Instant messaging

Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends What was supposed to be an iMessage redeemer for Android smartphone users has quickly been consumed in a chaos of security and utter negligence. Merely days after the Nothing Chats app was removed from the Play Store, the tech at its foundation provided by Sunbird is also taking an unspecified leave, intensifying suspicions of something being seriously wrong. Sunbird appeared on our radar late last year, promising blue bubbles for Android-to-iPhone messages. It also promised to bundle…

Illustration: DiscordDiscord is shutting down its AI chatbot, Clyde, in December. The chatbot was just launched a few months ago, in March, so this is a pretty quick shutdown. No Google AI Search, I Don’t Need to Learn About the “Benefits of Slavery” Clyde was announced in March as an experimental feature. In a presentation to the press, Discord showed how users can invoke it in chat by typing @Clyde followed by their query. The chatbot can do everything for you, from answering a general knowledge question, providing a…

Image: rafapress (Shutterstock)Once the go-to spot for teens wearing Doc Martens and suffering from a taste in alternative music, Tumblr is apparently seriously in the red: The platform’s CEO claims that the company is losing $30 million annually.How To Remove Followers From TwitterTechCrunch reported that CEO Matt Mullenweg spilled the beans during the Q&A, which was cohosted by COO Zandy Ring and attended by a meager 800 users, despite being plastered across every Tumblr account’s dashboard. According to Mullenweg,…

AI hype has officially reached “Metaverse” levels of incomprehensibility. Large language models are a wormhole sucking in any and all tech companies looking to promote long-existing products, and now e-bike maker Urtopia is one of the first companies trying to force chatbots on users who are simply trying to travel from A to B.Generating Video Via Text? | Future TechIn a press release, Urtopia shared scant details for its latest smart e-bike features other than that itsproducts were getting access to ChatGPT. This…

Apple has joined WhatsApp, Signal, and other messaging companies, by raising concerns that end-to-end encryption would be threatened if the United Kingdom passes the “Online Safety Bill.” The bill moved to Parliament for review, and if passed, it would give the Office of Communications (Ofcom) the technology and authority to scan messages for concerning content.How To Prep Your iPhone or iPad Before SellingThe UK originally proposed the “Online Safety Bill” to criminalize content on social media platforms including…

Meta has unveiled a suite of new safety tools intended to give parents more oversight of their teen’s activity on Messenger and Instagram DMs. Starting today, parents and guardians can view how much time their teen spends on Messenger, receive updates on changes to their contact lists and privacy settings, and receive a notification if their teen decides to block another user. Parents can also now review which types of users—friends, friends of friends, or no one—can message their teens, though they can’t change that…

AT&T partnered with Microsoft and OpenAI to develop Ask AT&T, a ChatGPT-like tool that will contribute to coding software. The tool is meant to help AT&T’s own employees, including coders and software developers to become more productive in the workplace.Generating Video Via Text? | Future TechThe company is rolling out the Generative AI tool over the next few weeks, AT&T’s chief data officer, Andy Markus said in a blog post, adding that its employees “can be part of the first generation of true corporate…

Image: Ascannio (Shutterstock)As Google continues to refine its own AI chatbot named Bard, its parent company Alphabet Inc. has a clear directive for its employees: Be careful around chatbots, even Bard.Google’s Antitrust Case Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to AIFour sources close to the matter told Reuters that the massive tech giant has advised employees not to enter confidential information into chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s own Bard over fears of leaks. Alphabet is reportedly concerned with…

WhatsApp is going beyond messaging and phone calls with a new channels feature. Channels are a one-way broadcast tool that’ll allow admins to share information with an audience through texts, photos, and videos. WhatsApp says it’s a way for users to keep up with their favorite sports teams, hobbies, or public officials—all in a private way. Meta-owned Instagram launched a similar feature in February. How To Remove Followers From TwitterIn a blog post, WhatsApp says it’s “aspiring to build the most private broadcast…

Artificial intelligence is a hot subject in tech, and with more AI “companion” apps hitting the marking, that’s more true in multiple ways. The folks behind the AI friend replacement service Replika have a new app that wants to cover the growing demand for digital dating. Though Replika has tried to limit users’ ability to make sexy talk with their chatbot, the “Blush” app is supposed to respond to your bad pick up lines and bad jokes as “practice” for the harsh world of real online dating.Chat GPT-4 Worth the Upgrade? |…