Tech Tok: Twitter’s competitors growing stronger

Twitter’s fluctuating landscape turning out to be an opportunity for Mastodon, Koo, Meta

Hyderabad: One man’s loss is another man’s gain. Likewise, Twitter’s fluctuating landscape is turning out to an opportunity for other platforms like Mastodon, Koo, and now Meta.

Yes, Elon Musk day in and day out tweets about his ‘big’ plans for the micro-blogging platform. Some days he introduces features that are complex to understand and the next day he is all about freedom of speech and making the site’s algorithm open source. But what actually seems to be happening is a whole lot of cost-cutting.

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Perhaps it is this uncertainty, in addition to Musk’s actions that have given rise to and boosted rival platforms in the recent past.

According to a BBC report, Instagram and Facebook’s parent company Meta is working on a standalone and text-based app that will be pitched as a rival to Twitter. This is expected to be a top priority for Meta as Facebook is failing to attract young users and Instagram is in a neck-to-neck competition with apps like TikTok.

On the other hand, India-based micro-blogging platform Koo is also making some serious strides. The app is now integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help users easily draft posts.
Integrating the IT industry’s current fad with a platform that encourages people to have and give opinions sounds like an interesting experiment. How that goes remains to be seen.

Netflix’s customizable subtitles

Streaming platform Netflix has recently announced features that will let the viewer customize their subtitles. These features will let users modify the style and size of the text.

Enhancing readability, Netflix introduced three new style options – Light (black text against white background), Contrast (yellow text on black background), and drop shadow (white text on black background). One can toggle font size between small, medium, and large.

Rather be blocked: WhatsApp in the UK

Taking a tough stance against the Online Safety Bill in the UK, WhatsApp said that it would rather be blocked in the country than undermine its encrypting-messaging system that protects users’ privacy.

The bill aims to combat online child abuse which would require a certain level of surveillance on the content shared on messaging apps, an idea that both WhatsApp and Signal have opposed.

Meta winds down on NFTs

Just a year after rolling out the feature, Meta is pulling back support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its platforms due to the unstable crypto market.

The company last year supported its creators to share and deal in NFTs on both Instagram and Facebook. Video clips in the past were sold for billions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

Apple Music Classical to launch on March 28

Apple’s much-awaited Apple Music Classical, an app dedicated to classical music is all set to be launched on March 28. This comes after the company acquired the music streaming platform PrimePhonic back in 2021.

The app is expected to have curated playlists, exclusive albums, composer biographies, and other features that are designed to improve user experience. It will be available only on iPhones and will be compatible with iOS 15.4 later.

– Epsita Gunti with agency inputs