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Study finds half of Americans get news on social media, but percentage has dropped

Study finds half of Americans get news on social media, but percentage has dropped

A new report from Pew Research finds that around a third of U.S. adults continue to get their news regularly from Facebook, though the exact percentage has slipped from 36% in 2020 to 31% in 2021. This drop reflects an overall slight decline in the number of Americans who say they get their news from any social media platform — a percentage that also fell by 5 percentage points year-over-year,…

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Twitter Super Follows has generated only around $6K+ in its first two weeks

Twitter Super Follows has generated only around $6K+ in its first two weeks

Twitter’s creator platform Super Follows is off to an inauspicious start, having contributed to somewhere around $6,000 in U.S. iOS revenue in the first two weeks the feature has been live, according to app intelligence data provided by Sensor Tower. And it’s made only around $600 or so in Canada. A small portion of that revenue may be attributed to Ticketed Spaces, Twitter’s other in-app…

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Facebook revamps its business tool lineup following threats to its ad targeting business

Facebook revamps its business tool lineup following threats to its ad targeting business

Facebook today is announcing the launch of new products and features for business owners, following the threat to its ad targeting business driven by Apple’s new privacy features, which now allow mobile users to opt out of being tracked across their iOS apps. The social networking giant has repeatedly argued that Apple’s changes would impact small businesses that relied on Facebook ads to reach…

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Twitter re-opens its account verification process after another pause

Twitter re-opens its account verification process after another pause

Twitter has again restarted its account verification process, the company said on Monday evening by way of a post to its Twitter Verified account, where it publishes updates about the system’s status. Since launching the revamped verification program this spring, Twitter had hit a few snags which have forced it to shut down verifications more than once. The most recent of these pauses was…

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Instagram is building a ‘Favorites’ feature so you don’t miss important posts

Instagram is building a ‘Favorites’ feature so you don’t miss important posts

Instagram confirmed it’s developing a new feature called “Favorites,” which would allow users to select certain accounts whose posts they would like to see higher in their feed. A similar feature already exists on Facebook where it gives users a bit more control over the News Feed algorithm. On Facebook, users can select up to 30 friends or Facebook Pages whose posts get shown higher in the News…

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WhatsApp will finally let users encrypt their chat backups in the cloud

WhatsApp will finally let users encrypt their chat backups in the cloud

WhatsApp said on Friday it will give its two billion users the option to encrypt their chat backups to the cloud, taking a significant step to put a lid on one of the tricky ways private communication between individuals on the app can be compromised. The Facebook-owned service has end-to-end encrypted chats between users for more than a decade. But users have had no option but to store their…

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Twitter introduces a new label that allows the ‘good bots’ to identify themselves

Twitter introduces a new label that allows the ‘good bots’ to identify themselves

Twitter today is introducing a new feature that will allow accounts to self-identify as bots by adding a label to their profile. This feature is designed to help people better differentiate between automated accounts — like bots that retweet the news, public service announcements or other updates — from those operated by humans. It’s not, however, designed to help users identify the “bad bots,”…

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Epic Games to shut down Houseparty in October, including the video chat ‘Fortnite Mode’ feature

Epic Games to shut down Houseparty in October, including the video chat ‘Fortnite Mode’ feature

Houseparty, the social video chat app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games for a reported $35 million back in 2019, is shutting down. The company says Houseparty will be discontinued in October when the app will stop functioning for its existing users; it will be pulled from the app stores today, however. Related to this move, Epic Games’ “Fortnite Mode” feature, which leveraged Houseparty to…

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Dispo launches a test to gauge user interest in selling their photos as NFTs

Dispo launches a test to gauge user interest in selling their photos as NFTs

The photo-sharing app that emulates disposable cameras, Dispo started rolling out a test yesterday that will record user interest in selling photos as NFTs. Some users will now see a sell button on their photos, and when they tap it, they can sign up to be notified when the ability to sell Dispo photos launches. CEO and co-founder Daniel Liss told TechCrunch that Dispo is still deciding how it…

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Tinder adds a new home for interactive, social features with launch of Tinder Explore

Tinder adds a new home for interactive, social features with launch of Tinder Explore

Tinder is redesigning its app to put a larger emphasis on its social, interactive features with the launch of “Explore,” a new section that will feature events, like the return of the popular “Swipe Night” series, as well as ways to discover matches by interests and dive into quick chats before a match is made. Combined, the changes help to push Tinder further away from its roots as a quick…

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Twitter wants you to tweet to interest-based communities, not just followers

Twitter wants you to tweet to interest-based communities, not just followers

Twitter is a useful place for following breaking news and keeping up with what the people you’re already interested in are doing, but its relative dearth of discovery features and a lack of organized community spaces make it pretty hard to connect with anyone you aren’t actively seeking out. The company is thinking about changing that. Twitter is on a tear with new features lately and its latest…

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Twitter tests a safety feature on web to remove followers without blocking them

Twitter tests a safety feature on web to remove followers without blocking them

Twitter announced yesterday that it’s testing a feature on the web that makes it possible to remove followers without blocking them. Sometimes, users want to stop a follower from seeing their tweets without outright blocking them — if that follower were to navigate directly to their page, it’d be clear that they had been blocked, which can pose safety risks. Now, some Twitter users with access to…

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Driven by live streams, consumer spending in social apps to hit $17.2B in 2025

Driven by live streams, consumer spending in social apps to hit $17.2B in 2025

The live streaming boom is driving a significant uptick in the creator economy, as a new forecast estimates consumers will spend $6.78 billion in social apps in 2021. That figure will grow to $17.2 billion annually by 2025, according to data from mobile data firm App Annie, which notes the upward trend represents a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29%. By that point, the lifetime…

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Social network Peanut expands to include more women with launch of Peanut Menopause

Social network Peanut expands to include more women with launch of Peanut Menopause

Peanut, a social networking app for women, initially found traction connecting women in the earlier stages of their motherhood journey. But over the years, the network expanded to support women through other life stages. Now, that will include menopause, as well — a life stage that will impact nearly half the world’s population at some point, but where opportunities there are few online…

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TikTok adds educational resources for parents as part of its Family Pairing feature

TikTok adds educational resources for parents as part of its Family Pairing feature

TikTok is expanding its in-app parental controls feature, Family Pairing, with educational resources designed to help parents better support their teenage users, the company announced this morning. The pairing feature, which launched to global users last year, allows parents of teens aged 13 and older to connect their accounts with the child’s so the parent can set controls related to screen time…

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Twitter rolls out paid subscription ‘Super Follows’ to let you cash in on your tweets

Twitter rolls out paid subscription ‘Super Follows’ to let you cash in on your tweets

After opening applications in June, Twitter is rolling out Super Follows, its premium subscription option, starting today. The feature, first revealed in February, will allow users to subscribe to accounts they like for a monthly subscription fee in exchange for exclusive content. For creators, Super Follows are another useful tool in the emerging patchwork of monetization options across social…

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Twitter is testing a new anti-abuse feature called ‘Safety Mode’

Twitter is testing a new anti-abuse feature called ‘Safety Mode’

Twitter’s newest test could provide some long-awaited relief for anyone facing harassment on the platform. The new product test introduces a feature called “Safety Mode” that puts up a temporary line of defense between an account and the waves of toxic invective that Twitter is notorious for. The mode can be enabled from the settings menu, which toggles on an algorithmic screening process that…