Digital Indian Gov

Facebook is currently working on integrating its three chat services - Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. They won't merge, continuing to function as standalone apps, but their owner wants their users to be able to message each other across platforms.

In order for this to work a huge amount of reconfiguration needs to be done by "thousands of Facebook employees", according to a report from The New York Times today. They will need to change how the apps function at their most basic levels. msnTarGet.com

The company is still in the early stages of the work and plans to complete it by the end of this year or in early 2020, the report said. soas.in

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fun2Ind.com

Facebook Inc chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg is planning to unify the underlying messaging infrastructure of its WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger services and incorporate end-to-end encryption to these apps, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The three services will, however, continue as stand alone apps, the report said, citing four people involved in the effort. mobask.com

Mark Zuckerberg's goal is for all three apps to incorporate end-to-end encryption once the integration is complete in late 2019 or early 2020. Currently WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption on by default for all conversations, while in Messenger you can opt into end-to-end encrypted chats. Fun2Ind.com

In a statement, Facebook says it wants to "build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private". The company is "working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks. As you would expect, there is a lot of discussion and debate as we begin the long process of figuring out all the details of how this will work".

After the changes, a Facebook user, for instance, will be able send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, according to the report. msnTarGet.com

End-to-end encryption protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in the conversation. mobask.com

This week, Instagram rolled out a new feature that allows you to post an image across multiple accounts, or even post an image on more than one account at the same time. Though that sounds like a niche feature created to help power users, there are plenty of people who juggle multiple Instagram feeds: Users who keep public and private feeds, side accounts for their pets, and other photography side projects. And yes, in the age of influencer culture, the number of people who use Instagram for both business and pleasure is only rising. msnTarGet.com

Setting aside the larger question of what it takes to come up with enough great posts to fill two accounts, managing multiple Instagram accounts is not nearly as difficult as it sounds. Here’s what you need to know:

Signing up and logging into multiple Instagram accounts on the same app is simple as pie. Simply open the side menu by clicking the three rows on the top-right of the screen, pressing “settings” button at the bottom of the menu, then scroll down and tap “add account.” You’ll be prompted with the login screen where you can either log in to a second account or press sign up to create a new one. Once you’ve logged in, the app stays connected to all the accounts on which you’ve logged in.

Once you have multiple accounts set up on your phone, you can switch among them by going to your profile and tapping the text version of your handle at the top of the screen. (if you’re signed into multiple accounts, there will be a small down-facing carrot next to it).  msnTarGet.com

Luckily, thanks to the new crossing-posting feature on iOS, you don’t have to swap accounts every time you want to create a new post. When you add a photo and reach the caption menu, you’ll find a new section just below the “add location” row that called “post to other accounts,” with a list of your connected accounts.

The account you’re logged into is automatically toggled to post, but if you want to post to a different account, just switch it off. You can also switch all on to post a photo on all your accounts, though that’s a bit of a social media faux pas most of the time, unless your accounts have completely separate audiences.

In terms of technically managing your accounts, that’s all there is to it. Depending on what you plan to use your accounts for, you may want to tweak your settings for each individual account, such as setting it to private, switching off comments, and preferences for push notifications. All of these features work exactly the same regardless of how many accounts you have. Just make sure you’re set to the correct profile before changing your settings.

Unless you are a very active daily user, though, the real challenge in maintaining multiple accounts is in making sure they all feel active and fresh. As with most projects where you split your attention, it’s very easy to get caught up maintaining one to the point where you leave the other(s) to languish. (If you don’t believe me, ask any professional writer about their personal blog. Except me! I... don’t want to talk about it).

Instagram doesn’t offer a lot of common sense features that power users may find themselves craving, like the ability to schedule posts in advance and post to Instagram from a laptop or desktop. If you’re ready to take the plunge, there are third-party social media management platforms that offer these tools and give you more control.

I call it a plunge because there is a catch you should know about before signing up: Third-party apps can only post directly to Instagram business accounts, so many of these tools require you to swap over to get the most out of using them. Also, while they all have free trials, very few are worth your time, and will not let you manage multiple accounts until pay for a subscription.

Switching a personal account to a business account is quick and painless—go to settings, then account, and tap “Switch to Business Account”—but doing so requires you to connect your Instagram to a Facebook business page and publicly share at least one means of direct communication; an email address, phone number or physical business address. You also lose the ability to set your account to private (Though you can get it back by reverting to a “personal” account if you need a break). None of this is a huge concern for people using Instagram to promote an actual business, but for the average person this move effectively means trading a little privacy for better features. It’s important to be aware of that going in.

To be completely transparent here, the recommendations we’re laying out here are for people who want to manage multiple accounts for fun. There are definitely more marketing-driven tools made for professional account managers and influencers, but they’re often expensive and have features that make them a bit obtuse, so we’re sticking to the apps that are keeping things fun.  msnTarGet.com

Buffer allows you to schedule posts to your feed in advance and frees you up to post from any web-enabled device. It also lets you manage multiple social media accounts in one place, which can definitely save time if you plan to post multiple versions of the same link or photo. There’s a trial version that lets you sync three social media accounts and schedule 10 posts per account per month. That probably isn’t going to be enough to satisfy most users, so there’s a paid version for $15 per month that bumps the cap up to eight social profiles and 100 posts per account.

Buffer is a good fit if you’re trying a social media manager for the first time for your own personal use. The navigation is easy to use, and it has one of the only free trials that will let you manage multiple accounts. While it’s annoying (and archaic) that the paid tier caps the number of posts you can schedule, it goes a long way towards simplifying your social media workflow.

Most of the social media managers I saw, on this list and off, help you curate your feed, but very few give you similar support for Instagram Stories. So regardless of what manager you use, you should supplement it with Storrito, a powerful, Stories-only Instagram scheduler. Storrito not only allows you to upload images and post them to your Instagram accounts, but you can edit, add filters, geotags—the whole nine yards. Oh and you can add videos as well, which also seems pretty rare among third-party tools.

Storrito has a free trial, which lets you post 10 images or videos per month across as many accounts as you want. Again, if you really want to take advantage of the service, so you have to pay for it. The premium pricing scales from $5 per month for up to 30 posts to $60 per month for 500 posts. msnTarGet.com

Plann, an Instagram-only management app, is also a solid pick if you if want a platform custom-made to work alongside Instagram. It’s stylish, provides both scheduling and creative tools, and (unlike Buffer) doesn’t cap the number of posts you can make. It’s also one of the only tools I found that supports both the Instagram feed and Instagram Stories, which makes it one of the few tools that comes close to offering a full-service complement to the platform.

Though the free version does not allow you to manage multiple accounts, Plann seems relatively affordable. It costs $8 per month to connect 2-3 accounts, or $12 per month for an unlimited number.

It does have a few drawbacks, though. For better or worse, Plann does not post directly to Instagram, which means you can use its full functionality with a personal account, but at the expense of one its core features—the ability to save time by automating your social media plan. It is also limited to your phone. If Instagram is your primary social platform, that may not seem like a hindrance, but as someone whose world revolves around a laptop, a web app is a must-have feature for me. Plann does have a web app in the works, though, so that may not be a problem for much longer.

One of the things I like to do every now and then—especially around this time of year—is to start fresh. I’ll think about all the services I’ve signed up for and don’t actually use. Going through and deleting them helps me feel better about my digital sprawl, and it’s a practice I recommend everyone try regularly.

Consumer Reports recently published a great guide that shows you the basic steps for deleting your accounts across 15 different services. While the process isn’t usually that difficult, it can be annoying to have to root through a bunch of settings menus and hyperlinks to figure out how to remove yourself from a service. I’ve bookmarked the site’s series of steps, and I recommend you do the same—with one caveat. msntarget.com

While Consumer Reports’ list is helpful, it leaves out one critical aspect of the account-deletion process that you’ll probably want to know: How to save your data from a site before deleting your account. This won’t matter in some cases—if you’re nuking a parody Twitter account, for example. If you’re looking to delete something more substantial, like an older Blogger account, you probably don’t want those memories to disappear into the digital ether. soas.in

Backing up your data: On your blog’s primary page, click on the Settings icon, and then click on “Other.” Click on the “Back Up Content” button to begin creating your .XML archive. fun2ind.com

Deleting your data: On that same page where you backed up your blog, click on the “Delete blog” link to wave goodbye to your blog forever.

Backing up your data: Click on the drop-down arrow in Facebook’s upper-right corner and select “Settings.” Click on “Your Facebook information,” and then click on the “Download Your Information” link to begin the process. You’ll be able to customize what data you want to save, as well as the quality of any included media files—if you’re worried about space.

Deleting your data: On that same “Your Facebook information” page, click on “Delete Your Account and Information” to start the process. mobask.com

Backing up your data: You can grab albums’ worth of photos via the little download icon you’re given whenever you open up one of your albums. Otherwise, to download everything in your Flickr account, visit your Account Settings page and select the option to “Request My Flickr Data” to begin the process. msnTarGet.com

Deleting your data: In the Account Settings page, simply click on the “Delete your Flickr account” option to get started.

Backing up your data: There isn’t an easy way to download a list of everywhere you’ve visited (and when). Some found success years ago pulling this information via the Foursquare API, but that’s a lot of work for a bunch of data that you probably won’t use for anything other than the novelty of having it. mobask.com

Deleting your data: Visit your account’s Settings page and click on the “Privacy Settings” tab. Scroll down a bit and click on the “delete your account” link to start the process.

Backing up your data: You have until April to grab your Google+ data before the company kills the service completely. Just visit Google’s “Download Your Data” page to get started.

Deleting your data: This one’s easy. Visit this page, and you’ll be able to delete your Google+ profile with just a few clicks. fun2ind.com

Backing up your data: The service’s relatively new “Download your data” tool is easy to use. On the web, click on the icon that looks like a person to go to your Instagram profile. Then, click on the gear icon and select “Privacy & Security.” Scroll down to the “Data Download” section and click on the “Request download” option to get started.

Deleting your data: Instagram has a handy “Delete your account” page for doing exactly that.

Backing up your data: Visit your Settings & Privacy page, and then scroll down to the “How LinkedIn uses your data” section. Click on the “Download your data” option to get started.

Deleting your data: Visit the “Account” section of your “Settings & Privacy” page, scroll to the bottom, and click on “Closing your LinkedIn account.” soas.in

Backing up your data: You can use Livejournal’s export tool to download one month’s worth of posts at a time—a terrible option—or you can use one of the many other third-party apps to download all of your journal’s contents at once.

Deleting your data: Pull up your Account Status page and make sure the right Livejournal is selected—if not, pick what you plan to delete from the drop-down menu and click “Switch.” From there, click on the “Account” tab, click on the “Change” link in the “Status” field, pick whether you want to delete comments and community posts you’ve previously made, click on the drop-down “Status” menu and select “Deleted,” and then click the “Submit” button.

Backing up your data: Myspace not-so-helpfully notes that you can download individual Myspace images by right-clicking on them and saving them to your desktop or laptop—much like you would on any other website. The service does have a tool for downloading any videos or music you’ve uploaded, but that’s it.

Deleting your data: All you have to do is visit your Settings page and select the “Delete account” option. It’s as easy as that. mobask.com

Backing up your data: Pinterest doesn’t have a tool for downloading your data, unfortunately. You’ll have to use a third-party app like Pin4Ever or PinCrawl instead.

Deleting your data: Click on the triple-dot icon in the upper-right corner on Pinterest’s home page, and then select “Edit settings.” Scroll down a bit and click on “Deactivate Account” to start the process, which lets you either deactivate your account (giving you the option to come back to it later) or close it permanently.

Backing up your data: Visit your “Manage My Account” page and select “My Data” to request an archive of much of what Snapchat knows about you. MsnTarGet.com

Deleting your data: From that same “Manage My Account” page, click on the “Delete my account” option.

Backing up your data: Visit your “Account Settings” page, click on your blog on the right sidebar, and scroll to the bottom until you see the “Export” button.

Deleting your data: Click on the “Delete account” button right below the “Export” button once you’re ready to say goodbye to Tumblr for good. Fun2Ind.CoM

Backing up your data: Visit your “Account” page and scroll down a bit until you see the “Request your archive” button. Click on that.

Deleting your data: Click the “Deactivate your account” link below the “Request your archive” button to begin the process. You’ll have 30 days to change your mind.

Backing up your data: You can request a copy of your Whatsapp data via the app’s Settings menu. However, this won’t include your Whatsapp messages. For those, you’ll need to go the Chats section of your Settings menu, which should give you the option to back up your conversations. MsnTarGet.com

Deleting your data: You’ll find the option to delete your WhatsApp account within the app’s Settings menu, under the “Account” section.

Backing up your data: Visit Google’s handy Takeout page to grab your YouTube data—and data from any other Google services you might also want to download.

Deleting your data: Under YouTube’s “Advanced settings,” you’ll find the “Delete channel” button at the very bottom of the page. This won’t delete your Google account, just your YouTube channel.

How To Get Top 9 On Instagram | Best Tricks To Do/Find Best Nine – Needless to say, top 9 or best 9 on Instagram is a trend right now. What more shocking news is that out of 77.6 million Instagram users, over half of the population doesn’t know what this disease – top 9 or best 9 is. So here we’re available for you to share the best and instantly working effective tips on top 9 Instagram users msnTarGet.com.

Basically, in this post, you will find the Answers of your search terms such as best nine Instagram, 2018 best nine Instagram, best nine Instagram of all time, 2018 best nine generators, Instagram best nine monthly, top nine Instagram 2018 Canada, USA or India etc. This step by step guide will surely help you out with your problem of unable to find the top 9 or the best 9 of the Instagram.

In a fewer and simpler step. Just remember that there is a website named https://topnine.co/. This portal is actually designed specifically to find out the best and most useful or the images that created the maximum engagements. Just visit the above-given link and enter your Instagram username right there. One-stop thought and AIM of this portal says – “Life is all about experiences. Rediscover your best nine Instagram moments from 2018 and share them with your friends.”

Another helpful tip regarding this is that you can go on your phone and you can download the app called cleaner and now please make sure to you pay for the pro version of this which allows you to kind of batch remove a bunch of people. So let’s go right into our phone to figure out how exactly to see how to do this?

First of all download and install the android application named “Cleaner for Instagram” or better known as the cleaner app. Here, tip number 3 is all about the accounts you engage with. Now this is a very very critical step. Now you know a lot of you have multiple multiple interests and you don’t want to just have to be like I’m only following travel accounts.

Tip number 2: Account cleanup now in the past a lot of people like to do the follow unfollow routine and they would grow a lot of followers this way but ultimately these accounts weren’t genuine people were just following you back because you followed them now this was a good technique for the previous Instagram algorithms.

But for the new one it just straight up doesn’t work anymore so you need to clean up your account in this case you need to get rid of inactive users/ Bots Accounts or anybody else that may you have purchased in the past that means you will lose a lot of followers but what its gonna do for you is gonna actually make sure that you have good consistent followers that when you upload an image let’s say it only goes to 20% of the people out there msntarget.com.

That’s kind of like the general rule of thumb it goes upto 20% of your audience. Now just imagine that those 20 per cent audience of your Instagram followers are just inactive accounts and bots account that no one will every visit. Then what? So never buy any followers. This thing is completely not good in the long run and can also have your Instagram account banned forever in case it goes against the policies.

One of the best tips to increase your Instagram followers suggests you that it’s important to keep colours scheme, subject matter and copy in mind for your post. You don’t want to have something that’s like, here’s a baby picture and now here’s food picture and now here’s a travel picture because people don’t know what to expect from you, and that’s why it will ruin your brand.

So all you need to do is just to stay on your brand net sticks with even your colours to your photographs to everything that you post make sure it’s the same and consistent. Another little helpful tip in regard to this is that before you post your final photo on your Instagram page or the one that you’re building ultimately is to create a fake dummy account then you can make this private and then you can kind of upload the pictures and see what your feed will look like previous to you uploading it on your final page tip.

Being one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Instagrams remains in the news for greatest headlines such as Instagram: Rich kids post photos of Dubai, Thailand, Maldives holidays and “Germany’s hottest cop: Police officer ordered to stop sexy Instagram photos” and “Sen. Warren reveals beer of choice after Instagram video goes viral” and many other top stories.

The revelation this past week that Facebook has been sharing what you do on the site with other companies like Microsoft and Amazon has led a number of us to start considering (perhaps not for the first time) deleting Facebook and other apps owned by the company like Instagram and WhatsApp.

If you delete Instagram, your photos go along with it. That is, unless you back them up first.

Downloading your Instagram photos and creating a backup somewhere is a good idea in general, even if you’re not considering leaving the platform. That said, if you are considering leaving then it’s something you definitely want to do. Here’s how to make it happen:

First, launch the Instagram app on your phone and then tap on the profile button at the bottom right side of the page. From there, tap the Menu button (the three line stacked on top of each other) at the top-right of the screen and select “Settings” from the drop-down menu (it’s at the very bottom).

Toward the middle of the next menu, you’ll see a listing for “Data download.” Select that and then tap “Request download.”

The download won’t happen instantly. Instead, Instagram will email you when your photos are officially ready to download and will include a link for you to grab them. The process can take up to 48 hours, so strap in and be ready to wait.

Once you’ve got everything backed up, you can delete your account freely without worrying that you’ll lose a favorite pic.

Instagram is one of those platforms, like Twitter, that I’ve always considered the content I post to be visible to the masses. Yes, I know both have a “private” option for accounts, but I’ve always thought the value in both was in interacting with people outside your circle.

And then I started using Instagram Stories. While I have no problem with strangers commenting on and looking at my carefully selected Instagram pics, my Stories tend to be a bit more personal. This week Instagram rolled out a new feature so that you can keep those personal, while still keeping your account (and the stories you choose) public.

Do that by tapping your profile icon within the Instagram app and then tapping the hamburger icon at the top-right corner of the page. From there, select “Close Friends List” from the drop-down menu. You can manually add people by clicking the “add” button beside their name, you can also tap “Suggestions” to make things a little easier (Instagram will surface people you interact with often on the platform).

Once you’ve made a list, you’ll start seeing a “Close Friends” icon when you create an Instagram story. Tap it, and the story will be sent to just your close friends.

Worth noting: “Close Friends” stories are designated with a green circle around them rather than a red one. So, while you won’t know that you’re specifically on a friend’s “Close Friends” list you will know a story you’re viewing was sent to only close friends (so you’ll be able to figure out you’re on someone’s list pretty quickly).

Also, worth noting: Images shared in “Close Friends” stories can’t be shared elsewhere, so you don’t have to worry about your cover being blown by a close friend sharing your pic on their stream.

Popular photo-sharing platform Instagram on Friday announced its users can now make a "close friends" list on its "Stories" to share it with the people they`ve selectively added.

It is a global roll-out and to add people to their list, users need to go to their profile and tap on "Close Friends" in the side menu. 

"Only you can see your close friends list and no one can request to be added, so you can feel comfortable adjusting it at any time. When you share to Stories, you`ll see the option to share with just the people on your `Close Friends` list," the Facebook-owned company wrote in a blog post.

If someone has added you to their list, you will see a green badge when you`re viewing their stories. You`ll also see a green ring around their profile photo in the Stories tray, the company added.

Instagram`s Stories lets users post images and videos that vanish after 24 hours.

Instagram is making it easier for people with visual impairments to experience its site.

Today it started rolling out a new automatic alternative text feature which will create descriptions of photos uploaded to the social networks using object recognition technology. When someone with a visual impairment goes to Instagram, the app will generate a description for photos that can be read by a screen reader while they browse.

Instagram also added a custom alternative text field where the person uploading the photo can enter their own text to be read aloud rather than relying on software to create one for them.

U.S. Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest women elected to Congress, made headlines earlier this month when she started adding similar captions to her videos on her own as a way to connect with constituents that are deaf or hard of hearing.

To access the new feature, you’ll want to click on “Advanced Settings” at the bottom of the page where you traditionally type your photo caption. Below “Turn Off Commenting” you’ll see an option to “Write Alt Text” when you can input your own description of your photo.

It’s a simple thing you can do when you upload a pic that can make your feed much more accessible for those with impaired vision.

Instagram is gearing up to launch support for hour-long videos, according to a new report. The support will reportedly be part of a new feature that centers around vertical, rather than landscape, video content. Assuming such a feature is released, it’ll mark a big change over the platform’s current 1-minute video length limitation. The information comes from sources speaking with the Wall Street Journal, which reports that the new feature is a “tentative” project that may change in the future.
Assuming it launches in its present form, the sources claim that the feature will go live in the Instagram app and may be primarily intended for content creators who may post long-form videos on the platform. Such a feature could hint at a stronger focus on video within Instagram, but the company hasn’t commented on the report and there’s no confirmation about its supposed plans.
However, parent company Facebook has recently emphasized its video product, launching things like livestreaming, and it makes sense that Instagram would follow. The social company has specifically targeted professionally produced shows. Likewise, content creators have increasingly focused on vertical videos as a large number of media consumers transition from TVs to smartphones. These vertical videos enable users to watch content without rotating their phone, and we’ve seen other companies dabble in it. Netflix, for example, recently launched vertical video previews in its mobile apps.

In the developers F8 conference which was conducted by Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg highlighted some of the new features which the company was going to implement in the coming days. A part of that initiative, Facebook is releasing a new update for WhatsApp iOS which will bring the ability to stream Instagram and Facebook videos within the application just like it used to for YouTube. This new functionality is going to be part of the update 2.18.51. Previously whenever an Instagram video link or a Facebook video link was shared on WhatsApp, it used to open in the respective applications.
A feature was rolled out before that enabled the users to watch YouTube videos inside the app only, this new update for the iOS users will allow the users to do the same with Instagram and Facebook videos. Even though the feature has not been noticed by the users, the news suggests that it shouldn’t be long and that the users will be able to update to this version of WhatsApp in the coming weeks. These changes were highlighted in the WhatsApp changelog which also went onto illustrate that the feature would also come with the PiP (Picture in picture mode) support which will allow the users to navigate within the application, chat with other users and go on with their work while the video will continue playing in a video bubble over the application. Also, users will be able to slide the video bubble anywhere on the app screen. The changelog also highlighted that just like the YouTube PiP video bubble, this new update will also have the play/pause, close and full-screen buttons.
Along with this new impending update, there were several other features announced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg among them he also mentioned the group video calling feature which would soon be seen on the WhatsApp app. Using this feature, users will be able to talk to four people at once in split-screen mode. The support for third-party stickers was also announced. He also went onto share some statistics about WhatsApp saying that over 450 million people are using the feature. The latest app by WhatsApp which is based on businesses and comes with the name of WhatsApp Business has already amassed 3 million users worldwide. WhatsApp is also working on an iOS version of WhatsApp Business app.

At its F8 Developer Conference yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a host of new features for its photo-sharing app, Instagram. The major changes hitting the new app will be the video calling support and new Explore tabs. Facebook will also be adding AR Stickers to the platform which will enhance the overall user experience.
Video Calling Instagram will be adding video chat for its platform soon, which will allow users to connect in real time. The feature is embedded in the Direct Messaging section of the app. To start a video chat, users will have to tap the new camera icon at the top of a Direct messaging thread. The users can also minimise the video screen during a conversation and continue to chat while browsing the app. The platform supports video calling for a one-on-one chat or within a small group. To create group video chat, users have to access the Instagram direct section and then tap the ‘+’ sign to add two or more members to the group chat. Though Instagram hasn’t specified exactly the number of users that will be supported per group call, but the previews indicate the feature will be limited to four people at a time.
AR Stickers Facebook’s AR camera platform will also be landing on Instagram. The photo-sharing app will soon receive AR camera effects that will offer face filters and world effects to the users. It will operate a little differently though as people will be exposed to user-designed filters based on accounts that they follow. In addition, the AR Camera Effects platform will enable users to try out filters directly from their friends’ stories. Users can just tap “Try it on”, and the tool will be added to your tray according to Instagram post.
Redesigned Explore Instagram is also getting a revamped “Explore” section to improve discovery of things you’re interested in. The new Explore will better organise suggested content by putting them under relevant topical channels. This will basically offer more personalised content to the user. The Explore page will now feature buttons in a scrollable, horizontal row on the top of the page, giving users the options to swipe through subjects like animals, photography, and architecture to see more posts related to that particular topic. This way users get to access groups of photos and videos ties to a particular them they like. While some of these features have already gone live, Facebook has promised all these features will be rolled out in as part of the Instagram update in coming weeks.

Instagram, the world's most popular image-sharing social network, is reportedly planning to add several new functional features to its interface as it looks to up the ante against Snapchat. These new features might include a new video call feature, Stories reactions - similar to the ones on Facebook, a new Slow-Mo mode for Stories, a Mute button to remove certain profiles from your feed, and a new Calendar view for Instagram Stories' archive. As per a series of tweets by user @wongmjane, Facebook-owned Instagram seems to be testing quite a handful of features in an attempt to take on competitors by offering as much functionality as possible.
We are waiting for a comment from Instagram and will update the story when applicable. Let's have a look at what all Instagram might have in the works. The app might get a new video calling feature, which is currently available for users on Snapchat. There are not many details around it, but we could expect it to be available for users who follow each other taking in consideration a certain level of user privacy. Further, Instagram is looking to borrow Reactions from Facebook and incorporate it right onto Instagram Stories.
As per the tweet, Stories Reactions will be available when you click on the Reply button on a user's story. You can then tap on the preferred reaction, which will be sent to the user in separate DMs. Implementation looks quite sketchy from the leaked screenshots. Notably, as per tweet replies, the feature is available for select users in some parts of South America. A Slow-Mo mode might also be coming to Instagram Stories, if Jane Manchun Wong's screenshots are anything to go by. With a self-explanatory name, this feature might allow users to record slow motion videos and post them on their Instagram Stories, in the future. Additionally, a Mute button might be in the works too.
No, this feature is not for muting audio or video, instead it will allow users to mute posts from certain profiles in their feed, without having to unfollow them. Using this feature will not display posts from the selected profiles until, of course, you choose to unmute. While currently archive posts (images and videos) for Instagram Stories are available in the form of a list with date tags, Instagram is reportedly looking to change the UI, just a bit, to help users arrange the archive better. With the new Calendar view, social media addicts will have it slightly easier managing their dozens of stories according to date, month, and year.

Several millions of us send messages each day in the form of texts, images, videos and audio notes. We communicate with others and want them to read out the messages like we do for theirs. But at times, things can be annoying if the read receipts in certain apps are turned on. This means that as soon as you read the sender’s message, he/she comes to know about it and may annoy you to give a feedback or a reply. To prevent those situations, apps have given users the ability to turn the feature off. So here is how you can do it on nearly all the major social networking websites/apps.
Facebook Messenger This is slightly tricky. The app doesn’t really have a proper method to turn off ‘read receipt’ feature but a nifty trick to read messages without letting the sender know. All you need to do is to switch on the ‘Airplane mode’ on your handset and then open the app to read the text. Once read, close the app by swiping it out from the multi-window section so the apps are turned off completely. Now you can switch off the Airplane mode and the sender won’t get to know as the app won’t sync back till you open it again.
WhatsApp This one’s pretty easy. You can simply open the app, head to the Settings page, go to accounts, privacy, and tap on Turn of Receipts. That’s it. This will however, will not let you see if the other person has read your message or not.
Apple iMessage For Apple iMessage users, one can head to the main Settings app and tap on Messages and turn off the read receipts option. You cannot turn on/off this feature for individual Messages chats but for all at once.
Instagram If you want to turn off the read receipts on Instagram, it is not actually possible. However, like
Facebook Messenger you can trick others by switching on the Airplane Mode and looking at the messages, closing it completely from the multi-window section and turning off the Airplane Mode.
Twitter On Twitter, this feature can be turned off for Direct Messages. You need to open the app, tap on your profile picture to open the account settings, under settings tap on Privacy followed by Direct Messages and Turn off Read Receipts. And voila!

Instagram has finally decided that it is going to introduce a data export or portability feature on its platform which had been a missing functionality for many years. Multiple reasons have propelled Instagram in this direction. It is interesting to note that Instagram’s parent company Facebook does allow its users to download a copy of their data. However, such a feature doesn’t exist on Instagram. Recently although, an Instagram spokesperson came out into the light and said to Techcrunch that: “We are building a new data portability tool. You’ll soon be able to download a copy of what you’ve shared on Instagram, including your photos, videos and messages.”
Also, the latest law regarding data security which has been implemented in the European Union and is being called the GDPR makes it necessary for the tech companies operating in the European regions to provide a data portability function. If the feature rolls out before May 25, Instagram will be right on time for complying with GDPR. Further, this feature will allow the users to download their entire data from the site and will make it easier for users to resort to competitor image sharing sites. It is almost shocking that despite reaching a massive follower base of 800 million users across the world, Instagram hasn’t brought the data portability option to their users.
Not only that, but Instagram also restricts the users from downloading the photos by tapping and saving them. Meanwhile, Facebook had introduced this functionality in 2010. Details of the data portability feature have not been revealed by Instagram just yet. It is not known whether Instagram will allow downloading of data like likes, comments and captions which are shared with the posts. Also, it is not yet known if Instagram will grant the users with a list of their followers or following people or will simply provide the users with their pictures and videos. There is also the question of quality of the photos and videos. It is to be seen if Instagram exports users’ data in a compressed format or in its full-fledged quality.
The Instagram spokesperson said about the same “we’ll share more details very soon when we actually launch the tool. But at a high level, it allows you to download and export what you have shared on Instagram.” Until Instagram doesn’t implement a solid data portability feature, applications like InstaPort, which allow the users to port their Instagram data via third party apps may keep their shady work going.
Many times, these applications are run by non-trustworthy companies which might misuse users’ data and pose jeopardy to the users’ privacy. Therefore, the coming of data portability on Instagram will also seek to resolve this issue. Although data portability seems like a really nice feature which supports public’s privacy and their data protection, it might not do the same for Instagram itself. This new data exporting feature can bring up a real opportunity for more image sharing platforms to thrive and compete with Instagram. Like TechCrunch reported, Instagram uses an algorithm to judge and figure out how you network with people within the application and uses that information to show ads, this personalisation can allow the competitor apps to gain an advantage finally.
To find a middle ground in this major problem, Instagram has the option of exporting users’ data in a safe privacy format, where users will be able to find and follow users on a different image sharing platform after seeing them on their exported data list. But the major news here is the coming of data portability on Instagram after years of its inception. Surely, this change is going to gain a lot of attention from Instagram users worldwide in coming days. It will be interesting to see what the users think about this new development.