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The Instagram Translation Feature Is Now Available

June 23, 2016 By James Faulkner Leave a Comment

Social media users rejoice as you will now be able to understand what your Instagram friends are writing in their posts thanks to the new Instagram translation feature.

The Facebook associated platform has now updated its list of services and included an Instagram translation feature that will automatically translate everything from a user’s posts to his or her profile information.

However, certain hashtags may prove impossible to translate seeing as the Bing search engine that is used by the app needs to identify whole words. This means that hashtags composed of joined words like #sundaybreakfast or #catsofinstagram will remain untranslated.

Another downside to the new Instagram translation feature is the fact that, for the moment, the social media platform only supports 24 languages. That may change seeing as Facebook, the patron of the social media app offers support for over 70 languages, and they both use Bing as a translation source.

“In the coming month, you’ll see a translation button on feed stories and profile bios written in languages different from your own. The Instagram community has grown faster and become more global than we ever imagined. And we’re excited that you’ll soon be able to understand the full story of a moment, no matter what language you speak,” read the official Instagram post of the company.

The idea with the new Instagram translation feature is that the posts and the profile information will be seen in their native language (the language in which the user has the account). Then, in the case in which you want a translation of the information, you can click on the button that will be featured in the profile bios and the feed stories.

Instagram recently managed to hit 500 million monthly active users. According to the estimates, more than 300 million use the social platform on a daily basis.

Adding the fact that the network recently announced that they will also be supporting videos, it is clear why the company wanted its users to be more connected, to break the language barrier and try and understand a post in its entirety.

“Whether you’re an illustrator, a sneakerhead or an astronaut on the International Space Station, every photo and video you share helps bring people closer to friends and interests.”

Now that the Instagram translation feature is available, do you think users from different countries will connect with each other more? Leave us your thoughts in the section below.

Image source: Pexels

Insomnia Is Linked to Social Media Use

January 28, 2016 By Georgia Dawson Leave a Comment

"A man in bed at night checking his social media accounts because of insomnia"

Experts recommend that people exercise more and keep their devices on “silent mode”.

STATES CHRONICLE – According to the latest study from the Pittsburgh University, insomnia is linked to social media use. The researchers have established that people who spend their time on social media platforms before going to bed have a bigger chance of developing sleep problems that those who don’t. Also, it seems that the same health issues apply to those who use social media frequently during the day.

A team of researchers from the Pittsburgh University reached the conclusion that insomnia is linked to social media use after studying a sample of 1,788 volunteers with ages in between 19 and 32. The participants were given a questionnaire that was created to determine the link between the use of social media and the increasing numbers of sleep disorders.

The survey focused on the most popular platforms for social media and the time that each respondent spent on a daily, or weekly basis on the site. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google Plus, Reddit, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Vibe, and Tumblr were all included in the questionnaire.

The average responded spent approximately 61 minutes in a day on one, or more platforms, and visited the respective account an average of thirty times in a single week. According to their answers, more than 30 percent of the participants in the study suffered from a sort of sleep disturbance.

Upon analyzing all of the answers, the researchers from Pittsburgh University came to the conclusion that the more time the participants spent on the platforms for social media, the more trouble they had with their sleep. The team established that those who used social media more had three times the chances of experiencing sleep disturbances than those who preferred to check their accounts more rarely.

On the other hand, the volunteers that engaged in exercises and physical activities in the outdoor environment while keeping their phones on the “silent” mode experienced a better sleep.

There are many ways in which social media can disturb the sleeping pattern of a user. It could disrupt the circadian rhythm due to the backlight of the devices used, the user can spend hours on a site without realizing the amount of time that has passed, thus losing sleep, or it could promote physiological, emotional and cognitive arousal like in the case of an engaging conversation.

The main problem is that the people usually enter a vicious cycle that cannot be easily escaped. They seem to have trouble going to sleep so they decide to go on their social media accounts to pass the time until they feel sleepy, but that only makes them stay up later.

Image source: www.flickr.com

Facebook Changes Privacy Policies on January, 1

November 28, 2014 By Deborah Cobing Leave a Comment

Starting January 1, 2015, Facebook is going to update its current privacy policy. Users will have a new tool – “Privacy Basics”– that will help them take control of what they share and whom they share. On Monday, the new tool was introduced by Facebook’s Global chief privacy officer, Erin Egan, in a long e-mail sent to all Facebook users.

Privacy Basis helps users better understand who can see their updates (links, images etc) and how to do change basic account settings, such as removing name when somebody has been playing with the Tag Photo button.

Another important update from Facebook is a better control over the type of ads users are interested in. Currently, if somebody chooses what adds not to see on Facebook using his/her computer, he/she will still see them on a smartphone or tablet Facebook version. With the new versions, Facebook will remember new ad setting regardless the device its users have.

In its e-mail, Facebook announces that members will get more tips and guides on how to use their accounts and a new set of terms, data and cookies policy that will be easier to understand. Facebook will also grant members an “expanded” control over the ads they see when using sites and apps through this platform.

“We hope these updates improve your experience. Protecting people’s information and providing meaningful privacy controls are at the core of everything we do”,

Erin Egan added in the e-mail.

Privacy Basics will provide easy to understand guides on how users can control their personal data on Facebook by untagging, choosing who will see a particular post, and blocking unwanted viewers. The guides will be available in 36 languages.

Bloggers were unimpressed by Facebook’s updates. Some of them said that Facebook wasn’t changing anything in their privacy policy, but rewriting it so “humans can understand it”. Others said the privacy policy was more clear but still complicated. Under “Updating our terms and policies” section, Facebook clearly states that nothing in their privacy policy is changing with January updates.

Facebook plans some other minor updates that will improve customer experience.

Users will get to know what’s going on around them in a particular location – who are their nearby friends, what are nearby friends doing, what type of menus nearby restaurants have etc.

In the near future, Facebook users will also have a “Buy Button” to help them buy stuff without leaving Facebook. Additionally, if somebody loses their Instagram account password, they will be able to recover it using the Facebook account.

About the ads policy, Facebook clearly states that nothing would change with the updates. Facebook will continue to help advertisers reach people with relevant ads without revealing people’s identity as usual.

Instagram Introduced New Creative Tools to the App

June 4, 2014 By Georgia Dawson Leave a Comment

Last month we were telling you about the Cinamatic app and its generous offer of letting you add all sorts of “special effects” to your videos.

Back then, we were wondering how many effects were available for Instagram photos and videos and the answer we reached was “not enough”.

Today we have to praise Instagram for listening to its fans and followers and for taking interest in what tech journalists had to say. In an official blog post dating yesterday, Instagram officials announced that they are

delighted to bring you a set of new creative tools on Instagram with the ability to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and more. Inspiring creativity is incredibly important to us—and as the Instagram community grows, we’ve been excited to hear requests for more ways to creatively take hold of how your photos look and feel. When you go to select a filter, you’ll now see a new wrench icon. Tap it and you’ll find a tray of photo editing tools ready for you to explore. You can also now adjust how much of a filter you apply to a photo by double tapping the filter icon.

Instagram marketed these changes as coming from their understanding that you, as an amateur artist, need to have all the tools available in order to really express the beauty of a captured moment so that it rises to your expectation. In other words, next time you post a pic showcasing your Thanksgiving roast turkey, the turkey will look more like a chef’s delicious work of art and less like a dead bird on a table.

Beyond the veil of creativity, what Instagram really wants is to keep you using the app itself and not third – party tools to edit your photos. All self – aware Instagram “artists” have used at least once in their lifetime some extra photo editing apps and Instagram want this bad behavior to stop. Using the app’s own tools means users will take and post more pics at faster rates.

It is quite clear that Instagram introduced new creative tools to keep its fans, gather some more and resist the competition. The full area of filters include Brightness, Contrast, Warmth, Saturation, Highlights, Shadows, Vignette, and Sharpen and you can play with them as much as you want. To choose the density of an applied filter with the double tapping of the icon is as easy as it can get. Both iOS and Android users will be happy to learn the app is available for all of them, in the Apple Store and the Google Play Store.

What does the future hold? Now that Instagram introduced new creative tools, we might have an Internet full of beautiful and really worked – on pictures. Provided the users actually learn how to use the filters and don’t turn the lunch meal into some Dali – inspired abomination.

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