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Facebook Shuts Down the Instagram Lite App, Here's Why?

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In the last few years, some of the social media platforms have tried to get users from the developing markets which have low-end hardware through the ‘lite’ versions of their apps. However, the social media giant, Facebook has decided to discontinue its Instagram Lite. The company is now redirecting users to install the main Instagram app.

The lite version of Instagram and other apps are like the managed WebView browser with some additional elements to it. Initially, it was first tested in June 2018 in Mexico and later was introduced to many other regions.

A Facebook's spokesperson informed TechCrunch that they are "rolling back the test of the Instagram Lite app". However, Facebook suggested that users can head over to Instagram's regular app instead to socialize. Facebook also explained that it’ll take lessons from the Instagram Lite "test", plus, the company might introduce an improved Lite version, in the future.

According to Android Police, the app was last updated by the company in October 2019 and till April 12, 2020, it has over one million downloads, before it was shut down. The company has not mentioning any specific reason for shutting it down.


The Instagram Lite app users are now expected to move towards the full app of the social platform. If anyone still wants to continue having the same experience of a lite version app, they can open Instagram.com in their browsers. From there, add an app’s shortcut to the home screen and it would function the same a the lite version of Instagram.

Facebook Shuts Down the Instagram Lite App, Here's Why?

Read next: Instagram Tests Stories With Quick Switch

Google Duo to Massively Increase Maximum Participants in Video Calls to Compete With Zoom

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The coronavirus pandemic that we are currently going through is having a serious impact on pretty much every single walk of life that’s out there. The tech industry has been scrambling to keep up with higher demands for delivery service apps, livestreaming as well as video conferencing, all of which can be enormously useful in a situation such as this one where people are being forced to look into staying at home for the foreseeable future.

The video conferencing app known as Zoom has been making a lot of headway, becoming pretty much the standard app that people tend to use for things like this. This has made big name tech companies scramble to make it so that they can remain competitive in this regard, and Google has managed to do so with Google Duo. However, Google Duo, which was launched in April last year, did not allow all that many participants (around a dozen) which is why Google is testing an update in Duo app to make it so that up to 32 participants at a time can now be involved in the video conference.

This is going to make the app a highly competitive platform on the market, and it will be quite difficult for Zoom as well as for Facebook to compete with Google in this manner. Google Duo is also going to have unique AR lenses that will correspond to your movements, giving Due an edge that other apps might not have.

It will be interesting to see how apps are forced to innovate in order to remain competitive, and this will only be the best thing people can do for the consumers that are out there all of whom would be quite happy to continue using better and better apps as time goes by.


Google Duo to Massively Increase Maximum Participants in Video Calls to Compete With Zoom

Read next: Survey Reveals 9 In 10 Consumers Buy From Brands They Follow On Social Media Platforms

Microsoft rolls out the “Reply All Storm Protection” feature finally, and it is great news for organizations and companies

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In 2019, Microsoft had announced that it was testing the “Reply All Storm Protection” feature to help avoid irrelevant email storming and inbox spamming, especially in a large organization.

In a new tech community update the tech giant has announced that this feature is now available for all Office 365 users throughout the world.

Finally, users of Microsoft Outlook can take a sigh of relief! For decades, many organizations have been facing this problem. One clumsy employee in every organization keeps sending irrelevant emails by accidentally selecting “Reply All,” while spamming the inboxes of all carbon-copied co-workers, as well as slowing down the company servers. This affects the continuity of business and sometimes can even throttle the entire organization’s email for a while.

As mentioned before, this is a hassle that many Outlook users have been facing for a long time, and there have been many complaints to resolve this issue as well. Many people shifted their company servers to other email providers just because of this annoying issue.

So, it was high time that Microsoft acted to provide a solution!

Initially, this feature is going to benefit larger organizations having large distribution lists.

An NDR will be sent to the sender, along with blocking an attempt to reply all if 10-reply-all emails are sent over 5000 recipients in the period of one hour.

This thread will remain blocked for 4 hours until.

Microsoft aims to make this feature available for a broader range of Outlook 365 users with time. It plans to improve it more with usage telemetry and customer feedback. This will help them bring all possible enhancements to improve the accuracy in the detection of a reply all storm, add admin customizable thresholds and tweak with the duration of the block, while also producing reports and notifications for reply all storm.

A fun fact is that Microsoft itself faces this issue of reply storm all the time, but they are very happy and satisfied with the impact of the first version of this feature. This has made them pretty confident that this feature will benefit other organizations too.

Although Microsoft took a long time to finally come up with a solution to this problem, it is still better to be late than never. The world nowadays uses email as a valuable tool for business workplaces, and inbox storming is the last thing that anyone wants to hamper their work speed and affect their vitality and efficacy.



Read next: People Using Microsoft’s Password-less Login Solutions Have Now Increased To 150 Million

Twitter is planning to roll out a new retweets counter and a separate tab for Android devices

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According to Jane Manchun Wong, a reverse engineer who discovers and reports experimental features in various applications, Twitter is testing something new and profoundly interesting.

It seems that in the future, users will be able to get a counter that will not only show the number of retweets to one of their tweets, but the number of comments will also be shown and possibly relevant comments.

This counter is separate from the current retweets counter, but it will be there underneath your post just like the current one.

Having both counters, the current one, and the new one does not make much sense at the moment. So, how it will play out and how Twitter sets them in working is something that can be judged only once and if it rolls out eventually.

Apart from this, Wong also reports that Twitter is testing on implementing a retweets tab page for Androids.

Retweets tabbed page will list and organize systematically all the retweets with comments and retweets without comments. This will help you understand the importance and relevance of each retweet and whom you should respond to promptly.

This feature sounds promising. It will not only provide a schematic view of your tweet, retweets-to-your-tweet, and comments, but it will also make interaction with people who retweet to your tweet easier.

The thing is, that we will have to wait to see its complete implications, and that can happen only when Twitter launches this feature.

There are many times when Twitter experiments with something, but later it does not roll out as per plans.

Right now, Twitter seems to be experimenting a lot. Recently, there was a report that Twitter is working on a warning message, which will prompt the tweeter to halt and re-think or re-phrase their text before hitting the post button. This warning is going to appear only in tweets that contain harmful language or hate content.

This feature is coming up in hopes to maintain a civilized decorum in the platform and to avoid as much Twitter wars as possible.

Now with these new retweets counter and tab page features in experiments too, it is quite evident that Twitter is striving hard to improve its platform, so that users get a great and smooth experience. Especially in these distressing times, when people are mentally exhausted with the damaging repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic. Twitter’s small efforts to provide ease to its users are certainly commendable.



Read next: Twitter issues warning to shut the site’s legacy theme once and for all in June 2020

Microsoft and Intel Will Soon Be Able To Convert Malware Into Images

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Over the years, malware has become one of the biggest threats to mankind majorly because of how it exists in the computer world and not many can spot it. However, Microsoft and Intel have just given a hope with their latest innovation that might make the situation better.

Both of the companies are now working on visualizing the malware through their collaboration with STAMINA (Static Malware-as-Image Network Analysis) - a project that is based on converting code into greyscale images just to make sure that deep learning systems could later study them.

Going deep into the further details of the approach, Microsoft and Intel are trying to make the binary form of an input file appear in a more simple stream of pixels which later would be turned into a picture with varying dimensions and file size. There is a trained neural network (currently under the testing phase) that will identify if anything affects the file.

Microsoft can collect large amounts of data from Windows Defender installations to train the AI system. The technology doesn’t need to fully recreate the virus with details in pixel because in case of large malware, translating the code into massive pictures doesn’t make sense.

STAMINA’s accuracy has been pretty great so far with 99% successful classification of malware and only 2.6% false-positive rates. But then at the same time, their system also becomes limited when it comes to dealing with large malware.


If the shortcomings can be solved refinement by Microsoft and Intel’s engineers, then we are definitely in for a big change. Majority of the malware depends heavily on the binary signatures or fingerprints. Hence, if the requirement turns up to getting sheer number of signatures, then trapping a user might just become very difficult.

With its effectiveness, anti-malware tools can also level up and minimize the chances of malware beating the defense systems provided by them.



Read next: Pirated Movies Might Give You Malware According to Microsoft

YouTube Keeps Boosting ‘Authoritative’ Mainstream Media Outlets Although Viewers Don’t Want To Watch Them, Says Susan Wojcicki

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YouTube and its executives have made it evident during the past few years that when it comes to news and ongoing events, YouTube’s suggestion tools will boost official mainstream media channels while suppressing independent YouTube creators covering that specific news.

Susan Wojcicki, CEO YouTube stated during an interview on the NY Times’ ‘Rabbit Hole’ Podcast, that most users of the platform don’t like to view these dependable news sources. Still, YouTube will continue to boost these sources anyhow.

She decided to start prioritizing authentic mainstream media outlets in the wake of an unfortunate event, which was executed in Nice, France, during 2016 on July 14 (Bastille Day). Wojcicki stated that she thought users need to know about the attack and decided that users in France would see content related to the attack on the homepage. YouTube started to prioritize content from authentic sources when French people searched about the attack.

The company’s engineers warned Wojcicki that content from mainstream media channels was not getting that much engagement, and told her that users don’t actually want to view those mainstream ‘authoritative’ channels. Yet, she decided that YouTube will keep displaying videos to users from authentic sources. Wojcicki replied to the engineers that it is their duty to keep the users informed about what is happening in the world.

According to Wojcicki, it was the first time YouTube started pushing ‘relevant’ information to its users even if they didn’t want to view it. Authentic sources are now ten times more likely to top search results regarding any news since Wojcicki made this decision. While YouTube does not even suggest videos from independent YouTubers related to some news.

Even though users don’t want to view these authoritative sources, their views have been boosted by about 75% since the start of this year due to YouTube’s constant suggestions and promotion of these sources in search.


The COVID-19 news shelf, which pushes content from mainstream media channels onto YouTube users through the homepage, has been viewed more than ten billion times now. It shows how aggressively the platform is boosting these unpopular authentic mainstream media outlets.

According to Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer at YouTube, the platform will not be changing its approach towards who gets to cover any sort of news any time soon. Recent comments from Mohan also states that YouTube’s attitude towards independent YouTube content creators who cover any news will also not be changing in the near future.

Last month, Mohan, during an interview, stated that independent creators are not able to provide context on the news they are covering. Hence, it is necessary to suppress these creators ‘espousing’ judgments ‘in their basement.’



Read next: YouTube Will Facilitate Off Platform Subscriptions for News Publishers

Google’s New “Grow With Google” Program Could Help Those Laid Off Due to Coronavirus

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Most people are on lockdown right now, and the fact of the matter is that in a lot of ways the damage that the coronavirus has done has to do with the economy even more so than human lives at this current point in time, although the situation could get much worse for both if serious precautions are not taken. A lot of people have found themselves to be unemployed due to widespread layoffs, but the good news is that Google might be helping a lot of people out in this regard by providing a resource that everyone can utilize: a program that can enable you to acquire digital skills.

The reason behind why this program is so useful has to do with the fact that learning new skills can help you get more jobs, and part of this digital skills program that is being called “Grow With Google” are courses that can tell you how to find new jobs in the first place as well as courses that can teach you how to run a small business of your own.

This program won’t just be useful for people that are looking for jobs either. Being under lockdown means that you don’t really have all that many activities that you can end up partaking in, which means that if you wanted to pass the time constructively you might want to look into opportunities that are not going to be immediately apparent. Growing With Google can help you pass the time and learn some things along the way, and everyone knows that learning can be a lot of fun so figuring out how you would want to take part in something like this is the sort of thing that you might actually want to take part in.



Read next: Google’s Rising Retail Trends data helps consumers make their shopping lists more effectively amid the coronavirus pandemic

Snapchat Attempts to Aid Victims of Domestic Violence With In-App Support

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While the lockdown is a great vacation for a lot of people out there, the fact of the matter is that there are a lot of people that are living in abusive environments who are not quite able to get the same kind of results out of the life that they are living.

Domestic violence is higher than ever before, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that abusers are staying at home all day which would frustrate anyone except that abusers tend to take out their frustration violently on those that are around them and this is essentially what is leading to much higher rates of domestic violence all in all.

Most of the time if you would like to ensure that things go better for you, you would have to call a domestic violence hotline. However, due to the upswing in incidents, these hotlines are being overwhelmed with calls. Snapchat has decided to step in by providing resources that people can use within the app, resources that bear in mind the fact that domestic violence victims need to be discreet about what they are trying to do and want to make it so that their abusers don’t end up finding out about what is going on.

This is part of a wider initiative that Snapchat has been taking part in, one that they are referring to as the “Here For You” initiative. The resources to help domestic violence victims have been developed in association with the National Network to End Domestic Violence which lends it a fair amount of credibility. This is just one example of how tech companies are attempting to make it so that the lockdown can end up becoming easier for people to go through which is a very important part of helping people get to the other side in one piece.



Read next: A new Lens for Snapchat in recognition to Damien Hirst’s Spin Art

Facebook To Add Dedicated Business Inbox In The Messenger App

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By now, Facebook has pretty much understood that post coronavirus, E-commerce is the way forward for majority of the businesses. Therefore, catching up with the trend well before time, Facebook is about to add a dedicated business inbox section in the Messenger App which will bring in more ease for business owners who previously wished to interact with their customers directly via Messenger.

This is a vital addition to the list of features that Facebook is constantly working on to improve the business-consumer interaction on the platform. The social media giant has already announced that the business inbox will come out as a part of the larger update of the Messanger app while ensuring that all of the local establishments take advantage of it.

Prior to this, Facebook started off releasing features for the business community during COVID-19 with the “Support Small Business” sticker on Instagram. Yes, the same sticker that now allows you to tag your favorite business pages in any of your Stories.



With that Instagram also highlighted that during the pandemic, the company will try its best to show some of the highlights of the posts in a dedicated Story which will also appear at the top of everyone’s feed.

For the similar effort, Facebook users also had the option to use the hashtag #SupportSmallBusiness in order to tag restaurants, retailers, and other local businesses.

Other sources also suggest that Facebook will soon add in-app resources to Facebook and Instagram which will give owners the access to information regarding small loans, Facebook grants, and the small gift cards.

Would you like a future where Facebook merges everything for small businesses online?

Read next: Job Application Questions, New Cover Photo Option and More coming to Facebook Soon!

Pinterest Rolls Out Its Business Community Hub Which Aims To Facilitate Communication Among Business Owners

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Pinterest has announced the release of an updated version of its Pinterest Business Community platform. The Pinterest Business Community platform focuses on facilitating discussions related to the platform’s tactics and various other business tips and tricks among the platform’s users.

The Pinterest Business Community platform provides links to both consultation and the help guides which will help the users to maximize their Pin presence. The platform also includes a separate place where you will find case studies on Pin campaigns that were successful. You will also find a community notice board on the platform. Users will be able to contribute to discussions related to Pins in the community notice board.

Users can also sign up if they want to contribute to conversations with their Pinterest business profiles. If you want to sign-up with your Pinterest business profile, follow the links through, and log in to Pinterest. Once you have logged into your Pinterest account, you can also customize your avatar. Now, you are ready to dive in and contribute to the conversations.

You will be able to share expert advice with other business owners and Pinterest creators. The platform will provide users with the opportunity to help each other during the pandemic and swap some real-talk.

The Pinterest Business Community platform is user-friendly, and you will see three main options on the platform’s menu. The first section says, ‘Support and questions,’ while the second and third says, ‘Business chat,’ and ‘Creator chat,’ respectively.

Within the support and questions section, you can get some helpful support from other members of the Pinterest community. The business chat section will display you tips and tricks from various brands within the platform’s community. If you want to share your own tips regarding any business, you can also share them using the business chat section.

Lastly, the creator chat section is the place where users can ask questions from other members of the community. We can say that it is the section for questions, inspirations, and anything that falls in between them.

The Pinterest Business Community platform is not entirely new according to some users. Some Pinterest users had access to the Pinterest Business Community platform since January based on discussions on the notice board. However, Pinterest has now made the Pinterest Business Community platform available to all users. But these users must have a Pinterest business profile to access the Pinterest Business Community platform. So, if you are a business owner struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, you might want to get some tips and tricks to improve your business’s performance amid the pandemic. If you also want to know how to perform something on Pinterest, the Pinterest Business Community platform might be helpful for you.

There is another reason that you should consider the Pinterest Business Community platform. The shopping-ready audience of Pinterest is continuously growing during the pandemic, says the latest reports. Given the growing audience on Pinterest’s platform, the Pinterest Business Community platform is definitely worth considering.



Hat Tip: SMT.

Read next: Pinterest’s New Board Features Will Make Quarantine a Breeze

Twitter Will Now Label And Add Warning Messages To Tweets Spreading Misleading And Disputed Coronavirus Information

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On Monday, Twitter announced that it will start labeling tweets making disputed or misleading claims related to coronavirus. These labels will redirect you to pages curated by Twitter or some external sources providing authentic and related information about those misleading claims. The platform also announced that it will add warning messages to those tweets which will cover the tweet. The users will have to tap again on the tweet to remove those warning messages and view the content in that tweet.

Twitter shared screenshots displaying that tweets containing coronavirus misinformation will be labeled with a link. The link says ‘Get the facts about Covid-19.’ According to Twitter, warning messages may be added to some tweets based on the type of misinformation it contains and the platform’s ‘prosperity for harm’ policy. For instance, some tweets may claim information that directly conflicts with health officials’ guidance, and Twitter will label these tweets with a warning message.

The warning message will state, ‘some or all of the information this tweet contains conflicts with public health experts guidance about the coronavirus, learn more.’ The platform previously used to label tweets spreading manipulated information such as ‘deepfake’ videos. During March, Twitter expanded its definition of harm and included information that conflicts directly with advice from authentic health information sources.

This allowed the platform to remove tweets which it believed could risk the health of the public, and it also gave it permission to add the ‘public interest notice’ to posts made by world leaders that might have violated the coronavirus guidelines.

Recently, a video related to the coronavirus from a popular vaccine conspiracist, and discredited scientist has spread across several platforms, and it seems that Twitter has hurriedly announced the policy to label tweets with coronavirus misinformation. The video has convinced a part of its authenticity which resulted in its rapid spread across social media platforms.

Twitter recently announced that the platform will evaluate individual clips from that video to assess if they are violating its rules. Twitter is not removing all the tweets with links to that video as some users may use the link to dispute the content.

The company did not specify how it evaluated how the tweets should be labeled. The micro-blogging platform is improving its internal system to actively monitor COVID-19 related content. Twitter also stated that the internal system may evolve and the company may add new labels.



Read next: Twitter issues warning to shut the site’s legacy theme once and for all in June 2020

WhatsApp Could Become An Alternative To Zoom As It Will Soon Allow 50-Participants Video Conversations On Desktop

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WhatsApp might soon allow you to add more than 4 dozen participants in a video conversation on the desktop, which means that you will be able to make video calls with up to 50 participants on desktop too. If WhatsApp is able to do so, it will provide us an alternative to established video conferencing tools such as Google Meet, Skype, and Zoom for our digital meetup demands.

The eagle-eyed researchers at WABetainfo, the most popular WhatsApp feature tracking site, spotted the new function. Facebook recently released the new Messenger Rooms feature, which allows users to make video calls with up to 50 participants at a time. WhatsApp menu will display new shortcuts that will redirect the users to these Facebook Messenger Rooms. Users will be able to create rooms and send an invitation to other users to join the video conference. You can also create a room directly from WhatsApp by using the new option.

Facebook recently added a significant update to its WhatsApp messaging service allowing the users to make video calls with up to eight participants on smartphone devices. But these new shortcuts which Facebook is soon adding into its WhatsApp messaging service will provide users with an alternate option if they want to invite more participants to their video conferences.

Although Facebook will also make the new option available for iOS and Android users, but it’s the desktop support that makes it a game-changing tool. Desktop support of this feature makes it a viable alternative to popular video conferencing service providers such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Skype.

As the usage of video conferencing tools has surged amid the coronavirus lockdowns, Zoom has gained much popularity due to its user-friendly interface. It seems that Facebook is giving a fierce competition to Zoom by introducing improved video conferencing features, and this new feature providing users with the ability to make video calls with up to 50 people directly from WhatsApp will surely gain much popularity.


Facebook released the Messenger Rooms feature back in April. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook indicated during the release that the company would provide Messenger Rooms’ support across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and its Portal gadgets. Now, it seems that Messenger Rooms will be supported across Facebook’s family of apps sooner rather than later.

We are not yet sure when Facebook will make the option available in its WhatsApp messaging service or when the option will be available for public use. While WhatsApp menus with these new shortcuts can be seen in the install files for the latest WhatsApp beta version update, the shortcuts are not active. These new shortcuts are also not integrated into WhatsApp’s interface. There are no words from the company when these shortcuts will be active and integrated into the surface. We will update our readers once when we come to know more regarding this aspect.



Read next: WhatsApp Might Be Accessible on Multiple Devices Simultaneously Soon

Google Will Now Allow Businesses To Feature Gift Card And Donation Links To Their Public Business Listings

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Local businesses are facing a lot of difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic. As the Covid-19 has forced lockdowns around the globe, local businesses are experiencing a huge reduction in their sales. Many businesses have started to sell gift cards as a way for consumers to offer extra support amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Google will soon allow the business owners to feature links to gift cards and other donation methods on their public business listings. Google’s initiative will help businesses to offer extra support during the crisis. You can see these business listings on Google Search and Google Maps. The business owners will now be able to add links to campaigns, asking the consumers for gift card purchases and donations, to these public business listings.

Business owners will also be able to share an additional message with the consumers in their posts to inform them how the donations and funds will be used by the businesses.

If you are a business owner, adding gift card links to your public listing will allow the consumers to buy gift cards for your business. These gift card links can go to a provider supported by your business, or directly on a page on your business website.

The donation links which you have featured on your public listing will redirect the consumers to a fundraising page. The consumers will be able to donate to your business on those fundraising pages. These donation links can also go to a supported provider just like the gift card links.

If you want to add these links to gift card purchases and donations, and the messages informing consumers how the donations will be put to use, visit the Google My Business platform. You can add these links from your Google business dashboard. However, Google will not make them available for public use until later this month. Google has not yet shared the finished design which the end-users will encounter.

Moreover, the new feature will only be made available to a subset of businesses at the roll-out, as Google is working to ‘protect against misuse.’ This shows that the company does not want the feature to be misused for personal benefits, and aims at helping the struggling businesses. The company does not plan to charge any fees from business owners or customers. However, the third-party partners may charge any fees.


At release, Google has partnered with GoFundMe and PayPal for funds and donations. According to Google, business owners can directly link their gift card offerings with one of the company’s eligible partners. Google’s eligible partners include Clover, Toast, Vagaro, and Square.

The company is initially rolling out these donation links to Google business listings in countries such as Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the US. The company plans to make these donate links available to more merchants, partners, and countries in the upcoming few weeks.



Read next: Google’s New “Grow With Google” Program Could Help Those Laid Off Due to Coronavirus

Microsoft to Roll Out Latest Edge Browser With New, More Accessible Windows Update

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A Windows Update is not the sort of thing that most people would be all that interested in, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that it doesn’t really seem to do anything and it also makes your system somewhat unusable for the duration, during which the update is getting downloaded.

Now, the important thing to realize is that Windows updates are definitely the sort of thing that you should go for because of the fact that they have a tendency to improve security functions and can lead to a more stable experience for you all in all, but at the end of the day most users need to be enticed into downloading such updates and this is why Microsoft has made some changes in this regard.

For one thing, the next Windows update is going to involve a widespread roll out of the Edge browser in its latest Chromium based form. This indicates that the browser is now stable enough to roll out through an update, and you will find that the classic Edge browser that you might have scene is now going to end up being replaced with the Chromium based version which is faster, more efficient, more stable and is generally a decent enough browser that it is fair to say that Microsoft might finally be offering a browser that is actually worth using rather than a browser that would never end up being anyone’s first choice in this regard.


Screenshot: Windowslatest

One of the most frequent complaints that people tend to have regarding Windows updates tends to do with the fact that they often take up too much of your bandwidth. Regular updates frequently go into the hundreds of megabytes in size, and some updates are known to contain gigabytes and if they take up all of your bandwidth this would mean that you can’t use anything else on your system.

With improved Delivery Optimization feature users can control how much of their bandwidth the update is able to access in background and foreground. This is going to increase the amount of time any update might take, especially if you look into providing the update download with a very small bandwidth, but this really won’t matter because of the fact that the rest of the things you are doing that rely on the internet would be in no way affected.

If you want to change bandwidth setting for Windows updates you can do so by going into "Update & Security" in PC "Settings", selecting the Delivery Optimization and then Advanced Options and then making the requisite changes in this regard.



Read next: Microsoft and Intel Will Soon Be Able To Convert Malware Into Images

A New Survey Shows The Impacts Of Coronavirus On Freelancing

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As the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, remote working has become the new norm and many freelancers wonder what will be the future of freelancing. Payoneer conducted a survey, asking more than 1,000 freelancers from over one hundred countries, that how the coronavirus has affected the demand for their business, their hourly fees, and what are their expectations regarding freelancing once the pandemic is under control.

The respondents provided Payoneer with some unique insights about the opportunities and risks they expect will arise due to the coronavirus, and what they believe would be the future of freelancing after the coronavirus outbreak is under control.

Payoneer published a blog post providing three takeaways from their report. Initially, they asked the freelancers about the variation in demand for their services during the last three months. Around 32% of them stated that the demand for their services has been reduced greatly due to coronavirus. Although, 23% of them said that they experienced no variation in the demand for their skills while according to 17% of them, the demand for their services has been increased during the last three months.

Moreover, freelancers working with clients from Europe or North America reported the most significant decrease in demand. While those freelancers working with clients from Australia or Asia reported less slowdown in demand for their services. Australia and Asia are regions that were first affected by the coronavirus. This implies that the demand for freelancers will revive in the regions which slowly start to recover from the coronavirus.

Although the demand for some freelancers has reduced, it seems that the hourly rates remain stable. According to the survey, around 74% of the freelancers stated that their hourly rates continued to remain the same. Only 23% stated that they had to reduce their hourly rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that freelancers don’t feel any need to change their rates and are pretty self-assured that their fees offer significant value.


Lastly, they asked the freelancers what are their expectations about freelancing once the situation is under control. Most of the freelancers are concerned whether the economy will prevail as the coronavirus has greatly impacted the global trade adversely. They asked the freelancers that whether they expect the demand for their services will increase or not. A total of 53% freelancers stated that they expect the demand to increase after the outbreak is under control, while 21% expect that the demand will remain the same as it was before the coronavirus outbreak.

Overall, Payoneer's survey suggests that although the demand for freelancing services has been reduced in the short-term, a lot of freelancers are optimistic about the future of freelancing post-coronavirus.



Read next: Coronavirus Scammers Take Advantage of Fiverr and Other Platforms

Former Google CEO Gives Predictions for Post-Coronavirus Office Culture

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Now that the shock surrounding the severity of the coronavirus pandemic that we are currently going through has worn off to a certain extent, people have started attempting to predict how life will change after the pandemic has passed. Many have posited that more people will start working from home which could reduce the office space required for companies. However, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has provided a counterargument for this, stating that he thinks office space will be at a premium in a post-coronavirus office culture.

A big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that people would most likely want to continue social distancing for quite a long time, and as social distancing would end up becoming such a high priority for so many people it seems likely that companies would have to invest in a lot more office space if they want people to start coming in to work again, otherwise it is likely that people might not come to the offices at all and this simply cannot be feasible since a lot of the things that need to be done can only get done if people are physically present.

Schmidt also made wider predictions, some of which pertain to urban planning. Cities tend to be extremely concentrated in terms of population and this is because of the fact that real estate and space in general costs a lot of money. However, as people start to take social distancing more seriously and would most likely want to look into alternatives in this regard, cities might just end up changing according to the former Google CEO. Only time will tell whether or not his predictions will end up coming true, but for now everything mostly just seems like it’s up in the air.



Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Read next: Here's why a majority of U.S. consumers are wary of contact-tracing tools

Alternate means of earning for influencers and creators amid the global pandemic

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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world has changed in more ways than we can even imagine. Things are different than what they were just a few months ago before the pandemic hit the world.

Amongst many things that have been affected, influencer marketing is on top. The trends in marketing have changed. What used to be an ad-centric business previously has now become more consumer-centric. Brands have cut down their costs on ads and many digital creators are focusing more on marketing through personal engagement with their followers, especially on platforms like YouTube and Instagram.

Many ad production houses have to shut down due to the global lockdown and social distancing measures, and this has prompted marketers and brands to pave new ways for influencers and other digital content creators.

Recently, media company Fine Brothers Entertainment’s CEO has said that revenue generation through YouTube alone is not advisable anymore, and people need to diversify their means of earning. This stands true for influencer marketers as well because direct ad revenue generation has become quite unreliable in these unprecedented circumstances.

Luckily for influencers, there are several ways through which they can diversify, as well as maintain a steady flow of income, which are as follows:

Sending personalized video messages through the celebrity shout-out app known as Cameo is one of the best ways to earn on the side.

For the first time in history, all celebrities, athletes, famous chefs, and famous influencers are all bound to sit at home due to the social distancing and lockdown implementations. The general public is also relying more heavily on mobile tech apps and social media platforms than ever before. Having nothing much to do at home, it is the ideal opportunity for these influencer celebrities to cash on and send personalized video messages like a special Happy birthday message to people and earn through it.

Creating a subscription-based membership program through platforms like Twitch, YouTube or third parties like Patreon is another wonderful idea.

It allows influencers to make money by direct revenue through fans who sign up to get access to some extra content or simply by supporting a creator they like and follow. Most of these followers belong to Generation Z and Millennials, who have grown up using YouTube and other video streaming apps. And it is very natural for them to show their support to content creators by following them and subscribing to their content. Therefore, through membership programs, it is easy to get them to sign up for more interesting content from the creators. So, it is a win-win for both, the creator as well as the subscriber.

One way to earn more revenue for influencers is by selling direct-to-consumer products like merch and transitioning followers into customers. Many famous influencers and celebrities work around this idea. Through affiliate links and close study, they get the idea about the interests of their followers. Before launching their products like clothes, or perfumes, they create an online buzz by posting videos about their upcoming products. They also create private content for their followers who sign up with them. So, selling products directly to the followers also is one of the top ways through which influencers can earn profits.

Selling a course, program, or personalized coaching on platforms like YouTube is like becoming the sponsor of yourself. It lets the influencers market their products and services, and earn a great revenue through it.

Micro-influencers can earn commission through affiliate programs. By linking their products with affiliate links, they can give the followers access to make purchases within an app.

RewardStyle, Rakuten, Magic Links, and Pepperjam, are some of the top most popular fashion affiliate programs.

Working through affiliate links gives an added benefit for marketers as well as influencers as the affiliate channels provide many aspiring influencers and new talent a ground where they can prove their mettle.

These channels also pave a launching pathway for these influencers when they can eventually start a sponsored campaign relationship with different brands that can pay them on a commission basis.

New studies show that the trend of live streaming is surging during the lockdown and social distancing implementations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Keeping this in mind, without any doubt, live-video marketing on social media platforms has especially become a good way to earn for gamers and many other influencers who do not rely on brand deals, but on engagement with consumers through live streaming. Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram all are providing monetization policies for content creators for live marketing through video streaming.

Digital rights management companies like SuperBam partner with influencers and help them earn additional revenue while also taking care of issues like video content piracy and reposting without permission on YouTube. So, this helps influencers and content creators in both ways.

Last but not the least, another effective way to earn is to start creating content for brands, as many marketers are now hiring influencers for content creation. Ad production has ceased due to the closure of production houses amid the coronavirus pandemic, therefore, marketers have realized that digital creators and influencers with technical production skills like animation, photography, and video making and editing skills can do the job as well as a full-blown production house could do. Provided that these influencers have a fully equipped home office, which luckily most top-notch YouTube creators and influencers already have.



Read next: Marketers and consumers favor Facebook and Instagram over other social media platforms according to a new survey

Good News! Google Finally Updated Gmail With Dark Mode For iOS Devices

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Apple released a new dark mode on iPhones when it rolled out the iOS 13 version update for its iPhone devices. So, after the update, all app developers had to release updates for their apps to align them with the new dark mode look of Apple’s OS.

Google is one of the most significant app developers for mobile across the globe, and the company has created some of the most-popular apps for iPhone users. It seems that Google was not very keen on updating its apps to align them with the new look of Apple’s operating system. This is the reason why Google’s apps such as Gmail have been running on iOS without a dark mode for a long time now.

For many users, it was pretty frustrating as everything else on their iPhones was offering dark mode except Google’s Gmail. As Gmail is one of those apps that we can’t live without these days, so many users had no other choice than to just use the older version of Gmail- the light standard mode Gmail has been offering for a long time.

So, here’s the breaking news of this year, Google has finally announced to release updated Gmail for iOS with the dark mode theme in it. The company is gradually rolling out the update, and some users might not be able to use the dark mode currently. But, a lot of users across the globe have reported that they can enable the newly released dark mode theme in Gmail on their iPhones.

If you want to enable the dark mode theme in your Gmail app on iOS, go to the account settings, and there you will find a theme switcher dedicated to changing the theme. You can enable the dark mode by tapping on this dedicated theme switcher.

iPhone users across the globe have been waiting for Google to roll out the most awaited dark mode theme. Currently, the good news is that the company is releasing the dark mode theme in Gmail for iOS after the consumers had to wait for more than six months since Apple released the iOS 13 update for iPhones.




Apple announced to release the iOS 13 update for iPhone users during September 2019. So, it is evident that Google took a lot of time to roll out a dark mode theme for its Gmail app users with an Apple device.

Google will most likely roll out the new feature gradually, and the company did not mention the dark mode theme is the rollout notes of the latest update of the Gmail app. It seems that Gmail app users with an iPhone will still have to wait for a few more days until the company makes the feature live for everyone.


Screenshot: Twitter / @amrancz.

Read next: Former Google CEO Gives Predictions for Post-Coronavirus Office Culture

Google Meet Is Now Free For Everyone

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Two weeks ago, Google announced a surprise for all of the internet users by stating that Google Meet would soon become free for everyone to use. And now as the surge in videoconferencing is high with every passing day, Google is ready to roll out with free availability.

Google Meet was initially built only for enterprises but as the world is currently operating more on video calls, Google knows that they can earn more by simply opening the platform for all users coming through meet.google.com, iOS or even Android.

The decision has been a result of some amazing results that Google enjoyed during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Back in March Google first made Meet for all G-suite users. By doing so, the company saw daily usage grow by 30X as more than 3 million new users came to the platform every day last month.

As Google plans to cash in more, therefore along with expanding the access of Meet, they have also decided to ramp up the software by adding new useful features and providing a direct access to users via Gmail as well.

It has become pretty obvious that video-conferencing tools are becoming a software for survival during the pandemic. People are finding creative ways to stay social and productive all with the help of what either Zoom is providing or Google’s new version of Meet promises to and even Facebook has also introduced Messenger Rooms — a consumer-focused video conferencing tool.

Looking at the forefront, one may say that every tech giant is aiming to compete for dominating in the video call category but as every platform is focused to make their own way into the new culture, video calling in the end for sure would be more fun for users only. So, the competition is a good sign and one can trust Google to bring different and useful innovations - just like before.



Read next: Google Will Now Allow Businesses To Feature Gift Card And Donation Links To Their Public Business Listings

Twitter Shakes Up Corporate Culture By Allowing Indefinite Work From Home Privileges to Employees

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One of the major changes that is occurring in the world at this current point in time has to do with the fact that there are a lot of alterations being made to corporate culture. Whereas previously coming in to work at an office was a very obviously necessary requirement of the job, these days the norm is to work from home.

It should be noted that this trend is due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the fact of the matter is that people are starting to notice the benefits of working from home. Twitter is leading the charge in this regard by announcing that all of its employees would be able to work from home indefinitely, taking the lockdown situation as an excuse to test this kind of work methodology out and finding it to be more or less useful in a wide variety of ways.

While there are going to be a lot of employees who would have to come to the office at least on an occasional basis, many if not most employees would definitely choose to work from home if this is the option that is given to them, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that it leads to a happier and healthier work/life balance, something that a lot of studies are proving to be true.

Twitter has always lead the way with progressive practices especially regarding its employees. However, just because of the fact that it is doing something that employees would like does not mean that this is a smart decision from a business standpoint. Only time will tell whether or not allowing employees to work from home is the right decision, or if it might end up bringing productivity down by a large margin.


Photo: GLENN CHAPMAN via Getty Images

Read next: Twitter Will Now Label And Add Warning Messages To Tweets Spreading Misleading And Disputed Coronavirus Information
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