Your email hatred is probably misplaced. The beauty of email is that you can modify it to do anything you want. There's probably already an easy way to fix what you hate and turn it into a dream hot rod of internet messaging.
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In June last year, Google launched a Chrome extension that allowed users to link to a specific portion of text on a webpage, instead of the page itself. The portion you selected for creating a link will appear highlighted in color when someone opens the link. I’ve been using the extension ever since it was released, but now is the time to bid it goodbye. No, it is not going anywhere, at least for now. Google has just baked the functionality directly into Chrome browser, saving the hassle of using an extension.
As per an official blog post from last week, the ability to create a link for a specific portion of text on a webpage arrived with the Chrome v90 update. The feature is currently rolling out on Chrome for desktop and its Android version. Additionally, it will soon be making its way to the iOS build of Chrome as well. Here’s how it looks:
The process of generating a link to a specific word or portion of text on a webpage is quite easy. Just select the text, perform a right-click on it, and tap on the ‘Copy Link to Highlight’ option that appears in the dropdown menu. The generated URL contains the hash (‘#’) symbol after the main URL, followed by some identifying code. You can now share that link with anyone via the communication platform of your preference. When someone taps and opens the link, they will directly be taken to the portion of text you want them to see, and for easy identification, it will appear highlighted.
To use the nifty new Chrome feature, go ahead and update your browser to v90. However, if you don’t see the option after updating, you can enable it manually via a Chrome flag. Just type chrome://flags/#copy-link-to-text in the URL bar of Chrome browser. Scroll down to find the ‘Copy Link to Highlight’ option and select Enable from the drop-down menu adjacent to it. Once you’ve done that, relaunch the browser to see the change in effect. Now, when you select a portion of text on a webpage and then perform a right-click, you’ll see the ‘Copy Link to Highlight’ option in the menu.
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In March this year, some Instagram users started noticing that the like count on their posts was abruptly gone. Well, it was not due to a glitch, but actually part of a new test. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri later admitted that keeping the number of likes private from others is a polarizing idea, but the company was looking to implement it in some other way. Today, Mosseri revealed that the company is resuming the test, but with a slightly different approach.
Focus less on the number of likes, and spend more time connecting with people
The Instagram chief mentioned in a tweet that for a handful of users in the test circle, the company is allowing them to choose whether or not they choose to see the number of likes on someone else’s posts. In addition to it, users will be able to choose if they want to hide the like counts on their own posts. However, users in the test circle will have the option to keep their Instagram UI untouched, just as they are used to without any complexities around the likes counts.
We’re testing this on Instagram to start and we’re exploring a similar experience for Facebook too.
More to share about this soon.
— Adam Mosseri
(@mosseri) April 14, 2021
But Instagram is not the only platform that is experimenting with hidden likes. Parent company Facebook is also running a similar test on its eponymous social media platform that recently saw the data of over half a billion users leaked online. However, neither Instagram nor Facebook, have given any indication whether hidden likes will become a permanent feature anytime soon. Instagram recently made it clear that the feature will be made available to users who think it is useful.
The number of likes often stresses out users, especially the young ones
In my opinion, the feature should actually be rolled out widely. Public like counts often add more pressure, especially on the young user base, who might otherwise reel under the stress of not being popular enough. Mosseri said back in 2019 that the company wants users to ‘worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram, and spend a bit more time connecting with the people they care about.’
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The US FCC has launched a new app that lets users measure their internet speed (both mobile and broadband), while the collected data will allow the regulatory body to get a better grip of broadband availability situation across the country. Unimaginatively named FCC Speed Test, the app is available for both Android and iOS devices. The goal is to collect crowdsourced data on broadband network performance in the United States as part of its Measuring Broadband America Program.
The FCC speed test app won't collect any personally identifiable information
The FCC Speed Test app lets you measure metrics such as uplink and downlink speeds, latency, packet loss, and jitters. FCC says that if you download the app and provide the necessary internet speed data from your location, you will be contributing towards closing the digital divide. And if you feel that the cause is worth it, you can go ahead and describe in length how good (or bad) your internet service is, and submit it on the Broadband Data Task Force center.
But do keep in mind it is just your feedback, and doesn’t equate to an actionable consumer complaint. For that FCC has a dedicated Consumer Complaint Center where you can vent your frustration about the pathetic internet service you’re forced to live and work with. The core goal of launching the speed test app, however, is to gather precise, accurate, and up-to-date broadband mapping data. Those who volunteer to participate in FCC’s efforts may be asked to share more data by installing an updated version of the app in the near future.
The app's goal is to gather precise, accurate, and up-to-date broadband mapping data
However, FCC assures that its speed test app doesn’t collect any personally identifiable information. Upon installing the app, it schedules automatic background test runs, but you can prohibit permission to run speed tests over a cellular network to save mobile data. The official press release also mentions that the data submitted by users will be analyzed against what carriers and service providers furnish before FCC and use in their marketing material.
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If there is one non-existent WhatsApp feature that has been on my wishlist for the longest time, it has to be chat history migration between Android and iOS devices. Doing so between the two devices on the same platform is a pretty straightforward process using cloud backup, but the same has not been possible between iPhones and Android phones. It is also one of the reasons why a lot of people I know dread the idea of switching platforms, primarily because WhatsApp is the most widely used messaging platform on this side of the Pacific ocean. Well, the limitation might soon be a thing of past, as WhatsApp has reportedly started testing the ability to transfer chat data between Android and iOS devices.
WhatsApp says that apps that claim to move your chat history between phones violate their Terms of Service.https://t.co/MK4tJmBGrc pic.twitter.com/Vz423jIVuv
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) July 15, 2019
First spotted by WhatsApp update tracker WABetaInfo, the feature is currently under development and there is no word when it will be released via the public beta or stable channel. However, the report mentions that it will build on top of the upcoming multi-device capability that will allow users to run the same account on multiple devices. For users who have an iPhone and Android phone, syncing chats is essentially real-time chat migration, which is why the feature will likely be rolled out once multi-device support has been implemented.
It’s not as if chat migration between Android and iOS is impossible right now. There are a few third-party solutions out there that let you move chat history from Android to iOS, and vice versa. However, WhatsApp advises against using them as they not only pose security risks, but they all also violate the Terms of Service.
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Social media platforms and user data leaks are no strangers to each other. Hackers often exploit a vulnerability to scrape data, and sometimes, sheer abuse happens by seemingly legit clients. Remember the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal? Well, Facebook is again at the center of another huge data leak that has seen the personal information of over half a billion users making its way online. As per a report by BusinessInsider, the data of over 533 million users – which includes details such as phone number, email address, job info, and date of birth to name a few – was put up for sale online. And later, it was shared freely on the web.
Details include:
Phone number, Facebook ID, Full name, Location, Past Location, Birthdate, (Sometimes) Email Address, Account Creation Date, Relationship Status, Bio.
Bad actors will certainly use the information for social engineering, scamming, hacking and marketing.
— Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) April 3, 2021
BusinessInsider claims to have verified the leak by matching certain Facebook user phone numbers with the identification number in the leaked data set, and also verified the email addresses using the password reset feature. Liz Bourgeois, who is Director of Strategic Response Communications at Facebook, tweeted the leaked data originated from a vulnerability that was fixed back in 2019.
Old data? Yes. But how often do you change the number and email linked to your Facebook profile?
Though the leaked data might be two years old, even if 1% of affected users still have that phone number and email address linked to their Facebook profile, the number of users whose personal data was leaked stands at over 5 million. And I am being a little too optimistic here, since a majority of social media users aren’t too cautious when it comes to the security of their personal data and don’t even use critically important tools such as two-factor authentication.
This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019. We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.
— Liz Bourgeois (@Liz_Shepherd) April 3, 2021
Coming back to the Facebook leak, the data – despite being two years old – can still be exploited for a variety of attacks, ranging from hacking and phishing to spamming. And the worst part is that the entire dataset was posted online on hacking forums for free, which means if you knew your way around data, you have a treasure trove of information about half a billion Facebook users.
Alon Gal, CTO of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, discovered the leaked data of Facebook users being sold, and later shared publicly. “Users having their personal information leaked is a huge breach of trust,” Gal was quoted as saying. Troy Hunt, creator of the HaveIBeenPwned database, says the leak is legit and he has already uploaded the leaked email addresses to the HaveIBeenPwned database where you can verify if your personal data was also leaked. Chances are high that it was!
But for spam based on using phone number alone, it’s gold. Not just SMS, there are heaps of services that just require a phone number these days and now there’s hundreds of millions of them conveniently categorised by country with nice mail merge fields like name and gender.
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) April 3, 2021
And even if the percentage of users whose phone number was leaked stands at 20%, the number is still substantial. Plus, the phone numbers in the leaked dataset also come with the country codes neatly arranged, which means it can be abused by malicious parties on a regional basis to a variable extent. Aside from usual spamming, there are a ton of shady services out there that can abuse these millions of leaked phone numbers in different parts of the world.
The leaked data is everywhere
Of course, there are a lot of cybersecurity experts and regular users out there who are asking questions about the massive leak. Will Facebook take accountability? Is the social media giant going to notify users that were affected by the users? What steps users should take if their email and phone number were leaked? The risks of targeted attacks are high, especially given the massive scale and global reach.
Hunt notes that the leaked Facebook user data is not only available on hacking forums, but is also circulating together on social media platforms. “This data is everywhere,” he adds. While Facebook should be made to answer about the massive leak, the least that the company can do for its humongous user base is notify affected users, and it definitely has the resources to do so. A simple notification will be enough, for starters!
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Facebook has announced a bunch of new features that aim to enhance the experience of exploring its News Feed. The first one is the ability to quickly switch between the algorithm-driven News Feed and a chronological order for the posts you see. The social media platform has had a ‘Most Recent’ option to see the News Feed content in chronological order for a while now, but it was buried in the See More menu. Now, the ‘Most Recent’ option has been moved to the new Feed Filter Bar which appears at the top of News Feed.
The Recent button for switching to chronological order now appears at the top of News Feed.
Additionally, the Favorites tool – which allows users to select up to 30 friends and pages whose content will be prioritized in the News Feed – has also been moved to the Feed Filter Bar. Facebook says the Feed Filter Bar is now available on Android and will appear on iPhones in the coming weeks.
And in case you’re wondering why a random post just popped up on your timeline, Facebook will now provide a context as to why that happened, thanks to the “Why am I seeing this post?” feature. Users can access it from the drop-down menu that appears at the top-right corner of a post, and can then take the appropriate action to personalize their News Feed.
Another helpful feature making its way to News Feed is the ability to control who can comment on your posts. To do so, just go to any of your public posts, tap on the menu icon in the right corner and then select “Who can comment on your post?” option from the pop-up menu. You can choose between three settings – Public (anyone can comment on your post), Friends, and only the people and pages that you have tagged in your posts. Twitter also has a similar feature that allows users to restrict who can reply to a tweet, but the doors are open for retweeting and quote tweeting.
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In February of 2019, YouTube Product Manager Tom Leung, shared a video in which he talked about dealing with the Dislike button. Back then, he proposed solutions against abusive use of the Dislike button which included everything from asking users to submit a reason before their dislike is registered to altogether removing the button. Well, two years later, YouTube has apparently made up its mind – hiding the dislike count for a small bunch of users.
Creators will be able to see the dislikes count on YouTube Studio
The official YouTube handle on Twitter has revealed that the company is currently hiding the number of dislikes on videos. However, the change is being tested only for a small number of users. YouTube says that it is experimenting with hiding the dislikes counter after receiving feedback from creators about the impact of this disheartening metric on their mental health. Additionally, it will allow the company to tackle the menace of targeted dislike campaigns, or the dreaded ‘dislike mobs’ that have become a major nuisance lately.
Creators, you’ll still be able to see the exact number of likes and dislikes in YouTube Studio. For viewers, if you’re in the experiment, you can still like or dislike a video to share feedback with creators and help tune the recommendations you see on YouTube.
— YouTube (@YouTube) March 30, 2021
However, creators will still be able to see the exact number of dislikes registered on their video by accessing the YouTube Studio dashboard. As for users in the test circle for whom the dislike count has been hidden, they will still be able to register their displeasure with a video by tapping the thumbs down button.
Users will still be able to register their dislike despite the number being hidden
Over the past few years, dislike bombing has become the weapon of choice for online communities to make their displeasure known, be it over genuinely bad content or with some ulterior motive. Take for example the 2018 YouTube Rewind, which raked in an impressive 10 million dislikes in just over a week. However, the dislike mob can also be politically motivated, gamers annoyed by a publisher’s shady move, or fans of a movie simply review bombing the content from a rival star or franchise.
While channels run by studios or corporations don’t have much to lose over dislike counts, those by individual creators have to suffer from the abuse in comments and the stress of accumulating a huge number of dislikes, especially if they didn’t deserve all that hate. It remains to be seen if, or when, YouTube enforces its hidden dislikes count policy widely.
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Clubhouse emerged as an unlikely success story during the pandemic era with its not-so-unique-but-well-timed audio chatroom feature. And it keeps growing, having raised millions of dollars this year to achieve the coveted unicorn status. A Bloomberg opinion piece called it the next social media star. VICE, on the other hand, pointed out the unchecked spread of conspiracy theories on the platform. TheVerge’s Casey Newton also wrote a fantastic article about how the lack of content moderation might prove to be Clubhouse’s doom. Going a step further, Angel investor and Twitch exec Shaan Puri even predicted how Clubhouse will eventually fail. Lofty flattery and scathing criticisms aside, Clubhouse continues to grow and generate buzz.
Imitation is flattery. A billion-dollar company aping a start-up is crushing the competition.
And in the middle of it all came the wave of copycats. Or as the civilized people from Silicon Valley would put it – Imitation is the best form of flattery. Or as a normal, capitalism-hating person would define it – the ruthless trend of a multi-billion dollar company aping a much smaller startup and crushing the competition. And just like that, Clubhouse too became the unwilling muse for established social media giants to mimic. Care to guess the names of some of these artists? Facebook? Of course. Twitter? Yep. Even Telegram did it.
The next in line is Slack. Yeah, the app millions of people use to communicate and collaborate with their teammates working remotely across the globe, and to also share terrible jokes and bad takes on almost any topic imaginable. But predominantly, for work. Slack already offers a calling – both voice and video – feature. So, why pull a Clubhouse and add an audio chatroom feature that people can join and leave at their whim? Well, because a new feature usually doesn’t hurt users, especially when the service is free. Also, because good artists copy, great artists steal. The latter are words of Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, who said he’s always believed in that philosophy.
Slack CEO announced plans to copy Clubhouse in a Clubhouse chat with Clubhouse CEO
During a recent episode of Clubhouse chat called PressClub that is hosted by former TechCrunch journalist Josh Constine, Butterfield announced that the company is building a Clubhouse into Slack. And oh, the funny thing is that Clubhouse CEO Paul Davison was also a part of the session. As a speaker. Coming back to Slack, Butterfield didn’t reveal much about how the ‘synchronous audio’ thing will be built into the platform, aside from giving us a vague ‘look out for Clubhouse built into Slack.’
So, we are getting synchronous audio chat rooms on Slack. You can join them at your will, leave them when you desire, or even speak a few words of wisdom if your boss thinks you’re worthy of the opportunity. Or, if you happen to be the boss hosting that chat session. The idea sounds good on paper. But what’s the real point of it? Your daily or weekly team meetings happen over Zoom or Google Meet, in which all teammates get to see each others’ faces, plan a few things, share a couple of laughs, and get back to work. After that, Slack is where text-based communication happens throughout the day. In my case, round the clock!
Unless I work with Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart, I'm not willing to join a chatroom on Slack
So, why would I want to jump into an audio chatroom with my colleagues that is not crucial for work? Yes, I would love to defend how Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a cinematic masterpiece. And how a cargo ship that drew a male genitalia route before getting stuck in the Suez Canal and disrupted 10% of the world’s trade flows through the waterway is the kind of modern world problem that the likes of Edison and Tesla couldn’t have imagined. But events like these happen rarely, and as such, the need for audio chatrooms to get in a chaotic chat with colleagues, with whom you already chat over work and share memes five days a week, doesn’t make much sense.
Zoom and Meet video calls are enough. Why hop on a Slack audio chatroom?
Heck, our weekly Google Meet video chats have kept getting shorter over time, because video conferencing exhaustion is a real thing. And that’s not just me saying. The researchers at Stanford believe that too, and journalists at reputed media houses such as TheWashingtonPost have even doled out valuable advice on how to tackle Zoom fatigue.
One might argue that having an audio chatroom feature might come in handy when you actually need it. And I agree, especially if I were a Slack product design executive who wanted to keep evolving the platform and get more users hooked to it. But from a regular remote worker’s perspective, I’d rather use services such as Telegram, Discord, or Google Meet that we’ve grown accustomed to using for jumping into a group call with my teammates. And that too, only when it’s really important, or interesting. Until then, I’ll just play my favorite Chilled Cow mix and work in peace!
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Twitter hasn’t always had a good reputation when it comes to implementing features that users demand. Take for example the ability to edit tweets, which only exists in the realms of collective social media imaginations. But lately, the company has been testing a host of new features such as audio chatrooms, a Super Follow tool, and even a subscription tier that gives access to tools such as the ability to undo tweets. But there are a couple of other features that Twitter is experimenting with – emoji reactions and the ability to downvote.
Remember the obituaries that popped up on the internet – and the outrage that followed – when the company replaced the favorites (star icon) feature with likes (heart icon) in 2015? Well, looks like something similar is about to happen. The social media giant has been surveying a small bunch of users, asking them to pick five reactions out of over 20 options that they would like to see if Twitter introduces emoji reactions.
More screenshots of Twitter’s ideas for adding emoji reactions to tweets
h/t @WFBrother pic.twitter.com/BRFo0gRD8H
—
Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) March 24, 2021
Taking a proactive approach, Twitter even asked the surveyed users to pick the best one among three sets, each containing some seven emoji reactions. The idea is not new, as Twitter was toying with the concept all the way back in June last year. However, the Jack Dorsey-led company won’t be the first to do it, as Facebook enabled emoji reactions all the way back in 2016 for users across the globe.
Among the emoji reactions that Twitter is experimenting with are upvotes and downvotes. Yes, just the way you see them on Reddit, or YouTube too, where they exist as likes/dislikes (thumbs up/down icon). While likes on a tweet more or less serve the purpose of an upvote, a downvote button has no Reddit or YouTube equivalent on Twitter, and this will definitely create some social media stir.
Yes, downvotes might help Twitter recognize a bad tweet that may, or may not contain offensive content, but there is a reporting system in place to govern the latter part. However, the downvote or dislike button on Twitter will become another measure of social media acceptance and popularity that will lead to a few headaches and undue stress.
Imagine posting a cool meme, and it goes unrecognized? Well, you can live with it. But what if it gets downvoted a few thousand times, that too in a space where anonymity is not a luxury, unlike Reddit. “We’re exploring additional ways for people to express themselves in conversations happening on Twitter,” Twitter said in a statement shared with TechCrunch.
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Slack announced back in June last year that it will allow users to message people even outside their organization, thanks to a new feature called Slack Connect. Today, the company – which was recently acquired by Salesforce for a whopping $27.7 billion – has announced that Slack Connect is now available, and it allows users from up to 20 different organizations to communicate with each other in the same space. The feature has started to roll out gradually and will soon reach all users.
Currently exclusive to paid users, will expand to the free tier soon.
In order to chat with someone from a different company, you have to send an invite. And once it is accepted, you can start chatting with them, just like you would with a colleague via the direct messages feature. Do keep in mind that invitations automatically expire after 14 days. Also, admins will have the ability to restrict Slack Connect invitations that you send or receive.
Right now, Slack Connect is available to paid users, but the company has announced plans to expand the ability to send/receive Slack Connect DM invitations to free users as well. Slack Connect will also get an upgrade later this year that will allow users to create a private business network by linking people from multiple organizations. Additional features that are also in the pipeline include channel discovery and unified directories.
| Use Slack Connect on desktop | Use Slack Connect on mobile |
| 1. Click the compose button next to your workspace name in the top left. 2. In the To: field, enter the email address for the person that you’d like to invite. 3. Select Start a direct message from the menu. 4. Include a message if you’d like, then click Send Invitation. |
1. From the Home tab, tap the compose button at the bottom of your screen. 2. In the To: field, enter the email address for the person that you’d like to invite. 3. Select DM someone from another company from the menu. 4. Tap Share to send an invitation. |
In order to accept an invitation, just tap on an invitation and select View Invitation option. You can choose the Slack account that you would like use to for communicating with a person from outside your organization after accepting the invitation. And to end an ongoing chat, tap the profile icon of the person you’re chatting with and select End Conversation.
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Just over a month ago, we came to know that Facebook was working on its own audio chatroom feature that will rival Clubhouse. Now, we have some early leaks showing what Facebook’s take might look like. Developer Alessandro Paluzzi has shared a few screenshots of the upcoming audio chatroom feature, which appears to have been built on top of the Messenger Rooms feature that allows group video calling with up to 50 people and lets you broadcast live on Facebook.
Rooms on Facebook will be divided into three types - Live Audio, Audio, and Video
As per the screenshots – which likely have been pulled after combing through the app’s code – users will see three options when they try to start a Room on Facebook. The first one is Live Audio, and it will allow users to broadcast an audio chat session to listeners that will be open to all users who come across it, just like the Spaces feature on Twitter.
Let’s take a look at what the #Facebook Audio room will look like when it’s not full screen
pic.twitter.com/F6NhPgkveX
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) March 22, 2021
The second one is simply called Audio, and it will allow users to host an audio chatroom session with only their friends. This is a private audio chatroom and works just the way group video chats with friends come to life using the Rooms feature. The third option is simply called video, which lets you host a group video call with your Facebook friends and contacts.
Facebook will let users choose between hosting a public audio chatroom, or just with friends
Another screenshot shared by Paluzzi shows how an ongoing audio chatroom on Facebook looks when full-screen UI is minimized. Again, this looks a tad similar to what Twitter does with Spaces which shrinks into a thin strip at the bottom, letting you scroll through your Twitter timeline while also listening to the ongoing discussion. But do keep in mind that UI might look a bit different when the feature goes live publicly.
Looking over to the competition, Twitter has opened its Spaces platform for anyone to join. And starting next month, all users (both Android and iOS) will be able to host an audio chatroom session on Spaces. Telegram, on the other hand, has expanded its voice chat feature to channels, offering users something similar to Clubhouse, but with more features in tow.
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Twitter began surveying users about a subscription tier all the way back in July last year, merely days after CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed that the company was exploring such a business model. In February this year, another report mentioned that the initiative has received a push in a bid to boost the revenue figures. Now, app reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong has spotted another trace of a subscription model that will offer a host of exclusive features, one of them being the ability to undo a tweet.
Twitter is exploring a paid tier that will exclusively offer some advanced features
As per the screenshot shared by Wong, the ability to unsend a tweet (or ‘Undo Send’ a tweet) might be one of the many features offered by Twitter’s paid tier. There is also a ‘Accounts on this plan’ option under the subscriptions menu, which suggests that users can add multiple accounts to a single subscription. However, it is too early to predict how things will pan out in the end.
Twitter is working on app subscription for paid features like “Undo Tweet” https://t.co/CrqnzIPcOH pic.twitter.com/Ct16Gk2RL1
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 19, 2021
Notably, the ability to unsend a tweet was first spotted earlier this month. As for how it works, users will see an ‘undo’ button with a timer on it. Hitting the ‘Undo’ button before the countdown runs out will unsend the tweet. However, it is unclear what happens to the tweet – whether it is deleted, or if it is saved as a draft that can be edited to correct a mistake and tweeted again.
Will you pay to unsend a tweet? Well, it depends on how high-profile you and your error are!
However, do keep in mind that this is an early test we’re talking about here, which means the feature may or may not see a wider public release. So far, Twitter has been mum on its plans about a subscription tier for its service, and whether an unsend tweet feature will see a wider release.
While a paid tier of Twitter remains a mystery, the company has announced something similar called Super Follow that will allow certain influential people to charge their followers for seeing their exclusive content. Whether or not it succeeds is an altogether different matter, but the company is definitely exploring it as an option for the near future.
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Team meetings over a video-driven platform can be a hassle, especially if your team members happen to live in different time zones. However, sometimes we have to participate in a live session when a short recorded video could’ve done the job. Apparently, the folks over at Google’s Area 120 incubator had the same idea and have come up with a solution called ThradIt that lets you record videos and share them with ease on both mobile and desktop.
ThreadIt can stitch multiple short videos into a single cohesive clip
If you’re using Chrome browser on your computer, you can use ThreadIt via the Chrome extension. All you have to do is click on the ThreadIt logo in the bookmarks bar when it has been installed, and start recording a video using the front camera. Or, you can capture a screen recording as well. Additionally, you can record multiple short videos, and ThreadIt will stitch them all together.
On mobile devices (and PC too, if you don’t have the Chrome extension), you can access it by going to threadit.area120.com and hitting on the Make a ThreadIt button in the top-right corner. The best part of the experience is that you don’t have to worry about downloading the recorded short videos and then uploading it, a process that might take time depending on the bandwidth available and will gobble data if you’re on the move. Instead, ThreadIt lets you share those short videos as a link.
You can even record a short video while using Gmail and directly share the link via en email
You can even record a video while using Gmail, allowing you to share the video link in a jiffy via an email from the same tab. However, you can share these video links via any communication platform that you prefer. The team behind ThreadIt notes that you don’t necessarily have to be live for tasks such as sharing a demo, hosting a training, or updating about the progress of a project. All you have to do is just record a video and share the link whenever you deem it convenient.
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YouTube is rolling out a new feature that will check for potential copyright violations and whether it can be monetized – even before a video is uploaded. The new tool is called Checks, and it will appear as the last step before a video goes live on the platform. However, users will be able to publish their videos while the check is still running. The idea is to warn creators in advance, rather than receiving a copyright notice or their video being restricted from using ads due to unsuitable content.
You will be able to publish even while the Checks tool is running
The company says that the process of checking and flagging potential copyright violations takes three minutes to complete. However, there might still be a chance that your video might be flagged for copyright infringement after going live. As for checking content suitability and deciding whether it can be monetized via ads, the Checks tool will take around 4 minutes.
READ MORE: YouTube will give more choices to parents of tweens and teensIf a creator sees that there are a few copyright issues detected by the Checks tool, they’ll be able to see all the details such as the portion of content that belongs to someone else, the timecode at which the disputed content appears, and what actions can be taken to fix the issues. Creators can then choose to remove or edit those portions, or dispute the findings if they think the system made a mistake.
Despite passing the Checks stage, manual copyright claims can come your way
Additionally, if your video is flagged by the Checks tool for content suitability issues that go against YouTube’s ad-friendly content guidelines, you will have a chance to go through the content, metadata, and thumbnail again to make the necessary changes However, if you think that the system is inaccurate, you can request a human review as well. Once the video has been reviewed, you’ll be notified about the same via email.
READ MORE: YouTube app on Android enables 4K playback. Good luck finding a 4K display phone!But YouTube warns that even if a video has passed the Checks analysis without any issues, it is still open to manual copyright claims from others, and might be penalized if the claims are verified. Additionally, if you edit your video settings that violate the YouTube guidelines, some restrictions may be applied as well.
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