Meta is quietly rolling out a new “Communities” feature on Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.
The rollout comes as Meta introduced Communities on WhatsApp back in 2022.
They could create dedicated group chats for topics like upcoming events, security alerts, trash pickup schedules, and more.
Although the feature works similarly to Communities on WhatsApp, Meta says there is one key differentiator, which is the fact that Messenger Communities are connected to Facebook’s social graph.
On a help page, Meta says Communities on Messenger are designed for more public conversations when compared to Facebook groups.
Today they are the co-founders of Cherub, a marketplace that pairs angel investors with entrepreneurs.
Johnson likens Los Angeles-based Cherub to Raya, an online membership-based community for dating, in that it matches founders and angel investors based on their preferences.
Or if an entrepreneur’s minimum investment is $25,000 but an angel investor is only investing $10,000 per deal, they can see that and not reach out to connect.
Of those deals, 40% were new angel investors, meaning they were accredited investors that had never written checks before.
Angel investor Allen Orr told TechCrunch that he had used other platforms such as AngelList in the past.
Weeks before the national elections in India, Elon Musk-owned X said it is rolling out support for posting Community Notes — the company’s crowd-sourced fact-checking program — in the key overseas market.
The first set of contributors from India will start posting notes from today and more will be accepted over time, X said.
Community Notes now active on India!
Over time, the company has allowed members from different countries to start posting Community Notes to provide local context better.
India was one of the last major markets where Community Notes had not previously expanded.
A day after researchers surfaced X’s plans to test NSFW adult communities on the platform formerly known as Twitter, the company confirmed that Community admins can now set an “Adult Content” label in their settings to avoid having their communities’ content auto-filtered.
Otherwise, all NSFW content will be soon filtered across X’s Communities by default.
Check out the latest updates and improvements for X Communities.👇 Updates (With the latest version of the app):– [All] Admins can now add topics to their Communities, and you can see topics linked to Communities on all devices.
– [All] Soon, NSFW content will… — Dongwook (@DongWookChung2) March 28, 2024Now, included in a long list of updates to X’s Communities is the confirmation that NSFW-focused communities will be allowed to designate themselves as such to keep from having their content filtered automatically, as in other Communities.
The X executives had not shared any plans for NSFW Communities at that time.
Twitch is looking at life beyond the livestream Livestreaming is a tough business.
“So the goal really is like, a lot more people seeing more Twitch content every time they’re in Instagram, every time they’re in TikTok, every time they’re in YouTube Shorts.
“… Live content is very different from offline content, and offline content has a somewhat easier ability to go viral.
Content on Twitch is extremely long form, with streamers regularly broadcasting gameplay or just chatting for many hours per session.
Unfortunately for Twitch, many compelling alternatives to broadcasting one’s life for hours on end exist, particularly in the form of YouTube.
Rec, a new startup aiming to improve the local recreation experience, launched out of stealth today.
The platform’s offerings cater to four groups: residents, community organizers, coaches, and city staff.
Meanwhile, Parks and Rec departments gain access to booking, workforce management, and marketing tools.
In almost every partnership, launching Rec has resulted in both incremental participation from residents and incremental revenue for the Parks Department,” Rec explains.
“Our current focus is to build Rec hand in hand with Parks & Rec departments to give them the tools needed to give residents a reimagined recreation experience.
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Finding people who share your active passion — to go hiking, biking, running, whatever — is a pretty enduring problem.
Step forward Liveliness, a Spanish startup building a community app around shared sporting passions.
There’s a chat function and the ability for users to set up events other users can sign up to join.
In the last three months people really started to use the app, making plans, creating events.”Users range in age from young to middle aged.
“We just tried to make the app as simple as possible so people understand and know how to use it,” he added.
Want to weave various Stability AI-generated video clips into a movie?
Morph Studio, which has its own text-to-video model, just introduced an AI filmmaking platform.
Undergirding the creation process is Morph’s partnership with Stability AI, though eventually, Morph plans to introduce an array of generative video models for users to choose from.
AI has introduced a new workflow to film production,” Morph’s co-founder Xu Huaizhe said in an interview with TechCrunch.
Meme generatingXu’s commitment to creating a community around videos was evident in Morph’s inaugural product endeavor: a place for sharing AI-generated memes.
“Brand anchors” to gated areas like reward programs are something that companies will expand upon in 2024, he said.
“I think this year we’re going to see a lot of community-based brand building,” he shared on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast.
Starbucks launched Starbucks Odyssey in 2022 as its initial foray into the web3 world.
The experience combined the company’s Starbucks Reward loyalty program with NFTs to enhance customer experiences, TechCrunch previously reported.
This never would have happened if not for web3.”The loyalty program has a five-tiered system with over 58,000 active participants at least on level one, Kaczynski said.
