social media – Page 2

Twitter is developing a way for users to control who can mention them • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 14, 2022Posted in Apps, Social, social media, TwitterNo Comments

Twitter is developing a feature that has the potential to curb harassment and bullying on the social network. App engineer Jane Manchun Wong discovered that the company is developing a way for users to control who can mention them on Twitter. According to a screenshot posted by Wong, the new controls would give users the option to limit mentions to people they follow or turn off mentions altogether. Of course, you would still have the option to allow anyone to mention you, which is how Twitter currently operates. Giving users the option to turn off mentions altogether would be a dramatic shift for the company, but it would also give users a way to protect themselves from all sorts of bullying and harassment they face on the platform. Although users who are targeted by trolls currently have the option to block or mute users, individually blocking abusive accounts or muting specific tweets does not scale in instances when there may be hundreds of accounts involved in the targeted abuse. As with any other test feature, it’s unknown when or if Twitter plans to roll out the new controls officially. When asked about the possible upcoming change, a spokesperson from Twitter told ZebethMedia that the company doesn’t have anything to share at the moment. It’s worth noting that Twitter privacy designer Dominic Camozzi confirmed the new controls were in the works in a now-deleted tweet, as noted by The Verge, and had asked users for feedback. If Twitter decides to roll out the feature, it would join the social network’s current audience management features. Two years ago, Twitter gave all users the option to limit replies to their tweets. The feature lets you limit replies to people you follow or the people you mentioned in the tweet. With this feature, trolls can still unfortunately Quote Tweet another user’s tweet as a way to send abuse. The new controls uncovered by Wong would likely get rid of this workaround and protect users from incessant trolls. Twitter also rolled out its “Unmentioning” feature to all users earlier this year. The feature allows users to remove their name from another user’s tweet so they’re no longer tagged in it and any ongoing chatter around it won’t keep appearing in their mentions feed. The new controls would take this option even further by preventing your handle from being mentioned in the first place. The new controls would be a welcome addition to the platform and it’s nice to know that Twitter is looking at ways to help users protect themselves from abuse beyond the existing anti-abuse features. Coordinated trolling attacks have been an unwanted part of Twitter’s platform and the company has frequently been criticized for not doing enough to prevent harassment and abuse. Although public figures may be more likely to face higher levels of harassment than other types of users, it’s a problem that isn’t limited to users with a public profile, especially when racist abuse remains a problem on Twitter. The new controls would be a step toward protecting users online from all sorts of abuse and trolling.

BeReal tops 53M installs, but only 9% open the app daily, estimates claim • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in Apps, bereal, Social, social mediaNo Comments

Gen Z social media app BeReal encourages its users to take a photo every day — a format designed to create a daily habit. But only a small number of the app’s users are currently doing so, new estimates from a third-party app intelligence firm indicate. According to research from Sensor Tower, BeReal is demonstrating significant traction across some metrics — it topped 53 million worldwide installs across the App Store and Google Play and has seen its monthly active users jump by 2,254% since January 2022, for example. But only 9% of its active Android installs are opening the app every day as of the third quarter of this year, it found. Active users are a better indication of an app’s adoption than downloads as many people will install an app out of curiosity to check it out, but then abandon the app if they don’t end up enjoying the experience. On this front, BeReal is still trailing established social media giants, Sensor Tower says. Today, 9% of BeReal’s active installs on Android (users who downloaded the app and are actively using it) are now launching the app daily. That’s far behind Instagram and TikTok. Instagram leads this category with 39% of its active installs opening the app every day, while TikTok comes in second with 29%. This is followed by Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter at 27%, 26%, 20% and 18%, respectively. To be fair, as a newer app, BeReal adoption on Android may not be at the same pace as on iOS. And with many of its new installs being from young people in the U.S. — where iOS is preferred — this may not present a full picture of the app’s current usage. In addition, the report noted BeReal could improve this figure as it has continued to grow its monthly active users at a steady pace. Reached for comment, Sensor Tower declined to provide an exact figure for its monthly active user estimates (MAUs), however, only the percentage growth of 2,254% since Jan. 2022. We should note that these sorts of estimates are not an exact science. For example, another mobile app data firm, 42matters, estimated BeReal’s MAUs on Android were only up by 633% this year, growing from 43,899 MAUs in January to 321,787 MAUs by August 2022. This discrepancy between Sensor Tower’s data could be attributed to the fact that September was a huge month for the app, which would have impacted these estimates — and Sensor Tower had estimated through September. However, both firms more closely agreed on the number of installs the app has seen, with 42matters estimating the BeReal app across iOS and Android had seen north of 51.1 million installs to date, while Sensor Tower came in around 53+ million. The former also estimated the app is now seeing roughly 500,000 new installs daily with the U.S. helping to drive that growth. Image Credits: Sensor Tower Sensor Tower data shows the U.S. has represented the majority of each month’s new installs, followed by the U.K. (except for September, when Brazil became the No. 2 source of new installs, with over 1 million downloads that month). September was also a sizable month for new installs, with 14.7 million downloads, up 20% from the 12.3 downloads seen in August. Although these figures indicate BeReal is moving out of “fad” status to become a part of some users’ daily routines, it hasn’t yet established itself as an app that’s able to drive as consistent usage as its competitors. At the same time, it’s dealing with copycatting from top social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat and now TikTok. In July, Instagram began experimenting with a BeReal clone called Dual Camera, and in August tested an IG Candid Challenges feature, also similar to BeReal. Snapchat also launched a BeReal copycat in August, but its Dual Camera offered a variety of different placement options for the selfie photo. More recently, TikTok introduced its BeReal knock-off TikTok Now, which is available as a standalone app in global markets outside the U.S., where it’s only an in-app feature for the time being. In time, these competitors could cut into BeReal’s growth potential, but so far that has not yet occurred. BeReal has not commented on the estimates.