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Pinterest users can now pinch-to-zoom on photos in the app
Pinterest is adding a new feature today that allows users to pinch a photo to zoom in and out on various Pins, matching a feature that’s available on a lot of other services. As the company becomes increasingly focused on mobile and discovery centered around photos, users will start expecting the kinds of behaviors that exist on other services to exist on Pinterest. Read More
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45 million people send birthday wishes on Facebook each day
Roughly 1 in 30 Facebook users tells someone Happy Birthday each day, showing Facebook’s first major emergent behavior is still going strong. Now Facebook is equipping the 45 million people sending birthday wishes each day with some new features. Now instead of just posting a soulless “HBD” or “Happy Birthday!” on someone’s wall with no personal message… Read More
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The most-liked tweet in history says a lot about how the world is doing
The events that unfolded this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia have sparked reactions from all corners of the internet. But one Twitter user, former President Barack Obama, had a response that resonated with millions. Last night, this tweet from Obama became the most-liked tweet on the platform ever, with more than 3 million likes at the time of writing. "No one is born hating… Read More
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What Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others are doing to tackle hate speech
For all the talk about the internet as a great uniter across geographical and ideological divides, it’s just as often used as a tool to deepen divides, as many users are content to stay within their ideological echo chambers. There’s no easy fix, but when hateful rhetoric begins to manifest itself as real-world violence, a failure to take a stand moves beyond theoretical. Read More
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Facebook and Instagram get redesigns for readability
Taking inspiration from line drawings, Reddit and Messenger, Facebook is overhauling the design of the News Feed to make it more legible, clickable and commentable. Meanwhile, Instagram today got a little redesign itself with comment reels now being threaded so you can have sub-conversations in public. Read More
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Facebook adds eBay’s Daily Deals to its Marketplace on mobile
Facebook is again getting into the daily deals space, this time in collaboration with eBay. The company has launched a new feature within its Marketplace section on its mobile app, where a selection of inventory from eBay’s Daily Deals program is now available. The deals can be shopped directly in Facebook’s app, but checkout takes place on eBay’s website through an… Read More
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Facebook boosts snubbed Stories Camera with Live, GIF & text sharing
Despite the tepid reception for Facebook Stories, the social network is doubling down on its full-screen Camera feature. Today Facebook added the ability to go Live, shoot two-second GIFs and share full-screen text posts on colored background from Facebook Camera, which lets you share to Facebook Stories, Direct messaging and the traditional News Feed. Read More
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Snapchat “Crowd Surf” stitches together everyone’s concert videos
Snapchat’s got a new trick to stay one step ahead of Instagram by turning everyone’s quick video clips from concerts into a much more watchable music video you control. Snapchat “Crowd Surf” uses artificial intelligence machine learning technology to analyze when lots of people are all recording the same musical performance at the same time. It can then lace together… Read More
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Facebook is rolling out a Trending News section on mobile, now with its own link
Facebook is rolling out a “Trending News” section on mobile that includes its own link in the app’s main navigation. This follows the company’s earlier announcement this spring of a redesign for Trending Topics, an increasingly important part of Facebook’s social network, where it tracks the news stories that are buzzing across its service. That redesign is… Read More
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Snapchat now lets you Pikachu yourself
Snapchat is teaming up with The Pokémon Company to introduce a new Pikachu filter to the app. The official Pikachu filter applies the electric mouse’s trademark rosy cheeks, pointy ears, black nose and big eyes to faces in the app, and when users open their mouth the iconic Pikachu cry rings out as an animated version of the characters leaps into frame. The Pikachu filter is a… Read More
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Another record low for Snap after 14% drop post-earnings
Snap, the Snapchat parent, has had a very difficult ride in the stock market since debuting in March. After pricing its IPO at $17 and then reaching highs of $27, the company has fallen to less than half that. After losing 14 percent of its value in a single day’s trading, Snap closed Friday at $11.83. Read More
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SoundCloud saved by emergency funding as CEO steps aside
SoundCloud has just closed the necessary funding round to keep the struggling music service afloat. CEO Alex Ljung will step aside though remain chairman as former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor replaces him. Mike Weissman will become COO as SoundCloud co-founder and CTO Eric Wahlforss stays as chief product officer. Read More
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Snap founders won’t sell shares despite plummeting price
Snap has an awful Q2 earnings report… but at least its dancing AR hot dog was viewed 1.5 billion times. To prove their confidence, co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy have agreed not to sell any shares this year, and the company will withhold shares they’re owed to pay for any necessary taxes. Of course, there are only five months left in the year, so this isn’t exactly… Read More
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8 ways to fix Snapchat
Snap’s cool factor is wearing off. It needs new ways to entertain teens and score ad dollars. That means challenging some of its deepest-held philosophies about who Snapchat is for and how it works. From changing its feed to seducing influencers to fighting Facebook, here’s what we think Snap needs to do. Read More
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SoundCloud faces do-or-die vote by investors
SoundCloud will soon collapse if investors don’t vote for a rescue funding round tomorrow. The stumbling music streaming community site had to suddenly lay off 40% of its staff last month. Now it’s asking investors for $169.5 million at a pre-money enterprise valuation of just $150 million. That’s a steep drop from the $700 million valuation of its previous rounds. Read More
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Discord steals gamers from Skype with video chat and screensharing
Discord wants to destroy its biggest, best-funded competitor in the battle to be the communications layer for gaming. It wants to be the home for gamer clans strategizing and trash-talking with each other. After out-gunning its gaming-specific competitors like TeamSpeak, Mumble and Ventrilo with a secret $50 million fundraise earlier this year, Discord is setting its sights on Skype. Read More
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Facebook launches Watch tab of original video shows
Facebook has a new home for original video content produced exclusively for it by partners, who will earn 55 percent of ad break revenue while Facebook keeps 45 percent. The “Watch” tab and original shows will start rolling out to a small group of U.S. users tomorrow on mobile, desktop and Facebook’s TV apps. Read More
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