Threads

In a bid to help clamp down on spam on the platform, Instagram has announced new limitations on the use of hashtags. While there is certainly some value in hashtags for the tracking and categorization possibilities they offer, they are also open to abuse.

If you have been confused, frustrated, angered or otherwise responded negatively to an Instagram post which has dozens and dozens of hashtags, the new policy will come as good news. Details were shared about the changes not in a news release or even an Instagram post, but in a post to Threads.

A long-awaited change has landed in Instagram, providing users of the social media platform with a new way to share other people’s stories to their own timeline.

Instagram has stood apart from other social platforms in a number of ways, but notably in the lack of option for the sharing of other people’s public content. Now this is changing, helping to bring Instagram in line with other platforms, and giving users something they have been asking for for a very long time.

Every so often there are posts that do the rounds on social media that suggest terrible policy changes are coming. This is happening again, with a message claiming that Meta is going to start using the content of private DMs to train AI.

The unfounded claims are being tied to a Privacy Policy update which is due to come into force on December 16. While it is certainly true that Meta’s new policy kicks in in a couple of weeks, there are falsities being attached to it in scaremongering posts that have gone semi-viral.

Having someone sliding into your DMs on Instagram could be about to look a little different. The social media platform is rolling out the ability to adorn direct messages with stickers as well as freehand drawing.

As this has been in testing for a reasonable amount of time already, these options may already be familiar to subsets of Instagram users – but now they are rolling out to everyone. If you are yet to experience these new messaging tools, they may not be quite what you expect them to be.

Most of the talk about teenagers using social media centers around keeping them safe or restricting what they are able to do. In many regards Instagram is no different, but now younger users are being given something extra.

Instagram’s design team has proudly announced the users with Teen accounts will be able to choose between a number of “aesthetics” for the app. Not available to anyone with a non-Teen account, the new option allows teenagers to select a different icons for the app, designed by Carlos Oliveras Colom.

Siri, Apple’s digital assistant, has struggled to make the same emotional connection as newer AI platforms, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This is in part because users only interact with it through soundwaves or voice prompts.

Designer Ben Geskin thinks a new visual identity could change that, and shared his reimagined Siri concept on Threads.

Post an image to Instagram and it will almost certainly be automatically cropped. The reason for this is that, until now, the platform has supported 4:5 aspect ratio images, as well as the Instagram staple -- the square format.

But this is not in line with how most people shoot photographs, and the platform is finally taking this into account. There is now support for a new (new to Instagram, at least), aspect ratio.

For all of the talk about establishing and maintaining connections, for the companies behind them social media platforms are about making money. Advertising plays a massive role in this, and Meta is looking for new ways to grab users’ attention.

The company has announced it is testing video ads on Threads as it explores expanding its portfolio of ad formats. There are also new ad options for creators and brands on Facebook and Instagram, as well as the slightly unusual sounding “trending ads” feature.

Meta has announced some interesting new features for its Threads social platform, and there are other unannounced ones that have been spotted as well.

In the name of transparency, Account Status is starting to roll out so users can find out more about violations they have been committed and if any posts have been demoted.

Remember Threads? Meta’s most recent foray into social media caused something of a splash when it first emerged, but it quickly became just another platform. Seemingly worried that not enough people are using it, Meta is now using Instagram as a way of pushing Threads usage.

While Meta has said nothing about it in any form of announcement, existing Threads users have started to notice that they are being prompted to cross-post content to Instagram. The hope, presumably, is that Instagram users yet to try out Threads will be tempted into doing so.

The fallout from Elon Musk taking over at X continues as former Twitter-users flock to any of a growing list of alternatives on the fediverse. As well as options like Mastodon there is also Threads which comes from the same stables as Facebook -- Meta.

Much to the chagrin of Twitter exiles who flocked to Socialhome, Mastodon, Pixelfed et el, Threads has been gradually beavering its way into the fediverse. Now Meta has taken its next steps in this direction by making it possible for Threads users to see likes and replies from other networks.

The groundswell of interest in the fediverse really kicked off when Elon Musk took over at Twitter, renamed it X, and made a seemingly endless series of controversial changes and decisions. A large number of users sought new homes, and the likes of Bluesky and Mastodon reaped the benefits.

Another recent entrant into the social arena is Threads -- Meta's answer to X. For quite some time there has been talk about plans to plug Threads into the fediverse, much to the disgust of many Mastodon users. Now this day has rolled around, with Mark Zuckerberg announcing that fediverse integration is now available to some users in beta.

Five-hundred-and-eighty-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft is rolling out improved versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 to users in the European Economic Area. These give users more customization options, such as the ability to remove Microsoft Edge or Bing Web Search entirely from the operating system.

Concern surrounding Elon Musk and his control of Twitter, or X as he decided to rename it, caused an exodus of users seeking a new social media home. The likes of Mastodon and Bluesky have proved popular, but it was Meta's Threads that generated the greatest levels of excitement.

Right from the offset, however, Threads fell victim to strict European data privacy regulations meaning it was unable to launch in the EU. Now this is set to change, with Meta counting down to an EU launch of Threads on December 14 giving the potential for millions of new user to access the service.

In the winter of 2004, a Harvard sophomore named Mark Zuckerberg created a website that would revolutionize the way we communicate and share information. This website, known as Facebook, was initially a small project intended for Harvard students only. But it quickly grew into a global social networking phenomenon, connecting billions of people worldwide.

Zuckerberg was a computer science student with a knack for creating innovative web applications. His first notable creation was a program called CourseMatch, which allowed students to select classes based on the choices of other students. This was followed by Facemash, a website that allowed users to rank the attractiveness of their fellow students. Despite being shut down by Harvard administration due to privacy concerns, Facemash gave Zuckerberg the idea for a social networking site that would eventually become Facebook.