Social

Astro is a Facebook Messenger client for your Mac

I have to admit it. I don’t often connect my third-party OS X chat clients with Facebook. I tend to get really distracted when someone starts messaging me through Facebook, more so than my other chat channels. So, I haven’t tested a lot of Facebook messenger apps.

Astro for Facebook Messenger is an app for your Mac that lets you chat with friends, even when you are offline. It includes native stickers, picture uploads, and even seamless group chat functions. Your productivity levels are about to plummet…

The 10 best social networking apps of 2013

The Oxford Dictionary just named “selfie” the word of the year. I’d say that just about sums up 2013. This year, social networking took on a whole new meaning and has become an enormous beast that is impossible to contain. Whether you share your personal life on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or all of the above, the Internet has made it possible for anyone to keep track of how many people like them.

The writers at iDownloadBlog have come up with a list of what they think are the 10 best social networking apps of 2013. Check out our favorites and then vote for the one you like best to be added to our Best Apps of 2013 list…

Flow is a beautiful Instagram client for iPad

I use my iPad for practically everything digital. When I’m testing apps, if they are universal, chances are I’ll test them on my iPad first. I just like the larger sized screen. One app that is sorely lacking in iPad optimization is Instagram. The company that launched a billion selfies does not consider the iPad fit for consumption. So, the world is relegated to third-party clients.

Flow for Instagram is, as far as I know, the first Instagram-related iPad app that has been designed from the top-down with iOS 7 in mind. Frankly, it looks a lot better than the official iPhone app…

Osfoora 2 is now available in the App Store with a complete redesign

Twitter just updated its official app to include photo sharing in direct messages and swiping features to switch between timelines. Unfortunately, the official app still doesn’t live up to the wants and needs of many Twitter users.

Osfoora 2 is a third party Twitter client that offers automatic timeline updates, bookmarking capabilities, notifications, and more. Plus, the feature rich Twitter client received an update that compliments Apple’s iOS 7 look…

Apple buys social analytics startup Topsy for $200M

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has now acquired another company, the social-media analytics startup Topsy Labs Inc. for more than $200 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Billed as the world’s only index of the public social web, Topsy builds software that ties into Twitter to enable social search and crazy detailed analytics.

Apple has confirmed the deal, but its spokesperson refused to detail what the company's plans with Topsy might be. Since we doubt Apple is building its own search engine, Topsy intelligence could be plugged into Siri as yet another data provider for greater social context and improved search.

As you know, Apple with iOS 7 added the ability to check out a contact's Twitter feed via Siri. Another possibilities: Apple's iTunes Radio service and the struggling iAd platform...

This is Facebook’s upcoming Reader feature

With so much great content being posted online on a daily basis and so little precious time to spare (talk about information overload), we as a technological society have grown dependent on various apps to scrap news articles and store them in pure text form for later reading. And boy are these services plentiful!

Not only do you get clutter-free content, but also can pull your saved articles from the cloud whenever and wherever a few minutes need killing - all in one app and without having to manage and bookmark the URLs.

I used to be a big believer in Marco Arment's Instapaper read-later app for the iPhone and iPad ($3.99 on the App Store). However, Marco's lack of vision, slow pace of development and just his general attitude on Twitter prompted me to make a switch to Pocket (formerly Read It Later) months ago.

Honestly, I never looked back since. Pocket comes free and provides tons of capabilities packaged into such a clean and elegant reading experience that's consistent and available across my iPhones, iPads and and Macs.

These services also cut down on time-sucks that are social networks because people spend less time actually reading news articles on Facebook and increasingly save the stories to Instapapers and Pockets of this world. Zuck & Co. have taken notice of the trend and have been testing a read-later Facebook feature for months, a new rumor has it...

Twitter pulls option to receive DMs from everyone

A little over a month ago Twitter rolled out a new setting in the web interface allowing you to choose whether to receive direct messages (DM) from any of your followers. Traditionally, the micro-blogging service has only allowed users who follow each other to send direct messages back and forth to one another.

The change has allowed Twitter users to elect to receive direct messages from any follower, regardless of whether or not they’re following the person back. Unfortunately, the company has now inexplicably removed that option, seemingly without an explanation...

Twitter enables inline images/Vines, adds quick reply/retweet/favorite buttons

The micro-blogging service Twitter just refreshed its mobile apps and the web interface with in-stream previews for images and Vine videos so you can see attached media without having to click the hyperlinks like crazy.

It's a marked improvement over Twitter's Media mode that similarily infests your timeline with media previews at the expense of completeness, because all non-media tweets get omitted from Media view.

Additionally, this edition of Twitter for iPhone and iPad includes a set of handy buttons to quickly re-tweet, reply or favorite someone's tweet right from the timeline...

IM+ Pro7 with clean and simple iOS 7 design now available in App Store

IM+ Pro has been one of the most popular chat clients in the App Store for a couple of years. One of the best features is encrypted peer-to-peer chatting, which can be added with an in-app purchase. The app has seen many updates and still works great. However, sometimes, new is better.

IM+ Pro7 is the next version of the feature-rich chat client. The user interface has been completely redesigned, comes with off-the-record encryption, and offers free text and messaging in most social networking services, all in one convenient app…

Twitter mulling standalone Direct Messaging app

Twitter, of all companies, could enter the crowded instant messaging space dominated by WhatsApp, Viber, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook with a standalone direct-messaging app. According to a new report Thursday, the company plans to "significantly update its direct-messaging product".

One of the options being considered is making Twitter's Direct Messages the focus of the rumored standalone app. It wasn't immediately clear how exactly such an app would compete with Viber and WhatsApp, the two leading services in the instant messaging space that tie to your cell phone number...

Flipagram review: make interesting video slideshows out of Instagram and camera roll photos

Who would have ever thought there would come a day when looking at someone’s vacation slideshow would actually be interesting and fun. Thanks to mobile technology, and the advent of digital filter effects, we are able to turn even the most mundane images into works of art.

Flipagram is a photo and video app that takes your pictures, sets them to music, and makes it simple to publish your newly created slideshows to Instagram, Facebook, and more…

Facebook testing iPhone client with Graph Search, revamps Messenger for iOS 7 style

The social networking giant Facebook used to irk fans with its sluggish mobile clients that used to be second-class citizens on smartphones and tablets. Blame it on Zuck & Co. for taking the easy route by wrapping the mobile-optimized HTML code into "native" apps. That changed last year after Facebook hired a few former Apple engineers like Greg Novick and tasked them with rewriting these apps from the ground up to be snappier and more responsive than the web app disguised as a native one.

Although Novick has now reportedly departed Facebook and will return to Apple, the company has been busy developing major new updates to mobile Facebook and Messenger clients on iOS and Android. Both applications are now apparently dogfooded to company employees for testing purposes. Here's what's in store for the revamped Facebook and Messenger...