Instagram lets anyone filter words out of comments
Instagram is making good on its promise to bring word filters to everyone. The photo-centric service has announced that anyone can now filter their comments to keep out abusive (or just plain annoying) feedback. If you’re tired of dealing with harassment or “get more followers” spam, you won’t have to spend ages blocking users or reporting individual comments. It’s just a matter of choosing the right keywords to keep discussions civil.
Co-founder Kevin Systrom is quick to admit that filters and similar user tools “aren’t the only solution.” Ultimately, Instagram itself has to be smarter about banning users and preventing hurtful comments from showing up in the first place. However, this latest move puts a lot of power in your hands — you can set a baseline level of quality that keeps out some offenders without silencing comments altogether.
Source: Instagram
Instagram Update Brings Anti-Harassment ‘Keyword Moderation Tool’ to All Users
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom today announced that the company is “taking the next step” to protect its users from online abuse with the wide launch of a new comment moderation feature in the photography-focused social network app. Referred to as a “keyword moderation tool,” the feature will let each user type in words they find to be offensive, effectively hiding any mention of them in the comment section of their posts.
The comments containing the harsh language will still be available for other Instagram users, but the company believes that allowing each user to determine which words to hide from their personal collection of photos will cultivate a “positive and safe” environment. To deal with abusive accounts, Instagram already lets users swipe to delete comments, report inappropriate comments and block accounts.
Systrom refers to the keyword blocking update as the “first feature” for dealing with online abusers, suggesting Instagram is continuing to keep an eye on the issue and add more protective updates to its mobile app in the future. Once the app is updated, gain access to the comment moderation setting by following the steps below:
Go to your Profile tab.
Tap the Settings gear icon in the top right corner.
Find and tap “Comments.”
Toggle “Hide Inappropriate Comments” to automatically hide keywords that are “often reported as inappropriate.”
Or, add your own custom keywords in the text box, separating each with a comma.
Tap “Done” to save your changes.
After previously allowing high-profile users, like businesses and various brands, to have access to the new feature, Instagram said that today marks its wide rollout to every user. Those who have yet to download the app can find Instagram for free on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]
Tag: Instagram
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Instagram Working on Several New Photo Features for iPhone 7 Series
Photo sharing app Instagram is set to become one of the first platforms specifically designed to take advantage of the iPhone 7’s powerful new camera features.
Details of the upcoming update were shared by Instagram’s head of design Ian Spalter during yesterday’s Apple event in San Francisco, where he demonstrated how the app would make use of several of the new phones’ capabilities.
First of all, the iPhone 7 Plus telephoto lens will be controllable simply by dragging a finger up and down in the Instagram camera window, allowing users to adjust the level of optical/digital zoom. Meanwhile, Apple’s new Taptic Engine feedback will let users know how much zoom they’ve enabled when composing stills as well as during video recording.
Instagram is also revising all of its photo filters to take advantage of the iPhone 7 display’s wider color gamut, allowing users to see a broader range of hues in their pictures.
Other additions revealed on stage included a 3D Touch action for the Instagram app icon that will let users quickly add a photo to an Instagram Story – the platform’s new sharing feature aped from Snapchat.
Lastly, the app will make use of iOS 10’s new Live Photos API to convert the video clips into Instagram Boomerang GIFs, which play back and forth on repeat.
The updated version of the app launches later this year, presumably after iOS 10 is released on September 13 and the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have made it into consumers’ hands. Preorders for the devices begin Friday, September 9, with shipments scheduled to start on September 16.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Instagram
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Instagram will take advantage of your iPhone 7’s camera
You won’t have to wait long to find apps that take advantage of the iPhone 7’s upgraded camera system. Instagram has revealed that an updated version of its iOS app will take and share photos using the wider color range captured by the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus’ image sensors. You should see more vivid colors than you’d get from a phone taking photos in the usual sRGB color gamut. Instagram’s update will arrive sometime later this year.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “See You” event.
Instagram Begins Phasing Out ‘Photo Maps’ From User Profiles
Photo-sharing service Instagram has begun removing its GPS-aggregating “Photo Maps” feature from user profiles. Some of Instagram’s users may have already noticed that Photo Maps is gone when visiting another profile, with Instagram confirming to Mashable that it began phasing out the feature last week.
Photo Maps will remain on your own profile tab “for now,” but the company is expected to begin removing it from there as well in the near future. The simple reason behind its removal is how little the feature was used by the social network’s 500 million monthly active users, especially in comparison to popular features in the app, like the Explore tab.
“Photo Map was not widely used, so we’ve decided to remove the feature and focus on other priorities,” the company said in a statement.
The company confirmed that geotagged locations in individual Instagram posts will remain, so “you’ll still be able to click on a location tag in an individual post and see other photos from that location as well as a small map.” The move is believed to be a part of the social network’s move towards capturing ground from rival Snapchat, while leaving behind parts of its service that don’t generate much in the way of user activity.
Tag: Instagram
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Instagram is dropping photo maps
Instagram isn’t just piling on new features — it’s taking them away, too. The social image service says that it’s removing the Photo Map feature, which lets you see where a person’s snapshots come from. The removals started last week, Instagram adds. It’s currently focused on removing maps on profiles of other people, but you’ll eventually lose access to your own photo map as well. Location info will stick around (such as pages showing all the photos taken at a given place), however, so you won’t lose track of where you took that stunning flower shot.
The company doesn’t beat around the bush when explaining the move: it tells us that Photo Map “was not widely used.” It’s shifting its attention to other areas, according to the statement (which you can read below). Frankly, the decision isn’t shocking. When’s the last time you browsed your friends’ photo locations? And when Instagram is currently obsessed with video and beating Snapchat, cartography isn’t exactly high on the priority list.
“Photo Map was not widely used, so we’ve decided to remove the feature and focus on other priorities. You will still be able to see location tags on individual posts.”
Source: Mashable
The Engadget Podcast Ep 4: All Eyez On Me
Editors Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O’Brien to talk about Intel’s latest CPUs, Dead or Alive’s controversial VR feature and Lenovo’s “innovative” take on the keyboard. Then the panel takes a look at Chris Brown’s standoff and how Instagram videos and Facebook Live fit into our modern media landscape.
Here are your Flame Wars leaderboards:
Wins
Loses
Winning %
Chris Velazco
3
1
.750
Devindra Hardawar
6
4
.600
Nathan Ingraham
3
4
.429
Cherlynn Low
3
4
.429
Relevant links:
- Lenovo’s Yoga Book is part tablet, part sketch pad
- Intel’s 7th generation Core CPUs will devour 4K video
- ‘Dead or Alive’ VR is basically sexual assault, the game
- Chris Brown turns to Instagram amid police standoff
- Kim Dotcom hopes to livestream his extradition appeal
- Kim Dotcom will be allowed to stream his extradition appeal
You can check out every episode on The Engadget Podcast page in audio, video and text form for the hearing impaired.
Watch on YouTube
Subscribe on Google Play Music
Subscribe on iTunes
Subscribe on Stitcher
Subscribe on Pocket Casts
Instagram gets pinch-to-zoom on iOS, Android update in tow
The feature you didn’t know you wanted for Instagram has finally arrived: pinch-to-zoom. Surprised it wasn’t already there? Don’t be. Originally, Instagram didn’t support large enough images to warrant enlarging — but last year, that changed last year when the company bumped its default image size up to 1080 x 1080. Now, we’re seeing the fruits of that upgrade: starting today, iOS users can pinch and zoom any image or video in their feed. On Android? Sit tight. Instagram says the update will roll out to additional platforms in a few weeks.
A video posted by Instagram (@instagram) on Aug 31, 2016 at 8:00am PDT
Source: Instagram
Instagram Updates iOS App With Pinch-to-Zoom Ability on Photos
A small but noticeable update has hit Instagram today, with the company launching the ability to zoom in on photos within the iOS app. With pinch-to-zoom support, users can get better close-up views of Instagram posts within their feed, on other users’ profiles, and in the Explore tab.
Today we’re bringing ZOOM to Instagram on iOS! Pinch to zoom on photos & videos in feed, on profiles and on Explore pic.twitter.com/j1g4JQozK2
— Instagram (@instagram) August 31, 2016
Users will be able to zoom in on videos in each of these locations as well, but the update is only rolling out to iOS Instagram users right now, with no word yet regarding when it might debut on Android. You can download Instagram from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tag: Instagram
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Chris Brown turns to Instagram amid police standoff
Singer Chris Brown’s Instagram account got a lot more interesting today. With police outside of his Los Angeles home, who were following up on a report that Brown pulled a gun on an unnamed woman, the singer started posting Instagram videos criticizing the LAPD. Meanwhile, local news stations have been broadcasting footage of the standoff on Facebook Live for much of the day.
It’s not unusual for local news stations to turn situations like this into a media circus, but this is a rare instance where we actually got to hear from the person who’s actually being pursued by the police. In the Instagram posts, Brown evoked the Black Lives Matter movement and painted himself as a victim of police harassment. “I don’t care y’all going to stay playing with me like I’m the villain out here, like I’m going crazy,” he said.
“Right now we’re getting cooperation from everybody who’s involved in this,” an LAPD representative said during a news briefing. The police are currently evacuating the home, after issuing a search warrant, and are interviewing everyone who was inside.
Via: Fox News, TMZ
Source: Chris Brown (Instagram)
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