Slingshot adds swiping between selfie and frontie and more

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 17, 2014

Slingshot, Facebook’s weird ephemeral messaging app, is actually getting better and more useful with each update.

After releasing a major 2.0 version rebuilt from the ground up and enriched with such new features as private reactions, photo filters, drawings, emojis and notifications on a per-contact basis.

Today’s update keeps smoothing out the remaining few rough edges.

For instance, you can now switch smoothly between your iPhone’s front-facing FaceTime camera for ‘selfies’ and the iSight camera out the back for ‘fronties’ by swiping left and right. Read More

 

Facebook will begin auto-enhancing photos for iPhone users

By Jake Smith on Dec 16, 2014

Even with its Instagram product, Facebook is still one of the premier places to share memories with family and friends. That’s why Facebook says it will start auto-enhancing your photos for you on iOS. I guess Facebook thinks you’re a sucky photographer.

The social network told TechCrunch on Tuesday you’ll still have complete control of your photos, but a slider will now appear on your photos as you post them that will show how enhanced you want the light, shadow, and clarity. You can even revert back to your original shot. Read More

 

Instagram hits 300M monthly users, rolls out verified badges

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 10, 2014

Facebook-owned Instagram shared a new milestone today as the popular mobile photo-sharing service hit 300 million monthly users, making it bigger than Twitter which on October 27 had 284 million active users.

The figure is sharply up from 200 million active users Instagram had at the end of March, meaning the service has grown 50 percent in the past 9 months alone. Read More

 

Facebook confirms Trending coming to iPhone soon, now available on the web and Android

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 10, 2014

Wednesday, the social networking giant Facebook announced that Trending is coming to iOS soon, with the Android app getting the feature today. Announced in January, the feature lets you discover timely and relevant conversations happening in the world in the form of stories from different sources.

The feature groups together only public posts and those that you are in the audience for such as updates from friends or groups that you belong to. Read More

 

Facebook launches Graph Search on iPhone

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 8, 2014

Facebook on Monday confirmed that it’s at last gearing up to launch Graph Search in its mobile application for the iPhone and iPad this week following what has turned to be an incredibly extensive period of testing.

Tapping Facebook’s vast database, Graph Search uses natural language queries to surface content information from within a user’s network of friends that would be impractical or impossible using the standard and fairly limited search feature.

Another way to describe Open Graph: this tremendously powerful tool makes it easy and fun to explore the world through the eyes of your friends. Read More

 

Facebook Rooms gains push notifications, activity dashboard, 50+ Like button sounds and more

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 25, 2014

Facebook Rooms, the social networking giant’s latest attempt at Reddit-like anonymous posting app, received new capabilities Tuesday morning in the first feature focused update following its App Store debut a month ago.

In addition to performance improvements, Rooms 1.1 now has an Activity dashboard, will send you push notifications when somebody posts to a room you’re in and lets you choose among 50+ new custom sounds for the Like button. Read More

 

You can now adjust focus and lighting of photos in Facebook Messenger

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 20, 2014

Facebook on Thursday issued a small update to its Messenger app for the iPhone and iPad, bringing out additional features to touch up the photos you take within the software using the built-in camera feature.

Now available in the App Store at no cost, Facebook Messenger 16.0 fixed an issue with sending messages while introducing a pair of new controls to adjust the focus and lighting of photos you take in the app. Read More

 

New Facebook Groups app goes live in App Store

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 18, 2014

Facebook on Tuesday announced a brand new iPhone application, now available at no cost in the App Store. Dubbed Facebook Groups, the 54-megabyte download promises to give you a dedicated space for you and your groups and make it easy to discover and join new groups, post photos and links, or create your own.

For those wondering, Facebok Groups are like forums on the Internet. Anyone can create a group covering specific topics.

For example, families can create closed groups to share family photos, organize vacations and more. Or, your team could use Facebook Groups to post updates and schedules, your school or neighborhood may have set up a Facebook Group and so forth.

Facebook Groups is available free in the App Store. Read More

 

WhatsApp updated with support for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

By Cody Lee on Nov 17, 2014

The Facebook-owned cross-platform messaging service WhatsApp has updated its iOS client today, bringing the app to version 2.11.14. The team says the new version fixes bugs and crashes, as well as adds support for the new iPhones.

The app now looks great on the larger display of the iPhone 6, and the larger, higher resolution display of the iPhone 6 Plus. WhatsApp, which Apple labels as an App Store “Essential,” was one of the few remaining top tier apps to update. Read More

 

Facebook@Work being worked on

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 17, 2014

Using Facebook in the workplace could soon become the new normal thanks to a new business product Facebook is said to be currently developing.

Dubbed Facebook@Work, the forthcoming service should permit users to collaborate on projects and connect with professional contacts through group chats and document collaboration with co-workers, three people familiar with the matter told The New York Times newspaper Monday.

As first mentioned by The Financial Times on Monday, Facebook began working on the project years ago, lead by a team based in the firm’s London offices. They’re currently testing Facebook@Work externally with a handful of outside companies and expect to roll it out “within the coming months.” Read More

 

You can now ‘Say Thanks’ with Facebook’s personalized video cards

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 12, 2014

Facebook on Wednesday introduced ‘Say Thanks’, a new service allowing its members to create and send personalized video cards to their friends and family on the service.

To make a video for a friend, just visit facebook.com/thanks. Upon choosing a friend, the service will generate a preview of your personalized video card. Limited customization features are available, allowing you to change a theme of the video< edit photos and posts that represent your friendship and write a personalized message. Read More

 

How to use Facebook profile pictures for your iOS contacts

By Lory Gil on Nov 11, 2014

I have dozens of contacts in my iPhone that don’t have a picture attached to them. Sometimes, I’ll get a band’s information at a show and will even forget who they were months later. Pictures always help in situations like these. I’m better with faces than I am with names.

For a while now, Apple has included the ability to merge your friends’ Facebook information, including updated profile pictures, to your contacts in iOS. It only takes a few seconds and we’ve got a short tutorial for you below. Read More

 

Facebook Messenger passes half a billion users

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 10, 2014

Facebook‘s dedicated instant messaging application for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, Facebook Messenger, is now used by more than 500 million people around the world each month, said the social networking giant Monday.

That’s a massive number, but still half of what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said constitutes a platform in the truest sense.

By comparison, WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired in February 2014 for $19 billion, currently has more than 600 million active users. Instagram, another Facebook property, counts more than 200 million users. Read More

 

Facebook introduces new ways to customize your News Feed

By Cody Lee on Nov 7, 2014

As part of an ongoing mission to improve its News Feed experience, Facebook today announced that it has built and updated a few tools to help you customize the content you see everyday. These tools are located in the News Feed settings menu (More > Help & Settings, on mobile).

Of course customizing your News Feed is all about controlling who you see posts from. Starting today, you’ll be able to quickly unfollow and re-follow people, Pages and Groups. Unfollowing of course means you’re still friends with the user, but will no longer see their status updates. Read More

 

Mark Zuckerberg explains why you had to download Messenger as a separate app

By Sébastien Page on Nov 6, 2014

Facebook took a lot of heat back in July when it disabled messaging from the main Facebook app, forcing users to download the standalone Messenger app if they wanted to keep using the social network to send direct messages to friends and family. To most people, the move went vastly misunderstood, and it didn’t help that the company stayed mum about it. At least until now, because in a Q&A session earlier today transcribed by The Verge, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally addressed the issue. The reason? It’s all about removing friction. Read More

 

You can now preview stickers in Facebook’s latest Messenger update

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 29, 2014

The social networking giant Facebook on Wednesday pushed a small update to its Messenger client for the iPhone and iPad which lets you preview sticker animations.

Facebook Messenger 12.0 (what’s up with version numbers, Facebook?) allows you to press and hold down on a sticker to expand it and view any animations before sending it.

The app is available free in the App Store. Read More

 

Facebook app update makes it easier to share multiple photos

By Cody Lee on Oct 27, 2014

Facebook announced a new update for its mobile clients today, bringing the iOS app to version 16.1. The update brings about a new workflow that will make it easier for users to post multiple photos to the popular social network from their smartphones and tablets.

Using the Facebook app, you can now choose the exact order of photos when uploading them via iPhone or Android. Once you’ve selected the images, you’ll see a preview of how the “story” (interesting that Facebook calls it that) will appear after its been posted. Read More

 

Facebook takes on Reddit with anonymous posting app, Rooms for iPhone

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 23, 2014

Facebook on Thursday unveiled a brand new iPhone application. Called Rooms and available free of charge in the App Store, it’s a flashback of sorts to the Internet bulletin boards which used to be all the rage in the 1980s. It’s essentially that anonymous Facebook sharing app that the The New York Times reported on earlier this month.

A Facebook Creative Labs project, Rooms lets you create places for the things you’re passionate about.

It’s fairly straightforward: just pick your favorite topic, customize the look and feel of your room and share with others. Others can join your rooms either through private invitations or by posting a public link.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Room is a lot like Reddit. “It’s perfect for the things you love and interests that make you unique,” said the social networking giant. Read More

 

Facebook updates Paper app with support for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

By Cody Lee on Oct 21, 2014

Facebook today issued an update for its popular Paper app, bringing the iOS client to build 1.2.4. Inline with recent updates for the native Facebook app, and Messenger, the latest version of Paper brings about support for the larger displays of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

In the release notes, Facebook says that Paper “looks beautiful on the latest iPhones,” as it’s now optimized for their Retina HD displays. It also adds that 1.2.4 includes performance improvements, bug fixes—particularly one involving the keyboard, and is more reliable. Read More

 

Facebook Messenger updated with doodles and captions for your photos

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 16, 2014

Facebook Messenger has received its iPhone 6 compatibility fix nearly a month ago, unlike their main iOS client which only got refreshed with half-baked support for the new iPhone screen sizes yesterday.

Be that as it may, Facebook today issued a small Messenger update adding the ability to adorn your photos with captions and casual scribbles and sketches.

Messenger 14.0 (what’s up with version numbers, Facebook?) is free in the App Store.

Read More

 
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