Skip to main content

Facebook

998 'Facebook' stories December 2010 - December 2015
See All Stories

Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018

Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018. It also averages 1.52 billion daily active users as of December 2018.

Facebook was launched in February of 2004 (as The Facebook) for college students and then rapidly grew as it opened the service to more than those with a .edu email address. It was the subject of the 2010 movie called “The Social Network“.

In 2012, the social media giant offered its IPO and Facebook earned the title of the fastest company to grow to $250 billion market capitalization in the S&P 500.

In recent years, the company has been at the center of attention related to its role in the Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Since then, it’s been a continual stream of negative news for the company. They recently had all of their enterprise certificates for iOS revoked after it was discovered they had repackaged Onavo VPN as a ‘Research’ app and were paying teens $20/month to sneakily sideload it.

In early 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a “privacy shift” for the company. He outlined a detailed vision for the future of the social media platform, specifically its messaging services. Notably, in contrast to how the company operates today, he says the future of the platform will be privacy-focused with features like end-to-end encryption, interoperability between its various apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reducing how long it holds data, secure storage of personal data, and more.

Chart provided by TradingView

META Chart by TradingView

Facebook app will soon display new content & allow comments even when you’re offline

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Dec 10 2015 - 3:57 am PT
2 Comments

Modern ironies: a metro or train journey is one of those occasions when you have some time to catch up on your Facebook feed, but you often have no data connection or a very intermittent one. The company is currently testing a couple of features that should help.

The first is caching posts that have been downloaded but not yet viewed. When you’re offline, the app will display these posts.

We look at all the previously downloaded stories present on your phone that you have not yet viewed, and rank them based on their relevance. We also factor in whether the images for the story are available. This way we can immediately display relevant stories you haven’t seen yet, instead of showing a spinner while you wait for new stories.

Second, it will allow you to comment on posts even when offline, storing your comments in the app and then uploading them once you’re back online.

There’s no indication on when we’ll see the new features, but the fact that Facebook is sharing them suggests that they are likely to be introduced sooner rather than later.

Via Engadget. Photo startuppanel.co.

Facebook removes Slingshot, Rooms, and Riff apps from App Store, closes Creative Labs

Avatar for Mike Beasley Dec 7 2015 - 10:32 am PT
4 Comments

Shortly after Dropbox announced it had shut down its popular Mailbox and Carousel apps, Facebook has made a similar move by removing a handful of its apps from the iOS App Store and shutting down the division that created them.

Facebook’s Creative Labs project was intended to promote the creation of apps like Snapchat competitor Slingshot, and has launched several apps with some success. However, the social site has apparently decided that the time has come to shutter that initiative and the apps it has produced.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook debuts ‘Notify’ app for news, sports, weather, and more

Avatar for Mike Beasley Nov 11 2015 - 9:21 am PT
9 Comments

In line with previous rumors, Facebook has released a new app today called Notify that aims to deliver timely and relevant news notifications to users.

The app serves a wide variety of content types to keep users interested, including the day’s weather forecasts, breaking news from multiple sources, fashion news from Vogue, and even historical images from Getty.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook Messenger’s new ‘Photo Magic’ feature automates sharing shots of your friends instantly

Avatar for Stephen Hall Nov 9 2015 - 12:50 pm PT
0 Comments

A new feature in Facebook Messenger is now rolling out that scans photos added to your camera roll in search of your Facebook friends, and suggests that you send them to the people it finds. It’s a pretty nifty feature, if you feel comfortable with Facebook looking at every single photo you take on your device and constantly processing data on the friends you’re hanging out with…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook for iPhone adds enhanced Apple Music and Spotify song sharing with Music Stories

Avatar for Zac Hall Nov 5 2015 - 8:33 am PT
3 Comments

Facebook is rolling out a new post format on the latest version of its iPhone app called Music Stories. The new format lets you share songs and albums from popular streaming music services, starting with Apple Music and Spotify, while friends can enjoy 30-second previews of what you share. The Music Stories format also looks rich within the app. Tapping play turns the artwork in a record-like spinning animation, and a button to listen to the whole track or album on the streaming service is presented on the right. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook reportedly launching News-like app ‘Notify’ with media partners next week

Avatar for Zac Hall Nov 4 2015 - 12:50 pm PT
3 Comments

Facebook is said to be planning to launch its standalone news app with a list of media partners on board sometime next week. That’s according to Financial Times, which reports the app will be called Notify and include content from a list of media partners including CBS, The Washington Post, and Vogue. Reports of Facebook working on a separate mobile app focused on news rather than the social network first surfaced in early August.

The news comes just as Facebook announced today in its earnings report that it’s currently serving an average 1.01 billion daily active users each month…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Too many Facebook staffers prefer iPhones, company says, forcing many to switch to Android

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Nov 2 2015 - 6:37 am PT
38 Comments

Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox is insisting that an unspecified but substantial number of staff switch from iPhone to Android, in order to have an experience of the service more typical of that in emerging markets, reports Wired.

“I am mandating a switch of a whole bunch of my team over to Android, just because people, when left up to their own devices, will often prefer an iPhone,” said Chris Cox, who said the move is “so that they can be reporting bugs and living in the same experience that most Facebook users experience today” … 


Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook bolstering iOS Notifications tab with sports scores, birthdays, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Oct 26 2015 - 11:46 am PT
3 Comments

If you’re a Facebook user, you’re definitely familiar with the Notifications tab in the company’s iOS app. Although it has barely evolved from being a simple stream of your notifications since its introduction many years ago, Facebook has today come out to outline some changes on the way to make it more useful and personalized.

Assumably since most of us rarely use or view notifications that are more than a day old, Facebook has decided to use the space in the Notifications tab in other, more useful, ways. With the new version, you’ll find the 5 or so most recent activity notifications at the top, with handfuls of additional — and hopefully useful — information below.

Among the things that Facebook says it is adding to the Notifications tab are friends and family “milestones” (which include birthdays, major life events, and the like), sports scores and television notifications based on the pages you have already liked, as well as events that are around the corner (but, seemingly, only those that you’ve already joined).

Facebook says that if you head into the app settings and allow it to see your location history (which many users already have), you can see things like local events based on your physical location, as well as weather updates, movies that are playing at nearby theaters, and even places to eat. Unsurprisingly, most of these features will connect you with many locations’ Facebook pages.

Facebook says that the update is rolling out “gradually,” so it should appear on your device sometime in the next few days.

Steve Jobs movie bombs nationwide, looks likely to lose money – Variety

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 26 2015 - 4:44 am PT
43 Comments

Despite a strong weekend opening, the Sorkin/Boyle movie Steve Jobs appears to have bombed in its nationwide rollout, grossing just $7.3M against earlier estimates of $19M. That gives it a total take so far of around $10M, which Variety says leaves it unlikely to turn a profit.

The picture cost $30 million to make and at least as much to market. That means that “Steve Jobs” needs to do at least $120 million in order to break even. Given that the film is dialogue-driven and lacks a major star, its foreign prospects seem bleak.

The piece notes that the earlier success of Sorkin’s The Social Network may have created false hopes … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook starting to fix iPhone battery drain issues with latest app update, explains why its happening

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Oct 22 2015 - 2:43 pm PT
28 Comments

Facebook has taken to, shocker, Facebook to explain some of the issues causing significant iPhone battery drain when using its app. The app has received a lot of criticism in the community in recent weeks with users reporting incredibly high levels of background activity time for disproportionally low time with the app actually in use. This included when iPhone users had explicitly turned off Background App Refresh in Settings. Facebook says it has started to fix battery drains issues with the latest version of the app in the App Store, version 42.0.


Expand
Expanding
Close

High battery usage by iOS Facebook app may be due to background audio usage; company promising a fix

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 17 2015 - 4:10 am PT
7 Comments

Facebook has told Gizmodo that it is working on a fix after complaints that its iOS app is continuing to account for high battery usage even when the app is supposed to be sleeping.

We’re looking into this and hope to have a fix in place soon.

The company responded after a Medium post by product developer Matt Galligan, who noted that the app was continuing to draw significant amounts of power despite having background app refresh disabled. Others  then chipped in on the issue, prompting Facebook’s response.

It had been suggested that the high battery drain might be due to the Facebook app continuing to use Location Services in the background, but the company told Motherboard‘s Jordan Pearson that this is not the case.

A Facebook spokesperson emailed over the weekend to say that the battery drain issue “is not caused by improper background location collection,” and that the team continues to investigate the issue. “We are not collecting background location on iOS unless Location Access is set to Always on your device and you have enabled Location History in the Facebook app.”

Federico Viticci over at MacStories noted that the app had been showing high levels of background audio usage, even with background app refresh off, linking to others who had spotted the same thing.

On my girlfriend’s iPhone, for instance, iOS 9 reports 5 hours of on-screen usage for the last 7 days, and another 11 hours of background audio usage with Background App Refresh turned off.

My guess is that Facebook is hijacking audio sessions on iOS by keeping silent audio in the background whenever a video plays in the app.

Facebook has not commented, beyond its confirmation that Location Services are not the culprit. The company recently updated the app to support 3D Touch Quick Actions for status updates and photos on the iPhone 6s/Plus.

Screengrab: MacObserver

Facebook adds 3D Touch Quick Actions for posting photos + updates on iPhone 6s & 6s Plus

Avatar for Zac Hall Oct 12 2015 - 7:17 am PT
10 Comments

You wouldn’t know it based on the boiler plate release notes, but Facebook’s latest iPhone app update now includes a new 3D Touch feature on Apple’s latest iPhones. Pressing the Facebook app icon firmly from the Home screen on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus brings up a Quick Action menu to do three things: write a post, upload a photo/video, or take a photo/video…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook experimenting with letting friends easily send “Happy Birthday!” videos, new reactions beyond ‘like’

Avatar for Zac Hall Oct 8 2015 - 9:25 am PT
2 Comments

One of the many things Facebook does well is make it nearly impossible to miss when one of your friends turns another year older. On the web, birthday reminders are placed prominently near the top right with links to easily wish your pal a happy birthday, and on mobile Facebook has experimented with alerts and other ways to help you not forget someone’s big day.

Now Facebook appears to be testing an even more personal way to make your birthday wish stand out: video messages. The Next Web reports that some mobile users have seen a new ‘birthday video’ option appear under Facebook’s Birthdays section (although don’t worry if you don’t see it yet, I don’t have it either).
Expand
Expanding
Close

Twitter launches its ‘Project Lightning’ curated news & events feature called Moments

Avatar for Zac Hall Oct 6 2015 - 6:23 am PT
4 Comments

Just a day after Jack Dorsey was named permanent CEO of Twitter, the social network is launching a big new feature in its app called Moments. What started as Project Lightning showcases for a lot of users the best part of Twitter: keeping caught up with in-the-moment news that you care about. The new Moments feature can be found behind the lightning bolt icon through Twitter’s mobile apps and on the web in the US.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple CEO Tim Cook and VP Lisa Jackson sit at President’s table for Chinese State Dinner

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Sep 25 2015 - 7:45 pm PT
4 Comments

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, arrive for a State Dinner reception in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Among over 200 titans of industry, finance and entertainment this evening, Apple’s Tim Cook and former EPA head and Apple’s VP of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives Lisa P. Jackson attended President Obama’s Chinese State Dinner. The two reportedly sat at the President’s table with FaceBook’s Mark Zuckerberg with wife Pricilla Chan, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Apple Board member and Disney CEO Bob Iger among the 18…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook among tech leaders meeting with Chinese President as Obama threatens import restrictions

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 24 2015 - 5:27 am PT
4 Comments

Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of a large number of tech leaders meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Seattle. It’s believed that the Chinese head of state is trying to enlist support from U.S. tech companies in his attempt to persuade President Obama not to implement threatened import restrictions against China. Obama had threatened the action over hacking and intellectual property theft by Chinese firms.

A report by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property earlier this year (via the WSJ) found that intellectual property theft amounted to $300B a year, much of it carried out by hacking systems belonging to U.S. firms.

It’s been suggested that President Xi Jinping wants to emphasise the interdependence between U.S. tech companies and China as both a manufacturing base and a growing market. China is already a larger market for Apple than Europe, and looks set to overtake the USA, with Apple reporting 112% revenue growth in its Q3 earnings call.

Other tech CEOs present include Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, IBM’s Ginni Rometty, Intel’s Brian Krzanich, Microsoft’s Satyta Nadella and Qualcomm’s Steven Mollenkopf.

Photo: Pool/Getty Images

Instagram reaches 400 million active users, 80 million photos shared per day

Avatar for Chance Miller Sep 22 2015 - 2:43 pm PT
3 Comments

Popular image sharing service Instagram today announced that it has grown to have more than 400 million active monthly users, up from 300 million in December of 2014 and double the number it had in March of 2014.

Furthermore, Instagram says that more than 80 million photos are shared via the social network every day. The company also notes that of the last 100 million users to join, more than half live in Europe and Asia. This accelerated global growth rate means that more than 75 percent of all Instagram users live outside of the United Sates.

We are thrilled to announce that the Instagram community has grown to more than 400 million strong. While milestones like this are important, what really excites us is the way that visual communication makes the world feel a little bit smaller to every one of us.

Our community has evolved to be even more global, with more than 75 percent living outside of the US. To all the new Instagrammers: welcome! Among the last 100 million to join, more than half live in Europe and Asia. The countries that added the most Instagrammers include Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.

Instagram was, of course, acquired by Facebook back in 2012 for $1 billion, although Facebook has maintained a rather hands-off approach when it comes to interfering with Instagram. Most recently, Instagram on iOS gained long awaited support for landscape photos and videos.

Flash’s demise continues as Amazon stops accepting Flash ads due to browser settings

Avatar for Zac Hall Aug 20 2015 - 8:31 am PT
7 Comments

Amazon may have been Apple’s target when it unveiled its iBooks Store alongside the iPad in 2010, but the digital retail giant’s latest move is helping fulfill Steve Jobs’ vision of a web without Flash. Amazon Advertising issued an update to its technical guidelines today declaring that it will stop accepting Flash-based ads starting next month. Adobe cited “recent browser setting updates from Google Chrome, and existing browser settings from Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari” that interfere with displaying Flash ads.
Expand
Expanding
Close

WhatsApp Web feature now supports iOS, available for some iPhone users

Avatar for Zac Hall Aug 19 2015 - 9:11 am PT
6 Comments

The highly popular WhatsApp messaging service owned by Facebook appears to be adding a new feature that allows iPhone users to chat in the browser using a web app. The feature is called WhatsApp Web and became available on various platforms including Android and Windows Phone earlier this year, but the feature was absent for iPhone users at the time “due to Apple platform limitations.” Using the chat service on the web requires running WhatsApp on a corresponding smartphone.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook is reportedly developing a Twitter-like breaking news app

Avatar for Zac Hall Aug 11 2015 - 12:17 pm PT
0 Comments

Notification system reportedly being tested (via <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mobile-notification-breaking-news-app-2015-8?op=1" target="_blank">BI</a>)

Update: A Facebook spokesperson has issued a statement to 9to5Mac, saying “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

Facebook is currently developing a new standalone mobile app geared toward breaking news, Business Insider reports. The mobile app in testing is said to be Twitter-like in a news sense as its focus is said to be around allowing partnered publications to push alerts to users. Another Twitter-like aspect is the character limit of alerts being tested. According to the report, publications will have 100 characters plus an article link for users to click in each alert; similarly, tweets are limited to 140 characters in total.
Expand
Expanding
Close