#WhatsApp

WhatsApp

Say goodbye to typos: WhatsApp launches edit message feature

The edit history will not be displayed, ensuring that the original content remains private

Meta

Meta prepares more layoffs across Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram

The move is part of a cost-cutting push that will eventually whittle away 10,000 positions at the company

Lulu Hypermarket

Lulu Hypermarket launches AI-powered customer experiences on WhatsApp

Salem, an AI-powered assistant, helps customers order products for in-store collection, receive in-app purchase receipts, and track their orders

Meta

Meta to form AI product team to keep up with chatbot competition

The company is trying to use the technology with text-like chats in Meta’s messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger

Whatsapp

WhatsApp to stop functioning on older smartphones from January 2023

In October, WhatsApp experienced a glitch, making it inaccessible temporarily to thousands of users worldwide

Fintech PayTabs acquires Turkey’s social commerce platform, Paymes

The acquisition aims to create a unified social commerce platform for micro merchants, fempreneurs and webpreneurs across the MENA region

WhatsApp can officially hide online status, announces rollout of Communities

WhatsApp allows users to hide ‘online status’, announces new ‘Communities’ feature

Users can choose to hide their last seen online status from all contacts, unknown numbers or specific contacts

WhatsApp down for users

WhatsApp is down for thousands of users; back online after an hour

The outage affected both personal and group chats

Whatsapp

WhatsApp rolls out in-app shopping product with India’s JioMart

The new feature lets users in India shop for products from JioMart, and pay for them directly within the app

Whatsapp new privacy features

WhatsApp’s three new privacy features and how they work

The three news features include the ability to hide your online status, exit groups silently and block screenshots for ‘view once’ images

WhatsApp announces addition of new ‘communities’ feature

People will be able to receive updates sent to the entire ‘Community’ on Whatsapp and easily organse smaller discussion groups on what matters to them

Getty Images

How conversational AI improves the experience of customers

Chatbots create a human-like conversational experience for customers, while making it engaging at the same time, says Ravi Sundararajan, COO, Gupshup

The art of newsjacking

How the temporary outage on Facebook’s platforms was leveraged as a marketing opportunity by Twitter

Social media apps

Update: Here’s what caused Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram outage for six hours

Downdetector.com stated in a post that the Facebook outage has become the largest in its history with over 10.6 million reports from all over the world

WhatsApp can officially hide online status, announces rollout of Communities

Major outage: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp down globally

WhatsApp and Facebook took to Twitter, saying it is working to get things back to normal.

Payit

UAE’s Payit partners with Platx for WhatsApp payments in the region

Merchants who enroll for this service can simply provide their WhatsApp enabled mobile numbers to their customers

Covid-19 Vaccine UAE

Dubai: Covid-19 vaccinations can now be booked over WhatsApp

To access the Dubai Health Authority’s 24×7 WhatsApp hotline, users will have to add 800 342 to their contacts

Facebook risks Instagram, WhatsApp breakup in antitrust case

U.S. antitrust officials, states, seek to break up Facebook over monopoly fears

Half of SMBs in the UAE, 35% in Saudi reduced their workforce due to virus: study

Small businesses turn to digital channels to survive the pandemic

WhatsApp can officially hide online status, announces rollout of Communities

Abu Dhabi’s health department launches Covid-19 home isolation smart service on WhatsApp

The automated “Chatbot” service will allow citizens to get answers to the most common questions about the virus and home isolation recommendations from the health department

Social space: A roundup of all the GCC social media news in May

Fadi Khater, founder and managing partner of digital marketing agency Netizency, provides an overview of social media trends in the region

social media

What’s trending socially in the GCC

Here’s an overview and analysis of the latest social media news and trends in the GCC

UAE eases restrictions on internet calls to contain virus

The UAE will permit companies to use Microsoft Teams and Zoom applications that allow virtual conferencing

Free video calling app ToTok no longer available in the UAE

Currently, all free voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services including Skype and WhatsApp calls are blocked in the UAE

New video calling app launched in UAE, ban on Skype, WhatsApp calls remains

Etisalat offers access to the Voico UAE app, which offers video and audio calls worldwide

UAE gets new video calling app as VoIP restrictions on Skype, WhatsApp continue

Yzer also has Dhs400m investment from business figure Balvinder Singh Sahni