Facebook Launches “Lite” Messenger Version For Old Devices
Designing for a cross-platform world can be difficult for startup app developers, especially when you consider the severe limitations of “legacy” devices compared to the incredible computing power, memory and storage capacity of the smartphones now considered standard by the US public. Facebook recently launched a standalone app for messenger users on older devices, showing […]
Thanks to iOS10 Sticker Feature, Artists Are App Developers
Finally, the singularity NYC app developers has been waiting for has occurred: stickers in iMessage. Stickers have been the hot new thing in the messaging app craze ever since they made the jump from Asia-centric platforms like Line Friends and WeChat to mainstream western chat apps like Facebook Messenger. Much like Line, iMessage opens their […]
Wikipedia Becomes A Battleground For Detail-Obsessed Bots
It turns out bots aren’t as peace-loving as Microsoft’s Tay might have lead us to believe. (I jest.) According to a research study published by Cornell University, Wikipedia has become a quiet, passive-aggressive battleground for communities of bots deployed to conduct routine maintenance and undo the work of socially-motivated trolls. Rather than concentrate on human […]
Facebook Messenger Opens Native Payments to Bot Developers
There’s been a lot of chatter about the “bot revolution” the past few months, but the spread of bot app usage among mainstream mobile app users has been slow at best. Part of the reason behind that, at least on go-to messaging platform Messenger, is the limitation on payments. Specifically, in order to make a […]
Facebook Embraces SMS, but Chat Apps Are Still the Future
Facebook recently turned heads among Android app developers with the rollout of SMS support in Facebook Messenger, a development that flies directly in the face of the companies pushback against what the social media titan considers an “outdated technology.” The feature has been testing since early this spring and the feature — which allows users […]
How WeChat Leverages Chat UI to Offer Diverse Features
WeChat doesn’t look like much from a western mobile app developer’s perspective. Is it WhatsApp for Asia? Is it Google for China? Then you see the staggering statistics behind the chat app’s wild growth since its 2011 launch: above 90 percent of the population in all first-tier Chinese cities use the app regularly. Beijing alone […]
Facebook Launches Work Chat, Competes Directly With Slack
Facebook recently launched Work Chat, a direct messaging feature within the Facebook at Work app. Facebook at Work has been in use for a while now since it’s public announcement last January, currently listing hundreds of startups and companies worldwide including big names like Heineken among its fanbase. Adding advanced chat features to the app […]
Cola, the App that Simplifies Text, Now in Beta
Text chains are a drag. A simple question like “when do you want to meet up?” or “What do we need to get done today?” quickly turns into an unwieldy 40-message chain of “what abouts…” and “I dunnos…” — not to mention the long pauses. For better or worse, this is 2015, so simply calling […]