Category: APPS

Taking on Zoom and Slack? Google Gmail redesign integrates Chat, Meet & collaboration

Dianne Jacobs
Google Meet Gmail

Google is making its popular Gmail app more of a productivity powerhouse. The Alphabet subsidiary is incorporating more applications into the business version of Gmail so that users don’t need to switch to other apps or browser tabs, It could help keep employees satisfied with the company’s business software and not want to adopt alternative services, such as Slack or Zoom. Google seemingly has a big Gmail redesign in the works that could let you collaborate with colleagues, work on Google Docs, and talk over Google Meet all without leaving…

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Snapchat testing a TikTok-style navigation in Discover

Editor

Snapchat testing TikTok-style navigation in Discover Snapchat was launched in circa 2012 with the objective of communicating a full range of emotions through images. May years later, it has a range of features built around conversations originating from visual imagery. Although Snapchat has always been counted among the top social media apps with approximately 230 million daily active users across the world, it has never witnessed a moment of meteoric rise as other apps including Instagram and TikTok. As TikTok’s popularity now appears to be headed towards a downfall, other…

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Tiktok experiences brief outage, launches new Ad Platform amidst calls for ban

Editor
Tiktok experiences brief outage, launches new Ad Platform amidst calls for ban

TikTok has had a difficult week, to say the least and rival Instagram just made it much harder. For a few hours on Thursday afternoon, videos that appeared on TikTok user pages, following feeds, and the For You Page all displayed broken Like totals for some users across the globe. TikTok showed that these videos had zero likes. “Earlier today, some of our users experienced app issues around notifications, the display of likes and view counts, and trouble loading videos on some pages of the app,” TikTok said in a…

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Twitter might just launch a subscription platform, hints job listing

Editor
platform hint job Twitter CEO Voice Tweets Gryphon

Twitter appears to be having a subscription platform for its social networking service in the works. A new job listing reveals that Twitter has a new internal team, codenamed “Gryphon,” that is “building a subscription platform.” Twitter is currently recruiting engineers to join this subscription team, with employees collaborating closely with the company’s payments team. Shares of Twitter (TWTR) rose 8% Wednesday afternoon following the posting. The job posting notes potential Twitter subscriptions would be “a first” for the company, but it’s not clear exactly how Twitter plans to implement…

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Facebook considering WhatsApp, Messenger Integration

Dianne Jacobs
facebook

The last year, Zuckerberg said he was planned to merge Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in a unique service. So, if you have a Facebook account, you might be able to reach your friends having WhatsApp. News report by WABetaInfo is that Facebook is considering integrating WhatsApp into Facebook Messenger. The report cited developer Alessandro Paluzzi, who found references within Facebook code regarding the integration of these Facebook-owned services. “In particular, Facebook is creating some tables in a local database in order to manage messages and services with other WhatsApp users,”…

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Central Bank of Kenya Declines to cap the free M-Pesa transactions to five

olivia Craig
M-Gas Mpesa Central Bank of Kenya

Kenya’s leading telco Safaricom has lost the bid to cap free M-Pesa transactions to five. This comes after subscribers split high-value transfers to avoid paying transfer fees, costing it billions of shillings in revenues. The company had petitioned the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to cap the number of multiple transactions between two numbers, according to a recent disclosure of conference call transcripts between Safaricom and investors seen by the Business Daily. Safaricom reported that customers were splitting high-value money transfers of as high as Sh60,000 to deals of below…

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Opera’s Opay Pulls Plug on ORide, OCar, Shifts focus to eCommerce & payments

Dianne Jacobs
Opera’s Opay Pulls Plug on ORide, OCar, Shifts focus to eCommerce & payments

News earlier in the week broke that Opera-backed Nigerian fintech startup, OPay has reportedly shut down all its business operations in Nigeria following a letter issued by its foreign investors amidst the poor economic climate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.. A report claims that all verticals of the startup, including ride hailing, ORide and OTrike — which were still active in other states aside Lagos; the recently launched B2B and B2C eCommerce platforms, OMall and OTrade; OExpress for logistics; and food delivery feature, OFood will be closed down. Opay launched…

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YouTube TV sharply hikes subscription to $64.99, adds ViacomCBS channels

olivia Craig
YouTube TV sharply hikes subscription to $64.99, adds ViacomCBS channels

YouTube TV has announced a sharp 30pc raise to its monthly price from $50 per month to $64.99 as the company starts to offer eight of ViacomCBS’s channels, which are available today: BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land, and VH1. The new price takes effect today for any new subscribers while existing customers should see it on their next billing cycle (either on or after July 30th). The $15 increase in price marks the latest price hike for YouTube TV, which was $35 per month when…

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TikTok announces TikTok For Business with branded content and advertising solutions

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TikTok announces TikTok For Business with branded content and advertising solutions

TikTok has announced the launch of TikTok For Business, a platform that will provide marketers with a range of branded content and advertising solutions to help them utilise the short-form video app for their brand campaigns. At launch, the site will include access to TikTok ad formats, including its marque product, TopView, which is the ad that appears when you first launch the TikTok app. Other products under this TikTok For Business umbrella include Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, Hashtag Challenges and Branded Effects. TikTok said in a statement, “The magic…

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Digital WhatsApp Payments for SMEs launched, Pilots in Brazil

Editor
Digital WhatsApp Payments for SMEs launched, Pilots in Brazil

Facebook has launched its WhatsApp payments service in Brazil, enabling people to send money and make purchases from within the chat app. You use it by linking up your WhatsApp account to your Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card. This now adds Facebook as one of the digital payments and mobile money providers like Mpesa WhatsApp began testing P2P payments in India in 2018 but Brazil, where the messaging service has 120 million users, becomes the first country to get a nationwide rollout. Brazil would be the first to…

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