5 myths about Facebook's Messenger app

Facebook's recent effort to force people to adopt its standalone mobile messaging app has privacy-concerned users up in arms. Many of them believe the app is especially invasive.

One blog from the Huffington Post published in December has gone viral, making the rounds on the social network recently because it claims the app gives Facebook "direct control over your mobile device" and allows Facebook to call phone numbers without a users' intervention and send text messages without confirmation, but none of that is accurate.

In truth, Facebook Messenger isn't any more invasive than Facebook's main app -or other similar applications.

The fear and confusion stem from a message that greets owners of Android devices when they install the app. It explains that the app requires permission access to the device's camera, microphone, list of contacts and other information.

Here's what Facebook's mobile messaging app does and doesn't do.

-Myth: You have to use the Messenger app if you want to send messages to your Facebook friends.

-Reality: While it's required to download if you are using Facebook's mobile app on the iPhone or Android smartphones, you can avoid it if use the Facebook messenger service on your desktop or laptop, iPad or even the mobile Facebook website.

-Myth: The Facebook Messenger app's terms of service are different from -and more intrusive than- Facebook's own official terms.

-Reality: Facebook's terms of service are the same for all its mobile apps, including the main Facebook app. You can read it here: m.facebook.com/policies. What's upsetting people is the list of "permissions" they see when they download and install the app on an Android phone. It's a long list with 10 items, each of which states that the app needs access to features on your phone including contacts, calendar, location data and Wi-Fi information. Sure, that's a lot of personal data. But it's the same data most messaging apps have access to. On the iPhone, users don't get the list of permissions when they install the app, but when they use it, permissions pop up individually. You can view the app's list of permissions here:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?idcom.facebook.orca . Click "view details" under Permissions.

-Myth: Facebook's Messenger app will use your phone's microphone to record you.

-Reality: The app needs permission to use your phone's microphone and camera. But it requires that access because the microphone is needed for voice calling, a service that the standalone app offers that the Facebook app doesn't, and sending sound with videos. Same with the camera, it needs access if you want to send your friends pictures.

-Myth: Facebook will direct the app to send SMS, or text, messages without your permission.

-Reality: One of the permissions does say that Facebook can edit, receive, read and send SMS messages. But the company says the reason it wants to send and receive SMS messages is so that if you add a phone number to your Messenger account, you can confirm by a confirmation code that Facebook sends via text message.

-Myth: The Messenger app is new.

-Reality: Facebook's Messenger app has been around since 2011. In April, it started requiring that users in Europe download and install the app if they wish to send messages to Facebook friends. Two weeks ago, the company said it would expand the requirement to other parts of the world. Facebook says it's forcing users to make the switch because a standalone app offers more features. For example, the app is faster, it offers a selfie cam, stickers and can be used to reach people on your contact list who are not Facebook users.

Facebook Mentions App for Celebrities Now Available in India and Other Countries

After releasing the Facebook Mentions app in the US last month, the social networking giant has made the app available in 40 more countries, including India. Unfortunately, a detailed list of countries where the app is available has not been disclosed by the company yet.

The Facebook Mentions app (only for iOS) is meant only for celebrities and public figures with verified Pages or Profiles. The app is now available at the App Store. Notably, the Facebook Mentions is another product from the company's Creative Labs, which claims the app "makes it easy for public figures to talk with their fans and each other on the go."

The first Facebook Creative Labs product was the news reader, the Paper app. The official listing of the app defines it as, "Mentions is a new way for actors, athletes, musicians and other influencers to discover and join conversations on Facebook."

According to the Facebook Mentions listing page on the App Store, public figures can use the app in several ways.

See what fans are saying - Start a conversation with people and influencers who are talking about you.
Tell your story - Share updates, photos and videos and host live Q&As directly from your phone.

Join popular conversations - Discover what's trending and add your voice to the story.

The social network giant when launching the Facebook Mentions app in the US last month made the announcement via its dedicated newsroom site, and said, "Nearly 800 million people are connected to public figures on Facebook, and interacting with athletes, musicians, actors and other influencers is an important part of their experience. From cheering on World Cup players to checking out updates from favorite celebrities, there are more than a billion interactions between public figures and their fans on Facebook every week. We want to make these interactions even better. Today, we're introducing Facebook Mentions, a new Facebook Creative Labs app that makes it easy for public figures to talk with their fans and each other on the go."

The company notes that an admin of verified Page can request access to Mentions directly.

Facebook made an associate member in Cellular Operators Association of India

The COAI or the Cellular Operators Association of India has accepted Facebook as one of its associate members at a time when there’s some amount of ongoing friction between the two. That’s because, a number of main members of the Indian body are currently lobbying with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in order to regulate apps like Facebook.

Utilities like the said social networking application and others are counted among over-the-top (OTT) service providers. Now, telecom operators of India are disturbed by the fact that such companies are making lots of money by indirectly using their networks and are miffed about the fact that they are not getting any share from it.


The argument Facebook has is that internet access should be free for all, as the California-based company supports ‘net neutrality,’ a debate that’s gaining a lot of coverage in the US currently. It’s hence somewhat a surprise that the social networking giant has joined a body whose main members include telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.

A company like Facebook joining the COAI is not something new, as telecom equipment manufacturers as well as other communication services are indeed represented by the Indian association. Ankhi Das, the public policy director in India and South Asia for the social network asserted that becoming an associate member of the COAI affirms the company’s focus on mobile technologies and its desire to collaborate with the industry to increase connectivity.

As revealed by The Economic Times, Facebook currently has over 100 million monthly active users in India out of its 1.32 billion monthly active users from all over the world.

Facebook urges users to install Messenger

Facebook is once again reminding users everywhere about the pending change and urging them to download Messenger.

Users who haven't installed the app yet will likely see a notice resembling the one below over the coming days, The Verge reported.

Facebook isn't yet forcing anyone to make the switch; it says there will be several notices before messages are finally unbundled for good. But that step is fast approaching. Desktop users don't need to worry about this, since chat will remain there in the same place as always, report said.

And while managing two apps may seem like a hassle, Facebook says the split will allow it to better improve the performance of both apps over time.

The company also insists Messenger offers a faster experience with more ways of keeping in touch with friends, the report added. 

Facebook launches ‘Save’ button for bookmarking News Feed posts

In one of those countless new Facebook features which its makers keep pouring in one by one, there is ‘Save’ which is nothing but the ability to bookmark posts for reading later. It has been introduced as a cross-platform feature, so it will work on smartphones as well as the desktop version of the site.



Using Facebook can get a bit frustrating at times when you want to perhaps click on a video, but which you notice is longer than 10 minutes and you don’t have enough time to see. But there’s also the chance that if you don’t watch it then and there, it might not appear in your News Feed again at all.

‘Save’ is meant for addressing this discomfort, enabling you to just mark posts with a single tap or click and access them later on. With it, you can save items links, places, movies, TV as well as music. And like we said, this feature works in a cross-platform manner, so you can save it on the desktop version and access it through the Android and iOS apps of the social network as well.

In case you’re likely to forget about your saved posts, Facebook has that covered too. The site will at times issue reminders about those posts, complete with links to them, so you don’t even have to enter the ‘Save’ section in order to access them.

Facebook has revealed that the new ‘Save’ function will be rolled out to everyone using the Android, iOS and desktop versions of the site over the next few days.

Facebook's Zuck: Now worth more than the Google guys

The Facebook boss has reportedly seen his personal net worth jump $1.6 billion this week after a favorable earnings report.

Facebook FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg has had a good week.

The hoodie-clad CEO has seen his company’s strong week on the stock market lift him to a higher ranking on a list of the world’s wealthiest billionaires.

Facebook’s stock soared this week after the social media behemoth’s latest earnings report showed 61% revenue growth in the second quarter and profits that more than doubled year-over-year on stronger mobile ad sales. The 30-year old Facebook chairman, who owns almost 30% of the company, saw his personal wealth surge as the company’s stock rose nearly 6% since Wednesday’s close, finishing at a record high of $74.98 on Thursday. Facebook’s shares have more than doubled in value in the past twelve months and are up 38% year-to-date.

The trading boost has helped Zuckerberg shoot up Bloomberg’s list of wealthiest billionaires, jumping ahead of Google GOOG cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to put the Facebook chairman at 16th on the list with a net worth of $33.3 billion. Bloomberg reports that Zuckerberg has added about $1.6 billion to his personal fortune this week.

Zuckerberg is also ahead of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is 20th on the list with $32.6 billion and behind the Google cofounders and Saudi businessman Alwaleed Al Saud. Unlike Facebook, Amazon’s shares have plunged in the wake of its disappointing second-quarter earnings report, which revealed greater-than-expected losses despite increased sales. On Friday afternoon, the day after the company’s earnings came out, Amazon stock was down more than 11%, erasing roughly $15 billion in shareholder value.

Former Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates tops Bloomberg’s billionaires list with a net worth of $84.7 billion.

Tech Five: Facebook, Nokia stock soaring

Two tech companies are surging early in midday trading. Let's take a look at the technology stocks to watch Thursday:



Facebook. Shares of the social network are up 7% -- double its IPO price of $38 -- as mobile ad revenue continues to spur growth. The company reported a 61% bump in revenue and more than doubled its profit during the second quarter. Meanwhile, mobile advertising revenue skyrocketed 151% compared to the same time last year.

Nokia. The sale of its handset business to Microsoft seems to be paying off. Shares of Nokia are up 7.5% after boosting its forecast on profit for the year, AP reports. Although revenue dipped during the second quarter, profit jumped 20%. The company closed its deal to sell its handset unit to Microsoft for more than $7 billion in April.

Amazon. The online retailing titan reports second quarter earnings after the markets close, just as its first entry into the smartphone market makes its debut. Amazon is predicted to report a loss of 15 cents per share off $19.3 billion in revenue, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Pandora. Shares of the streaming music service jumped 1.6% ahead of its second quarter earnings announcement Thursday. Analysts expect quarterly revenue of $218 million with an earnings per share of 3 cents.

Twitter. The social media company becomes the latest tech firm scrutinized for a lack of diversity after releasing workforce figures Wednesday. In the U.S., nearly 90% of Twitter's employees are white or Asian, while men make up 70% of all staff.

'Save' Facebook Content to Read Later

Can't get enough of those BuzzFeed quizzes or long-form news stories friends post to Facebook, but just don't have the time to dive into them during work? Now you can save them to the social network to read later.

Collect everything from links and places to movies, TV, and music so you don't miss out on a new recipe or restaurant to try out.

All saved items are kept secret, unless you choose to share them with online friends.

Reminiscent of third-party services like Pocket (formerly Read It Later), Instapaper, and Readability, Facebook's built-in tool makes it easy to save the latest news on Kim and Kanye without having to leave the site.

Whether you're on-the-go or on your home computer, just tap the "v" symbol in the upper right corner of any status, and choose to keep the related content. The option works only with posts that include a link, place, or entertainment source.

Then view your items at any time, from any place, on any device, by simply clicking the mobile app's "More" tab, or the link on the left side of the Facebook website. Saved items are organized by category at the top of the page. Individual content can be shared, archived, or deleted.

But it's easy to get carried away, saving everything that looks fun or informative, then leaving it to waste away in storage. Which is why Facebook promises to offer the occasional reminder that you've saved now-stale news stories and local bars that have now closed.

Just keep an eye on your News Feed for a scrolling banner of saved content.

The Save feature is rolling out on iOS, Android, and the Web over the next few days.

Take a closer look at the new tool in action in the video below.

WhatsApp – Top 5 Tips and Tricks for Android and iOS

WhatsApp messenger was acquired by Facebook for 19 billion dollars.

WhatsApp is available for most of the mobile operating systems. It has more than 400 million active users around the world. Most of them were attracted by its fast message delivery service and other nice features.

Here are top 5 tips and tricks for WhatsApp on Android and iOS.

1. HOW TO DISABLE “LAST SEEN” FEATURE

WhatsApp comes with a “last seen” timestamp at the bottom of the conversation, which shows you when the last time when you connected on WhatsApp was. While for some users, this feature is helpful, for others is not. Open your WhatsApp and go to Settings->Account->Privacy->Last Seen. There you will find 3 options: my contacts, everyone and nobody. After that, just select the option you want.

2. LOCKING WHATSAPP

We want to protect our privacy and to do that we must lock applications, or the phone. Since WhatsApp is not like any other application such as Facebook, where you login using a password, in order to lock WhatsApp you can use the “WhatsApp Lock” application.

3. SEND ZIP, PDF, APK FILES USING WHATSAPP

Using WhatsApp you can only send audio or video files. However, you can use an application named “Whats Packed 2 ads” to send ZIP or PDF files. Keep in mind that the person you will want to send the file to, must have installed the “Whats Packed 2 ads” application also.

4. HOW TO EXTEND WHATSAPP FREE TRIAL PERIOD

When you start using WhatsApp, in the first year it is free, but after that, you will have to pay 1 dollar per year. It’s not much, we know, but if you can trick the system, why wouldn’t you do it? To extend your “trial” account, you will first have to delete your account. Keep in mind that you will want to do this when you are a few days away from ending your trial period.

To do this you will have to go in Settings->account->Delete My Account. After that, enter your mobile number and delete your account. Create a new account, following the same steps as when you firstly created your account. After that, you will notice that your trial period has been extended for 1 year.

5. HOW TO RECOVER DELETED CONVERSATIONS

If you accidentally deleted your WhatsApp conversations, don’t worry, there is a way to recover them, since WhatsApp backups all the conversations on its servers. To recover conversations, you will just have to uninstall WhatsApp and reinstall it back. When you reinstall it, it will ask you if you want to restore history or if you want to continue without restoring it. Just click “Restore” and you will recover all your deleted conversations.

India among top bets for FB, monetisation in process: Sandberg

For Facebook, India is one of the biggest bets for future growth, said chief operating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg.

"No other country has the potential that India has," Sandberg said, adding that company has already started monetising in India where it has more than 100 million users of the 1.2 billion users globally. India, which is the second largest market in terms of users for Facebook, is set to overtake Facebook's home market over the next few quarters.

Putting India among the top priority markets for Facebook, Sandberg said that the California-based social media company has plans to look at setting up a research and development (R&D) facility in India in future. "We have started expanding our R&D slowly beyond the US. India is certainly a market we would look at. We have been investing in India and we are really willing to invest more because the returns are so great to our global and local business. We also want to develop this market, and I think that will happen as people go online," she said.

She said India's importance for Facebook's global technological advancement will continue to grow. Some of the developments, in terms of technology and application, including a lot of such things for 'Facebook for featurephones' was done here in India, or with this market in mind. "It then rolls out to other featurephone heavy markets. So we look to India to contribute to our global business," Sandberg said.

Facebook, Sandberg said, has already started monetising in India and the next is the growth phase for the company. "Our goal is to grow while connecting the world," she said. However, Facebook is not present in China, the world's largest population.

For Sandberg, who worked in India during the initial days of her career for a World Bank project in 1991, connecting the next billion Indians, among few more billions across the globe, is top of her agenda in the coming years. "India is a very promising market with very active Facebook users. Besides more users, Facebook, she says, wants to grow through partnerships with cellular operators, handset makers, brands, non-government organisations and the Government.

Like any other geography, Facebook is open to acquisitions in India if it's a strategic fit, irrespective of size, said Sandberg, who was the chief of staff for the US Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton and the vice-president for global online sales and operations at Google prior to joining Facebook. In January this year, Facebook had made its first acquisition in India by buying into Little Eye Labs, a Bangalore-based software product start-up, for an undisclosed amount.

Meanwhile, Sandberg expressed regret at the manner findings of the psychological experiment of Facebook, in 2012. "We communicated really badly on the study and we regret the way this got communicated. This was a one-week study a long time ago and it was like any product, testing different aspects of a product so that we can provide a better news feed experience and the communication on it, and how that was interpreted was horrible," Sandberg said, pointing out that Facebook, is not a company that produces content. "We're just trying to give you the best of what you see. None of this has a political point of view or is motivated."

Facebook, Sandberg said, privacy very seriously. "It is the hallmark of our service, it is the underpinning of our service," she said.

Sandberg, who has been meeting a lot of small and medium business enterprises (SMB) along with the large conglomerates, said there are about 900,000 SMBs on facebook in India while there are about 30 million globally. "For them, Facebook is the best platform to connect with potential customers, advertise. Some percentage of these SMBs are paying for the page product. This explains lot of growth here. Business here contributes globally," she said, adding that the company wants to 'enable commerce' - help small and medium businesses to find customers and expand their business, in turn helping Facebook grow.

"We want to ensure that access to Internet is faster, better and cheaper. We are making serious investments," Sandberg said, adding that Facebook's mission is to help people across the globe "connect and communicate".

In the financial year ended March 2013, Facebook's India unit had revenue of Rs 75.64 crore - a 68% jump from the previous year's Rs 45.06 crore, according to data by Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Facebook explains why it conducted controversial News Feed experiment

Facebook is facing a lot of heat from users after it transpired that the company had secretly manipulated the News Feed of some 700,000 users to study “emotional contagion.”

The study was conducted in 2012 along with Cornell University, and the University of California at San Francisco. It appeared in the 17 June edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers wanted to see if the number of positive, or negative, words in messages they read affected whether users then posted positive or negative content in their status updates. Indeed, after the exposure the manipulated users began to use negative or positive words in their updates depending on what they were exposed to.

Naturally the fact that Facebook conducted such a study without asking users for explicit permission has raised an outcry and serious questions about the ethical nature of the study. Now Facebook’s data scientist, Adam Kramer has written a post on the social networking site defending the study, reports The Verge. You can read Kramer’s full posthere.

According to Kramer the reason they did the study was “because we care about the emotional impact of Facebook and the people that use our product.”

He adds, “We felt that it was important to investigate the common worry that seeing friends post positive content leads to people feeling negative or left out. At the same time, we were concerned that exposure to friends’ negativity might lead people to avoid visiting Facebook. We didn’t clearly state our motivations in the paper.”

He goes on to add that for its methodology, the social networking site only “very minimally deprioritized a small percentage of content in the News Feed (based on whether there was an emotional word in the post) for a group of people (about 0.04% of users, or 1 in 2500) for a short period (one week, in early 2012).”

He also adds that the posts were not hidden but that they didn’t show on some News Feeds. Of course what this means is that while they weren’t hidden for everybody, they were hidden for the people whose News Feeds were selected for the experiment.

Kramer goes on to say the experiment showed that a certain kind of emotion, say positive or negative, “encourages rather than suppresses.”

According to Kramer the impact of the study on people was minimal and the idea behind it was to give a better Facebook service to users.

He adds, “I can tell you that our goal was never to upset anyone. I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my coauthors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused. In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety. While we’ve always considered what research we do carefully, we (not just me, several other researchers at Facebook) have been working on improving our internal review practices.”

Facebook sees record 1 billion interactions for FIFA World Cup

With 1 billion posts, likes and comments in just the first half of the World Cup, the soccer tournament is already the most talked-about event in Facebook Inc’s decade-long history, data obtained by Reuters showed.

The soccer conversation measured between June 12 and June 29 involved 220 million people and 1 billion interactions, Facebook data showed. And since the ball will be rolling for another two weeks, the tournament is set to break new records as the biggest social media event to date.

“People are having conversations on Facebook about what they watch in a really unprecedented scale,” Nick Grudin, the company’s director of partnerships, told Reuters.

“In addition to sharing and connecting with friends, people are engaging in real time with the media and the public voices they care about most.”

Facebook is the latest social media company to capitalize on TV-related traffic around big events like the World Cup, a trend started years ago by the microblog website Twitter Inc.

People use Facebook to comment about things they watch live, an interaction that could turn into a source of ad revenue for the company.

Facebook’s record numbers were possible because of widespread mobile penetration. Seven out of 10 users globally connect to the network from mobile devices, which represent roughly 60 per cent of the company’s ad revenue.

There is also soccer’s global appeal. The first week of the World Cup alone saw 459 million interactions on Facebook, more than this year’s Super Bowl, the Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the Academy Awards combined.

The 1 billion mark was reached after traffic accelerated as the World Cup moved into the knockout round. On Saturday, more than 31 million people put up 75 million posts, likes and comments about Brazil’s nail-biting victory over Chile, which propelled the home team to the quarter-finals.

“This Cup has been a catalyzing cultural moment for people around the world,” Grudin said, “and we see it reflected on Facebook.”

The 100 Best Android Apps of 2014

Communication and Social

Plain ol' SMS and voice calls just don't cut it anymore. These apps help you keep in touch with the most important people in your life, all from your handy Android.

Hangouts   Free Google Talk is dead, long live Google Hangouts! This app can not only send instant messages to other Google users, but it can also do video chatting for free. Users lucky enough to have Android 4.4 can also use it manage their SMS messages, and Google+ users can enjoy video conference calls with up to 12 participants.

Viber: Free Messages & Calls   Free Viber distinguishes itself from other free voice and texting apps by adding your computer as a communication device. From your Android, you can seamlessly transfer a voice call to the Viber PC app and keep talking, or pick up a text message conversation already in progress. With a growing list of fans, Viber is well positioned to make talking and texting a little easier (and cheaper).

TextSecure :: Private SMS/MMS   Free If you're worried about the NSA or anyone else peeking at your text messages, consider TextSecure. Messages sent to other TextSecure users are encrypted over the air, but the app will also encrypt all of your text messages when they're at rest on your phone to keep them away from prying eyes. We first reviewed the app when it was in Beta, but it's since had a full version release and is ready for prime time.

RedPhone :: Secure Calls   Free The companion to TextSecure, this handy app lets you make encrypted calls over the developer's secure VoIP network to other TextSecure users. I particularly like that it works with your existing dialer and phone number, alerting you when another RedPhone user is on the line and the call can be encrypted. If all those PRISM and NSA headlines have you worried, be sure to give this app a try.

Wickr   Free Sometimes the most secure message is one that simply doesn't exist. That's the thinking behind Wickr, a fully encrypted, secure messaging service that even handles media messages. The twist is that you set a lifespan for each message, ensuring that your private messages stay private. And, if you doubt their security chops, here's what the company's founder told the FBI when they asked for a backdoor.

Facebook Free Those addicted to the big blue social network can now stay connected at all times thanks to the Facebook Android app. You can use it to browse the entirety of Facebook and chat with other users, and you can also access all the settings available on the website. It's a brilliant mobile adaptation of a sprawling service.

Circle of 6 Free This unique app is for those dangerous situations when you need to quickly (and discreetly) get help from your friends. Two quick taps sends one of three pre-written text messages to as many as six of your contacts. One message sends your GPS location and a request to be picked up, while another asks your friends to quickly get in touch with you. The app also includes links to the RAINN and Love is Respect hotlines.

Plume for Twitter   Free Sure, there are plenty of ways to fire off a 140-character Tweet, but users looking for more control should consider Plume. This powerful Android Twitter client lets you change all sorts of settings, right down to the LED color used to alert you of a message. My favorite feature is muting, which lets you suppress users, and even specific words, from your timeline.

Tumblr Free Tumblr has grown in leaps and bounds since it first came onto the scene, letting users quickly share their creations and discoveries and—most importantly—re-blog things they find on Tumblr. The blogging platform's slick new Android app shows just how far it's come with a great new interface. —Next: Security »