Facebook promises to scale back on ‘you are now connected’ Messenger reminders

With digital health and phone addiction a hot button item right now, things like constant notifications popping up are seen as ways to prolong use of apps and services. Facebook is seen as a bit of an offender in this respect. With two separate apps—for Messenger and the main Facebook app—we get tons of notifications from them, and some, as some users have complained, are “useless.” An example is the “You are now connected on Messenger” alert. It seems Facebook is hearing the complaints of users and are saying they’re going to cut back on these unnecessary reminders with the help of machine learning.

"We've found that many people have appreciated getting a notification when a friend joins Messenger." A representative said to TechCrunch. "That said, we are working to make these notifications even more useful by employing machine learning to send fewer of them over time to people who enjoy getting them less."

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Ubisoft CEO believes we’re down to the last generation of consoles before streaming takes over

We’re slowly noticing the transition of different segments into streaming instead of owning media, whether these be for music, TV shows, movies, etc. Gaming seems to be the next thing and one of the big names in the industry seems to think it’s almost upon us. Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot believes we’re down to one last generation before this will be completely replaced by the ability to stream games to a number of platform-agnostic devices.

“I think we will see another generation, but there is a good chance that step-by-step we will see less and less hardware,” Guillemot told Variety. “With time, I think streaming will become more accessible to many players and make it not necessary to have big hardware at home.”

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Yahoo Messenger has reached its end, officially shuts down on July 17th

Perhaps you’re like us who are hit by nostalgia of losing another one of the pioneers of the instant messaging segment. But with stiff competition coming from all sides and the inability of Yahoo to keep up, it doesn’t surprise us that Yahoo is finally closing the doors on Yahoo Messenger. It will officially shut down next month on July 17^th. It’s been 20 years since Messenger (originally Yahoo! Pager) launched and it offered not just instant messaging but file transfers and chat rooms as well. Desktop versions of the app have been shut down since mid-2016 but now all the remaining apps (those on iOS, Android, and web browser) will stop working, too.

After the shutdown, the apps will stop working and you won’t be able to sign in. If you want to extract your chat history, this option will be available for the next six months. You will need to sign into Yahoo’s downloader request site, verify your identity and then give your email address for where you want your chat log sent to. Yahoo doesn’t have an immediate replacement for Messenger outside out of its new chat service Squirrel, which launched in closed beta this May. Its focus is on group chats and it currently relies on invitations instead of going through your contacts to build the groups so we’re not sure if this is a worthy alternative. You’re rife with choice out there though so it might be high time you try something new.

Source: SlashGear