Facebook

Facebook rolls out richer News Feed controls with a new ‘See First’ option and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Facebook on Thursday introduced and updated set of controls letting you finally tell the service precisely what you want to see in your News Feed, as opposed to relying to Facebook's mysterious algorithm which surfaces posts its servers think you want to see while demoting others it flagged as uninteresting.

The reworked controls now permit you to actively shape and improve your personalized News Feed experience.

You also get more control over what you see in your News Feed via a brand new 'See First' option designed to help you prioritize whose posts you don't want to miss to ensure you'll always find them at the top of your News Feed.

Facebook reportedly planning its own music-streaming service

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2015

Apple Music, Spotify, Rdio, Pandora and other popular music-streaming services could be faced with competition from Facebook as the popular social network is reportedly planning a streaming-music product of its own, Music Aally reported Thursday.

Facebook has been testing ad-supported native videos with a small group of media partners, but that was just a prelude to discussions with major labels about “getting into music” with a full-on subscription product.

Facebook testing new photo uploader with live filter previews, text tool, stickers and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 29, 2015

Facebook has been testing a new photo uploading experience in its mobile app with a limited number of users, TechCrunch reported Monday.

Facebook for iPhone and iPad now lets people optionally adorn their photos with text overlays, touch them up with quick color adjustments and make them more interesting with crazy photo stickers, all before uploading them to the service. The new photo uploader is not live for everyone yet, but we'll keep you posted.

You can now sign up for Messenger with your phone number, no Facebook account needed

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 24, 2015

You no longer need a Facebook account in order to exchange instant messages with your contacts through the Facebook Messenger service. By dropping the Facebook account requirement, the social network hopes to bring in even more people under the Messenger fold.

By last count, Messenger had 700 million active users, approaching the 800 million user base of WhatsApp, a wildly popular messaging service Facebook acquired for a staggering $19 billion.

Facebook releases Moments for iPhone, a brand new private photo-sharing app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Billed as a private way to share photos with friends and an easy way to get all the photos of yourself trapped on your friends' phones, Moments for iPhone by Facebook is now available for download in the App Store.

Following a few futile attempts to unseat Snapchat in the ephemeral messaging space, Facebook gave up and went to the drawing board to conceive a different take on private sharing where images won't disappear after being viewed.

Their new iPhone app lets you organize and sync multiple photos in private albums that can be shared directly on Facebook or Instagram, and sent via Messenger. Using facial recognition, Moments groups your photos based on who's in them and when they were taken. Your friends can then contribute to the synced moment with their own photos.

Tim Cook takes jabs at Google and Facebook in speech about privacy and security

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Tim Cook took time out of his busy schedule yesterday to talk about privacy with folks attending EPIC's Champions of Freedom event in Washington. EPIC, a non-profit research center focused on emerging privacy issues, was honoring the CEO for his superior "corporate leadership."

Cook addressed attendees via a remote video feed, and spoke about a number of topics regarding privacy, security and what they mean to Apple versus other Silicon Valley tech giants. TechCrunch has a transcription of the speech, and he takes quite a few jabs at Facebook and Google.

Free video calling in Facebook Messenger rolling out to all users worldwide

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

Facebook confirmed today that free video calling in its mobile Messenger application has begun rolling out to all users worldwide. The feature launched in select markets on April 27, 2015.

“Quick update on video calling in Messenger: we're happy to share we've now rolled out the capability globally, with the exception of a few countries we're still working on improving quality for,” David Marcus, Messaging at Facebook, wrote in a post on Facebook this morning.

Facebook launches quick-loading, interactive ‘Instant Articles’ as an iPhone-exclusive feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 13, 2015

Facebook today announced a new ‘Instant Articles’ feature which is rolling out to its iPhone application later today. As the name implies, this iPhone-exclusive capability lets cherry-picked publishers craft versions of news stories for mobile screens that load in a fraction of a second.

The new, mobile-optimized reading experience includes interactive features from Facebook's Paper app, with support for rich media such as photos and video and other embeddable content types like multitouch maps and more.

Facebook Messenger launches video calling

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 27, 2015

Merely a week after flipping the switch on audio calling in the popular WhatsApp service, Facebook today started rolling out video calling to its Messenger app on iOS and across other mobile platforms.

As you know, Messenger already offers people the ability to make voice calls to friends around the world. By enabling cross-platform video calling across the ubiquitous messaging service, which commands 600 million users, the firm has enabled users to engage in face-to-face conversations with their friends and the people they care about, regardless of the platform of their choice.

Instagram updated with new filters and emoji hashtags

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

Facebook's Instagram posted an update today for its iOS client, bringing the app to version 6.11.0. The update brings about a handful of improvements, including new filters and the ability to use emoji in hashtags.

The new filters include Lark, Reyes and Juno, and Instagram describes the creative tool additions "as a family of modern, subtle filters that brighten and enhance your photos in refined, beautiful ways."

Facebook launches standalone web version of Messenger

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Facebook on Wednesday unveiled a new standalone web version of its Messenger chat service, giving users a way to message their friends and family without dealing with News Feed and other interruptions. It can be accessed at Messenger.com, and can be used in a browser tab on your desktop the way you'd use the mobile app.

"Messenger.com is for users who want to message without the other distractions that Facebook can provide," a spokesperson told Recode. "If you’re messaging through Facebook, that means News Feed and your friends’ user profiles are nearby. Messenger.com is about focus."

Instagram announces new ‘Fade’ and ‘Color’ tools

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Instagram on Tuesday announced that it would be adding two new options to the suite of tools in its photo editing app. Those tools are 'Fade' and 'Color,' and they will allow users to further tweak the appearance of their photos before sharing them on the social network.

More specifically, Color will bring about the ability to tint the highlights or shadows within photos with choices of yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, cyan and green. Fade, on the other hand, will enable users to bring a quiet tone to their photos by softening colors.