WhatsApp for Android Gets Major Upgrade with New Updates

Version 2.23.4.10 of WhatsApp has been made available as a new beta for Android users, with the goal of enhancing the user experience. Numerous changes, including updates to the status page, chats, and calls, are included in the latest update, as spotted by WBI.

First, larger images and videos are now displayed on the status panel. Users no longer need to tap on photos or videos to view them in full-screen mode. Additionally, the text on the status panel has been enlarged and made more obvious.

Second, a new search bar has been added to the function of the conversation, making it simpler to find particular messages. Now that it is higher up in the chat window, the search bar is simpler to use.

Third, the post on the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.7.4 upgrade mentions a brand-new feature that is in development: Retained messages! By utilizing this function, you can make sure that all participants' communications are saved for the duration of the chat. The feature had been in development for some time, but we didn't find out that WhatsApp is now making it available to some beta testers until we updated to the most recent version of the app (Android 2.23.4.10) from the Play Store:

Instead of being deleted when a message is saved, it will stay in the conversation until its expiration date, but everyone still has control over it because it can be deleted at any time.

Additionally, WhatsApp has tested new features with its most recent version, including the ability to share up to 100 media files, the ability to create personalized avatars, the ability to add captions to shared documents, and longer group descriptions. These features were discovered by WhatsApp beta testers using various Android and iOS versions. Despite the fact that some of these features are already available, WhatsApp is highlighting them once more for users who might not be aware of them.

The notification system has also been improved, making it simpler to read and reply to messages from the notification bar. With the addition of a new "rapid media edit" function that enables users to alter photographs and videos before sending them, WhatsApp has also made it simpler to share media.

The new beta version of WhatsApp for Android is currently only open to beta testers, but it is expected to roll out to all Android users in the coming weeks. If you want to try out the new features, you can sign up to be a beta tester by downloading the beta version of the app from the Google Play Store.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, with over 2 billion active users. The app is constantly updating to meet the needs of its users, and the latest beta version promises to improve the user experience even further. With the new updates, users can expect to see larger images and videos, an easier-to-use chat screen, and more detailed call information. These updates are sure to make WhatsApp even more popular among its users.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Why Are Digital Ads Getting Worse?

Digital ads a mainstay of the social media industry, but in spite of the fact that this is the case a number of users have been noting that they are declining in quality. Such a trend might just be an outlier, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it has been seen by far too many users to be just a coincidence.

Some users have compared the quality of digital ads with what they might see on late night television. This type of a bottom of the barrel approach might be harmful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up alienating consumers and preventing them from getting converted into customers for a particular brand.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Twitter in particular has been singled out as a terrible place for digital ads and the like. The products that are being advertised include fraudulent drones, low quality gaming apps that no one would want to download as well as ads that seem to be depicting various conspiracy theories.

Twitter is struggling so bad that I'm getting little grammar checkups instead of real ads pic.twitter.com/Edk4AostBo

— #KABUTOSWEEP (@RainMirage_Art) February 8, 2023

Twitter is broken. Why show me these stupid ads? pic.twitter.com/cIZWDOOFTd

— Patrik (@SpiciestWeeb) February 10, 2023

Really bizarre that Twitter runs ads within ads 😂

Imagine paying Twitter millions for an ad campaign, and you end up promoting Uber Eats instead! pic.twitter.com/jF5chvk4OS

— Daniel Vassallo (@dvassallo) February 13, 2023

Instagram isn’t doing any better on this front, with many of the products that are being advertised getting singled out for being a bit too obscure. This seems to suggest that the user experience is declining instead of improving despite the advances that have been made in technology these past few years.

One of the major reasons for why this is occurring is an overall slowdown in the digital ad market. Major advertisers are keeping their money to themselves for now, and that has spurred social media platforms to lower their advertising prices. This has given low quality advertisers the chance to swoop in, thereby making the quality of digital ads on these platforms lower than might have been the case otherwise.

For example, the top ten advertisers on Twitter have decreased ad buys by as much as 55% after Elon Musk took control of the company. Twitter had to keep the revenue coming in, and catering to low quality advertisers might have been the only way for the company to stay afloat.

It is pretty clear that the barrier for entry has been lowered as far as digital advertising is concerned. The automation of ad buys might also have a role to play here, since 90% of all digital ads are purchased through automated software rather than after conducting an extensive negotiation with the advertising platform itself.

A recent survey of a group of companies that when combined represent a total of $44 billion in ad buys revealed some interesting facts. Around 30% of the 43 companies included in this list are planning to decrease the amount of cash that they spend on digital ads and the like. That will obviously have a compounding effect, so things will very likely get a lot worse before they start to get better.

Twitter has been reduced to buy one get one free offers on ads, since 6 of its top 10 advertisers have not purchased a single ad in 2023. Snapchat’s growth rate has halted too, so this is a problem that is impacting pretty much the entire industry.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

New Study Reveals Key Misconceptions About Misinformation

Misinformation can seem like a really big threat, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it actually comprises a relatively small subset of the total aggregate information that is available online with all things having been considered and taken into account. A new study published in the journal Social Media + Society.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this is just one of the many misconceptions that people tend to have about fake news. Another false assumption that the study noted was that such misinformation can only be seen on social media, even though it is just as prevalent on mainstream media along with other forms of media.

People also often believe that fake news spreads like wildfire, whereas the truth takes a much longer time to spread around. This is actually not all that accurate, since much of the data that is dubbed misinformation is actually just politically biased which means that it inhabits an entirely distinct category and is less harmful than might have been the case otherwise.

Another common assumption about misinformation is that the majority of people accept it at face value. If this were true, it would definitely be dangerous because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making fake ideas take root in the public consciousness.

However, the research simply does not back this up. Even though misinformation can in fact spread fairly quickly, there is nothing to suggest that most people that come across it would believe it without doing a bit of fact checking first.

This study also revealed that people being misinformed is actually a relatively rare phenomenon. Their voices are simply amplified on social media due to the algorithm, even though the majority of people might actually disagree with them if they are presented with their ideas.

Finally, it turns out that misinformation might not actually have all that great of an impact on how people behave. There is clearly a lot that we have yet to learn about fake news, and this study confirms this.

Illustration @redgreystock / Freepik

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

iPhones Are Getting More Expensive to Manufacture, Here’s Why

With Apple being the single most popular of smartphones in the world, any change in the cost of manufacturing is bound to have a massive ripple effect. It turns out that the iPhone 14 Pro Max was 3.7% more expensive to produce than its predecessor the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and that might make future versions of the phone cost way more than might have been the case otherwise.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the most significant component as far as the cost of manufacturing is concerned is that of A16 bionic processes. This represents as much as 22% of the overall cost of making a single iPhone. The upgrade from the A15 meant that $11 were tacked onto the manufacturing costs of every iPhone that was made for the current series.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, the chip was not the factor that increased the cost more than other components. That dubious honor belongs to the whopping 48 megapixel image sensor that the phone comes with. Adding such cutting edge tech was inevitably going to cost a lot of money, and only time will tell whether or not the investment will pay off for Apple in the long run.

Also, the always on feature in the screen has contributed a fair bit to this increase which makes sense since it is not something that comes cheap. This brings the total cost of manufacturing an iPhone 14 Pro Max to around $464 per unit with all things having been considered and taken into account.

All in all, customers are likely going to feel the burn if the costs keep increasing at this rate. Apple is also trying to innovate, so the money that they are bringing in seems like it will be put to good use. All major categories are getting an upgrade, and it will be interesting to see what happens next year when Apple announces the iPhone 15 along with whatever other products will be included in that lineup.

H/T: CounterPointResearch /  Blended Bill Of Materials (BoM) Analysis 

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Image Quality on WhatsApp is About to Get a Major Upgrade

WhatsApp users have long been complaining about drastically the messaging app decreases the quality of the images that they send to each other. It turns out that Meta has been listening to these complaints, and the company has been working on a way to send images that will preserve the quality of the original image with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Tests for this feature were spotted last month, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that the UI has finally been revealed. The good news is that this feature will be available for desktop users as well as mobile users because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up expanding the number of people who can take advantage of it.

Users will now get the chance to select whether they want the image to be in standard quality or HD, which will give them more control over how much data they use than might have been the case otherwise. Data costs are skyrocketing, which makes it necessary to give users the option but in spite of the fact that this is the case many users are likely going to take full advantage of HD image quality at least for a short while.

This update has been a long time coming, with the first reports coming out back in 2021. Even though it has taken nearly 2 years for the update to get a wide rollout, most WhatsApp users will rejoice that it is finally making its way to them.

One thing to note here is that trying to send images in the original quality or HD will make it take a lot longer for the image to get uploaded and sent. This is a trade-off that users will have to contend with, although chances are that the users that need this type of feature will be willing to accept the exchange since it will help them avoid having to send images through documents and the like.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Twitter Engineers Devise New System That Promotes Musk’s Tweets But Users Are Not Happy

Elon Musk has been having a bit of a whirlwind on his own Twitter platform. The company’s CEO demanded answers from his engineers when his tweets were lacking in engagement, which Musk found to be embarrassing.

He reportedly put up a Super Bowl post about the Eagles’ win which didn’t quite get a lot of impressions. Moreover, it was humiliating because it actually ended up getting less engagement than what President Biden had tweeted regarding the same subject.

So as you can imagine, Musk was not happy and his engineers were called in to fix the system. But what happened next is definitely worth a glance. Musk demanded answers and immediate ones.

The engineers worked hard and within just one day, they were able to provide a new system that actually gives the Twitter chief a chance to have his own posts exclusively marketed on the app without any worry.

Yes, you heard that right. Musk and Musk alone would be getting his collection of tweets promoted across the platform. And whether a user liked it or not, they would have to deal with it.

Clearly, people were not happy. Seeing an algorithm that benefits its own CEO so openly is not at all a great feeling. People were definitely expressing concerns and they demanded answers.

It’s clear that this issue has been bugging the Twitter chief for weeks. He did not appreciate the low engagement his content was getting and some local media outlets also mentioned that he fired one of the two main engineers of his firm for not doing enough to curb the issue.

The engineer in question had reportedly spoken back to Musk and provided a justification for the issue that Musk did not like. In fact, it was rather offensive when he claimed the lack of engagement had nothing to do with the system but due to a lack of interest of people in Musk.

Therefore, other speculations spoke on how the issue was currently being monitored, and the engineering team was given a deadline to fix the matter or face termination. On that note, 80 people have pulled aside and requested to begin working on this project. It became a huge priority and with round-the-clock activity, we’ve now come down to this.

One explanation is people had blocked or muted him and we’re not quite surprised as to why. Whatever the case may be, other explanations were even provided like technical issues leading to poor app performance. At the end of the day, Musk announced how the issue was resolved and all of the CEO’s posts were provided with the green light.

This meant bypassing all of the system’s filters and even going about experiencing an artificial boost by the thousands.

But what that actually meant for Twitter users is that people that opened up the platform recently were seeing Musk dominate their feeds. Dozens of his tweets and their respective replies were seen by those following and not following him.

Soon after, a smart Twitter user took to his account to announce via thread how he may have the perfect solution to curb such a problem. According to him, a series of steps can be followed to not see Musk’s posts as frequently as he may have hoped for.

Gergely Orosz explained to fellow Twitter users that blocking him and setting a mute term for all of Musk’s name variants was the trick. Moreover, he claims to have made the change months ago and it works like a genius. He even swears how it made his in-app experiences millions of times better as now, he hardly ever sees such mentions.

Heard the Twitter experience has changed for people yesterday / today with Twitter’s new owner’s tweets/replies flooding the timeline.

Here’s a hack to not have this happen: block the person & set mute terms for all name variations.

Once done, Twitter is back to normal. pic.twitter.com/pTK3qa3dTk

— Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz) February 14, 2023

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The AI search race between Google and Microsoft will impact the environment due to an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions

Microsoft Bing recently partnered with OpenAI to offer a ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence-powered bot. The chatbot opened a new door for more innovative ideas, as browsing giant Google started planning to link AI with its search engine.

As an outcome, results with complicated information will be available in a more easily understandable version. Microsoft had already planned to introduce ChatGPT on Bing, whereas Google is working on its own experimental conversational artificial intelligence service. Initially, the company named the service Bard.

However, with technology advancing day by day, the environment is potentially at a higher risk of receiving its impact. It has been reported that the resources required to instruct a single AI system can result in the emission of 1,000 pounds of carbon. Up until now, internet consumption has accounted for almost 4 percent of the total greenhouse effect.

To link artificial intelligence with the platforms, demand for the tech devices required for the merger will go up five times; as a result, global gas levels will also increase. According to Alan Woodward, a professor at U.K based university, merging the two platforms will need more resources to process and store the data. With more information, more storage facilities will also be required. Google’s representative, Jane Park, revealed that currently, the company is only working on an experimental level, which won’t require high computing or storage power.

Environmental concerns are not the only thing getting highlighted. When Bard was announced, Google’s working staff criticized it for being carried out badly. Similarly Bing was also spotted sharing factually incorrect information. According to critics, artificial intelligence-powered search results could spread incorrect information or sound illogical, making it difficult for users to identify such knowledge. Since the web source will be omitted from the results, users will have to rely on the information they receive. Even if it is wrong, AI-based answers will make it look authentic.

When Microsoft and Open AI were asked to share their comments on the possible situation, the 2 companies did not answer any of the questions.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World