Facebook prototypes a swipeable hybrid carousel of feed posts & Stories
Feed and Stories unite! Facebook is so eager to preempt the shift to Stories that it might even let us use the same interface of horizontally swipeable cards to sift through News Feed posts. If users won’t scroll down any more, Facebook’s ad business could...
The chat feature may soon return to Facebook’s mobile app
Facebook upset millions upon millions of users five years ago when it removed chat from its core mobile app and forced them to download Messenger to communicate privately with friends. Now it looks like it might be able to restore the option inside the Facebook...
Instagram bug showed Stories to the wrong people
Today in “Facebook apps are too big to manage”, a glitch caused some users’ Instagram Stories trays to show Stories from people they don’t follow. TechCrunch first received word of the problem from Twitter user InternetRyan who was confused about seeing strangers in his Stories...
Instagram now demotes vaguely “inappropriate” content
Instagram is home to plenty of scantily-clad models and edgy memes that may start to get fewer views starting today. Now Instagram says “We have begun reducing the spread of posts that are inappropriate but do not go against Instagram’s Community Guidelines”. That means if...
CleverTap lands $26M for its mobile-focused customer marketing service
CleverTap, an India-based startup that lets companies track and improve engagement with users across the web, has pulled in $26 million in new funding thanks to a round led by Sequoia India. Existing investor Accel and new backer Tiger Global also took part in the...
New privacy assistant Jumbo fixes your Facebook & Twitter settings
Jumbo could be a nightmare for the tech giants, but a savior for the victims of their shady privacy practices. Jumbo saves you hours as well as embarrassment by automatically adjusting 30 Facebook privacy settings to give you more protection, and by deleting your old...
WhatsApp’s Brian Acton to talk Signal Foundation and leaving Facebook at Disrupt SF
“We give them the power. That’s the bad part. We buy their products. We sign up for these websites. Delete Facebook, right?” That’s WhatsApp founder Brian Acton’s most recent quote about his former employer Facebook. Acton has seemingly been fueled by his experience running WhatsApp...
The danger of ‘I already pay for Apple News+’
Apple doesn’t care about news, it cares about recurring revenue. That’s why publishers are crazy to jump into bed with Apple News+. They’re rendering their own subscription options unnecessary in exchange for a sliver of what Apple pays out from the mere $10 per month...
Android users’ security and privacy at risk from shadowy ecosystem of pre-installed software, study warns
A large-scale independent study of pre-installed Android apps has cast a critical spotlight on the privacy and security risks that preloaded software poses to users of the Google developed mobile platform. The researchers behind the paper, which has been published in preliminary form ahead of...
Apple ad focuses on iPhone’s most marketable feature — privacy
Apple is airing a new ad spot in primetime today. Focused on privacy, the spot is visually cued, with no dialog and a simple tagline: Privacy. That’s iPhone. In a series of humorous vignettes, the message is driven home that sometimes you just want a...
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