Facebook adding music into Facebook Stories

378

Starting from today, you’ll be able to add in music to your photos and videos on Facebook Stories as Facebook have just announced that they have added music into Facebook Stories to let their users express themselves and share their love for music on Facebook.

The steps are easy, all you need to do is take a picture or a video from the Facebook camera or you could also upload from your camera roll, tap on the sticker icon and select the music sticker icon. Once you have found the song that you would like to add into your picture or video, select the part of the song that you like and add the sticker with the name of the artist and song title.

You can move the sticker around and add in other stickers and effects to customize your perfect story to share. Besides that, Facebook has planned that they would bring this feature onto news feed but have yet to confirm when will it be officially launched. So for now, Facebook users are free to use the music sticker and create more exciting stories for their fellow friends to watch.

facebook
Facebook music
Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories music
music


Facebook adds Bots to extend group chat interaction in Messenger

353

Today Facebook launched bots for the Messenger app. This chat extension will add Messenger bots into your chats that can allow you to extend the capabilities of interaction that already exist within the Messenger app. TechCrunch informed the public last month that Facebook would launch this group bots at F8 keynote. Previously, bots could only be used per user thus, putting Facebook under pressure to make the bot as human as possible.

This new Chat Extensions let you use Messenger bots in group chats so you and your group of friends an keep track of the latest sports events that are going on live. Other than that, you also also collaborate to build a Spotify playlist together, plan a hotel that you and your friends want to stay for the next trip via SnapTravel, or discuss on a flight you and your friends will want to book.

There is also plants to update the app with many other bots including Apple Music. There is also a Discovery tab where users can search for bots or use the previous bots that were used. With the implementation of Messenger’s M AI, it can process your chat conversations and based on that, recommend bots that you will find useful.

Source:
TechCrunch

facebook
messenger


Facebook adds a feature to stop people from copying profile pictures

299

Facebook has introduced a new protection feature on profile pictures in India, ensuring that people cannot copy, share or misuse the images. Users that activate this profile guarding feature will be assured that their images will not be able to send, share or download by other people.

Those that opt in will get a blue shield border around their images which will prevent other users from taking screenshots of users’ profile picture. Facebook mention that after hearing from Indian social and safety organisations, that some women in the country choose not to upload their picture as a form of safety. The social media network are conducting tests that would cut down this issue, an example would be, adding a design overlay to a picture would reduce the misuse of the image by 75 percent. Users can add those layers through Facebook’s system, users can still use a laptop or desktop to grab the pictures, but the blue border is used as a visual cue rather than a hard barrier for now.

Currently, this feature is only available in India, and we hope that it would also come to our shores as there have been multiple reports of identity theft here in Malaysia.

facebook
identity
picture
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protection
theft


Facebook adds mentions and reactions to Messenger

288

Facebook has the tendency to make every new feature it has made on every app it owns these days, and the latest addition to its now standalone Messenger app would be mentions and reactions. This is probably a more practical add on than the recent Stories feature, it benefits group chats and allows users to mention each other’s name in the conversation, while being able to react to a reply just like you do on your Facebook status.

Ever since Facebook separated the Messenger app from the social media app, the company has always wanted users to use the messenger app as a one stop messaging center, as it also allows you to read and send SMS messages with it. The new mentions feature should work pretty straightforward by typing a @ in the chat group and selecting a person’s name from the list, and the mentioned person should receive a special notification that they have been called out, while reacting to a reply should be as simple as holding on it and select an emoticon that pops up above it.

Mentions and reactions on Facebook Messenger should reach users very soon, so check your phone for updates if you are excited about it.

SOURCE:
Engadget

facebook
messenger


Facebook adds SMS option to Messenger for Android

337

SMSes are not quite dead yet as a recent update for Facebook’s Messenger app for Android has receive an SMS integration feature today.

For those who were not aware, Facebook has been testing SMS integration for their Messenger app for quite a while now. Today, said feature is finally live and you can now send SMSes through the app. You’ll need to personally enable the feature though as it isn’t enabled by default. Once activated, your can start sending and receiving SMSes from the Messenger app. All SMSes are highlighted in purple, allow you to distinguish between SMSes and regular Messenger messages easily.

A perk of sending SMSes through Messenger is that you are able to include stickers, GIFs, emojis and location sharing, much like a regular Messenger conversation. That said, what you’re sending is still an SMS, so SMS fees do apply.

Do note that SMS integration is limited to Android only, so iOS Messenger users are out of luck.

Source:
Facebook

facebook
messenger
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Facebook admits that Portal can collect your data for ad targeting

340

Last week, Facebook announced its Portal devices that are made for video chats and have AI technology to follow movements of its users. Many were skeptical as the company has been facing some privacy and security breach issues, but the company said that data will not be collected through the devices so users won’t have worry about the intrusion of privacy.

However, Facebook recently came out with another statement that contradicts the previous statements, stating that the company can indeed collect data from users to be used for ad targeting. As the Portal devices are also using Messenger as a platform for video calls, similar information that is enabled on Messenger can be collected, which is then used to serve ads.

Rafa Camargo, the VP in charge of Portal said that Portal doesn’t run ads, so there are no intentions of using the data collected for ad targeting, though that only applies to Portal and not other Facebook apps. He further explained that his colleague might have intended to say that they have no plans on using it though it could be used, but misspoke and conveyed the message wrongly.

Ultimately, the conclusion is that Facebook will still collect your data and use it to target you with ads, even though your Portal devices will be ad-free. This will definitely further discourage users who are already doubtful of Facebook to buy the new Portal devices with cameras and microphones that are owned by Facebook.

ad targeting
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portal


Facebook AI chat bots to be unveiled at F8 2016

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A little over a week ago, Microsoft unveiled Bot Framework, giving developers a platform to create bots for chat apps, such as Kik, WeChat and so on. This, of course, lessens human interactions and will make things much simpler especially in businesses. Facebook is expected to launch a platform which works similarly to Bot Framework for its own apps.

In October last year, Facebook rolled out M, a personal assistsant which is built into Messenger. It works pretty much like a virtual personal assistant, capable of tasks such as booking flight tickets, suggest restaurants and other things along the same line. While M has proved to be quite capable, it isn’t available to the general public just yet. According to ABC News, chat bots by Facebook will be one of the main highlights at its F8 developer conference coming this Tuesday.

We should be expecting something revolutionary during the conference, since Facebook introduced Messenger Links last Friday, enabling customers to start direct conversations with businesses. Till then, we will be keeping watch while awaiting F8 2016 this week.

Source:
ABC News

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assistant
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Facebook and Instagram are facing worldwide outages – fix on the way

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UPDATE: Facebook looks to be a-ok now.

Yesterday, Gmail and Google Drive were down; today, Facebook, Instagram, and for some, even Whatsapp.

For many across the globe, popular social media sites Facebook and Instagram were nearly inaccessible since the wee hours. BBC reports say that this is the most severe outage Facebook has encountered in its history; Instagram faired slightly better but users claim that they were unable to load new posts.

Other reports say that the outages aren’t caused by a cyber-attack, and the folks over at Facebook and Instagram are looking into the matter. As of this moment, Facebook has regained some usability – albeit inconsistently, while Instagram remains glitchy.

At the time of writing, Facebook is under maintenance so it’s likely that you’ll be logged out of your profile across all devices.

Since our go-to social media are out of commission, maybe we can be productive today, maybe.

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Facebook and Microsoft will partner up to construct a trans-Atlantic data cable

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Microsoft and Facebook have announced that they will be partnering up, but its not going to have anything to do with either operating systems or social media, it’s going to have something to do with underwater submarine cables.

Today, both companies have announced that they will be building a massive underwater data cable connecting the US to Europe. Dubbed ‘MAREA’, this underwater cable will stretch from Virginia Beach in the US and will reach Bilbao, Spain. This route is further south from various other cabling systems in the area, which the companies claim would allow for more “resilient and reliable” data connections. As for specifications of the cable itself, MAREA would have an estimated data capacity of 160Tbps, making it the highest-capacity subsea cable to ever cross the Atlantic.

While Microsoft and Facebook will be collaborating on the cable, neither companies are going to be actually managing it of course. MAREA will be managed by Telxius, a division of the Spanish Telefónica telecommunications company. This company will sell off capcity from MAREA to companies outside of Facebook and Microsoft.

Construction of MAREA is expected to be completed by October 2017.

Source:
Engadget
,
Microsoft
,
Facebook

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Facebook and Polis Diraja Malaysia set up the National Urgent Response Alerts System in Facebook

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Facebook and Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) has announced a partnership that would see the social media site implement a National Urgent Response (NUR) Alert system in an attempt to find missing children in Malaysia.

This system will send out alerts that include important details about the child. This includes photos, descriptions, location of where the child went mssing, and any other available information that can be provided to the public to aid in the search. PDRM will issue an NUR Alert when they determine that the case qualifies for such an alert, and the alert will be distributed through Facebook’s targeted system.

NUR Alerts are location-based, so some people living in certain areas may seem a few each year, while those living in other areas may not receive any at all. All the alerts will appear on the user’s News Feed, but it will not trigger any notifications.

“When a child disappears, every second counts. Facebook’s geo-targeted alerts will help spread information quickly and effectively to ultimately increase our abilities to find the child,” says Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Dato Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

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The Facebook app now has a new look with more rounded corners

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Facebook has come a long way from when it first started. If you take a look at the social media platform’s interface from 5 years ago you would probably hardly recognize how it looks. That is how much Facebook has changed in terms of its design and it has once again received a bunch of minor revamps for improved readability and easier navigation.

In a Facebook newsroom post, the company has announced that it will be making a few updates to its design over the next couple of weeks. One of the changes will be how conversations look in the replies section of Facebook posts. The style of comments have been switched up in order to make it easier to view which comments are to who.

The News Feed will look slightly different from how it does now. Facebook has redesigned the icons ever so slightly, also increasing the color contrast to improve readability. Icons such as Like, Comment and Share have also been enlarged to enable easier tapping, along with circular profile pictures.

Other updates include a more prominent back button and being able to see where a link takes you before clicking on it. Instagram is currently changing their replies section to be more Facebook-like, so it is no surprise that Facebook will be undergoing some changes as well.

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Facebook begins flagging fake news stories with disputed tags

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Over the past couple of months, Facebook has been working on a method to combat fake news. Today, the company has begun rolling out the disputed tag on its website, which marks the first step the company is taking towards fake news.

Assuming that you’re living in the U.S., some stories of questionable origins may now come with a disputed tag located underneath the link. The tag itself will also link websites that counters the articles claims. As for the fact-checkers involved in the process, Facebook has said that it is working with ABC News, Politifact, FactCheck, Snopes, and the Associated Press to help fact-check news articles.

While the system is welcomed, it isn’t perfect. For one, an article will only be flagged as disputed only after users have reported the story or such, or if Facebook’s software manages to detect something abnormal. There is also the fact that the process of fact-checking itself is time consuming, so it is highly probable that the fake article itself would have been spread far and wide before the article is flagged as false. It is unlikely that the system will be all that effective, but Facebook has got to start somewhere and this is better than nothing.

Source:
Gizmodo

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Facebook begins testing end-to-end encrypted secret conversations

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Much like other chat platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook’s Messenger will be getting end-to-end encryption as the company begins testing on an experimental Messenger feature.

For those of you lucky enough to be selected to test out this new feature, you’ll be able to start sending end-to-end encrypted “secret conversations” through the app. Unlike standard end-to-end encryption systems where messages are only visible to the sender and the recipient, Facebook’s Messenger system has an added layer of security. For Messenger, encrypted messages can only be read on one specific device.

Alongside the end-to-end encryption, you can also send timed messages to your friends. You can set a timer to any selected messages to your friend. Once the time limit on the messages are up, said messages will be automatically deleted. That said, once these features are made available during summer, all of the features are purely on an opt-in basis, meaning that you won’t be forced to encrypt your messages if you don’t want to.

Source:
Facebook

encryption
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Facebook begins testing out survey system as a method to crackdown on fake news

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In its fight against fake news, Facebook has announced that it will be introducing curated content via the Collections feature. Supplementing Collections, Facebook will also be asking its userbase to help in its crusade in the form of a survey system that shows up alongside news reports.

Facebook is asking whether this
@PhillyInquirer
 headline is fake?
pic.twitter.com/cCUpwtvQlS

— Chris Krewson (@ckrewson)
December 5, 2016

This system was first spotted by Chris Krewson of a Philadelphia news portal called
Billy Penn
. The screenshot provided by Krewson shows the survey system in question, asking users if they believe that the title in the link associated with it uses misleading language. Users will be given the option to choose between five options, ranging from ‘not at all’ to ‘completely’ depending on what they believe.

Facebook has since confirmed with
TechCrunch
 that this survey system is an official effort by the company to combat fake news. However, the company kept silent over how the system works behind the scenes. The decision to let the public vote on whether or not the news story is misleading may seem noble at first, but considering the fact that fake news are almost always propogated by the public in the first place, it remains to be seen how effective this system would be. Nevertheless, Facebook’s recent actions have shown that the company is taking a proactive effort in combating fake news. Let’s just hope that the efforts are serious and not just mere lip-service.

Source:
TechCrunch

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Facebook claims that the partner companies are not misusing users’ data

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Facebook has been under a lot of heat this year, and though the year is about to end, Facebook’s problems has yet to come to an end.

Recently The New York Times did a thorough investigation and discovered that Facebook has been sharing users’ personal data with other companies including companies like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and so on. More than 150 companies were getting access to hundreds of millions of Facebook users, and Facebook’s large partners are getting more access than the Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that was involved in Facebook’s biggest crisis in March this year.

To be more specific, companies like Netflix and Spotify gets to read Facebook users’ private messages, Microsoft Bing search engine can access the names of all the Facebook users’ friends without their permission and Amazon can access users’ names and contact information through their friends.

Facebook’s director of privacy and public policy, Steve Satterfield said that the partnerships are actually not violating users’ privacy or even the Federal Trade Commission as the partner companies will still need to obey Facebook policies. That being said, Facebook is also doing nothing to ensure that the partner companies are to protect the information that is being shared, and some companies still get access to users’ data despite that the users disabled all sharing.

Facebook also responded in their newsroom that the partner companies get the read/write/delete messaging access so that users can actually send messages to other Facebook users through partnering apps, and despite that the companies get the access, there are no third parties who are reading the users’ messages. The company also say that the features that allow access to users’ data is to offer more social experiences on partnering apps, and not to misuse the data.

However, Facebook did admit that they shouldn’t have left the users’ data from the instant personalisation feature accessible to their partners, even though the feature was already shut down. The company also said that they’ve taken steps to limit developers’ access to users’ information and reviewing all their APIs and ensuring only the rightful partners can access the data.

It seems like 2018 might not be such a great year for Facebook after all.

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Facebook Collab now available to iOS users

358

Facebook’s own version of TikTok is
finally out
; Collab is now available to the public, but you’ll have to be an iOS user who is in the U.S.

Collab: Combine three videos into one

Collab lets you combine three videos together as layers and all these layers will be played simultaneously. You can join different Collabs or even use them to mix with your own — the app is supposedly able to align the clips so all three videos are in sync. Though this seems like a music collaboration app, you can also combine different kinds of clip. For example, it can be a video in which there are two layers of music and another layer of someone dancing to the music — it’s all up to your creativity.

Video duration maxes out at 15 seconds

Similar to
TikTok
, you will also get a scrolling feed that shows you different Collabs. If you find anyone interesting, you can also favourite them to get notifications when there are new posts from them. Each Collab consists of three 15-second videos and you can choose to create your own or just mix three different videos that are created by others.

You can also choose to share your Collabs to other social media platforms, but just like TikTok, they will come with a watermark.

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Facebook Collab


Facebook Collab is another attempt to compete against TikTok

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Facebook’s new app Collab is its own version of TikTok and is now available for an invite-only beta for selected users to try it out. This will only be available for iOS users, starting with those from the US and Canada.

What is Collab?

According to Facebook, Collabs are three independent videos that play simultaneously — allowing users to create their own recordings to different videos to create new musical arrangements. You can either choose to combine three of your own videos together to create music or ask your friends to join you by adding in their own videos.

So, where is the TikTok element? Well, you’ll have to publish your own collab before others are allowed to use it and mix it with their own. You can also share it on other social media platforms in just a few taps.

Previous attempts

Collab isn’t Facebook’s first attempt to compete against TikTok; the company previously tried
Reels
 on Instagram and
Lasso
, but none has reached the popularity of TikTok. As compared to Collab, Reels and Lasso are more similar to TikTok, offering music and video pairing with additional editing effects. If Collab focuses solely on music creation, it’s quite unlikely that it’ll be able to surpass TikTok.

Users can choose to sign up for their waitlist
here
 and get updates and additional information
here
.

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Facebook could be hit by Privacy Sandbox on Android

1.3K

Starting with Android 12, users are given more transparency and control over their privacy on their devices, and Google is about to implement a feature that lets users opt if they want to be tracked for ads.

While this may be good news for consumers, it isn’t for companies like Meta, as the company depends on tracking to serve relevant ads to Facebook users and this move could severely affect its ad revenue and advertisers, just like it did when Apple released a similar feature on iOS.

Google announced this via a blog post and called this feature a Privacy Sandbox, although the company claims that it is taking a different approach than other platforms, where it limits sharing of user data without cross-app identifiers and advertising ID, it also argues that existing advertising platforms don’t provide a privacy-preserving alternative path which can lead to worse outcomes for user privacy and developer businesses.

Companies like Snap, Rovio and Duolingo has supported this initiative, and in some ways it could be an advantage for Google’s own advertising solution, so unless Meta changes the way it tracks and targets users for ads on Facebook, they could probably suffer the same fate as it did on iOS.

Privacy Sandbox won’t be available in the next immediate major Android update, as Google says that it continues to work with companies and regulators and targets to have it done in the next two years.

Meta’s stock prices have taken a huge hit as Facebook reports decrease in users, as it depends mainly on advertising revenue as its source of income, it dropped to nearly $100 in a single day which translates into a loss of $230 billion in market value.

You can read up on Google’s Privacy Sandbox
here
.

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Facebook could start hiding like counts soon – taking queue from Instagram

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After Instagram’s move to test out a feature to hide likes on posts, Facebook looks to be follow suite as well.

App researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered an unannounced feature that does just that – but like Instagram, this will only be a test for the time being.

It wouldn’t affect casual browsers, but those who rely on it more would absolutely lose their minds – mostly due to the way minds have been conditioned to acknowledge like counts. Followers of the person or page wouldn’t be able to see the total like count, but should be able to see a portion of whom are friends. On Instagram, the poster would have to tap into another window that lets them see the total count.

Facebook could work the same way too considering many business accounts rely on like counts to sell to advertisers.

I think it’s good that these two social media giants are doing this – it curbs hivemind mentality in people who like and follow simply to be a part of something ‘viral’. But with that said, creating viral content based on likes isn’t all bad either – take @world_record_egg for instance; they’ve used their fame to advocate for positive mental health, which is more than what we can say about your run-of-the-mill influencer.

Hiding like counts could put back more focus on the content – give something a like for what you enjoy, not what others enjoy. Plus, bot accounts and purchased likes are useless when the feature is implemented.

We foresee a more pleasant ecosystem on Facebook – which is a much needed, especially in Malaysia.

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Facebook to limit spread of COVID-19 misinformation via notification

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Along with many other social media platforms, Facebook has been trying to reduce the sharing of COVID-19 misinformation. Today, the company began to notify those who share inaccurate information.

Facebook will send notification to those who shared false COVID-19 posts

Back in April, Facebook started fact-checking COVID-19-related articles to ensure that its users aren’t sharing inaccurate information; articles and posts with false information are labelled with false content to reduce the number of users from clicking said posts. Facebook also added a “Get the Facts” section in its COVID-19 Information Centre so users can access the right information, but now the company will take an extra step to send notification to those who shared wrong information regarding COVID-19.

Inaccurate posts will be removed immediately

If you’ve shared an inaccurate post/article regarding COVID-19, Facebook will automatically remove the post before sending you a notification regarding the post removal. You’ll also get to see the details of the post, what interactions you’ve had with it and why it’s removed. According to the Facebook
blog
, you can then choose to see COVID-19 facts or leave and/or unfollow the Page or Group that posted the inaccurate content.

Is the largest social media platform doing enough?

Despite Facebook’s effort in combating COVID-19 misinformation, some still believe that it’s not enough. It took the social media platform almost a full year to execute this new measure, but it still comes with some limitations. Although inaccurate information will be removed, you won’t know what’s the exact information that is inaccurate and what’s the correct facts.

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Facebook currently testing Reactions on Messenger

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Facebook is always adding new handy features to its own platform which accommodates to a pool of ever growing social media junkies. A year ago, Facebook introduced Reactions, allowing its users to express themselves in different ways more than the existing thumbs up button. Since then, users had slightly more freedom to react to Facebook posts on their new feed. The company is now testing the same feature in its Messenger platform.

News outlet TechCrunch has gotten news from one of its readers who was kind enough to show them that Facebook is currently testing Reactions on Messenger, only available to a handful of users. The feature enables people in a conversation to react to individual texts in the conversation itself. For instance, you could use a sad or angry emoji as a means of disapproval over a specific text that your friend has sent in Messenger.

Facebook has since confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is indeed testing the new feature among the few lucky Messenger users. What makes Reactions on Messenger different from the current one of Facebook is that the former has a new “Dislike” emoji/button. It looks like the long awaited thumbs down button has made its way to Messenger, and it might soon add on to Facebook’s original collection of reactions.

The Reactions feature is one of the many reasons why Facebook is still well and alive. Adding the feature to Messenger will only make things better, but what are your thoughts on the new “Dislike” button. Will it turn into a factor contributing to broken relationships?

Source:
TechCrunch

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Facebook Dating is now available in Thailand and Canada

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Facebook has started a dating service back in September whereby Colombia is the first country to experience it firsthand, but now the dating site has reached Thailand and also Canada. Facebook’s dating service is called Facebook Dating, and it’s more like an app within the Facebook app made for Facebook users.

The first thing to know is that the service is only available to users who are 18 and above, and this is verified by Facebook checking on the age of the user’s friends, not by the age the user filled in their Facebook page in case it’s not real. While it seems like an effort to prevent underage users to sign up for the dating service, it is not foolproof enough and can still be inaccurate. Besides that, as the dating service was just launched in the two countries, users who signed up will not immediately have matches yet because Facebook plans on waiting for adequate number of people to join the service before starting the matchmaking.

Users who are eligible will have to create a new profile whereby only the first name and the age will be visible, then Facebook will suggest other users who either have common interests or have mutual friends but rest assured that Facebook will not suggest users from your friend list. Now many might feel that Facebook Dating is similar to Tinder, but the one advantage of Facebook’s Dating service is that it offers a second look feature that allows user to reconsider matches that they may have declined previously. Facebook Dating also does not offer the swipe and like feature like Tinder, instead users have to send a message if they’re interested in getting to know the other party.

Users will have to answer a question that was already set by the other party on their profiles, and should the other party be satisfied or interested in responding, the conversation between both users may continue. However, if the receiver does not want to respond to the answer given by first party, the first party will not be able to continue sending messages to the receiver. This is to ensure that users are not being spammed with messages when they’re not responding or not interested in conversing with the other party.

Those who are using the dating service will also be assured that they won’t be exposed by Facebook as the company promises that the dating activity will not be shared or published on their Newsfeed or Facebook profile. The product manager of Facebook Dating, Nathan Sharp also said that the service received great responses from Colombia, which is probably why Facebook is bringing the dating service to these two countries. If it continues to grow successfully, Facebook might be able to expand the dating service to countries all over the world and be on par with Tinder.

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Facebook is developing glasses that can display VR, AR and MR content simultaneously

481

During F8 this year, Facebook announced that they will be producing a new AR glasses that are able to show VR, AR and MR or a combination of all of them. That was the last time we heard about this until today, according to a patent published on Thursday, the device may augment the real-world environment with computer generated elements and a frame that will present media to the user’s eyes.

They are calling the display Waveguide which has a two-dimensional scanner developed by Facebook owned Oculus VR company that is able to show us all these augments. Waveguide will use lasers, scanning mirrors and other elements to display the content and is done using lasers that emit light into the lens displays which will transform into video and images. In the future, users can further enjoy the AR features with audio via connected speakers or headphones.

This might sound very fancy and something that might give access to VR and AR content to everyone, but they also mentioned that we will only see tech like this in next five years like they always say, good things come to those who wait.

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Facebook drops BlackBerry OS support

359

BlackBerry, known for its physical QWERTY keyboards, tested the Android waters back in 2015 with the BlackBerry Priv, sporting a 5.4 inch screen with a sliding keyboard, not to mention, running on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Having somewhat succumbed to Android’s app ecosystem with the handset, BlackBerry has announced that Facebook is ending their support for BBOS and BlackBerry 10.

BlackBerry’s Lou Gazzola made the announcement on the company’s blog:

“
The app landscape continues to evolve, and in ways that are not always within our control. Recently, Facebook made the decision to discontinue support of their essential APIs for BlackBerry and WhatsApp announced they would end support for BlackBerry 10 and BBOS at the end of 2016.”

This news comes a month after WhatsApp made a similar announcement, that the app will be discontinued on BlackBerry’s operating systems, in addition to Nokia devices by 2017. Gazzola added that the company’s commitment to BlackBerry 10 and to the developers remain unchanged. Three years ago, BlackBerry 10 was launched, boasting 70,000 apps which were more than any first-gen OS.

We have always known that BlackBerry is catered to a more niche market compared to iOS and Android powered devices, but with Facebook and WhatsApp pulling the plug on its OS, it’s hard to say whether BB loyalists will remain within the ecosystem. Any angry BlackBerry users out there?

Source:
BlackBerry Blog

10
android
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os
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Facebook finally allows its users to disable the in-app sounds

304

If you’re active on Facebook, you’ll know that Facebook tend to have sounds for everything such as the sound when you posted a comment, when you shared a post, when you refresh your news feed, and many more.

Its not surprising if we can tell what another person’s doing just by listening to the sound of what their Facebook makes. Sure, you could put your phone on “silent” but its highly unlikely that a person would put their phone on silent 24/7. But fret not, cause now you could turn off Facebook’s in-app sounds by just clicking a few taps and you won’t have to listen to the annoying sounds from Facebook anymore. Here’s how you can disable the sounds on both iOS and Android device.

Disable on iOS

To disable the sounds from an iOS device, first, tap on the button with three lines at the bottom right corner of the app. Next, scroll down and tap on “Settings & Privacy” then select “Settings”. Scroll through the list of settings until you find the “Sound” option and tap on it. Lastly, when you see the “In-App Sound” just slide the switch to turn it off.

Disable on Android

Similarly like turning off the sound on an iOS device, just log onto your Facebook, tap on the button with three lines which will be located on the top right corner of the app, scroll down until you find “Settings & Privacy”, click on it and tap on “Settings”. Then, select “Media and Contacts” and find for “Sounds in the App”, simply slide the switch to off the sound.

By turning off the in-app sounds of your Facebook, you can now enjoy scrolling through your news feed without the worry of somebody knowing your activity and you won’t have to listen to the sounds anymore.

Disable Facebook in app sound
facebook
Facebook in app sound
How to


Facebook finally explains how your News Feed algorithm works

372

You’re not alone if you’ve been wondering about your Facebook News Feed algorithm because the company has never revealed any information on that. However, that’s all about to change; Facebook is going to tell you why you’re seeing all these posts on your News Feed.

With the feature “Why am I seeing this post?”, the company will explain how the app ranks the posts to appear on each user’s News Feed to help users understand and better control the posts they see.

Image credit: Facebook

You’ll be able to access this feature at the drop down menu which is located at the right hand corner of any post, and it’ll provide you insights such as your interaction data with similar posts, posts from the same individual and the popularity of the posts.

In addition, Facebook made sure that you’ll be able to personalise your News Feed by including shortcuts to control. On a side note, Facebook is also updating the “Why am I seeing this ad?”, so you can at least feel a little relieved that the company is moving towards transparency.

facebook
news feed


Facebook for Android finally supports video upload in HD

305

Facebook has finally addressed the need for Android users to upload their videos in HD format since the days of 360 resolution videos are way over. The company has finally added the option to toggle video uploads in HD, which took quite some time, up to two years ago in fact since Facebook on iOS had the feature. Mind you, two years is a pretty long time especially when it comes to technology development.

Facebook seems to have silently pushed out this feature for the Android platform, without any official announcement, probably not wanting the world to know how long they took to get HD video uploads on Android. Android Police reports of some users encountering this new feature as early as a month ago, though most Android users, if not all, have been receiving the feature over the past couple of days.

Another handy feature is said to be coming to the Facebook app in the near future – picture-in-picture video, enabling users to watch Facebook videos while they are browsing their News Feed or even when they leave the app itself. This will require the “draw over other apps” permission in Android, similar to how Facebook’s Messenger app works. Also, Facebook is said to soon rollout a feature to allow users to download videos for offline viewing later. As for now, we’re definitely delighted, if not relieved that Android users can finally upload their videos to Facebook in HD. What do you think?

Source:
Android Police

android
download
facebook
format
hd
ios
offline
support
upload
video


Facebook forbids developers from using its data to create surveillance tools

273

Late last year, Twitter announced that it will no longer let developers use its programming kits or Gnip data to develop surveillance tools. Today, Facebook has announced that it intends to follow in Twitter’s footsteps as Facebook has updated its company policy that forbids developers from creating surveillance tools using its data.

According to a post made by Facebook’s Deputy Chief Privacy Office Rob Sherman, the company has been taking enforcement action against developers who’ve created and marketed such tools over the past several months. Back then, Facebook’s policy did not explicitly state that such actions are forbidden. Now though, both Facebook and Instagram has policies that state that developers cannot “use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance”.

Facebook’s decision to update its policy stems from pressure being applied to the company by United States-based groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Color of Change, and the Center for Media Justice. This change in policy is only the first step in Facebook’s attempts to claim down on surveillance tools of course as the groups mentioned above do expect the company to enforce said policy as well. Only time will tell if Facebook would be vigilant in its attempts to protect the privacy of its users.

Source:
Facebook
,
ACLU

aclu
centerformediajustice
colorofchange
data
facebook
policy
privacy
surveillance


Facebook Gaming’s new feature lets you organise and join tournaments online

364

Social media platforms are thriving right now due to everyone being stuck at home. Today, the company launches a gaming feature called Tournaments so that users can organize friendly competition even though they’re physically apart.

Facebook Tournaments will let users organize an event as if it’s an actual one by including registration, seeding, bracket management and score entry. You can get your friends to co-host your event and you can also remove/disqualify players if needed.

It’s also not necessary for you to have a Facebook account if you’d like to participate in tournaments — you just need to get the organizer to register for you via your gamer tag. If you’re a fellow streamer, you can also stream your match.

This feature will be available on iOS, Android and also its web version. Facebook is now offering early access to the new feature, so make sure you check it out if you’re up for some friendly competition with your friends.

android
facebook
Facebook Gaming
ios
tournaments


Facebook Gaming will get a dedicated app sometime today to rival Twitch

550

According to a report by Reuters, Facebook is planning on releasing a gaming app for their Facebook Gaming steaming service sometime today or tomorrow. It’s said to be a move to rival other apps like Twitch, YouTube and Microsoft Mixer.

The
 app will also come preloaded with casual games alongside access to gaming communities, on top of its live streaming capabilities.

The report quotes head of Facebook Gaming, Fidji Simo as saying that the company is making investment in gaming a priority, and that they believe video games is a form of entertainment that is meant to be interactive and can bring people together.

With this, the app will be launching sooner than its initial
gazetted
 date of June this year in light of the worldwide quarantine. There hasn’t been much said about how the app will work and what recording devices it’ll support – but the reports suggest it’s a mobile app first-and-foremost and that means it’ll reply on your on-board cameras and
microphones
 to work. If it is rivaling Twitch, then we can safely assume it’ll be just
robust
 while offering the ease of networking, since you already have your list of Facebook friends as your audience.

facebook
Facebook Gaming
game streaming
gaming
streaming
twitch
youtube


Facebook has millions of passwords in plain text, readable by employees

303

Facebook recently revealed that their employees had access to many Facebook users’ passwords due to their faulty data storage systems, though the issue is also said to have been resolved.

Passwords stored in the login systems were supposed to be masked and made unreadable, but somehow a large number of passwords ended up in a readable format. While the issue has been fixed, Facebook made sure that they’ll notify users whose passwords have been readable as a security measure. According to Facebook, the number will be around hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users, tens of millions of Facebook users and tens of thousands of Instagram users.

“To be clear, these passwords were never visible to anyone outside of Facebook and we have found no evidence to date that anyone internally abused or improperly accessed them,” wrote Pedro Canahuati, Facebook’s VP in Engineering, Security and Privacy.

To further reassure their users, the company also explained the process of password protection which uses cryptography. The passwords are “hashed” and “salted”, and instead of appearing in plain text forms, they are replaced by random sets of characters.

Facebook also made it clear that they’ve also included security measures when it comes to account protection. The company utilises different signals to detect unusual activities and often update themselves with data breach news and database of stolen credentials to ensure that their users are not affected; if they are, Facebook proceed to inform its users and guide them to change their passwords. For a stronger security measure, Facebook users can also register physical security keys to login to their accounts.

Although the company did not find any evidence of data abuse, users were encouraged to change their passwords and enable a security key/two-factor authentication to better secure their accounts.

facebook
Facebook Lite
instagram
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Facebook Hello is going to be your next annoying but helpful dialer app

346

Facebook has done a lot of amazing stuffs on mobile and now the company is prepared to replace your Android phone’s dialer with the introduction of Hello, it will have a built-in caller ID and call blocker to filter any unwanted callers, while it may sound really good, the app might actually cause some discomfort in privacy issues, at least from what we understand from the functionality of the app itself.

We all know that Facebook asks users for our phone numbers when using the Messenger app and that’s how the dialer app will be able to identify callers. Apart from that, businesses that have fan pages on the social network with their phone numbers registered will be able to benefit from the service as users will be able to reach them out by searching their phone numbers via the app itself and users will be able to know which business is calling them on their phone.

While it does sound pretty good, privacy is still a main concern on the Hello app, there will still be cases where users can take advantage of the service and call you if they wanted to and this is definitely an advantage for online marketers. In Malaysia, there has been a trend with marketers here masquerading as a friend that has a too handsome or beautiful profile picture and lured users into adding them, if we decide to share our phone numbers with Facebook, these marketers could take advantage of this service to spam our mobile phones with unwanted calls and text messages.

At the end of the day, what Facebook truly wants to do is to make the world even more connected with its Hello app and we definitely commend on that, but until the company finds a way to tackle such privacy issues that we’ve been facing here, we shall keep an eye on how the company will make its dialer app useful enough to replace our smartphone dialers.

The Facebook Hello app is now available at Google Play, head on to the source link to download to your phone.


Facebook implemented policies to ban ads that promote a cure/prevention to coronavirus

317

The coronavirus outbreak has been causing fear and anxiety globally, but what’s worse is when some Internet users decide to take advantage of the situation to spread fake information. There are ads now that allegedly promise a cure or prevention to COVID-19, but Facebook is ready to put a stop to it.

The social media company announced that it’ll be banning Facebook ads that contain fake information about the disease. “We recently implemented a policy to prohibit ads that refer to the coronavirus and create a sense of urgency, like implying a limited supply, or guaranteeing a cure or prevention,” said a Facebook spokesperson to Business Insider. This will also apply to Facebook’s Marketplace section.

Citizens aren’t just panicking online; there have been events in Singapore and Italy where citizens are clearing aisles in supermarkets for supplies over these few weeks. Italy is currently the most affected country in Europe, with 11 deaths and over 300 cases.

In the meantime, it’s best to check your facts before blindly believing information that is spread online. You should only trust information that are released by the government, health officials and those with legit credentials.

ads
Coronavirus
facebook
misinformation


Facebook is implementing a Trending News section on their app

382

Facebook is adding a Trending News section on their app from the main navigation menu. Prior to this, the company has revamped their Trending Topics section which has become a frequently visited section in the app.

This section is focused on making it easier to see how publications are covering topics and what friends and public figures are saying about the matter. When you click the Trending Topic, you will see stories displayed in a carousel from which you can swipe to view all the news available. Previously, the trending news will be categorized into tags which will display the news when tapping on the search bar, now it will display actual news titles that are ranked in order of most to least trending based on the number on the featured image. It seems to be odd how they do not just merge both the Trending News and Trending Topics together as they would integrate much better together rather than separately.+

The redesign of the Trending Topics is currently being rolled out to iPhone and Android devices in the US, the link to Trending News was already available to iPhone users over the past few weeks and the Android version is still being tested.

android
app
facebook
ios
news
trending
update


Facebook implements A.I. into its image search system

264

Artificial intelligence is becoming the norm these days ever since digital assistants like Siri and Cortana first broke into the mainstream market. Today, Facebook is bringing artificial intelligence into its image search system that is capable of identifying items in the photos even if they aren’t tagged as such.

This A.I. utilises Facebook’s Lumos, a platform that was created by Facebook for the purpose of training A.I.s to better understand images and videos. Facebook has also utilised other traditional methods of training A.I. such as deep learning and a neural network. The result of the training? The aforementioned A.I. implemented into the image search can now pick up on scenes, objects, animals, places, attractions and clothing items.

Once the new image search system is rolled out, Facebook users can now conduct image searches so long as they remember a part of the content found in the photo. Once example that Facebook gave was that a user entering “black shirt photo” into the search box will cause the system to throw out all of the user’s photos that feature a black shirt in them, even though they weren’t tagged as such.

Source:
Facebook

artificialintelligence
facebook
imagesearch
lumos
photos


Facebook implements Snapchat’s Streak feature into Messenger

362

Snapchat has a lot of innovations when it comes to features that attract users to take more Snaps, and other companies have implemented some of those features into their own apps. Which is what Facebook is doing by taking the streak feature from Snapchat and implementing it into Facebook Messenger.

This news came when Messenger users posted on Twitter about seeing Streak like features when using the service. It would seem like it is still in the testing stages and is only available to some users. A lightning bolt emoji will appear next to the person you are chatting with when you stay in contact for two days in a row. Then the format is the same as Snapchat, keep in contact with the person or lose the streak. It will even warn you when a streak is about to end with someone you are chatting in hopes that you will get on and keep the streak.

Messenger is testing out streak counts… Streak counts really bug me.
pic.twitter.com/leDRemkSR3

— case (@CaseSandberg)
November 22, 2017

It won’t be a surprise if we start seeing this feature in all of the apps Facebook owns, like Instagram and Whatsapp. It is a good way for the company to keep users hooked on their apps but some users have found it stressful as they are pressured into keeping the streak. But if you are like me, ignorance is bliss.

facebook
feature
messenger
snapchat
streak


Facebook in the works of a camera app

2.4K

Snapchat has caught the world by storm with their app. Having started off as a simple camera and messaging app, Snapchat boasted more than 6 billion views in video traffic as of last year. The company is worth $16 billion, a massive value for a 5 year old startup. On the other hand, the Facebook has always been looking for ways to dominate every single aspect of social media, and this time, it is working on a camera app.

The Wall Street Journal has claimed that the camera app in the works by Facebook is rumored to borrow a major element from Snapchat, being the instant launch to the camera viewfinder upon opening the app. This feature is said to be vital to current Snapchat users because of its simplicity that encourages them to snap pictures or record videos instantly. This certainly isn’t the first time Facebook is attempting to take part in the photo-oriented app spectrum. A couple of years back in 2012, Facebook Camera was launched, carrying similar features like Instagram, but was eventually shutdown due to its near fruitless results.

However, it seems like Facebook won’t be failing this time around. Facebook’s live streaming feature has gotten off to a great start, with many social media celebrities and media companies alike, using the feature to promote themselves. Recently, there were more than 800,000 live viewers of a video where BuzzFeed employees added rubberbands to a watermelon till it blew up. The video was 45 minutes long. If social media isn’t crazy then I don’t know what is. What do you think?

Source:
WSJ

app
camera
facebook
live
snapchat
stream


Facebook, Inc is shifting efforts to focus on “serving young adults”

685

According to
The Verge
,
Facebook, Inc
 CEO Mark Zuckerberg has instructed his team to “make serving young adults their north star”.

That is to say that this demographic represents the largest portion of Facebook and Instagram’s users. The social media brand is even willing to risk a slower growing user base among older folk in order to cater to young adults.

Zuckerberg says that he expects the changes to take years, and The Verge reckons that the earliest signs of change could be seen on Instagram. There is expected to be significant changes where the content posted on the platform will consist of more videos and Reels.

This paradigm shift was partly inspired by the emergence of TikTok, a platform which Zuckerberg calls “one of the most effective competitors” he’s ever faced.

Let us know what you think about the brand’s new direction – do you like the content you see on Facebook and Instagram now, or do you think it’s due time for a change? Let us know in the comment section!

facebook
mark zuckerberg
social media


Facebook, Instagram and Messenger will soon have cross-app notification

328

Facebook is currently testing a feature that would combine their family of apps, Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, together to show notifications from the other apps letting you instantly switch between them. This feature will help organize your notifications across all three apps especially for those with OCD about seeing the notification number on the corner of the app icon.

The feature was first found out by Mari Smith, a social media analyst and Facebook confirmed this by stating that that are conducting a small test to help connect with people and exploring ways to make it easier for people to switch between accounts. The app switcher will appear at the top parts of all three account which sums up the pending notification from all the accounts, and tapping on it will bring up a menu for you to select the apps that have those notifications.

As of now, there is no mention that WhatsApp, who Facebook also owns, will be included into this new feature, as this feature is still under testing, be expected to see it soon when it rolls out to others in the future.

cross-app
facebook
instagram
messenger
notifications


Facebook intensifies crackdown on clickbait sites

338

Nobody likes clickbait websites, not even Facebook. The social media company has been battling these “news providers” for almost two years now, but clickbait sites has somehow managed to persevere despite Facebook’s actions. However, these websites may have their days numbered, as Facebook has stated that it would be scaling up its efforts in combating clickbait sites.

While the specifics about how Facebook will be combating clickbait is unclear, the company has stated that it will be looking specifically for headlines that appear to either withhold information or are misleading. The system behind this is stated to work similar to an e-mail’s spam filter. Once Facebook’s algorithm manages to identify certain phrases, these stories or pages will automatically appear lower in your News Feed. This algorithm would be tweaked and improved upon over time, allowing it to be more efficient and accurate over time.

“We’ve head from people that they specifically want to see fewer stories with clickbait headlines or link titles. With this update, people will see fewer clickbait stories and more of the stories they want to see higher up in their feeds,” says Facebook in a blog post.

Source:
Engadget
,
Facebook Newsroom

clickbait
facebook


Facebook introduces “3D Photo” feature, and here’s how you use it

360

Facebook announced a new “3D Photo” feature in its May conference, and now it’s rolling out to Facebook users, so that users can take pictures that have more depth and movement compared to the typical 2D pictures.

If the 3D feature is already available in your iPhone, here’s how you can post a 3D photo. First and foremost, you will need to have a dual-camera iPhone as the feature only supports iPhone devices with dual camera for now. Hence, if you have iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone Xs or iPhone Xs Max, you should be able to use the 3D feature.

You can start by creating a new post and the feature should appear on your phone along with functions like “Photo/Video”, “Tag people”, “GIF”, “Check in” and so on.

Selecting the 3D feature will then bring you to the portrait photo folder in your phone, where you can select the picture you want, and Facebook will turn it into a 3D photo.
 You’ll get to see how the photo will look like before posting and similar to your usually posts, you can caption your 3D photo.

Though you may not have gotten the feature in your app yet, you can already start viewing 3D photos that are posted on Facebook, regardless of the device you’re using. You can also view the photos in VR through devices such as Oculus Go or Oculus Rift.

3D Photo
facebook


Facebook introduces AI video calling devices, Portal and Portal+

574

Facebook is by far the most used social media app for the past few years and is well-known globally. Now, they’re joining the hardware industry, introducing Portal and Portal+.

The Portal and Portal+ are video calling devices that comes in either a 10-inch 1280 x 800 display or a 15-inch 1920 x 1080 display. The Portal devices comes with AI technology whereby their Smart Camera has 140 degree view with 12MP front camera. The devices recognise humans and follow their movements, ensuring that they are always in sight, zooming in and out depending on the number of people. There is also a Spotlight mode made for those who want the focus to be on a single person instead of including everyone in the room. The devices also use a feature called Smart Sound which minimises background noise and enhances the voice of the speaker even if they’re moving around.

Users can connect to anyone who uses the Messenger app, even if they do not have the Portal devices. Portal’s voice assistant is none other than Amazon’s Alexa, though Facebook has its own assistant to handle calls. Alexa can be used to control smart home devices and users can stream music with Spotify, Pandora and iHeartRadio.

For those who have privacy and security concerns, Facebook stated that the contents of Portal video calls will not be used and are encrypted. The AI technology on Portal devices does not run on Facebook servers and users can delete their call history in their devices. Besides that, the microphone and camera can be easily disabled with a tap and a camera cover is provided to block the lens. In addition, users can set passcodes to lock their screens.

The Portal will cost you USD 149 whereas the Portal+ will cost you USD 349, and they are available for pre-order from Facebook, Amazon or Best Buy in US. We might have to wait some time before they are available elsewhere, though with the recent security breach, many might not be as confident in Facebook anymore.

Would you buy the Portal devices by Facebook? Do let us know in the comments section.

facebook
messenger
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Facebook introduces cloud storage, voice posts, and Stories Archive

426

Facebook has gone through some big changes since it had it had the data privacy breach issue that happened last month. A lot of changes were based on data security and others, on reforming how the company handles its user’s data. That, however, is not going to stop them from taking out new features to keep its users hooked.

The company has just announced that they will be offering a better way to create and save memories, by offering a cloud storage service. The change can be seen in its Facebook Camera that is in-app. After taking a picture, the app will ask you if you want to save your pictures on the cloud, rather than on your device and users can only see their photos and videos after they have logged in to the app.

Next is the ability to share voice using the in-app camera as Voice Post, which the company has mentioned is a more intimate way to connect with your friends.

Lastly, is an archive feature which will allow you to save your Facebook Stories so you can always go back to it whenever you need to.

Some of you might feel like this is a way for Facebook to profit over your photos, videos and now, your voice, but Facebook has and still is in the hot water for what happened previously. However, at the end of the day, it is really up to you and how much information you would want to share on your social media accounts and if you can put your trust in Facebook once again.

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Facebook is creating its own cryptocurrency for WhatsApp

419

Facebook is recently found to be developing cryptocurrency for WhatsApp users, and this cryptocurrency will be made to allow fund transfers through the app.

The first country that the company plans to focus on will be India, as the country has a higher remittance market and also has a huge population of 480 million Internet users and more than 200 million WhatsApp users. According to the World Bank, India also leads in remittance market, with people sending $69 billion home to India last year.

Image credit: Financial Express

Facebook is now trying to develop a stablecoin which is a type of digital currency that is backed by the US dollar so that the currency will be less volatile. Of course, there are many other companies who have tried to create stablecoin, but not many have succeeded or lasted. Facebook might be one of those that would last though, as the company has 2.5 billion global users, and the company has been running for a decade and still leads the social media network.

However, the cryptocurrency is on its early stages,

as the company is still working on its strategy, so the coin will not be released in the near future yet. The concept of the digital coin is to offer easier daily purchase options that are more stable than currencies, but there will be many aspects to be considered to ensure that the value of the digital coin is actually protected.

The idea of cryptocurrency already sound risky, and with Facebook being the company that is creating it, people might not be convinced to use the cryptocurrency considering the wavering trust they have in the company with its recent problems regarding users’ personal data.

cryptocurrency
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Facebook is now testing shopping mode via live stream for online sellers

602

Nowadays, shop owners and online sellers are using Facebook as their main marketing platform by live streaming on Facebook to showcase the products that they are selling to Facebook users. Facebook has caught up with the trend and is testing out a new feature made specifically for merchants to allow them to sell items efficiently while live streaming.

The new feature works whereby users are able to see a screenshot button that allows them to capture the image of the item that they want to buy and message the merchant directly. The merchant would then be able to send payment request through Messenger to streamline the process.

The new feature is not available yet, but its currently being tested in Thailand, where a community of online sellers have recently taken to Facebook Live to sell a variety of products, from cosmetics to handbags and other fashion item.

Currently, most online sellers are still using the manual way to record their sales, such as asking their fans to message them through Messenger or writing down the names of their buyers to send them the payment information after. The new feature would make it less confusing for both buyers and sellers, as a broadcast can sometimes move quickly as sellers shift from one product to the next.

For now, Facebook mentioned that they will not take any cut of the payments made through live streams. It is also unsure whether or not if the feature would exit Thailand, should it be officially launched later. This is definitely a feature that we’re looking forward to, we shall wait for their next update.

facebook
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Shopping Mode


Facebook is rolling out dark mode for its Messenger app.

286

If you’re anything like me, you’d want all apps to be in dark mode – don’t judge me, that’s just how I roll. Not only does your apps look cooler, they’re not as blinding when you’re using your phone in the dark. A slew of apps has their dedicated dark mode now, while some have dark theme packs. To fit in, Facebook Messenger has now rolled out their very own dark take on the feature.

This is particularly useful for those in LDRs texting their partners at night before hitting the hay – very specific scenario, but it happens. The option to turn on dark mode isn’t available in plain sight – you’ll have to send someone a crescent moon emoji which will trigger a cascading moon effect, and you will then be prompted with a message asking you if you’d like to activate dark mode.

Tap that message and you’ll be taken to the apps settings menu where you’ll be greeted with a new night mode toggle. Now go forth and text your bae at night without fear of ruining your eyesight.

android
chat
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Facebook is shutting down its auto face tagging feature

1.1K

Facebook is shutting down its automatic face recognition feature for tagging people in photos and videos.

It is
reported

that the social media platform will delete more than one billion faces in its database. As a result, users will no longer be able to make use of the feature – the company says that they want people to go back to manual tagging.

Image credit: Business 2 Community

Facebook says its doing this because they need to “weigh the positive use cases for facial recognition against growing societal concerns, especially as regulators have yet to provide clear rules”.

This comes after the Facebook Papers controversy that steeped the company in allegations of amplifying hate speech on their platforms. The company that owns Facebook also rebranded to
Meta

– a move that many regards as an attempt to shift the focus away from the exposé.

Image credit: Doug Chayaka via NBC

Up until now, Facebook has an algorithm that automatically recognises faces and prompt users to allow themselves to be tagged in media such as Memories, photos, and videos.

The new implementation will take place in the coming weeks, so you can expect better privacy while you use the app; but that doesn’t say much amidst the aforementioned allegations.

facebook
tagging


Facebook is testing a voice recognition feature called Aloha

327

Speech recognition is not a new technology and we have seen the tech being used in security systems and other authentication use cases. Facebook is now the next company to dive into this tech as it looks like they are working on a new system called Aloha.

A mobile researcher by the name of Jane Machun Wong was digging into the Facebook and Messenger Android app and found a prototype interface for speech recognition. As you can see from the video below, the feature will basically transcribe your speech into text which can be used to call up comments and possibly send a text message to your friends and family. This might sound familiar, that’s because voice recognition has already been implemented in Android keyboards like Gboard and Swift Key. Wong also discovered the logo that Facebook plans to use for this new feature and although the app is not fully released, it shows that it does a good job picking up voices and converting it into text.

Facebook Messenger Voice Assistant UI
pic.twitter.com/DOMe4Nsg7v

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane)
August 21, 2018

Where Facebook wants to take this feature is still unsure, but we assume that they plan to implement in into both Facebook and Messenger so we can navigate, post up statuses and more. Facebook has not commented on this feature but we would expect something soon.

aloha
facebook
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Facebook is shutting down two unpopular apps, Lasso and Hobbi

651

Facebook has ended two of its app recently —
Lasso
 and
Hobbi
. Never heard of them? That’s because these apps are neither popular nor successful.

Lasso and Hobbi: This is goodbye

On July 10, Lasso and Hobbi will be terminated — both apps were designed by Facebook’s NPE team. Lasso is a TikTok-like app while Hobbi is made to compete against Pinterest. Clearly, both apps have no succeeded in surpassing the older competitions, nor did they gain sufficient attention.

Lasso, a TikTok duplicate

Lasso isn’t Facebook’s only short-form video app; Facebook also introduced an app called
Collab
 near the end of May and back in November 2019, the company debuted Reels on Instagram. Reels allows users to make 15-second videos to be paired with music before being shared as Stories,
so yes, it’s another TikTok.

Hobbi, an attempt to rival Pinterest

Hobbi has an even shorter lifespan. The Pinterest-like app was live on the U.S. App Store in February and in less than half a year, the app is shutting down. TechCrunch also revealed that Hobbi only had 7,000 downloads in total — an unimpressive number.

According to
Gizmodo
, Facebook also said, “We hope to build communities with our apps but we also don’t expect them to resonate with everyone. We expect to have to shut down apps when they’re not catching on, but we also hope to learn from these experiments so that we can build better, more interesting apps in the future.”

Lasso’s end to help boost Reels

The shutdown of Hobbi is probably because it’s just not appealing to the mass population, but Lasso could be ended to make way for
Reels
. Instagram’s Reels was launched in Brazil back in November 2019, but it was also expanded to France and Germany last month, a sign that it could be getting recognition.

facebook
Hobbi
instagram
Lasso
Reels


Facebook to launch its own Android smartwatch

522

A report from
The Information
 revealed that Facebook will be introducing its own smartwatch next year and it’ll come with Facebook services while acting as a fitness tracker.

Facebook also wants its own watch OS

The upcoming smartwatch will be running on Android, but that is only the case until Facebook gets its own OS — that is expected to happen in 2023. This smartwatch will also have its own cellular connection, so it doesn’t need to rely on a smartwatch. Facebook Messenger is likely to be pre-installed in the watch, but we’re more excited to see how Facebook will enhance the overall texting/chatting experience on the watch.

Can we trust the Facebook smartwatch?

There’s also another factor that may deter the success of this Facebook watch. Many users have grown skeptical of the company when it comes to privacy issues — the recent announcement regarding WhatsApp’s privacy policy scared a significant number of users to migrate to other apps like Telegram and Signal. There’s no doubt that people will worry about the exploitation of their personal health data if they choose to purchase the Facebook watch.

The Information
 also suggested that the company will sell its wearable at a price near its original cost so it can compete with the likes of Apple Watch and Fitbit. However, this watch will still need to match the standards of the Apple Watch if it doesn’t want to be forgotten like the rest of Facebook’s hardwares.

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Facebook launched a new version of Messenger for kids

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Facebook has just announced a new version of Messenger that is catered to kids. Messenger Kids will not require an account, parents will have to manage their child’s app from their Facebook account which gives them control to choose the friends and family that the child can contact.

The important thing that Facebook has to emphasize is that the child’s information will not be collected or used for ads as the kid version of the app does not contain any ads. Messenger Kids will offer features like video and text chat alongside masks and filters which are already present on Instagram and Facebook Stories. There are also specially chosen GIFs, frames, stickers, masks and drawing tools that allow them to decorate their content. Parents can download it from the App Store and must authenticate it with their Facebook account, then only can they create an account for their kids to use. Users that have a Facebook account can also create a Messenger Kids account to chat with the kids and they can control who they approve for their child to interact with.

Facebook is launching the app today in preview and there will be a limited rollout on iOS. The app is only available in the US but they are planning to expand the app to Android and the world in the next few months.

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Facebook launches group video chats on Messenger

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Facebook’s Messenger has received a major add on to its app which will definitely get more people to start using it. Facebook has estimated 245 million people making video calls on Messenger every month, and the company is determined to bring it to the next level by adding a group video chatting feature.

You probably know how group video chats work, unless you haven’t been on one before. It is just as simple on Messenger as it is on other platforms when it comes to initiating a group video call. In an existing group conversation, or a new one, users will just have to tap on the video icon on the upper right corner of the screen to start the video call. Your fellow friends in the group conversation will then be notified, and with one tap, they will be able to join in on the video chat as well.

Messenger’s group video chat can handle up to 50 people at one go. But do bear in mind that only the dominant speaker will be shown on the screen to everyone if the number of people in the video chat exceeds 6 people. In order to get this new feature up and running on Messenger, be sure to update the app to its latest version. This feature is currently only available on iOS for now, and will arrive to the Android platform real soon.

Source:
Facebook

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Facebook launches new app called Lasso to take on TikTok

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Nowadays, there’s a lot of apps that you could download on your smartphone. It doesn’t matter if its sport, beauty, cooking, or singing, there’s surely an app that suits your liking. Take TikTok for example, it is one of the most used and downloaded app by users all around the world. It is a video app that let users create fun and creative videos of them dancing or lip syncing to a song, and the videos could be shared on any social media platform.

Recently, Facebook have created and launched an app similar to TikTok that they have named as “Lasso”, but they did not announced the release of the app, instead they released the app quietly. Since Facebook has been losing their users over the year, Facebook have created this app in hopes to win the heart of their users, specifically teenagers who have lost interest on Facebook.

The app is available for download on both iOS and Android phones, and you can choose to create an account by signing in through Instagram or Facebook. As usual, by signing through one of these apps, you’ll have to authorize the app to allow access to your profile page, photos, and videos. Once you have set up an account, you’ll be able to scroll through tons of short videos that auto plays when you scroll by them.

If you took a video, you will be able to edit your video with different type of filters, add tags, and add hashtags that will be provided at the bottom of your video. Facebook have mentioned that Lasso only allows user to share their videos from Lasso to Facebook stories, whereas feature to share it on Instagram stories will come later.

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Facebook launches Rooms feature for its Messenger app in select countries

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Once upon a time, Facebook tested a semi-anonymous social netowrking tool that centered around interests. This tool, called Rooms, did not make it to a final release, but its basis has since been adopted by Facebook’s Messenger platform as it is now a feature for users living in Australia and Canada.

Rooms are chatrooms that allows individuals to discuss a specific topic with both friends and strangers online. Users will be able to create their own Rooms via the Messenger app, invite members into the chatroom, approve new members, set a nickname for themselves, configure notiifcations and more. Additionally, administrators will be able to set Rooms to private, allowing only certain people to join the chatroom at any point in time.

Judging from the way Rooms work, it seems that the feature will be able to complement Facebook groups, allowing members to chat with each other regardless of their friends status. It may also be great for event planning and even sending out alerts. Whatever the case, do expect more out of the feature as Facebook rolls it out to more countries in the near future.

Source:
TechCrunch

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Facebook launches the second phase of Made by Malaysia, Loved by the World to help SMEs expand their potential

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Made by Malaysia, Loved by the World is a program that made its debut with MATRADE and AVANA last year. This year, Facebook is ready to launch the second phase of the program with a new partnership with DHL Express Malaysia.

According to the Future of Business Survey, it was discovered that 97% of SMEs on Facebook in Malaysia believes that digital marketing on social media is an essential part of their businesses. As SMEs are significantly contributing to the GDP growth of the country, it is important for them to be able to gain more insights to fully utilize the digital platform.

The first phase of the program has led to the conclusion that many SMEs are curious to learn more about logistics and supplies hence the partnership with DHL Express. Country Director, Nicole Tan said the partnership with DHL Express will complement the program and help SMEs better know how what to expect in international trades.

Tengku Elona and Rose Nizeana, two participants of the program were also invited to share their stories. Tengku Elona is the founder of a skincare product that caters for eczema-prone and sensitive skin while Rose Nizeana is the co-founder of Auntie TIM that focuses on condiments like
rendang
and
sambal
. The program is said to have helped them expand their business and attract more customers.

“Digital is cheaper, easier. You don’t need to be there all the time,” said Tengku Elona. She also mentioned that it’s cheaper than TV commercials and that it’s something that anyone can do as long as they learn the right techniques.

In addition to that, Facebook also offers free online tools to help SMEs improve their business. With tools like Cross border Insights Finders and short e-learning modules via Facebook Blueprint, SMEs can make better decisions and learn more about the potential of the market they’d want to explore.

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Loved by the World
Made by Malaysia
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Facebook is making its own TV shows and reports indicate it will launch in two weeks

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Facebook wants to join the TV industry with the release of Facebook TV which is reportedly coming out in two weeks according to be Bloomberg. Right now, TV partners are already submitting their 5 to 10-minute videos that will act as a pilot episode.

This videos will generate ad revenue with 45% of the total earnings will go to Facebook and the rest back to the content creators. The future the content on the platform will run from 20 to 30-minutes will be owned solely by Facebook and companies such as Group Nine Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN and Vox Media have already signed up to be part of this platform. The platform was originally slated to release in June with delays to be expected, Bloomberg did mention that even if it’s coming in August, we should expect that there might be further delays.

Facebook TV is expected to be the middle tier in the video streaming industry, they will have higher quality production compared to home made YouTube videos. However, is not expected to be on the same level as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other premium video streaming service.


Facebook Malaysia launches new office expansion to bring forward community-first services

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Facebook Malaysia has today unveiled their brand-spanking new expanded office in Q Sentral. The original was built back in 2016, and three years on, Facebook is expanding their space in the country as they look to also bolster workforce.

Facebook Malaysia’s role in the region is to help businesses engage with mobile-first consumers. With products such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, Facebook are undoubtedly a powerhouse in connecting to consumers – during the presentation, VP of Asia Pacific for Facebook Dan Neary mentioned that 23 million users access Facebook on a monthly basis and that’s a massive base to tap into.

In the launch event that was initiated by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as well as YB Tuan Gobing Singh Deo, Facebook say that the office expansion is an investment from the American company in the country to bring forward a community that is connected digitally, as well as to spearhead economic growth in Malaysia.

Part of this effort can be seen with the introduction of Terragraph in Georgetown, Penang a few months ago. Terragraph brings gigabit bandwidth to the historic heritage town. In cooperation with YES, Facebook aims to push broadband speeds to world-beating levels in the hopes of helping Malaysia grow economically via training of entrepreneurs.

Nicole Tan also says that a new Terragraph trial will take place in Cyberjaya soon, further expanding coverage of the technology.

In 2019, Facebook aims to bring Facebook Community Circles which allows community leaders to learn from the community. With all these efforts, Facebook has grown beyond a social media brand, but an organization that put communities first – the new expanded office is a signal of bigger things to come from the company as the local team grows.

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Facebook may clash with German government over hate speech

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Facebook problems isn’t just limited to fake news in the United States as the social media service has gotten itself entangled with Germany’s hate speech law.

A report by The New York Times reveal that Facebook has managed to stir controversy in Germany once again when the social media service failed to respond to an anti-Jewish post shared online by a far-right group that listed the names and addresses of Jewish institutions and Israeli-owned businesses during the 78th anniversary of the Kristallnacht incident.

The report mentions that Facebook initially refused to remove the post as the company believes that the post complied with the company’s “community standards” for what it deems within the bounds of free speech. It was until a backlash on social media, local newspapers and German lawmakers did Facebook decide to delete both the post in question and the Facebook group responsible for it 48 hours later.

This incident isn’t the first time that Facebook has clashed with German law of course. Not too long ago, a German regulator blocked WhatsApp from sharing data from users in Germany with Facebook. The company was also involved in yet another hate speech incident as the Syrian Refugee Crisis had led to a sharp increase of hateful post published on Facebook.

German officials have since declared that they intend to step up regulation of Facebook if the company fails to abide by German laws. Heiko Mass, the German Justice Minister, has warned that he will propose legislation if Facebook cannot remove at least 70 percent of online hate speech within 24 hours by early next year. Whether or not Facebook would be able to (or want to) abide by Germany’s strict law remains to be seen.

Source:
The New York Post

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Facebook may reveal new hardware products in April

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Last year, Facebook founded Building 8, a secretive division that focuses on hardware. Since then, this division has been experimenting, building, and teasing the public over what it has cooked up. Now, it is possible that Building 8’s experiments may finally be presented to the public during Facebook’s upcoming F8 conference in April.

According to a report by the Business Insider, it appears that Building 8 will be making its presence known at the F8 conference next month. While the hardware in question still remains a mystery, rumours and teases that have surface indicates that the hardwares in question will range from drones, augmented reality, brain-scanning technology, and a project that is headed up by a Stanford cardiologist.

Not surprisingly, Facebook themselves did not comment on the Business Insider story, so until the F8 conference begin, you should really take these speculations with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, the projects that are being worked at by Building 8 may prove to be the most interesting thing that Facebook has to offer.

Source:
Business Insider

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Facebook is testing out its own meme-creation app, Whale

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If you’ve always wanted an app just to create memes, Facebook is on its way by testing out an app called Whale.

The app is created by “NPE Team from Facebook”, and there are actually two other apps created by this team — called Aux and Bump. Currently, it is only available in the Canadian App Store and there are no news of its availability in Google Play Store.

Basically, Whale makes it easier for individuals to create memes by offering basic editing tools and a bunch of stock photos. Users can then use these images and edit them any way they like before sharing their creation to others.

It’s obvious that this app is targeting the younger generation where memes are a big part of their lives, but that doesn’t guarantee that the app will be successful — especially since it isn’t very hard to create a meme with any other existing apps or programs.

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Facebook, Messenger and Instagram’s downtime has been resolved

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If you’ve been hooked on social media, you’d know that the three of the largest social networks have been down last night — Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. Luckily for us, the issues have been resolved.

While the sites were down last night, users reported problems in uploading/sending pictures, videos and files on Instagram, Messenger and also Facebook. Some also couldn’t see stories others posted on Instagram or save photos in Messenger causing lots of frustration.

We’re back! The issue has been resolved and we should be back at 100% for everyone. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.
pic.twitter.com/yKKtHfCYMA

— Instagram (@instagram)
July 3, 2019

Despite the social media platforms apologising and announcing that they’re aware that some users are affected, it appears as if everyone was affected —

or at least a majority of them. Users all over the world have been affected including Europe, South America, Japan and even Malaysia.

Thankfully after more than 10 hours, the issues have been fixed and all three sites are back on top. That being said, none of them really explained what caused the sudden downtime.

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Facebook adds App Lock to secure Messenger chats

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Facebook Messenger is now safer with the new App Lock feature that requires Face ID or Touch ID to unlock your chats.

App Lock

The new feature can be accessed in your Privacy settings and you can choose the duration before the app will require your Face ID to unlock your chats. It can be as soon as when you leave the app up to an hour after you’ve left. As of now, App Lock is only available on iPhones and iPads, but Facebook confirmed that it’ll be available to Android devices in the future.

Privacy Settings

You can also access other features under the new Privacy settings including your story audience, muted stories and secret conversations. Facebook will be introducing more privacy features and they’ll be listed under this Privacy section.

More upcoming features

Similar to
Instagram’s message controls
, Facebook also plans to introduce similar controls to Messenger. With this feature, you can choose who can message/call you and who will be sent to your requests folder. There’s also a chance that Facebook will implement blurring images in requests folder; you can choose whether to view the image or not before taking the next action.

App Lock
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Facebook Messenger brings AR filters to the app

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Augmented Reality is taking the world by storm, from fun apps on the iPhone to Google’s Tango, almost everyone can now access the different types of AR apps and software out there. So it would make sense that Facebook wants to jump onboard the AR bandwagon with the release of World Effects to Facebook Messenger.

The new feature will allow you to place 3D objects in your photos, making them appear like it is part of the real world. You can do things like place a heart over someone’s head or a floating arrow to point out something specific in a shot. The company has also announced that they are allowing the public to use its augmented reality Camera Effects Platform and AR Studio kit which will allow developers to create their own AR filters.

Apple and Google have already released their versions of AR kits to developers earlier this year, it might seem like Facebook is late to the party, but the difference here is that their kit will allow for both development on the iOS and Android without limitations.

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Facebook launches Messenger desktop app for Mac and Windows users

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Facebook couldn’t have picked a better time than now to launch its Messenger Desktop App for Mac and Windows users. Since everyone is practicing social distancing, they can now use the desktop app the video call their friends and family.

Facebook stated that there has been over a 100% increase of users using Messenger on browsers to audio and video call others in the last month. This is most likely the biggest contributing factor to Facebook launching its own Messenger desktop app now.

The desktop app will also share similar features to what you find on your phones. You can enjoy group video calls, get notifications and change your settings such as displaying your Active Status, choose between different themes and also select your preferred emoji skin tone.

The desktop app can be downloaded from both
App Store
 and
Microsoft Store
.

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Facebook Messenger bug lets hackers listen in on your conversations

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According to a
SlashGear
, Facebook’s Messenger app was found wanting in the security and privacy department when a researcher found a loop hole that allowed attackers to listen in on calls using a rather simple hacking method.

Technical details of the Facebook calling bug
https://t.co/wwL9gedW8c

— Natalie Silvanovich (@natashenka)
November 19, 2020

The researcher in question is
Natalie
Silvanovich
 who posted on Twitter recently about the bug that she discovered earlier in the year; all she needed was simply send a sting of code as a text to the victim, which would force the receiving device to automatically accept the incoming call – from there, the attacker will be able to hear anything the victim is saying.

Facebook generously awarded a bounty of $60,000 for this bug, which I’m donating to the
@GiveWell
 Maximum Impact Fund
https://t.co/JvZt9Fw4nx

— Natalie Silvanovich (@natashenka)
November 19, 2020

For that to happen, it appears that the attacker at least needs to have your profile information – so don’t go handing out your social media details to strangers. The good news is that the latest version of Messenger has fixed the bug and is now safe from this
particular
 exploit. If you’ve been holding out on updating your app, you should probably do it, or at least delete it if you don’t intend on using it.

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Facebook Messenger implements end-to-end encryption

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Back in April, WhatsApp pushed out an update that saw the implementation of end-to-end encryption. Today, its parent company is taking a page out of its book as Facebook Messenger has just implemented end-to-end encryption.

Once you’ve installed the latest update for Facebook Messenger, you’ll be able to activate end-to-end encryption through the “Secret Conversation” option found in the settings menu. Besides encrypting texts, the Secret Conversations feature will also allow you to set a timer on your messages. Once the timer expires, the messages will be deleted automatically, giving you an additional layer of security.

Unfortunately, Facebook Messenger’s implementation of end-to-end encryption isn’t as straightforward as WhatsApp’s. For starters, Secret Conversations is available for new messages only, meaning old messages will not be encrypted. You’ll also need to send an entirely new message to the recipient through the Secret Conversation features, as all current chat bubbles will remain unencrypted. Lastly, both the sender and the recipient must have the latest update in order for the feature to work. Facebook Messenger’s implementation of end-to-end encryption may not be the most straightforward, but you’ll at least have the option to protect your chats from this point forward.

Source:
Wired

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Facebook Messenger integrates ride-sharing services into the app

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Soon, you’ll be able to book a Uber ride using Facebook Messenger as the app recently integrated Uber’s service into its app.

Currently available in the US, and will be rolling out to other countries soon, Transportation on Messenger will allow users of the app to book a ride from their ride-sharing service of choice. For now, it is limited to Uber, but there are plans that other ride-sharing apps may be integrated into Messenger in the near future.

Earlier this month,
Uber released their API to allow
 anyone to implement a “Request a Ride” button onto their app with the one clause being that competing apps are not allowed to be implemented as well. In the case of Messenger, this doesn’t seem to be the case as

Techcrunch
 has reported that due to the fact that Transportation on Messenger is built through a private integration, this clause would not apply to Messenger.

Source :
Facebook Newsroom

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Facebook Messenger introduces new camera features on its latest update

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Facebook has announced that they will be adding in new camera features into its Messenger app.

The new features include support for looping Boomerang videos, a selfie mode which blurs out the background, and an augmented reality (AR) feature that allows you to place Messenger’s stickers in your photos and videos. With the new added features, the Facebook Messenger has a total of five different camera modes which is normal, video, text, boomerang, and selfie.

Although the augmented reality effect has been in Facebook Messengers for a while now, such as the “selfie mask” and “world effects”, the AR stickers are claimed to be an attempt to pair these effects with the same stickers that can be sent through standard text chats. By tapping onto the camera icon next to a sticker, you can now add that sticker as an augmented reality object.

According to Facebook, the new camera features will be available to a majority of users globally and it will be available on both Messenger’s redesigned app and its older version.

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