BeReal, a rising social media app that emphasizes authenticity, is making its first outreach to brands and celebrities.
Over the last year, BeReal has rolled out a number of new features like groups, mentions, multiple posts per day, pinned posts and a “friends of friends” feed.
But the problem with BeReal, and its commitment to fostering existing friendships, is that it can’t make money.
Like any other user on BeReal, they will have to post on time at the spur of the moment.
Well, if we’re about to start seeing BeReal posts from brands, may we humbly nominate the Duolingo Owl for early access?
Journal app Day One is introducing Shared Journals, a new social feature that lets you share stories and memories with your friends and family.
As the creator of a shared journal, you can remove members, and as a member, you have the option to leave Shared Journals.
To get started with Shared Journals, you need to tap the app’s upper left menu where you will see a new “Shared” section.
Then, you will need to click “New Shared Journal” and customize and name your new Shared Journal.
Once you publish the first entry in the Shared Journal, it will appear in the “Timeline” view for the Shared Journal.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) applies to just six (mostly US) tech giants, including Meta.
The incoming choices will also enable regional users of Facebook Messenger to stop Meta combining their data with their use of its social network.
This is the only alternative Meta currently offers EU users who don’t want it to process their information to run tracking ads.
And it remains to be seen whether EU data protection regulators will accept it.
An ex ante reform of digital competition law in Germany already led to Meta making some concessions over cross-site tracking last June.
The Barcelona court accepted that the mental problems suffered by the worker are not a common illness but a work accident, per the newspaper.
Meta’s subcontractor had processed his absence from work as common ailment and sought to deny responsibility for any psychological harms suffered from reviewing violent content uploaded to Facebook and Instagram.
Meta also noted it provides technical solutions to subcontractors which are intended to enable content reviewers to limit their exposure to graphic material they are being asked to moderate as much as possible.
In the article the newspaper quotes a worker describing the support provided by their employer, and Meta’s subcontractor, as “very insufficient”.
Legal rulings that impose requirements on third party content reviewers to take care of workers’ mental health could put limits on the model, however.
Last week, Artifact, a buzzy news app from Instagram’s co-founders, announced it was shutting down after failing to gain critical mass.
New data indicates that Artifact couldn’t catch up to the competition and struggled to grow its user base outside the U.S.
According to data from app intelligence provider Appfigures, Artifact saw an estimated 444,000 downloads since its February 2023 launch.
Artifact also struggled to gain an international following, which could have helped it thrive even if U.S. downloads stalled.
By adding more functionality, Artifact may have potentially confused users as to when or why they should use it.
Instagram has cut 60 technical program manager positions, eliminating a layer of management at the company, according to a new report from The Information.
The impacted employees have two months to apply for other jobs at the company.
After the two-month period, their employment will be terminated if they are unable to secure a different role at the company.
The changes mean that Instagram is going to sharpen its focus on supporting creators who are most likely to drive teen engagement on the platform.
Despite the continued and ongoing regulatory pressure that Meta is facing, Instagram is still focused on teen engagement and retention.
CNDO (pronounced “condo”) enables content creators to create private social rooms for their followers to engage in a community-wide group chat, participate in challenges and get exclusive updates from their favorite influencers.
For instance, creators can encourage their followers to build healthy fitness habits and share daily updates about their workouts with each other.
The company also hopes the challenges incentivize users to keep coming back to the app, allowing for a healthy app retention rate.
However, the company says creators must pitch their “concept strategy,” and CNDO determines whether they are a right fit for the platform.
Schaecker developed CNDO with his two co-founders, Kian Seifert and Jordi Walder, who studied business and data science, respectively.
A startup called Diem wants to tackle the problem of “search engine gender bias,” where results can produce default male information, making many women feel unsatisfied by the answers they receive to taboo or personal questions online.
Diem also recently partnered with verified content providers so users can get information from trusted sources.
The first four companies are experts in the reproductive health space, including hormone health startup Aavia, sexual telehealth clinic Hey Jane, vaginal health startup Evvy, and female health brand Stix.
In the future, users will be able to nominate community members who already have a Diem account.
Six spaces are available, run by community members and inspired by popular posts on the platform.
Substack has industry-leading newsletter tools and a platform that independent writers flock to, but its recent content moderation missteps could prove costly.
Earlier last year, Substack CEO Chris Best failed to articulate responses to straightforward questions from the Verge Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel about content moderation.
The interview came as Substack launched its own Twitter (now X)-like microblogging social platform, known as Notes.
Substack authors are at a crossroadsIn the Substack fallout, which is ongoing, another wave of disillusioned authors is contemplating jumping ship from Substack, substantial readerships in tow.
It’s unfortunate that Substack’s writers and readers now have to grapple with yet another form of avoidable precarity in the publishing world.
Multiple Threads users on the iOS app reported earlier today that they are seeing a new “Latest” option to sort search results on the new social network.
However, the company told TechCrunch that the feature was just an internal prototype and it was rolled out by mistake.
Threads first started testing the ability to search for posts in Australia and New Zealand in August 2023.
In September last year, Meta rolled out the search to almost all English and Spanish-speaking countries where the social network was available.
In December, the company expanded the search to all languages along with the launch in the EU later in the month.
