Instagram tests split-screen live video
All of the messaging services worth their salt feature a live video option, and Instagram is no different. But the company is keen to get more people using it and is worried that going live alone is too intimidating for some people.
To overcome this problem, Instagram is testing a new split-screen option that gives users the chance to go live with a friend. While this is billed as a way to make live video more accessible, there's far greater potential for this form of shared live video than Instagram is currently hinting at.
Apple joins Instagram to boast about iPhone photography
Smartphones have forever changed the photography market. While a standalone camera, such as a DSLR, may take a better photo, they can be a chore to carry and maintain. Not to mention, they can be very expensive. For many non-professional photographers, their phone is more than good enough. Heck, some people claim an iPhone, for example, can rival dedicated cameras.
Apple seems keen to brag about how good its iPhone is at photography -- there are countless TV commercials produced by the company that highlight that exact thing. Apple is also taking its bragging a bit further by way of social media. After increasing its activity on Twitter lately, the company has now joined Instagram too. Under the @Apple handle, the MacBook-maker is not sharing photos of its products, but instead, photos taken with them.
Instagram rolls out archiving feature so you can hide unwanted photos without deleting them
The eyes may be a gateway to the soul, but the feeds of social media accounts can be even more revealing. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and their ilk all give people the opportunity to not only share their lives with the world, but present a particular image of themselves. Of course, there are the occasional posts which, well, let the side down.
With this in mind, Instagram is rolling out a new archive feature that makes it possible to remove images from your feed without having to delete them. If you have any embarrassing pictures you'd rather didn’t taint your image, you can hide them without having to lose them completely.
Instagram ups security with two-factor authentication
Just about every app and online service offer two-factor authentication (2FA) as a security measure these days, and Instagram is the latest to join the party.
After numerous instances of hacking for other services, it's little surprise that Instagram wants to offer its users an extra level of protection. Once enabled, users are required to enter a six-digit code that is sent to their mobile via SMS, greatly eliminating the risk of unauthorized access.
App update prevents users going viral on Instagram by pretending to be in Singapore
Instagrammers around the world recently discovered a quick and easy way to gain greater attention and increase the likelihood of going viral -- tagging their images as if they were in Singapore.
A flaw in Instagram's algorithms meant that images geotagged on the Malaysian island were more likely to be picked to be featured on the Explore page. Greater publicity equals greater views equals viral status equals win. Or at least it did.
Instagram getting safer
Instagram can be a very rewarding experience. If you have never tried it, please know that the concept is rather simple. A user posts either a picture or video, and then other people can comment on it. It is a refreshing alternative to other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Unfortunately, Instagram isn't always a safe space. As you can imagine, trolls will make fun of people's appearances in the photos by leaving negative comments. Not only does this harm someone's self-esteem, but it contributes to an overall declining society that feels to be increasingly dominated by negativity. Some of these users may even post images of themselves self-harming as a result. Today, Instagram announces upcoming changes to make the platform safer.
New solution delivers compliance for business Instagram users
Businesses are increasingly adopting Instagram within the enterprise as a tool for building brand awareness and connecting with prospects and customers.
But as with any form of business communication it's subject to regulatory control. Regulators may classify Instagram posts as advertisements and exchanged comments as business records. To address this, compliance specialist Actiance is adding Instagram support to its Actiance Socialite platform, which enables companies to capture social media posts in context and retain data, including the images, for instant search and retrieval.
Mark Zuckerberg is so concerned about his privacy that he tapes over his webcam and microphone
Facebook and privacy are not words usually associated with one another, and it seems this holds true even for the man at the top. Only recently we learned that Mark Zuckerberg uses terrible passwords, making it easy to hack his accounts, but now it turns out he's also quite paranoid.
As Instagram popped champagne corks for reaching the milestone of half a billion users, Zuckerberg posted a celebratory picture. Eagle-eyed people soon pointed out that both the mic and camera of his laptop were taped over.
People spend less time on social networks
The amount of time people spent in apps of social media networks in the first three months of 2016, in nine major countries in the world, has dropped "dramatically", a new report by digital market intelligence company SimilarWeb says.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have all seen significant drops in the amount of time people in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Australia, India, South Africa, Brazil and Spain have spent in Q1 2016, compared to the same period a year before.
Instagram announces plans to control newsfeeds with an algorithm
People are possessive and precise about their social media. Any change that may be introduced will be scrutinized, criticized, bemoaned, and suffered -- something we've seen time and time again with changes made to Twitter and Facebook timelines. Now Instagram is going down a similar route and introducing algorithmic timelines.
While the move will disappoint -- even infuriate -- many Instagrammers, the announcement has not come completely out of the blue. Just a few weeks ago the social network started testing algorithm-powered timelines and it seems the tests went well. Starting next month, Instagram will ditch the reverse-chronological timeline in favor of one that shows the "moments you care about first".
Instagram follows Twitter in embracing non-chronological algorithmic timelines
Any time a social network makes a change, it upsets a lot of people. Facebook has done it countless times -- just look at the vocal outpourings that followed the launch of reactions, for instance -- and Twitter recently irked many users with a new algorithm timeline, albeit one that can be disabled. Now it's the turn of Instagram.
The image- and video-based social network is currently testing an algorithm-driven timeline, much like Twitter and Facebook. Instagrammers are not happy. Not one bit (hence the appearance of the #boycottinstagram hashtag). The primary concern among users -- the narcissistic blighters! -- is that their posts will not be seen and will instead be buried in the noise of their followers' timelines. But all is not lost.
Instagram is taking advantage of Twitter's weakness
A new report on the global state of social media confirms what everyone’s been talking about lately -- Twitter is struggling and Instagram is taking full advantage of it.
The report, entitled simply "Social", is the product of GlobalWebIndex, and it is a compilation of the latest trends in social networking.
InstaAgent app steals usernames and passwords from Instagram users
An app that enables iPhone users to keep an eye on who has been looking at their Instagram account has been pulled from the App Store after it was found to be stealing usernames and passwords.
Apple took the decision to kill "Who Viewed Your Profile -- InstaAgent" when the app was found scraping login details and sending them back to the developer's server. This in itself is worrying for users, but it gets worse: the usernames and passwords were sent in unencrypted format.
Instagram now has 400M active monthly users
Photo sharing app Instagram has reached another milestone earlier this week, 400 million active monthly users.
That is 100 million more since the last update a few months ago, when Instagram surpassed Twitter. In the same time, Twitter has managed to add 25 million new users. The photo sharing app is growing at a faster rate than Facebook, but slower than Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Instagram battles Twitter with updated Explore and Search features
One of the defining features of Twitter is trending topics. It's easy to catch up on what's hot right now, and it's something that Instagram is borrowing in its latest update. The millions of users of the photo service now have access to a new Explore page that includes not only a trending component that highlights events and topics that people are posting about, but also trending tags and places.
These new options make it easier to home in on content of interest, and changes have also been made to Search. You have the option to search Places, Tags, and People separately, or you can use the Top section to search all at once.
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