Facebook is working on yet another standalone app, according to a report from Business Insider.
The app, which is apparently just beginning to enter testing, is designed for publishers to send out breaking news alerts to users who choose to follow them.
In short, here’s how the app will work:
First, users will download a separate app for this. Then, they will follow certain publications or topics – sort of like Twitter. From there, publications can push notifications to their followers.
These breaking news alerts are currently being tested as 100 characters, not including the URL. Publications can only include their own URLs in the alerts, and the app is in its nascent stage so very few publications are involved yet.
Business Insider says that the links will be outside links – in other words they will take users to the publications’ website. But it’s pretty hard to imagine Facebook not tying this in to its Instant Article initiative.
People do get a lot of their news on Facebook these days – whether that’s a great thing or not. An app like this could allow users to avoid the clutter of their news feeds.
I’ve reached out to Facebook and will update this accordingly.
Snapchat has been known to gobble up data now and then – especially since the introduction its discovery feature earlier this year.
But a new update could help with that.
The company has added a new feature to the app called ‘Travel Mode’. When enabled, Travel Mode disables auto-loading of content when you’re using cellular data. When you have Travel Mode on, you have to tap to load your snaps.
So, you’re trading the convenience of quick, auto-loaded snaps for the piece of mind that you’re not blowing past your data allowance.
The update for iOS and Android also allows users to stick emoji all over the place. People are already having fun with this, as you can see:
Facebook has officially entered the livestreaming game. Kind of.
If you’re a celebrity, you can now livestream to your fans. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a regular person without millions of Facebook followers. That’s ok, you’re still a special snowflake and your life has meaning. But you can’t livestream on Facebook. Yet.
Facebook ‘Live’, as it’s calling it, is only available through Facebook’s Mentions app. Mentions, of course, is Facebook’s app for public figures only. The company launched it about a year ago.
“Starting today, public figures can share live video from Facebook Mentions, the app that makes it easy for athletes, musicians, politicians and other influencers to talk with their fans and each other. You can discover these live videos from public figures you follow in your News Feed, says Facebook’s Vadim Lavrusik. “You can comment on, like or share the video while watching a live broadcast. You can also see when your friends or other public figures start watching.”
It’s clear that Facebook is going after Meerkat and the Twitter-owned Periscope, both livestreaming apps. The big difference between Facebook Live and those apps is permanence, however. Once a Facebook livestream is completed, those videos simply become regular old videos on the streamer’s timeline (unless they choose to delete them, of course).
Both Meerkat and Periscope’s videos vanish after a certain amount of time.
For now, you can only watch while The Rock livestreams. Maybe soon, you can livestream on Facebook. For now you’ll have to stick to Periscope.
When Google first unveiled its visual translation feature inside the Google Translate app, it seemed pretty damn cool. But after a recent trip overseas, it proved itself incredibly useful.
Google has just made it even more useful by adding a bunch of new languages. Before, you could hold your phone up to a road sign, menu, or whatever and receive an instant, video translation in seven languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
No, it’s up to 27.
You can now translate to and from English and Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. You can also do one-way translations from English to Hindi and Thai (from English, but not to English).
Each language pack is less than 2MB, and works offline.
This means that the Google Translate app now lets you do instant video translations in 27 languages, and photo translations in 37.
With the app update, Google has also improved the speed of voice translations.
“In many emerging markets, slow mobile networks can make it challenging to access many online tools – so if you live in an area with unreliable mobile networks, our other update today is for you. In addition to instant visual translation, we’ve also improved our voice conversation mode (enabling real-time translation of conversations across 32 languages), so it’s even faster and more natural on slow networks,” says Barak Turovsky, Google Translate lead.
Google shared some results of some testing it conducted with interstitials. This is of particular interest since the company has indicated using them will likely start impacting your search rankings in a negative way.
Have you used interstitials on mobile content? Have you noticed any impact on your search visibility that appears to be related? Discuss.
Google looked at behavior related to its own use of interstitials, specifically with the Google+ mobile site, which utilized one encouraging users to install the app. 9% of visits to its interstitial page resulted in the “Get App” button being pressed. It did note that “some percentage” of users already have the app installed, so they don’t see it in the first place. 69% of visits abandoned the page, it said. They neither went to the app store nor continued to the mobile website. Presumably they were so annoyed they just didn’t feel like going any further.
“While 9% sounds like a great CTR for any campaign, we were much more focused on the number of users who had abandoned our product due to the friction in their experience,” Google said. “With this data in hand ,in July 2014, we decided to run an experiment and see how removing the interstitial would affect actual product usage. We added a Smart App Banner to continue promoting the native app in a less intrusive way, as recommended in the Avoid common mistake section of our Mobile SEO Guide. The results were surprising.”
1-day active users on the mobile site increased by 17% and Google+ iOS native app installs were mostly unaffected (-2%). They didn’t report the Android numbers because most Android devices come with the app pre-installed.
“Based on these results, we decided to permanently retire the interstitial,” Google said. “We believe that the increase in users on our product makes this a net positive change, and we are sharing this with the hope that you will reconsider the use of promotional interstitials. Let’s remove friction and make the mobile web more useful and usable!”
Yelp CEO and frequent Google critic Jeremy Stoppelman, had this to say about Google’s post:
@jeremys is this about protecting consumers or protecting their search monopoly?
Yelp recently put out its own study showing how Google allegedly manipulates search results in its own favor. It claimed Google is “reducing social welfare” with “lower quality results”.
Interstitials might actually start hurting your Google rankings if they’re not already. Ahead of Google’s mobile-friendly update in in April, there was talk around the SEO industry that interstitials could be looked upon as hurting the mobile user experience, and therefore hurt webmasters in in rankings as Google started to take into account the mobile experience.
Last month, Eric Enge at Stone Temple Consulting posted an interview with Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Mariya Moeva. He asked if implementing an interstitial to drive people to sign up for an app would negatively impact mobile rankings, and if that’s something people should stay away from.
Moeva responded, “Speaking as a user myself, I have yet to see an interstitial that brought me some useful info and was more important than what I was originally trying to do. They’re disruptive and can be frustrating, especially if you show them right on the first page the user ever sees from your site. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so…We see app install interstitials bother users, so we’re looking into ways of addressing that; stay tuned for more news.”
As Enge pointed out, Google’s Maile Ohye talked a little about this at the recent SMX Advanced search conference. Jennifer Slegg blogged about her comments:
We have known for a couple of months that Google was planning to add interstitials as a negative ranking factor in an upcoming mobile friendly algo, but it appears that the same will be coming to the regular search results too.
Maile Ohye from Google warned webmasters at SMX Advanced that they will also be bringing up the issue of interstitials and how pages that use them will be affected. “Interstitials are bad for users, so be aware this is something we are thinking about,” she said.
She then continued on to say that content hidden behind interstitials would be devalued.
As Google itself noted in regard to the new test, the company actually says in its Mobile SEO Guide, which it directed webmasters to ahead of the mobile-friendly update, that they should “avoid interstitials.”
“Many websites show interstitials or overlays that partially or completely cover the contents of the page the user is visiting,” it says. “These interstitials, commonly seen on mobile devices promoting a website’s native app, mailing list sign-up forms, or advertisements, make for a bad user experience. In extreme cases, the interstitial is designed to make it very difficult for the user to dismiss it and view the real content of the page. Since screen real-estate on mobile devices is limited, any interstitial negatively impacts the user’s experience.
Interestingly enough, Google itself touts “interactive interstitial ads” on its Think with Google Site, saying they can “make your brand stand out”. It says they engage more users than basic text or image ads and offer mobile advertisers “great interactivity at eye-catching placements”.
As I wrote in a previous article on all of this, interstitials can help the viewability problem in advertising, and a lot of sites use them to get sign ups. They’re also often directly linked to monetizing content.
Should Google penalize sites that use interstitials? Should it depend on the content of that interstitial itself? What do you think? Tell us in the comments.
Starbucks and Lyft have just announced a partnership that will see both riders and drivers earning rewards points for using Lyft.
There are basically four major aspects of the partnership. First, My Starbucks Rewards members will earn stars (reward points) for taking Lyft rides. Second, Lyft drivers will be given the option to become My Starbucks Rewards loyalty program gold status members, and then earn reward points as well.
Third, the Lyft app is going to add a custom option to gift your driver a cup of coffee (via a Starbucks eGift card). And last, “Starbucks and Lyft will explore the possibilities of bringing a convenient and cost effective transportation benefit to Starbucks partners in one test market to understand partners’ interest and determine its long-term viability.”
There aren’t too many specifics to add on for that last point. Lyft says it will “provide Starbucks Baristas with free Lyft rides to and from work, when they need it most.”
“With Lyft’s presence in 65 cities across the U.S., where we also have Starbucks serving the same communities, we knew this relationship would benefit our partners, Lyft’s drivers as well as our mutual customers who are already coming to Starbucks and using Lyft services,” said Adam Brotman, chief digital officer, Starbucks. “This is a great win win. Our digital loyalty ecosystem will strengthen Lyft’s ability to attract and retain customers in a highly profitable way, while at the same time accelerating the incrementality of redemption of rewards.”
Starbucks doesn’t just like Lyft, and this isn’t an Uber slight. Starbucks and Uber have partnered before.
Do you watch or upload a lot of videos on YouTube? Are you sickened by what you see on a daily basis? Do you ever get so frustrated with video orientation that you often hurl your phone across the room in a blinding rage?
Vertical Video Syndrome (VVS) is a condition that affects one in every two people. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, the inability to rotate objects and lack of empathy for the human race. It’s contagious, and there are no known cures.
But there is hope.
For those who suffer, Google is there to help. Google has finally introduced a feature on its YouTube app that will help mitigate the scourge that is VVS.
Android Police spotted that in the new YouTube app update for Android, vertical videos now display vertically, and in full screen.
Of course, the old way of displaying vertical videos inside the app was sickening in its own right – making the video full screen up and down, basically rendering the video even smaller and shittier.
In order to obtain the necessary services that the country’s various internet service providers offer, Americans must give up a lot of personal information. And what those companies do with said information should be a concern of every single American.
Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and seven other Senators have asked the FCC to implement some specific rules concerning how broadband providers deal with user information and privacy.
The rules govern transparency, customer consent, and data security.
The nine Senators – Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Al Franken, Patrick Leahy, Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren – praise the FCC for their reclassification of boradband as a telecommunications service in February and choosing to “extend the duty to protect the privacy of information that ISPs collect about their customers because of the carrier-customer relationship.”
But the Senators have some specific privacy rules they want considered:
“We call on the Commission to adopt a comprehensive definition of Customer Proprietary Network Information as it pertains to broadband. Every click consumers make online paints a detailed pictures of their personal and professional lives. Accordingly, ISPs should be prohibited from sharing this information without user consent,” reads a letter addressed to the FCC. “Data pertaining to internet usage, online activity, and broadband service payments should be included in the FCC’s definition of CPNI.
The Senators also call for added transparency rules, saying “ISPs should accurately outline data collection policies in standardized model forms – adopted by the Commission with prior input by stakeholders – that are easy for consumers to access, read, and understand.”
One suggested rule involves notification of data breaches.
“If a network of database is breached in a manner that could compromise the consumer’s privacy or cause the consumer harm, ISPs must notify consumers about the breach and any actions that consumers could take to mitigate potential harm from the breach.
The senators also call for “clear, user-friendly” complaint processes.
This is not the first time this contingent of the Senate has written the FCC on matters of broadband. A dew months ago, this same crew wrote the FCC urging a swift death for the Comcast/Time Warner deal.
This isn’t a shocker – we knew this was coming eventually. But Google has just set a kill date for Google+ Photos.
Google will begin to shut down the photo feature inside its struggling social network on August 1st. The death will happen first on Android and then soon after on the web and iOS.
Google unveiled its new Google Photos app at its I/) conference in May – which simply takes all the best part of Google+ Photos and strips the “plus” out. Since then, we knew Google+ Photos weren’t long for this world.
Google says you should start making the switch now.
“If you’re still using Google+ Photos, now is a great time to make the switch. You may have seen a prompt in Google+ Photos on Android with a link to download the new Google Photos. Don’t worry, all your photos and videos will still be saved and available after you switch to the new, stand-alone Google Photos app. With the new app you’ll still be able to backup, edit, and share your photos and videos, with unlimited storage, automatic organization, and more.”
Photos were always one of the best parts of Google+, but Google is doing what it can to turn Plus into something useful. Google says it wants Plus to be about connecting people with shared interests through its various communities – and photos just aren’t a part of this new direction.
And for those who just love Google’s photo editing and organizational tools, Google Photos takes the annoying Google+ aspect out of the picture. Let’s frame this as a win-win.
Of a crop of ready-to-cook food delivery services, Blue Apron has emerged as one of the leaders of the pack. Now, for the first time, the company has given its customers a mobile app.
The new app, now available on iOS, offers recipes, video tutorials, and more.
– Discover seasonal recipes and cooking tips each week
Each week, our culinary team creates 10 new recipes that feature what’s in season. Recipes include integrated how-to videos and cooking tips along with step-by-step instructions.
– Create photos of your meal with custom filters and effects
The camera feature includes food-friendly filters and special effects like captions, stickers, and even animated steam!
– Save and share your favorite Blue Apron recipes
Save your favorite recipes to your personal recipe box in the app, and share these favorites with friends and family via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, email, and text.
– Manage your weekly deliveries and review your meals
Blue Apron customers can manage their deliveries in the app, including customizing your menu, updating your delivery information, and scheduling deliveries. After you’ve cooked your meals, review your meals and send us your feedback!‘
Yes, the Blue Apron app encourages users to take photos of their food, snap filters on them, and share them across social media (you know you’re going to do it anyway). The app also lets you share its content with friends via iMessage and email.
If you;re unfamiliar with Blue Apron, here’s a quick rundown. The company offers free delivery of pre-measured ingredients based on seasonal recipes crafted each week (over 800 so far in the Blue Apron cookbook). Each meal is between 500-700 calories and takes about 35 minutes to make.
Much of the app’s content, like recipes and videos, are also available on the company;s website but the app makes surfacing it all much easier. It’s also nice to be able to manage your food deliveries on the go.
According to Blue Apron, it delivers over three million meals a month. Last month, it closed on a new round of funding, valuing the company at $2 billion.
Star Wars mania is a constant aspect of pop culture, but things are really turned up now that Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens in on everyone’s mind. I guess it seemed a good a time as any for Lucasfilm and Disney to finally create an official Star Wars app.
You can download is now on iOS and Android.
The app boasts “augmented reality”, which allows users to nnlock 3D characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and snap selfies as various characters, in various locations. It has trivia, sound effects, and a Force Trainer game the lets you wield a virtual lightsaber.
Some more cool features of the app:
– Get Star Wars-themed weather and five-day forecasts, featuring original art and parallax effects of in-universe planets and locales
– Share animated GIFs with your friends and family of memorable scenes and characters from the Star Wars movies and TV shows, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars Rebels
– Discover behind-the-scenes fun facts with This Day In Star Wars History
– Count down to major releases like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Episode VIII with an always-running timer
This is cool and all, but the main reason Star Wars fans are going to want the new app is for the news. The app pulls in up-to-the-minute news, culled from Stars Wars social media channels and blogs. There are also exclusive videos – interviews, trailers, and behind-the-scenes stuff.
The app will “continue to evolve” – so grab it and help pass the time until December 18th.
Taco Bell knows you can’t get off the couch, and is getting serious about delivering you Crunchwraps.
The restaurant is expanding its delivery service to 90 cities in the Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area and Dallas regions. This will cover more than 200 stores.
“Delivery is yet another example of how we’re using technology and innovation to respond to consumers’ wants and needs, further evolving the Taco Bell experience for customers. We were one of the first to redefine convenience at QSR with our mobile app, and knowing that delivery is the no. 1 request from our consumers, we see a tremendous opportunity to bring the Taco Bell experience to fans where and when they want it most,” says Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol. “Taco Bell has always been about value and convenience, and we believe delivery is the next step in catering to today’s on-demand culture that’s driving consumer behavior.”
The whole thing is coming from a partnership with food delivery service DoorDash – and it’s a huge deal for the startup. Food delivery startups are always trying to link up with a huge, popular chain – you saw Postmates do it with Chipotle.
Taco Bell and DoorDash will be continuing to work out the logistics, but for now it looks like DoorDash will charge a $4 delivery fee, with possible additional fees for individual meal items – so make sure you check everything out before you hit ‘complete order’.
“We’re testing and learning at the speed of the on-demand economy,” says Tressie Lieberman, VP of Innovation and On Demand at Taco Bell. “We’re thrilled to partner with DoorDash and leverage their like-minded commitment to customer service and innovation. This partnership enables us to provide consistent quality service and the feedback we need to elevate the delivery experience and evaluate where Taco Bell delivery goes next.”.
And where Taco Bell goes next is hopefully nationwide with this delivery scheme, according to the company.
For $10.99 per month, you can watch Showtime content online without a cable subscription. You’ll be able to stream on Apple devices, Roku, PlayStation Vue, and Showtime’s iOS apps. If you sign up through Hulu, however, Showtime’s new service will be $2 cheaper (Hulu subscription required, of course). Showtime is also offering a free 30-day trial.
“A new era has arrived,” says the network. “SHOWTIME subscribers will have unlimited on demand access to every season of award-winning SHOWTIME original series, and hundreds of hours of movies, documentary and sports programming, as well as the live broadcast of the SHOWTIME east and west coast feeds. SHOWTIME is the only premium streaming service to offer live East and West Coast feeds through all of its internet distributors.”
Cord cutting isn’t a foreign concept to CBS, who owns Showtime. Last October, the network launched CBS All Access, which offers full current seasons to over a dozen CBS shows and past seasons of more series. It also lets users livestream local CBS channels – all for $5.99 a month.
Another major content provider ditching the chains of cable means another victory for cordcutters.
Salesforce announced Service for Apps and the general availability of Salesforce SOS, which the company says will improve the in-app customer experience.
“Service for Apps enables any company to easily embed multi-channel customer service – including live video chat with a customer service agent, live text chat, and click-to-call capabilities – directly into mobile apps, giving customers instant access to the help they need to resolve questions without ever leaving the app,” a spokesperson for Salesforce explained in an email. “Salesforce is empowering customers to easily provide the most connected, instant and customer friendly support, made specifically for the mobile world.”
Salesforce says it’s accelerating the shift to mobile, in-app customer support with Service for Apps. It includes Chat for Apps, Tap-to-Call for Apps, Knowledge for Apps, Cases for Apps, and Salesforce SOS for Apps. The product enables companies to embed service inside their mobile apps to enable instant and personalized support.
With Chat for Apps, customers can instant message an agent without leaving the app. The company uses the example of a mobile gamer being able to chat with a support agent in real time for personalized advice on a gaming technique while the agent has the right context.
Tap-to-Call for Apps lets customers access live phone support with one tap. Knowledge for Apps lets them access knowledge articles and FAQs without leaving the app. Cases for Apps lets customers create and monitor cases, sue the camera and location to provide more details, and receive a notification when the case is resolved. SOS for Apps is similar to the Amazon Mayday button in that it provides live, personalized, and interactive video support with on-screen, guidance assistance and screens-sharing with an agent.
“The mobile app revolution has created a new requirement for instant, always on service,” said Mike Milburn, SVP and GM of Service Cloud at Salesforce. “With Service Cloud’s groundbreaking innovations, companies will be able to deliver in-app mobile customer support, allowing them to deliver a whole new level of service to customers.”
Salesforce also announced Desk.com for Apps, a new SDK powered by Desk.com for SMBs.
Last week, Salesforce unveiled Wave Analytics, its first app for Wave, the Salesforce Analytics Cloud.
In the wake of the Charleston church killings and the wave of companies and state governments moving to ban confederate flag imagery, Apple has begun to yank games and other apps featuring the symbol from its App Store.
According to Touch Arcade, various civil war games such as Ultimate General: Gettysburg and all Hunted Cow’s Civil War series have been removed. They report that Apple is pulling apps that simply contain the confederate flag – regardless of context.
One developer said that the rationale put forth by Apple is “because [the apps] include images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways.”
Apple has pulled the tablet version of the game from Appstore because of the Confederate Flag.
details coming…
The team behind Ultimate General: Gettysburg has taken to its blog to respond to Apple’s decision.
“We accept Apple’s decision and understand that this is a sensitive issue for the American Nation. We wanted our game to be the most accurate, historical, playable reference of the Battle of Gettysburg. All historical commanders, unit composition and weaponry, key geographical locations to the smallest streams or farms are recreated in our game’s battlefield,” says Nick Thomadis.
“Spielberg’s Schindler’s List did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical Gettysburg movie (1993) is still on iTunes. We believe that all historical art forms: books, movies, or games such as ours, help to learn and understand history, depicting events as they were. True stories are more important to us than money. Therefore we are not going to amend the game’s content and Ultimate General: Gettysburg will no longer be available on AppStore. We really hope that Apple’s decision will achieve the desired results.
Earlier the week, Apple CEO Tim Cook called for “eradicating racism and removing the symbols and words that feed it.”
My thoughts are with the victim's families in SC.Let us honor their lives by eradicating racism & removing the symbols & words that feed it.
As of the writing of this article, an App Store search for Civil War-related apps yields plenty of games and other apps. It appears that either Apple is just getting started with this removal campaign, or that the existing apps are allowed to remain due to lack of confederate flag imagery.
I’ve reached out to Apple and will update this article accordingly.
On July 15, Uber is putting a new privacy statement into effect, and part of it is raising some eyebrows.
A few paragraphs down in the new policy, under the heading “Collection of Information”, you’ll find this:
Location Information: When you use the Services for transportation or delivery, we collect precise location data about the trip from the Uber app used by the Driver. If you permit the Uber app to access location services through the permission system used by your mobile operating system (“platform”), we may also collect the precise location of your device when the app is running in the foreground or background. We may also derive your approximate location from your IP address.
If that sounds a little weird to you, you’re not alone. Privacy advocates EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) have filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over Uber’s stated intentions to collect location data – even when users aren’t actively using the app.
EPIC also takes issues with Uber’s handling of users’ contacts information, mainly this:
if you permit the Uber app to access the address book on your device through the permission system used by your mobile platform, we may access and store names and contact information from your address book to facilitate social interactions through our Services and for other purposes described in this Statement or at the time of consent or collection.
“EPIC urges the Commission to investigate Uber Technologies, Inc., and enjoin its unfair and deceptive data collection practices with respect to Uber’s revised privacy policy that the company plans to implement on July 15, 2015. Specifically, EPIC requests the Commission to initiate an investigation of Uber’s business practices, including the collection personal data from users of location data and contact list and halt Uber’s collection of user location data when it is unnecessary for the provision of the service.”
Uber provided a statement to Ars Technica, saying that this new policy is simply a clarification and that the company does not collect background data – but it might want to later.
“There is no basis for this complaint. We care deeply about the privacy of our riders and driver-partners and have significantly streamlined our privacy statements in order to improve readability and transparency. These updated statements don’t reflect a shift in our practices, they more clearly lay out the data we collect today and how it is used to provide or improve our services,” said an Uber spokesperson.
“We do not currently collect background location data. We may want to start doing that in order to provide new useful features, such as providing faster loading time when the user opens the app (currently, there is a lag time between opening the app and seeing the available cars in your area during which time the app is trying to figure out your location). We are not currently doing this and have no plans to start on July 15. If we move forward with this, users- will be in control and can choose whether they want to share the data with Uber.”
Earlier this week, Facebook launched yet another standalone app. It’s called Moments, and it lets friends easily sync photos with each other.
Here’s how product manager Will Ruben describes the app:
“Syncing photos with the Moments app is a private way to give photos to friends and get the photos you didn’t take. Moments groups the photos on your phone based on when they were taken and, using facial recognition technology, which friends are in them. You can then privately sync those photos quickly and easily with specific friends, and they can choose to sync their photos with you as well. Now, you and your friends have all the photos you took together.”
“Moments also keeps all of your synced photos organized and even lets you search them to find the ones that you or specific friends are in. Moments uses facial recognition technology to group your photos based on the friends who are in them. This is the same technology that powers tag suggestions on Facebook. You can control tag suggestions in your Settings.”
Sounds pretty harmless, as long as you don’t have any photos of questionable content to hide. But that whole “facial recognition” thing, well, it’s a sore subject in Europe.
According to Richard Allan, Facebook’s policy head in Europe, it’s this technology that it currently keeping Moments from launching in Europe.
“Regulators have told us we have to offer an opt-in choice to people to do this,” Allan told the Wall Street Journal. “We don’t have an opt-in mechanism so it is turned off until we develop one.”
The spat between European regulators and Facebook over facial recognition goes back years, as Facebook was forced to abandon its “tag suggestion” feature in 2012.
Of course, the feature is alive and well in the States.
According to Allan, there’s no timetable for when the app will launch in Europe. It does seem odd that Facebook wouldn’t have been ready for this, given the history.
People are spending more and more time with mobile apps, and that includes those that let them buy things. The problem for businesses hoping to break into that increasing app usage is that the number of apps people are using isn’t really growing along with the time they’re spending using apps.
New changes Google has been making could (and should) mean increased discovery for new and existing apps, and could just lead to that number of apps metric increasing as time goes on. It’s going to be challenging to make your business’ app stand out in the crowd, so you should know what kind of app content users are gravitating towards. We’ll look at that in this article.
Are you getting a significant amount of business through mobile apps so far? If not, what do you think needs to change to make it happen? If so, what are the main ways people are discovering your app and/or the content within? Discuss in the comments.
Nielsen released some research showing significant growth trajectory for the time consumers are spending using apps.
“Over the span of just a few years, the concept of app usage has transformed from a novelty to an essential part of the mobile user experience,” the firm says. “With millions of apps now available and more being rolled out every day, there is an app for everyone, regardless of age, race or interest.”
“But while marketers and app developers continue to add functionality and robustness to apps, they also must effectively position them to stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” it adds. “Despite the increase in choices, the number of apps used is staying the same.”
As you may know, Google is now indexing app content in search results. Businesses who follow Google’s protocol for app indexing even get the benefit of a ranking signal. It’s in your best interest to have an app and to have it indexed. At first, Google was only offering this on Android, but has recently started to index content on iOS, though it’s still early days on that. Currently, on Android, anyone can take advantage of app indexing. On iOS, Google is only working with a handful of partners so far, but that will likely open up to everyone else eventually. Luckily, Android has a much bigger piece of the mobile operating system market share since it’s on so many different devices from various manufacturers.
With Google’s changes, users can also discover your app even if they haven’t installed it yet, which is key. They (and others) of course offer app install ads to help you convince more people to get your app on their phone to begin with.
You might want to give this presentation from Google I/O a watch. It’s a session called “Smarter user acquisition with App Indexing, AdWords and Google Analytics”.
Here’s how Google describes it: “Content discovery on mobile isn’t easy. Luckily, this is a familiar problem to Google. With App Indexing on both iOS and Android, you can engage users organically by surfacing app content in the search results page. And on Android specifically, you can even drive app installs for users who don’t have your app. Google’s smart mobile ads platform gives you access to AdWords, the world’s largest network, to find the right users who will install and engage with your app, plus you can gain insights through Google Analytics install attribution to know where your users came from. Discover Google’s variety of approaches to driving app discovery, growth and engagement in this session.”
Even if you can get people to install your app, you face the challenge of getting them to open it and interact with it regularly. Google has been working on some things that can help with that as well.
For one, it now offers app deep linking with Goo.gl. This was announced less than a month ago.
“Once you’ve taken the necessary steps to set up App Indexing for Android and iOS, goo.gl URLs will send users straight to the right page in your app if they have it installed, and everyone else to your website. This will provide additional opportunities for your app users to re-engage with your app,” explained Google software engineer Fabian Schlup. “This feature works for both new short URLs and retroactively, so any existing goo.gl short links to your content will now also direct users to your app.”
You can drive traffic to in-app content through your marketing efforts using such links.
Potentially even more helpful for driving re-engagement from users who have installed your app, is Google Now on Tap. Google announced this at Google I/O. With this feature, users can get to useful content from other apps regardless of what app they’re currently using. It’s driven by context.
An example of how it works would be pulling a movie review from IMDb if the user is looking at movie content from another app or reservations on OpenTable if they’re viewing a restaurant in a different app.
Google says Now on Tap another way to get apps in front of users at the right moment. If you have an app with content that people need to see, well, that applies to you. Luckily, beyond app indexing, there’s nothing else you really have to do to be integrated with Now on Tap. Just have your app indexed by Google.
These are really just potential bonuses of app indexing, but the question remains: what do you need to offer in your app to actually get people to use it and buy from you?
comScore and UPS recently conducted a study looking at what kind of content shoppers find important. The content types are product reviews, Q&A, product and brand videos, and photos submitted of consumers using products. These are good places to start.
Other types of app content shoppers find useful include communities and forums, “trending now” products, the seller’s blog content, and podcasts. You might want to think about using some or all of these things in your app. Luckily, most of this stuff is excellent for appearing in search results.
MarketingCharts put together this graph based on the findings.
That study also concluded that 55% of shoppers value consumer and peer reviews when they’re searching and selecting products to buy. Detailed product information is the most important fact in the search and selection process it found. Other important components cited include the seller’s reputation, return policy, and the use of multiple images or the ability to zoom in on products.
While the above lists what content people value from websites, MarketingCharts notes, “Similar factors are important when shopping via mobile applications. Indeed, product images (54%) and product reviews (53%) are considered the most important retail app features among users, with these followed by relevant search results (50%) and mobile coupons (50%). While the study cautions that ‘apps… aren’t a must for every retailer,’ 4 in 5 mobile shoppers surveyed reported having used a retailer’s app rather than a browser to access a retailer at some point.”
This is all very helpful to know, and can help you make your app more useful to consumers.
In March, Facebook launched what it called “Messenger Platform” and “Businesses on Messenger”, two initiatives that the company hopes will turn Messenger into more than just a simple messaging platform.
Facebook now lets developers build apps for Messenger – the first slate of which let users quickly pull up GIFs, sound clips, videos, and more. Last month, reports indicated that Facebook was actively seeking games for Messenger.
Well, there’s a game in Messenger now. If you check the third-party apps list inside Facebook Messenger, you’ll see the option to install “Doodle Draw Game”. First spotted by TechCrunch, this is the first-ever game available inside Facebook Messenger (you have to install it on your device first, of course, but it’s playable inside Messenger).
Doodle Draw gives you a topic, lets you draw pictures, and has your friends guess what you drew.
Facebook told TechCrunch,
“Currently, we think Messenger Platform is best suited for apps that focus on content creation and curated content. But, one of the reasons we were excited to announce at F8 that Messenger Platform is open to all developers is to see what people build. From there, we’ll think about what else might make sense.”
So, maybe more games? Hopefully, the next round of games offered up in Facebook Messenger will be a little more promising than Doodle Draw Game, a copy of Draw Something (you remember Draw Something, right?). Doodle Draw lets you earn in-game currency by getting friends to compete – so say hello to spammy game requests.
Then again, if Facebook wants to turn Messenger into its own ecosystem – let’s say, like the main Facebook product – then spammy app requests will fit right in.
Twitter’s Periscope app is now available to Android users who have so far had to stand idly by while iOS device owners had the luxury of talking about and using one of the most talked about apps of the year to date. As you’ll recall, Periscope and rival Meerkat both gained a lot of attention back during SXSW, and there have been countless headlines about their rivalry and articles exploring which one is actually better.
Twitter dealt a huge blow to Meerkat by restricting the app as it launched its own competitor, so the only advantage Meerkat has had has really been the users it acquired before Periscope’s launch as well as the word of mouth associated with them. Well, it did also have the advantage of hitting Android first, but that advantage has now been diminished.
According to Casey Newton at The Verge, “The biggest difference between the iOS and Android versions of the app is the way you start a broadcast. On iOS it’s the central tab; on Android, it’s a big red button that appears on the broadcast screens, in accordance with Google’s Material Design principles. There are also a couple of minor, Android-specific features. Push notifications are slightly more granular, though there’s still no way to toggle notifications from individual accounts. And if you switch away from a broadcast to another app, you can return to it from a banner placed inside the notification drawer.”
Obviously Android availability opens Periscope up to a whole lot more people as Android dominates smartphone OS market share by a great deal. It does require version 4.4 or higher.
For those looking to use Periscope for any kind of marketing or exposure, the launch is obviously great news. Your potential audience just got a major increase. Of course that also goes for the potential audience of pirated material, which quickly became an issue after Periscope launched.
We recently spoke with some marketers who had tested both Periscope and Meerkat in a conference setting. You can get a rundown of the pros and cons to each according to them here.
It’s ambitious, but Spotify would like to be your all day media hub.
The streaming company, with over 60 million users worldwide (about a fourth of them paying subscribers), say it’s “obsessed with figuring out how to bring music into every part of your life, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whatever your mood.” And it’s just made a bunch of announcements concerning an all-new Spotify that rolling out today for iOS users in the US, UK, Germany, and Sweden.
Spotify has always offered playlists and allowed users to build their own. Spotify has also suggested music based on users’ activity. But with the new Spotify Now, the service is going to attempt to soundtrack your entire day.
“From the time you wake up until tonight’s party, the Now start page serves you the right music day and night. Need a Monday morning playlist pick-me-up? Done. The right tunes to help you focus after lunch? We’ve got you covered. And because Now learns what you like, you’ll be sure to hear the right music – selected from our in-house experts and your personal collection – whatever the occasion. Recommendations will adapt over time to fit your taste and mood,” says the company.
One big emphasis is on running. Spotify says that its new running-specific playlists will “detect your tempo, matching the perfect music in time to your step.” In the future, you can expect new Spotify partnerships with Nike and RunKeeper.
Smart playlists are great and all, but Spotify’s biggest announcement involves an expanded media presence. Spotify is now doing videos and podcasts.
“For the first time, Spotify is adding video clips and audio shows to the music mix. We know there are times in the day you want to switch between music to catch up on the latest news, listen to your favorite podcast or simply watch something fun. And with a stellar range of entertainment to choose from there’s something for everyone. Spotify will suggest video and audio shows for you to watch and learn what you love,” says the company.
This includes original content and videos from partners including ABC, Adult Swim, BBC, Comedy Central, E!, ESPN, Fusion, Maker Studios, MTV, NBC, RadioLab, Slate, TED, TWiT, Vice News, and WNYC.
Spotify says the new experience will hit other markets and platforms “in the near future.”
