Page 6 - Social Media Apps

A banker turned tech maven: Meet Sandhya Devanathan, Meta India head

Devanathan takes over the India operations after the previous incumbent, Ajit Mohan, resigned to join social media company Snap Inc

After Musk's takeover, Twitter alternative Hive sees surge in new users

Twitter alternative Hive has seen a boost in new sign-ups since users started switching to other social media platforms after Elon Musk's takeover of the micro-blogging platform.

Chingari introduces new content monetisation plan for creators, users

Creators and users will be offered daily, weekly and monthly subscription plans for monetisation for as low as Rs 20

Koo records over 1 mn downloads within 2 days of launch in Brazil

Homegrown microblogging platform Koo App on Monday said it has received a strong response from users in Brazil, logging over 1 million downloads within 48 hours of launch in that market. Twitter-rival Koo aims to further cement its position globally by making the app available to more countries and launching in multiple global languages. The announcement comes at a time when billionaire Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, setting in motion massive changes and sacking many employees. In a statement on Monday, Koo said: "India's multilingual microblogging platform, Koo App, was launched in Brazil with the addition of the Portuguese language, making it available in 11 native languages now". Within 48 hours of launch, the platform received a "tremendous response" from Brazil users with over 1 million user downloads, Koo further said. Koo occupied the number one spot on both the Android Play Store and Apple App Store for the last few days, it added. "With a blockbuster entry of an open

Meta introduces new privacy features for protecting its young users

All those under age 16 (or under 18 in some countries) will be defaulted into more private settings when they join Facebook, Meta says

Twitter risks fraying as engineers exit over Elon Musk's upheaval

Elon Musk's managerial bomb-throwing at Twitter has so thinned the ranks of software engineers who keep the world's de-facto public square up and running that industry insiders and programmers who were fired or resigned this week agree: Twitter may soon fray so badly it could actually crash. Musk ended a very public argument with nearly two dozen coders critical to the microblogging platform's stability by ordering them fired this week. Hundreds of engineers and other workers then quit after he demanded they pledge to "extremely hardcore" work by Thursday evening or resign with severance pay. The newest departures mean the platform is losing workers just at it gears up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which opens Sunday. It is one of Twitter's busiest events, when tweet surges heavily stress its systems. "It does look like he is going to blow up Twitter," said Robert Graham, a veteran cybersecurity entrepreneur. "I cannot see how the lights will not go out at any moment" -- although man

Elon Musk starts Twitter poll on reinstating former president Donald Trump

Musk said earlier Friday that there hadn't been a decision made on Trump's account, but he did reinstate accounts tied to Jordan Peterson and satire website Babylon Bee.

Social media platforms being used to raise funds for terror activities: NIA

India has evidence social media platforms are being used to raise terror funds, NIA Director General Dinkar Gupta said Thursday, underlining that the issue will be deliberated during a two-day international ministerial conference on countering terror financing. Addressing a press conference ahead of the meeting beginning Friday, Gupta also said Pakistan and Afghanistan were not participating in the conference, while China was yet to confirm. The third 'No Money for Terror Ministerial Conference on Counter-Terrorism Financing' hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others. Asked if Pakistan, China and Afghanistan were invited to the conference, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, Sanjay Verma said, "China has been invited." He, however, remained silent on the other two neighbouring countries. Giving details of the conference, Gupta made it clear that no country-specif

Social media platform Koo becomes second-largest microblog in the world

Koo is the only Indian microblog competing with other global microblogging platforms such as Twitter, Gettr, Truth Social, Mastodon, Parler and stands second (after Twitter) in terms of user downloads

Elon Musk to relaunch Twitter's blue tick subscription on November 29

With the new release, changing someone's verified name will cause the loss of the blue check "until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet terms of service", Musk said.

Twitter is very slow in India, Indonesia & many other countries: Musk

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has said Twitter is very slow in India and many other countries. Twitter is very slow in India, Indonesia & many other countries. This is a fact, not a claim. 10 to 15 secs to refresh homeline tweets is common. Sometimes, it doesn't work at all, especially on Android phones. The only question is how much delay is due to bandwidth/latency/app, Musk, Twitter's new owner, tweeted. In another tweet, he said he would like to apologise for Twitter being super slow in many countries. The app is doing >1000 poorly batched RPCs just to render a home timeline! I was told ~1200 RPCs independently by several engineers at Twitter, which matches # of microservices. The ex-employee is wrong, he said. In another tweet, he said Same app in the US takes ~2 secs to refresh (too long), but ~20 secs in India, due to bad batching/verbose comms. Actually useful data transferred is low. There are ~1200 microservices server side, of which ~40 are critical to Twitter .

Twitter drama too much? Mastodon, clubhouse, and others emerge as options

Twitter has been a bit of a mess since billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the helm, cutting the company's workforce in half, upending the platform's verification system, sparring with users over jokes and acknowledging that dumb things might happen as he reshapes one of the world's most high-profile information ecosystems. On Thursday, amid an exodus of senior executives responsible for data privacy, cybersecurity and complying with regulations, he warned the company's remaining employees that Twitter might not survive if it can't find a way to bring in at least half its revenue from subscriptions. While it's not clear if the drama is causing many users to leave - in fact, having a front-row seat to the chaos may prove entertaining to some - lesser-known sites Mastodon and even Tumblr are emerging as new (or renewed) alternatives. Here's a look at some of them. (Oh, and if you are leaving Twitter and want to preserve your tweet history, you can download it by going to your profi

Here's what led Elon Musk to talk of bankruptcy for Twitter: Timeline

With $1.2 billion of annual interest payments from the acquisition coming due, and possibly higher with rising interest rates, Musk is in a rush to shore up cash

Twitter bankruptcy possible if cash burn doesn't stop, Musk tells employees

Confidence in the company has eroded so rapidly that, even before Musk's bankruptcy comments, some funds were offering to buy the loans for as little as 60 cents on the dollar

Twitter Blue 'verification' rolled out in India, to cost Rs 719 per month

On November 1, Musk said that the subscription pack would be 'adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity'

Explained: What is the difference between WhatsApp Communities and Groups

A few new features that Meta is providing could enhance daily communications. The use of new in-chat polls could be beneficial for choosing a meeting time or a movie to watch

Twitter's big headache: Brand impostors thanks to the $8 verification

Users started creating accounts pretending to be major brands and politicians, fooling users and potentially jeopardizing Twitter's now-shaky reputation with top advertisers

Meta's Indian employees go all out on Twitter after lay-off email

The number of layoffs in India could not be confirmed

From tweeting to tooting: Two front runners emerge as Twitter alternatives

Two front runners have emerged as alternatives to Twitter in the aftermath of Musk's chaotic takeover, but they're some distance from viably competing with the microblogging site

Elon Musk's Tesla loses 2 years of gains amid Twitter saga, demand fears

The stock closed down 7.2% at $177.59 in New York on Wednesday, dropping to its lowest since November 2020