option for admins to send invites via email to invite people to join their groups has been added too.

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  • Important new features are finally coming to Instagram

    Important new features are finally coming to Instagram

    I don’t think I’m exaggerating saying that Instagram is overwhelmed with requests from users with hacked accounts. Although the company has been trying to make the process of recovering a hacked account easier, there’s no better defense against hackers than prevention, something that Instagram has been lacking lately.

    Lately, the social network giant has been pushing out security tools that help prevent your Instagram account from being hacked. They’re probably not foolproof, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. After introducing Security Checkup for Instagram users who believe their accounts have been hacked last year, this feature is now rolling out to everyone on all platforms.

    It’s a nifty feature that teaches Instagram users to secure their accounts including checking login activity, reviewing profile information, confirming the accounts that share login information and updating account recovery contact information (i.e., phone number, email address). The new feature can be found in the Profile menu / Settings / Security / Security Checkup.

    To make your Instagram account more secure, we also recommend enabling two-factor authentication via WhatsApp, which is already available on certain countries. The 2FA feature can also be used with a phone number or an authenticator app like Duo Mobile and Google Authentication.

    Another important new feature coming to Instagram today is the ability to delete posts in bulk. It might seem a simple feature to have, but Instagram didn’t have it until recently. You can also archive/delete stories, IGTV and Reels, as well as your entire interactions such as comments, likes, story sticker reactions, etc.

    Along with the ability to delete and archive content in bulk, Instagram also added the option to sort and filter content and interactions by date and search for past comments, likes and stories replies from specific date ranges. All these tools to manage your accounts can be found in the Profile, just make sure to tap in the upper right corner and then choose “Your activity.

    Finally, there’s a new feature that Instagram is now testing, which will allow people who have lost access to their account to ask their friends to confirm their identity and regain access to their account. No word on when exactly we will have access to this feature, but more details are promised soon.

  • TikTok honors Holocaust Remembrance Day

    TikTok honors Holocaust Remembrance Day

    On Thursday, January 27, the world celebrated International Holocaust Remembrance Day—and viral media platform TikTok has joined in to do its part in memorializing the holiday, and combatting antisemitism on the platform.

    Yesterday, TikTok officially announced that it would be offering new tools and features to combat the spread of hate speech and marginalization, as well as provide users with educational content to counter any misinformation on the platform.

    To do this, TikTok has partnered with UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress to display a new banner across the screen, which users will see when they search for certain Holocaust-related phrases. The banner reads, “Remember to consult trusted sources to prevent the spread of hate and misinformation,” a text accompanied by a link to aboutholocaust.org.

    World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder, stated that “the World Jewish Congress is proud to partner with UNESCO and TikTok in making factual and reliable information about the Holocaust available to the TikTok community,” as recorded in TikTok’s official blog post.

    “TikTok allows us to reach a new audience,” he continued, “some of whom may be uninformed about the horrors of the Holocaust and therefore be potentially susceptible to misinformation. We welcome the platform taking responsibility and leveraging its reach to stop the spread of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.”

    January 27 marks the date of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—the largest Nazi concentration camp—in 1945. It is a day on which the whole world gathers to remember the millions of people who were killed in the Holocaust during World War II.

    However, TikTok’s decision to spread awareness about antisemitism isn’t limited to the Holocaust Remembrance Day holiday, nor to a week, or even month, after the event. According to the blog post, this will be a permanent change to the platform, implemented along with the provision of new educational reading material on TikTok’s main Discover page.

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