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Meta is tagging real photos as ‘Made with AI,’ say photographers

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:25:11 +0000

Photographers say the social media giant is applying a ‘Made with AI’ label to photos they took, causing confusion for users.

Instagram now lets users livestream exclusively to their Close Friends list

Aisha Malik — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Instagram is introducing the ability for users to broadcast live to just their Close Friends list, the company announced on Thursday. The new “Close Friends on Live” feature allows users to go live with up to three other people. Instagram says the new feature can be used to share what’s on your mind, spontaneously catch […]

You can now customize your For You feed on Threads using swipes

Sarah Perez — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 20:38:18 +0000

Instagram Threads is rolling out the ability for users to signal which sort of posts they wanted to see more or less of by swiping.

Instagram confirms test of ‘unskippable’ ads

Sarah Perez — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:49:11 +0000

The change would see Instagram becoming more like the free version of YouTube, which requires users to view ads before and in the middle of watching videos.

Instagram tests ‘trial reels’ that don’t display to a creator’s followers

Aisha Malik, Sarah Perez — Fri, 31 May 2024 15:37:59 +0000

Instagram is testing a way for creators to experiment with reels without committing to having them displayed on their profiles, giving the social network a possible edge over TikTok and a way for creators to test new content without pressure to perform. The company this week began global tests of this new “trial reels” feature […]

Instagram now lets teens limit interactions to their ‘Close Friends’ group to combat harassment

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 30 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Instagram is expanding the scope of its "Limits" tool specifically for teenagers that would let them restrict unwanted interactions with people.

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses now let you share images directly to your Instagram Story

Aisha Malik — Wed, 22 May 2024 15:17:17 +0000

Meta is updating its Ray-Ban smart glasses with new hands-free functionality, the company announced on Wednesday. Most notably, users can now share an image from their smart glasses directly to their Instagram Story without needing to take out their phone. After you take a photo with the smart glasses, you can say, “Hey Meta, share […]

Meta’s latest experiment borrows from BeReal’s and Snapchat’s core ideas

Aisha Malik — Fri, 17 May 2024 20:35:42 +0000

Meta is once again taking on its competitors by developing a feature that borrows concepts from others — in this case, BeReal and Snapchat. The company is developing a feature for Instagram called “Peek” that would allow users to post authentic pictures that can only be viewed once. While Snapchat popularized the idea of ephemeral […]

EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design concerns

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 16 May 2024 10:35:31 +0000

Facebook and Instagram are under formal investigation in the European Union over child protection concerns, the Commission announced Thursday. The proceedings follow a raft of requests for information to parent entity Meta since the bloc’s online governance regime, the Digital Services Act (DSA), started applying last August. The development could be significant as the formal […]

Threads finally starts its own fact-checking program

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 15 May 2024 03:47:11 +0000

Meta's newest social network, Threads, is starting its own fact-checking program after piggybacking on Instagram and Facebook's network for a few months.

Instagram expands its creator marketplace to 10 new countries

Ivan Mehta — Mon, 13 May 2024 14:22:28 +0000

Over the weekend, Instagram announced that it is expanding its creator marketplace to 10 new countries — this marketplace connects brands with creators to foster collaboration. The new regions include South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Israel, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia. Meta first introduced this marketplace to facilitate paid partnerships in the U.S. to […]

Threads is testing cross-posting from Instagram globally

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 07 May 2024 16:34:00 +0000

Meta is encouraging more users to post to its X rival Threads. In its latest experiment, the company is providing an easy toggle for users to cross-post from Instagram to Threads, the company told TechCrunch. Earlier today, users shared that they saw control for cross-posting on their Instagram accounts. Users could cross-post an individual post […]

Farewell, dunks? Threads launches quote controls for all users

Anthony Ha — Sat, 04 May 2024 16:16:00 +0000

Threads users can now exert more control over who can quote their posts. This builds on a feature that already allows Threads users to limit who can reply to their posts (competing services like X and Bluesky offer similar reply controls). Threads outlined its plans for quote controls last month, and last night Adam Mosseri […]

Instagram now lets you post a secret Story that viewers can uncover with a DM

Aisha Malik — Fri, 03 May 2024 18:36:39 +0000

Instagram is adding a handful of new features for Stories to give users more creative ways to share content and engage with each other, the company announced on Friday. Most notably, the social network is introducing a new “Reveal” feature that lets you post a hidden Story for your followers to uncover by sending you […]

Instagram is updating its algorithm to surface more content from smaller, original creators

Aisha Malik — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 13:00:58 +0000

Instagram is introducing a few new changes to its ranking systems to better highlight content from smaller, original creators.

Meta confirms launch of a bonus program for creators on Threads

Ivan Mehta — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 16:20:28 +0000

Meta’s Threads social network passed the 150 million monthly users mark recently, but the company is not slowing down its growth engine. To increase engagement, the social media giant is running a limited-time bonus program for Threads. Over the last few days, many accounts have posted about this program. The company confirmed to TechCrunch about […]

Gen Z is losing its political voice on social media

Amanda Silberling — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 18:27:15 +0000

President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban could decimate Gen Z’s access to political news and information. “An unfortunately large amount of 18- to 24-year-olds find out information about local […]

Threads launches custom mute filters, teases controls for quote posts

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:00:15 +0000

Threads and Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today that Threads is launching a new feature that lets users filter out words and phrases from their feeds and mentions. The “Hidden Words” feature automatically mutes common words, phrases, and emojis that might be offensive to users. In addition to these preset filters, users can add their […]

Meta adds its AI chatbot, powered by Llama 3, to the search bar across its apps

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 16:00:18 +0000

Meta’s making several big moves today to promote its AI services across its platform. The company has upgraded its AI chatbot with its newest large language model, Llama 3, and it is now running it in the search bar of its four major apps (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp) across multiple countries. Alongside this, the […]

TikTok starts testing its Instagram competitor TikTok Notes in Canada and Australia

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:18:45 +0000

TikTok is rolling out its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, in select markets. The app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in Canada and Australia, the company said. The company said on X that it is in the “early stage” of the app’s rollout and that the app is “a dedicated […]