Facebook Messenger to allow instant purchases Facebook Messenger users will soon be able to instantly make purchases using chatbots without third party websites. That’s according to Facebook Messenger boss David Marcus, who shared the latest news from his team at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Other key updates included Facebook’s news feed link ads for Messenger bots, as well as updates to make it easier to share a bot with friends.
Apple launches dedicated app store for iMessage Apple has announced it will be opening a dedicated iMessage app store as part of its next IOS update. Although there’s no talk of chatbots just yet, the store will have stickers and animated features. Brands including Disney, Burger King, Mario Bros., Toyota and Betty Boop are all reportedly on board to launch their own stickers.
Instagram is letting users filter inappropriate comments Fed up of people writing ‘gorgeous’ and ‘lovely’ in your Instagram comments? Thought not. But if you’re subjected to Instagram trolls who write not so pleasant comments under your posts, you can now set up a filter which picks up on words you don’t like. To set one up for your own account, just create a list of banned words using the system in settings.
Snapchat decides ‘creepy’ ad targeting is actually fine
Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel told a Cannes audience in 2015 that he thought targeted ads were creepy. He didn’t approve of platforms using users’ email, phone numbers and smartphone advertising IDs to sell ads. Well, surprise! The platform has now decided it wasn’t such a creepy idea after all and has adopted Facebook-style targeting using, you guessed it, e-mail addresses, phone number and other information like smartphone advertising IDs. TRUST NO ONE. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
Twitter’s character count rules to change ANY MINUTE NOW Twitter has announced it is about to change the way it counts 140 characters. Images, gifs, videos, polls, quoted tweets and user names at the beginning of tweets will no longer count towards the 140 character limit. The date this was said to be rolled out was actually today but we can’t see that it’s happened yet. Watch this space and get ready to rejoice in not running ou-
YouTube launches ‘Community’ social networking features YouTube has created a new social networking feature, Community, for video creators to better engage viewers using text posts, images, GIFs and other content. Viewers will see these posts in their “Subscriptions” feed in the YouTube mobile app, and can also choose to receive push notifications from their favourite creators.
Burberry launches fashion chatbot Watch out @DomThePizzaBot, there’s a new, fashionable chatbot in town. Burberry has created its own bot to complement the brand’s first foray into “see-now-buy-now” fashion. Hot on the perfectly designed heels of Tommy Hilfiger’s fashion bot, Burberry’s bot has been providing behind-the-scenes looks at the inspiration for the latest collection in advance of its London Fashion Week show. Fashion fans can access the bot by visiting Burberry’s Facebook page and clicking a link to scan a mobile QR code.
