WhatsApp Video Calling is coming soon!

Facebook has been promising to add video calling to WhatsApp for over a year now and it looks like they could be on the cusp of releasing the feature in the coming days and weeks, as evidenced by a pair of leaked screenshots obtained by German Apple blog Macerkopf.de.

Moreover, the app will gain tabs for moving between multiple conversations with ease. Like Apple’s FaceTime, Skype, Messenger, Viber and many other messaging platforms, WhatsApp should permit users to send and receive video calls via Wi-Fi or cellular.

The video feed from the caller will be shown full screen, with your own video overlaid on top of it in a small preview window that you’ll be able to move around and reposition on the screen as you like.

Standard controls are available, including switching between the front and rear camera and muting the microphone. As for the aforementioned tabbed chat interface, this feature will put multiple chat tabs at your fingerprint.

This will let you quickly switch between individual conversations without needing to go back to WhatsApp’s chat list. Last but not least, developers are said to be redesigning the app to show the green branding more prominently.

The screenshots are taken from WhatsApp’s internal build (version 2.12.16.2) which has yet to be released. For reference, the most recent release of WhatsApp for iPhone carries a version number of 2.12.12.

If the internal build number is anything to go by, we can expect video chatting to go live in WhatsApp with the app’s next update in the App Store.

Facebook launched both video calling on Messenger and audio calling (VoIP) on WhatsApp in April of 2015. Rival Viber has had video calling since September of 2014.

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You can finally post full-size landscape and portrait photos on Instagram!

Instagram is updating its Android and iOS apps to enable native support for full-size landscape and portrait photos and video inside the app. They’ll run alongside the traditional square photos, which will remain the default for photos shared on Instagram.

When you access your photo gallery from within the updated app, you’ll now see a format button above the camera roll. You can use this button to toggle between square and full-size images. From there, you can zoom in and out to choose the best crop for your photos.

Initially, Instagram adopted square photos as a way of distinguishing itself from other photo-sharing apps. But they were also a practical choice. They helped provide a more consistent look as you scrolled down the feed, and they also looked better on smaller phone screens.

But as screen sizes have increased, and the platform has evolved to host more serious photography, the restrictive format has left many of the app’s 300 million monthly usersfrustrated. According to Instagram’s own research, 20 percent of uploaded photos have been modified to fit into the square frame, often using a third-party app that adds a “letterbox” effect to enable the sharing of landscape pictures. “For the average person, one in every five stories in their feed looks like it’s natively supported in our app,” says Ashley Yuki, an Instagram product manager. “Which is not great.”

Even as third-party apps like Square Sized and Squaready have gained popularity, they leave dead space on the edges of photos, making them smaller and harder to see. It can also be annoying and time-consuming to have to use a separate app to prep your photos beforehand.

Members of Instagram’s large fashion community will likely be among those celebrating the freedom this update brings, as will anyone who has experienced the trauma of having to choose whether to crop out either their new haircut or their new shoes. But square photos, as the signature of Instagram, will remain the default mode.

The update also unifies Instagram’s photo and video filters, so now any filter can be applied to your post regardless of its format. It will be available to both iOS and Android users today.

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Facebook disabling messaging in main mobile app, forcing users to install Messenger

It appears that folks using Facebook’s Messenger service will soon have to download the standalone app, or look at other messaging options. Over the next few days, the social network is going to disable messaging from its main iPhone and Android apps.

The move is an attempt to push users over to Facebook Messenger, which the company says will have several benefits. For one it will enable it to streamline the mobile chat experience, and two, Facebook says users respond faster when using Messenger…

TechCrunch has a statement from Facebook:

“In the next few days, we’re continuing to notify more people that if they want to send and receive Facebook messages, they’ll need to download the Messenger app. As we’ve said, our goal is to focus development efforts on making Messenger the best mobile messaging experience possible and avoid the confusion of having separate Facebook mobile messaging experiences. Messenger is used by more than 200 million people every month, and we’ll keep working to make it an even more engaging way to connect with people.” 

Up until now, Facebook users could send and receive messages to other users from both the main Facebook app and Facebook Messenger. Now all you will see are notifications in the main app, which you can tap on to send you to the standalone Messenger app.

Facebook has already done this in certain parts of Europe, and it says it’s seen positive results thus far. And while it might make sense for the company from an operations standpoint, it’ll be interesting to see what its notoriously-outspoken-userbase thinks.

If you haven’t already downloaded them, you can find the main Facebook app in the App Store for free, and the Facebook Messenger app here for free. Messenger was recently updated with iPad support, instant video, Big Likes, and other improvements.

WhatsApp Update Lets You Hide “Last Seen” On Android Finally! Here’s How To Get It Right Now!

Ever since its launch, WhatsApp has always taken flak concerning privacy. Especially, the ‘Last Seen’ feature has been major headache for Android users, who couldn’t turn this notification off. Surprisingly, the provision to hide it on iOS has been there for quite some time.

Today, with the release of v2.11.169, WhatsApp has finally brought the ‘anti-stalker’ feature to Android. No more will your annoying friend know when you were last using your phone. In short, you can set it to be seen by certain contacts or simply turn it off.

Next up, is the ability to turn off Group Chat Notifications. WhatsApp now gives you better control over your group conversations, by allowing you to mute those annoying groups and not actually see any notifications. This is a welcome change since watching those hundreds notifications upon unlocking your phone isn’t a pleasant site.

Last feature allows you to pay for a friend’s WhatsApp account extension. One can choose  from 1, 3 or even a 5 year extension to the world’s largest messaging network via Google Wallet, PayPal or simply sending across a payment link. The Broadcast Notification options have been removed in this version, but the app still allows you to send broadcast messages. The update is currently not up on the Play Store yet, but one can download the latest .apk installer from the link given below.

www.whatsapp.com/android

Facebook for iOS update brings video autoplay to the app

Facebook for iOS received an update that will now allow videos to automatically play on your News Feed once you scroll by them on your screen. The update brings Facebook for iOS to version 6.8. The automatic video playing cannot be turned off, but you can make some adjustments. One good piece of news is that while the video will play no matter what, by default the video is mute. So if you don’t feel like being disturbed as you flick through your Facebook News Feed, you won’t hear a thing, unless you want to.

And you are going to want to embrace the ability to mute the volume considering that not only are uploaded videos playing automatically on the screen, but so are advertisements. Hey, Facebook needs to monetize, you know.

Look, we’re willing to let you in on a little back door secret. Facebook would just feel awful if it forced you to use your precious data to watch a video, or even worse, an advertisement. So you can actually disable the auto play video on a cellular network so that it will work only when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi pipeline.

While the auto play feature is only on the iOS version of Facebook, it is expected to come to other platforms as well.