LinkedIn users can now upload audio clips to help others pronounce their names correctly

LinkedIn has added a cool new feature to user profiles, which it has never spoken about before. Users can record 10 seconds of audio to guide pronunciation. Amazing, isn’t it?

If you are one of those people who get your name pronounced wrong most of the time, or when you get interview calls, people often end up mispronouncing your name, with this thoughtful LinkedIn feature, you’ll never have such problems ever again.

“Starting this week, we are adding an audio recording feature to your Profile so you’ll have the ability to create a recording of your name pronunciation, which will then be clickable on your Profile. Once you add a recording, other members visiting your Profile can quickly listen to the recording to better understand your pronunciation preference and, subsequently, ensure they can correctly say your name. You can also listen to other members’ pronunciations by visiting their profiles when they have added a recording,” Joseph Akoni, Product Manager at LinkedIn, said in a blog post.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/8/21317032/linkedin-name-pronunciation-record-audio-feature

Remember that the audio clips can only be recorded on a mobile phone, but do not worry since they can be played on both desktop and phone.

Here is how you can add audio clips to your Profile on your LinkedIn (according to India Today):

Tap your profile picture and then select View Profile.
After opening your Profile, go to the Edit option and select it
You will find a Record name pronunciation option when you hit Edit. Tap and record your name.
If you want to make changes or redo it, you can tap the Edit icon to delete or replace the existing recording.
Once you are done recording your name, click on the Use button if you are satisfied with your recording and don’t want to make any changes to it.

We all hope that users will not misuse the ability to place a 10-second audio recording of their choice on their Profile.

Instagram Lets Users Pin Comments to the Top of Posts

Instagram has finally rolled the “Pin Post Comment” feature. That means you can pin a few comments to the top of your feed post. The feature was first announced in May and is now globally rolled out. This new feature allows users to pin up to 3 of their favorite post comments to the top.

“Today we’re rolling out pinned comments everywhere,” Instagram tweeted on Tuesday. “That means you can pin a few comments to the top of your feed post and better manage the conversation.”

This new option can be used in a very useful way and can help the author of a post to control the tone of the post. It’s designed to allow the author of a post to better control the tone of the comment thread through highlighting positivity and moderating more negative and abusive responses that show up below the pinned comments.

One of the uses of this feature for business accounts and brand owners would be that they can amplify common questions and answers. If someone asks a good question about your product, you could pin it, then reply, helping profile visitors get more context.

To Pin a comment to your Instagram post:

Swipe left on a comment
Select the pin icon on the far left in the tray.

The new pinned comments feature on Instagram is similar to the one we see on YouTube, where creators highlight a comment to let others know the type of conversation that will be preferred.

Instagram Launches the new “Shops” Tab to limited users

Instagram is looking to the next stage of its eCommerce expansion. I bet a lot of you have recently noticed weird changes in the buttons of your Instagram, app, such as missing the activity tab or thing like that, let me tell you that these changes were results of Instagram finding the best position for its “Shop” icon, which found its best place among your other buttons at the bottom of the app now.

Instagram has started testing the Instagram Shop tab for a limited number of users today. The update was first announced this May.

“This is a small global test of the Instagram Shop tab that we announced in May. We’ll use this test to assess how we decide to roll this out further,” a company spokesperson said.

What does the Instagram “Shop” Tab do?

The new Instagram “Shop” tab will allow Instagram users to shop from top brands and creators via a new tab in the app’s navigation bar with just one tap.

Since the option is not yet completed and fully rolled out, it does not function at its best now, but you can test it a bit by tapping on the Shops tab.

After you click the Shop Tab, it will take you to the existing shopping experience in the app, with a listing of posts that have Shopping Tags added via approved merchants. But soon, the tab will highlight even more purchase options, as parent company Facebook expands its new on-platform selling options to more businesses.

According to TechCrunch in this version of Instagram Shop accessed from the main navigation bar, users can filter by brands they follow or by category, including things like Beauty, Clothing & Accessories, Home, Jewelry & Watches, and Travel, for example. In addition, not all products showcased in this version of Shop allow users to check out directly from Instagram’s universal cart. Instead, some brands have items tagged for shopping, but direct users to their own website to complete the transaction.

If the business is testing Instagram’s own Checkout feature, however, a small selling fee is involved.

Where is the “Shop” tab located?

As mentioned a bit earlier, the new Instagram “Shop” tab will be added to one of the icons at the bottom of your Instagram app.

The Shop icon will replace the current ‘Activity’ tab for the ones which got the beta mode, with users still able to access their activity feed either via an additional icon in the top right (beside the ‘Direct’ paper plane) or from their profile.

So you’ll lose nothing, and all your previous buttons will remain the same, but you’ll get a new one added to them when the feature officially rolled out to the whole world.

TikTok, China, and the New Data Battleground

As most of you may know by now, TikTok has banned TikTok and 59 other chines apps as tensions continue to flare between India and China over the disputed Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.

TikTok India is now struggling really hard to change the Indian Government’s opinion and unban TikTok with negotiations, but thus far, any negotiations have been halted due to the conflict.

India was TikTok’s biggest market outside of China, while more recent reports have suggested the app could have been up to around 200 million active Indian users at the time of it being banned.

Reuters reports that it has seen correspondence between the Indian Government and TikTok in which the latter insists that the Chinese Government has not been requesting user data from the app and that even if it did, TikTok–which is not available in China at all–would not comply.

“I can confirm that the Chinese government has never made a request to us for the TikTok data of Indian users,” CEO Kevin Mayer assured the Indian Government last week. “If we do receive such a request in the future,” he added, “we would not comply.”

TikTok says the data is stored in Singapore, while the Associated Press now reports that it is shifting that data to Ireland.

Many analysts say that it is very hard to fully control and ban TikTok in India because the Government can do nothing about the apps which are already installed on users’ devices. Still, analysts argue that it will be very difficult to fully ban TikTok in India because it cannot be erased from devices that had downloaded it prior to the ban. That leaves pundits suggesting that the move by India was meant to send a geopolitical message less than it was about fears of Beijing tapping into India user data.

According to social media today, India’s decision to sever potential links to the Chinese Government, via Chinese-originated apps, highlights the rising concerns around data gathering, and how much these data can be used by foreign governments. And that could become a critical point of debate, as more questions are raised as to how much data is available, and what, potentially, that could mean if it were to be used against us.

These removals point to the rising angst around data warfare, and how both social platforms and user data can be turned against citizens for political benefit. That’s a significant shift in perspective for policymakers, many of whom, as demonstrated in Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional testimony in 2018, have been struggling to get their heads around the full implications of the social media shift.

WhatsApp Stops Processing Requests for User Data From Hong Kong Authorities

Both Facebook and Twitter have reported that they have now stopped processing demands for user data from Hong Kong.

The WhatsApp messaging app has announced that it had “paused” processing law enforcement requests for user data in Hong Kong.

WhatsApp has suspended its processing of requests for user data from Hong Kong law enforcement agencies, in response to China’s imposition of a new national security law on the city.

According to Macrumors, The decision by WhatsApp comes after China fast-tracked legislation that allows local authorities to supervise and regulate the city’s previously unrestricted internet. The controversial new law, which took effect on Tuesday, criminalizes acts that were previously considered protected speech under Hong Kong law.

“We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and support the right of people to express themselves without fear for their safety or other repercussions. We have a global process for government requests, and in reviewing each individual request, we consider Facebook’s policies, local laws, and international human rights standards”, a Facebook spokesperson said.

More apps have previously rejected China’s data requests except for WhatsApp, and it Is not the first time.

Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have been blocked in China for years, with the country’s government favoring homegrown alternative services that it can more easily regulate. Encrypted messaging service Telegram was also blocked inside China after it became popular with the country’s human rights lawyers, while several domestic VPNs – which are commonly used to evade censorship and access services abroad – were shut down after authorities said they were unauthorized to run.

Besides WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, and messaging app Telegram have also suspended transferring user data with the Chinese government and the Hong Kong authorities.

Instagram’s Reels feature expands to India right after the TikTok ban

Just a few days after the TikTok ban in India, Instagram started to test Instagram Reels, which is a new feature on Instagram competing with TikTok, in India. The Indian government had recently banned TikTok along with 59 other apps, which left spaces for other apps to fill in the gap. That’s why Instagram decided to expand its “Reels” feature to India earlier.

Instagram reels, as written in our blog post about a week ago, Instagram Reels lets users record 15-second videos with music and audio clips and add them to their stories, which is very similar to TikTok.

Sources confirmed that certain users have started receiving the update from Instagram, which includes Reels.

“We’re planning to start testing an updated version of Reels in more countries. Reels is a fun, creative way for people to both express themselves and be entertained. We’re excited to bring this new version to more of our global community. No further plans to share on launch date or countries for now,” a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider.

After the Indian government banned TikTok and a lot more chines apps, lots of TikTokers and Tiktok content creators have moved to Instagram and YouTube. That made Instagram the most powerful TikTok competitor among both foreign rivals and Indian TikTok rivals such as Chingari, Mitron, and Roposo that are trying to bring TikTokers to their platforms.

This action by Instagram will be a great threat both to TikTok and the apps similar to it, which India is trying to establish on its own country.

Facebook makes education push in India

Facebook has made a new move this time on education and in India. On Sunday, Facebook announced it had partnered with the Central Board of Secondary Education, a government body that oversees education in private and public schools in India, to launch a certified curriculum on digital safety and online well-being, and augmented reality for students and educators in the country.

What is the purpose of Facebook by this move?

“Facebook has a good purpose for these actions. The best reason why Facebook started these educations pushes in India was to train secondary school students for available job offers for the future or now. Facebook wants to help these students to develop skills to safely browse the internet, make “well-informed choices,” and think about their mental health, they said. Just like there are companies that provide online help for students so they are not in too much stress.”

Regarding what TechCrunch has explained more about the move, Facebook said that it would provide these training in various phases. In the first phase, more than 10,000 teachers will be trained; in the second, they will coach 30,000 students. The three-week training on AR will cover fundamentals of the nascent technology, and ways to make use of Facebook’s Spark AR Studio to create augmented reality experiences.

“I encourage the teachers and students to apply for the programs commencing on July 6, 2020,” said Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union Minister of Human Resources Development in India, in a statement.

Facebook has been trying to create awareness about the ill side of technology as its platform confronts with misuse of its own services in the country. For example, Last year, it partnered with telecom giant Reliance Jio Platforms — in which it would eventually invest $5.7 billion — to launch “Digital Udaan,” the “largest-ever digital literacy program” for first-time internet users in the country. India is the biggest market for Facebook by users count.

The announcement today caps a remarkable week in India that started with New Delhi blocking nearly 60 services developed by Chinese firms over cybersecurity concerns.

Reddit says it’s fixing code in its iOS app that copied clipboard contents

Another social media found snooping on user’s data thanks to ios14 latest update. The cool new version of iOS 14 sends an alert when an app tries to copy clipboard information, and its users have reported receiving the alerts with each keystroke in Reddit’s iOS app, and Reddit says it’s releasing a fix for a piece of code that copied contents from users’ clipboards.

The issue was first observed by Twitter user Donald Morton which posted a good video of how Reddit is capturing the clipboard on each keystroke.

“We tracked this down to a codepath in the post composer that checks for URLs in the pasteboard and then suggests a post title based on the text contents of the URL,” a Reddit spokesperson wrote in an email to The Verge. “We do not store or send the pasteboard contents. We removed this code and are releasing the fix on July 14th.”

Before this, other platforms such as LinkedIn and TikTok were caught reading users’ clipboard information and formed a kind of unreliability and trust issues among users. And now Reddit is the next platform which is found to be doing the same.

Until now, the social media platforms and startup apps listed below are the ones which are found to be reading clipboards:

Tik Tok
LinkedIn
Reddit
Google News
Patreon
Call of Duty
Fruit Ninja
Philips Sonicare App

All we have to do is to wait until the full release of iOS14. A public beta of iOS 14 is expected in the next few weeks, and it’s likely that the clipboard privacy feature may reveal more apps engaged in this questionable behavior. After that, users can find out exactly which apps are tracking their clipboards.

LinkedIn caught snooping on users’ clipboards (Just like TikTok)

LinkedIn announced it is going to stop collecting data from users’ clipboards from now on. LinkedIn, which was caught red-handed in copying users’ clipboard content.

This decision is made after a user highlighted the seemingly privacy-invasive practice earlier this week. Twitter user DonCubed, a developer for portfolio builder Urspace, posted a video showing that the LinkedIn app was copying the contents of his clipboard on every single keystroke.

“LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to see each paste notification. I’m on an IPad Pro, and it’s copying from the clipboard of my MacBook Pro. TikTok just got called out for this exact reason.”

Just like TikTok, which was caught shamelessly reading users’ clipboards, thanks to a new privacy feature in iOS 14, LinkedIn is now exposed while doing the same disgraceful thing, which is currently in a limited beta for developers. The operating system now notifies users when an app copies something from another app or device.

TikTok tried to make excuses for this behavior by sharing fake statements. For example, TikTok announced that this snooping action was part of an ‘anti-spam’ feature, and the company also announced that it would discontinue this practice.

We can now be a little more relieved, and we can feel safe thanks to iOS 14. It seems that iOS 14 will help us to discover this type of behavior in other applications too.

New option for Twitter Fleets and new controls over who can reply to your tweets

Twitter is now working on rolling out two useful options on the platform, which are new controls over who can reply to your tweets and new updates on twitter stories “Fleets.”

Twitter is testing new options on its newest and coolest new feature, “Fleets,” which, as lots of you know, is similar to stories on Instagram but is called “Fleets on twitter.
This new update on “Fleets” includes the “double bubble fleets” that let people merge into a single stream. Clicking on it will make people see the two twitter users’ Fleet in one time.

When two users post a collaborative fleet, tapping on a fleet would seemingly enable followers of the two users to view their collaborative Fleet.

This new double-bubble Fleet feature can have so many uses among users, such as interviews, real-time highlights from events, GIF wars, etc. This is somehow like the Instagram live co-streaming option.

New controls over who can reply to your tweets

Twitter has also been seeking new ways to facilitate additional tweet discussion options, like more confined discussions within tweet streams.

As explained by Twitter product manager Kayvon Beykpour in October last year:

“It’s actually quite difficult to have a fireside chat when you have a billion people screaming into your ear. Like imagine we had tens of thousands of people in the studio with us right now, talking into our ear while we were talking to each other.”

Social media today has best interpreted this statement by concluding that, Beykpour, in this instance, was specifically referring to the challenges of hosting a Q and A session via tweet, because everyone can use an event hashtag and add their thoughts to a stream, making it hard for both participants and users to follow a single thread.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com

That’s what lead to Twitter developing its new controls over who can reply to your tweets, which are now in testing with some users.

Maybe, this Fleet option would align with that focus and provide another way to facilitate more confined, limited conversations within the app.