Social

Facebook’s Slingshot goes 2.0, hopes you’ll use it

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2018

Remember Slingshot? Yeah, me neither. If it's been a while since you last fired up Facebook's app that many folks deem pointless, you may want to give it another try as the social networking giant on Thursday pushed a major 2.0 update, bringing out half a dozen new features.

The app's been rebuilt from the ground up to be “simpler, faster and more fun to share life as it happens”, bringing out private reactions, photo filters, drawings and emojis.

There are also instant notifications on a per-contact basis and you can now share fav shots out to other apps, among other new additions.

Vine update brings per-account push alerts

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Twitter-owned Vine, a video service optimized for sharing six-second long looping video clips, on Tuesday received a small update. Bumping the iPhone app to version 3.1, it introduced enhanced push notifications with the ability to choose push alerts on a per-account basis.

Folks who have tons of followers on Vine are frequently inundated with alerts each time someone shares a clip on Vine, revines a vine, comments on it and what not.

There's nothing worse than being overwhelmed and having to cope with unwanted notifications. The team is feeling your pain so they've put together this little feature where you get a notification whenever your favorite contacts post on Vine.

You can now privately share tweets in DMs

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

After previewing future platform enhancements and features during its Analyst’s Day event, the popular social service Twitter on Thursday began rolling out one of the mentioned new features: the ability to private share a tweet through Twitter's direct messaging function.

Think about sharing tweets privately with any of your followers in terms of discussing public content in private conversations, the micro-blogging platform suggested.

To do this from Twitter's main iPhone client, long-press the tweet in your timeline and choose the new “Share via Direct Message” option. The person you share a tweet with will get a push notification, said the company.

Moreover, the tweet will display directly in the conversation.

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

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

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.

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

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

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.