Items tagged with Facebook-Messenger
Facebook launched its chat service aimed at kids under 13-years-old in 2017, touting the app as having strict privacy controls that allowed parents to control who their kids talked to. However, the Messenger Kids app failed to deliver on the promise of strict parental and privacy controls. Facebook has reportedly sent messages to parents of users of the app to inform them that there was "a technical error" that allowed the friend of a child to create a group chat within the app that would invite one or more of the second child's friends to a group conversation. Essentially this allowed the child to talk to friends of their approved friends, without parental permission or vetting. Facebook has...
Read more...
Facebook currently fosters three popular platforms that are [for the most part] distinct from its eponymous social network: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. All three platforms feature their own respective messaging component; Instagram users, for instance, can't use the app to contact users on WhatsApp. That will all change in the future, as Facebook is reportedly in the process of rebuilding its software infrastructure to allow cross-platform messaging from any of its standalone properties to another. According to reporting by the New York Times, the software rewrite is currently in its infancy and might not be made public until late 2019 or early 2020. By tying its various...
Read more...
Facebook has been facing significant user backlash over the last few months mostly due to the Cambridge Analytica fiasco that saw data on millions of Facebook users stolen. That issue will see Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying in front of Congress. More recently, Facebook is facing another backlash after it deleted messages sent by Zuckerberg from users' inboxes. Facebook has now announced that the Unsend feature will be rolled out to all Facebook users. Some see this as a sort of cover-up where Facebook can say it was testing a feature and that it will now be given to all users. The social network has promised to not unsend any more of Zuckerberg's messages until the feature is available...
Read more...
It is time to take your Facebook stories to the next level. The social media giant just introduced the ability to make animated GIFs with their built-in camera. It is incredibly easy to make GIFs on Facebook. Users need to simply go to their Facebook camera and select the GIF option on the top of their screen. They will then be able to customize their GIF with various effects and frames. The GIFs are a few seconds long and can be added to Facebook stories, posted on a person’s profile, or saved to their device. Credit: TheNextWebFacebook recently added a GIF comment button in honor of the format’s 30th anniversary. The button allows users to search and select GIFs from a variety of services such...
Read more...
Are you addicted to Words with Friends or Pac-Man? Now you can play the games directly in Facebook Messenger. Facebook just announced that it will be rolling out its “Instant Games” platform for Messenger worldwide. Facebook introduced Instant Games this past November in the United States. The program primarily brought retro games like Galaga to Facebook Messenger. Instant Games is a HTML5-based cross-platform gaming experience, and can be accessed through traditional web browsers, the mobile web, and apps. According to Facebook, Instant Games were played 1.5 billion times in the past 90 days. Instant Games also now supports play-by-play games instead of single-player games with a leaderboard....
Read more...
Do you have something that you need to say to Mr. President? Is your preferred method of communications social media? Well, now you can message President Obama via Facebook. Reading letters from the public has been a tradition since the days of Thomas Jefferson. Abraham Lincoln actually held regular office hours in order to meet with people one-on-one. The White House began receiving phone calls in 1880 and emails in 1994. President Obama launched his own Twitter account, while the First Lady is on Snapchat. President Obama still reads ten letters a day, or “LAD's”. He responds with a handwritten letter to the correspondent. The president remarked, “And what’s interesting is not only do...
Read more...
Facebook Messenger users no longer need to keep fingers primed to tap out "Do I know you?". The social media giant's chat service is maturing rapidly and is now offering publicly shared information at the top of message threads — place of residence, job title, etc. — that will allow users to screen incoming messages from non-Friend users. Messenger's new feature — Facebook's Vice President of Messaging, David Marcus, calls it "enhanced caller ID for messaging." — will also display information for Facebook Friends with whom you have not previously chatted with via the service. Thus users can avoid closing the circle on uninvited communications with friends...er, Friends with whom they would just...
Read more...
T-Mobile’s prepaid phone service, GoSmart, is doing a little shimmy to get an edge in the prepaid market by offering Facebook access for free, irrespective of whether or not users have a data plan. It’s certainly an interesting idea, and Facebook is in on it. So many people spend so much time on Facebook, but for many, mobile access is limited because of data caps (or the complete lack of a data plan altogether). This deal allows users to spend as much time as they want on the social networking site and also use Facebook Messenger. T-Mobile noted in a press release that almost half of Facebook users access the site via mobile devices, so it makes sense for Facebook to find a way to...
Read more...
