Facebook have recently announced their discontinuation of a second news feed function ‘Explore’ that was being tested in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cambodia, Serbia and Slovakia. The dual news feed A/B test didn’t capture the hearts of users and caused huge falls in traffic after removing professional media from Facebook’s main news feed.
And to add insult to injury, inadvertently facilitating an alarming spread of fake news. Facebook also didn’t see the need for dual feed considering the recent algorithm update to prioritise content from friends and family.
Instagram wants to be your phone too
Call icons have been spotted in Instagram’s APK, suggesting an extension on the platform to facilitate video and voice calls. Further proof of Facebook being hot on the heels of Snapchat, ensuring that no stone is left unturned with Instagram’s offering. Instagram has refused to comment on the potential update and it is unclear whether the call button will be rolled out to all users including business and verified accounts.
Would you be happy for (all of) your followers to call you?
YouTube uses AI to replace video background without green screen Google has revealed that they are working on a new technology that will allow users to replace background in videos without the use of green screen. Instead, this can be done via AI and machine learning filters which has been dubbed as the “Real-time Video Segmentation”. The new feature will only be found on YouTube’s new “Stories” feature which is currently still in beta testing. This could potentially see other platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook following suit.
