The account operated by Biden’s team published a message regarding the president’s support of reproductive freedom on Threads, Meta’s up-and-coming Twitter/X competitor.
Soon after, Threads users noticed that his post sported a Threads’ fediverse sharing logo — a circular shape that resembles planets orbiting a star, which gives a sense of the interconnected universe that makes up the fediverse.
When Meta introduced Threads, its text-focused Twitter/X competitor, the company said it planned to federate the app so users on Mastodon and other networks could see and respond to Threads’ users posts.
Late last year, Threads began testing that integration and, in March, it opened up fediverse sharing to Threads users in beta.
For example, at present, Threads users can’t see who replied or liked their posts from other servers and can’t share their posts with polls.
Yahoo is acquiring Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the company announced on Tuesday.
Artifact will no longer operate as a standalone app, and its proprietary AI-powered personalization technology will be integrated across Yahoo, including the Yahoo News app in the coming months.
Although Artifact started off as a simple news app, the end result seemed more like a Twitter replacement.
Artifact’s technology surfaces content users want to see and becomes more attuned to their interests over time.
As a result, users receive a personalized feed of news stories that they want to read.
Instagram is developing a “Blend” feature that creates a private feed of Reels recommended for you and a friend.
According to a screenshot posted on X by Paluzzi, a Blend would include “Reels recommendations based on Reels you’ve shared with each other and your Reels interests.”In other words, if you invited a friend to a “Blend,” Instagram would generate a personalized feed of Reels that it believes the two of you would be interested in.
#Instagram is working on Blend: #Reels recommendations based on reels you've shared each other and your reels interests 👀 ℹ️ Private between the two of you.
Since people already send each other Reels via DMs, Instagram would now be using that data to proactively recommend and display Reels that it believes a pair of users would enjoy.
If released, Blend would give Instagram Reels users access to a fun and collaborative feature that isn’t available on its rival platform, TikTok.
As the election cycle heats up, Instagram and Threads will be cooling down the amount of political content entering many users’ feeds.
These changes, which limit the reach of political content from accounts users don’t already follow, are enacted by default.
If you’re already wondering how to get that kind of content back into your feed, you can follow our guide on changing Instagram’s political settings here.
Threads will host, but not “amplify” news, per remarks from its head Adam Mosseri’s last year.
And what posts and topics will Instagram actually deem to be political?
It’s election season in the U.S., and Instagram has changed the way that it recommends political content.
But the platforms won’t proactively recommend content about politics, which could limit users’ ability to learn about political issues from people outside of their existing circles.
Plus, Instagram’s definition of political content is a bit broad — it describes political content as anything “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social topics.”If these changes bother you, you can adjust your settings to override Instagram’s political content filters.
Changing Instagram’s political content settingsIf you don’t want Instagram to filter out political content from your feed, here are steps to opt out of these changes.
Limiting political content is going to have a ripple effect.
Artifact, the well-received AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, may not be shutting down as planned.
“It takes a lot less to run it than we had imagined,” Systrom confirmed to TechCrunch, adding that it’s just himself and Krieger running Artifact right now.
Artifact made a splash at launch, not only because it was the first major effort at a new social app from Instagram’s co-founders, but also because of its clever use of AI.
pic.twitter.com/5PaMavJbNS — @samhenrigold@hachyderm.io (@samhenrigold) March 16, 2024Following Artifact’s announcement of its impending closure, interest in using AI to summarize the news has heated up.
Browser startup Arc implemented an AI-powered “pinch to summarize” feature ahead of its $50 million fundraise.
This piece combines Ai video, Ai photo, 3D CGI, 2D VFX, Motion graphics, 35mm film, digital video and advances in Ai voiceover.
Every current Ai tool was explored and pushed to the maximum.” [I have left “AI” as “Ai” throughout.]
In an apparently now-deleted comment, Walker says that they did ask for access to Joshua, but “were rejected several times.
They didn’t need crew, they didn’t need locations, they didn’t need craft… Filmmakers have to stand together as we traverse this new AI landscape.
Perhaps they underestimated the passion of the creators whose decidedly analog and human-focused processes actually produce original and compelling content.
Instagram is working on a feature that would allow you to let others put a ‘Spin’ on your ReelInstagram is working on a “Spins” feature for Reels, its short-form video TikTok clone, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.
The feature, which was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, would allow other users to swap out the text or audio in your Reels.
The feature could be used as a way for users to start trends by creating templates that other people can then put their own creative spin on.
#Instagram keeps working on “Spins” for #Reels 👀 ℹ️ Allow people to swap out text or audio in your Reel.
If released, the new feature would give Reels users and viewers access to a functionality that isn’t available on TikTok.
Meta’s newest app Threads, a would-be Twitter/X rival, may not want politics on its platform, but it’s coming to the app anyway — or so Threads’ search trends indicate.
And with the expansion, it seems the topics that Threads users are talking the most are, in fact, political in nature.
In 2016, the company made a change to Facebook’s Feed, to prioritize posts from family and friends over news.
Creators who post about laws and legislation, elections or other political and social issues, were not happy about this change.
But there’s one area where Threads isn’t (yet) suppressing politics, and that’s in its Trends feature.
Instagram has quietly added a secret emoji game that you can access in your DMs.
To access the hidden game, all you have to do is open up a DM chat, send an emoji, and then click on it.
The game saves your high score, so you can come back to it at any time to try to beat your previous high score.
Your high score is saved across your DMs, so you don’t have to go back to the first emoji that you sent when activating the game.
An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email that the company is always working on new ways to make “Instagram feel more fun,” which is why it rolled out the game.
