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Telegram has become the latest app to surpass 1 billion installs on the Google Play store. The sudden increase in downloads could be attributed to major outages at Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram earlier this month. Founded by Pavel Durov Telegram is slowly increasing its market presence and gained more users due to the outages at

WhatsApp has integrated its joinable calls feature — which lets users join an ongoing group video — directly into group chats. The latest update will give users the option to join an ongoing group call right from the group chat tab. Joinable calls were first introduced on WhatsApp in July this year. The instant messaging

The attorneys general of 14 US states sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking if the top disseminators of vaccine disinformation on the platform received special treatment from the company. The line of inquiry was generated after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen used internal documents to disclose that the social media platform has built

Microsoft is pulling the plug on LinkedIn in China nearly seven years after its launch, marking the retreat of the last major US-owned social network in China as authorities there further tighten their control over the Internet sector. LinkedIn said in a blog post on Thursday that it would replace the platform later this year

Facebook will now count activists and journalists as “involuntary” public figures and so increase protections against harassment and bullying targeted at these groups, its global safety chief said in an interview this week. The social media company, which allows more critical commentary of public figures than of private individuals, is changing its approach on the

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has proposed fining Facebook up to EUR 36 million (roughly Rs. 310 crores) in one of more than a dozen probes it has opened into the social media giant, according to a draft decision published by the complainant. Under European Union 2018 data protection rules, the DPC must now share the

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell on Tuesday called on Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to preserve all documents related to a testimony last week from company whistleblower Frances Haugen. “The testimony … raises significant concerns about whether Facebook has misled the public, federal regulators, and this committee,” said Cantwell, a Democrat. “This committee will

WhatsApp has been spotted testing a new custom privacy setting for Android users to let them hide their ‘About’ status updates from specific contacts. The option to hide the ‘About’ status from specific contacts, which is yet to be available to beta testers, would be available alongside the existing privacy options. The change is likely

A new study by Online Mortgage Advisor has revealed that India has five of the top 20 happiest cities in the world to buy a home. The study also revealed that Mumbai is the least happy city to buy a home in the world, while Surat was at the fifth spot in the same list.

Twitter on Tuesday rolled out new advertisement features and revamped the algorithm that decides which advertisements users see, as part of an effort to lay the groundwork to launch future e-commerce features, the social networking company told Reuters. The new features come as Twitter is pushing to grow its performance advertising business, a strategy that

WhatsApp is spotted working on a new section to let users manage their chat backup size and exclude specific content such as documents and photos from their cloud backup, according to a report. The change could initially be limited to Android devices and may work with the backups being stored on Google Drive. WhatsApp is

Twitter is rolling out a new privacy-related feature that lets users remove a follower without blocking them. The latest tool is designed to provide users greater control over their follower lists and is currently available on the Web version. Twitter was testing this option from September this year. Once a Twitter user has removed someone,

WhatsApp is reportedly working on letting users pause voice recordings while they are being recorded, through a future update. The alleged update will let users pause and resume recording their voice message right from where they had paused. Furthermore, the instant messaging service is also reportedly working on fixing an issue with chat backups. A

A Facebook executive said Sunday that the company would introduce new measures on its apps to prompt teens away from harmful content, as US lawmakers scrutinise how Facebook and subsidiaries like Instagram affect young people’s mental health. Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, also expressed openness to the idea of letting regulators have access

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov seems to know just the right way to celebrate his 37th birthday. The founder of the cross-platform cloud-based instant messaging system turned a year older on October 10, and chose to drop some life lessons for his followers. He chose to do it on Telegram itself. Given that he

Facebook on Friday said users around the world again had problems accessing its services for hours due to a tweak of its system, just days after a massive outage caused in a similar fashion. “Sincere apologies to anyone who wasn’t able to access our products in the last couple of hours,” a Facebook spokesperson told

Facebook on Friday said it will stop allowing the sale of land in Amazon rainforest conservation areas at marketplaces on the social network or its Instagram and WhatsApp services. The announcement came as Facebook defends itself against accusations that it has long put profit over societal good, and caused some online to question why it

WhatsApp was recently spotted testing end-to-end encrypted cloud backups. The change is rolling out to beta testers on both Android and iOS platforms, according to a report. WhatsApp’s new update aims to protect backups stored on Google Drive and iCloud by giving users the option to encrypt them. The process adds an additional layer of

Twitter said it has agreed to sell mobile advertisement company MoPub to AppLovin for $1.05 billion (roughly Rs. 7,850 crores) in cash, as the microblogging platform looks to focus more on advertisements on its own app and website. MoPub, which generated about $188 million (roughly Rs. 1,400 crores) in annual revenue for Twitter last year,

Facebook has redesigned its Page sections in India to make it easier to differentiate between personal and public profiles. Facebook Pages are different from profiles and they are specifically meant for businesses, brands, organisations and public figures to share their stories and connect with people. The new Page design, Facebook says, aims to make it

YouTube will no longer make its annual year-end rewind videos, the company has confirmed. YouTube Rewind, a project that was cancelled last year due to COVID-19, will not make a comeback this year. In fact, the company has decided to stop making rewind videos altogether claiming that the platform is too massive and incorporating all

Facebook has slowed down the rollout of new products in recent days, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Executives at the social media company have also put a hold on some work on existing products, the report said. Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Snap is launching an in-app tool to educate users searching for drug-related key words on Snapchat about the dangers of drugs and is working on tools for parents to help keep teenagers safe on the service, the company said on Thursday. The announcement comes after a public safety alert from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

Twitter is testing a new feature that allows users to get the vibe of a conversation before they join in. The microblogging platform is testing new prompts on both Android and iOS apps, it announced today. The new ‘prompts’ feature will warn users before they get involved in a conversation that could get heated. It

WhatsApp for Android is in testing a profile photo privacy setting that will let users hide their profile photos from specific contacts, according to a report. The custom privacy setting may come alongside the existing options to let you show your profile photo to everyone, all contacts, and nobody. The change is said to be

Pinterest will roll out new features for brands to promote products and ideas to users, the digital pinboard company said Wednesday, part of an effort to grow online shopping on its site. The features come as social media rivals including Facebook, TikTok and Snap compete for the lucrative e-commerce market with in-app shopping or virtual

Online video sharing platforms (VSPs), such as TikTok, Snapchat and OnlyFans, need to provide clear rules on content, allow users to flag harmful videos, and restrict access to pornographic material, Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said. Under laws that came into effect in Britain last year, VSPs must take appropriate steps to protect all of their

Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen will urge the US Congress on Tuesday to regulate the social media giant, which she plans to liken to tobacco companies that for decades denied that smoking damaged health, according to prepared testimony seen by Reuters. “When we realised tobacco companies were hiding the harms it caused, the

Facebook has complied with Russian demands to delete some banned content, but it could still face a hefty fine as it was slow to do so, the Vedomosti newspaper cited state communications regulator Roskomnadzor as saying on Monday. Russia has increased pressure on foreign tech firms in recent months as part of a long-running push

Apologising for the disruption in the services of Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram, tech giant’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that services are returning online on Tuesday. “Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger are coming back online now,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “Sorry for the disruption today – I know how much you rely on