TikTok is experimenting with allowing users to upload 60-minute videos. The feature is being tested among a limited group of users in certain markets, with no immediate plans for a wider rollout, according to reports, which couch it as a move to take on the short-form platform’s biggest competitor, Google’s YouTube. TikTok debuted in 2016 with a native video format of 15-seconds, though the company has been expanding permissible durations over the years. TikTok users have reportedly been requesting the ability to post longer content for areas such tutorials, demos and sketch comedy. Continue reading TikTok Tests Long-Form Video That Could Challenge YouTube

Social platform X, formerly Twitter, has added news summaries generated by Grok, the chatbot of Elon Musk’s xAI, exclusively for Premium subscribers. The personalized trending “Stories” appear in the For You tab of the app’s Explore section. The feature is available on the web and for iOS users for now. For You consists of trending items shared across the platform and within individual networks, along with recommended posts. Grok essentially becomes the voice of X’s news aggregator, teasing articles with short blurbs that link to what X users are saying on the subject. Critics are concerned about Grok’s tone, interpretation of information, and potential for creating fake news. Continue reading X Premium Intros News Blurbs Generated by Musk’s Grok AI

Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is preparing to launch a streaming video app for smart TVs. Though still in development, with no formal launch date announced, X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted a “sneak peek” that indicates the app will have a “trending” algorithm that pushes popular content and will be AI-powered to deliver a “personalized experience.” Yaccarino said the X video app will also have “effortless casting” so content can be easily sent to a larger screen from a mobile device. Availability is billed as “coming soon to most smart TVs.” Continue reading Yaccarino Says X Streaming Video App for TVs ‘Coming Soon’

Airchat is the latest app to take tech leaders in Silicon Valley by storm. Described as a “combination of voice notes and Twitter,” Airchat lets you follow other users and scroll through posts — adding replies, likes and shares — but the twist is the content is generated through audio recordings the app then transcribes. Airchat ranked 27th on the App Store’s social networking chart, even though users must be invited to join. Launched last year by Naval Ravikant, founder of AngelList, and erstwhile Tinder product exec Brian Norgard, Airchat was just relaunched on iOS and Android. Continue reading Audio-First Social Platform Airchat Has Successful Relaunch

Microsoft-owned business and employment-focused social platform LinkedIn plans to add games and a vertical-scroll feed of short videos. But the career-centric platform will still be all work, even as it adds play. The intent is to have the TikTok-like video feed filled with professionally themed content, and the games will be geared toward relationship building, while also potentially getting people to spend more time using LinkedIn. The video feed is in the test phase, while code hinting at the direction of the gaming feature has been discovered by some astute app watchers. Continue reading LinkedIn Tests Vertical Video Feed, Experiments with Games

Meta Platforms is showing off fediverse integration for Threads, the Instagram spinoff launched last summer to take on Twitter, now X. At this week’s FediForum virtual conference, Meta Platforms software engineer Peter Cottle demonstrated how users will be able to connect accounts to use the fediverse, simultaneously reaching multiple audiences. Currently, “a limited number of Threads profiles can share their posts to other fediverse platforms,” according to Instagram. In an alpha test, interactions, such as likes and replies, from other fediverse platforms “won’t be viewable on Threads.” Continue reading FediForum: Meta Demonstrates Threads Fediverse Integration

Decentralized social platform Bluesky has open-sourced a tool called Ozone that facilitates custom moderation. Debuting this week, Ozone lets individuals or teams collaboratively review and label content on the platform. “We’re opening up the ability to run your own independent moderation services, seamlessly integrated into the Bluesky app,” the company says, explaining “you’ll be able to create and subscribe to additional moderation services” on top of that which is administered by Bluesky’s moderation team, “giving you unprecedented control over your social media experience.” Continue reading Ozone Helps Users Customize Content Moderation on Bluesky

Months-old startup Cognition AI has emerged from stealth mode with Devin, a generative platform it is calling “the world’s first fully autonomous AI software engineer.” Although Cognition has yet to make Devin widely available, much less allow independent testing, if its claims are true it would mark a turning point in the AI coding space, moving it from a field of AI assistants to a full-fledged AI engineer. Based on natural language instruction, Devin could potentially take a project from concept to execution rather than simply suggesting code snippets or offering barebones frameworks. Continue reading Startup Cognition Launches AI Software Coding Engine Devin

Elon Musk wants to bring videos posted to X (formerly Twitter) to a bigger screen. The social platform plans to launch a YouTube-like app on smart TVs, starting with Samsung TVs and Amazon Fire TVs. Since purchasing Twitter in October 2022, Musk has emphasized its evolution to a “video-first” platform as part of its rebranding as X. Internal research claims X users watch videos in eight out of 10 visits, which would make it an obvious opportunity for expansion. In the early stages, it appears the focus will be long-form video, which can more easily accommodate advertising. Continue reading X Teases Launch of a YouTube-Like Video App for Smart TVs

Bluesky — Jack Dorsey’s alternative to X (formerly Twitter) — has been quietly ramping up, recently opening for general public sign-ups while adding hashtag support and the ability for users to host their own servers. The company last month appointed Aaron Rodericks to the newly created position of head of trust and safety, a title he held at Twitter before Elon Musk purchased it and decimated the division (which he now co-heads with X CEO Linda Yaccarino). The technical updates will make it easier for users to sort threads for topics of interest and takes a big step toward federation and allowing users to freely move their accounts. Continue reading Bluesky Opens to the Public Ahead of the Presidential Election

Users appear to prefer Meta Platforms’ Threads to Elon Musk’s social platform X, based on the disparity between the number of downloads, which is widening. Globally, Meta’s Instagram spinoff — which has many of the same features as the app formerly known as Twitter — has recently been seeing three times as many daily downloads as X on iOS devices, and more than twice as many from the Google Play app store for Android. The analysis is from intelligence firm Appfigures, which this week lists Threads as No. 2 among all free app downloads, and X at No. 40. As Threads introduces new features, it is also testing a new in-app camera. Continue reading Threads Surpasses X in Downloads, Tests an In-App Camera

While YouTube and Facebook are the most-used platforms among U.S. adults, TikTok is the fastest growing, according to a new Pew Research survey on social media usage. Google’s YouTube led in popularity by a wide margin, with 83 percent of the 5,733 U.S. adults polled reporting they had used it at some point. Meta Platforms’ Facebook took second place, with 68 percent of respondents having at least tried it. Those two platforms also stood out for having the majority through each age demographic subset. Instagram, also owned by Meta, took third place, with 47 percent of respondents attesting they had used it. Continue reading YouTube, Facebook Most Popular Social Apps Among Adults

Instagram’s Threads app, an X competitor designed for sharing text updates and joining public conversations, is now gaining traction after an inconsistent 2023. New data from app intelligence firm Appfigures reveals that Threads is growing, tripling its number of downloads month-over-month in December, positioning it as one of the Top 10 most downloaded apps for Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. Ahead of Threads in downloads for December were popular apps such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and WhatsApp (Instagram took over the No. 1 spot from TikTok). Meanwhile, X continues to decline. Continue reading Instagram Threads Reaches the Top of App Store Downloads

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric spoke with CTA Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs Rachel Nemeth during CES 2024 about the challenges of extending safety to products that are constantly evolving and incorporating new technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. Nemeth pointed out that the agency’s authorizing statute was enacted in 1972 and was last amended in 2008. “We’re doing a lot of good work with the statute we have,” Hoehn-Saric responded. “But we’re changing the way we operate. We talk a lot about machine learning and AI.” Continue reading CES: Championing Consumer Product Safety in the Age of AI

Teenagers in the U.S. are finding it hard to tear themselves away from YouTube and TikTok, according to a new study of 13- to 17-year-olds by the Pew Research Center. Pew found that “nearly 1 in 5 saying they use the video-streaming apps ‘almost constantly.’” YouTube topped the chart for the second consecutive year, with 93 percent, “roughly 9 in 10 teens” saying they regularly use YouTube. That far outstrips TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, which manage to creep to about 70 percent among a subset of teens 15 to 17. Among the total teen sample, that falls to 63 percent for TikTok, 60 percent for Snapchat and 59 percent for Instagram, according to Pew. Continue reading Pew: U.S. Teens Fixated on Video Apps YouTube and TikTok