Thursday, November 21

Tag: messaging

Instagram Rolls Out Walkie-Talkie Messaging Feature
Tech

Instagram Rolls Out Walkie-Talkie Messaging Feature

Facebook-ownedphoto sharing social platform Instagram has reportedly launched its own walkie-talkie feature. With this,the users can now communicate through voice messages. Users can hold down the microphone button to record a short voice message that appears in as an audio wave form that recipients can then listen to at their leisure. Voice messages are up to one-minute long, stay permanently listenable rather than disappearing. Being one of the most popular social media apps, hands-free Direct messaging could make Instagram a more appealing chat app for drivers, people on the move with their hands full or users in the developing world who want a more intimate connection to pay for the data for long audio or video calls. The launch hold down deepens Facebook’s entry into the...
After Instagram, Facebook Messenger Eyeing to Launch the Unsend Feature
Tech

After Instagram, Facebook Messenger Eyeing to Launch the Unsend Feature

After Instagram, social networking platform Facebook is prepping up to bring in the feature of ‘unsend’ on its messaging app Facebook Messenger. And thus, soon the feature may be nearing a release. Initially, Facebook announced that it would be adding the "unsend" feature for everyone in April after it came out that messages CEO Mark Zuckerberg had sent to other users were removed from the users' inboxes while older messages that those users sent Zuckerberg were still present. The feature of deleting messages on the messenger was available since long, however, deleting those messages would not delete the message from the recipient's inbox. Photo sharing app Instagram that is owned by Facebook already has the "unsend" feature that removes the message from both inboxes, even messages f...
Facebook Acquires Israeli Messaging Company REDKIX
ACQUISITION

Facebook Acquires Israeli Messaging Company REDKIX

Redkix, an Israeli email startup that provides tools to combines email, messaging and calendar features more effectively into one app has been acquired by Facebook. Facebook made the purchase in hopes of building out its own communication features inside Workplace, which is the enterprise version of Facebook. Redkix has raised $20 million and has offices in both Silicon Valley and Israel, it had from investors including Salesforce Ventures, has offices in California and Tel Aviv. The social networking giant declined to say what it paid in the acquisition. Facebook launched Workplace in 2016, which is a subscription-based social platform for businesses, is used internally by Facebook employees, is more like the regular, consumer version of Facebook which means that it has features lik...
Alibaba Invests in $200 Million in South Korea’s Messaging Giant Kakao Pay
FUNDING

Alibaba Invests in $200 Million in South Korea’s Messaging Giant Kakao Pay

Alibaba's payment affiliate Ant Financial will invest USD 200 million in a unit of South Korean messaging giant Kakao, the companies said today, the Chinese firm's latest step to expand its global reach. The investment in Kakao Pay comes less than a month after Ant bought US-based payments operator MoneyGram for around USD 880 million and struck a partnership deal with Thailand's Ascend Money in November. Ant is behind Alipay, which accounts for 80 [ercent of electronic payments in China where it is used for e-commerce at Alibaba online venues and a large number of mobile applications. Ant is also involved in investment services and online banking. "South Korea is an important market for Ant Financial in its global expansion," said Douglas Feagin, president of Ant Financial Intern...
WhatsApp Will Share Your Phone Number with Facebook
News

WhatsApp Will Share Your Phone Number with Facebook

Messaging service WhatsApp has updated its global privacy policy, under which it will now share phone numbers of users with its parent company, Facebook. While the move will help Facebook offer more targeted advertisements on its own platform, WhatsApp will continue to be ad-free, a WhatsApp spokesperson said. He added that this is the first time when WhatsApp has updated user privacy policy after being acquired by Facebook in 2014 in a USD 19-billion deal. Privacy advocates had raised concerns that Facebook would start mining WhatsApp accounts for data. However, both the companies have maintained that WhatsApp would operate separately from the parent company and that its user data would not be shared without users consent.WhatsApp has over one billion users globally, with a significant...
After Linkedin, Microsoft Acquires Messaging Start-up Founded By Indian
ACQUISITION

After Linkedin, Microsoft Acquires Messaging Start-up Founded By Indian

Technology giant Microsoft has acquired a messaging-app developer founded by an Indian, as the US-based software firm aims to strengthen its position in the emerging era of combining the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence. Microsoft acquired California-based Wand Labs, a start-up which builds messaging technology for apps, founded in 2013 by IIT-Delhi alumnus Vishal Sharma who was previously the vice president, products at Google. The terms of the acquisition were not made public. "This acquisition accelerates our vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform which (India-born CEO of Microsoft) Satya Nadella introduced at our Build 2016 conference," Corporate Vice President, Information Platform Group at Microsoft David Ku said in a statement yesterday. Dur...