Facebook is updating its Messenger Kids apps with a new feature that enables kids to add their own friends...with permission, that is. The app is a variation of Facebook Messenger designed for children, enabling parents to control every aspect of the experience. Until now, only parents could add friends for kids, but now there's a second option.
Back in December, Facebook released a new kids-focused chat app, prompting widespread criticism from child health advocates, including calls to pull the service altogether. Despite this controversy, Facebook has continued to make Messenger Kids available on iOS and Android, and has now announced the app's rollout to Canada and Peru.
Facebook's previously announced language translation AI has finally brought direct Spanish translations to the company's Messenger app. With this, users can see direct translations to and from Spanish/English without using a secondary translation tool. This is the latest step in AI-powered translations helping remove the language barrier.
It's difficult to imagine a world without Facebook - as such, Facebook is releasing video ads to Messenger. Inside Messenger, a service which already has non-video ads, users will soon be a testing ground for video advertisements of all sorts. In creeps the most eye-drawing element on the internet, and there goes our sense of privacy even further down the garbage chute.
Facebook is about to get even more annoying, with the promise of autoplaying video adverts inserted into Facebook Messenger. The commercials are the latest attempt by the social network to squeeze ad dollars out of the eyeballs of its users, having run short on space in the regular app.
Facebook Messenger will soon automatically suggest translations between Spanish and English, though the feature will initially be limited to Marketplace, the company has announced. The feature is a convenient and rapid way to translate between the two popular languages, enabling users who would otherwise face a language barrier to engage on Facebook's platform.
As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to kick off 2018's F8 conference today, we knew that augmented reality and virtual reality were going to be big topics. After all, we started the day with the news that the new Oculus Go headset had gone up for pre-order, and the Facebook platform in general has been branching out into VR in recent months. Today we learned about the next step in that process: AR for Messenger and Instagram.
Facebook is adding a sleep mode for Facebook Messenger Kids, allowing parents to control when young users get access to the app. The new feature follows the launch of the child-friendly version of the instant messaging app last December, intended to quiet concerns that younger users of the social network could be talking with predators.
![Facebook Messenger is scanning all the links and photos you share [Updated]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/facebook-messenger-980x420.jpg)
Facebook is automatically scanning Facebook Messenger conversations for unacceptable content, the company has confirmed, monitoring both links and images shared. The revelation stemmed from an unexpected side detail from an interview with CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Recent Facebook controversy prompted many users to download their data from the social network, and some of them discovered an unexpected surprise: the data contains videos the users created but never saved. It seems the videos were recorded using Facebook's older tools, but then discarded rather than published. The users had believed the videos were gone for good, making their presence within the data download file an uncomfortable discovery.
Facebook's call records, SMS, and contacts collecting are the headline of the day - but that's old news to you. You knew a long time ago that Facebook was harvesting your data, and you don't care. What would anyone want with your info anyway? You're just an everyday average person, after all, surely there's no reason to worry that Facebook workers would take the time to read your boring old communications and contact list, right?
Facebook Messenger, the company's messaging app, supports group chats, which are convenient for arranging events or keeping up-to-date with multiple friends outside of the primary Facebook product. The company has announced a new feature for Messenger group chats: admin privileges. With this, group admins can control which users are given access to the group chat and more.