Your Tech Story

messenger

Signal

Signal launches Stories feature to compete with Instagram

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

A new Stories feature is now available to all Android and iOS users on the end-to-end encrypted messaging platform Signal.

signal
Image Source: financialexpress.com

Users will soon be able to share stories on Signal with their friends via a new feature being rolled out by the privacy-focused messaging platform.  Stories created on Signal will be immediately erased after 24 hours, much like Snapchat and Instagram, with users given the option to remove them earlier if they like.

Singal noted, “Today, stories have created a major shift in communication in the social media domain, and introducing such cool features is another dynamic to amplify content engagement in a hassle-free mode. There has been conjecture on maintaining privacy, and with the new feature introduced at Signal, it enables the user to have intimate conversations with the people who matter.”

Users have the choice to manually hide their Stories from particular individuals. One can make a custom Story if a user wishes to choose to share Stories with a more selective group of users. Users also have the choice to share Stories with already-existing group chats.

The app provides a feature that enables users to share stories with all the contacts on the app, even those with whom a user has had a one-on-one chat but whose numbers are not in the contact list. This is useful for individuals who wish to reach a bigger audience. The messaging app has also enabled users to share stories with a small group of people and track who has viewed them.

Anyone in the group can view and respond to a story that is shared in a group chat. Additionally, users can see if someone outside the group has viewed their story. Similar to read receipts for chats, users can turn off the seen receipts for their stories from the Settings menu. Users may also opt-out of the Story feature by turning them off in the Stories settings. 

The company will eventually make the feature available on desktops as well. The most recent Signal (v6.0) releases for iOS and Android include the new Stories features.

Signal’s dedication to end-to-end encryption is further demonstrated by the platform’s claim that the feature uses the same security measures to protect users’ privacy. The company stated, “Like everything we build in Signal, stories are end-to-end encrypted. The only people who will be able to see your stories are the people you’ve selected–not Signal, not anyone else.”

Although the launch of Stories may appear to be a “big shift” for the platform, the company claims that it is only an additional way for users to privately engage with others. When it pertains to Stories, which originally gained popularity through Snapchat, Signal is a touch behind the trend.

Nearly all well-known platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have incorporated the ephemeral function over time. Twitter discontinued its story feature called “Fleets” after admitting that its users never found the feature appealing.

Signal is a cross-platform centralized encrypted instant messenger service. It was developed by a non-profit organization called Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC. The platform allows users to send individual and group messages including voice notes, files, and pictures.

The app can also be used to make individual and group audio/video calls. Standard cellular phone numbers are used by Signal as IDs, and end-to-end encryption is used to protect all communications with other Signal users. The client software has tools that allow users to independently confirm the legitimacy of the data channel and the identities of their connections.

Meta

Indian Users Can Choose To Not Accept Meta Privacy Policy.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

Even as it faces regulatory scrutiny in different parts of the world, including India, Meta said on May 26 that it will be revising and re-designing its privacy policy after four years to make it easier for consumers to comprehend and provide more transparency about how they utilize their information.

The new policy will take effect on July 26, 2022, and will apply to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other Meta products. WhatsApp, Workplace, Free Basics, Messenger Kids, and the use of Quest gadgets are not covered without a Facebook account because they have their own privacy policies.

“The last three years have brought a number of changes to the privacy landscape as a whole, including to peoples’ desire to better understand how their data is being used,” said the company.

Source: www.ndtv.com

Indeed, this comes at a time when there is a global discussion about people’s rights to privacy or the human right to privacy. The human right to privacy refers to a person’s ability to choose when, how, and why others, including businesses, handle their personal information.

Meta
Image source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

To maintain dignity, safety, and confidence, privacy must be protected. Individuals can select how their data is utilized and develop their personalities freely without fear of data misuse. Its revising its data policy for Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram to give consumers greater control over how the business uses their data and the material they publish.

Meta will also outline more clearly how it processes the information it collects from users under the updated privacy policy, including how it processes location-related information such as internet protocol addresses, check-in at locations, and other information such as current city, according to the company. The social media titan claims that the new privacy policy does not grant it greater access rights to user data, but rather allows Meta more control over customizing adverts based on consumer choices and sharing data, with all controls in one place.

These expectations include the rights and obligations described in our Community Standards, for example when we may disable or terminate accounts that violate our Terms or Community Standards or others’ intellectual property rights or other laws,” the company said.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Despite the fact that Meta has released the new policy and plans to implement it by July 26, users in India will have the option of accepting the terms and moving to the new regime or continuing to use Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram under the terms of the old data policy, according to the company.

“Our Privacy Policy is informative in most countries, so we’re publishing a prominent notice to alert people to the change, but they’re not invited to, say, click to consent to the modification to our Privacy Policy.” Users in India have the option of accepting or rejecting the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, with no effect on their access to our products,” said Meta.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Meta’s stance on allowing Indians to opt out of Facebook’s, Messenger’s, and Instagram’s new privacy policies is similar to what it did with WhatsApp.

It changed its terms of service in late January of last year, stating that users who did not accept the terms by February 8 would be prohibited from utilizing some of the app’s fundamental features. Following user protests, the deadline was pushed back to May 15, and WhatsApp stated that individuals who had not accepted the revised conditions of the policy will be reminded on a regular basis.

WhatsApp’s stance drew criticism from a number of countries around the world, prompting the firm to backtrack and say that it would not impede functionality for individuals who refused to accept the new terms, nor would it send reminders to people who refused to accept the new terms.

WhatsApp, Workplace, Free Basics, Messenger Kids, and a few more services that have their own privacy policies are not affected by the modifications announced on Thursday.

kik

Ted Livingston : The Journey of the Founder of Kik Messenger

Leave a Comment / Founder, Social media, start-up, Story, Tech Story / By

Establishing a new innovative start-up is the ultimate dream of every young entrepreneur out there. And, especially, if a mind has both excellent technical skills and impressive business strategies, wonders can be created. But, how many of us realize that the real voyage begins after one has accomplished his or her dreams? Because with great power comes great responsibilities. Reaching the zenith is easier than holding onto it. It is obvious that one will face ups and downs during the entire journey of success, but one must be strong enough to not give up or choose a wrong path.

Ted Livingston, founder of Kik Messenger and an incredible tech genius, was sentenced to death in 9th June 2019 for committing fraud, drug trafficking and an endless chain of illegal activities. He confessed all of his crimes saying that he did everything to save his company from bankruptcy, though the press release gives enough evidence of Kik’s short-term success. He started the company after he was rejected by RIM (Research in Motion), which led him to join the Velocity program, and finally, open his own start-up. So, let’s have a look into Livingston’s life before he hit such a massive crisis.

Early Life

Livingston was born in 1987, in Toronto, Ontario to a prosperous family. His father was a financial advisor, and his mother worked in the advertising sector. From a very young age, Livingston showed a great interest in building robots, and he joined the robotics team of his school. He went to Crescent School in Toronto and graduated from there in 2005.

Higher Studies and Early Career

Ted Livingston founder kik
Image Source: Twitter

Livingston pursued a Bachelor’s degree in mechatronics at the University of Waterloo, but he dropped out later. During his time at the university, he took part in the Waterloo co-op program and landed placements at Honda and City of Toronto Government.

In 2007, he started working as a Systems Engineering Project Coordinator at RIM, and then, as a Technical Product Management Coordinator. The internship was a part of his engineering course, and, Livingston once said about it that the best part about the internship was having a smartphone with a full data plan which was very expensive at that time.

Since he acquired a very lucrative position at RIM, during his internship, he got to work with every product manager individually and learnt a lot of new things. He was so good at his job that his boss advised him not to go for a full-time job in RIM and rather open his own company. This was all the motivation he needed, and hence, he turned down the job at RIM in 2008.

Founding KiK

Ted went back to Waterloo to complete his Bachelor’s degree, but somehow he ended up participating in the Velocity program followed by founding KiK. At first, Livingston created KiK Music, which was then known as Unsycned for RIM (later known as Blackberry). The app was connected to BBM to allow users to share soundtracks via messenger. But, KiK had bigger plans, which were blatantly turned down by RIM. So, Livingston and his team started working on the Kik messaging app on their own, and it was released on 19th October 2010.

While messaging apps like WhatsApp and Ping were already ruling the market, KiK hit one million users within 15 days of its release. Pretty impressive for an infant company, isn’t it? Though KiK was initially released for iOS and BlackBerry, BlackBerry removed it in November 2010 from BlackBerry App World followed by filing a lawsuit against KiK, which was settled later in 2013.

Success of KiK

In 2014, KiK raised $38.3 million from Series C funding followed by $50 million in the next year, thus resulting in KiK’s total worth to $1 billion. Gradually, KiK decided to raise funding in cryptocurrencies, and it raised $125 million cryptocurrencies through an ICO in September 2017.

In June 2018, Kin Coin (for cryptocurrencies) was released officially in Beta version, and in the next month, Kinit Beta App was released which was exclusively for the US residents.

Death Sentence of Livingston

The news of Livingston’s death sentence hit like an unexpected jolt to the world. He was accused of multiple reasons which included conduction of an illegal ICO, drug trafficking, prostitution and fraud. And finally, he was given a death sentence by an SEC Commission.

India Plans on Building its own Chat App for Official Use After Huawei U.S. Ban

India, News, Tech News / By

A report from Economic Times has revealed that the Indian government is looking forward to bring an official messenger or chat app, similar to Whatsapp, to be used by the government employees for official communications.

According to the report, the Delhi government said on Thursday that it is considering to develop a chat application, email, and the other homegrown secure communication networks, for the government officials, in order to insulate the intimate communication with one another.

indian communication app
Image Source: express.co.uk

The decision has come as one of the results of the U.S. government banning Huawei and some other Chinese companies from operating in the country, due to the friction with Beijing. In fact, Washington has recently set up the sanctions against many Chinese companies, which the U.S. tech giants, like Google and Facebook, have already started working upon.

Also, there has been some cold vibes between the U.S. government and the Indian government, as result of removal of the South Asian nation from a special trade program by the U.S. government, as India could not assure the U.S. president Donald Trump of India “providing equitable and reasonable access to its markets” to the U.S.

This incident has caused tension among the two nations. “Tomorrow, if the U.S. finds us unreliable for some reason, all they need to do is ask their companies to slow down networks in India, and everything here will come to a standstill. We are vulnerable, and we must take steps to cover that,” an unnamed official said over the matter.

Though it will be the first time that Indian government will be taking an initiative in developing mediums for the messaging and emails for the official communication, it is not the first time that any other nation is building such software for the government-only use.

At the beginning of this year, France released its official chat app, named Tchap, an open source app, which can only be used by France’s government officials. Other than France, there are nations like China and North Korea, that have got their own operating systems for use in government offices.

Even the Indian government has attempted on building its own Linux-based desktop operating system named BOSS, but with least success, Microsoft‘s Windows is still the most common OS in the government offices of India.

Instagram is Killing its Standalone Messaging App ‘Direct’ Only After Two years of its Inception

Facebook, News, Tech News / By
instagram direct app
Image Source: marketingland.com

Facebook is going forward on the way to integrating most of its apps, and after its announcement of bringing chat back to the Facebook app, the company is now planning to kill the Instagram’s standalone Direct app.

Instagram revealed that by the next month, it will pull off the support for its direct messaging app. But the Instagrammers doesn’t have to worry about their messages, as the platform will migrate all the messages from the Direct app to the Instagram app DMs.

With the launch of Direct app in 2017, Facebook and Instagram both were up to adding new features and making it a standalone messaging app to stand against rivals like Snapchat. Similar to the Snapchat app, the Direct app opens with a camera. In fact, after logging in to the Direct app, the DM feature also disappears from the Instagram app.

But as a step of Facebook in the way of consolidating all its major apps, now Direct will have to face a young death. Instead, all the features it possesses will be merged into the DM feature of Instagram.

The company has already stopped providing updates to both the versions of the app. The latest update that the Android app had received was in April, whereas the iOS app had received the latest update in December last year.

The users have been receiving messages from the company about the closure of the app, upon which, a Direct user Matt Navarra, posted a tweet in a thread, saying, “Confirmed: Instagram is killing its standalone Direct Messaging app.” Upon which Instagram also posted a tweet, “Your conversations will automatically move over to Instagram, so you don’t need to do anything.”

Shutting down the Direct app might not be a big deal for either company as the app has failed in gaining as many users as Instagram has. In fact, the Instagram app’s DM feature has been a source of business promotion for many, and it is way more popular than Direct app despite having lesser features than the Direct app.

Slack Prepping for its IPO in 2019; Hired Goldman Sachs as its Lead Underwriter

News, Tech News / By

Slack, the business chat and direct message provider company, has announced that it is going to become public in the coming year, and has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs as the lead underwriter for its highly anticipated IPO.

In September this year, there were already reports making rounds about the company preparing for its debut in the stock market in the early quarter of 2019, with an expected valuation of the company well in excess of the $7.1 billion.

Slack
Image Source: mybroadband.co

The company had reported a total of 8 million daily active users in August this year, that is double the number of users it had in the summer last year. In the same month, the company had a funding round of $427 million, led by Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic. The company’s major investors include SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund, Dragoneer Investment Group, General Atlantic, T. Rowe Price Associates, Wellington Management, Baillie Gifford, and Sands Capital, etc.

Slack, which is based in San Francisco and Vancouver, is one of the Silicon Valley companies valued over $1 billion, which is now hoping to fetch a valuation of over $10 billion in its IPO. Slack is one of the business messaging service provider, that is in a competitive race with Microsoft’s Teams, Alphabet’s Google Hangouts Chat and Cisco’s Webex Teams and its users are increasing by a rapid rate.

Last month, Slack’s co-founder and CEO, Stewart Butterfield told Fortune, “The company had no specific timeline for an IPO. We’ve been on a path to public company readiness for several years now, and we’re continuing on that path.”

2018, had a total of 188 companies went public on the U.S. exchanges, more than the number of companies last year, including 40 tech companies like Dropbox, Zuora, Uber, Lyft, and DocuSign. Other companies that are also planning for their IPO include Airbnb, Lyft, Uber, Palantir and Stripe, etc. Among which, Lyft already filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Thursday, for its planned IPO ahead of other companies.