Instagram’s reportedly testing video co-watching feature

Instagram might be adopting a Facebook feature soon, further demonstrating how the company’s plans to standardize features across its apps. What’s coming to Instagram looks like Watch Party feature that lets groups watch videos together. Tipster and reverse-engineering specialist Jane Manchun Wong found a co-watch code for Instagram. Wong previously spotted the Messenger Watch Together code. The code she discovered this time mentions you can “cowatch content” that comes from a “Playlist” similar to the video queue Facebook Watch Party admins can line up. The users can also check out “Suggested” videos from Instagram. But it isn’t clear yet what exactly you could watch simultaneously. This feature could give IGTV the boost it needs. It also isn’t clear whether there will be a picture-in-picture feature so friends can see your reactions as you watch the same thing together. Instagram has refused to comment on this discovery.

Source: TechCrunch

Samsung Galaxy S10's stock camera app gets Instagram mode

Instagram’s Head of Product Adam Mosseri onstage at the Galaxy Unpacked event

It's been a common gripe that Instagram users on Android don't get a good experience on the app as Apple users do. Samsung and Instagram are hoping to change that for their users. The stock camera app on the Galaxy S10 will get a new Instagram mode. It's as accessible as the other modes you can see in the stock app. It'll let you shoot and upload directly to your Instagram stories. You can add stickers, use Instagram's editing tools, add text, hashtag, and more. Samsung claims it's the “best Instagram experience on a smartphone.”

Aside from that, Samsung is also sharing its camera tech via an open SDK for the camera app, allowing developers to use these new features in their own apps. Samsung announced partnerships with Snapchat, Snow, and Lime, promising its users can take as good photos in these apps as they would in the native camera app.

Source: The Verge

Facebook will let page admins reply to Instagram DMs right from FB

Looks like Facebook is taking that step further into integrating its services together. In a press release for its Facebook Communities Summit, the social media giant announced that Facebook Page administrators can now respond to Instagram Direct Messages right from their Facebook Page inbox. We already know Facebook has plans to unify its messaging apps, and this seems like the logical first step in that direction. Not only would it keep people in the Facebook site itself, but it would give them a competitive advantage over other services. It can offer shared analytics from the user interaction on these integrated offerings that could help the company monetize its services. But as Android Police points out, we’re hoping this doesn’t come at the expense of user experience.

Facebook’s looking to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger chats

BBC

Facebook is looking to compete with the likes of Google and Apple with its newest plans. The social media company is considering integrating its messaging services on Instagram with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The three services will remain as standalone apps, but each will be linked in a way that will let messages travel between the services. Facebook is said to be at the start of what it considers a “long process.” If successful, this means a Facebook user can communicate directly with someone who has a WhatsApp or Instagram account. The timeline to complete this project is end of 2019 or early next year.

What Facebook can gain with this project is it’ll no longer need to develop competing versions of new features (like Stories) or allow businesses to reach more potential customers across the different platforms with its ability to share data easily. Facebook wants people to spend more time on its products, and this is one way they think that could happen. "We want to build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private," said Facebook in a statement. "We're working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks." But this also raises a lot of questions, which Wired has detailed in this story.

Source: BBC