Instagram - page 2

Add rad text captions to your Instagram photos without an app

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Captions
I couldn’t find any good cat pictures in my photo library.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Do you want to overlay captions onto your Instagram photos? Of course you do. How else can express your inner poet, while simultaneously re-creating the worst of history’s inspirational posters? Where would humanity be without the “Hang in there, baby” cat poster? Doomed, that’s where.

Today we’re going to see how to add captions to any photo, without using an app. I won’t even force you to use a Siri Shortcut (although that’s a good option). And, of course, you don’t ever have to post the result to Instagram.

Instagram DMs are coming to the web

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instagram
Facebook is focused on owning messaging.
Photo: Instagram

Chatting with your friends on Instagram is coming soon to a desktop computer near you.

Instagram revealed today that it is testing a new feature that allows users to access their Instagram DMs through the company’s website. For now, the feature is only being tested with a small percentage of users, but it might be available to everyone later this year.

YouTube star’s love of disposable cameras turns into a popular iOS app

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camera app by David Dobrik
Another disposable camera app, but this one has a big name behind it.
ScreenShot: David's Disposable/App Store

More than a dozen apps in the photo category of Apple’s App Store appropriate the shoddy, snapshot esthetics of single-use, or disposable, cameras.

The newest joining this niche category two weeks ago features nothing unique. Yet it quickly surpassed 1 million downloads because the popular internet celebrity behind the app told followers to “check out my new app.”

Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Facebook had a great decade. At least as far as downloads are concerned.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Facebook owns the top 4 most downloaded apps of the last decade, analytics firm App Annie reports.

The app analytics platform runs down its list of the most downloaded and highest grossing apps of the past decade. This covers both iOS and Android. While Facebook may have had a tough time PR-wise recently, there’s no doubting its levels of downloads dominance.

Instagram’s AI will now warn you before posting offensive captions

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Instagram lawsuit
Instagram is trying to make caption less toxic.
Photo: Pixabay

In an effort to combat online bullying, Instagram is rolling out a new feature today that warns users when their captions might be considered offensive.

The new feature gives users the chance to pause and reconsider their words before posting, but it doesn’t completely prevent people from posting inappropriate captions.

This is what you can expect to see:

Instagram will ban plastic surgery face filters

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plastic surgery face filter on Instagram
Teresa Fogolari created a filters called "Plastica."
Screenshot: TeresaFogolari/Instagram

The company that makes face filters for Instagram will soon remove all filters that offer AR plastic surgery.

The new policy will be welcomed by body-positive activists and mental health professionals who believe social media is feeding a rise in body dysmorphia. They point to anecdotes from cosmetic surgeons who get requests from patients to match the look created by so-called beauty filters.

Instagram steals from Snapchat for new Threads app

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Threads
Instagram has yet another standalone app.
Photo: Instagram

Facebook-owned Instagram launched a new standalone app today that pretty much steals some of Snapchat’s key features.

Threads, rolling out globally to iOS today, is built around Instagram’s Close Friends feature, giving you a quicker way to message the people you care about on Insta the most.

How to post to Instagram on your Mac

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Post photos direct to Instagram from Safari on your Mac.
Post photos direct to Instagram from Safari on your Mac.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

If you know the trick, you can use Instagram on your Mac. And I don’t just mean viewing your timeline in Safari. I mean uploading pictures, adding filters, the lot. What’s more, it’s dead easy. Interested? Here’s how it works.

Instagram will finally let you schedule posts for the future

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Instagram lawsuit
Instagram fans have been waiting forever for this.
Photo: Pixabay

Facebook revealed some big updates coming to its tools for creators including one feature Instagram users have been begging for for years.

Post scheduling is finally being adding to Instagram but only for business accounts that are linked to a Facebook page. The feature is being added alongside some other tools for live video broadcasting and analytics on Facebook.

Instagram will hold an intervention with your bully

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a same of how Instagram's Restrict tool will work
Instagram adds more tough tools to fight bullying.
Photo: Instagram

Instagram is adding more muscle to fight bullying, including one tool that appeals to a harasser’s conscious.

Instagram has been addressing online harassment over the last couple of years with options to block followers and report offensive items. But for the first time, artificial intelligence will hold an intervention with a would-be bully.

iPhone thief posts selfie on victim’s Instagram

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Suspect in a stolen iPhone case posts selfie on victim's Instagram
The best way to get caught with a stolen iPhone is to post a selfie.
Photo courtesy of: Kearny Police Department/Facebook

New Jersey detectives are searching for an iPhone thief who may ultimately aid in his own capture because he posted a selfie on the victim’s Instagram feed.

The Kearny Police Department recently released the above photo asking the public for some Face ID and information that could help them locate the man.

Spotify’s Social Listening feature will let you jam out with friends

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Spotify Connect
Screenshots of the upcoming Social Listening feature.
Photo: Jane Manchun Wong

Spotify is about to make it possible to listen along to music with your friends, no matter where you’re at.

The new feature, called Social Listening, will allow users to connect to friends and listen to the same thing they’re playing. You’ll also be able to add your own tracks to the queue and control playback from your phone.

WhatsApp will start showing you ads in 2020

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WhatsApp stickers
It's time to upgrade if you haven't already.
Photo: WhatsApp

Conversations with your friends won’t be the only thing that shows up inside your WhatsApp next year. Facebook has confirmed ads will also start appearing in 2020.

You’ll see them in WhatsApp Status, the messaging platform’s answer to Instagram Stories.

How to get your Stories to show up on Instagram’s Explore tab

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Instagram lawsuit
Instagram is putting a bigger focus on Stories.
Photo: Pixabay

Instagram revealed today that it is making changes to its Explore tab to start promoting Stories from people you don’t follow.

The Explore tab is also getting redesigned with a new navigation bar that has shortcuts for Shopping and IGTV to go with channel topics that Instagram’s algorithms think you’ll be interested in. Adding Stories to the Explore tab gives users a new way to discover great content you don’t follow as well as giving your content another avenue towards peoples eyeballs. But actually getting your Stories onto the Explore tab isn’t all that simple.

Instagram plans to kill standalone Direct app

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Instagram 2
It's time to say your goodbyes.
Photo: Instagram

Instagram has confirmed plans to kill its standalone Direct app for Android and iOS.

The Snapchat clone made its debut in December 2017, but is being axed as part of Facebook’s mission to consolidate its services into a single platform. Users will see their conversations automatically moved to the regular Instagram app.

New Instagram will take worry out of being liked

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Instagram fact checking
Instagram will use fact-checking teams to identify false information.
Photo: Instagram

Facebook is retooling Instagram to take some social pressure out of social media.

The photo-sharing app, which along with the iPhone sparked a revolution in instant photography, will reduce the pressure by making “likes” private so followers engage the content, not how popular it is. Instagram is also playing with ways to reduce the prominence of follower counts.

How to share podcast clips with Overcast

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Overcast clip sharing
Share podcast clips in Overcast.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

You’re listening to an awesome podcast, and one of the hosts makes a super-smart point about a fascinating subject. It’s so good that you just want to share it with people. But how? Tweet a link to the podcast along with a timecode so folks can hunt down that pithy quip themselves? Good luck! People on Twitter are too lazy to… well, they’re just too lazy.

But if you use the Overcast podcast player app, then you can now share a short audio or video clip of any podcast, to Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else. It’s dead easy, and it might be the best thing to happen to podcasts in quite a while.

Instagram might kill the like count on photos

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Instagram lawsuit
A Chrome extension can bring your hidden "Likes" out in the open.
Photo: Pixabay

Instagrammers’ obsession with likes might be coming to an abrupt end.

The photo sharing social network revealed today that it is looking into ways to alleviate pressure on its app. One of the proposed ways is to remove the like count from photos so that they’re only visible to the person that posted the pic or video.

‘Doing it for the Gram’ could soon be dead.

Facebook could bring Messenger back to its main app

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Facebook Messenger unsend
It’s about time!
Photo: Facebook

Facebook could bring Messenger back to its main app as part of its strategy to merge all of its chat services into one.

Evidence of the change has been discovered in recent code. Facebook is yet to confirm the move, but it certainly looks like it is already making preparations.