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Facebook taking pro-active measures: Making amends while lending a helping hand in times of crisis

Facebook has been taking prompt actions in response to the global crisis of coronavirus pandemic.
The company is trying hard to regain public trust, and the measures it is taking are the need of the hour.

With the world crumbling apart, the economy crashing down, millions of people getting sick daily and many succumbing to the disease - hypothetically speaking, the world seems to be going through a major apocalypse! Coronavirus pandemic has hit the planet hard, and every individual is facing the brunt of the extremely distressing situation.

In current times, the powerful role of social media platforms cannot be negated. People are in a lockdown situation. When the coronavirus outbreaks began in January, people started posting all sorts of mythical and falsified information about the disease and social networks like Facebook did not pay much attention to all that initially. This led them to gain mass dis-trust and severe criticism from everywhere.

But this was not the first time. Facebook has been going through a challenging period since the 2016 U.S. election. The company came under massive criticism in not controlling misinformation and propaganda ahead of the election. This resulted in the company to come under blasting radars and get branded for its other numerous scandals.

Facebook failed to learn its lesson and then in March 2018, the company’s reputation got severely affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a political firm managed to get access to the data of millions of Facebook users and used it illegally to target ads for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook had to face a whopping $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission.

After these serious failures to protect public data and for its lenient policies, the company faced another blow in 2019 when four separate antitrust investigations launched against it.

However, after going through all this, Facebook seems to have learned its lesson the hard way. To rebuild public trust and as a goodwill gesture, Facebook has taken swift and highly effective actions since February 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic.

Along with other tech firms, Facebook made serious efforts to do content policing, fact-checking of ads, blocking the “overnight sellers” from taking advantage of people’s fears!

Facebook has been showing keen interest in trying to help governments, small businesses, emergency response organizations and its employees in this time of mass distress and chaos.

Recently, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg said that they want to make sure that they do whatever it takes to help support the public health response. He also praised and personally thanked the people who are doing everything to help the world in this crisis.

Facebook lent its Menlo Park headquarters to World Health Organization, leaders from Amazon, Google, Salesforce and other tech firms to come together and discuss the measures these companies can take to provide solutions for the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of the steps that Facebook has taken in this regard are making sure that everyone has accurate information, and this feat has been carried out through the launch of Coronavirus Information Center on Facebook, directing and connecting people towards accurate information sources, supporting health authorities in the provision of credible information, prompting Instagram to connect people with helpful information, fact-checking and monitoring the content being shared, getting expert health tips from Dr. Fauci, supporting the collaboration of WHO with WhatsApp, banning ads for face masks, hand sanitizers and other stuff that can potentially lead already distressed people to get scammed.

Apart from these efforts, Facebook is supporting global health organizations by allocating $20 million in donations to support COVID-19 relief efforts, and through free ads and a lot more.

It’s not only trying to help the general masses, but it’s also empowering its partners with data and tools. The company has given a $1,000 bonus to 45000 full-time employees to help them with their finances during their work-from-home setup.

Each employee will be able to receive more than their full bonus for the six months because the company has decided to give every employee exceeds expectations performance ratings for half of the year 2020.

The company is also lending support to communities and offering free workplace for companies in need. Facebook has announced a $100 million program to help small businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Despite doing so much for the people, Facebook itself has seen a downhill road due to this global crisis. Its shares are also going down this year. However, Facebook coming forward with responsible actions for the world has somewhat earned it forgiveness for its past missteps and maybe now it's on the way to mend its reputation in the eyes of the world.

Mobile Gaming Stands Above Console and PC Gaming As A $100 Billion Industry

2019 was the year when mobile gaming not only became everyone’s preference but also saw a 25% increase in spending as compared to other formats of gaming. With such statistics in place, experts predicted that the years ahead will only get better for mobile gaming and eventually the guesses are becoming true.

Began 2020 and the Weekly global number of games downloaded right in the week of Feb 23, 2020 turned out to be 20% higher than the average weekly level, which was set in the Q4 of 2019. China had the biggest week in 2019 in terms of Games downloads on iOS in between the dates of Feb 2-8, 2020.

Now with Coronavirus making people stay glued to their mobile screens and sit idol at home, it is obvious that more consumers will try out mobile gaming more and make 2020 the biggest year to date for mobile gaming.

Mobile Gaming Leaving Behind Computers and Consoles

In 2019, mobile gaming outpaced all forms of gaming - whether the competition was with consoles or PC/MAC gaming. The total spend turned out to be 2.4x more than PC/MAC gaming and 2.9x more than that of home consoles. Besides that, we also saw franchises like Call of Duty and Mario Kart tour shifting to the mobile platform because they knew that mobile was about to democratize gaming and give anyone the opportunity to enjoy their favorite games with heavy graphics on mobile anytime, anywhere.

But that was still just a start!

Expansion of Market Will Only Benefit Publishers More

With an in-depth research by App Annie regarding the type the of games that are capturing the attention of users, 47% of the top 100 game downloads in 2019 were casual arcade games and core games came around 18%, with 55% time spent in top games.

However, when it came to the matter of consumer spend (as highlighted in chart below), core games dominated the category with 76% consumer spends. Much of the credit for this success goes to the nature of core games as gamers get engaged in all sorts of customization, competitive online play and even season pass memberships.

The total spend overall doesn’t belong to the big publishers only anymore. There are emerging players who have also crossed $5 million annual consumer spend with amazing games. Moreover, the total number of games crossing $100 million annual consumer spend also experienced a 29% growth in 2019 when compared with 2017- where it all began.

Moving Forward...

As the prediction regarding mobile gaming surpassing $100 million in consumer spend goes on, this mark can be achieved with following the trends with great precision and more engaging games. The publishers have started off well with their research and will continue to inspire the emerging companies to create great games with a massive mobile gaming market out there, a lot still is left to be done in order to astonish the world with the potential that mobile gaming holds.

Read next: The Surprisingly Long History of eSports (infographic)

Research Proves Why YouTubers Watch What They Watch In A Day

We have reached that point in time where almost all of us cannot imagine our days without YouTube. While the largest video-sharing platform has really brought the world together, the company recently carried out an interesting study regarding why YouTubers watch what they have watched in the past 24 hours.

YouTube began by asking the similar question from around 12,000 people that fell in between the age group of 13-64 and then shared the results via Think With Google.

First of all, the respondents watched a variety of content that ranged well from traditional media to videos only available online. Then they gave multiple reasons behind selecting a certain video from a list of 20 and that includes how one video helped people to relax and unwind, taught something new, allowed them to dig deeper into their interests; made one laugh or even because they had a passion related to the video.

YouTube's study stated that almost 70% of the global viewers let their moods make the choice of content and this further indicates how videos play a very personal role in our lives now. So, as soon as our mood changes, the choice of videos that we watch on internet also changes.

Be it learning new skills or seeking for advice, people around the globe now watch videos for more than merely entertainment. While many now learn life through it, some were also adamant to accept that they don’t know how they would get through life without watching videos every day.

Some other findings by YouTube include:

Viewers like content that specifically relate to their personal interests and passions more.
The ability of content to make people dig deep for exploring their interests stands of as much importance as high production quality, being on a preferred network/platform or even starring famous actors.
The Traditional TV-era makers now remain of less importance to the viewers.
Younger generations like Millennials and Gen-Zers search for more short-form content in the names of webisodes, tutorials or short video clips made by professionals.

Of all the video streaming services used worldwide, YouTube was by far the most common.

All in all, YouTube is here with a proof that with so many choices in content, people now watch videos with a different approach. They are now liberated to choose what really matters to them on a personal level.

Also read: See how long it takes the world’s highest paid YouTuber creators to earn your annual salary

But What Does This All Mean For Marketers?

Aim To Become Relatable:
It’s time to relate to your audience, all with the help of knowing their personal interests. However, bear in mind that the interest should not be your own expectations or guesses, you will have to follow the behavior. For instance, if your target is people who are looking for self-improvement, don’t keep your research restricted to your own alone self.

Go Beyond Entertainment:
46% of global viewers have admitted that they watch new videos to learn something new from them. Fortunately enough, videos have emerged from an awareness-only medium to an engaging one and the ad strategies should incorporate the changes.

Prefer Passion over Production:
When it came to choosing what to watch, respondents chose passion 1.6 times more than production quality. This overall means that people care more about what the content speaks to them instead of looking all fancy and premium.

Read next: Google and YouTube Introduces New Resource Pages to Help Teachers and Families to Educate Students At Home

A New Google Messages Update Comes With An Image Editing Feature

Google is making efforts to offer a better messaging experience for Android users by adding more features to Google Messages. It seems like Google has decided to develop its SMS app at full steam. It might be possible that the Google Messages app becomes a possible Facebook or Whatsapp messenger substitute for many people. In its efforts to bring the app to a new level, Google Messages has now finally launched an image markup tool in its latest beta update.

The folks at Android Police first spotted the new image editing tool in Google Messages version 5.9. To use the tool, you need to attach an image to a text and tap on the image before sending it. A preview of the image will be opened you will see an option to edit the image in the top right corner. You can add texts and overlays to any image with the help of this tool. A pencil, a sharpie, and a transparent highlighter are available in 9 colors. These 9 colors will ensure that you are having enough contrast to make your texts pop on your images. The font of the text added to images can’t be changed but there is an option to change the color. After you are done typing the text, you can move your words freely around the photo by holding on the words and place it anywhere on the image. You can also open an already sent image in a chat and edit it. After editing, you can send the image back or save the edited image directly to your phone.

Although, I feel that not everyone will probably need this tool but I am sure that this will come in handy from time to time. This tool is similar to the tools added to Duo and Images by Google recently. Facebook and Whatsapp messenger also incorporates these type of features.

You can get Google Messages having the new image markup tool from the Play Store by signing up for the public beta. This feature is still a bit unstable. So, don’t be surprised if the new feature crashes as there is a reason it’s still in beta.

Fighting Fake News: WhatsApp introduces a search feature to let users Google the content of forwarded messages

In the days of the pandemic coronavirus, WhatsApp is testing a feature that would provide ground to their 2 billion users to verify the information they received.

Facebook owned application has been testing this feature since last year to make the platform more authentic and reliable. WhatsApp informed media outlets that the feature will be rolled out soon to empower all users. By leveraging this feature users could quickly search the body of forwarded messages in Google, this will help them check whether the information is fake or correct. This feature is currently available to only Whatsapp beta testers.

Currently, Whatsapp is being used to inform and circulate the content about coronavirus crisis.

Therefore, WhatsApp approached government of different countries last month to use its platform to inform the public.

Recently, World Health Organization has joined WhatsApp to provide authentic information about the virus to masses. The WhatsApp stated that it is the official NGO to use messaging app to spread awareness. The app further stated that Singaporean government, Health department of South Africa, Health Ministry of Israel and Indonesia's KOMFINO also joined the application to inform their citizens as fast as possible.

Moreover, India Health Department has used the services of the social media to spread awareness in the country to halt the spread of the virus.

However, the application has been trying since 2019 to fight against misinformation.

WhatsApp is now the need of the world. Therefore, it is important to introduce the important fact-checking features as soon as possible otherwise people would be misinformed which could cost the lives of humans or would result in snatching away of their right to know the truth. WhatsApp is the most used messaging app around the world. Therefore, it is important for this platform to be authentic and true information provider.

Unsure whether the message your received is factually correct or fake? Thankfully, Whatsapp is here to help. A new feature will let you search the content of forwarded messages in Google search to help you further distilled down your research.

Instagram Rolls Out 'Stay Home' Sticker To Promote Social Distancing

Instagram introduces a new ‘stay home’ sticker and story to encourage social distancing among the masses.
The curated story appears on top of all of the friends’ posts.
Other social media companies applying changes in reaction to the coronavirus crisis in their own unique ways.

The WHO advises the people to stay home to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. The virus still does not have any cure but there is a chance to slow down its spread by maintaining a distance of 1-2 meters apart among the people. So, to encourage social distancing, Instagram launched a new ‘stay home’ sticker in stories. We can’t say how effective these cause-related stickers are but Instagram keeps on releasing them that shows they are somewhat effective. In ordinary circumstances, Instagram stories are filled with snaps from festivals, parties, and social gatherings, etc. But the circumstances are not the same now, so people need to stay home to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. This sticker might make staying home more fun.

The new sticker appears to have a more strong emphasis from the platform as the stories with this sticker will appear on top of other friend’s posts. Instagram also created a new group story that will gather stories tagged with the new ‘stay home’ sticker. It appears that for now you will only be able to see posts from your friends in the group story.

Anything that can help spread awareness among the masses is important because people are not taking this issue seriously, said Paul, founder of Likemind Media and was among the first creators to use the new ‘stay home’ sticker.

Related: Instagram Aims to Reach New Heights, Tests Adding Location And Hashtags in Story Highlights

The coronavirus death toll continues to rise up day-by-day, but some people are still not taking the situation seriously and continue to go out in public gatherings. You can still be carrying the virus even if you don’t show any symptoms, so it will be better to avoid going out and attending public gatherings. It’s good to see that Instagram is at least trying to highlight the key message and is encouraging social distancing.

Other social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter and Whatsapp are also applying reactive changes to the coronavirus pandemic in their own unique ways. Whatsapp launched a chatbot in partnership with the World Health Organization to fight COVID-19 misinformation. The new chatbot will provide the latest information about the coronavirus and will also dispel fake news about the coronavirus and its spread. To use the chatbot, just simply add ‘+41 79 893 1892’ to your phone texts and send ‘Hi’ in a Whatsapp message. Facebook on the other hand has added a COVID-19 information page at top of the user’s newsfeed.

How Safe Are Google's Android Auto and Apple's Car Play?

The world has shifted to the applications and digital tools. However, not all of them are good to use and beneficial. Some of them are dangerous because of being a source of distraction. And unfortunately, two of them are Google's Android Auto and Apple's Car Play.

The two software are used for navigation and driving purposes but a study from I AM RoadSmart and TRL reveals that Android Auto and Car Play can distract drivers. The report says that drivers delay around a second when they don’t use these infotainment devices but the users of these touch systems can have 57% and 53% of increase in reaction time, when playing music through Spotify using the Car Play and Android Auto, respectively. Besides, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that users take off their eyes from the roads more than the given guidelines due to which the position and speed of the car suffered significantly.

The applications are considered to distract more than texting and driving after having cannabis. The report highlighted that the voice commands are not as effective as touch of Android Auto and Car Play but the touch screen divert attention more than other activities.

Therefore, I AM RoadSmart asked the drivers and chauffeurs to operate the applications or set them before starting their journey. Besides, they guided them to use Auto Car after parking the car in the corner of the road to get guidelines. However, they ask authorities to review them further.

The chart below lists the activities that effect the driver's reaction more. According to the research, drinking could slow the reaction by 12 percent while cannabis and hands-free phone by 21 and 27 percent. The graphic shows that drivers would react 30, 35 and 36 percent slowly if they use voice command of Android Auto, do texting and use voice commands of Apple CarPlay respectively. Meanwhile Hand-held phone and touch functions of Android Auto and CarPlay could slow the reaction time by 46, 53 and 57 percent.

Although, authorities are against the two, the users find info and entertainment boxes very helpful and effective. According to their reviews, the application assist them to reach at place on time and help them to focus more on roads with their voice commands.

How safe are in-vehicle infotainment systems?

See how long it takes the world’s highest paid YouTubers to earn your annual salary

The top 10 highest earners on YouTube took home a combined $162 million last year alone. It is tricky to fully comprehend just how profitable what in many cases started out as a hobby or side hustle for some of these influencers turned into. So, the team at Sportarly crunched the data and built a cool new tool which tells you exactly how long it would take the world’s highest paid YouTube stars to earn your annual salary. You can try it out here.

Due to the social distancing measures recommended (or in some cases imposed) by governments all over the world, many of us have found ourselves working remotely for the foreseeable future. Many of us will also be looking for ways to generate some extra income with all the free time we now have. If you find yourself doing the same, you should seriously consider creating and monetizing a YouTube channel. We have broken down some the numbers below to help keep you motivated.

Ryan Kaji

8-year-old toy reviewer Ryan Kaji earned an incredible $26 million in 2019 through his incredibly popular YouTube channel, Ryan's World (previously Ryan ToysReview).

After asking his mum why he wasn’t on YouTube, the family set about creating and uploading the review videos in March 2015. Several years and many videos later, Kaji has over 24.4 million subscribers.

With an impressive $26 million pocketed in 2019, it would take him just 21 hours and 18 minutes to earn the median US household income ($63,179).

To understand just how much Kaji is earning from his videos, the Sportarly team compared his earnings to that of the highest paid profession, physicians (according to a Glassdoor study). The median income for a US physician is $193,415 and Kaji would earn this in just 2 days and 16 hours. It would take him just 19 hours and 36 minutes to earn the median salary of a US teacher (the lowest paid profession according to the study), $58,030.

In 2019, he earned:

$2.2 million per month.
$500K per week.
$71.2K per day.
$3K per hour.
$49.47 per minute.
$0.82 per second.

Dude Perfect

With a huge following consisting of 49.9 million YouTube subscribers and over 10 billion video views, it is no surprise that the Dude Perfect gang also topped the Forbes list of highest earners. They have come a long way from light hearted beginnings filming themselves betting sandwiches on basketball trick shots, all the way to a mobile app and even a TV show.

All of this means they have been able to generate a sizeable income from their online fame. At $20 million last year, they only needed to work 1 day and 4 hours to make the median US salary.

It would take them just 3 days and 12 hours to earn the physician’s salary and only 1 day and 2 hours to earn the same amount as the average teacher.

In 2019, they earned:

$1.7 million per month.
$384.6K per week.
$54.8K per day.
$2.3K per hour.
$38.05 per minute.
$0.63 per second.

Anastasia Radzinskaya

Anastasia Radzinskaya (aka Like Nastya) has amassed over 15 million subscribers and more than 5 billion video views after her parents started making funny, sweet videos of them all in 2016. People must be loving them after Anastasia’s online presence helped her and her family earn $18 million in 2019. Closely following the Dude Perfect team, she also earns the median US salary in 1 day and 7 hours.
At just 6 years old, Anastasia is already earning considerably more than 99% of adults each and every year. Compared to the physician, she would have to work just 3 days and 21 hours to earn the same amount. It would take her just 1 day and 4 hours to out-earn the standard US teacher.

In 2019, she earned:

$18 million per year.
$1.5 million per month.
$346.2K per week.
$49.3K per day.
$2.1K per hour.
$34.25 per minute.
$0.57 per second.

Rhett and Link

American comedy duo and childhood friends Rhett and Link turned the comedy style they had developed over the years into a profitable venture when they started posting their content on YouTube. The creative approach these two take pays off and they took home roughly $17.5 million last year. Time to earn the median US income, just 1 day and 7 hours.

Also read: Google and YouTube Introduces New Resource Pages to Help Teachers and Families to Educate Students At Home

Jeffree Star

Jeffree Star is a man of many talents and he has made use of many of them to develop his YouTube following. With an army of 17.6 million followers and over 2 billion video views, anyone with skills surrounding makeup, modelling, singing and/or song writing should seriously consider following suit and setting up a channel of their own. His online success helped him generate $17 million in 2019. It would take him less than 2 days (1 day and 9 hours) to earn the median US income.

Preston

Preston has made a fortune out of his love of video games. His video blogging (and the 12.1 million subscribers it reaches) meant he generated a whopping $14 million last year alone. Earning the equivalent of $26.64 each and every minute, it would take him just 1 day and 14 hours to make the median US household income.

PewDiePie

PewDiePie is a Swedish YouTuber and is another one making a killing off his passion for video games. After starting his video creation career back in 2010, he has gone on to earn himself 103 million subscribers and $13 million in 2019. Broken down, in 2019 he earned:

$1.1 million per month.
$250K per week.
$35.6K per day.
$1.5K per hour.
$24.73 per minute.
$0.41 per second.

He would compete with those earning the median US income in just 1 day and 19 hours.

DanTDM

Daniel Robert Middleton (DanTDM) is yet another influencer who has made a career out of content creation surrounding video games. Since his start on YouTube in 2009, he has learnt a lot and earned a substantial loyal following. Currently sitting at 22.5 million subscribers and over 16 billion video views, he is entertaining an army of fans with his content. His videos helped him earn $12 million last year, making the median US income in just 1 day and 21 hours.

VanossGaming

The research does seem to suggest that video game playing might be one of the most profitable hobbies to use to start generating extra income online. Last on the Forbes list of the highest YouTube earners is VanossGaming. Real name Evan Fong, he began uploading videos in 2011. His consistent efforts have paid off big with earnings of $11.5 million in 2019. He would earn the median US income in a solid 2 days.

If you are considering starting a YouTube channel yourself, you might want to consider toy reviews or something related to video games. Most of those featured needed a few years to build up their followings to the point where they could earn so much and no doubt a lot of work went into this behind the scenes. Still, it just goes to show the potential a passionate side hustle has and the vast sums it could eventually generate.

Read next: These are Top 10 most viewed videos on YouTube (2020)

Instagram Working on a Feature to Allow Setting Privacy Differently On Each Story

Instagram and its parent company Facebook have been adding a lot of handy options in their respective apps to bring the user experience to a new level, and this time again news regarding the feature that will let users hide certain stories from certain people is making rounds.

Jane Manchun Wong, an app researcher, spotted the feature and shared the screenshots on her Twitter feed. She discovered the new feature on the backend of Instagram. The screenshot shared shows that under the Stories there is a search bar that will let users select the people from whom they want to hide the story.

Currently, Instagram allows users to block people from seeing stories but that applies to all stories and none of the stories will appear to people who are not permitted. However, the new feature will let users block specific stories from people you block but can show another story simultaneously.

It is not yet confirmed whether Instagram will roll out this feature later or not.

Instagram is also testing to allow blocking or restricting all the annoying accounts from the comment section directly at once. The purpose behind it is to help in battling against cyber-bullying on the comment section of the platform.

Also, last month Wong shared about feature allowing to remove followers directly from their profile. The feature was discovered at the backend of the Android app. The feature is right now available for iOS users but the company is planning to introduce it to Android users as well.

Another feature was recently spotted by Wong in February that will let users discover the posts that they might have missed while they were away from Instagram.

Buying Fake TikTok Followers Can Be At Cost of Risking Privacy, Says Report

Every other day TikTok turns an ordinary individual into an online celebrity, while many already popular personalities also have moved to the platform to enhance their digital presence.

With the growing popularity of TikTok, many shady players have come forward to help those who are looking for instant virality. The number of vendors can be found online who are selling likes, shares, and followers at a reasonable price to boost your account engagement.

On average, 100 likes are available for US $2 only, and with a minimal amount, you can become from nobody to celebrity. However, it is not yet from where these followers come.

Recently, Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) disclosed the unauthentic profiles and their activity on TikTok. It has not been yet confirmed whether the followers are actual people or bots. There are no display pictures or stolen photos, but only alphanumerical handles with no proper content available on accounts.

Kanishk Karan, research at DFRLab said, the pay-for-engagement industry is growing, not only for TikTok but the fake engagement is an issue faced by all leading social platforms including Facebook and Instagram.

For a long time, online social platforms have been dealing with fake engagements. The companies provide followers for TikTok as well as engagements for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Spotify, Twitch, Soundcloud and even for messaging app, Telegram.

Many social media platforms have taken action and deleted the accounts with fake followers or engagements. Like in 2019, Facebook and Instagram took a bold step by suing four Asian companies that have been selling fake accounts, followers and likes.

TikTok’s community guidelines clearly points out the inauthentic activities are against the rules of the platform. However, on this specific report, ByteDance, TikTok parent company responded neither released any statement so far.

In case, anyone is planning to get the instant TikTok followers should be aware of the fact that they are putting their privacy at risk, says the report by DFRLab. There are around 50 apps on Google Play Store that provide inauthentic engagement services including likes, followers and shares but also ask for access to several features or data on phone.

After installing such apps, they demand many permissions on an Android device. They often ask for access to the contact list of Phone and the permission to modify the content. The privacy policies of many apps are missing and even if they have, they are usually copied from other apps.

Google’s rule demands that Play Store apps and their developers should tell how they collect data and how it is used and shared. So far Google also has not commented on this particular issue.

Also read: To What Extent do Top Tech Companies Track your Online Activities?

There are many scam apps on Play Store and not all deliver as they promise. Many apps claim to offer followers in between one to seven days and during that time, they flood phones with ads. One of the apps asks to share 10 videos on TikTok before it further shares the content. Another app asked to use a certain hashtag to get the likes or another asking to watch a video to show that you are human.

Most apps that tout to increase fake engagement offer little to no results, but one thing that they do amazingly well is snoop on your data with full force and probably sell it to highest bidder.

WHO to the Rescue: WhatsApp Goes Extra Miles to Help People Overcome Fears of Coronavirus

World Health Organization (WHO) is coming up with all possible ways to provide information regarding coronavirus.

Social media platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp are try their best to spread the facts and curb the misinformation.

The struggle of distributing “authentic” content in timely manner is a real struggle, in the past WhatsApp has faced a lot of criticism for facilitating fake news.

The coronavirus that initially originated from Wuhan, China is now stated as a Global pandemic by WHO. With its horrendous outbreak, it has affected millions of people and has claimed many lives already...and it’s still spreading! Almost every country is taking quarantine and social distancing measures to combat the disease.

In these times of global social distress, people are staying at home all the time, with restaurants, bars, malls, and other recreational activities at a halt. This has prompted the extensive use of smartphones and mobile applications, social media sites taking the lead amongst them all. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have become the major sources of communication. Recently, Facebook, YouTube, and other applications took measures to stop spreading false news, and now WhatsApp is taking responsible measures in collaboration with the World Health Organization.

On Friday, WHO launched a chat bot for WhatsApp messenger app where it provides details, precautionary measures and other authentic information regarding coronavirus. All user around the world who have Whatsapp installed on their devices can simply start conversation with bot by simply adding this number in contacts +41798931892 and sending a simple hi. This is an effective, easy and safe way to gain information and clear all the misconceptions and myths regarding this pandemic, and the virus itself!

Also read: Facebook suggests everybody to take social distancing seriously

This feature will also provide answers to frequently asked questions about this virus. The Facebook-owned messaging app has launched a Coronavirus Information Center to help you stay up to date with the latest official health information.

It is one of the best steps taken by these social media infotainment sites to help share reliable information and bust the myths and all falsified claims regarding the vicious COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. People need to become more responsible in sharing news too because it is very easy to spread misinformation and propaganda nowadays through these media. This global pandemic is not a joke, as it has now infected more than 265,000 people and killed more than 11,000 globally.

Be vigilant and stay safe everyone! That is the need of the hour.

Here's how to get the right facts from WHO right in your Whatsapp messenger app

Google and YouTube Introduces New Resource Pages to Help Teachers and Families to Educate Students At Home

As the Coronavirus has taken over almost all over the world, the countries are shutting down. Some people are going into self-isolation while others are put into quarantine by the government and health officials. Schools, offices, universities, market places, cinemas, and other public gathering venues are being shut down to fight the highly contagious virus of Corona. Amidst this time of fear and panic; YouTube and Google have launched new resource pages which will help families in isolation and quarantine to teach their kids at home while their schools and other educational institutes remain closed.

The pages are going to effectively help teachers and students in the process of learning and educating during the crisis. The page of Google is called ‘Teach from Home’ and it offers many recommendations on how teachers can teach while staying at home with the help of Google products. The pages are simple and clean, currently, there are suggestions including how teachers can do a group video call with Google Hangouts or how online quizzes can be made by using Google Forms.

Apart from this, the ‘Teach from Home’ also has a ‘Teach from Home Toolkit’ which can help the users to personalize their experience on these pages as well as to help the users to organize their stuff into slides. The pages of ‘Teach from Home’ are currently available only in the English language. However, its toolkit is available in other ten languages including Arabic, German, Danish, French, Spanish, Polish and Italian. Google announced that more languages will be a part of this toolkit soon. Apart from all this, Google is also launching a Distance Learning Fund (DLF) which is formed in response to COVID-19. The money generated from this fund will be given to the education partners of Google so that they provide good learning opportunities to the kids during this Corona Virus pandemic.

Also read: New Study Reveals How Long Coronavirus Can Survive on Cardboard, Plastic and Steel

Like Google, YouTube also has a resource which is called ‘Learn@Home’. It highlights the educational channels on YouTube which students can watch at home on the recommendation of their teachers. This page has categories for all age groups of children and adults. YouTube will be partnering with a lot of educational institutes including the Khan Academy for their resource page.

The service of ‘Learn@Home’ is also available currently in English but will soon be available in Korean, French, Japanese, French, Chinese, etc. the channels that are currently mentioned on the resource pages are Discovery Education, Crash Courses, PBS Kids, Cool School, and Sesame Street. But soon more channels will be highlighted too.

Read next: Google launches website and tools dedicated to COVID-19

Facebook suggests its users to take social distancing measures responsibly

Because of amid rise in the cases of COVID-19, the Facebook has announced to provide information about coronavirus to its users in USA and Europe that would come in their news feed by setting up coronavirus information center to encourage them to distance themselves socially. The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said that the main aim to start the service is to ask people to take social distancing seriously.

The information will be provided 24 hours long to around the world by collaborating with known authorities of the world. The CEO said that information center has been set up by collaborating with World Health Organization (WHO) and General Dental Council (GDC). Besides, it was announced by Zuckerberg that the software, communication enterprise and workplace will be provided to the government and emergency center for free for 12 months.

Mr. Zuckerberg further said that the use of Facebook and voice messages of WhatsApp has been increased a lot during coronavirus pandemic and the company is trying to use its infrastructure to support public health and people.

The pandemic coronavirus has brought massive destruction in shares and stock market. The shares of social media plunged more than 33 percent in 2020. Earlier in March, the company stop taking ads and the end of last month- 27th February, the company cancelled F8 Annual Software Developers Conference.

Recently, Facebook asked its workers to work for the social media and company from home. Besides, it is announced to give bonus of $1000 to its 45,000 employees who work as full-time. Moreover, the company will begin $100 million program to assist struggling businesses who suffered because of the pandemic.

Currently, more than 277,000 people are suffering from COVID-19, and 91,981 have been recovered, while more than 11,400 are died because of it, as Worldometers reported.

Instagram Aims to Reach New Heights, Tests Adding Location And Hashtags in Story Highlights

Instagram plans to add Location and Hashtags to Your Story Highlights now.
Instagram was first released in 2010, and since then, it has seen many modifications and improvements. Throughout its journey of gradual betterment, the importance of Instagram Hashtags remained consistent.
It is common knowledge that hashtags are used to make your content discoverable. The perfect hashtag can put a post in front of the right audience, whether they previously followed you or not!

Instagram Stories are nothing new, as they have been used by many people, even though these stories disappear in 24 hours. To make them more fun and increase the visibility of the profile, Instagram later added a feature called, “Instagram Highlights.”

Instagram Highlights are groups of stories that can be created as folder sections on your Instagram profiles. Once a story is posted, it can be saved in a Highlight, like a folder, that will be displayed on your Instagram profile.

There is an option to archive the stories and in the future create highlights from the saved stories in the archive too.

Now the question arises that why these Instagram Highlights are so Important?

The thing is that the Instagram Stories have become a major portal for varied brands to connect, engage and gain tangible results from their digital marketing ventures. Instagram stories used for business can surge your competitive advantages to newer heights!

So using the Highlights can further enhance your purpose as they let you use this format to tell an ongoing story, make your stories reachable to new followers, promote your previous activities posted in the stories, showcase your services or products in a categorized manner, and provide a library format of all the useful content that you have already shared.

Also read: Instagram gearing to come up with a new feature - MIRROR

Now think about Instagram letting you add location and hashtags to your Story Highlights – Just imagine the effect it will have on your overall content because the importance of Instagram Hashtags cannot be disregarded. These hashtags are one of the most effective ways to engage more audience on your Instagram posts. Statistically speaking, a post with at least one Instagram hashtag averages 12.6 percent more engagement than posts without a hashtag. So, there is no denying the worth of using proper hashtags for your posts in a strategic manner, so that you can get more followers, improve your posts’ engagement rates, and build a community around your business with proper marketing.

The use of relevant, targeted hashtags on your posts and stories is still one of the best ways to get discovered by new audiences on Instagram already, and a recent development, as spotted by Jane Manchun Wong, is making rounds that the Facebook-owned app is planning to allow Location and up to four Hashtags to your Story Highlights now will up your game to the next level!

Imagine, how amazing it will be!

This can make more engagement possible, with more followers, and more clientele for your business.

The date of launch for this valued feature has not been announced yet but keeping the record of Instagram's constant efforts towards advancement in mind, this feature will likely be added very soon.

Excited, aren’t you?

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