Finally, the Facebook messenger is giving us a little more privacy by adding the option to lock and protect our Messenger with a Touch ID and Face ID.
Nobody can deny that we all have secret chats we do not want anybody to be aware of and snoop on. When we get the ability to lock our messenger apps, it gives us a feeling of comfort and extra safety, which is how I am feeling after this news from Facebook messenger.
The new update was first noticed by Matt Navara, our favorite social media expert. He said in his latest tweet that Facebook is now rolling out Touch ID and Face ID lock options for Messenger on iOS.
This feature would surely help us to stop people from additionally snooping on your Messenger chats.
This new update has an extra option, which makes it even better. Once enabled, you can choose how long it takes before your Messenger needs to be unlocked again with Face/Touch ID.
All you have to do in order to enable your Messenger’s Face or ID Touch lock is to go to your app lock settings and turn the ability on.
As clarifies in more detail by Social Media Today, the addition is in line with Facebook’s gradual shift towards improving messaging security, which includes its plan to eventually enable end-to-end encryption as the default setting for all messages. That plan has come under intense scrutiny by several government agencies, who believe that a move to full encryption will facilitate increased criminal activity in Facebook’s apps. Already, various authorities have raised concerns about encryption in WhatsApp.
Anyways, we are all very excited by the new update, and I personally can not wait to lock my Messenger app with a Touch ID so I could be sure nobody can snoop on my chats whenever I am not near my phone.
This news is interesting but still not officially announced. As some sources say, Twitter is apparently testing out a new set of app icons on iOS, and a new intro animation when users open the app.
This news is spread while Twitter is still coping with the huge disaster of getting hacked by professional hackers, which manipulated the accounts of some of the most prominent people on the social network.
Twitter appears to be considering offering the users additional choices for the Twitter app icon on iOS home screens. This news has emerged based on a new survey sent out to members of its Twitter Insiders beta program.
Twitter has offered four app icons to get feedback on which ones to officially roll out. One of the icons is the current default Twitter for iOS icon. The goal of the survey is to figure out which icons Twitter users prefer, and the results could affect which icons are offered in the Twitter app.
Many users sat that this update might stay just as a test and Of course, it’s also possible that Twitter leaves things as they are and doesn’t add new icons
Twitter’s new splash screen
Besides the icons, Twitter is also seen to be testing a new splash screen. The splash screen looks very cool and splashy, which is very unlike Twitter. It is known to play it conservatively when it comes to design and colors.
As I mentioned earlier, there are still no official statements of any of the two updates, and they might not be globally rolled out and stay as only beta updates, which would go away soon.
Twitter yesterday announced that it had removed a video, which was a campaign video over a copyright complaint.
Linkin Park said that the band did not authorize the use of their song “In the end” by the Trump campaign. The song “In the End” was featured in the background of the video, which included images of President Trump and excerpts from his inauguration speech.
Twitter later clarified the deletion of the video in a statement:
“Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by the copyright owner or their authorized representative,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an email to The Verge.
On July 19th the verified Linkin Park Twitter account tweeted:
“Linkin Park did not and did not endorse Trump nor authorize his organization to use any of our music. A cease and desist has been issued.”
The video campaign tweet was originally tweeted White House social media director Dan Scavino.
Twitter labeled the tweet and left a notice on the post, saying: “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
This is not the first time that Trump’s tweets get flagged by Twitter, or he reacts to tweets that violate Twitter’s policies.
For example, as pointed out by The Verge, they were two other cases lately, which provoked the public anger and made Twitter flag or remove Trump’s tweets.
Last month, it disabled a four-minute campaign video that included images of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died May 25th after a police officer kneeled on his neck. Facebook and Instagram removed posts from their platforms that featured the video. The president called the removal “illegal,” in a tweet, but Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded: “Not true and not illegal. This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from the copyright holder.” Trump has had other tweets flagged by Twitter that it said ran afoul of its content policies. In May, the social media platform added a label to a tweet where Trump warned “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” because Twitter said the tweet violated its policy against glorifying violence. A June tweet by the president featuring a doctored video was labeled as “manipulated media.”
The United States president, Donald Trump, is getting some help from Facebook’s social media platforms in order to force people to boycott TikTok.
Trump’s presidential campaign is paying for ads on Facebook and its other platforms, urging supporters to sign a petition banning TikTok, as the White House ramps up the rhetoric to restrict the video app in the U.S.
“TikTok has been caught red-handed by monitoring what is on your phone’s Clipboard.” This is what the ad’s title says on behalf of Trump, and then on the next line, the ad asks users to “sign the petition now to ban TikTok.”
The ads then direct users to a survey where they have to input personal information, including their email address and mobile number.
Why did Trump target TikTok?
The ads, which according to Bloomberg, appeared in users’ feeds from Friday, come just weeks after teens on TikTok were said to have played a role in contributing to lower-than-expected attendance for President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa. Prior to the event, which Trump boasted of having nearly 1 million sign-ups, many teenagers posted videos of their rally registrations with the intention of not showing up.
The ads were paid for by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee and primarily target users aged 18 to 64, with the largest percentage of views seemingly coming from election battleground states such as Texas and Florida, according to Facebook’s ad library.
One other reason why Trump is insisting on banning TikTok is that he sees this movement and boycott as a way to retaliate against China’s approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Anyways, the United States is not the first country that is approaching to ban TikTok in their country, and India has already banned TikTok and 59 other chines apps in their region. India banned TikTok calling it “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity” of India. On the corporate side, in the U.S., Wells Fargo recently banned employees from downloading TikTok on their company devices and instructed those who have it installed to delete it immediately, citing “concerns about TikTok’s privacy and security controls and practices,” among others.
Yesterday was the world’s emoji day, a day social media users and addicts need to celebrate because these little cartoonish icons have changed the way we communicate with each other forever. Emojis have made conversations much more fun and easier to understand. Using Emojis, we can express how we feel and what we mean in a more convenient way.
Created by Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge in 2014, World Emoji Day has been historically used to reveal upcoming emojis, and this year is no different. That’s why tech giants such as Facebook, Apple, and Google are celebrating World Emoji Day today by announcing new emojis, as always.
Apple’s new Emojis
Yesterday Emojipedia shared some of the new emojis which are going to be available to apple users later this year, and these new emojis are real fun, and some of them were wanted by users for a long time. These emojis would soon be available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch users.
The list includes a dodo, tamale, set of pinched fingers, boomerang, ninja, coin, piñata, beaver, bubble tea, nesting dolls, and an all-gender sign. These emojis will be available in a free software update this fall.
Another surprise Apple has announced for the world’s emoji day is that it will introduce new ways to create Memojis with the iOS 14. It will allow users to create their own look with more customization options.
Facebook’s new Emojis
Facebook has upgraded its default emoji pack in Messenger with new animations.
As Facebook messenger officially announced in a tweet, their default sticker pack, “Moodies” got an upgrade with some new animations.
Facebook has experimented with various animations for its Reactions and other emoji sets, and that seems like the next level.
Google’s new Emojis
According to 9To5Google, the 65 new characters are a part of a concerted effort for more compassionate depictions in the cartoon figures category. The Android 11 additions also include an anatomic lung and heart, but goes further with realistic and “authentic” animals, including a beaver and bison, as well as a turtle that might look familiar to users, as it was the original turtle emoji used in Android 7.1.
Google explained the new update for emojis in more details:
“Hit that piñata or bang on the long drum to celebrate. Send an anatomical heart when the love is so real, so raw. Or perhaps you’ll identify with one of the new animals, like a super cute bison, an eager beaver, or a polar bear that just needs a little love. There are also new food emoji, like a tamale (nom nom), a boba tea sure to make you thirsty (“black milk tea, boba, 30 percent sugar please”) and even a teapot for those who felt the “hot beverage” emoji (☕) was simply not “tea time“ enough.”
World’s largest tech giants have tried to make this emoji day as special as the previous ones with rolling out new and cool emojis for their users. You can now celebrate this day knowing that new sets of emojis would soon be available for you.
On 15th July 2020, Twitter has experienced its most horrible security issue and hack of all time; the hacking incident is the most widespread and confounding hacks the platform has ever seen. It could be even named as the most shameful hack in the world of all social media networks EVER since it has had lots of financial damage for both Twitter users and Twitter company.
This massive hack’s goal was primary in service of promoting a bitcoin scam that appears to be earning its creators quite a bit of money.
How did the hack happen?
The hack was started by several high-profile accounts tweeted about the same Bitcoin wallet, urging followers to send cryptocurrency with the promise of returning double the amount. According to the Associated Press and multiple outlets. Tweets sent from these accounts offered to pay $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to a bitcoin address.
Twitter started investigating the issue right after they noticed the attack, and it was assumed to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of Twitter’s employees with access to internal systems and tools.
It is not yet clear what other malicious activity the hacker might have done besides using that access to tweet about the Bitcoin scam from many major Twitter accounts.
Which verified twitter accounts were hacked?
The hackers targeted various range of accounts, including politicians, Hollywood celebrities, Musicians, Tech billionaires, and huge corporations such as Apple. According to Republic World, below is the complete list of all the accounts which were hacked on 15th July:
1. Barack Obama, former United States President
2. Elon Musk, Entrepreneur, CEO of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, The Boring Company
3. Bill Gates, Entrepreneur, and Founder of Microsoft
4. Joe Biden, Democratic Nominee for President of the United States
5. Warren Buffett, Investor, and Tycoon
6. Jeff Bezos, Entrepreneur and Founder of Amazon
7. Mike Bloomberg, Entrepreneur and Former Mayor of New York City
8. Kanye West, Musician, and Entrepreneur
9. Wiz Khalifa, Musician
10. Floyd Mayweather, Boxer
11. Apple, Software and Hardware Giant
12. Uber, Cab Aggregator Service
13. Binance, Cryptocurrency Exchange Company
14. Cash App, Mobile Payment Service in the US
15. Tron Foundation, block-chain based operating system company
16. Kucoin, Cryptocurrency Exchange Company
What did Twitter do about the hack?
As the first step in avoiding further activities by the hackers, and to start fixing the issue, Twitter banned the affected accounts from tweeting, removed the tweets posted by the attackers, and announced that everything is under control.
Since the hacked accounts were verified accounts of very well-known people, besides the affected accounts, Twitter also restricted many other high-profile accounts on Wednesday evening, which meant that many, if not all, verified users were unable to tweet for a period of time. However, by now, the activities of accounts are restored.
The Twitter CEO and staff have expressed the disappointment they are feeling after this incident. For example, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wrote:
“Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened. We’re diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened.”
Product chief Kayvon Beykpour also wrote on his personal account that:
“Our investigation into the security incident is still ongoing, but we’ll be posting updates from @TwitterSupport with more detail soon. In the meantime, I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry for the disruption and frustration this incident has caused our customers.”
Twitter is now said to be returning the money users lost to this malicious activity soon.
After this awful security incident, Twitter shares are decreased by more than 4%, and people are starting to have trust issues with Twitter. We hope that twitter comes out of this mess successfully and gains its users’ trust again.
Reddit has added a very useful and awesome option to its platform, surprising its users with change. Reddit today rolled out a post option which is called “image Galleries” that allows users to attach up to 20 images or GIFs to their posts.
Image galleries will be available on iOS from today, with Android to follow shortly.
This feature is similar to Instagram’s albums, which allows users to add multiple photos and videos but up to 10. Reddit overtook Instagram’s feature and allowed users to attach double as much media as they can add to Instagram.
The post format has a counter on the top right of the main visual for multi-image updates, and users can easily side-scroll too see all the other images in the post.
Reddit has explained the feature in more details:
“Image Galleries has been a popular feature request from Style, DIY, and Food communities on Reddit. For example, style communities want a better way to show off multiple fits for clothing, ideas for interior design, and different make-up techniques in a single post with captions and links to the products. DIY and food communities desire step-by-step instructions in a single post with multiple pictures, clarifying captions, and links to recipes and tutorials.”
This new feature has a very good advantage for marketers and people who are trying to promote URLs on the platform. With the “Image Post” option, you’ll be able to include URLs and captions for each image/GIF within the post, and this could lead to more traffic from Reddit.
How to use the “Image galleries” feature?
The first thing to mention is that this option is not available for everyone, and the only way users of a subreddit can use the image galleries is that the option has to be turned on by the moderators of each subreddit.
To post an “Image Gallery,” users within subreddits where the option is available will be able to select the ‘Image Post’ option within the composer.
Reddit is trying to be a more functional and useful social media platform, and this huge update is one of its basic steps in this way.
If you are using some sort of social networks you might have heard of Linktree, a website to add multiple links in one place. It is true that Linktree is one of the most famous websites in this market, but still there are rooms for further improvements. Users are looking increasingly for Linktree alternatives to get a more advanced free tools to manage their links.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a web page that you can insert anything in it. Indeed, a landing page is where your visitors come and see all about you. A landing page can be your resume, portfolio, your social links, all URL, favorite music, videos, or anything you prefer your visitors know about you. You can also add a short biography about yourself to give more information to users.
A landing page is like a website that only have one page! you can get customers, build connections, get visitors, make friends, or even give others a place to find all about you for free! Yes, making a landing page is free!
Linktree is one of those websites that helps you to make your landing page for free but it is not all the story.
Like many other tools, Linktree users found that there are some gaps about it. compare to other landing page makers, Linktree is not stunning. It is true that is free, but with limited options and you cannot customize your web page. so, users started to look for another website that gives the same services, but more quality, with more options.
What is Linktree?
Linktree is a platform to combine many URLs into one single URL on a webpage. This single webpage is also called a landing page which is described. This single URL which belongs to a landing page is usually used for social media, or any places that you can only put one URL. Or even where you are going to redirect your audiences to the specific places.
Many of us may have an Instagram or Facebook accounts with thousands of followers. Everyone now knows that having an Instagram account with this condition is worthy and you can even make money on Instagram if you have audiences. But how?
Fortunately, Instagram has provided an option for its users to link their website in the Instagram bio. So, if you have any products to sell, and you have Instagram followers, you can easily share the website URL in bio, and make Instagram followers to the potential customers.
But it is not all the story! Few of us can own a website because of many reasons. Yes, it is somehow expensive. But thanks to the technology that made it easy to make a landing page instead.
Here are some examples of Linktree landing pages.
What are the Linktree cons?
From Linktree reviews, it seems that the landing page design is one of the weakness of this tools. Another disadvantage is limited option to customize the web page. for example, if you have a brand with the black background, you cannot customize the landing page based on the color you want. You should use the fixed colors there.
A landing page is a place that many of your audience visit it, so, you need something that really defines you. And the more important thing is that it should attract the visitors at the first visit.
So, it should be something different and amazing to keep the visitors at your page. the more they stay there, the more they click on your links (which all is of great benefits for you).
So, you might need a smarter tool, or template to design a unique landing page with all your URLs, socials, and connections. Once, you share it on your social media, everyone can go to where you like to go (from your landing page, you can redirect them).
What is the Linktree alternative?
I was searching the internet to find the best available alternative to Linktree. Specially to fill up the gap. I found iLink website that I feel is the best alternative to Linktree which is also a free tool to make a landing page.
But what I found amazing about the iLink is as follow:
It’s free for lifetime!
You can create a landing page for free. The landing page would help you to add as many links as you have including videos, audios, or photos, and URLs.
Unique design
If you are going to present a brand, or your own design, and colors, iLink has provided the opportunity for you to design your landing page as you need.
iLink has recently added a new feature, that animates background. So, the color would change as you want. This gives a sense of uniqueness and attraction to the web page you have created. This option is not available in the Linktree landing page.
Another iLink feature, that allow you to create an online brochure for your products if you have any. If you are selling any products on Instagram, using iLink iStore you can add a catalogue to your Instagram bio with all products. The iStore is also very functional for users, and they can sort the products out according to their needs. For example, price, popularity, brands, categories, etc.
Support
ILink experts are available 24/7 to give users tips or guidance if there are any issues for them.
Conclusion
If you are looking for Linktree alternatives to get a more stunning landing page, I would suggest iLink. It is well worth it because of its design options, different types of background, customizable theme, and many other features.
Byte, the Second Coming of Vine, is Seeing a Surge in Downloads Amid Debate About TikTok’s Future. After India banned TikTok and 59 other chines apps and also after Trump Claims He Could Ban TikTok after the politics surrounding TikTok heat up.
These movements are the reasons why Byte has seen a huge increase in downloads this week in the US.
Scott Nover from Adweek has given an exact number of the growth in Byte’s downloads.
“Update: Yesterday, Byte had 622,000 global downloads in a single day—five times more than Wednesday’s 126,000. Per”
Many TikTokers from all over the world, especially India and the United States, are looking for TIkTok alternatives with Byte being a key beneficiary of the speculation around the app.
These factors lead us to Byte, which is a video app that allows users to share 6-second videos and was released not recently but in January. Byte had a good entrance and reached 1.3 million downloads in its first week after full launch, but it did not continue to stay popular until now and these TikTok controversies.
Byte has been trying its best to overcome TikTok’s popularity for months. It even increased its video lengths from 6 to 8, and it also added new music tools to further align with the TikTok use case.
As Byte announced in its official Twitter account on the 9th of July, they have also added some new options which were demanded by their users.
I recommend you all to try Byte and create an account on it for those days, which it’ll become the next video-sharing app giant.
Snapchat is trying to copy a popular feature from TikTok and make it easier for its users to browse their Snapchat feeds. Snapchat confirmed it’s testing a new experience that allows users to move through Snapchat’s public content with a vertical swiping motion — a gesture that’s been popularized by TikTok where it allows users to advance between videos.
A screenshot of the new feature was first noticed by Twitter user @artb2668, which obviously showed that Snapchat is experimenting with a new, vertical swipe UX for Discover content, similar to TikTok’s swipe-up functionality.
As TechCrunch has explained the Vertical Scrolling update in more detail, The test is focused on content that’s published publicly to Snapchat Discover, not your friends’ private Stories. But because Stories can have multiple parts, users will still tap to advance through the Story, as before. But in the new experiment, a horizontal swiping motion — either to the left or right — will exit the experience, instead of moving you between Stories, as before.
Since it is a new feature on Snapchat, the platform even included a guide on the screen of the users who encountered the feature for the first time.
Snapchat will soon have the vertical scrolling for the discover feed, which makes users see as many snaps as they want one after another. As Snapchat has announced, the test will only be available to a limited number of users, and the selection is random. After the test is successful, Snapchat will decide to roll out the update to all its users.
As soon as India banned TikTok, and some other countries have started to think about banning it, other similar apps have tried to fill in the gap. For example, Facebook quickly rolled out Instagram’s ‘Reels’ functionality, and now Snapchat is trying its best to play the role of a quality competitor to TikTok.
