Social

WhatsApp has introduced two new safety features in India – flash calls and message level reporting. The latter enables users to report accounts by flagging a specific message. The flash call feature is an addition to the SMS verification option mandated on the registration process on WhatsApp. WhatsApp says that these two features have been

WhatsApp is adding more details to its privacy policy and flagging that information for European users, after Irish regulators slapped the chat service with a record fine for breaching strict EU data privacy rules. Starting Monday, WhatsApp’s privacy policy will be reorganised to provide more information on the data it collects and how it’s used.

The US Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday that a federal court should allow an antitrust lawsuit it filed against Facebook to go forward as the company has “interfered with the competitive process by targeting nascent threats through exclusionary conduct.” In August the FTC refreshed its antitrust case against Facebook, now Meta Platforms, adding detail on

A group of state attorneys general are investigating the photo-sharing platform Instagram and its effects on children and young adults, saying its parent company Facebook — now called Meta Platforms — ignored internal research about the physical and mental health dangers it posed to young people. The investigation is led by a bipartisan coalition of

Facebook parent company Meta has announced that it’s testing several new controls designed to give users and businesses the option to customise their Facebook News Feed experience. With this move, Meta says people can now increase or reduce the amount of content they see from friends, family, Groups, and Pages on Facebook and the topics

Clubhouse has started rolling out the closed captioning feature for the app on iOS. The much-awaited functionality auto-generates live transcriptions during an audio session and allows users to follow the speaker along with in-text format. People who are differently-abled can also access the audio-only social networking platform following the latest update. In that way, the

Telegram has announced the launch of Sponsored Messages on its platform — a tool that will allow anyone to promote their channels and bots. Sponsored Messages will be visible to in public channels on Telegram that have more than a thousand subscribers. It will be limited to 160 characters as well. Currently, the feature is

Nike on Thursday revealed a virtual world modelled after its headquarters on video game platform Roblox, becoming one of the first big brands to enter the “metaverse”. The digital space, called “Nikeland”, allows players to outfit their avatar with special Nike products and is free for anyone to visit on Roblox. Visitors can currently play Tag,

Instagram has added a new feature on its apps for iOS and Android devices that will allow users to ‘Rage Shake’ their phones when they want to report a problem. The image-sharing service has introduced the feature for users only in the US as of now, allowing them to quickly flag issues they face while

Google Meet has added new immersive backgrounds and styles that allow Web users to change their backgrounds during a video call. The platform has added two new animated backdrops called Cafe and Condo which will help users represent their current time zone and climate. Both the interiors will have multiple iterations including rainy, sunny, or

Looking to adding more privacy to your Facebook account by locking your profile? By locking your profile, people who are not on your Facebook friends list will only see a limited view of the profile. A locked profile will show photos and posts on the timeline, profile picture and cover photo, stories, and new posts

Instagram Badges has now officially started rolling out. The feature allows creators to earn money from their followers. Badges allow users to show support for creators during a Live video on the platform. Starting Wednesday, users aged 18 and above with more than 10,000 followers in select regions will be able to use Instagram Badges. Once

Snapchat on Wednesday received an updated Snap Map that brings a feature called Layers to superimpose content and information about different locations. The ultimate aim of bringing Layers to Snap Map is to enhance partnerships over Snapchat by showing partner content on the virtual map. But in the meantime, Snapchat parent Snap has introduced Explore

An app that allows users to create and share videos that blend elements of the physical and virtual worlds has been launched on Tuesday, with financing from James Murdoch and entertainment industry backers. Octi, which has been updated from an earlier version, seeks to capitalise on burgeoning consumer interest in augmented reality, a technology that

Instagram has apparently started using a new method for identity verification of its users. The social media platform is asking users to take a short video selfie ‘to help confirm that you’re a real person’. This feature has likely been introduced to reduce the number of fake or spam accounts on the platform. Instagram owner

WhatsApp has been spotted developing new apps for Windows and macOS users. The new apps are found to have user interface (UI) improvements over existing WhatsApp desktop versions. WhatsApp has separately started rolling out the ability to pause and resume voice message recordings for some iOS beta testers. People using a recent WhatsApp for iPhone

Twitter said on Monday it will expand free access to the social networking site’s data to help software developers create tools and products that could promote safer online conversations or curate content. The move is part of Twitter’s growing effort over the past year to decentralise the company, a vision that aims to give users

Mastodon, the federated social networking service that allows users to create their own private networks, made it clear that it won’t be incorporating support for non-fungible tokens or NFTs on its platform. The platform has been vocal in its stance against microtransactions enabled by NFTs and in a reply to a Twitter user on the

Instagram is planning to bring a new feature that allows users to add a moderator to a live video. At present, only the user who has started the live on the social network can manage it. The upcoming feature for Instagram was first spotted by a notable developer on Twitter. According to him, the feature

Meta said on Tuesday it plans to remove detailed ad-targeting options that refer to “sensitive” topics, such as ads based on interactions with content around race, health, religious practices, political beliefs or sexual orientation. The company, which recently changed its name to Meta and which makes the vast majority of its revenue through digital advertising,

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said on Wednesday it is integrating Workplace, the work-focused version of its social app, with Microsoft’s collaboration app Teams, so users can better share information between the two platforms. The changes will allow users to share content from Workplace’s newsfeed and from its groups into Microsoft’s Teams platform. Soon, it