Telegram introduced its latest offering, Telegram Business, on March 31, which will allow users to turn their accounts into business accounts. Those who run small online businesses or own a physical store will be able to onboard new customers, support existing customers with their orders, and help resolve queries, all within the messaging app. With this offering, the platform will offer a suite of new features such as showing opening hours and location, quick replies, automated messages, a custom start page, chatbot support, and more.

The messaging app introduced the new features in a blog post, which stated, “Telegram has long allowed developers to build powerful bots and mini-apps which were widely used by businesses. Starting today, any user can easily use business features — without any coding skills.”

New features in Telegram Business

Users who opt for a business account will be able to show relevant information for their business on the info page of the chat. These will show the hours of operation and the physical location of the store on a map. This way businesses can let users know when and how to reach them physically.

Telegram Business will also let enterprises build a custom start page for the empty chats. Here, they can add text and a sticker of their choice to let incoming customers know about them before they even begin conversing. The company said this space can be used to showcase info about products and services or to welcome customers with branded artwork.

Further, account holders will also get to use automated messages in various ways. They will see an option to set a greeting message that will be sent to users who text for the first time. This can be specified with a period after which a new message will again repeat the greeting message. Quick replies will also be available to use for business accounts. These are shortcuts for sending preset messages that a user can send to get relevant information. These support links, stickers, media, and files. Users will also get to set an away message for the hours when the business is closed. All the automated messages can be set to exclude specific people or entire chat categories in case an account holder also intends to use it as personal chat.

Some other features have also been included. Telegram Business account users can create links that can direct users to the Telegram app. These links can be placed both inside Telegram and outside, on the user’s website. Clicking them will result in posting a direct query in the chat, for which automated messages can be set. Finally, Telegram is also allowing business account holders access to its bots and AI assistants that can be used to manage chats, answer queries, and more.

Telegram Business is available to all Premium users for free. The option to turn an account into a business account can be found in Settings > Telegram Business.

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Meta has joined hands with the Press Trust of India (PTI) to mitigate viral misinformation on its platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Threads. As part of the collaboration, PTI will become an independent fact-checker for the company and help in identifying, reviewing, and rating misinformation. With this move, Meta now has partnered with 12 fact-checking agencies in India and has a coverage over content in 16 Indian languages. Notably, the announcement came just days before the start of India’s general elections.

In a press release dated April 1, Meta announced the partnership and said, “Today, we are expanding our third-party fact-checking program in India to include Press Trust of India (PTI), a dedicated fact-checking unit within the newswire’s editorial department. The partnership will enable PTI to identify, review and rate content as misinformation across Meta platforms.”

With this partnership, Meta now has 12 fact-checking partners in India including AFP- Hub, The Quint, NewsChecker, India Today Fact Check, Factly, and more. The social media giant said this has now made India the country with the most third-party fact-checking partners globally across Meta. The company also has an extensive coverage over regional language content with 16 Indian languages covered by the partners besides English, including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and more.

Meta’s fact-checking programme started in 2016 with an aim to address the problem of viral misinformation, and in particular hoaxes that have no basis in fact. The third-party fact-checking partners keep tabs on such viral content and both identify, rate, and review them. Whenever a fact-checker rates a piece of content as false, altered, or partly false, the company claims to reduce its distribution so that fewer people see it. Additionally, it also notifies users that are trying to share such content about the fact-checker’s rating and adds a warning label that links to the partner’s article with more information about the topic.

The company highlighted that it only collaborates with agencies that are certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Meta now has nearly 100 fact-checking partners globally that review and rate misinformation in more than 60 languages.

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WhatsApp released the Chat Lock feature last year. This feature let users place their chats in a hidden folder that can be only accessed via secured passcodes, fingerprints or face ID. Meta unveiled this feature to improve the security and privacy protection on WhatsApp. Now, the social media giant is reportedly looking to extend the Chat Lock functionality to linked devices. A future update of WhatsApp is said to bring the feature for linked devices. This update has been spotted in WhatsApp for Android beta version 2.24.8.4.

WhatsApp features tracker WABetaInfo claimed that WhatsApp is working on a locked chats feature for linked devices and it will be available in a future update. The publication has spotted a reference about the upcoming feature in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.8.4 update that is available via the Google Play Beta programme.

The rumoured locked chats feature is not available for testers now but the report included a preview of the functionality. As per the shared screenshot, the app will allow users to set up secret codes to access chats on linked devices. The secret code will need to be set up from the primary device by heading to Chat Lock Settings>Secret Code option.

As mentioned, WhatsApp rolled out a new Chat Lock feature in May 2023 and this feature is currently limited to primary devices. It offers users more control over their personal and group chats. Notifications from the locked chats will neither show the sender’s name, nor the message preview. Users can view these hidden conversations in a separate locked chat folder that can only be accessed via a passcode, fingerprint, and face ID.

Meta’s developers are constantly rolling out new and upcoming features to WhatsApp through the beta channel. It is reportedly working on enabling international payments via its in-app Unified Payments Interface (UPI) service. Further, WhatsApp for Android is reportedly getting a new feature to set the upload quality of images and videos directly via Settings.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

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The post WhatsApp’s Chat Lock Feature Might Soon Extend to Linked Devices appeared first on Tech Independent.

WhatsApp has reportedly started rolling out a new privacy feature. This helps users choose the privacy level of the links that are shared in their chats. The feature has not yet been publicly announced, but it has been spotted on some beta testing accounts. WhatsApp is also said to be developing a new video-viewing feature within the app. Recently a report claimed that the company is working on a locked chats feature for linked devices, and it is expected to be available in a later update. WhatsApp initially rolled out the Chat Lock feature for smartphones in May 2023. 

According to an Android Police report, WhatsApp has started rolling out a link privacy feature to some beta testers. Users can choose to turn off link previews with this feature which means there will be no thumbnail preview or any other data related to the article alongside the link. This will not reveal any overt information regarding the link to anyone attempting to pry over the chats.

This feature is also expected to help declutter the chats and make them easier to navigate. More importantly, it is also expected to prevent data leaks. WhatsApp beta testers can access this feature under the Disable link previews option by tapping on Privacy > Advanced in WhatsApp’s settings menu. Gadgets 360 was able to confirm the feature is enabled on the latest beta version of WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, a report by WhatsApp feature tracker WABetaInfo claimed that the company is developing a new video viewing feature. This would allow users to view videos shared amongst contacts on the app in a picture-in-picture segment within the app. This is similar to the picture-in-picture feature that is available when watching YouTube and Instagram videos shared on WhatsApp. 

The report noted that this picture-in-picture viewing for WhatsApp media videos is only available within the WhatsApp application, not over any other apps. This means that with this feature, you can watch a video that one of your contacts sent, come out of the chat and interact in other chats or groups within WhatsApp, while the concerned video continues playing in a smaller window. It also added that this feature is currently being worked on and is not ready to even roll out to beta testers. So, it may not see a public release in the near future.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

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The post WhatsApp Testing Link Privacy Feature; Working on Picture-in-Picture Support on iOS: Reports appeared first on Tech Independent.

Elon Musk-owned social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) expanded its Community Notes’ contributor positions to India on Thursday. With this development, Indian users can apply to become contributors to this open-source moderation tool to rate and review posts that are misleading or are spreading misinformation. Community Notes was officially introduced in November 2022 but at the time of launch, moderators were only selected from a few countries. Now, with the addition of India, the tool has contributors from 69 countries.

The announcement was made via a post by the official account of Community Notes. It said, “Welcome new contributors in India. Our first contributors are joining today, and we’ll be expanding over time. As always, we’ll monitor quality to ensure that notes are found helpful by people from different points of view.” Musk also posted about the development.

Becoming a Community Notes contributor is easy but users will have to fulfill some eligibility criteria. As per X guidelines, the user must have joined the platform at least six months ago, have a verified phone number from a trusted phone carrier, and have no recent platform rules violations. The account should not be associated with other Community Notes accounts.

Once these requirements are met, users can apply to become contributors here. The process just requires highlighting the languages a user is proficient in and agreeing to X’s terms and conditions. However, one thing to note is after joining as a contributor users will not directly be able to review or rate posts. Contributors will only be able to rate Community Notes to denote how helpful they are. Based on the regularity of rating notes and accuracy in assessing the posts, a user can later be contacted by the platform to become a contributor who writes Community Notes for others to rate.

Interestingly, before November 2022, Community Notes was known as Birdwatch. Birdwatch was introduced in 2020 as a moderation tool to identify and debunk misinformation and propaganda. However, after Musk took charge of the social media platform, he rebranded the tool and made it open-source. X states that the feature is not controlled by it and only users rate and review posts. Further, the platform publishes all the Community Notes data daily which can be downloaded for inspection.

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Facebook, the popular social media platform, is revamping the video player on its mobile apps. With this upgrade, users will not have to see different full-screen modes and viewing experiences for different kinds of videos. Currently, users can watch Reels, long-length videos, as well as live videos on the app. While Reels open in vertical full-screen, longer videos, and live videos open in a half-screen view with comments at the bottom. Facebook is now addressing this inconsistency with its upgraded video player.

The announcement was made on Wednesday via a post on Meta newsroom, which stated, “We’re introducing an updated video player on Facebook that brings together Reels, longer videos and Live content all in one fullscreen, engaging experience. The updated video player is rolling out on iOS and Android first in the US and Canada, and globally in the coming months.” It will arrive in other regions in the coming months.

Essentially, Facebook is offering a single consistent full-screen for all kinds of videos. Once the update rolls out, users will be able to open all videos in a vertical full-screen. The company appears to be using Instagram’s Reels as the template for its video player. On the vertical screen, users will have options to like, comment, share, and send it to a contact on Messenger on the right side, with the uploader’s name towards the bottom followed by the description of the video.

The longer-length videos which may not be vertically aligned can be viewed in landscape mode. Facebook said that opening most horizontal videos in full-screen will show an icon to turn the orientation, through which users can enter the landscape mode. Additionally, the social media giant is also offering better controls to navigate through the videos.

Users will see an option to pause the video and to skip ten seconds forward or backward through centrally placed icons. Users will also get more granular control to skip to a certain part of the video by moving the bottom slider. Further, the post mentioned that along with these upgrades, the recommendation system is also being revamped. The recommendations will be based on user interests. “We may recommend a Reel giving you inspiration for a quick, daily makeup routine or a longer tutorial video on DIY house improvements from experienced homeowners,” the post added.

The post Facebook Revamps the Video Player on Its Mobile Apps, Adds Consistent Full-Screen Mode, New Controls appeared first on Tech Independent.

Meta is finally bringing the ability to share high-quality photos in Messenger, a feature that many of its users have longed for. Users can turn on the HD toggle before hitting Send to avail of this file-sharing feature, the company announced on Tuesday (April 9). High-quality image sharing is also available on WhatsApp. Additionally, the social media giant is allowing users to create shared albums in chats. It is also rolling out the ability to send larger files.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led company announced the rollout of new file-sharing features on Messenger via a blog post. The upgrades include the ability to send HD photos, create shared albums in chat, and transfer larger files up to 100MB in chats to improve Messenger conversations and connections. Additionally, Meta has added an option for users to connect with others by scanning a QR code on Messenger.

As for the new HD photo-sharing capability, users can turn on the HD toggle and tap Send after selecting an image from chat compose. Users can tap on additional photos to send multiple in HD. WhatsApp started supporting HD photos back in September 2023.

Further, Messenger now lets users create shared albums with photos and videos with friends and family. To create an album in a group chat, users have to select multiple photos from the chat composer and tap Create Album. This can be also done by long pressing a photo in the chat and tapping Create Album. To add photos to an existing album users will need to tap Add to album. They can also rename albums.

Everyone in the chat can view, add, delete and download pictures and videos from the shared album. The album can be located by tapping the Media button in a chat.

Further, Messenger offers an alternative to email for sending large files in formats including Word, PDF, and Excel. With the latest update, users can share files up to 100MB by tapping the + button on the menu.

Lastly, Meta is providing a new option for users to connect with other folks by simply scanning their Messenger QR code found in the Settings. The sender can also share their QR code through a link. This would eliminate the old practice of typing out someone’s name or number to chat with them on the app.

The post Messenger Now Lets You Send HD Photos, Create Shared Albums, Send Files Up to 100MB appeared first on Tech Independent.

X (formerly known as Twitter) expanded its passkey support to iOS users globally on Tuesday. The Elon Musk-owned platform introduced passkeys as an alternative to traditional passwords in January. But at the time, it was only available on its iOS app for users in the US. Now, three months after its launch, the social media platform has extended it to other regions as well. While the feature is currently not available on the website or on its Android app, a report last month suggested it could soon come to Android users as well.

The announcement was made by the official Safety account of X in a post which stated, “Passkeys is now available as a login option for everyone globally on iOS! Try it out.” While the feature has been rolled out, it can take a few days before everyone receives it. Notably, passkeys utilise alternative methods for authentication such as Face ID, fingerprint, PIN, an authenticator app, or another device to log into accounts. This eliminates reliance on a traditional password that can be hacked into or leaked during a data breach.

Passkeys also offer a more seamless experience when logging into accounts as there is no requirement to remember a complex password and to type it manually every time one logs in. They can also be used across devices, however, on X, the feature is only available on iOS.

A support page on X explains that passkeys are constructed using public key cryptography from the WebAuthentication standard. When an account is registered, the device generates a unique key pair for each account. One of the keys is public and is stored on X whereas the private key stays on the device. Now, whenever the user logs in, the private key gets triggered and the registered device has to approve the login attempt.

To enable a passkey on X, iOS users can go to Your account > Settings and privacy > Security and account access > Security > Additional password protection > Passkey. Here, the user will have to enter the password, select Add a passkey, and follow the prompts. Passkey can be deleted using the same steps.

The post X Expands Passkey Support on Its iOS App to Users Globally appeared first on Tech Independent.

Instagram is one of the few social media platforms that are now engraved into our lifestyles. Whether sharing your vacation photos on Story, watching reels, or keeping a tab on your friends, Instagram is one platform to get all these. However, having so much screen time on the platform can be overwhelming for many. This is why people prefer to delete their Instagram account to get a breather or even take a small break from the social media platform by deactivating it. But how do you do it? In this guide, we will help you with the steps to delete your Instagram account. If you don’t want to delete your account permanently, then there is also an option to deactivate it. So, without wasting much time, let’s begin. 

How to Delete an Instagram Account on Mobile (Android or iOS)

Here’s how you can delete your Instagram account from your Android or iOS device. 

Step 1: Open the Instagram application on your Android or iOS device. 

Step 2: Go to Account Profile by clicking on the Hamburger menu. 

Step 3: Open Account Centre and then go to Personal Details 

Step 4: Now, tap on Account Ownership and Control and select the Deactivation or Deletion option. 

Step 5: Select the account you want to remove and select Delete account, then tap on Continue. 

Step 6: Select the reason for deleting your account. Enter your Instagram account password and follow the on-screen instructions to delete your Instagram account permanently. 

How to Delete an Instagram Account on a PC or Laptop 

Instagram gives you two options to permanently delete your Instagram account on a PC or laptop. Check both the methods below: 

Method 1

Step 1: Sign into your Instagram account on any browser on your computer. Enter the following link: https://www.instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent/

Step 2: Now, select the reason from the drop-down menu and re-enter your Instagram password. 

Step 3: Click the Delete button, and your account will be permanently deleted. 

Method 2: 

Step 1: Open the Instagram application on your browser. 

Step 2: Click on the Hamburger menu at the bottom and select the Accounts Centre option. 

Step 3: Go to Personal details > Account Ownership and Control> Deactivation or deletion. 

Step 4: Select the account you wish to delete and tap on Delete account on the next screen. 

Step 5: Enter your password and follow the prompts to delete your Instagram account. 

How to Deactivate an Instagram Account

If you want to take a break from Instagram, you can deactivate it. With this feature, you can log back into your Instagram account anytime and use it as it is. Here’s how you can deactivate your Instagram account on mobile and laptop. 

Deactivate your Instagram Account on Android or iOS 

Here’s how you can deactivate your Instagram account from your Android or iOS device: 

Step 1: Open the Instagram application on your Android or iOS device. 

Step 2: Click on the Hamburger menu and then go to the Account Centre option. 

Step 3: Click on the Personal Details and then tap on Ownership and Control option. 

Step 4: Now, tap on the Deactivation or Deletion option. 

Step 5: Select the profile you want to deactivate and tap on it. 

Step 6: Tap on the Deactivate account option and tap on Continue. 

Step 7: Enter your password and follow the on-screen instructions to deactivate your Instagram account. 

Deactivate Instagram Account on PC or Laptop 

Here’s how you can deactivate your Instagram account on your computer. 

Step 1: Open the Instagram website on your browser. 

Step 2: Select the Accounts Centre option from the Hamburger menu at the bottom.

Step 3: Go to Personal details > Account Ownership and Control> Deactivation or Deletion. 

Step 4: Select the desired account and then click on Deactivate account. 

Step 5: Enter your password and follow the prompts to delete your Instagram account. 

How to Reactivate Instagram Account

Instagram allows you to reactivate your account if you change your mind after deleting or deactivating it. There is a 30-day window after you delete or deactivate your account. If you wish to reactivate your account during this tenure, you can simply log in to the Instagram application and enter your username and password. With this, you can easily use your account. 

The post How to Delete or Deactivate your Instagram Account on Mobile or PC appeared first on Tech Independent.

Instagram will test features that blur messages containing nudity to safeguard teens and prevent potential scammers from reaching them, its parent Meta said on Thursday as it tries to allay concerns over harmful content on its apps.

The tech giant is under mounting pressure in the United States and Europe over allegations that its apps were addictive and have fueled mental health issues among young people.

Meta said the protection feature for Instagram’s direct messages would use on-device machine learning to analyze whether an image sent through the service contains nudity.

The feature will be turned on by default for users under 18 and Meta will notify adults to encourage them to turn it on.

“Because the images are analyzed on the device itself, nudity protection will also work in end-to-end encrypted chats, where Meta won’t have access to these images – unless someone chooses to report them to us,” the company said.

Unlike Meta’s Messenger and WhatsApp apps, direct messages on Instagram are not encrypted but the company has said it plans to roll out encryption for the service.

Meta also said that it was developing technology to help identify accounts that might be potentially engaging in sextortion scams and that it was testing new pop-up messages for users who might have interacted with such accounts.

In January, the social media giant had said it would hide more content from teens on Facebook and Instagram, adding this would make it more difficult for them to come across sensitive content such as suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.

Attorneys general of 33 US states, including California and New York, sued the company in October, saying it repeatedly misled the public about the dangers of its platforms.

In Europe, the European Commission has sought information on how Meta protects children from illegal and harmful content.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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