Twitter revamps how images will now appear on their platform
Twitter recently announced a new richer experience for photos in your Twitter timeline. Starting from Monday, Twitter users are now able to see images from the accounts they follow in full uncropped versions. Twitter has not announced when this feature will be rolled out for mobile, so for now it is only for desktop users. No longer will you have to click to see more of the images, see your cat photos in the length they are meant to be enjoyed!
Another new update that was also revealed is a change to the multiple image format. Instead of seeing the cropped images evenly spaced out, the tweets will now allow you to have one image larger as the focus with smaller thumbnails for the others.
Twitter has released their highlights video for 2015 showing some of the biggest trends and important moments over the past year, from the famous Oscar selfie with Ellen DeGeneres to the overwhelming social support following the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
The two-minute clip using pictures, tweets and videos demonstrates how the world reacts to events on social media. When events happen, they are unified through hashtags to create global conversations. It will be interesting to see what new unpredictable trends will emerge in the year 2016 and maybe this time something will actually “break the internet.”
Will this new social media app bomb or become the new Snapchat?
Move over Snapchat, there is a new social media app exploding onto the scene. The app has been described as the reverse social media, using a request based system where users request a “bomb” from their friends, meaning that you only get pictures from the people you want. The current description for the app reads “Bomb’d is the REAL social network. It’s NO FILTER and RN AF. Your friends, your family, and even your favourite celebs are using Bomb’d to see what their Squad are really up to right NOW.”
Bomb’d is an Australian made app, which is apparently valued at $10 million prior to launch, but who are the people behind this app and will they blow up to be the next Evan Spiegel? The PR for Bomb’d are remaining tight lipped stating, “the people behind this remain top secret. We can’t tell you their names, but there are a few key backers involved in the app along with some industry heavyweights.” It will be interesting to see if this app can match the success that has been reached with Snapchat.
Facebook will implement suicide prevention tools to intervene when you see something wrong with a friend
Facebook Australia has announced new suicide prevention initiatives. The program was launched in the U.S early this year, and will now be rolling out in Australia. Here, Facebook will be working with initiatives BeyondBlue and Headspace. “Keeping people safe is our most important responsibility on Facebook,” said a spokesperson.
Seen a post that you concerns you? There are now steps you can take to help them by reporting the post. Facebook has teams working around the clock to review posts that have been reported and assess if they can encourage the poster to speak with a mental health professional through a private pop-up chat or to reach out to one of their friends. “Globally there are multiple millions of users all going through these same problems,” Chris Tanti, Headspace CEO said about the new tools, “People can be notified and help can be provided just about anywhere in Australia, which is fantastic.”
