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Fighting our way into the social media realm

WhatsApp

You can now share your WhatsApp Status to Facebook Story

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Facebook-owned WhatsApp started testing a new feature back in June that would let users share their WhatsApp Status to Facebook Story. Well, it seems the testing has gone smooth as the company has begun rolling out this feature to its users.

WhatsApp hasn’t made an official announcement about the rollout yet, but several users took to Twitter to report the arrival of this feature. We’ve also got it on our Android smartphones with version 2.19.258 of the app in India. But our iPhone in India and Android smartphones over at the HQ in Europe are yet to receive it, suggesting this is a limited rollout.

That said, WhatsApp has set up an FAQ page on its website detailing the steps to share a WhatsApp Status to Facebook Story or other apps, which suggests a global rollout should commence soon.

If you happen to be one of the Android users who received this feature, you will see a “Share to Facebook Story” option under “My status” in the Status tab, with a share button right next to it.

See Full story at www.gsmarena.com

Instagram and WhatsApp will add ‘from Facebook’ to their names

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Just how uncool can Facebook make Instagram and WhatsApp? If exerting more influence over the direction of both apps by installing Facebook executives wasn’t enough, now the social network giant is going to add “Facebook” to their names. Instagram will soon become “Instagram from Facebook” and WhatsApp will turn into “WhatsApp from Facebook.” The company already follows this approach with its Workplace app. The Information first reported the planned changes, which Facebook confirmed directly.

The new titles will appear in the title for both apps in Apple’s App Store and Google Play. On your device’s home screen, the name for each will mercifully remain the same (for now). But it’s also very likely that you’ll see “from Facebook” on the splash screen for both apps. Facebook already made this exact change with Oculus.

By Chris Welch

See Full Story at www.theverge.com

WhatsApp CoFounder Tells Students to Delete Facebook

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During a public appearance at Stanford University on Wednesday, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton told students to delete Facebook, BuzzFeed News reports.

He also criticized the profit models driving tech giants like Facebook and Google and how ineffective they tend to be at moderating content on their platforms.

“To be brutally honest, the curated networks — the open networks — struggle to decide what’s hate speech and what’s not hate speech. […] Google struggles with what’s a good website and what’s a bad website,” he said, as quoted by BuzzFeed News. “And we give them the power. That’s the bad part. We buy their products. We sign up for these websites. Delete Facebook, right?”

The Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s appearance comes days after Zuckerberg announced on March 6 that his company will shift towards a “privacy-focused” platform.

Acton sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion in October 2014. He left the company some three years later, following Facebook’s decision to allow for ads on WhatsApp.

See Full Story at futurism.com

 

Things You Should Never Do in A WhatsApp Work Group

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All businesses, no matter what the size, requires effective communication strategies to give constructive feedback to their employees and share the concern. Thanks to technology, which is changing the way companies engage with their workforce. Not only various tools and apps like WhatsApp, Slack, and Trello automate mundane tasks but also ensure transparent internal communication. With changing times, many businesses are now turning to WhatsApp, the largest messaging application, for better communication and personalization. However, with any social app at the workplace, there are always going to be some people who don’t really get the etiquette.

Entrepreneur India is sharing few things that one should never do in a WhatsApp Work Group:

Don’t Post Irrelevant News:

WhatsApp is a quicker mode of communication but one should keep the workgroup as a professional as possible.

Akshit Mehta, Founder, Vorq Space feels there are lots to keep in mind while one chats on a workgroup.

“Even though you know everyone in the group it’s important to remember that it is a workgroup and not a personal group. Never share any news irrelevant to the group and always validate the information before you share. Also, avoid chatting on the group for post-work hours unless it is urgent and work-related. Most importantly avoid using slang language and short texts when communicating on the work group,” he said.

Avoid a Comment on a Co-worker:

Undoubtedly, WhatsApp has become an indispensable tool for communication and to use the tool right, you should first know what not to do with it. You don’t want to end up blaming the tool for etiquette’s that you miss out on.  Inadvertently, we become a part of WhatsApp workgroups and if certain facts are not observed, it may lead to a bad experience for you.

Mihir Mehta, Founder, Fintuned pointed out some of the things that one should totally avoid discussing on WhatsApp workgroups.

By Nidhi Singh

See Full Story at www.entrepreneur.com

You can now play Facebook and Instagram videos straight from WhatsApp

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In case you haven’t already noticed on your phone, WhatsApp can now play videos from Facebook and Instagram from inside the app – at least on the iOS version.
That means you won’t always need to switch to another app to see what someone sends you. With the picture-in-picture option activated, any films shared as links will also continue to play even if you start messaging in another chat.

In the latest iOS version groups, administrators can now also strip other members of their administrator rights in the group settings and determine who can or can’t change a group topic.

The changes will be available with the version 2.18.51 update, but have yet to be included in the Android version.

See Full Story at www.thestar.com.my

How to stop data sharing between WhatsApp and Facebook

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When Facebook bought WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion, there was no doubt that sooner or later the social media giant would try to recoup its money and turn WhatsApp into something profitable. Here’s how it begins.

  • Facebook will use the data it collects to make the advertising it shows you more relevant. That means what you do on WhatsApp will change what you see on Facebook. If you dislike this idea, you can opt out.

By: Serge Malenkovich

See full story at  blog.kaspersky.com

Social media growing as a gateway to news

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Social platforms in global ‘battle for attention’, finds Reuters Institute

The rise of messaging network WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook in February for $19 billion, has been “particularly striking”, the institute says. In Spain, 60 per cent of the survey respondents had used the network in a given week, while 26 per cent had used it for news following experiments by traditional news providers such as El País.

WhatsApp was also found to have a strong news function in Brazil, where 15 per cent of the urban-located survey sample use it for that purpose, and in Italy, where it is used to access news by 13 per cent. In the UK, however, just 2 per cent had used it for news and only 12 per cent had used it for any purpose.

The institute describes the use of messaging apps for discovering and sharing news as an “intriguing finding” in this year’s study, the third of its kind.

Over the past year, a number of news organisations have also developed specific services for Instagram, also owned by Facebook, as a way of reaching younger audiences, it notes.

See Full Story on irishtimes.com

Facebook-WhatsApp Deal Haunted by Past Web Merger Flops

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Facebook Inc. (FB) investors who pushed the company’s shares to a record after it unveiled the $19 billion deal for WhatsApp Inc. would be well served to remember — every Internet takeover of more than $10 billion has flopped.

Last week’s proposed purchase would be the biggest Web acquisition in more than a decade and only the fifth ever to top that threshold, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts it in the same category as AOL’s merger with Time Warner and Terra Network SA’s takeover of Lycos, which later resulted in multibillion-dollar writedowns.

The history of large Internet deals is littered with buyers who paid lofty valuations for targets —Facebook is bestowing on WhatsApp a multiple typically reserved for companies developing life-saving drugs — only to see their value erased. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, who said this week that WhatsApp is worth even more than the $19 billion he’s spending, is betting this time is different. His take: WhatsApp will grow beyond 450 million active messaging accounts to justify the investment from the world’s biggest social-networking service.

“History shows that when you pay $19 billion, there’s an opportunity to have overpaid by $19 billion,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida. “A lot of things have to go right. And there’s certainly a price point at which even if things go right, it’s not going to be a good investment.”

See Full Story on www.bloomberg.com

South Korea’s Kakao Pushes Boundaries of Social Media

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BARCELONA— Jan Koum, WhatsApp Inc.’s chief executive, vowed this week to keep his messaging service simple, despite a $19 billion deal to be swallowed up by Facebook Inc.FB -0.84%

Sirgoo Lee, co-chief executive of South Korea’s Kakao Corp., is making no such promises. With 133 million registered users, Mr. Lee is rolling out dozens of services—from basic messaging, mobile gaming, Instagram-style photo sharing, and online shopping—all on a user interface that is bursting with bright colors.

Amid a frenzy among messaging platforms that have either agreed to sell themselves or are seeking investor cash in public offerings, Kakao stands out as a laboratory of experimentation in the nascent medium.

“We’re trying all kinds of different things and services,” Mr. Lee said in a recent interview. “You can call it our survival instinct.”

WhatsApp’s Jan Koum next to Kakao’s Sirgoo Lee (right) on Monday. Kakao

Earlier this month, Cyprus-based messaging app Viber Media Inc., which has 300 million registered users, but doesn’t yet make money, sold itself to Japan’s RakutenInc. 4755.TO -4.21% for $900 million. Days later, WhatsApp said it had agreed to be acquired by Facebook.

Line Corp., Japan’s dominant messaging platform, has been exploring a public offering. Kakao itself is close to signing bankers to lead its own planned IPO, which could value the company at more than $2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Outside investors in the company, whose service runs on 93% of South Korea’s smartphones, include China’s Tencent HoldingsLtd. TCEHY -0.04% , maker of its own widely popular messaging service, WeChat.

See Full Story on online.wsj.com

Facebook CEO riding high – for now, after WhatsApp deal

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(Reuters) – Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will take a victory lap at the world’s largest mobile technology conference in Barcelona on Monday, after beating outGoogle Inc in a $19 billion acquisition of free messaging service WhatsApp. But he is facing a new arduous race on the horizon.

Just 18 months after appearing at risk of getting crushed by the swelling mobile wave, the No. 1 social network is riding high. It gets a huge chunk of ad revenue on world-wide users of smartphones and tablets, from virtually nothing several years ago.

Now, Zuckerberg’s purchase of WhatsApp – while raising eyebrows with the hefty price paid for a company that boasts 450 million users but has little revenue – places Facebook at the heart of smartphone communications.

It’s a twist that is sure to have some telecom bosses in Barcelona gritting their teeth. WhatsApp and its fellow messaging apps, including China’s WeChat and Israel’s Viber, have punched a hole in operators’ sales by offering a free alternative to text messages, a $120 billion market for operators. Research group Ovum said telcos lost $32 billion in text revenue last year and will lose $54 billion by 2016.

Zuckerberg and WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum are likely to cast themselves as partners not foes of the industry in their appearances at Mobile World Congress on Monday.

Zuckerberg’s keynote at 17:00 GMT is expected to focus on Facebook’s efforts to make wireless Internet access easier and more affordable in developing countries.

See Full Story on www.reuters.com