Initially available for Instagram Stories, 'Close Friends' feature expands to feed posts and Reels.
Currently under testing, the feature is expected to roll out as a stable update for Instagram app in the coming month
It follows Meta's talks to launch a similar plan in the European Union (EU) to conform with its privacy concerns
The FAST unit, which has roughly 600 employees, worked on developing custom chips to equip Meta's devices to perform unique tasks and operate more efficiently
Meta will charge the users $17 for the desktop versions of Facebook and Instagram together in the coming weeks
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the tech giant's Connect developer conference on Wednesday with a focus on virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. The company, which renamed itself Meta two years ago, unveiled the next version of its virtual reality headset, the Quest 3. It will cost USD 499 and begin shipping October 10. Standing in a courtyard at his company's Menlo Park, California headquarters, Zuckerberg told the audience of developers, employees and journalists that Meta is focused on building the future of human connection and painted a near-future where people interact with hologram versions of their friends or coworkers and with AI bots built to assist them. Soon the physical and digital will come together in what we call the metaverse, he said. Meta is in the midst of a corporate transformation that it says will take years to complete. It wants to evolve from a provider of social platforms to a dominant power in a nascent virtual-reality world call
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will kick off the tech giant's Connect developer conference on Wednesday with a focus on virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence (AI). The company, which renamed itself Meta two years ago, is expected to unveil the next version of its virtual reality headset, the Quest 3 and discuss AI chat-bots and other tools and features designed to keep users interested in Facebook and Instagram as competition with TikTok continues. This remains Meta's biggest challenge, said Insider Intelligence analyst Yoram Wurmser. A lot of this effort around chat-bots and stories and other ways just to keep engagement going (like) AI-driven personalization and stuff like that, that's the overarching challenge for the company, he said. Squeezed by a slump in online advertising and uncertainty around the global economy, Meta has cut more than 20,000 jobs since last November. Zuckerberg dubbed 2023 the company's year of efficiency as it reduces its workforce while ..
Unlike X, which offers this feature only to premium subscribers, the edit feature will be open to everybody on Instagram's Threads
These features were unveiled at a WhatsApp Conversations event held in Mumbai. This was the second annual Conversations conference being held by the company, and the first one in India
Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said India is leading the world on how people and businesses have embraced messaging as a better way to get things done, as the social media giant unveiled a slew of new tools aimed at supercharging businesses using WhatsApp. Announcing the line-up of key offerings for WhatsApp, Zuckerberg said the company has continued to innovate with its messaging formats, group chats and broadcast channels. "India, (is) a country that's at the forefront of a lot of what we're going to talk about today. You're (India is) leading the world in terms of how people and businesses have embraced messaging as the better way to get things done. Zuckerberg said during a virtual address at Conversations event in Mumbai. The announcements included Meta verified badge for businesses, and expansion of payments service that will facilitate completion of purchases directly in the chat. Zuckerberg also spoke about WhatsApp Flows, which will give businesses the .
Users can now quote a post on Threads similar to the X (formerly Twitter) on its web client. It is yet another feature that brings Threads closer to X in terms of user experience
The report said that teams at Meta were discussing whether to show ads in lists of conversations with contacts on the WhatsApp chat screen, but no final decisions had been made
The Indian Cricket team and Bollywood actors including Katrina Kaif, Diljit Dosanjh, Akshay Kumar, Vijay Deverakonda, Neha Kakkar launch their WhatsApp Channels
Along with India, Channels launched in 150 countries
3-years ago, the EU was drafting what would become the bloc's landmark content moderation and competition rules, and executives had come to present their perspective
As per The New York Times, the posts were part of a Chinese influence campaign that stands out as the largest such operation to date, researchers at Meta said in a report on Tuesday
After an unpopular pivot to Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse virtual-reality vision in 2021 and last year's record stock plummet, the firm is seen to be back on track
MediaTek said it expects Llama 2-based AI applications to become available for smartphones powered by its system-on-chip, which is scheduled to hit the market by the end of the year
Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg had posted on Threads that users can expect a web version in the 'next few weeks'
Responding to this, the X-owner accused Zuckerberg of apparently not accepting the challenge