Facebook expands scope of Safety Checks following Paris attacks
Facebook originally built its Safety Check feature to help you reassure friends and family in the wake of natural disasters. However, the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut and beyond have prompted a change of heart. Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook will invoke Safety Check for “human disasters” from Paris onward. Simply put, the social network wants to make the tool available “whenever and wherever” it can help — the company is aware that its policies have been inconsistent (responding to some tragedies but not others, for example) and need improvement. There’s no certainty that Facebook has completely addressed the complaints with Safety Check, but here’s hoping that we don’t have to find out for a long, long time to come.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Peter Dejong]
Major firms show support after Friday’s attacks in Paris
Shortly after news broke of the attacks in Paris on Friday, major technology companies stepped up to show support.
https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js
Google acted quickly in supplying free calls to France using Hangouts. Through the rest of the weekend, anyone can use Hangouts in order to contact friends and family currently located in the country. The company will likely extend this for a few more days.
Immediately, Facebook activated the Safety Check feature to allow users nearby the attacks the ensure others that they are safe.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, commented:
“My thoughts are with everyone in Paris tonight. Violence like this has no place in any city or country around the world. We’ve activated Safety Check, so if you’re in Paris you can mark yourself safe or check on your friends and family.”
Facebook is also offering a special filter for profile pictures to show their support. Users can place the country’s flag over their own profile pictures temporarily or permanently. Facebook allowed the same thing earlier this year when the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the ban on gay marriage.
Amazon
Amazon quietly modified its homepage to show the flag of France raised above the French word for “solidarity.” The site also shows the Eiffel Tower next to the word on its banner, visible on every page.
While Twitter did not explicitly make a move, its users took on a huge social responsibility, offering care for those in the city of Paris. The hashtag #PorteOuverte, which means “open door,” was used by Twitter users throughout the city in an effort to provide shelter for those loose on the streets and unable to get to a safe location.
Twitter’s Moments feature, in addition to the straightforward timeline, became a way for people around the world to follow the sights and sounds of what went on in Paris on Friday. Moments is still updating as news follows the aftermath.
As stated last night, the thoughts of everyone at Talk Android are with the people of Paris.
Come comment on this article: Major firms show support after Friday’s attacks in Paris
ICYMI: Seeing CO2 from space, best arena selfie and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: An app that syncs up with robotic cameras in sports arenas is up and running in a few locations in California. With it, attendees can get photos of themselves at the game after entering their seat number in the free app. NASA is beginning a long-term study into CO2 absorption on the earth, with the hopeful goal of better sequestering and controlling greenhouse gases. And a new report is out on the fluorescent eel discovery of 2011. While the same marine biologist has just discovered a fluorescent turtle, the eel report says the neon was likely selected to attract a mate.
Facebook Messenger could be getting self-destructing messages soon
Facebook could soon get self-destructing messages similar to that of Snapchat, according to a Facebook spokeswoman. This new feature will allow messages to disappear into thin air within an hour.
These self-destructing messages are currently under a trial run, being available to a select few users in France. Users will have the option of enabling and disabling the new feature by tapping an hourglass icon in the Messenger application.
Here’s what Facebook said in a statement to BuzzFeed:
“We’re excited to announce the latest in an engaging line of optional product features geared towards making Messenger the best way to communicate with the people that matter most. Starting today, we’re conducting a small test in France of a feature that allows people to send messages that disappear an hour after they’re sent. Disappearing messages gives people another fun option to choose from when they communicate on Messenger. We look forward to hearing people’s feedback as they give it a try.”
So, ephemeral text messages are coming to Messenger, but only if you want them enabled. It’s also not clear yet when this feature will roll out to all of Messenger’s 700 million users, if it will have a major rollout at all. Facebook is certainly considering this feature, and from the sounds of it, a global rollout will be dependent on the feedback they receive.
Messenger just recently received an update making it easier to share photos with friends and family.
What do you think of self-destructing messages in Facebook Messenger?
source: BuzzFeed
Come comment on this article: Facebook Messenger could be getting self-destructing messages soon
Facebook tests Snapchat-like self-destructing messages
Some Facebook users in France have spotted a new feature in the Messenger app. They’re seeing an hourglass in the top-right corner of a conversation that when tapped sets messages to self-destruct in one hour’s time. Facebook says that it’s testing this new feature in France and might roll it out to everybody if users embrace it. If this all feels a little familiar, that’s probably because it’s very similar to Facebook’s own Slingshot app. And if that seemed familiar, that’s because it was a pretty direct take on what Snapchat has been doing since it launched in 2011. Facebook attempted to buy Snapchat in 2013 for a rumoured $3 billion dollars, but Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel refused the offer. So it seems like Facebook has adopted the mentality that if you can’t buy them, beat them.
Source: BuzzFeed
Facebook brings 360-degree videos to iOS as content creation ramps up
360-degree videos made their way into Facebook’s News Feed back in September, but it was only available for web and Android users. Now, however, iOS users can join in on the fun as well thanks to a new Facebook update that is being rolled out today. There’s also good news for Gear VR owners: you’ll now be able to play back those videos from News Feed without ever taking your headset off, making it that much easier to delve into new immersive experiences. At the same time, plenty of publishers have jumped on the 360 video bandwagon — ABC News, BuzzFeed, FrontLine, Nickelodeon and many more will be publishing new 360-degree clips onto Facebook starting today.
Source: Facebook
WSJ: Facebook’s Instant Articles aren’t bringing in a lot of money
The 20 participating publishers of Facebook’s Instant Articles program just aren’t getting as much money per post as they do for pieces posted on their own websites. As a result, the social network is now testing new advertising schemes, according to The Wall Street Journal. At the moment, each Instant Article can only have one 320 x 250 pixel-banner per 500 words of content, whereas a publication’s website would usually have three to four. Plus, the initiative doesn’t allow animated ads. The project’s manager, Michael Reckhow, told the WSJ that since receiving feedback from the publishers, Facebook has been experimenting by adding more banners to random pages, even animated and interactive ones.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Russia demands Twitter store user data within the country
Russia’s social media shenanigans continue. After first blocking Reddit over a thread on ‘shrooms, banning Wikipedia for a single entry on cannabis, threatening Facebook over gaymojis, outlawing memes and demanding Google loosen its Android policies, the Russian government has now reportedly ordered Twitter to move data on the country’s citizens to local servers.
Source: BBC News
Facebook’s Notify app shows you the latest news on your lock screen
Facebook has a new app called Notify that is designed to show you the latest news. You subscribe to your favorite stations and are updated with news right away on your lock screen.
To make this possible, Facebook has partnered with over 70 media outlets, but that list will keep growing. Some of the media outlets that will provide content are: Discovery, Fox News, The New York times, History, Vice, and many more.
The way it works is by picking your favorite subjects then receiving notifications about those topics. It is similar to Flipboard in this regard, but different because the notifications that you receive are basically headlines that come directly to your lock screen for easy viewing. Notify will also give you suggestions as to what stations you may be interested in based on your Facebook profile.
After you receive a notification, you have the option of swiping or tapping it to learn more about the full story. Also, if you like a story and want to save it for later, literally a simple swipe will add it to your saved notifications list.
You may be noticing that all the pictures used in this article are showing an iPhone. That is because Notify is only for iOS currently. However, Facebook is a huge company and we would assume they are working on an Android version as we speak.
Source: Facebook
Come comment on this article: Facebook’s Notify app shows you the latest news on your lock screen
Facebook’s Notify news app sends headlines to your lock screen
If you’re an iPhone user who feels like they don’t quite have enough notifications being pushed to your lock screen, fear not — Facebook has you covered. The company just released a new app called Notify that is focused on bringing you notifications for a curated set of news and events that you mercifully can pick and choose yourself. Content is grouped by expected categories like business, culture, entertainment,food and drink and so on. Once you dig into a category, you’re presented with a list of stations that tell you exactly what kind of alerts it’ll deliver.
Via: Re/code
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