WhatsApp tests new birthday reminder feature

Facebook, the world’s most popular social media platform is set to undergo a major transformation that will significantly change how people use the app. Meta has announced a new “Reimagined Experience” for Facebook which is expected to fundamentally reshape the platform. The company is essentially moving Facebook toward a more TikTok-like experience. Under the new design, users will see a full-screen video feed as soon as they open the Facebook app. According to Meta, this change reflects what users want most as video content has become the platform’s highest priority. The company said it aims to provide an experience that is both entertaining and helps users discover content from trusted creators. However, users who do not like the new interface will have the option to switch back to the classic Facebook feed which will remain available as a secondary tab in the app’s navigation. Meta plans to roll out the video-first feed later this year initially in selected countries where users consume more video content. Interestingly, TikTok was the first platform to popularize this type of full-screen video feed and Meta now appears to be adopting a similar approach for Facebook. The company has not yet released any screenshots or images of the new interface.

WhatsApp is rolling out an interesting new update that users are likely to appreciate. The new feature has appeared in the latest beta version of WhatsApp for Android devices and will completely change the way users respond to media files. According to a report by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp introduced the ability to reply to or react to photos and videos in 2024. However, until now, users have had to exit the full-screen media viewer after viewing a photo or video in order to reply or add a reaction. Now, two years later, WhatsApp is redesigning the media viewer completely and adding a new bar to the full-screen media viewer. The company has introduced the redesigned media viewer interface to a limited number of beta testers. With the new interface, a complete response bar will appear directly on the preview screen. It will display two default emojis while the full range of reaction emojis can be accessed with a single tap. Users will also be able to access the emoji keyboard by tapping the “+” button. Similarly, a complete chat bar will appear at the bottom of the media viewer. This will allow users to type text replies, attach photos or videos, record voice messages or send other types of content without leaving the media viewer. As mentioned above, the feature has currently been introduced in the beta version so it is difficult to say exactly when it will become available to all WhatsApp users.

Instagram has changed its logo after several years. Yes, Instagram has introduced a new logo which is a text-only logo. The announcement was made in a post by Adam Mosseri, head of the Meta-owned photo-sharing platform. He described the new logo as more refined and modern while maintaining the simplicity of the previous name. Mosseri said that Instagram’s logo was being changed after more than a decade because the previous design had begun to feel outdated. The new font used for the name has also changed the appearance of some of the letters in the word “Instagram.” Instagram last redesigned its logo in 2016, when it replaced the classic brown camera design with a colourful rainbow-style logo. Meta has not yet issued an official statement regarding the change.

Meta has revealed that one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models hacked a company’s system during cybersecurity testing. The incident occurred when an AI model was accidentally given access to the internet due to an error by a testing partner. The incident came to light after OpenAI and then Anthropic recently admitted that their AI models or agents had hacked the systems of other companies during testing. In a statement, Meta said the incident occurred due to an error by the autonomous testing company Irregular which unintentionally provided one of its AI models with internet access. An investigation into the incident is now underway. According to the statement, the AI model exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service. Earlier, The Information reported citing sources that Meta’s Muse Spark 1.1 model had modified the internal systems of a company. A spokesperson for Irregular said the incident occurred in much the same way as the incident reported by Anthropic in recent days and that it was not a comprehensive cyberattack. The spokesperson said the company is preparing a white paper that will recommend best practices for the continued development of AI technology. Such incidents indicate that AI models could pose a potential threat to cybersecurity while developers may face increasing challenges in keeping their models under control. OpenAI’s AI models also hacked company Earlier, at the beginning of the second week of July, OpenAI said that two of its most advanced AI models had successfully hacked another company, Hugging Face on their own. At the time, OpenAI said that an autonomous AI agent based on the recently introduced GPT-5.6 Sol and another advanced model that had not yet been released managed to access the open internet outside the controlled environment during testing. Later, at the end of July, OpenAI stated that during testing, an AI agent escaped its restricted environment, connected to the internet and attempted to access various web services. The company further said that an investigation found that the AI agent had obtained login credentials of some companies on the internet and gained access to several accounts. Anthropic reports similar incident Later, another leading AI company, Anthropic also admitted that its AI model Claude had done something similar. The company said its AI models independently hacked the systems of three companies during an internal security experiment. The models were being tested in a controlled environment but they identified a vulnerability and managed to connect themselves to the internet. Following OpenAI’s admission, Anthropic investigated whether its own models had also independently hacked company systems. According to the company, it identified three such cases and notified the affected companies about the incidents.

YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform says Pakistani creators are rapidly expanding their global reach. The company has released a new report highlighting the increasing international popularity of Pakistani YouTube creators. According to the report, Pakistan is now one of the world’s most dynamic YouTube creative communities with Pakistani artists, creators and innovators introducing new forms of creative expression on the platform. The report states that audiences both within Pakistan and abroad are watching Pakistani YouTube content in record numbers helping it build a unique identity among viewers across different regions of the world. According to YouTube’s data: More than 140,000 Pakistani YouTube channels now have over 10,000 subscribers. More than 19,000 channels have surpassed 100,000 subscribers. Over 1,200 channels have crossed the 1 million subscribers milestone. The report also revealed that Pakistani creators uploaded more than 20 million hours of content to YouTube over the past year. One of the most significant highlights of the report is the global reach of Pakistani creators. Around 60% of the total watch time for Pakistani YouTube videos comes from viewers outside Pakistan. From South Asia to the Middle East, and from Europe to North America, Pakistani creators are attracting audiences worldwide through high-quality, authentic and internationally appealing content.

Meta has introduced a new feature for WhatsApp Web and the Windows desktop app that is expected to make handling PDF documents much more convenient for users. The company announced the integration of Adobe Acrobat support into WhatsApp Web and the Windows application. With this update, users can now view PDF files directly on their laptops or desktop computers without downloading them first. Previously, when a PDF was received on WhatsApp, users had to download the file before opening it. The new feature eliminates that step allowing PDFs to be viewed instantly within the chat. In addition to viewing documents, users will also be able to edit PDF files including highlighting text and adding annotations. Meta partnered with Adobe to bring these capabilities to WhatsApp. The company said the feature has now been rolled out globally for users of WhatsApp Web and the WhatsApp desktop app. With more than three billion WhatsApp users worldwide, many people regularly share documents through the platform. The new feature is expected to make document sharing and reviewing much more efficient. Meta also confirmed that end-to-end encryption will continue to protect PDF files even when they are viewed directly within chats. Alongside this update, Meta announced several additional features: iPad users can now create a new WhatsApp account directly from the app. WhatsApp has been redesigned for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to improve the in-car messaging experience. Users can now share songs directly from various music services to their WhatsApp Status.