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SilentMessenger enhances your Facebook & Facebook Messenger privacy

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 24, 2016

Facebook and Facebook Messenger users who have a jailbroken iOS device are going to love the benefits of using a new jailbreak tweak called SilentMessenger.

This tweak is going to provide these users with additional steps to protect their privacy and keep their footprint in the Facebook apps as minimal as possible from the perspective of other users who are online. Moreover, it also supercharges some other features of the apps.

In this review, we'll talk about what SilentMessenger can do for your Facebook experience, and walk you through all of the tweak's options.

Facebook launching group audio calling on Messenger with support for up to 50 participants

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

A year after it rolled out the ability to place and receive VoIP audio calls on Messenger, Facebook is now introducing a new VoIP calling feature with support for up to fifty people on a single group call. Group calling currently supports standard VoIP audio calls, but Facebook did tell TechCrunch that “group video calling is definitely a use case that a lot of our people might be interested in at some point”.

Facebook open-sources a camera design for capturing spherical footage in 3D

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2016

At its annual developers conference, the F8, which kicked off yesterday, the social networking giant Facebook announced an open-source spherical camera rig design which can shoot 360-degree video in 3D. Dubbed the Facebook Surround 360, the design consists of as many as fourteen wide-angle cameras bolted onto the horizontal ring.

There's also a fish-eye camera on top and two on the bottom for a total of seventeen cameras that are synced with a global shutter mechanism. The accompanying software stitches the individual videos together into one seamless 360-degree footage.

Chat bots go live in Facebook Messenger, Facebook opens up Live Video APIs

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2016

Facebook was supposed to announce the addition of customer service chat bots and Live Chat APIs soon, but it seems that the latest app update already includes the plumbing work necessary to support chat bots. As first noted by Engadget, the app now shows a Bots and Businesses section and already third-party chat bots appear in search.

Facebook Messenger gains Dropbox integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 12, 2017

As Facebook continues advancing its mobile Messenger app, the company just announced in a blog post that users can now take advantage of a brand new integration to share their Dropbox files from within the mobile Messenger app.

The new feature is accessible through the More button in Messenger chats, where Dropbox is now listed as an available source. Simply tap the new icon to open the Dropbox app on your device and select cloud files that you'd like to share in a chat.

Facebook planning to add customer service chatbots and live chat to Messenger

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 8, 2016

Facebook is working hard to turn its Messenger app into a platform for doing all sorts of useful things beyond mere message exchange between friends.

According to a report Friday by TechCrunch, the company is planning on enabling developers to add customer service chatbots and live chat functionality to Messenger and has already introduced Live Chat APIs for Messenger.

A presentation give to select Messenger chatbot developers mentions something called “Structure Messages”, which are basically automated responses that may include a title, image, a description, a URL and calls to action such as visiting a website, viewing an e-commerce order or making a restaurant reservation.

Facebook Messenger passes 900 million users, unveils profile codes and other new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016

Facebook today announced its Messenger mobile application is now being used by more than 900 million people globally every month, up from 800 million active monthly users announced in January.

Celebrating the milestone, the social network firm unveiled Snapchat-like scannable profile codes.

In addition, it announced some interesting new ways for people to find businesses and friends to start a conversation, including vanity profile URLs on Messenger. More than a billion messages are now being sent every month between people on Messenger and businesses, wrote David Marcus, Facebook's Vice President of Messaging.

Facebook app gaining Live button, video broadcasts now more Periscope-like

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 6, 2016

The Messenger button in the mobile Facebook app for iOS and Android which sent users to the Messenger app has been replaced with a Live button as the popular social network aims to push live and pre-recorded videos in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

Announced in a blog post Wednesday, the company is also rolling out new features for Facebook Live that give users more ways to discover, share and interact with live video.

Facebook Messenger gains its first airline bot

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 31, 2016

Facebook on Thursday announced it is launching its first airline information bot within the Messenger app.

The social network has been enhancing Messenger's functionality on a regular basis with new features beyond chatting and has recently added a Transportation tab that lets users in the United States request a ride from Uber.

Messenger's airline bot lets KLM Royal Dutch Airlines customers manage their flights and browse their flight information within the app, without ever leaving their chats.

This Mac app tracks how often you slack off

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated February 8, 2018

A lot of us use our Macs not only for our daily lives, but also for our work. The problem is, with all of the internet at our fingertips, it can be hard to stay focused when the allure of social networking, like Facebook and Twitter, as well as other things you can do to slack off, are no more than just a click away.

That's the idea behind the creation of an awesome free app for your Mac called Escape by FocusList, which tracks how much you slack off each day and provides you with a daily report for your viewing pleasure.

In this piece, we'll give you a look at the software and how it works; you might even find interest in trying it out for yourself!

Instagram increasing video time limit to 60 seconds

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Instagram on Tuesday announced that it's increasing the time limit on videos from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. The move is part of a broader effort to give users "more fun, flexible and creative ways to create and watch video content" on IG.

The social network says that within the last 6 months, time users spent watching video increased by more than 40%. And it's hoping that the increased clip length, along with reenabling multi-clip uploads, will help it continue that growth.

Instagram is changing its feed order to show you posts you’ll care about first

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Instagram announced on Tuesday that it plans to change the way that it orders posts in user feeds. Instead of showing photos and videos in the order that they were uploaded, the social network is going to implement an algorithm to surface the most relevant content.

Obviously, Facebook has been doing this for years with News Feeds, and Twitter recently launched a similar feature for Timelines. The concept is that users are being pushed so much information on a daily basis, that they need someone to sift through the noise for them.