Meta has released a new feature for Instagram and Messenger s wherein they can use their virtual avatars on video calls. In 2022, Meta announced personal avatars for Instagram Stories and DMs, which people could use for animated quick replies and stickers instead of regular emojis. Following this, the company released avatars for its communication platform, Messenger. 1l2834

Most social media platforms like Facebook organize news feed posts according to what is deemed most relevant to the , but people who use the app to stay in the know about their friends may want to see the most recent entries instead. By default, Facebook utilizes a feed algorithm that makes recommendations based on s’ social media activity and preferences. This means posts by friends and family are shown less on the main feed in lieu of popular videos by content creators and other suggested content.

There are many things people use Facebookfor, but one of the best (and most useful) features is being able to quickly find a friend's birthday. While Instagram isn't far behind, Facebook still stands tall as the largest social network by a long shot. It's been around for nearly two decades, has approximately 2.9 billion monthly active s, and regularly adds new features to keep folks interested. While Snapchat also lets you find friends' birthdays, it has a much smaller base.

Facebook s who want to check if someone is not following them on the platform can do this quite easily. When a person is added as a 's Facebook friend, they automatically become their follower. In addition, s can allow people who aren't their friends to follow them on Facebook by selecting 'Public' in the 'Who Can Follow Me' privacy setting. Generally, a 's Facebook friends have more access to their profile, including their posts and photos, while followers might have a more restricted view of only their public posts and information.

Meta has made it easier to post Reels across its platforms with a one-tap sharing option that lets s cross-post Instagram Reels to their Facebook . While Facebook Reels have been around for a while now, s previously needed to Reels separately on Instagram and Facebook. With the new cross-posting feature, it's easy to share Reels to both platforms with a few taps.

Anyone in the U.S. who held a Facebook between May 24, 2007 and December 22, 2022 can now submit a claim to receive payment in Meta’s massive settlement over its mishandling of data. In 2018, it was revealed that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica was able to scrape data from as many as 87 million s’ profiles thanks to Facebook’s own policies around data collection. A loophole in Facebook’s API at the time allowed the firm — and third-party developers, in general — to access not only the data of s who interacted with their apps, but data from those s’ friends, too.

Nine years after Facebook removed the Messenger functionality from its mobile app, the company is reintegrating the messaging feature with its main app in an apparent effort to make it more convenient for s to interact with their friends and family. Facebook separated the two apps in 2014, ostensibly to develop Messenger as the 'best' mobile messaging application and avoid confusion from having two separate messaging experiences. However, the separation was controversial, and s reacted angrily against the company's decision.

Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg announced a new feature called Meta Verified, a subscription product that offers perks like higher visibility, deeper security, and priority access to its customer for $12 per month, per platform. More importantly, it includes the hottest new social media perk — a verified badge. Rings a bell? Well, that’s because the Lord of Twitter, Elon Musk, sent the entire internet into a meltdown with the announcement of Twitter Blue a few months ago, a service that hawks the coveted Blue Badge of influence for $8 per month.

Fake s have become a massive problem on social media websites like Facebook and Instagram, but thankfully, both platforms allow s to report impersonating s. From stealing profile pictures to getting fake followers, hackers and bad actors have become experts at impersonating others on social media platforms. Although s cannot always avoid encountering an impersonator, they can inform the respective platforms to take necessary action.

Following in the footsteps of Twitter, Meta is testing a subscription-based verification service called Meta Verified for Instagram and Facebook, but does it offer enough benefits for s to start paying a monthly fee? Many social media and communication platforms have released a paid version of their service over the past year. In 2022, Snapchat and Telegram released their offerings, called Snapchat+ and Telegram , respectively. Late last year, Elon Musk made changes to the Twitter Blue subscription, offering a blue tick to paying s.