New social media app created by Amazon
- At first glance, Anytime by Amazon could be an intriguing rival for Whatsapp as the app allows people to get rid of mobile numbers and just message others using their name
- Apple and Android users will be able to use the app to put filters on photos and videos and send them to their friends, listen to music, order food and split the bill
- It should be handy for businesses as well by allowing people to make appointments and check on their orders – all while still in the app
In other social media news…
Restaurants owners are designing the venues to draw in a generation of social media users
- People who are opening up cafes and restaurants are considering bespoke lighting and painted murals for people to take pictures and share on social media, according to this article on The Verge
- Casey Newton, the author of the article, points out that Unicorn-inspired food and drinks and ‘galaxy doughnuts’ are often inspired by viral trends online, but restaurants can no longer just be a venue for a meal – They have to be an experience
- Meanwhile if the venue features a unique saying or double-entendre, it can often be the ‘hook’ that gets people to visit that restaurant over another for social media users to be seen to be keeping up with their peers, Casey Newton writes
New Snapchat filters
- The image-sharing social media app has added backdrop filters, which when you tap the scissors, will put a different background into your photo
- If 10-second videos used to annoy you as it cut off just when the chorus kicks in at a gig, then you’ll be pleased to hear that videos can now be up to a minute long (consisting of six 10-second clips)
- Users can also now apply one of four different voice filters by tapping the speaker icon after recording a video
And finally…
We don’t know how to tell you this so we are just going to come out with it…. Microsoft is getting rid of Microsoft Paint. Soon there will be a whole generation who don’t understand the joy of making shapes of the screen to fill in with different coloured paint pots….
Image credit: Lance Ulanoff/mashable