News & Reviews:   Facebook

Popular messaging app WhatsApp may be adding a new way to to find updates and interact with all your group chats within a single tab. Called the ‘Communities’ tab, it is currently being tested by the platform on its latest beta version on both iOS and Android.

So, what is this communities tab all about? Well, it is basically a tab to view all your WhatsApp groups together. From the look of it, the tab is also replacing the camera tab currently found on the latest version of WhatsApp.

WhatsApp, by far the most used messaging app in Malaysia is facing some stiff competition from its rivals, especially from Telegram. In fact, back in January 2021, a lot of WhatsApp users made the switch to Telegram after the former’s questionable change in privacy policy.

More than a year later, the Meta-owned messaging app is now trying to retain as well as win over users back again with a slew of new features currently in the works. These include message reactions, polls, true multi-device support and the ability to send files up to 2GB in size.

Instagram yesterday announced that it is revamping the app by introducing ‘Favourites’ and ‘Following’, two new ways for your feed to behave. The good news is, regardless of which option you take, your feed will display posts in chronological order again!

Shared by the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri via a Meta blogpost yesterday, the change is part of the platform’s initiative to give users more choice and control over what they see in their feed. Furthermore, the change wants to make the time users spend on Instagram ‘feel more intentional’.

Facebook has made a few questionable decisions over the years, both internally in terms of management as well as relating to the platform’s algorithm and features. Well, it seems that Meta’s popular social media platform is at it again, this time by reportedly locking out users who doesn’t activate Facebook Protect out of their Facebook accounts. 

Worse, some users are even saying that they weren’t made aware of the necessity of turning on Facebook Protect. In fact, the only notice they got was from a spam-like email from Facebook titled “Your account requires advanced security from Facebook Protect”.

Meta Platforms chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg yesterday confirmed that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are coming to Instagram soon. In fact, the Facebook founder said that Meta is currently working on doing just that and hopes that it would be accomplished ‘in the near term’.

This announcement comes as no surprise as Meta has previously announced its interest with NFTs. Earlier this year, Instagram top executive Adam Mosseri said that the company is ‘actively exploring’ NFTs and even made plans to add NFTs into its crypto wallet Novi.

Meta Platforms chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg yesterday confirmed that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are coming to Instagram soon. In fact, the Facebook founder said that Meta is currently working on doing just that and hopes that it would be accomplished ‘in the near term’.

This announcement comes as no surprise as Meta has previously announced its interest with NFTs. Earlier this year, Instagram top executive Adam Mosseri said that the company is ‘actively exploring’ NFTs and even made plans to add NFTs into its crypto wallet Novi.

It looks like Instagram has given up on its attempt to capture the long-form video market following the company’s move to kill off the IGTV standalone app. In an official blog post on Monday (28 February 2022), Instagram confirmed that it is discontinuing support for the IGTV app thus ending the service as a whole. RIP!

NFTs are sure getting a lot of buzzes these past few weeks. So much so that YouTube is actually considering exploring this option for video content creators to earn some profit. This came from Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube when she wrote an opening letter for the company's direction in 2022.

If you've been following various news, you might have heard of the term NFT (Non-Fungible Token). We won't go into the details today, but NFTs are essentially pieces of data that represent digital items of value. Now, Meta could be looking to join this bandwagon.

Today, Instagram just announced a new monetisation feature which is simply known as Instagram Subscriptions. Since the company is under Meta, the subscription model is very similar to Facebook's for content creators to engage with their followers with exclusive content and benefits.