This year Facebook split off the chat functionality from its main app into a separate Messenger app, which pretty soon became a mandatory download for those who use Facebook for chatting. Despite the bombardment of 1-star reviews from unhappy users, the Messenger app reached 500 million downloads in late August.

Now, the social network has announced that the app gets 500 million users each month. Read more »

Instagram has released an update for its iOS and Android apps that adds two new features. The first is the ability to edit captions, which was sorely missed before.

Previously, if you made some typo in your caption or wanted to change it, the only way was to delete it and then add it again as a comment, which only worked if someone else hadn’t commented yet on your photo. Or, just reupload the photo altogether. Now an option appears in the menu below the image that will let you edit the caption of your photo whenever you want. Read more »

Facebook launched a brand new app for iOS dubbed Rooms. The newcomer allows users to create or participate in message boards that cover any topic they might be interested in.

The app consist of rooms that are organized by area of interest. Read more »

Twitter has announced a new feature called Audio Cards. This will allow users to discover music from their favorite artists and then play it within the app itself. The feature is available on both iOS as well as Android.

Audio Cards appear as regular tweets on your timeline with the track. You tap on the track and it starts playing within the app with album art and playback controls. You can minimize the Audio Card and continue to browser your timeline. Read more »

This sure took a while, but Facebook is now officially the owner of WhatsApp. The social network agreed to buy the mobile messaging service on February 20, shocking the tech world by offering $19 billion for that privilege.

All the regulatory hurdles have now been cleared, so WhatsApp is finally part of Facebook. Read more »

Snapchat is one of the most popular messaging servicess among the teens. It’s been around for over three years now and even though it’s yet to monetize its user base, things are going very well for it. There were even rumors Snapchat refused acquisition bids from Facebook and Google worth $3 to $4 billion.

It seems the Snapchat CEO was right to turn those offers, if real. The company is estimating its value at $10 billion as it prepares for another round of financing. Read more »

The popular magazine format app Flipboard is now available for Windows Phone 8.1 devices. The application is currently available to download in the Windows Phone App Store. It will also come pre-loaded on the freshly launched Nokia Lumia 830.

For the time being, Flipboard is available only for Windows Phone smartphones with at least 1GB of RAM. Read more »

Tweetbot, the most popular third party Twitter client for iOS, has been updated for the new iOS 8 as well as the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The list of iOS 8 related improvements include lockscreen notification shortcuts, where you can now slide notifications on the lockscreen to access additional functions, interactive notifications that pop down from the top and lets you reply instantly without leaving your current app, and sharing sheet support for sharing via Tweetbot. Read more »

These days it seems like there’s an infographic for everything, and now that Google’s finally said its last farewell to Orkut – there’s one for that too.

Orkut was Google’s first social network, before Buzz, and before Google+. It’s been officially pronounced dead just hours ago, so it’s probably the best time to take a look back at what Orkut was. Read more »

After ten long years of being in existence, Orkut is finally dead. After announcing its plans to shut down the social network back in June, Google finally pulled the plug today on the ageing social network.

Orkut was Google’s first social network back in 2004, before Google+, or Buzz or anything else existed. While it initially saw most of its usage in the US, it was eventually taken over by Brazilians and Indians, who remained the top two users of the service till the very end. Read more »

Many months ago in February, Facebook made some big news when it announced plans to acquire successful messaging company WhatsApp for a mind-melting $19 billion. But the deal still has to be approved by regulatory agencies across the world, including the EU’s competition authority. That apparently shouldn’t concern Facebook, as the EU is rumored to give it the go-ahead “unconditionally”.

That means the company won’t have to make any concessions and the deal will simply be approved as is, since Facebook reportedly managed to convince the European Commission that it would have no anticompetitive effect. The information allegedly comes from “two people familiar with the matter”. Read more »

Back in July a few people spotted an odd new Buy button next to certain product-related tweets in their Twitter timelines. Starting today this feature is officially in testing, the social network has announced.

For now, you’ll only see Buy buttons next to some tweets if you’re in the US. Even if you are, you might not get the new feature, as it will first be available for just “a small percentage” of users. Read more »

Instagram added time-lapse video recording to its repertoire of tricks. Dubbed Hyperlapse, the functionality is available only for iOS devices for the time being.

Like all things Instagram, Hyperlapse features clean, easy to ready interface. Read more »

If you’re getting sick of seeing “promoted tweets” in your Twitter timeline, well, get ready for Promoted Video ads to show up in there too. Twitter has announced a beta run of a new service that lets advertisers promote videos.

It works in basically the same way as the promoted tweets that have been available for a few years now – but combining those with a video card. So, in your timeline the Promoted Video ads will look just like a regular tweet that has a link to a video in it (and which you can play in-place on the Web or in the Twitter apps for mobile). Obviously though, below you’ll see that “Promoted by” mention as you do for promoted tweets. Read more »

Microsoft has released a new app for the iPhone called SNIPP3T that lets you keep track of all your favorite celebrities.

SNIPP3T lets you follow your favorite celebrities by clicking on their profiles. There, you can get detailed information about them and read all the latest news involving them. It’s like stalking your favorite celebrities without actually stalking them. Read more »