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Australia plans to set a minimum age limit for children to use social media citing concerns about mental and physical health, sparking a backlash from digital rights advocates who warn the measure could drive dangerous online activity underground. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his centre-left government would run an age verification trial before introducing age

WhatsApp will soon start supporting third-party chats allowing users to send and receive messages. The announcement was made by the instant messaging platform’s parent company Meta last week. The company said the decision to make the app interoperable was made after the European Union brought the Digital Markets Act (DMA) into force in 2022. Earlier,

Snap will concentrate on expanding and diversifying its underperforming advertising business with a focus on Augmented Reality (AR), CEO Evan Spiegel informed employees in a note on Tuesday. The announcement comes amid a challenging period for the Snapchat owner, as it contends with major social media players such as Instagram parent Meta Platforms and Bytedance’s TikTok

Elon Musk’s satellite broadband firm, Starlink, on Tuesday said that it is complying with Brazil’s top court order to block access to social media platform X in the country, a day after informing the country’s regulator it would not obey the order. Starlink had emerged as a fresh battleground between Musk and Brazil, as top court judge

WhatsApp for Android is reported to soon get a new feature for the in-app artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Meta AI. As per a WhatsApp feature tracker, the instant messaging platform is working on adding a Voice Mode to Meta AI that will allow users to have a two-way conversation with the chatbot. The AI is

WhatsApp for Android is developing a new privacy-related feature for the management of synced contacts, according to details shared by a feature tracker. The feature could add new functionality to the multi-account feature which lets users use two WhatsApp accounts on the same device without using parallel apps. With this change, users can choose how

Instagram on Thursday announced the launch of its Creator Lab in India at an event in Mumbai. The creator-focused educational resource will feature popular Instagram users from India and will be available in English and Hindi, with captions in five other languages. The Meta-owned firm also announced the launch of three new features on the

Instagram may be developing a new feature that will allow users to share their currently playing tracks on Spotify with others in real-time, as per claims by a tipster. The feature, dubbed Share from Spotify, is said to work via Instagram Notes – short text updates visible in direct messages (DMs) which users can share

Instagram has introduced new tools for creators, giving them more creative flexibility when making content. The rollout includes new text animations, unique fonts and effects for Instagram Reels and stories. The social media platform is also making it possible to add text and stickers to photos and carousels destined for the feed. With these changes,

X (formerly Twitter) suffered an outage in India and globally during the early hours of Wednesday. The microblogging website, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, left users unable to access it or its features on both mobile and web platforms. Over 20,000 user reports were logged on a website which detects and monitors downtime

Snapchat has rolled out a highly requested feature for iPad users, adding to the expansive list of updates brought out in 2024. Following its latest update, the social media app now works natively on the Apple device, instead of its iPhone app being optimised for the tablet. This year, the platform has introduced several new

WhatsApp for Android may be testing a new feature that lets users mark all chats as read at once with a new shortcut, according to claims by a feature tracker. The functionality was spotted in a beta version of the app but may not be available to users yet. It is speculated to work similarly

WhatsApp for iOS is testing a new feature that leverages augmented reality (AR), according to claims by a feature tracker. The said feature is said to bring AR capabilities for video calls on the platform, enabling users to customise factors such as lighting conditions and surroundings. The feature, available via a beta update, also reportedly

Threads is reportedly testing a new feature for the platform that will allow users to publish posts that disappear after a certain period. These temporary posts can be visible for up to 24 hours, as per the report. The replies made underneath the posts will reportedly also be automatically deleted once the parent post is

WhatsApp has been working on adding support for chat themes on more than one occasion, and a feature tracker has now given us a peek at what the feature could look like when it is launched. The messaging app is expected to let users change the colour of the chat bubbles as well as the

Instagram has announced a new feature that aims to enhance the customisation of user profiles. The feature is dubbed ‘profile song’. As the name suggests, it enables users to add a specific song to their profile that best describes their mood or other preferences. The social media platform has a comprehensive list of licensed songs which

Instagram is currently running a test for a new way to upload media, company head Adam Mosseri revealed on Friday. With this pilot experiment, the social media platform is allowing select users to upload photos and videos in a vertical grid format without requiring them to crop the content into a square. This development builds

WhatsApp could soon protect users from certain messages received from unknown senders, according to details spotted by a feature tracker. The messaging platform is reportedly working on a feature that will allow users to block messages from unknown accounts, which could improve performance of their device, while also keeping their account safe. WhatsApp has also

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature that adds yet another later of customisation on the messaging app. The cross-platform messaging service is developing a default chat theme feature that would let users select from multiple colour options for the wallpaper as well as the chat bubbles where messages are displayed in the app.

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature. The new feature is said to allow users to hold hands-free verbal conversations with Meta AI, the AI chatbot integrated into the app. Earlier, a report claimed that WhatsApp was working on letting users send voice notes to Meta AI, allowing for one-way verbal

Polish billionaire Rafal Brzoska and his wife plan to sue Meta over fake advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that feature his face and false information regarding her circulating on the social media platforms. Brzoska said they have not yet decided on a jurisdiction to file the planned lawsuit, which would be another in a series

Turkey said on Saturday it had restored access to social media platform Instagram after the company agreed to cooperate with authorities to address the government’s concerns. Turkey blocked access to the social media platform on August 2 for failing to comply with the country’s “laws and rules” and public sensitivities. A top Turkish official accused

Instagram is rolling out a big change that potentially improves the sharing of multiple photos and videos on the social media platform. Users can now add more content in a single carousel than the previous limit, which was only 10 uploads. As per the Meta-owned platform, this change makes it easier for users who wish

Social media platform X agreed on Thursday not to train its AI systems for now using the personal data collected from European Union users before they had the option to withdraw their consent, an Irish court heard on Thursday. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the lead EU regulator for most of the top US internet firms

Former Twitter Chairman Omid Kordestani sued the social media company, claiming that billionaire owner Elon Musk is refusing to cash out more than $20 million worth of shares he is owed. Kordestani served as the company’s executive chairman from 2015 to 2020 and stayed on the board for two more years, until Musk bought the

Google and Meta reportedly struck a deal to make and show ads targeted at minor users. A report claims that the Mountain View-based tech giant was working on a marketing project to develop ads that would run on its YouTube platform. These ads were being made for Meta’s photo and video-sharing platform Instagram and were

YouTube is testing a new feature which will allow users to pause video playback in case they plan to fall asleep while watching content. Dubbed Sleep Timer, it is a new experimental feature released by the video streaming giant and is available for a limited duration. Based on its reception, the company can then later

X (formerly Twitter) is removing ads from its highest-paid subscription plan, it announced via a social media post on Thursday. The microblogging platform introduced multiple new subscription plans following Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk’s takeover in late 2022, ditching the previously available single Twitter Blue. Its top-tier plan, dubbed X Premium+, brings benefits

Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Tuesday sued a global advertising alliance and several major companies, including Mars and CVS Health, accusing them of unlawfully conspiring to boycott the site and causing it to lose revenue. X filed the lawsuit in federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers, Unilever and Danish renewable

X (formerly Twitter) may introduce its in-house payments service soon, according to claims by an independent app researcher on social media. Since Elon Musk’s takeover, the microblogging platform has undergone a myriad of changes – from its logo, name and domain change to the removal of traditional verification methods and the introduction of an artificial