It's been clear for some time now that Facebook is betting heavily on video; everything from live streaming to hosting coverage of news and sporting events. But in an effort to really compete with YouTube, the social media behemoth is attempting to lure original video creators with the announcement of a new mobile app that focuses on, well, video creation.
As part of an effort to focus on what people in individual countries expect of Facebook, today the company announced new controls for users in India. These controls almost entirely concern profile pictures, allowing users to control who can download them, tag themselves in them, or even screenshot them. The hope is that more people will feel comfortable uploading profile pictures, thus helping grow that aspect of community.
Instagram announced today that the number of people who use Stories on a daily basis has grown significantly since the last time we checked in. Back in April, Instagram announced that Stories had hit 200 million users, but in the roughly two months since then, that number has grown by 50 million people. To celebrate a quarter of a billion users for Stories, Instagram is rolling out new features that allow you to preserve your Live broadcasts for a short time.
Although GIF is technically just an image format not unlike JPG, PNG, and BMP, its built-in ability to support animations has made it synonymous with creative, ridiculous, and sometimes entertaining forms of expression. It has also become one of the biggest vehicles of such expression on social networks like Facebook. In gratitude and in celebration of the image format's 30th birthday this 15th of June, Facebook is giving out some GIFy treats while also contemplating one of the biggest mysteries of the universe: how to pronounce GIF.
This week the folks at Facebook have released their newest Safety Check update that you and your family need to pay attention to. As Facebook is one of the most-used services on a smartphone in the world, they're pushing a lot of resources into their Safety Check system. This is the system that allows quick action for people in danger zones when terrorist attacks, natural disasters, or otherwise life-threatening events occur.
A man has been sentenced to death this week in a government court of law for committing "blasphemy" on Facebook and WhatsApp. Mr. T. Raza, age 30, was found guilty in a government-sanctioned "antiterrorism court" in a first for the country. This man will be put to death for his crimes against society unless he appeals the sentence, at which point it'll be taken to a higher court.
Facebook Messenger is no longer the mere secondary app you have to use to send your friends messages on mobile. The company has grown its messaging app into a standalone product, one that doesn't even require a Facebook account, and it is slowly expanding it with a wide array of features not limited to just chatting. You can do all sorts of neat things with Messenger, perhaps more than you realize, and we've selected five of the best.
Facebook has announced better accessibility on its live streaming platform, adding closed captioning to Facebook Live. The move aims to make Facebook's video streaming option more inclusive for individuals who are deaf or otherwise have trouble hearing. The company says the new feature is 'a key part of building [a] global community,' though it will depend on publishers, too -- they have to take advantage of the feature for captioning to show up on their videos.
Facebook has a new project underway, according to references in source code found inside the network's main app, and it involves an app designed specifically for teenagers. The app is said to be a bid on Facebook's part to lure back teenagers who have largely fled the service, one that will draw in parents to ensure they have control over their kid's messaging habits. The app, at least according to the discovered references, is called 'Talk.'
Facebook is rumored to be launching its own video service, one that will compete with things like Snapchat and YouTube, and it has just signed a deal with several big media companies as part of this. Such information comes from recently surfaced sources stating Facebook has penned a deal with Vox Media, Group Nine Media, ATTN, BuzzFeed and more. Content provided by those companies will reportedly be presented with advertisements and will be of both the long and short varieties.
![How to delete Archive posts on Instagram [APK Download]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/instagram_update_archive.jpg)
In May of 2017, the developers at Instagram began public testing of a feature they called "Archive." With this feature, as TechCrunch mentioned, it seemed as though Instagram was aiming to curb the massive amount of media deleting going on throughout the social network. Users that delete their media are not always users who are later happy they've deleted their media.
If you looked at your Facebook feed over the past election season and wondered "just what does it take for a post to get censored?" then prepare to be even more confused. A set of slides from the social network's moderation manuals have been published publicly, revealing the narrow line the site's managers tread between "credible statements" invoking violence or discrimination, hate speech, cruelty to animals, terrorism, sex, and free speech. Be warned, though, it might leave you frustrated.
