Tag Archives: Snapchat

Facebook extends the Like button with new Reactions, Twitter adds GIFs & Snapchat offers on-demand geofilters

February 24, 2016News, TechnologyFacebook, Facebook Reactions, Facebook update, geofilter, GIFs, on-demand geofilter, Snapchat, Snapchat update, social media, social network, Twitter, Twitter GIFs, Twitter updateScott Meisner

The Like button has been a Facebook staple since 2009. It gives the social network’s massive user base a quick and easy way to react to posts shared. Over the years, the Like button has heavily influenced the way we interact with media across other social platforms including Facebook-owned Instagram and competitors Twitter, Periscope, and Vine. Simply tap to tell a friend you acknowledge and like what they’re saying. But therein lies the issue, and today Facebook took a major step to remedy it.

Say your best friend is having a bad day because his family pet passed away, or she didn’t get accepted into her first-choice college. “Liking” posts of this nature really doesn’t make any sense now does it? And yet we still do it, since clicking that thumbs up button tells your friend that you’ve read and sympathized with them (without you having to actually comment on the matter).

Introducing Reactions, “an extension of the Like button” that gives Facebook users more ways to react to a post. Now if it’s not appropriate to “like” something, you can express love, humor, excitement, sadness, and anger. The Like button remains, but now if you hold down the Like button on mobile or hover over it on desktop, you’ll be presented with a heart icon representing Love and four emoji faces aptly named Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry. It’s almost as if the cast of Pixar’s Inside Out came to save the day!

It’s interesting to note that Facebook put a lot of effort into choosing these specific reaction emotions. “For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most,” says company Project Manager Sammi Krug in a blog post. “We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer.”

Curious as to why they simply didn’t add a “Dislike” button? “It would have been too binary,” Krug told Engadget. “This way, though, you’ll have more ways to express yourself. That’s the goal.”

Want to try out the new Reactions? Facebook is rolling out the new feature across its desktop and mobile platforms worldwide starting today, so be on the lookout for it!

Learn about new updates at Twitter and Snapchat after the break. Continue reading Facebook extends the Like button with new Reactions, Twitter adds GIFs & Snapchat offers on-demand geofilters →

Snapchat upgrades video capabilities and Twitter invites users to poll, like & heart

November 3, 2015News, Technologyapp update, Snapchat, Snapchat updates, social media, social network, Twitter, Twitter updatesScott Meisner

Snapchat’s selfie Lenses and Twitter’s Moments were just the beginning of new updates sprinkled on the popular social networks. Let’s discuss the new features and changes making their way to your mobile devices, in brief.

The app that does away with your fleeting snaps has added additional functionality to shooting its equally fading video recordings. After shooting a video, swipe through the handy filters and you’ll notice three new ones. Instead of switching up the physical appearance of the videos, they actually play around with speed. A filter marked with a snail aptly slows down your recording. Another marked by a rabbit speeds it up, and a third one plays your clip in reverse. Snapchat calls these fun new filters Speed Modifiers, and they are baked into the app’s latest update. Also included in the refreshed app is 3D Touch support; so, if you own an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you can now force touch the app to pull up quick action shortcuts to chat with friends and add some more.

Twitter, on the other hand, has pushed polls out to everyone. Now you can create your very own poll to receive near-instant feedback from your followers about a topic you’e concerned about. Creating and tweeting out a poll is simple as pie. Update the app and when you go to compose a tweet, you’ll notice a new pie chart icon next to the location and camera icons. Click it to compose a poll, and you’ll have 166 characters to ask a question and 20 characters each for two choices your followers can choose from when responding to the poll.

Elsewhere, and most recently, Twitter is switching up its vernacular when it comes to Favorites. To the point, Favorites are now Likes, and the symbol has been changed from a star to a heart. Many users are confused about the sudden, erm, change of heart, and in a blog post the company does its best to support the facelift:

We are changing our star icon for favorites to a heart and we’ll be calling them likes. We want to make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use, and we know that at times the star could be confusing, especially to newcomers. You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite.

The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones. The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it.

Love it or hate it, Likes and hearts are the new Favorites and stars and you better get used to it as they’re rolling out Twitter’s mobile apps and desktop web portal today.

[Via TechCrunch; Twitter 1, 2]

Latest Snapchat update adds selfie Lenses, Trophy achievements & more replays

September 15, 2015News, Technologyapp update, SnapchatScott Meisner

Today, Snapchat released a new version of its incredibly popular image and video-based social app and it comes with a slew of fun new features.

First up there’s Lenses. Previously, when users went to capture a selfie in Snapchat, they’d have the option to swipe through a bunch of different aesthetic and location-based Filters. Those remain, and being thrown into the mix now is Lenses, which are basically animated filters that make your selfies a bit more…exciting. Some of them are cute and endearing, such as the heart eyes (raise your eyebrows to make pink hearts pop from your eyes) and heart avalanche (open your mouth a pile of pink, purple, and white hearts fall on you). Others, meanwhile, are straight up bizarre; there’s one that paints your cheeks pink, super-sizes your eyes, and makes you puke a rainbow, and another transforms you into a scary demon. To activate Lenses, simply press and hold anywhere on your face before taking a Snap when you’re in selfie mode; a carousel of Lenses will appear along the bottom of the screen for you to scrub through. After your face gets scanned, on-screen instructions will tell you how to make the animations come to life (either by lifting your eyebrows are opening your mouth). You can snap a picture or hold down to record video, same as always. There are a total of seven Lenses to choose from, and Snapchat says it’ll rotate one out each day and replace it with a new one to keep things fresh.

Next there’s Trophy Case. It’s hidden inside the app’s main menu; in the snap screen, tap Snapchat’s ghost logo (located at the top-middle of the screen) and when the menu drops down you’ll notice a new trophy icon up top. Tap that to access your Trophy Case. It’s here where you’ll find unlockable achievements. The more you use Snapchat, the more achievements you’ll unlock. Achievements are presented as emojis. The one’s I have so far: “Your Snapchat score hit 1,000!” and “Sent a video Snap.” The company is not disclosing how to unlock them all, so you’ll have to send more Snaps to discover what’s hiding behind the unmarked locks. It’ll admit, it’s a smart way to keep users stuck inside the app!

And last, there’s a significant update to Snapchat’s Replay feature in this update. The app’s very first in-app purchase is the ability to purchase additional Replays. “We’ve provided one Replay per Snapchatter per day, sometimes frustrating the millions of Snapchatters who receive many daily Snaps deserving of a Replay. But then we realized — a Replay is like a compliment! So why stop at just one?” says Snapchat in a blog post. Starting today, users can purchase extra Replays for those moments when one a day simply isn’t enough. Pricing starts at 99 cents for 3 Replays. The company admits that’s pricey, “but time is money,” it exclaims. On the one hand, this optional purchase dilutes the magic of Snapchat and its image-focused self-destructive nature. Still, good on them for keeping the single (free) Replay around for users who want to use the feature but don’t want to pay up.

Now start freaking out your friends with those new Lenses by downloading the update today in the App Store.

[Via Snapchat]