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Facebook is letting users choose which posts they want to see more of
With profits shrinking of late, Facebook has been shutting down unpopular apps and focusing on its core services.
Instagram is testing even more recommendations in the main feed
It's also trialing a Stories-style full-screen view for feed posts.
Google’s updated Home app will show Nest Cam events in its feed
iOS release notes reveal that Google is making a couple changes to its Home app. Once updated, the Feed tab will show important activity from supported devices, like your Nest Cam. Last year, Google said users would be able to watch full video clips or listen to audio clips in the Feed tab, and this update could enable that.
Instagram will tell you which of your boring friends to unfollow
Instagram has added some more ways to organize the list of people you're following. You can see which people are flooding your feed and Stories the most and which accounts you interact with least often. So, if you've realized you're following too many people and want to make your feed a bit more manageable, you'll have easier ways to figure out who the biggest spammers are and whose posts you don't actually care about.
Instagram accidentally made users' feeds scroll horizontally
If you opened up Instagram today and found that your timeline orientation was totally switched, you weren't alone. It appears that quite a few users had a timeline that moved left to right, where posts could be tapped through as they can be in stories. When the new timeline appeared, Instagram surfaced a notice that said, "Introducing a New Way to Move Through Posts," and told users to tap through to see their posts. However, it seems that this may have been another short test rather than a permanent change to Instagram's feed.
Facebook nixes Friend List Feeds, but Friend Lists live on
Facebook has been culling various features that take it away from its new "back to basics" emphasis on people over brands. It ended its Explore Feed test after it found that not many people liked splitting their news feed. Now the company is getting rid of another type of feed: Friend List Feeds. A message posted to the Facebook app says that the feeds based on your Friends Lists will be unavailable starting today, August 9th. Facebook said it was doing this to "focus on improving your main News Feed experience."
Instagram explains how it pieces together the feed we love to hate
Instagram sat down with some reporters today to explain its algorithm and dispel some myths that persist about its app, TechCrunch reports. It turns out that the three factors that largely determine how your feed is organized include your interests based on past behavior, how recently a post was shared and how often you've interacted with or been tagged with the person posting the content. Other factors that influence your feed's rankings include how often you visit Instagram, how long you're there and how many people you follow.
Instagram lets users decide when to refresh their feed
Instagram announced some changes to user feeds today, but before you get too excited, no it's not a return to the chronological feed. However, Instagram will start surfacing newer posts at the top of the feed so that "your feed will feel more fresh and you won't miss the moments you care about," as it said in its announcement. Additionally, your feed will no longer automatically refresh and jump back to the top. Instead, users will be able to tap a "New Posts" button that will take them to the top of their feed when they want to see new posts.
Twitter pushes trending news to the top of your feed
As Facebook fights its own fake news problem, Twitter looks like it's interested in finding more ways to push news content to its microblogging service. According to a report at BuzzFeed, Twitter has confirmed that it is testing new algorithm-curated timelines when big events happen, then putting tweets from news organizations and other users at the top of your timeline. So far, Twitter says humans are involved in story selection, but a Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed that it could be come only algorithmic in the future.
Imgur's Snapchat-style GIF collections come to Android
Imgur's bid to bring Snapchat-like Stories to the GIF world is no longer confined to iOS. It's releasing an updated Android app that brings Snacks and the Feed to a wider array of devices. Snacks, as before, lives under the search tab and gives you a curated Story-style gallery of GIFs you can sit back and watch when you're looking to be entertained. The Feed, meanwhile, sits in your home section and lets you follow both Imgur users and tags to keep up with the latest GIF trends.
Facebook's next news feed tweak: ranking 'trusted' sources
Last week Mark Zuckerberg kicked off his year of making sure your time on Facebook is "well spent" by announcing that feeds will refocus on items shared by friends, instead of news. Today the CEO followed up with an announcement that the site will try to identify and highlight "trusted sources" based on community feedback. While the combination of these changes is apparently only going to change the mix of news in feeds from five percent to four percent, its stated claim is to avoid " sensationalism, misinformation and polarization."
Instagram's latest test adds recommended posts to your feed
Instagram is testing a new feature that would add posts you might like to your main feed. The Verge reports that this "Recommended for You" section would include posts that your friends have liked or posts that Instagram's algorithm thinks you might enjoy. Instagram users can already see what their friends like by looking in the "Following" section in Notifications, but this would shuffle some of that into the main feed.
Tinder's new feature is a social feed from your matches
Today, Tinder introduced a new feature called "Feed," which allows you to learn more about the people you're most interested in. From Instagram posts to their favorite artists on Spotify, Feed works with other services to bring you real-time updates about what people are doing across their social media networks. The service is currently being tested in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Google's personalized Feed is now available worldwide
Having spent many years honing its algorithms, Google has become the dominant search provider across the world. It'll almost always deliver what you're looking for, but in recent years the company has experimented with ways to bring content to you, rather than expect you to go out and find it. Google's biggest realization of this is the Feed, a personalized stream of mobile cards that are relevant to your interests. When Google added a ton of new features back in July, they were only available to US users, but from today, they're available to all.
Facebook tweaks the feed to bury fake news and clickbait
Just how much fake news trending all over Facebook actually influenced the election is still up for debate, but the question pushed the social media company into crackdown mode. In the last few months, it cut off ad funding for dubious posts and added a button to let users flag questionable content for review by third-party fact-checkers. To more actively combat shady stories, the social media giant is tweaking its News Feed algorithm to promote more legitimate and viral content.
Instagram rolls out its Facebook-style algorithmic feed
Back in March, Instagram announced plans to re-order the feed of accounts you follow based on what you're likely to care about most. The idea is similar to with Facebook does with the News Feed: displaying posts that might interest you the most rather than showing content in chronological order. A few days after the announcement, Instagram took to Twitter to let us know the algorithm-driven approach wasn't in place yet, but this week the company announced the feature is now rolling out to all users.
Twitter's Facebook-style timeline could arrive next week
Completing the process of Facebook and Twitter doing battle by copying all of each other's features, a report by Buzzfeed says that Twitter could debut its "algorithmic" feed as early as next week. Since it launched, the microblogging service has always displayed tweets in a reverse chronological order. Users have recently spotted tests where tweets were reshuffled out of order, similar to Facebook's method of sorting posts, and executives have hinted at just such a change for years.
Roku brings smarter search features to UK set-top boxes
Roku faces growing competition in the UK, but for now its streaming set-top boxes are still some of the best on the market. To help it fend off Apple, Amazon, Google and others, the company is introducing new software features and an upgraded Roku 2 player. The biggest addition is Roku Search, which lets you quickly see which streaming services have a particular movie or TV show in their library. Only Netflix, Snagfilms and Popcornflix support the feature at the moment, but Roku says it hopes to integrate more in the future. In addition, you can now search for actors and directors, as well as streaming services available in the Roku Channel Store. Finally, the new Roku Feed gives you updates about upcoming movies and when they'll be available to watch via on-demand services.
Ask Massively: Feeds and faceplustweets
Google Reader might be on its way out, but old-school RSS is here to stay. If you haven't jumped to Feedly or some other RSS platform yet, July 1st is your doomsday. How is this relevant to your interests and why am I telling you this in Ask Massively? Well, many of you readers probably don't camp our front page, and if you're not into social media and the latest faceplustweet craze, RSS can help you keep up with the parts of Massively you want to read (and avoid the ones you don't).
Google+ web app adds two new features, iOS and Android soon to follow
Twitter recently revamped its web interface, and now Google has decided to do the same for the Google+ web app, bringing two new features that should be a boon for the Big G's thriving social network. You can now see who's been rolling out +1's to your latest Hello Kitty pics with a simple click of the +1 count near the button. There's also a "What's Hot" stream, a section focused on the most interesting shared content that's accessed by flicking your thumb right on the main Circles timeline. The only casualty from this update was the Incoming feed page, which was replaced due to lack of use according to its creator. The iOS and Android applications are expected to make the jump soon, but in the meantime, the web app should satisfy the need to indulge.
