Our updates on social media gives world an insight into our personality in general and our needs and perspectives on those issues in particular. But what if there’s also a way to judge how we were feeling exactly at the time we shared an image, a video or any other post. To be able to understand this, researchers at the Open University of Catalonia in Spain have developed an algorithm that they claim can identify people who are unhappy by screening the posts they share on social media. The researchers believe this tool could be useful in diagnosing possible communication problems and mental health.
The team worked on this deep learning model for two years. The researchers relied on American psychiatrist William Glasser’s Choice Theory, which describes five basic needs central to all human behaviour — survival, power, freedom, belonging and fun. They say these needs have an influence on the images we choose to upload on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The study also revealed that Spanish-speaking users were more likely to mention relationship problems on social media when they feel depressed than English-speaking users.
“How we present ourselves on social media can provide useful information about behaviours, personalities, perspectives, motives and needs,” Mohammad Mahdi Dehshibi, who led this study, said in a statement.
Dehshibi and his team of researchers analysed 86 Instagram profiles, in both Spanish and Persian, for the study published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. They believe that their research can help improve preventive measures, ranging from identification to improved treatment when a person has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.
But how does the algorithm work? Dehshibi explains this by citing an example of a cyclist riding up a mountain. Once at the top, whether the person chooses to share a selfie or a group photo can help understand the person’s mental state. If the person chooses a selfie, it’s perceived as a need for power. If they choose the other option, it is concluded that the person is looking for more than just fun, but also a way to satisfy their need for belonging.
Four Democratic lawmakers on Thursday asked the CEOs of YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook owner Meta to archive content that could be used as evidence of suspected Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
Ukraine and the West say Russian troops have committed war crimes in its 11-week invasion of its neighbor, in which thousands of civilians have been killed. Russia denies the allegations and says it does not target civilians.
In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the lawmakers, including the leaders of the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, Carolyn Maloney, and Gregory Meeks, encouraged the company to preserve content posted on its sites.
That content “could potentially be used as evidence as the US government and international human rights and accountability monitors investigate Russian war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other atrocities in Ukraine,” the letter said.
The letters were also signed by two subcommittee chairmen, William Keating, and Stephen Lynch.
The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on Thursday to establish an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian troops in places near the capital Kyiv and beyond, a move that Russia said amounted to political score-settling.
Meanwhile, Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Wednesday it has withdrawn a request for policy guidance from its Oversight Board about the content moderation of posts related to Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“This decision was not made lightly — the PAO (policy advisory opinion) was withdrawn due to ongoing safety and security concerns,” the company said in a blog post.
The board, which can make binding decisions on specific thorny content moderation appeals and give policy recommendations, said it was “disappointed” by the decision.
A Meta spokesman declined to give more information about the policies on which it was seeking guidance or about the specific concerns.
Russia banned social media platforms Facebook and Instagram in March, finding Meta guilty of “extremist activity” amid Moscow’s crackdown on social media during its invasion of Ukraine. Meta’s messaging service WhatsApp is not affected by the ban. Russia has also throttled Twitter by slowing its service.
Pinterest TV Studio app has been silently launched and is available for select creators on its platform. The new app is currently available on both Android and iOS. The Pinterest TV Studio app is said to make it easier for creators to livestream. It will allow creators to start a livestream with improved streaming setup, editing tools, and multiple camera capabilities. However, the company has not officially announced anything about this app yet, perhaps because it is currently only available to select creators.
As per a report by TechCrunch, during the first launch of the Pinterest TV Studio app, creators will have to enter a code or scan a barcode that Pinterest provides in order to gain access to the live streaming tools the app provides. The addition of this dedicated livestreaming app to Pinterest’ platform seems to be an indication that its trying to broaden its social media landscape.
In a statement to TechCrunch, a Pinterest spokesperson confirmed that the app had been launched, but didn’t share much more beyond a that, “With more Creators developing innovative programming with Pinterest TV on the Platform, we’re continuously experimenting with new ways to help Creators bring their ideas to life.” The app is listed for Android and iOS on the Google Play store and App Store.
TikTok has seen a lot of growth in the past few years and has already pushed other social media platforms to expand their functions while offering more features for creating video content. Major social platforms nowadays, including Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat have a short video feature available for the users, just like TikTok. And now, Pinterest is also moving toward the same fundamental by quietly adding the Pinterest TV Studio live streaming app to its platform.
The Pinterest TV Studio app has been reportedly available to select users on both Android and iOS since May 2. Despite no official announcement, the app is said to be available in several regions outside the US, including Australia, Canada, Germany, and the UK, which could mean a global expansion is on the horizon.
Besides this, Pinterest had also announced a feature last year for brands to promote products and ideas to users as part of an effort to grow online shopping on its site. Through this feature, brands can upload their product catalogues for advertisements and the company will automatically pull items into a slideshow advertisement that will be tailored to users based on their interests.
TikTok has surpassed Instagram and become the world’s top downloaded app in the first quarter of 2022, according to a report by app market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The short-video app, which is banned in India, managed to continue to be one of the top-five top downloaded apps worldwide. However, Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — retained its dominance in the app market globally, with Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp as the three top downloaded apps worldwide after TikTok.
Sensor Tower reports that no app has had more downloads than TikTok since the start of 2018. Since the beginning of 2022, the app has been downloaded more than 175 million times, according to the report.
TikTok was the top app worldwide in Q1 2022 Photo Credit: Sensor Tower
TikTok surpassed 70 million downloads on the App Store worldwide for the third time in the first quarter. It was driven by 11 percent quarter-over-quarter growth in Asia. CapCut, a video editing app from TikTok’s publisher ByteDance, also had the last quarter as its best to date with more than 30 million downloads. It has ranked among the top 10 App Store apps each of the past five quarters, Sensor Tower said in its 75-page report.
Alongside the worldwide growth, TikTok has emerged as the top downloaded app on both the App Store and Google Play in the US and on Google Play in Europe. The ban in India also didn’t impact much in Asia as TikTok continued to be the top-downloaded app on the App Store in the region. It also moved to the third top downloaded app position on Google Play from the fourth one in the quarter earlier.
However, on Google Play worldwide, Instagram and Facebook managed to continue to fight TikTok and retain their leadership on the top-two positions.
In addition to TikTok, YouTube emerged as one of the top-two apps on the US App Store each quarter since the first quarter of 2021, per the report.
Sensor Tower said that while TikTok has surpassed 10 million downloads each of the past nine quarters, YouTube has overtaken this threshold for eight straight quarters.
But nonetheless, TikTok continued to gain momentum in the US. Sensor Tower noted that it was the top app on Google Play for the third straight quarter, with installs up 19 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
The ongoing trend of connecting people over virtual calls — despite the revival of physical meetings — has apparently helped Zoom to grow in the market in which entertainment-focussed apps including TikTok and Facebook parent Meta are writing new growth stories.
Sensor Tower said that Zoom had positive quarter-on-quarter growth for the first time in a year by reaching the number six position on Google Play in the US with more than three million downloads. It was the top app on Google Play as recently as the first quarter of 2021, the report said.
Apps including Telegram and WhatsApp have a tough fight in Europe. While WhatsApp managed to take the second position in the list of top downloaded apps in the continent, Telegram also had its second-best quarter in the region in the first quarter of 2022, trailing the nearly 28 million installs it had in the same quarter of 2021, according to Sensor Tower.
WhatsApp was also the top app particularly on the App Store in Europe for the seventh straight quarter in the first quarter. Sensor Tower said that it was also WhatsApp’s best first quarter of the year since 2018.
In Asia, Instagram continued to come as the top app for the third straight quarter in the first quarter, followed by Facebook. Instagram was also the top app in India where it accounted for more than 60 percent of Instagram’s installs in the country, Sensor Tower said.
Instagram was also the top app on Google Play in Asia — ahead of Facebook and Shopee. Sensor Tower noted that the photo-sharing app accounted for 29 percent of Meta’s Google Play installs in Asia in the first quarter, up from 26 percent in the same quarter last year and 18 percent in the same quarter of 2020.
Shopping apps are also seen getting bigger in Asia — at least on Google Play. Sensor Tower said that shopping app installs on Google Play in Asia grew 63 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. Top apps include Shopee, Meesho, and Flipkart’s Shopsy.
On the App Store, Subway Surfers, Wordle, and Coloring Match were the top-three games worldwide in the last quarter. Garena Free Fire, Subway Surfers, and Merge Master were, however, the top-three games worldwide on Google Play.
Wordle — which is named after New York Times’ word game Wordle — was also the top game in the US, with more than nine million downloads. It was also the top game on the App Store in the country and had the top US App Store downloads since Among Us in the fourth quarter of 2020. Wordus and Word Guess were the other two games with Wordle-style gameplay that ranked among the top 20 games in the country, the report mentioned.
However, Sensor Tower said Roblox managed to continue ranking among the top-five games each quarter since the fourth quarter of 2020. In Asia, the list of top-three games in the first quarter was the same as the previous quarter, with Garena Fire Fire leading the chart, followed by Ludo King and Subway Surfers.
“Garena Free Fire and Ludo King have been in a tight race since the start of 2019, with Garena Free Fire’s 468 million installs edging Ludo King’s 461 million since that time,” Sensor Tower said.
PUBG Mobile also returned to the top-five list in Asia in the last quarter. It took the top spot on the App Store in the continent, with 37 percent quarter-on-quarter growth. However, Garena Free Fire emerged as the top game on Google Play in Asia. Garena Free Fire Max also managed to get more than 60 percent of its Google Play downloads in Asia in the last quarter, whereas the original title took the other 39 percent, the report shows.
In terms of demographics, India has continued to be the largest market for app downloads in the world in the first quarter. It was followed by the US, Brazil, and Indonesia, per the report.
India continued to lead in the top app markets worldwide in Q1 2022 Photo Credit: Sensor Tower
Sensor Tower also noted that Meta emerged as the top publisher across the globe for the first time since the first quarter of 2020. Google and ByteDance were, though, the two other top publishers in the app market globally.
Overall, worldwide downloads of apps grew 1.4 percent in the first quarter to 36.9 billion from the 36.4 billion downloads reported for the first quarter last year. Downloads from the App Store globally increased to 8.6 billion from 8.4 billion last year, while Google Play downloads reached 28.3 billion from 28 billion, Sensor Tower’s report shows.
The report is based on App Store and Google Play download estimates between January 1 and March 31. Download estimates are on a per-user basis and don’t count re-installs and updates of the same app by the same user. Also, Android app download estimates represent downloads from Google Play only and don’t consider download estimates from third-party Android stores.
Instagram has announced Enhanced Tags on Reels, which is going to allow creators to receive credit for their work. The Enhanced Tags feature was launched for Instagram Feed in March, but now the social media platform has rolled out the same feature to Reels as well. Previously, users found alternative ways to credit each other, such as tagging one another in captions or photos on the platform, but now they can directly give credits by tagging them in Reels also, as per the company.
“Enhanced tags allow a creator’s self-designated profile category on their professional accounts to be displayed in their People Tag so that people can share and view a creator’s specific contribution to a photo or video post. And as Reels also continues to be the largest contributor to engagement growth on Instagram, we’re excited to expand enhanced tags to Reels. Simply put—if you’re a makeup artist, songwriter or another significant collaborator on a post, your contributions will be more visible in the post or Reel,” Instagram explained in an Instagram post.
How to use the Enhanced Tags feature on Reels
To use the new Enhanced Tags on reels, follow the instructions below;
Open the Instagram app and tap the (+) in the top right corner.
Create a new Post and tap Next.
Make any creative edits and then tap Next.
After writing a caption, tap Tag People.
Select Add Tag and search and select your contributors.
Tap Show Profile Category to display the creator category.
And finally, once the user has added additional tags and details, they can tap Share.
“Proper creative credit and recognition is a starting point for discovery, new opportunities and economic empowerment. This is especially relevant as more creators collaborate. Until now, the Instagram community has come together to support creators and has found alternative ways to credit each other, such as tagging one another in captions and photos, so we’re now bringing this feature to our product,” Instagram added.
Moreover, Instagram is reportedly testing out a new feature called Templates for Reels, which provides creators with the option to make reels by borrowing formats from other videos available on the platform. Using this feature, the user can easily borrow the format of another reel and replace the videos with their own content.
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