By MacRumors Staff
Instagram How Tos
iOS 14 Green and Orange Dots: What Do They Mean?
Digital privacy is a perennial hot topic these days, and Apple is regarded as being at the forefront of security when it comes to smartphone and tablet operating systems. For example, for an app to access your iPhone or iPad's camera, camera and microphone access must be enabled for the app in question in the Settings app.
Social media apps will often ask you for access to your device's...
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How to Group Video Chat With Up to 50 Instagram Users
Instagram has been updated to allow users to create group video chats with up to 50 people on the social platform, thanks to an integration with Facebook's recently announced Messenger Rooms feature.
Facebook unveiled Messenger Rooms as an alternative to Zoom and Group FaceTime last month, releasing it to a small trial group of users. Facebook said part of its plan was to extend the capability ...
How to Secure Your Instagram Account With Two-Factor Authentication
With social media account hacking becoming increasingly more widespread, users would do well to make sure they're taking every security measure available to them. That goes doubly for frequenters of Facebook-owned Instagram, where account hijacking in particular is a recurring problem.
One of the best ways to protect any online account is by using two-factor authentication (2FA). 2FA offers...
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All-in-One Chat App 'Beeper' Brings iMessage to Android and Windows Using Workaround
New universal chat app "Beeper" combines 15 different chat platforms into a single inbox and offers iMessage on Android and Windows (via The Verge).
The app comes from a team including former Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky, and enables users to integrate a range of messaging services, including WhatsApp, SMS, Signal, Telegram, Slack, Twitter, Skype, Hangouts, Discord, Instagram, and Facebook...
Instagram Supports Uploading ProRAW Photos Taken With iPhone 12 Pro
Instagram is today rolling out support for the new ProRAW photos that are able to be captured with the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Instagram developer Tim Johnsen shared the news on Twitter, where he also said that ProRAW photos in the DNG format are not able to be edited on Instagram. Further details aren't available, but it seems that Instagram is converting the ProRAW file into...
Facebook Temporarily Disables Some Messenger and Instagram Features in Europe to Comply With EU Data Rules
Some Messenger and Instagram features are temporarily unavailable to users in Europe in order to comply with new rules on data usage currently being rolled out in EU countries. Affected users are seeing alerts in the Facebook-owned apps that some features aren’t available to "respect new rules for messaging services in Europe."
The alert doesn't specify what the missing features are, but ...
FTC Accuses Facebook of Social Media Monopoly, Calls for Divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp
The United States Federal Trade Commission today teamed up 46 states, the District of Columbia, and the territory of Guam to sue Facebook for maintaining an illegal social networking monopoly through years of anticompetitive conduct.
Facebook is accused of engaging in a "systematic strategy" to eliminate threats to its monopoly, which included the 2012 acquisition of Instagram and the 2014...
Apple Fitness+ Promotion Ramps Up as Launch Approaches
Promotion for Apple Fitness+ is ramping up, with advertising initiatives and teases from instructors being spotted on social media, indicating that the new subscription service may be launching imminently.
MacRumors reader Chris Weaver spotted that Best Buy has started advertising six-month free trials of Apple Fitness+ with Apple Watch purchases. The advert suggests that retailers have...
New 'Vanish Mode' in Messenger and Instagram Enables Disappearing Chats
Facebook's Messenger and Instagram apps are getting a new "vanish mode" feature that gives users a new way to chat using disappearing messages.
Disappearing messages can already be used in Messenger's "secret conversation" feature, but they require several steps and users have to set a timer to make the messages disappear. However, the new "vanish mode" is enabled by simply swiping up in ...
Instagram Celebrates 10th Birthday With Stories Map, New Icons, and More
Instagram is ten years old today, and the photo-based social platform is celebrating by introducing an easier way to find old Stories, custom icons, and new tools to prevent online harassment.
As reported by TechCrunch, a new private Stories Map and calendar offers users a retrospective of the Stories and photos they've shared over the last three years so they can look back at their favorite ...
Facebook Unifies Messenger and Instagram Direct Messaging Experiences
Around a month after Facebook began quietly merging its Messenger service with Instagram direct messaging, the transition has been officially launched, with a full rollout to all users soon to follow.
As a result of the merging of the chat services, Instagram users can chat with Facebook users and vice versa using the same platform. Features previously only available on Facebook Messenger...
Instagram Launches QR Codes Worldwide
Instagram is launching in-app QR codes worldwide via an update, according to The Verge.
Users will now be able to generate QR codes that are scannable from any third-party QR camera app. The feature will allow businesses to print and display a QR code that will direct customers to their Instagram account more easily, for example. QR codes in Instagram first launched last year in Japan, but ...
Facebook's Merging of Instagram and Messenger Chats Gets Underway
Facebook's long-term plan to integrate Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp chat platforms appeared to kick into gear over the weekend as Instagram users in the U.S. were notified of a "new way to message" on the photo-sharing social network that merges the app's chat feature with Facebook Messenger.
Image via The Verge As a result of the merging of the chat services, the change means Instagram ...
Instagram Retained Deleted Photos and Messages on Its Servers for Over a Year
Instagram has awarded a security researcher a $6,000 bug bounty payout after he found photos and private direct messages on the platform's servers that he had deleted more than a year ago (via TechCrunch). Saugat Pokharel discovered that his content hadn't been removed in October after downloading a copy of his data from the photo-sharing app. Instagram introduced the download option two...
Instagram Accused of Illegally Harvesting Biometric Data
Facebook, owner of Instagram, is facing a lawsuit over allegedly harvesting the biometric data of users, according to Bloomberg.
Last month, Facebook offered to pay a $650 million settlement in a similar lawsuit in which it was accused of illegally collecting biometric data via Facebook's photo-tagging feature. The settlement has not yet been approved by the judge, but if it is, affected...
Instagram Launches TikTok Competitor 'Reels'
Instagram has today officially launched "Reels," a new short-form video service set to rival TikTok, in over 50 countries, including the U.S., India, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and the U.K. Reels is part of the Instagram camera of the existing Instagram app.
Instagram says that Reels are "a new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos." The service features the...
Instagram Aims to Lure TikTok Creators with Cash
Instagram is offering financial incentives to prominent TikTok users in an attempt to persuade them to use Instagram's upcoming "Reels" feature, reports The Wall Street Journal. Instagram is seeking to kickstart its new Reels service by making lucrative offers to popular TikTok creators with millions of followers. Set to launch next month, Reels is Instagram's answer to TikTok's...
Bug Blamed for Instagram Unexpectedly Accessing Camera in iOS 14
Some users have noticed that Instagram is unexpectedly accessing the camera, reports The Verge.
Users have reported that the green "camera on" indicator was displayed in iOS 14 when scrolling through their feed, but not taking a photo or a video. In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson for Instagram said that the behavior was a bug and is being fixed.
"We only access your camera when...
Instagram Tests Personal Fundraising Tool in US, UK and Ireland
Facebook says it is bringing a new personal fundraising tool to Instagram that allows users to raise money for causes they support. The feature is similar to an existing fundraising system on Facebook, but this one will begin as a small test for users in the U.S, the U.K., and Ireland.
Users with access to the test will see the new option in Instagram in Edit Profile -> Add Fundraiser ->...
Instagram's TikTok-Style 'Reels' Feature to Launch in US Next Month
Instagram's new "Reels" feature is coming to the U.S. in early August, Facebook has confirmed (via Business Insider). The TikTok-style short-form video feature made its debut in Brazil late last year, and allows Instagram users to record and edit 15-second video clips with audio and music soundtracks.
Instagram users will be able to create and share Reels to their Stories, and can access...
New Facebook and Instagram Options Let US Users Turn Off Political Ads
Facebook is adding the option for users to turn off all political advertising in the Facebook and Instagram apps from today, the company has announced in a blog post.
The option will pop up for users directly on any political ad that appears on the two Facebook-owned platforms. Users will also be able to hide ads by clicking on the advertisement or by accessing a new menu option in either of...
Facebook Acquires GIF-Sharing and Creation Platform GIPHY for $400M
Facebook today announced that it has acquired the popular GIF sharing platform GIPHY, and it will be joining the Instagram team. Instagram has supported GIPHY search in Stories for years now, but Facebook said it will "further integrate" the platform's GIF library into Instagram and other Facebook apps.
The sum of the GIPHY acquisition by Facebook is reportedly around $400 million, according...
Instagram Adds New Options for Bulk Deleting Comments and Controlling Who Can Tag and Mention You
Instagram has rolled out some new features that aim to prevent online bullying and other unwanted interactions on the social media platform. These features include the ability to control who can tag or mention you in comments, captions and Stories, and the ability to delete comments in bulk.
When it comes to who can mention and tag you in content, you can choose Everyone, Only People You...
