WhatsApp launch video call on Android, iOS and Windows 10 platform

WhatsApp has just announced video calling for all users starting November 15.The feature will roll out to all users over the next few days. WhatsApp was launched in 2009 as a rich messaging service and is now one of the world’s largest OTT messaging platforms with over 1 billion users,. It added voice calls in early 2015.Here is how the new video calling feature works. The Video calling will work on all devices with Android4.1 and above. The rollout is happening at the same time for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices, thus covering the top mobile operating systems across the world. Users will need to upgrade their app for the feature to show show up. When you click on the call button, you will start getting a new video calls options along with the existing voice calls.
Once the call connects, you will be able to choose either from or back camera of the phone for the video. You will be able to choose if the preview of you video is the main image or the incoming video. Also, the location of the smaller window can be moved to anywhere on the screen.
WhatsApp says it does not assume anything about the quality of the network from which the video call is being made. So the video call quality will improve as the system recognises that the network quality is good. The video calling feature has keep kept really simple so that engages everyone without confusing them. The one additional feature is the ability to multi-task by minimising the video and using other apps on the phone. User will be able to return to the call by tapping on the green band that appears across apps.
At the moment the video calling feature can be used synchronously between two users and not to whole group.

YouTube new System give Creators more Control

YouTube has rolled out several new features for its comments section to help creators interact with their fans more personally. “We realize that comments play a key role in growing this connection,” said Courtney Lessard, Product Manager at YouTube. The new features include the ability to pin comments, highlight creator usernames, as well as new hearts icon.
YouTube has also introduced a new beta feature that will allow creators to hold potentially inappropriate comments for review. The company plans to roll out the same in the coming months. According to Lessard, the new features will help grow stronger communities and have more constructive conversations in comment sections.
YouTube’s pinned comments allows creators to post (or pin) a specific comment at the top of their news feed. However, users will only be able to pin a single comment at a time on their news feed. YouTube has also rolled out creator hearts that can be ‘given’ to favorite comments. “This is a new and easy way to acknowledge comments from your community,” says Lessard. Up next is change in the way creator usernames appears. Creator’s usernames will now appear with a pop of colour around it, whenever they comment on their channel. Verified users will still have the verification checkmark besides their names, along with the new look.
YouTube already gives creators an option to choose moderators who can remove public comments from their videos. Now, it plans to roll out a new feature that holds potentially inappropriate comments for review. Lessard explains how it works, “If you choose to opt-in, comments identified by our algorithm will be held and you have the final decision whether to approve, hide, or report these comments.” Creators who’re interested in trying out the feature can do so by submitting their channel information.

Vine founders create Hype

Two of Vine's original founders have teamed up on a new video app called Hype, which is centered around live video broadcasts.
Out now on iOS (its founders say they're working on an Android version), Hype has many of the features you've come to expect from live streaming services.
Users can stream live broadcasts to followers within the app, who can comment and interact with broadcasts in real-time. Videos can also be replayed after the fact or shared to Twitter. But you aren't limited to sharing only video from your smartphone's camera. Hype also allows you to add photos, video, music, GIFs and other elements to your broadcast and broadcasters can feature comments they like so they appear higher up on the screen during the video streams. Though the app's core functionality is more like Twitter-owned Periscope than Vine, its interface, which allows you to add animations and big chat bubbles to your video, is far quirkier than the increasingly polished Periscope. That, of course, is likely due to the app's founders who know a thing or two about quirky video apps. Hype was created by Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll who, along with former Vine CEO Dom Hofmann, founded the six-second video app in 2012. (Hoffmann, who has two new apps of his own, appears to not be involved with Hype.) Yusupov and Kroll took to Hype Friday to memorialize Vine in a lengthy livestream in which they shared some of their favorite clips and reminisced about their time working on the app."It was kind of a surprise to us," Yusupov said about the news of Vine's imminent shutdown.
Quirky features aside, Hype already faces a  much more competition than Vine did early on — particularly from Facebook and Twitter, who each have their own live video service — but, at the very least, its relatively simple interface and the ability to overlay your own photos and video onto your broadcasts make it the perfect place to memorialize your favorite Vines.

Facebook testing new Camera Feature

Facebook is reportedly testing a new camera feature that will allow users to play around with their selfies using Snapchat-like masks, geofilters, Prisma-like filters as well as overlaid graphics. Users will be able to share these pictures with their friends individually via Direct Message. And the pictures, just like Snapchat, will disappear after 24 hours. According to Tech Crunch, the “new camera” is currently being tested in Ireland. The site quoted a source from the company who said Facebook might test more variations of the new camera before rolling out the new feature globally.“Facebook’s real innovation beyond Snapchat and Prisma are the reactive filters. They cover the screen in leaves you can wave around with your arms, or cool little colored line patterns you can disrupt with your movements,” the report said.
The new camera will be easily accessible from the News Feed by simply swiping right. Next, users can swipe down to browse through various filters and use various tools to make pictures interesting. Facebook here seems to have taken inspiration from popular photo-editing app Prisma as well. The report suggests Facebook will introduce Prisma-like filters for its camera app as well that will turn pictures and videos in to works of art.
Earlier reports suggest Facebook is testing a new Snapchat-like feature for its Messenger app as well. Facebook’s Messenger Day feature, which is similar to Snapchat Stories, was spotted by users in Poland. Messenger Day allows users toadd graphics or text on to pictures and short videos before sharing then with friends.
Facebook is constantly working to boost user engagement on its app as well as Messenger app by adding new features. Facebook Messenger now allows end-to-end conversations, which is optional. Secret Conversations in Messenger can be turned on for select users. And users can set a time frame for which they want their messages to be seen by their friends, after which they disappear.

Twitter kill-off Vine

Twitter is killing off Vine, the short-form video app it once hoped would complement its text-based network with a vibrant community of independent creators. The mobile app will be discontinued “in coming months,” the company said.
The company said it would not delete any Vines that have been posted — for now, anyway. “We value you, your Vines, and are going to do this the right way,” the company said in a Medium post. “You’ll be able to access and download your Vines. We’ll be keeping the website online because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made. ”Twitter bought Vine, which had yet to launch, in late 2012. It launched in January 2013, and its looping 6-second clips gradually became a popular format for sports highlights, visual effects, and comedy. A number of Vine stars improbably became popular recording artists after clips of themselves singing went viral, most notably Shawn Mendes.
And yet Vine never became the destination that Twitter had hoped for. Its co-founders gradually quit, and Twitter was slow to invest in the property. The launch of video on Instagram in 2013 blunted its growth, and as with the rest of Twitter, its product added features at a glacial pace.
The end of Vine comes as Twitter tries to overhaul its core product, which has been slow to add users or grow revenue. The company said today that it would lay off 9 percent of its workforce, or about 350 people, as it attempts to find a sustainable path forward. A recent effort to sell the company failed when no one would meet Twitter’s asking price.

Instagram to show Stories on Explore section

Instagram announced a new Stories feature in August, and now it will start showing these in the Explore tab as well. Instagram’s Stories is a copy of the Snapchat’s popular Stories feature, and lets users add quick and instant updates on the app. Users can scribble different colours on top of these video, photo Stories, although Instagram doesn’t have support for face filters, Bitmoji, like Snapchat.
Now Instagram’s Stories will reflect on the Explore section in order to boost visibility. According to the blogpost by Instagram, “More than 100 million people visit Explore every day to discover photos and videos from people they don’t yet follow. The new suggested stories section highlights the most interesting stories from across Instagram’s vast global community — and like the rest of Explore, the stories you’ll see are personalised to your interests.”Instagram has over 500 million monthly active users, and earlier reports have indicated Stories have seen good engagement, traction on the website. Stories on Instagram are quick updates, and less stylised than the photos, videos people tend to share on the app.
The latter usually have a lot of editing, filters, etc added to them. Stories on Instagram have the same privacy setting as a user’s account; so if your account is private, the stories will only be visible to your followers and not everyone on Instagram. Instagram’s Stories are supposed to be a new way of increasing engagement on the app. By adding them to the Explore tab as well, Instagram will be giving prominent space to Stories.
Just like Explore shows photos, videos from people who you might not be following on Instagram, Stories in this tab will also appear from those you don’t follow. And yes, Stories you’ll see will be around topics, content for which you’ve shown interest on Instagram. So if you follow a lot of food or pet-centred accounts on Instagram, expect to see such Stories in the tab as well.
Instagram, owned by Facebook, is one of the world’s leading social networks with over 500 million monthly active users, and over 300 million daily active users (DAUs). It is well ahead of Snapchat and Twitter in terms of DAUs, but with Snapchat growing in popularity, Stories was introduced to counter the upcoming app. Instagram has not yet given any numbers on how many people are using Stories daily.

Facebook rolls out Recommendation

Facebook is trying to boost engagement on the site with its new ‘Recommendations’ feature for its users. With ‘Recommendations’ friends will be able to suggest places to go, local events for a user.
The social media giant is also adding the ability to interact with businesses directly on the social media website. Recommendations feature is only being rolled out for users in the US, and Facebook says over the coming months they’ll launch more features to boost recommendations and communications with businesses on the website. In a newsroom announcement, Facebook says, “whether traveling to a new place, looking for a hair salon, or searching for the perfect place to eat, people already turn to their friends, family, and local Groups on Facebook for advice.” The new recommendations tool will help organise all these suggestions into one place.
Facebook says that when a user writes a post looking for advice on local places or services like say which restaurant to eat dinner or a new salon for a haircut, they will have the option of switching on “Recommendations for that post.” With that feature turned on, if your friends post suggestions, then the comments will be mapped out and saved in one place. Users can also go to the Recommendations bookmark on Facebook to ask a new question or help their friends.
Facebook has also revamped the Events activity bookmark, and users will be able top browse event recommendations based on what’s popular with friends or events they might have attended in the past.
The social media website has also introduced news ways for people to interact with businesses on the website. For instance, there’s an option to order food directly from a restaurants’ Facebook Page in the US. Any restaurant which uses Delivery.com or Slice in the US will have this ‘Order function. Users will also be able to book an appointment for spas and salons via the Facebook Page. Additionally they can ask for a time slot from the page itself as well as view the services and offerings. The business will get back on Messenger to confirm the appointment. Facebook users will also be able to connect with brands on a Facebook page.
Facebook is also giving some business pages a “Get Quote” so a user can know how much services will cost at the place. There will be the option of buying movie tickets straight from a film’s Facebook Page via Fandango. Finally, Facebook is teaming up with Ticketmaster and Eventbrit to let people get tickets to other events directly from the event page on Facebook.
Overall it looks like Facebook has big plans on it how will make business pages a lot more useful on the website. It could also boost engagement on the social media website, which has seen a dip in original posts, content. For now the recommendations feature is for US only.

No one wants Twitter

The emotional roller coaster that is Twitter’s future seems to have hit a new low today as Salesforce CEO Marc Beniofftells the Financial Times his company has “walked away” from making a bid to buy it. If you’re keeping track, that’s now... pretty much everyone who’s said they’re not interested in buying Twitter.
Neither Google nor Disney plan to bid on Twitter, despite reports saying both were interested. Recode says that Apple is likely also out of the picture. And Verizon immediately dismissed speculation that it was considering a bid. Facebook is also said to be uninterested,according to CNBC. And while Microsoft’s name has been tossed around,no one seems to think the acquisition would make any sense for an increasingly enterprise-focused company.
Really? No one?So it very much sounds like no one is going to make a bid on Twitter this week. Which means that the possibility of a Twitter acquisition, at least for now, appears to be over.
That’s going to put even more pressure on Twitter to figure out away to restart user growth, which has ranged from “stalled” to “slow” over the past year. Twitter’s revenue has also been growing slowly, and it’s unclear if its new embrace of live video — like streaming NFL games and the presidential debates — has been helping.

Instagram app now available for Windows PCs and tablets

Instagram app for Windows 10 is expanding beyond mobiles with the launch of PC and tablet friendly versions. Back in April,Facebook had announced collection of apps including Facebook, Messenger and Instagram for Windows 10. The apps were built on Microsoft’s Windows 10 universal platform with support for features like live tiles and cross platform scaling. Back then, Instagram was made available only to mobile device users and now Facebook-owned Instagram is bringing the app to PCs and tablets. With the new app, Windows 10 users can use the app right from their Windows 10 tablet or PC. The app also offers other Windows only experiences like Live Tiles, with live preview of new photos and notifications.
Top Instagram features available with Windows 10 tablet and PC app:
1.Post and edit photos: With the new app, Instagram users can share pictures with their followers and fellow Instagrammers right from the PC or tablet. The app on Windows 10 PC and tablet primarily offers speed and ease of access.
2.Stories: Stories is the latest from Instagram app. The app allows users to see Stories people you follow in a row at the top of the Feed.
3.Instagram Live Tile: Live Tile has been the single most differentiator about Windows 10 since the debut of Windows Phone. With Instagram app, user can find out what their friends and family are up to at a glance.
4.Rich, native notifications: The new app sends rich and native notifications about recent updates.
5.Instagram Direct: With Instagram Direct, Windows 10 PC and tablet users can exchange threaded messages with one or more people, and share posts from their Feed as a message.

Tinder ‘Smart Photos’ will put your bestphoto on top

Tinder has introduced Smart Photos, a new new algorithm that reorders your photographs based on the number of right swipes you get on each one of them. “Smart Photos alternates the photo first seen by others when you’re shown on Tinder, notes each response as others swipe on you, and reorders your photos to show your best ones first,” a Tinder press statement reads. According to Tinder, users saw an increase of 12 per cent in matches during a testing session for Smart Photos. Smart Photos constantly browses through your photos to put the best ones on top. Tinder’s Smart Photos monitors individual’s swiping pattern to decide which one of your photos they’ll see first when they come to your profile. The SmartPhotos algorithm gets smarter with more input. This means it will be able to function more efficiently the more you swipe.
Tinder recently brought its Swipe Left – Swipe Right interface from its dating app to iMessage. Tinder Stacks allows users to vote on any set of images on the messaging app. Users can send your friends a stack photos to swipe and vote on—from which selfie should be your profile pic to which outfit you should wear tonight.
“We know that life is full of difficult decisions. So, whenever you need more input, Tinder Stacks will help you get your friends to weigh in. Not sure which party shot you should post from last night? Stack it. Need input on which filter you should add to your beach photos? Stack it. Group decision-making drama is a thing of the past. Just stack it,” said the company in a blog post.

Facebook paid $5 million for Bug Bounty

Facebook is celebrating fifth anniversary of its annual Bug Bounty program this year. Facebook’s Bug Bounty program ham terms of numbers, Facebook says it hasreceived more than 9,000 reports in the half of 2016. The social networking giant has paid a total of $611,741 to 149 researchers, which brings the cumulative total to $5 million paid over a period of 5 year to more than 900 researchers. India topped the list of countries in terms of payouts while USA and Mexico round up the top three spot. Facebook says going forward it will include information on how a specific biunty was awarded to a particular researcher. The blog post mentions the social network “will share more details on the thinking behind each award.” Facebook is trying to be more open about its ‘Bug Bounty’ program and also planning to share more educational resources and topics specific to Facebook’s products. been a major program of this kind and has earned support of broader community of security researchers. Facebook says it has paid a cumulative total of $5 million in the past five years.
In a blog post, Facebook notes it discovered many of the people on the team through this community bug bounty program. This year, Facebook is adding WhatsApp to its program with expanded payment option that includes Bitcoin.
The social network says it will also automate payment options this year in order to pay researchers faster than usual.