Insta Shopping

Instagram adds in-app checkout as part of its big push into shopping

Is this Facebook’s next big business?

By Casey Newton@CaseyNewton  


Instagram took its next step to becoming a full-fledged commerce business today, announcing that it is bringing a checkout feature to its mobile apps. With checkout, you can store your payment information with Instagram to make purchases more quickly. In return, Instagram is charging retailers a selling fee. More than 20 brands will use checkout to start, including Nike, Adidas, Dior, H&M, MAC Cosmetics, Michael Kors, Oscar de la Renta, Prada, Uniqlo, Warby Parker, and Zara.

WhatsApp Limits

WhatsApp limits forwarding worldwide to fight hoaxes and rumors

It's hoping a strategy from India will work in other countries.

Jon Fingas, @jonfingas

AP Photo/Patrick Sison

WhatsApp limited forwarding in India as part of an effort to curb hoaxes and rumors that could lead to violence, and now that policy is spreading. The Facebook-owned messaging service has announced that it's lowering the forwarding limit worldwide from 20 people or groups to the same five Indian users have dealt with since July. The update applying the limit will start to roll out on January 21st, starting with Android users and reaching iOS later.

New Dog Lenses

Snapchat's New Dog Lenses Give Your Pup an Alter Ego

Released on Christmas Eve, Snapchat's new dog lenses will make it look like Rover has a butterfly on his nose or a ring of treats floating atop his head like a halo. One will frame your pooch's face with a pepperoni pizza.

Social Media Pick Up

Social media outpaces print newspapers in the U.S. as a news source

BY ELISA SHEARER


Social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans: One-in-five U.S. adults say they often get news via social media, slightly higher than the share who often do so from print newspapers (16%) for the first time since Pew Research Center began asking these questions. In 2017, the portion who got news via social media was about equal to the portion who got news from print newspapers.

Tumblr to Ban Adult Content

Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

Existing posts containing porn will be switched to private mode

By Shannon Liao

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tumblr will permanently ban adult content from its platform on December 17th in a move that will eradicate porn-related communities on the platform and fundamentally alter how the service is used. The ban includes explicit sexual content and nudity with a few exceptions, the company tells The Verge. The new policy’s announcement comes just days after Tumblr was removed from Apple’s iOS App Store over a child pornography incident, but it extends far beyond that matter alone. “Adult content will no longer be allowed here,” the company flatly stated in a blog post published on Monday.

Should be using WhatsApp

Everything You Need to Know About WhatsApp

It's the biggest messaging app in the world for a reason.

By Eleanor Hildebrandt
GETTY IMAGES/SOPA IMAGES

WhatsApp launched in 2009 and quickly became one of the most-popular messaging apps in existence—it’s now up to 1.5 billion monthly users from over 180 countries, with 60 billion messages sent every day. WhatsApp is free and allows you to sidestep international calling rates by making audio and video calls over Wi-Fi or data. For ease-of-use and security, it’s hard to beat. If you’re new to the app, here’s a few things to keep in mind.

Social Media Crime Fighters

The Social Media Crime Fighters at FireEye Are Helping Facebook Find Fake Accounts

FireEye helped Facebook identify fake accounts with subversive international agendas. Here’s how.

Joe Pappalardo

 POPULAR MECHANICS

Above: These two accounts often tweet the same content. They were created the same month and are linked to Iranian phone numbers. “Roza’s” profile picture is from a hairstyle website.

Help Fighting Bullying

Instagram to use artificial intelligence to detect bullying in photos

The move highlights efforts from tech companies to use automation to moderate their platforms.

by Jasmin Boyce

A man holds a smart phone with the icons for the social networking apps Facebook, Instagram and Twitter seen on the screen.Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP - Getty Images file

Instagram said on Tuesday that it has started using new technology capable of detecting online bullying in photos, a move that highlights efforts from tech companies to use artificial intelligence to moderate their platforms.

New Tinder Feature

Tinder is slowly rolling out a Bumble-like feature where women have to make the first move before men can message them

Paige Leskin

Tinder is testing out a feature that, similar to Bumble, allows women more control by being the sole starters of conversations with matches. Teerawit Chankowet/Shutterstock

• Tinder has been testing a new feature called "My Move" that lets women message a match first before allowing men to message them.
• The feature isn't available in the US yet, but Tinder says it plans to roll it out to American users in the future if the test goes well.

Tinder has rolled out a new feature on its app in India that allows women to limit conversations with male matches to those they choose to start — a female-centric option that draws similarities to rival dating app Bumble.

Snapchat & Amazon

Introducing Visual Search

Beginning this week, we're testing a new way to search for products on Amazon right from the Snapchat camera. We'll be rolling it out slowly, but we wanted to announce it to everyone at the same time.

Internet Meme's

Nicolas Cage expresses 'frustration' with Cage rage internet meme

Actor says his over-the-top acting style is ‘all very thought out and carefully planned’

Andrew Pulver

 ‘A poetic work of art’ … Nicolas Cage in Mandy. Photograph: Allstar/Xyz Films

Nicolas Cage has expressed his frustration with “Cage rage” internet memes, saying they are “frustrating” and unfair to him and the directors of his films.

Twitter Change

Twitter will soon let you switch between chronological and ranked feeds

In the meantime, the company says it’s fixing its timeline settings

By Nick Statt@nickstatt 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has made a surprise change to how it shows tweets to its users, following a viral thread earlier today that discussed ways to reverse the platform’s algorithmic timeline. Now, when you uncheck the settings box reading “Show the best tweets first,” Twitter will completely revert your timeline to a non-algorithmic, reverse-chronological order, which is how Twitter was originally designed and operated for years until the company introduced a default algorithmic model in early 2016.

No More Face to Face

Teens Are Over Face-to-Face Communication, Study Says

By KATY STEINMETZ 

When Common Sense surveyed roughly a thousand teenagers about their habits back in 2012, most of them said that their favorite way to communicate with friends was “in person.” Fast forward six years, and face-to-face communication has apparently lost its youthful sheen.

Next Tinder App

Match Reports $421 Million in Revenue for Q2 as Subscribers Flock to Tinder

By RENAE REINTS 



Match Group Inc. saw a boost in revenue during its second quarter, driven by 3.8 million subscribers to its popular dating app Tinder.

Delete All Your Tweets

How to Delete All Your Tweets

It's worth it.

By Eric Limer

 Twitter/GETTY IMAGESTHOMAS TRUTSCHEL

You're probably not the same person you were five years ago. Even if you are, Twitter is absolutely not the same place it was in its early days. The freewheeling low-stakes website for throwing bad jokes into the abyss has transformed into an enormous public forum inhabited by just about everyone who's anyone, plus a legion of the worst people on the planet.

SM Dashboard Help

Facebook and Instagram add dashboards to help you manage your time on social apps

You can now set reminders to tell you when you’ve spent too much time browsing your feeds

By Casey Newton@CaseyNewton  


Facebook and Instagram are introducing a new dashboard to tell you how long you’ve spent inside their apps, along with tools for setting daily limits and temporarily muting your push notifications. The new set of features, called “Your time on Facebook” and “Your activity” on Instagram, are designed to address concerns that addictive feedback loops built into social apps have been detrimental to users’ well-being.

Instagram Rich List

Instagram Rich List 2018

All

Other use for Netflix/Spotify

Senators See Another Use for Netflix and Spotify

They want to extend emergency alert system

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

A false incoming ballistic missile emergency alert sent from
 the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency system.  
 (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, file)

People might find their Netflix binges interrupted by emergency alerts under a bipartisan bill announced in the Senate Wednesday. The READI Act—Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement—was introduced by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Gizmodo reports.

Millions Accounts Suspended

Twitter suspended 58 million accounts in 4Q

NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter suspended at least 58 million user accounts in the final three months of 2017, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. The figure highlights the company’s newly aggressive stance against malicious or suspicious accounts in the wake of Russian disinformation efforts during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Millions of Accounts Removed

Twitter will remove millions of accounts from follower numbers 'to build trust'

IMAGE: LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

BY KARISSA BELL

Some of Twitter's most popular users may soon start losing a lot of followers.

The company announced Wednesday that it will begin removing millions of inactive accounts from users' follower numbers in the interest of "building trust." This means nearly all Twitter users will see at least small declines in their follower counts this week, and higher-profile accounts could see significant drops.