A common misconception: "Internet security isn’t important, I’ve got nothing to hide anyway." Your conversations may be trivial for now, but you never know when you and your friends or colleagues discuss matters that could be of value to someone else who shouldn’t be eavesdropping.
Facebook Messenger is getting a desktop app for Mac and Windows, addressing one of the biggest complaints about the IM platform, as the company meshes its three messaging services. Announced at F8 2019, the social networking company's developer focused event, today, the new app will bring Facebook's newest version of Messenger to a standalone app, rather than forcing desktop users to access it in the browser.
Last month, Facebook released a dark mode for Messenger, but users had to unlock it through an Easter Egg involving the crescent moon emoji. Anyone who missed the news wouldn't have known the dark interface was an option, but that changes today with the universal launch of this frequently requested feature. Facebook Messenger users can now directly enable dark mode, no emojis necessary.
Way back in 2011, Facebook rolled out a standalone app for Messenger, though it still continued letting people chat in the main Facebook app for some time after that. Then, in 2014, it removed messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, prompting people looking to chat it up to install Messenger and use that instead. Now, all these years later, it looks like Facebook is getting ready to integrate the two once more.
Facebook has pushed out a Messenger update that makes it easier to keep track of the messages each user is responding to. The new ability essentially brings threaded messages to the chatting app, which in this case means replies that quote and respond directly to a previous message. These direct replies support GIFs, emoji, images, and other media in addition to text.
Today a new program from Facebook was released in order to combat the sharing of intimate images without shared consent. This is sometimes referred to as "revenge porn" and it's become a major problem across all forms of social media in the past half-decade. Today Facebook's pilot program revealed over a year and a half ago live in a new security-aimed hub called "Not without my consent."
After months of talking about it, it seems that dark mode is finally rolling out to Facebook Messenger users. Facebook is playing a little game with this release, as dark mode isn't initially available as a toggle in settings. Instead, users need to unlock the feature through an emoji Easter egg before they can turn it on.
Google once adopted an Apple-like strategy that put Allo forward as its instant messaging app and Duo as its FaceTime rival. Allo, however, has been officially declared dead but Google Duo remains in the running. In fact, Google has very silently pushed a new feature that puts it above Apple FaceTime and many similar services. Now you can use Duo to make calls from your web browser, including video calls if your computer has the hardware for it.
Bokeh, the effect of blurring of objects around the subject, has become a popular feature in mobile photography. It's made possible with two cameras but even a single camera can do it with some software tricks. But while that's relatively easy to do with still shots, it's harder to pull off when your subject is less stationary. And that is why Microsoft is resorting to some Artificial Intelligence to implement background blur in Skype video chats on desktops.
Remember last year when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg purged some of his messages from various Messenger conversations? There was a bit of an uproar at the time, and Facebook later said that Zuck's disappearing messages were part of an "unsend" feature the company was testing. Now, nearly a year later, that feature is rolling out to Messenger users.
Although Google has never really been known for its expertise in photography, it is starting to make a name for itself in that area, particularly on mobile. Its work on software-based photography with the Pixel phones’ lone camera has been impressive and its recent Night Sight turns night into day. Not everyone has a Pixel phone though so it’s mildly reassuring to find out that Google might be working on something similar for its Google Duo video chat app. Plus, it’s also working on something for lovers this month.
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram messaging will be joined together, as the social network pulls together the various apps and services it owns. The shift will present a considerable architectural challenge for Facebook engineers, though the expectation is that - at least initially - end-users won't necessarily see any difference.