Apex Tribune - World Latest Breaking News

We Bring News To You

Monday, July 13, 2020
Log in
You are here: Home / Archives for Facebook

Facebook Messenger Is Bringing SMS Support Back

By Leave a Comment

"messenger"

SMS texting will be available on Messenger

It seems that Facebook Messenger is bringing SMS support back now that they’re sure their messaging platform will not be out staged by the old school system. Admittedly, their plans worked.

  • Facebook Messenger had SMS support, but dropped it in 2013
  • They will start testing the SMS support for a limited amount of users in the U.S.
  • SMS will appear with purple, instead of the regular blue
  • The feature will likely only be available for Android devices

When first introduced, Facebook Messenger already had support for SMS, the good ol’ texting system that most have relinquished by now. It’s all about messaging apps, and with titans such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger taking advantage of the almighty and all-around WiFi, they have pushed SMS to the back. However, that was not always the case.

Thus, back in 2013, Facebook decided to drop their Messenger’s support for SMS. It was done for the purpose of keeping users as long on their platform as possible. After all, why use Facebook Messenger for SMS when your phone’s default system worked just fine and it was familiar? The social media giant believed that not a lot of users would make use of their SMS support system. In fact, most found it redundant. Texting was texting, and IM-ing was IM-ing. There was no need to merge the two worlds or data plans.

However, the time has come to return to that support now that Facebook Messenger is confident in their 800 million user database. Now, it’s their platform that people are accustomed to. So, it’s the right time to bring back SMS support, as people are, in fact, more likely to stick with Messenger. Facebook built trust, gained users, and now believes their platform could defeat a smartphone’s default texting system.

Some users in the United States might already start seeing the integration happening on their app. In fact, they will be able to begin sending an SMS to others, which is especially important for those who do not have a Facebook account. Even if they’re not on the social media platform and don’t have Facebook Messenger installed, the app will still be relevant among users. It’s especially clever to start rolling out this feature now.

But, as Facebook declared, their aim is to keep a line of communication open among everyone. They are “always trying to create new ways for people to communicate seamlessly”. So far, they must be doing something right, especially since Facebook also owns WhatsApp, which is the world’s most popular messaging app, recently topping 1 billion users.

Users will start noting the difference between the regular “Write a message” and “Write a SMS”, which will also be differentiated in coloring. The Facebook blue bubble will appear for regular messages through the app, and a purple one for SMS. The move to bring back is also in line with the company’s 2016 vision of eliminating phone numbers.

The feature will only be available for Android, and it’s unlikely that it will ever appear for iOS. This is due to the fact that the operating system itself must be modified to allow this, and Android is known to show much more flexibility.

 Image source: digitaltrends.com

WhatsApp Is Being Used By A Billion People

By Leave a Comment

"whatsapp"

WhatsApp reached one of its goals

It’s official, WhatsApp is being used by a billion people every month, and the instant messaging app has hit an impressive milestone that places them further ahead of the pack. And Facebook saw it coming.

  • WhatsApp was purchased by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion
  • The service announced 900 million monthly active users 5 months ago
  • WhatsApp sees to 42 billion messages, 1.6 billion photos, and 250 million videos shared
  • Statistically, almost 1 in 7 people in the world are using WhatsApp

Back in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg’s company made a surprising purchase of WhatsApp for whopping $19 billion. It’s the biggest buyout known to date and has been a real head-scratcher for Silicon Valley. At that moment, the messaging service had 450 million monthly active users. However, Zuckerberg predicted the app will reach 1 billion users in the future.

Five months ago, WhatsApp hit 900 million monthly active users and it seemed to be edging closer to their target. The app connects people around the world, enabling messages, calls, photo shares, or sending videos. It has become the most popular messaging service, followed by another Facebook-owned app, Facebook Messenger. However, it wasn’t stopping there.

Recently, the company announced that they have dropped the $1 per year fee for WhatsApp. That meant that the service was completely free for the rest of the user’s life, which seems to have send it over the edge. While a few months ago WhatsApp was “nearing 1 billion”, CEO Jan Koum announced that they finally reached their major goal. Now, the app has 1 billion monthly active users, which means that almost 1 in 7 people around the world is using it. It’s officially beating out all its competition and winning the race by a land slide.

According to Koum, around 42 billion messages circulate on the app each day, along with 1.6 billion photos and 250 million videos. Zuckerberg congratulated Koum and his team’s efforts, who have managed to double the user database for the app since acquiring it in September 2014. The impressive milestone was reached just 5 months after the company announced a 900 million monthly active users.

That means that they acquired new 100 million monthly active users in less than half a year. Perhaps the free subscription had something to do with it.

And it’s not showing signs of slowing down. According to Koum. After they’ve “added the ability to call your loved ones far away”, they are now looking to connect users with businesses. WhatsApp will soon enough create a connection between the average user and several establishments or organizations. This might include things such as being announced if a flight is delayed at an airport, making a dinner reservation, or other quick uses. Services that required putting in a phone call or an e-mail could be instant, all thanks to WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg once revealed his business strategy by stating that he has no interest in monetizing a service before it reaches 1 billion users. Well, now is the moment for WhatsApp.

If their current success is taken into account, then it’s likely that their goal will be achieved. However, that is an upcoming update and it remains to be seen if their ambitions will be, once again, reached.

Image source: 1-lw.xda-cdn.com

Facebook Bids Adieu to Microsoft Bing

By Leave a Comment

The indicators were already there for everyone to see. In early 2013, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook’s Graph Search product and it was the first sign that Facebook was in the process of bidding adieu to Microsoft Bing’s integration. Mark was asked then about his relationship with Microsoft and the response was ‘it’s complicated’

So it is official now, Facebook search results will have nothing to do with Microsoft’s Bing search engine anymore. The social networking pioneer overhauls its search system to look for old posts and comments. Today the search will feature only Facebook engine whereas earlier it offered links to different websites via Bing. Not much has been said by Facebook about this change but the goal is amply clear- keep Facebook users within the walls of Facebook as much as possible.

According to Reuters, Facebook has stopped adding search results from Microsoft’s Bing to its Graph Search feature. The move had already started when Facebook rolled out changes for its search functionality for desktop and mobile at the start of the week. Facebook has now confirmed that it has stopped including Bing into its own search algorithm.

Facebook Bids Adieu to Microsoft Bing

Facebook spokesperson said, “We’re not currently showing web search results in Facebook Search because we’re focused on helping people find what’s been shared with them on Facebook. We continue to have a great partnership with Microsoft in lots of different areas.”

Facebook and Microsoft have a long standing relationship from 2007. Then the software leader had invested $240 million for 1.6% stake in the fledgling company. The current value of Facebook is said to be in a tune of $211 billion and Microsoft would like to remain in partnership with the social networking giant.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, search is the most important growth area for the company. Mark said that in July more than 1 billion searches were made. So he is implying that people will one day drop Google or Bing and use Facebook to search for information.

Zuckerberg told analysts in a conference call in July, “There is more than a trillion posts, which some of the search engineers on the team like to remind me, is bigger than any Web search corpus out there.”

 

Mark Zuckerberg attacks Apple for its business model

By 3 Comments

Mark Zuckerberg – the co-founder of Facebook jabs Apple for its pricey products. Back in September when Tim Cook published an open letter regarding Apple’s privacy, he said free services treat consumers as products.

In an recent interview with Time magazine, Zuckerberg attacked on Tim Cook’s statement saying,

“A frustration I have is that a lot of people increasingly seem to equate an advertising business model with somehow being out of alignment with your customers. I think it’s the most ridiculous concept. What, you think because you’re paying Apple that you’re somehow in alignment with them? If you were in alignment with them, then they’d make their products a lot cheaper!”

Facebook’s business run on user’s data, which inturn is used to provide user-centric advertisements. Apple on the other hand manufacturers hardware; user data is hardly any necessity of the company.

According to Zuckerberg, Apple would align with the customers only if they sell their products at a cheaper price. The debate on paid services vs free services with advertising has always been the part of serious discussion, and is never going to end.

The newly introduced social networking site – Ello, which is also called as anti-facebook stores each update as data to offer user-centric advertisements. Zuckerberg also aimed at this rival in his comment.

Zuckerberg also tells Time that it cannot accomplish the mission of connecting the world if he doesn’t display advertisements.

At this stage both companies are monetizing in their own ways, there’s no point in discussing about this never ending debate.

Fresh Snowden Documents Reveal NSA Actively Snooping On World’s Cellphone Networks

By 6 Comments

The NSA has been working for years, hacking and snooping into cellphone networks worldwide and is bypassing the security measures according to Edward Snowden documents revealed by The Intercept on Thursday.

The Snowden documents reveal a highly confidential operation named AURORAGOLD. The operation was conducted to obtain information pertaining to cell phone carriers’ internal systems and to find chinks and vulnerabilities which could be exploited by NSA to hack into services. It is because of AURORAGOLD, NSA has been able to obtain technical information on about 70 percent of cellphone networks worldwide, as of May 2012.

A fresh set of Snowden documents which was released last year revealed that NSA was taking advantage of an archaic encryption technology which is still used widely- the A5/1 protocol, to effectively spy on conversation and texts. The latest treasure trove of information reveals that NSA is making inroads into the latest cellphone encryption technologies, such as A5/3.

Fresh Snowden Documents Reveal NSA Actively Snooping On World's Cellphone Networks

To achieve this end, NSA is snooping on the internal emails of cellphone company’s employees. NSA is also spying on GSM Association. GSM Association is a large London-based trade conglomerate that represents numerous carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Vodafone, as well as technology firms such as Microsoft, Facebook, Nokia and Samsung.

The Snowden documents which was first published in the Intercept also reveals that the NSA has managed to build considerable network coverage spanning across many countries in the world. Snowden documents earlier this year revealed that the NSA was able to spy on the entire cellphone networks of two countries: the Bahamas and Afghanistan. NSA has developed technology to bypass Internet encryption.

One major area of concern with NSA activities is that the NSA finds a flaw in a technology but does not alert the makers to fix it leaving the field wide open for others to exploit the flaw too.

Categories

Archives

Contact Us:

E-Mail: [email protected]