Messaging

In an entertainment industry full of uncertainty, few movies seemed as sure a bet as a sequel to the 1986 classic “Top Gun.” The Chinese tech firm Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY 3.43% in 2019 signed on to co-finance the film, which the Shenzhen-based conglomerate hoped would yield a windfall at the box office. Yet when “Top Gun: Maverick” hits theaters this weekend, it will do so without any financing from Tencent, and without any mention of the Chinese firm that had once…

Instagram is bringing several new features to improve the messaging experience of users. The photo and video sharing platform has added the ability to reply to messages while browsing, and has introduced the option to send a message silently. Instagram has also integrated with music streaming platforms to allow users to share 30-second long song previews in chat. Furthermore, you can quickly reshare posts to friends by tapping and holding the share button. With the latest update, Instagram will show contacts who are…

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated” is how Elon Musk explained why he spent $44 billion to acquire Twitter. That phrase — “digital town square” — has a long and messy history in social networking. Facebook and others have proven that throwing millions or billions of people into a single unfettered space is a mostly impossible and mostly terrible idea. But maybe we’ve just been defining it wrong. In…

Amazon is working on an internal messaging app that will ban words that reflect the company's working conditions or organising labour unions. The app, sort of a social media platform specifically for Amazon employees, will have a content filter that will ban words such as “union”, “prison”, “slave labour”, “diversity” as well as “restrooms” presumably to prohibit employees from discussing that they relieved themselves in bottles to meet punishing deadlines, according to a new report based on the company's internal…