Tag Archives: Chat

Business, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

WhatsApp Announces Communities! It is Like Groups, but Much Bigger.

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WhatsApp is an integral part of our lives today. In most parts of Asia, WhatsApp has become an essential communication tool which has replaced the traditional messaging apps. iMessage in this part of the world has nothing against the likes of WhatsApp and the likes of the messaging app.

We rely on WhatsApp not just for communicating and chatting with our friends. We rely on the platform at work as well. The amount of group chats we have just for work can be quite unreal.

WhatsApp recognises the need for their platform, especially in the world we live in today. They also recognise the need for their platform to become something even more than just a way to text your other half that you are buying dinner. So, they introduced Communities.

What is Communities? It is very much like WhatsApp groups really, except that it is also not. It is a platform for organisations to organise on. It is a platform for managing groups from a single place on WhatsApp.

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Source: WhatsApp

You can think of Communities as a sort of Forum for any organisation that you are a part of. There can be different conversations that happen in that forum (chat groups). You can also address the entire forum with a single message when you need to. It is like being a part of a larger conversation and have smaller side discussions without interrupting the larger group.

For the Admin of their communities, they get even more powerful tools to work with. You can make announcements to the entire community and address everyone from every smaller group whenever you want. If you only need the message to be spread across several select groups, you can do that too. Admins can even control the things that are being shared in each group if they find it inappropriate, much like forum moderators.

The example that WhatsApp gave in their announcement is of that of a school and the principal running the show. Communities can be much more than that though. It could be a collective of multiple charity efforts, an enthusiast community organising several events, even a company having separate departments as chat groups and project work groups.

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Source: WhatsApp

With Communities, there are also several updates that is brought about the make WhatsApp even more powerful. Audio calls can now include up to 32 people. You can react to messages from your friends in groups too. At the same time, file sharing has been upped to 2 GB at a time, which is a blessing in the creative industry, or when you are trying to share full resolution images. Admin delete will also be introduced in regular group chats.  

WhatsApp Communities is not available just yet. It is coming soon, according to WhatsApp. The feature updates that will be attached to Communities will be introduced to WhatsApp before the Communities update though. That also means you might get to try out some of the new features soon to get yourself ready for the Communities update. You can find out more about WhatsApp Communities from their announcement.

Android, iOS, Mobile, News, Social Media

Instagram Live Rooms – Experience video broadcasting with more users on Instagram Now

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Attention Instagrammers! Instagram has rolled out a new feature that allows more people to go live at once. The new feature called “Live Rooms”allows up to 4 users to participate and act as ‘hosts’ in a video chat room. Instagram hopes that the introduction of Live Rooms will encourage users to start their first podcast on Instagram. Also, going live with more than two people ups the fun factor. It also allows creators to share their audiences which can help increase reach and follows among the collaborators.

On the other hand, Instragram is trying to one up apps like Clubhouse, Pong Pong and Partying by creating a more interactive session with the video experience. This allows the audience and friends to actually see the expressions and reactions of the hosts on camera. Instagram claims that its limit of up to 4 hosts helps prevent participants talking over each other. That said, the audience can still freely interact with hosts through the chat function. Instagram is encouraging a plethora of content formats including livestream shopping and fundraising using Live Rooms.

Going live with Live Rooms isn’t just about interactions. Instagram Live Rooms is also helping creators monetise by offering “Live Badges”.The audience can purchase “Live Badges” from the host. The hope is that, like other platforms, these badges will help connect creators to their audiences better. It also allows audiences to directly support creators.

However, Live Rooms isn’t going live on Instagram willy nilly. Instagram has put in place terms and conditions to help protect creators and the community. People who have been blocked by any of the participants in the Live Room will not able to join the room. In addtion, those who have lost their privileges to go Live on Instagram due to violations of Community Guidelines will not be able to partake in Live Rooms.

Both Android and iOS users have access to Live Rooms and the feature is now available on Instagram. Instagram app is available for free on from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Of course, as mentioned, terms and conditions to Live Rooms apply.

Android, Mobile, News

Beeper Brings Together Your Chat Apps Under One Roof

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Nowadays, most of us use a smartphone to communicate. One of the ways we do this is via communication apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger, Skype, among others. Most of the time, these apps are free of charge and come with features that make communicating easier. However, we are at a point where there are way too many apps offering users different kinds of communication styles and experiences. This had led to a conundrum where users have become overwhelmed by messages leading to some messages being missed or overlook. Seeing that reality, Eric Migicovsky, the founder of the now Fitbit-owned Pebble, has unveiled a new, universal communication app, Beeper, which unify up to 15 chat networks.   

Source: beeperhq.com

Beeper brings all the widely used chat applications under one roof. This allows users to not only be on multiple platforms at the same time, but also have one screen to rule them all. It offers users the option to reply messages in a fast and convenient way while being platform agnostic. The new app supports 15 chat networks including Apple’s iMessage. Beeper is available on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux.  

Users can enjoy all the features offered by their multiple apps such as unified search, snooze, and archiving messages on Beeper. However, supporting Apple’s iMessage is a little trickier. To allow Android, Windows, and Linux users to use Apple’s service on Beeper, the Migicovsky and his team had to find a workaround. This involves using Apple’s own devices for some digital trickery. The company is using an always on Apple device as a bridge to enable iMessage on Beeper. If you don’t have an Apple device to use as this bridge, the company will send the user a jailbroken iPhone with the Beeper app installed; otherwise, it’s as simple as downloading the app on your Mac or iPhone to enable the service. 

Source: beeperhq.com

The platform is built on an open-source platform called Matrix. The platform is run as a non-profit by the Matrix.org Foundation like Mozilla. It offers a set of APIs and SDKs for developing and running chat platforms. It enables decentralized, secure communication on these platforms with end-to-end encryption. This also means that larger adopters of Beeper have the option to run the application on their own servers for additional security and peace of mind.  

Source: beeperhq.com

It’s pretty hard to imagine that Beeper would be available for free given the elaborate lengths the creators have taken to enable all the services. For those interested in using Beeper, it come with a monthly subscription fee of USD$10 (MYR40.43) for the app. If you need the jail-broken iPhone the fee is not included in the subscription. 

Beeper is hardly the first app on the market that aggregates chat platforms into a single app. There are apps such as Franz and Rambox which are available on the internet without the support for iMessage. That said, Beeper holds much promise when it comes to having literally all your messaging platforms under one roof.  There will be more chat networks for users to enjoy soon with night mode coming in the next version.