Meta

Meta last year introduced significant enhancements to the Threads timeline, as users gained the option to create custom feeds and choose which feed they want to see by default. Now Meta is announcing another new feature for Threads: the ability to share custom feeds with others.

A Meta policy document describes the company’s fears that it could accidentally develop an AI model which would lead to “catastrophic outcomes.” It describes its plans to prevent the release of such models, but admits that it may not be able to do so.

Among the capabilities the company most fears are an AI system that could break through the security of even the best-protected corporate or government computer network without human assistance …

WhatsApp currently offers a feature that helps users plan events from group chats. Soon, this feature will be expanded to private chats as well, giving WhatsApp users more flexibility to create and manage their appointments.

Yesterday Meta reported its quarterly earnings, and amid sharing updates on Threads, Instagram, and yes, the metaverse, CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined an interesting new priority for this year: getting back to ‘OG Facebook.’

If Ray-Ban Meta glasses are not your style, the company is expected to launch a pair of Oakley smart glasses later this year. These will likely mirror the functionality of Meta’s existing AI glasses, but with very different styling.

The Oakley glasses are reportedly based on the Sphaera model, which is primarily aimed at cyclists and other athletes …

Today, Meta is announcing Edits: a new mobile video editing platform. This comes just hours after TikTok (and as a result, CapCut) were banned in the US – though TikTok is currently being restored, at least temporarily.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently shared a video in which he announced a series of changes coming to the company’s platform policies such as Instagram and Threads. Among them, the executive revealed that it will switch from fact-checking to a Community Notes model – and it seems that this is already being implemented in the Threads app.

A new day, a new controversy around artificial intelligence. This time, Meta has been accused of using pirated content from torrents to train its large language model (LLM) Llama, which powers Meta AI. The case was one of the first copyright lawsuits filed against a tech company for training AI.

Ray-Ban Meta have been the most successful smart glasses to date, offering an appealing mix of features in a form factor which is visually indistinguishable from normal sunglasses.

So far, all of the AI functionality, notifications, and messaging features have relied on the glasses reading things to you through integrated speakers, but a new report says a future model will get a display, and that it could launch as early as next year …

As we reported in August, Meta has confirmed that it will discontinue Spark, Instagram’s AR filters, in January 2025. At the time, the company didn’t give many details except to say that it would prioritize its efforts on other products. Now we know what’s coming next: realistic AI-based filters.

AI video editing based on text prompts is coming to Instagram next year, with the company’s head showing off the ability to do things like change your clothing and video background, as well as some funkier stuff like adding animated characters.

The company had earlier shown a demo video (below) of completely AI-generated video, stating that it was just a research project, but it seems the first practical application of the tech is arriving sooner than expected …

Meta has been working on a lot of new features for Threads, its microblogging platform, and there’s another one coming soon. The company has now teased a long-awaited option that will let users schedule posts for a later time.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has for the first time revealed the daily number of Threads users, stating that there are now more than 100 million daily active users. It’s also been suggested that the current trajectory means that the app could catch up with the social network formerly known as Twitter.

Zuckerberg is likely aiming to fight back against the growing popularity of Bluesky, also citing a new milestone in monthly active users …

Deep fakes are arguably the most dangerous aspect of AI. It’s now relatively trivial to create fake photos, audio, and even video. See below for deep fakes of Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise, for example.

But while social media has so far been used as a mechanism for distributing deep fakes, Instagram head Adam Mosseri thinks it can actually play a key role in debunking them …

It’s been a while since WhatsApp introduced the ability to make audio and video calls in the app. To make this process even easier, Meta has been experimenting with a new call dialer built into WhatsApp for iPhone that will let users call people who aren’t in their contacts.

WhatsApp on Thursday announced a series of improvements coming soon to audio and video calls just in time for the holiday season. According to Meta, users can expect better call quality, as well as some other new features – so read on as we detail what’s coming.

Meta is currently experiencing a major outage across all its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, and WhatsApp. As noted by Downdetector.com, there has been a sharp increase in reported outages from users of these various services. Here’s what we know so far.

Update 5 p.m. Eastern: Over four hours into the outage, Meta has restored service for some users but many continue to experience issues and there has been no new update yet.

Meta is introducing a new way for creators to test content performance before sharing with followers. The new Instagram feature called trial reels allows creators to share videos with non-followers as a way to gauge reactions. This will allow creators to push the most engaging videos to their actively following audience.