TOP 5 MOST POPULAR ANDROID APPS FROM LAST WEEK (Nigeria)

Starting today, we’ll cover Android apps with Fresh Juice every Wednesday. Read on for the 5 most popular Android apps from last week. These apps are the ones that are most likely new or have recently been juiced(updated).

Facebook Messenger finally arrives on iPad with free voice calling.

Three years after it was released for the iPhone, Facebook has finally brought its Messenger app to the iPad. Like most messaging apps for the iPad, Facebook Messenger features a sidebar of conversation threads with a chat window to the right.

Like the iPhone app, Messenger on the iPad will let you make voice calls to friends over a WiFi or cellular connection. Another voice-related feature lets you send quick snippets of audio to friends by tapping the mic icon in a chat window.

You can send a picture from the new iPad app, but the ability to send video is not included. Facebook Messenger on the iPhone has been able to send 15-second video clips since earlier this year.

There are over 200 million Messenger users, according to TechCrunch. That’s a huge number, and Facebook is clearly wanting the app to be a one-stop shop for your messaging needs—whether that means text, audio, pictures, or video.

Source App Store

[UPDATE] Facebook goes down, affecting both website and apps

Users worldwide were unable to access the social network for 20 minutes as it suffered its longest outage within recent memory. Facebook has suffered an outage affecting all traffic from the internet and apps to the social network.

Facebook’s outage hit more than just the social network as users sharing stories on the site are one of the main drivers of website views across the internet.

How To Stop Facebook From Sharing Your Browsing History

Earlier today, Facebook announced that it was going to start using all of that ever-so-illuminating app and website data it collects to serve us with more targeted ads. In other words, Facebook is getting ready to use your browsing history to benefit advertisers. Here’s how to stop them.

Of course, just because you’re getting some new (and highly necessary) controls over how Facebook shares your data doesn’t mean it’s going to stop collecting the data in the first place. So while we can at least somewhat limit how all of our salacious internet habits are being used, it doesn’t mean the cache of data itself is going away.

What’s more, the new feature is opt-out, so in order to keep your browsing history away from prying third-party eyes. You’ll need to actively head over to the Digital Advertising Alliance here and let them know you’re not willing to share.

Note: if you’re using AdBlocker Plus or anything else that disables cookies, you’re going to need to turn that off before you’ll be able to opt out.

 

Once there, you’ll see the above screen. Select the “Companies Customising Ads for Your Browser” tab, and scroll down until you see Facebook.

 

Click the little check box next to Facebook, and as long as you’re here, feel free to scroll through and check off any other sites you’d like to stop forking over your most private internet deeds. Once you’ve clicked to your heart’s content, hit “Submit”.

 

Now, considering how many of us also use the Facebook app, you’re probably going to want to do the same for your mobile device(s). For iOS users, open settings and go to General>Restrictions>Advertising (under the “Privacy” section). Flip the switch for Limit Ad Tracking, and you’re all set.

Facebook to reduce auto-shares from third-party apps

The social media giant will give updates explicitly posted from third-party apps a lot more preference on users’ News Feeds.

Facebook said it will reduce the number of auto-shares on users’ News Feeds making it an opt-in feature and instead favoring only explicitly shared stories.

Facebook said user feedback suggests that “people often feel surprised or confused by stories that are shared without taking an explicit action.” Third-party apps many times share updates without any action required from users. Spotify, for example, will tell a users’ friends what music they are listening to.

 

Posts and status updates that are explicitly chosen by users have better circulation as compared to auto-share updates. While auto-shares will still exist, they will not appear on News Feeds as often.

 

While Facebook seems to be taking a tough stand against third-party apps, Peter Yang, from Facebook’s product marketing team, provided a number of alternatives for such apps to appear on feeds, such as the Send to Mobile feature.

 

“Send to Mobile gives people a shortcut to install your mobile app when they log in with Facebook to your website. For example, when people log in with Facebook to Rdio on the web, Send to Mobile will display a notification in a person’s Facebook mobile app to download and install Rdio. Best of all, once you’ve upgraded to the new Facebook Login, Send to Mobile works automatically without any additional effort,” said Yang.

 

Facebook will also make the Like button appear on mobile apps. This will give users the chance to share content from their apps with a single tap. The feature is now available for iOS users but Facebook said it was planning a wider rollout soon.

Facebook fires at Shazam, adds song recognition tool to app

Facebook is no stranger to replicating popular apps within its own walls — Poke, for example, is a stab at Snapchat. Now, according to a post on the official Facebook new blog, the social network will get a Shazam-like feature for song and television recognition, allowing you to identify and then post about a song, TV show, or movie from within a status update.

The feature will be an opt-in addition, so you’ll have to enable it for it to be available. Once you’ve agreed, the app will attempt to ID the audio from various media and allow you to tag it within your status update.

When sharing songs, you’ll be able to provide a 30-second preview of the tune for your friends when posting the update, though the feature will simply note that you’re watching a TV show or movie if you happen to be.

No word on a precise launch was given, but the new feature is noted as arriving “in the coming weeks” to both the iOS and Android Facebook apps.

Facebook developing video messaging app to rival Snapchat

Social network building own ‘ephemeral’ chat app after $3bn buyout offer rejected, reports claim

Facebook is working on a video chat app to rival the popular Snapchat ephemeral messaging app, according to reports.

Known internally as Slingshot, according to the Financial Times, the app has been under development for the last couple of months and could be launched as soon as this month.

Facebook attempted to acquire Snapchat for $3bn in November last year but was rejected by the startup, which at the time was registering 5 million new users daily.

A suite of separate mobile apps

Slingshot would sit along side Facebook’s other separate mobile apps that are not directly connected to the primary Facebook experience, including the social network’s text messaging app, Facebook Messengerand the photo-sharing service Instagram.

Facebook declined to comment.

Facebook chiefs may still decide to abandon the new app, which is still under development, but this is not the company’s first attempt to challenge Snapchat. Facebook’s Poke app launched in 2012 but was discontinued this month along with the company’s Facebook Camera app.

‘Disappear forever’ or not

Snapchat updated its app to include text messaging and video calling alongside its short video messages and photos; all are only viewable for up to 10 seconds before disappearing from the recipient’s app.

US regulator the Federal Trade Commission recently reprimanded Snapchat over false claims that messages would “disappear forever”, but could in fact be kept by recipients through third-party applications or taking an undetectable screenshot of the image.

Facebook recently bought messaging app WhatsApp for $19bn in February as part of its mission to reach and connect more users, people who have also flocked to Snapchat and risk ditching or at least reducing their interactions with a traditional Facebook experience.

WhatsApp announced in February, after its acquisition by Facebook, that it would launch voice calling, allowing users to make calls and send text messages over data, rather than traditional phone networks voice and SMS services. The voice calling feature has yet to arrive.

• Snapchat ranks the lowest for protecting user data from the government, according to US pressure group the EFF

Facebook Lays Out Blueprint For Future Standalone Apps

Facebook initially started out as a website accessed on the computer before they moved onto mobile and released a Facebook app. They then proceeded to release more apps, likePoke, Messenger, Paper, and Home. They have also acquired apps like WhatsApp and Instagram. Some of their apps have been huge successes, like Messenger, and some have fallen short of expectations, like Home and Poke.

That being said, during Facebook’s earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg revealed the company’s blueprint for future standalone apps that they are planning on launching in the future. We’re not sure what kind of apps Facebook has planned for the future, but they are definitely looking at more standalone apps, but how does the company plan on deciding which apps are worth their while and which aren’t?

First Facebook’s Creative Labs will build the app with specific purposes, like Messenger, for example. Next Facebook will determine if the app is resonating with users and if it does, Facebook will attempt to push it to the 100 million users mark and once that happens, it is only then that Facebook will attempt to monetize it.

In the case of apps like WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook will be focusing more on growth, and according to Zuckerberg, he admits that in order to reach the levels of WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook’s Creative Labs apps will most probably take a few years. If anything this just proves that Facebook is in it for the long haul, as opposed to making a quick buck.

We’ve seen this before when Facebook bought out Oculus VR, a company whose product does not really have much to do with social networking in the first place, hinting that Facebook is looking to expand beyond being just another social network.

Now You Can Tell Facebook Friends Where You’re ‘Traveling To’

Facebook has added “Traveling To” to its roster of feeling-and-doing status update options. Now people can share their travel plans with friends in a Facebook-official manner. The feature is accessed by the smiley-face icon on status updates from the desktop and mobile apps. Among the other choices:  Feeling, Watching, Reading, Listening To, Eating, Playing.

Currently, sharing a Traveling To status won’t change the information that Facebook serves users, but we can imagine future enhancements that will tailor your experience to the place you are visiting. It could connect you with friends who live in the area, make sightseeing, dining and hotel recommendations based on friend’s favorites or favorites among all Facebook users in a region.

It’s certain to be data of interest to travel and tourism marketers, but it remains to be seen how widely it’s used by people on Facebook. There’s a natural wariness about posting travel plans on social media accounts. And the fear that bad people will use the information to break into empty homes runs through many of the comments on Facebook’s photo post explaining the new feature.

Wise users, of course, will share travel plans only with friends on the network. So I guess the question is: do you trust your Facebook friends?

What do you think? Will Traveling To be widely used?

 

Download our eMerchantNG Android App here…we look forward to your feedback to help improve the BETA App.

If the App doesn’t install, please go to your “Settings”, “Security”, under “Device administration” tick ”Unknown Sources” and re-install again.

Thank You.

Facebook Messenger will soon be the only way to chat in Facebook

If what’s already happening in Europe comes to pass worldwide, then Facebook users might soon be facing a big, intrusive change. Users in Europe have started to receive warnings that Facebook will soon be requiring its Messenger app to be downloaded and used if they want to keep on chatting with their Facebook contacts.

This move is hardly surprising but probably also poorly timed. Facebook has had for some time a dedicated messaging app that could also tap into your SMS workflow way before Google+ Hangouts even offered that feature. To some, it offered the convenience of not having to go through the rather clunky Facebook app just to chat away. To others, it might be a source of confusion with two separate ways to communicate on Facebook. This upcoming policy will remove that confusion but will probably not reduce ill feelings.

Facebook will soon be requiring the use of its own Messenger app in full, removing the messaging facility from its mobile apps. Theoretically, this will allow it to iterate over the Messenger app independent of the main app. As we’ve seen these past weeks, that might be a good thing. The transition, however, might not be so smooth for those not used to how the Messenger app works. In particular, the Chat Heads feature, which is optional but enabled by default, will need a bit of getting used to.

It is likely that this will not sit well even among Facebook’s own fans who have so far held back from installing the standalone messaging app. The added heat might be something that Facebook could do without after it has already been put under the microscope for its WhatsApp acquisition. Still, this change was inevitable and Facebook users will be left with no choice but to grit their teeth and carry on or call it quits and move on to other pastures.

Download our eMerchantNG Android App here…we look forward to your feedback to help improve the BETA App.

If the App doesn’t install, please go to your “Settings”, “Security”, under “Device administration” tick ”Unknown Sources” and re-install again.

Thank You.