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Facebook and Messenger’s new camera filter, stickers focus on mental health
In honor of World Mental Health Day, Facebook has launched a couple of features that it hopes will bring awareness to the cause and help people who may need emotional support. For starters, it worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create a camera filter for Facebook and Messenger Stories called "Let's Talk," which the company says is designed to be an invitation for friends or family to reach out for support if they're struggling. According to Facebook, based on a survey it conducted in the US, UK and Australia, 80 percent of people who participated said they could be more honest when using messaging apps, rather than speaking to someone in person -- hence why it thinks these features could be helpful.
Instagram is helping users avoid phishing scams
The tech-literate might think we're impervious to phishing scams, but even the best of us get fooled once in a while. Fraudsters are constantly getting better at using email to impersonate friends, coworkers and big brands to obtain people's personal information and passwords. As a measure against these cons, Instagram's new security feature adds a list of official emails the company has sent to the app's security tab, letting users double check whether an email they've received is from the company or a scammer.
Adidas made a Snapchat game to drop limited, 8-bit-themed baseball cleats
Adidas is teaming up with Snapchat on a unique way to launch a product. The sportswear giant has created an 8-bit game you can play in Snapchat, called Baseball's Next Level, where you'll have the chance to buy its new 8-bit-themed baseball cleats. Produced in partnership with developer AvatarLabs, Baseball's Next Level is a home run derby, old-school style title that will let you play as some of Adidas' Major League Baseball athletes. That includes Aaron Judge (Yankees), Carlos Correa (Astros), Alex Bregman (Astros), Justin Turner (Dodgers) and Kiké Hernandez (Dodgers), all of whom have their own Adizero or Icon V cleats in the Adidas 8-bit collection, which you can buy directly from the game.
Instagram’s Threads is compelling, but kind of creepy
Look, I'm not one to constantly post selfies. I'd rather just take pictures of random buildings or my sneakers. But, when I do take a selfie, it's mostly just so I can share a goofy face with my family or best friends. I've mentioned this before in previous stories about Facebook, Instagram has become one of my main messaging apps -- right up there with iMessage and WhatsApp. That's why the idea of Instagram's new Threads app, which is designed specifically for private messages between you and your closest friends, sounds so intriguing.
Instagram's Threads is a camera app for sharing with your closest friends
If you want to get a glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg's "privacy-focused" vision for Facebook, then look no further than Instagram's new social app: Threads. This new standalone, camera-first messaging app is an extension of Instagram's Close Friends feature on Stories, which lets you share pictures, videos and more only with groups of people you've carefully selected. As the Facebook CEO has said in recent months, his plan is to take Facebook into an era of "simple, intimate places," where individuals can have a dedicated space for private interactions on its family of apps. And with Threads from Instagram, which launches today on iOS and Android, the company is taking a step in that direction.
Instagram makes its 'Restrict' anti-bullying tool available to everyone
Instagram is continuing to expand its anti-bullying efforts. A few months after it started testing its "Restrict" tool with a small group of users, the company is now rolling it out to everyone. The feature, which is designed to protect your account from unwanted interactions, makes it easy for you to quietly filter out people who may be harassing you in the app. Instagram says its latest anti-bullying tool can be useful for those who are reluctant to report or block bullies, particularly young people, as Restrict gives them a subtle way to hinder any problematic followers. This means that comments from accounts you restrict won't show up publicly on your posts (unless you approve them), and they won't be able to see when you're active or have read their direct messages.
Facebook will test hiding ‘Likes’ on its own site
As rumors suggested, Facebook is getting ready to start hiding "Likes" on its own site. The company has now officially started a test that will remove public visibility of Like, reaction and video view counts from people's posts and ads across Facebook. This is going to be happening only in Australia, though, and Facebook told Engadget it has not decided whether the test will expand to other places in the future. Facebook said it wants to get some initial results from Australia, before eventually deciding which steps to take next.
Twitter now lets everyone on iOS pin lists to their Home timeline
Back in July, Twitter started testing the ability for people to pin their favorite lists in its iOS app. It was a way to let users easily switch their timeline to view tweets from accounts they've added to a list, similar to what you can do on other Twitter apps like TweetDeck. At the time, that feature was limited to a select group of people, but now Twitter is rolling it out to everyone with an iOS device. This is going to allow you to pin (and unpin) up to five lists you follow or subscribe to, whose tweets you can keep up with directly from your main Home timeline. That's going to come in handy in case, you know, you want a more curated experience than what the top tweets or chronological timelines can offer.
Facebook adds new ways for public figures to make money and stay safe
Facebook wants to make it easier for famous people to engage with their fans on the site. That's why the company is launching new ways for Facebook users to interact with public figures they follow, be it internet creators, authors, athletes or sports teams. As part of these efforts, Facebook has started testing a feature that will let multiple public figure accounts contribute to the same Facebook Story during an event, plus a new tool in News Feed that's going to recommend people public figures they should follow. These suggestions, naturally, will be based on content you've engaged with on Facebook or other famous people you follow already.
Facebook Dating launches in the US today
More than a year after Facebook announced its dating service, the company is finally bringing it to the US today. Nathan Sharp, product lead at Facebook, revealed the news at an event in New York City, making the US the 20th country where Facebook Dating is now live. In addition to coming to the States, Facebook Dating is available in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Suriname, Thailand, Uruguay and Vietnam. Facebook says the service will be coming to Europe, too, "by early 2020."
NFL celebrates 100th season with Snapchat AR Lens that comes to life
The National Football League and Snap have made another augmented reality experience together. In celebration of the NFL's 100th season, which kicks off on September 5th, the companies are unveiling an AR Lens that lets people scan an NFL 100 logo and bring it to life inside the Snapchat app. The feature uses Snap's Marker technology, introduced in 2018, to let people use their Snapchat camera to unlock a special video created by the NFL. After scanning an NFL 100 logo, the video will show historic highlights between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, the two teams that are playing the first game of the 2019-2020 season next Thursday. And right beneath the video, as pictured above, there's a clock counting down the days, hours and minutes to the beginning of the NFL 100 season.
Porn bots are now storming Twitter's trending topics
Instagram isn't the only social media app being invaded by porn bots. Now they're on Twitter, too. For the past few days, as I was scrolling through Twitter's trending section, I noticed a number of accounts showing similar behavior as the bots that have taken over Instagram comments. But, whereas on Instagram they're leaving messages like "We gonna ignore the fact that I've GOT A HUGE BOOTY?" or "DON'T LOOK at my STORY, if you don't want to M A S T U R B A T E !" on Twitter the spam also includes pictures of women in bikinis and a bunch of words relevant to topics currently trending on Twitter. And they're even more brazen in their attempts to lure in gullible readers, with messages like "I moan very much during sex, if this does not scare you, call me on whatsapp."
Facebook expands its Data Abuse Bounty program to Instagram
Facebook will start rewarding security researchers who report data abuse happening on Instagram, the company has announced. This is an expansion of Facebook's Data Abuse Bounty program, which it introduced in April 2018. As part of these efforts, Facebook will now start accepting reports about third-party apps that improperly access and store user data, including applications and services that offer fake likes, comments and followers. Essentially, any app that asks for people's login information (like usernames and passwords) is violating Instagram's terms of use -- and Facebook wants the security community to notify it of anyone who may be taking advantage of this.
Instagram’s 'huge booty' problem keeps getting worse
There isn't a day when I don't come across comments from bots on Instagram. They're all over the place. But there's nothing they love more than to spam high-profile pages with millions of followers. Whether it's LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, ESPN or Ariana Grande, their posts are often the target of comments such as "We gonna ignore the fact that I've GOT A HUGE BOOTY?" or "DON'T LOOK at my STORY, if you don't want to M A S T U R B A T E !" Behind these, are fake accounts featuring pictures and videos of naked and half-naked women, whose primary goal is to get people to sign up for shady porn sites. This has become a serious problem for Instagram, one that seems to be getting worse by the day and that the company needs to get a handle on, before it gets more out of control.
Twitter’s faster, redesigned site starts rolling out to everyone
It took quite some time, but the new Twitter.com is finally here. Months after teasing parts of it, Twitter has announced that it is now rolling out its redesigned site globally, which will bring people a web experience that's faster, easier to browse and more customizable. In addition to making conversations simple to follow, Twitter says the goal with this updated look and feel is for it to be more consistent with what you use on mobile devices. That's why the overhaul will make features like Explore, Bookmarks, Lists, Direct Messages and your Profile easier to access, removing the friction of having to switch between tabs, windows or screens to begin a new task or look at Top Trends.
Facebook gives creators more ways to make money
As VidCon gets ready to take place between July 10th and 13th in Anaheim, California, Facebook has news to share with its creator community. The company has announced that it is introducing more ways for them to earn money on its site, starting by giving them the ability to choose better placement for ads in their videos. Facebook says that, in order to better support videos that may not have "a natural break for ads," creators will now have the choice to include non-interruptive advertising formats, such as pre-roll or image-based ads. This could come in handy on videos that are particularly short, for instance.
The Twitter app is officially returning to the Mac later this year
More than a year after Twitter pulled the plug on its official app for the Mac, it looks like the company will be launching a new version for Apple PCs later this year. The application is being created as part of Apple's Project Catalyst, which lets developers easily port apps from iOS to the next major version of macOS, dubbed Catalina. Based on what Apple shared on stage at WWDC 2019, you should expect Twitter's Mac application to be quite similar to the version youu're using on your iPhone.
Spotify might let users build and listen to playlists together
Spotify appears to be working on a "Social Listening" feature that will let multiple users control a playlist from separate devices. They'll also be able to listen to the same songs in real-time. The company hasn't announced the added capability yet, but researcher Jane Manchun Wong spotted a prototype and shared images on Twitter -- where she's previously leaked other updates. The group DJ feature could work like Dubtrack.fm and the former Turntable.fm. It will likely allow users to listen to the same songs while they're apart or collaborate on a playlist when they're together.
Facebook has taken down over 2 billion fake accounts in 2019
Facebook took down 2.19 billion fake accounts during the first quarter of 2019, the company has announced. In addition to that, Facebook said it disabled 1.2 billion fake accounts in Q4 2018. These numbers are quite staggering when you consider that Facebook has 2.38 billion monthly active users, as reported in its Q1 2019 earnings. "For fake accounts," Facebook said in a blog post, "the amount of accounts we took action on increased due to automated attacks by bad actors who attempt to create large volumes of accounts at one time."
Wandering the quiet digital halls of Habbo Hotel
"I'm Unicorn_farts and welcome to your official Habbo Intelligence Agency Training Session!" I was in a strange room filled with black couches, ebony walls and various elevators trapped behind glass gates. It would have felt like a bank or government building were it not for the ice-cream stand and Easter memorabilia, which included a giant rabbit plush and some egg-shaped statues with human-sized chicks inside. Many spaces in Habbo, a virtual world created by Finnish developer Sulake, feel like this one. The platform is loosely modeled after a hotel, but its user-designed chat rooms span a broad set of themes. Jungles, high schools and coffee shops -- they're all in here.
