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WhatsApp will start showing ads to users

What just happened? WhatsApp promised a few years ago that advertising would eventually become part of its app experience. Now, the company is starting to deliver on that promise. Privacy, encryption, and safety, however, are still guaranteed, the Meta-owned messaging service states. WhatsApp recently confirmed that advertising is gradually rolling out to a significant portion of its users. According to a new help page, people using the app solely for personal messaging will not see any ads for

How to automate IT ticket handling with AI and Tines

Run by the team at workflow orchestration and AI platform Tines, the Tines library features pre-built workflows shared by IT and security practitioners from across the community - all free to import and deploy through the platform’s Community Edition. A recent standout is a ticket-handling workflow developed by Connor Brewer, Principal Solutions Architect at Uzado Inc., a Canadian IT and security service provider. Built with Tines Pages and powered by AI, the workflow invites employees to subm

The Hamburger-Menu Icon Today: Is It Recognizable?

Summary: Hamburger menus are a more familiar pattern today than 10 years ago, but the same old best practices for hidden navigation still apply. Few icons in digital design have sparked as much debate over the last decade as the hamburger. The hamburger menu — which earned its nickname because of its abstract, stacked, hamburger-like appearance — was originally embraced as a clever way to save space on small screens by hiding the main navigation behind a single button. While this approach declu

Adobe Firefly app is finally launching to users. Here's how to access (and the perks)

Adobe Adobe has an extensive suite of generative AI tools for image and video editing, including the viral software Generative Fill, packaged in Firefly, its application for AI-assisted content creation. Now, all of these tools are readily available on your phone via a new Firefly app. The app Adobe has announced that its Firefly app is available for free download on iOS and Android. The app has been designed to offer the same Firefly experiences users know and love on the web, but in a conve

Tinder now lets you find double dates with friends

Tinder has officially launched a new feature that will help you find people to double date with a friend. The dating service says it's a "low-pressure, group-first" way to date, but really, it's a fantastic option if you prefer meeting someone new with a friend beside you, whether for your safety or your anxiety. To use the feature, you'll have to tap the Double Date icon and choose up to three friends to create a pair with. As TechCrunch notes, you'll then be able to scroll through other Double

Meta AI app ‘a privacy disaster’ as chats unknowingly made public [U: Warning added]

Update: Business Insider notes that Meta has now added a warning message when users share chat queries. The Meta AI app has been described as “a privacy disaster,” as users unknowingly make their embarrassing questions public. One tech writer described it as like discovering your web browser history has been public all along without you knowing it … TechCrunch reports that there is an absolutely ridiculous privacy default for many users. Whether you admit to committing a crime or having a we

You can now set up double dates with friends on Tinder

In an effort to resonate with younger users amid declining user engagement, Tinder announced on Tuesday the launch of a new Double Date feature, which allows users to team up with friends and chat with potential matches together. Double Date lets users pair up with a friend and browse through other paired users who share at least one of their individual preferences, such as gender and sexual orientation. When one person in a pair receives a match, a group chat begins with all four participants.

WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, the messaging app had a clear focus. No ads, no games and no gimmicks. For years, that is what WhatsApp’s two billion users — many of them in Brazil, India and other countries around the world — got. They chatted with friends and family unencumbered by advertising and other features found on social media. Now that is set to change. On Monday, WhatsApp said it would start showing ads inside its app for the first time. The promotions will a

Instagram tests a reposts feature

Instagram is testing the ability for users to repost posts, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday. The move doesn’t come as a surprise, as the social network was spotted developing the feature as far back as 2022. Some users have reported seeing the feature on their accounts, with one noting that users will be able to repost their own content in addition to other users’ posts. Of course, not everyone will be on board if Instagram decides to roll out the change officially, especially si

Ads are “rolling out gradually” to WhatsApp

For the first time since launching in 2009, WhatsApp will now show users advertisements. The ads are “rolling out gradually,” the company said. For now, the ads will only appear on WhatsApp's Updates tab, where users can update their status and access channels or groups targeting specific interests they may want to follow. In its announcement of the ads, parent company Meta claimed that placing ads under Updates means that the ads won’t “interrupt personal chats.” Meta said that 1.5 billion pe

Instagram users complain of mass bans, pointing finger at AI

Instagram users have for weeks complained about a significant increase in accounts being mistakenly banned or suspended. Many suspect, without direct evidence, that the issues may have to do with the use of AI automation. Reached for comment, Meta has so far not offered an on-record statement. According to a growing number of social media posts, including on sites like Reddit and X, Instagram users report that their accounts were banned even though they had not violated the company’s terms of

Android 16 update breaks button and gesture navigation for some Pixel users

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Google Pixel users are experiencing an annoying bug after installing the Android 16 update. The bug results in navigation buttons and gestures becoming temporarily unresponsive. User reports suggest that the issue is not limited to a specific Pixel model, although not all users are affected. Google recently rolled out Android 16 on the stable channel, bringing several new features to its Pixel devices. However, the update also seems to have introduced a f

Reddit will help advertisers turn ‘positive’ posts into ads

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Reddit is launching a new feature for advertisers that slots positive posts from Reddit users right under their ads. The new alpha feature, called Conversation Summary Add-ons, “dynamically integrates positive content from Reddit users directly below an advertiser’s creative, putting community conversations front-and-center in the user experience and blending AI-driven effici

Show HN: dk – A script runner and cross-compiler, written in OCaml

The dk coder is a script runner and cross-compiler designed for those with a limited background in programming to write substantial, safety-oriented applications. Yet its ease-of-use, portability and IDE support also solves the problem of README-itis: you give your users a lengthy README document, your users fail to install your software, and you lose a user forever. If you haven't seen dk in action, the Quick Walkthrough Guide will explain what dk scripts are and give you small examples to run

WhatsApp is adding ads to the Status screen

After years of providing free services without any bells attached, WhatsApp is now going to start showing ads on the popular chat app. To be clear, users will only see ads on the Status screen — the app’s take on Instagram’s Stories. So just like you see an ad after watching a few stories on Instagram, you will see ads on WhatsApp after you’ve scrolled through a few Status updates. The company said that its ad mechanism uses signals like users’ country or city, language, and the channels they’

Can You Trust the Data in a Privacy-First World?

Online advertising powers much of the internet economy, but collecting user data across platforms raises significant privacy concerns. Researchers from TikTok Inc., Duke University, and Penn State University have developed a solution that balances measurement accuracy with privacy protection. In their paper “Click Without Compromise: Online Advertising Measurement via Per User Differential Privacy,” Yingtai Xiao, Jian Du, Shikun Zhang, Wanrong Zhang, Qian Yang, Danfeng Zhang, and Daniel Kifer i

Over 46,000 Grafana instances exposed to account takeover bug

More than 46,000 internet-facing Grafana instances remain unpatched and exposed to a client-side open redirect vulnerability that allows executing a malicious plugin and account takeover. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2025-4123 and impacts multiple versions of the open-source platform used for monitoring and visualizing infrastructure and application metrics. The vulnerability was discovered by bug bounty hunter Alvaro Balada and was addressed in security updates that Grafana Labs released on May

Apple's Liquid Glass is prep work for AR interfaces, not just a design refresh

Apple's introduction of Liquid Glass at WWDC 2025 represents far more than a visual refresh. It's a calculated strategic repositioning that reveals how the company thinks about the next decade of human-computer interaction. While the design community debates readability and the tech press focuses on the absence of major AI announcements, Apple is quietly executing a playbook that should feel familiar to anyone who remembers the iPhone's introduction: prepare users for a paradigm shift by making

Copilot Vision brings Microsoft's screen-watching AI to everyday Windows tasks

AI overload: Microsoft wants Copilot to be your digital sidekick, always watching and ready to help – whether you need it or not. The latest feature, Vision, turns the AI into a screen-reading assistant that talks back, offering tips, tasks, or tech-induced headaches. Microsoft announced that Copilot Vision is now available to users in the US, with plans to expand to more non-European countries soon. This update significantly enhances Copilot, which is evolving into more of a digital "companion

Gemini in Google Drive gets right to the point with automatic PDF summaries

Andy Walker / Android Authority TL;DR Gemini can now read PDFs in Google Drive and create a summary card for quick viewing. The feature comes with buttons users can click to make Gemini take action on the PDF, such as creating a draft proposal. The update is rolling out now to all Workspace users. Google Drive has been getting a lot of Gemini love recently. Google added the ability for Gemini to browse your files and even watch videos for you. Now, Google is rolling out a new feature that gi

16 years later, iOS 26 finally catches up to Android for custom ringtones

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR iOS 26 finally introduces the ability to easily set custom ringtones from audio files. Previously, creating iPhone ringtones required a complex process involving GarageBand or a Mac. This feature has been available on Android since its inception, so iPhones have finally caught up. iOS 26 is a big software release for iPhones, not just because Apple made the big jump up from iOS 18 to 26. There’s a new design language called Liquid Glass to look forward to

Google’s Gemini AI will summarize PDFs for you when you open them

Google is rolling out new Gemini AI features for Workspace users that make it easier to find information in PDFs and form responses. The Gemini-powered file summarization capabilities in Google Drive have now expanded to PDFs and Google Forms, allowing key details and insights to be condensed into a more convenient format that saves users from manually digging through the files. Gemini will proactively create summary cards when users open a PDF in their drive and present clickable actions based

They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling

“You want to know the ironic thing? I wrote my son’s obituary using ChatGPT,” Mr. Taylor said. “I had talked to it for a while about what had happened, trying to find more details about exactly what he was going through. And it was beautiful and touching. It was like it read my heart and it scared the shit out of me.” ‘Approach These Interactions With Care’ I reached out to OpenAI, asking to discuss cases in which ChatGPT was reinforcing delusional thinking and aggravating users’ mental health

This Chatbot Tool Pays Users $50 a Month for Their Feedback on AI Models

To show off how easy it is for users to earn money by using his new chatbot platform, Pankaj Gupta offers to cash out $1 worth of Yupp credits, sending it to me over Venmo or PayPal. I’m talking with Gupta in the WIRED office during a prelaunch demo of Yupp, which comes out of stealth mode today. Journalistic ethics forbid accepting gifts from sources, so I politely decline. He proceeds to send it over PayPal to his Stanford alumni email. Gupta is the CEO of Yupp, which is free to use and avail

The Meta AI App Lets You ‘Discover’ People’s Bizarrely Personal Chats

“What counties [sic] do younger women like older white men,” a public message from a user on Meta’s AI platform says. “I need details, I’m 66 and single. I’m from Iowa and open to moving to a new country if I can find a younger woman.” The chatbot responded enthusiastically: “You’re looking for a fresh start and love in a new place. That’s exciting!” before suggesting “Mediterranean countries like Spain or Italy, or even countries in Eastern Europe.” This is just one of many seemingly personal

Google Cloud outages: Spotify, Discord, Snapchat and more partially down

Google Cloud experienced outages today that led to disruptions for many online services. Reports of issues for Google products and others began around 11AM PT/2 PM ET. The company was able to restore function to its own apps, but several other businesses have continued to experience problems for some users. In an update at 4:16PM ET, Google said, "We have identified the root cause and applied appropriate mitigations. Our infrastructure has recovered in all regions except us-central1. Google Clo

Bluesky backlash misses the point

Bluesky is missing an opportunity to explain to people that its network is more than just its own Bluesky social app. In recent weeks, a number of headlines and posts have surfaced questioning whether Bluesky’s growth is declining, if the network has become too much of a left-leaning echo chamber, or if its users lack a sense of humor, among other charges. Investor Mark Cuban, who even financially backed Skylight, a video app built on Bluesky’s underlying protocol, AT Proto, complained this we

Pinterest is adding third-party influencer content to its feeds

is platforms and communities reporter with five years of experience covering the companies that shape technology and the people who use their tools. Influencers on affiliate shopping platform LTK may soon get access to a huge new audience: Pinterest users. Under a new partnership announced today, high-performing image posts on LTK will automatically be cross-posted to Pinterest; the pilot program is expected to expand in the coming months to more creators and content formats. LTK is a huge par

LibreOffice backs campaign to help users move from Windows 10 to Linux – and ditch Office, too

In context: Microsoft will officially end support for the most widely used editions of Windows 10 in just a few months. The operating system remains in use by hundreds of millions of PC owners, many of whom will soon face a critical decision: upgrade to Windows 11, or explore alternatives. Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 10 security updates on October 14, 2025, even though the operating system remains the most widely used desktop platform. This move will render a massive number of PC

Instagram adds real-time Spotify song sharing to Notes, teases grid reordering

Instagram is introducing a new way to share your music taste through Notes, the temporary status updates that appear above inboxes in DMs. Starting today, users can display the Spotify tracks they’re currently listening to in real time. Unlike the existing music sharing features, this update continuously reflects the current song, showing both the title and artist. It builds on Instagram’s integration with Spotify, which began last November with the introduction of an “add to Spotify” button.