The Tech Landscape #187 đ
Digital eyeshadow, Search redesigned, and Taboola spreads: this is issue 187 of The Tech Landscape, a weekly collection of news about consumer digital technology. Stories are selected by me, Peter Gasston, with a little insight and opinion where appropriate.
Facebookâs WhatsApp communication SNAFU (see last weekâs edition) lead to reportedly millions of users leaving WhatsApp to join rivals Signal and Telegram.
While Iâm 100% in favour of choice, I think there are some points to consider.
First, Signal and Telegram currently have no business model. Theyâre both philanthropically funded, which is greatâfor now. But at some point theyâll need to be independent, and if they canât make micropayments or donations work, that means attracting businesses, which will want data, so theyâll face the same issues Facebook faces today.
Second, not being WhatsApp doesnât mean not having to deal with all of WhatsAppâs problems. Groups will still spread disinformation and misinformation. Apple is under pressure to remove Telegram, which has public channels, from the App Store for hosting hate speech. Every platform is a nice place to begin with, until it isnât.
Third, apps with always-on encryption, like Signal, canât automatically monitor the sharing of abusive and other harmful images. Facebook was criticised by a House of Commons committee after it said that introducing end-to-end enryption would reduce the number of abuse cases it reported, but thatâs the cost of encryption. You can have full privacy or you can have automated monitoring, but you canât have both.
None of this is to say that people shouldnât switch platforms. Itâs just to point out that while Facebook (and Twitter) are the big targets at the moment, the problems they face arenât unique to them. Switching platforms kicks problems down the road, but theyâll be caught up with eventually.
Anyway, thatâs my two bobâs worth. Now, on with the news.
Everything
XR Pinterest added eyeshadow as a feature of its AR try-on tool. The cosmetics industry has (perhaps somewhat surprisingly) thrived during lockdowns thanks to virtual try-ons.
newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/pinterest-introduces-ar-try-on-for-eyeshadow-and-more-ways-to-shop-products-in-pins
Search Google gave mobile search a visual redesign. As youâd expect, thereâs an emphasis on making it easier to find the information you want (surely the objective of every previous redesign too?). The redesign is rolling out soon.
blog.google/products/search/mobile-redesign-2021/
Advertising Taboola announced the availability of its content in the Stories format. So now this blight on the Web can be better enjoyed on mobile too.
taboola.com/press-release/taboola-joins-snap-instagram-and-twitter-in-introducing-stories-offering-now-for-the-open-web
Gaming Fortnite dropped a load of football-related content into the game. It includes skins with the shirts of various clubs around the world, a PelĂ©-themed emote, and the PelĂ© Cup tournament where players can win the above. Fortnite says its about making the game âresonateâ beyond the US audience.
epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/the-beautiful-game-football-comes-alive-in-fortnite
Privacy Facebook announced Limited Login mode for app owners to allow their users to opt out of tracking. People choosing Limited Login wonât have their login data used for targeted advertising. Itâs only available to iOS developers (for now?).
developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2021/01/19/facebook-login-updates-new-limited-data-mode/
Accessibility Facebookâs automated image captioning is getting big upgrade. As well as recognising 10x more concepts than it could before, it can also reliably describe objectsâ position in the frame. Itâs a big deal for people with vision impairments who rely on audio descriptions.
tech.fb.com/how-facebook-is-using-ai-to-improve-photo-descriptions-for-people-who-are-blind-or-visually-impaired/
Advertising Pinterest announced a new âdynamic creativeâ tool for automatically generating ads from supplied assets and user insights. Facebook and Google (among others) offer similar tools, which lets advertisers easily create ads tailored to specific audiences.
socialmediatoday.com/news/pinterest-launches-new-dynamic-creative-automated-ad-targeting-and-creati/593527/
Messaging Beeper is a new messaging app which acts as a hub for all your messaging appsâincluding iMessage on Android. It will cost $10 a month, so I guess is aimed more at businesses than personal users.
9to5google.com/2021/01/21/beeper-app-pebble-founder-imessage-android/
Messaging Messaging app Signal is rolling out animated stickers and custom wallpapers. The app has picked up a number of new users since WhatsAppâs privacy communication SNAFU recently, now needs to add features to match it.
androidpolice.com/2021/01/22/signal-starts-catching-up-to-whatsapp-by-adding-custom-wallpapers-and-animated-stickers-apk-download/
Privacy Microsoft is changing its voice data collection setting to be off by default. Users who opt in may have anonymised voice clips sent to humans for review. Amazon, Apple, and Google all made similar privacy tweaks last year after a media hullabaloo.
blogs.microsoft.com/ai/microsoft-gives-users-control-over-their-voice-clips/
Gaming Opera Software bought YoYo Games, developer of the GameMaker Studio software. Opera is pushing into gaming, with the recent release of its Opera GX gamer-focused browser, as it sees opportunity in a niche.
blogs.opera.com/news/2021/01/opera-yoyo-games-gamemaker/
Browsers The Brave Browser implemented IPFS, a decentralised web server system. It means files arenât dependent on big server farms, making it harder to remove or block content, which makes the web more resilient. Itâs still very early days for IPFS to replace the architecture we use today, and wonât take off unless Chrome and Safari get involvedâwhich kind of illustrates the need for decentralisation.
brave.com/brave-integrates-ipfs/
Payments Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) launched a digital wallet. The Chinese digital payments market is 90% dominated by Alipay and WeChat Pay, but that other 10% is still a huge opportunity.
techcrunch.com/2021/01/19/douyin-e-wallet/
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