Instagram takes a serious look at how people use emojis
Emojis are starting to flood Instagram, and the website’s engineers are on a quest to sort out how people are using the yellow-faced emoticons. Apparently, their popularity skyrocketed after Apple released the iOS emoji keyboard and Android got native support. In just a single month after the iOS emojis came out, their usage on the website increased by 10 percent. Now, nearly 50 percent of all captions and comments have an emoji or two. Instagram’s research has also revealed that folks in Finland insert emojis most frequently, with 63 percent of all text posted from the country containing at least one graphic. The US (38 percent) takes the ninth place in that list, after France (50 percent), UK (48 percent), Germany (47 percent), Italy (45 percent), Russia (45 percent), Spain (40 percent) and Japan (39 percent).
And because emojis are serious business, the Facebook-owned company has also deciphered what some of them mean based on words people use with them. While many have rather obvious translations — a laughing face obviously means “lol” and all its other iterations, for instance — it’s amusing to see how users interpret some of the vaguer ones. In addition, Instagram has discovered that people are slowly abandoning written internet slang (“xoxo,” “rofl,” “bae,” so on and so forth) in favor of their emoji counterparts. You can read the whole study on Instagram’s Tumblr page, but note that it’s only the first part. The company promises to explain how it implemented emoji hashtags in the second one — maybe then we can get a detailed explanation of why you can’t search for one eggplant emoji, but you can search for two.
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Instagram
Instagram dives into curated content with a dedicated music account
Instagram uses its official account to promote notable snapshots on the social network, and has been doing so for quite some time. But now, the filter-driven app will serve up a daily look at music “around the globe.” Through the @music stream, the folks behind the software will highlight music photographers, designers working on album art, instrument makers and fans in addition to current stars and emerging talent. It’ll even offer 15-second lessons from time to time. Musicians are a big part of Instagram’s user base, where artists can share updates and connect with fans, so it makes sense that the subject would get its own channel. In fact, BuzzFeed reports that around 25 percent of the app’s 300 million accounts belong to those folks.
The move also follows other social networks, like Snapchat, getting into the curated content game. Of course, music is also a popular topic elsewhere. You may recall Twitter’s short-lived #Music app back in 2013, and it’s current chart collaboration with Billboard. As I’m sure you’re well aware, people love taking pictures of food with the app, so it’ll be interesting to see if a culinary-focused channel pops up in the future.
Filed under: Software
Source: Instagram
Instagram dives into curated content with a dedicated music account
Instagram uses its official account to promote notable snapshots on the social network, and has been doing so for quite some time. But now, the filter-driven app will serve up a daily look at music “around the globe.” Through the @music stream, the folks behind the software will highlight music photographers, designers working on album art, instrument makers and fans in addition to current stars and emerging talent. It’ll even offer 15-second lessons from time to time. Musicians are a big part of Instagram’s user base, where artists can share updates and connect with fans, so it makes sense that the subject would get its own channel. In fact, BuzzFeed reports that around 25 percent of the app’s 300 million accounts belong to those folks.
The move also follows other social networks, like Snapchat, getting into the curated content game. Of course, music is also a popular topic elsewhere. You may recall Twitter’s short-lived #Music app back in 2013, and it’s current chart collaboration with Billboard. As I’m sure you’re well aware, people love taking pictures of food with the app, so it’ll be interesting to see if a culinary-focused channel pops up in the future.
Filed under: Software
Source: Instagram
Three new filters and emoji support to Instagram in latest update
Filters are the heart of what makes Instagram so popular to use. Sure, the fact that you can share your photos in seconds for the world to see plays a great part in the Instagram experience, but it’s the fact that you can make your picture come to life with filters that truly makes it a winning app.
Instagram appears to agree with our sentiments, as they have released three new filter for all to use. Lark, Reyes, and Juno are now available for download via an update to the app and with them come some new interesting ways to modify your pictures. Instagram says they are “…modern, subtle filters that brighten and enhance your photos in
refined, beautiful ways”, and after using them ourselves, we can’t honestly disagree. After snagging the updates from the Play Store, we got to work by taking some pictures of our sounding area. The Lark filter made images appear much brighter than they would otherwise, but it did to without making the images look washed out and dull. The Reyes filter had a similar effect of making images appear
After snagging the updates from the Play Store, we got to work by taking some pictures of our sounding area. The Lark filter made images appear much brighter than they would otherwise, but it did to without making the images look washed out and dull. The Reyes filter had a similar effect of making images appear brighter but in a more vintage way. The filter made our pictures appear as if they had been taken in an old, sunny day, western setting. The final filter is Juno which took a step in the opposite direction that its two siblings and made images a bit darker, though not in an overpowering way.
“Inspired by weekend adventures outdoors, Lark, Reyes and Juno are a family of modern, subtle filters that brighten and enhance your photos in refined, beautiful ways.“
All three filters are a welcome addition to the already sizable selection that Instagram has to offer and we highly recommend you go and try the new ones our for yourself. For as the old adage goes, pictures speak a thousand words, and we can do no justice to describe how these filters will affect your future images.
One final notable feature that is also included in this update is emoji support for hashtags. Instagram has taken into account how popular emojis have become over the past several years and they wish to integrate them more into the Instagram experience. You will now be able to include them in your hashtags, search for them in the explore page, and be able to tap on them in captions.
Overall, this is a great update for the image sharing app as it comes with some very neat new features. So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to the Play Store and start Instagramming!
The post Three new filters and emoji support to Instagram in latest update appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Instagram update version 6.20.0 brings three new filters and emoji hashtags
Instagram has just announced a new update to its Android and iOS applications that brings three new filters and the ability to use emojis in hashtags.
The three new filters available in the app are called Lark, Reyes and Juno, and are quite subtle compared to the multitude of other filters currently available. Here’s how Instagram describes each new addition:
Lark desaturates reds while punching up blues and greens to bring your landscapes to life. Reyes brings a dusty, vintage look to your moments. And finally, Juno tints cool tones green while making warm tones pop and whites glow for vibrant photos of people.
In addition to the new filters, Instagram is also gaining the ability to use emojis in hashtags. Just like with any other hashtag, simply type in a ‘#’ followed by the emoji you’d like to use.
The version 6.20.0 update is now live in the Google Play Store, so follow the link below to grab it!
Instagram debuts three new filters and emoji hashtags
The five new filters that Instagram released back in December have reportedly been such a hit with users, the company has unveiled three more retouching options: Lark, Reyes and Juno. According to Instagram’s blog, Lark softens reds in favor of blue and green hues to highlight landscape shots while Reyes washes out the image as a whole to create a weathered and vintage feel. The Juno filter is geared more for portraits. It boosts warm tones and whites while adding a slight green tint to cooler colors.
Additionally, Instagram now supports emoji in its hashtags. As the company’s blog explains, “…you can discover even more by adding them to your own photos and videos, searching them on the Explore page and tapping on them when you see them in captions.” These features roll out today; look for iOS version 6.11.0 in the App Store and Android version 6.20.0 in Google Play.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Instagram (blog)
Make sense of your Instagram followers with SocialRank
Use a social network like Instagram long enough and you’ll inevitably amass a slew of followers — but what do you actually know about them? If you’re relying on mere follower counts, probably not much. That’s something the social media analytics company SocialRank is hoping to solve. Following the launch of a free Twitter analytics tool a year ago, the company is today setting its sights on Instagram. After logging in with your Instagram account, SocialRank builds a custom report that lets you do things like sort your followers based on how socially engaged they are, or search their profiles for specific keywords. Not everyone needs to see a statistical breakdown of their followers, but if you’re a struggling artist trying to connect with people in your industry, or a parent wondering who exactly is interacting with your kid, SocialRank’s tools could be supremely useful.
Alex Taub, the company’s co-founder, says it eventually plans to be the place to manage all of your social media followers. Simply making follower data easily available to people could lead to some interesting uses. Taub says the Red Cross, for example, has used SocialRank to corral people through Twitter to nearby blood drives. There are, of course, plenty of complex social media analytics tools aimed at businesses, but SocialRank’s simplicity could make it more appealing to normal folks.
Filed under: Software
Instagram updates guidelines on nudity and harassment
If you’ve been using Instagram to post photos of your butt, it’s time to stop. Today the social network updated its Community Guidelines with stronger language concerning harassment and more details on images with nudity. The “don’t be rude” section of the guidelines has been completely revamped with more definitive rules that state, “it’s never OK to encourage violence or attack anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities, or diseases.” On the nudity front, bare buttocks, genitals, “some photos of female nipples” and intercourse are a no-go for posts, but images of breastfeeding and mastectomy scarring are allowed.
Instagram also states that there are times when it will remove photos of partially or completely nude children from the service for safety reasons. It’ll be interesting to see how comedienne Chelsea Handler pushes the limit on the “some photos of female nipples” guideline. She’s has been posting images of her breasts and butt on the service in response to how Instagram treats male and female nipples differently.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Instagram
Facebook owns three of the top four most regularly used apps
The Google Play store is full of app these days, but not all of them manage to retain active users over a long period of time. To do so requires offering a uniquely useful service, and Facebook owns three out of the four most long term popular apps, according to data collected from Quettra’s study of 75 million Android phones and published by The Information.
Before we delve into the data, it’s worth noting the geographic distribution of the devices. Half of results came from the Asian market, while the rest were evenly distribution through other territories.
The data found that Facebook, Blackberry Messenger and WhatsApp users stay very active after the first 90 days, while the average app loses close to 70 percent of its user base after the first three months. Instagram came in fourth with around a 50 percent retention rate after 90 days, followed by WeChat, Snapchat and Twitter propping up the bottom of the list with a 31 percent rating.
http://embed.chartblocks.com/1.0/?c=552542fdc9a61d7257597bc3&t=41e65dc2cc3f5bd
Facebook owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and of course its own social platform, along with its own Messenger service, which did not rank nearly as highly. Interestingly, BlackBerry Messenger is proving particularly popular in Asia’s emerging markets, possibly because of its preload deals with manufacturers in these regions. Western favourites, such as Snapchat, Skype and Twitter, lose most of their active users within weeks in the Asian market.
The apps which tend to retain users appear to be the ones which see the most interactions per day and some apps are better at encouraging continual use than others. The results suggests that multiple features and larger contact pools help to prolong activity, while usage of more specific and limited apps, such as Snapchat, fade with time.
Love it or hate it, Facebook definitely has an eye for services and features that keep users coming back for more.
New test reveals that BBM users stick around longer than Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp
In a recent test carried out on 22 messaging apps, including Instagram, Kik, Snapchat, Twitter and WhatsApp, BBM retained the second most amount of users after 30 days.
According to the data, 93% of all people who registered at the beginning of February, continued to use the BBM application through March. That’s pretty astonishing for an app that most would consider to be dead.
Here’s what BlackBerry had to say:
“As reported by The Information and CNBC, BBM held onto more than 93% of its users after 30 days, more than double the 43% average user retention after 30 days for all apps measured. After 60 days, 89% of BBM users remained loyal, and 82% after 90 days. Only Facebook Messenger ranked higher than BBM.”
If you’d like to see the full report over on BlackBerry’s website — hit the source link below.
Source: BlackBerry
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