Facebook tests Snap Map-style redesign of Nearby Friends

Helping friends meet up offline has been a massive missed opportunity for Facebook. Whether because the brand is too creepy or the politely opt-in 2015 rollout of its location sharing feature wasn’t creepy enough, Facebook Nearby Friends never quite took off. Only 103 of my 1120 friends in San Francisco have it turned on.

It’s not the only one struggling with “The quest to cure loneliness”. Foursquare Swarm, Glympse, Apple’s Find My Friends, and Google Maps’ real-time coordinate sharing option have all failed to become a ubiquitous standard.

The redesigned map homescreen of Facebook Nearby Friends

But last year, Snapchat launched a different take on the idea based on its biggest acquisition ever, French app Zenly. With Snap Map, it wasn’t just about the utility of seeing a list of friends’ locations like on Facebook, but also splayed them out across map that you could dive into to see their latest geo-tagged Stories. It was as much about fun and content as it was about actually hanging out with people in person.

Now Facebook is testing a significant redesign of Nearby Friends that looks a lot more like Snap Map. It replaces the list view of the neighborhoods and cities friends are in with a map that groups friends together by city. A “view list” button opens up the former homescreen, though in both views you still can only see a friend’s approximate location in a neighborhood or city, not their exact coordinates. Facebook confirms to TechCrunch that “We’re testing a new design for Nearby Friends, a tool people have used for the past four years to meet with their friends in person. People have complete control over whether to use Nearby Friends or not. They can turn it on in the Nearby Friends bookmark.”

That statement both subtly promotes Facebook’s opt-in privacy setting for Nearby Friends while urging people to actually go back and activate it. The screenshot was generated from the code of Facebook’s Android app by mobile researcher and frequent TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong. Interestingly, after TechCrunch’s inquiry, Wong tells me Facebook appears to have deactivated server-side the ability to access the map feature.

The reason this matters is that Facebook is desperate for engagement, especially amongst younger users who are slipping away from it to Snapchat and Instagram. If revamped with this map and other improvements, Nearby Friends could become a more popular utility that keeps people opening Facebook. Getting more people to share their real-time location could open new opportunities for local ad targeting. And Facebook could benefit from showing it unlocks meaningful offline connection given its recent brand troubles following election interference and calls that it’s the opposite of “time well spent”.

The existing design of Facebook Nearby Friends

Snap Map was smart, but it’s sadly buried behind an awkward pinch gesture from Snapchat’s homescreen, or inside the search bar where some users wouldn’t expect it. Internal Snapchat usage data scored by Taylor Lorenz for The Daily Beast revealed that Snap Map had sunk from a high of 35 million daily unique viewers after its June 2017 launch to just 19 million by that September — merely 11 percent of Snapchat’s users at the time. Users never seemed to cease on it as a method of browsing Snapchat’s geo-tagged content.

Unfortunately, none of these location apps have figured out that meeting up isn’t all about location. It’s about availability. It doesn’t matter if I see my best friend is at a coffee shop right away if they’re not actually available to hang out. They could be on date, having a business meeting, or trying to get some work done. If I drop in just because I see they’re close by, it could be awkward. You’d have to first message them, but you can come off seeming desperate if they can’t or don’t want to meet up with you.

Location apps need an availability indicator similar to the green “online” dot used by many chat apps. You could toggle that on if you wanted to show you’re interested in some spontaneous friend time.

Facebook’s actually spent the last year trying to build this into Messenger in the form of “Your Emoji” status. It lets you pick an emoji like a martini, fork and knife, or barbell that’s temporarily overlaid on your profile pic thumbnail to let people know you’re down for drinking, getting dinner, or working out. The feature is yet to be widely tested, indicating that Facebook hasn’t quite cracked the nut of encouraging online meetups.

Ideally, Facebook would combine Nearby Friends and Your Emoji to help users share both approximately where they are and whether they want to hang out. The next step would be making it easy to watch a friend’s geo-tagged Facebook Story from wherever they are. And then, Facebook could further copy Snap Map by making public Stories and other location-based content accessible from the map so you could browse it for fun instead of the News Feed or Stories tray.

Facebook needs to rethink its entire product stack to embrace the high-definition cameras, big phone screens, and fast network connections that make it easier to convey information through imagery than text. Visual communication is the future and that goes far beyond Stories.

Facebook Messenger’s ‘Your Emoji’ status tells friends what’s up

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Twitter launches a ‘Data Saver’ mode that turns its main app into Twitter Lite

An updated version of the Twitter mobile app will allow users to gain more control over their data usage – similar to how the Twitter Lite app designed for emerging markets works. Now, instead of having to download a separate app in order to limit data consumption or manually adjust various settings, users will be able to turn on a new ‘Data Saver’ option available in Twitter’s Settings.

Until today, Twitter offered Data Saver in Twitter for Windows, Twitter Lite, and its mobile website. Some users may have also seen the Data Saver option on iOS or Android, as well as on Twitter’s desktop website, because of a test Twitter had underway.

That desktop web test had also included moving other elements and features around, like putting Trends underneath the “Who To Follow” suggestions, for example, or making “Night Mode” a more visible option.

But with the launch today, the Data Saver feature is broadly available to all iOS and Android users, a company spokesperson confirmed.

To take advantage of Data Saver, you’ll visit the Data Usage settings in the iOs or Android mobile app and toggle the option on or off. When enabled, images will load in lower quality and videos won’t autoplay. If you’re browsing Twitter and want to see an image appear in higher quality, you can tap on the three-top menu and pick “Load High Quality” to change the setting on that particular piece of content.

The updated version includes a few other tweaks as well, including a change to make it easier to manage who’s in your group chats, plus VoiceOver improvements in polls, and better labels for some types of Twitter ads, according to the app’s update text in the App Store.

The new Twitter app is live now, but the features themselves may still be rolling out at this time.

Twitter tells us its @TwitterSupport account will tweet the news later today as Data Saver rolls out to everyone.

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Bumble to launch in India before year-end

On the heels of Tinder’s launch of a Bumble-like feature in India, which allows women to initiative the conversations, Bumble is today formally announcing its plans for an expansion into India. The company says it has been building up a local team in the region over the past nine months and defining its strategy. The app will be available later this fall, with marketing spend focused on major metropolitan regions.

Given that it’s already October, Bumble’s Indian arrival is only a matter of weeks at this point. While Bumble won’t commit to an exact launch date, it would say that the launch is planned for sometime before the end of the year.

The Indian market is a critical one, given the sizable population of over 1.3 billion and their rapid adoption of mobile devices. It’s been a battleground for device makers, like Apple, Samsung and Chinese brands, and bumped the U.S. to become the world’s second largest smartphone market last fall. All major tech companies are addressing the market as well, with “lite” versions  of apps designed to save data, and other India-specific offerings.

In the dating space, it’s been more challenging for apps like Tinder and others, because of India’s traditional approach to dating and courtships, which in the past has involved concerns around parental acceptance, class differences and pre-arranged marriages. But India is changing. The country’s Supreme Court has been overturning colonial-era laws, and recently decriminalized same-sex relations and adultery, for example.

That’s paved the way for a number of dating apps including an extramarital affairs app Gleeden, matchmaking app Wingman, and LGBTQ dating app Grindr, The Economic Times reported.

Tinder, meanwhile, has established itself in the country to become the highest-grossing Android app, according to App Annie data.

For Bumble’s Indian launch, the company is partnering with actor, philanthropist and entrepreneur Priyanka Chopra (who also recently became engaged to Nick Jonas.) Chopra had worked with Bumble on the launch of Bumble Bizz, its business networking feature, which arrived last October.

“It’s rare to see a brand with this level of reach and relevance maintain a commitment to their values and mission in a manner that has global impact,” said Chopra, in a statement about her involvement in the Indian launch. “I’ve always believed that investing in women is key to social transformation and economic growth, and in working with Whitney and her team over the past year, I’m inspired by the real, positive change Bumble is creating and I’m proud to have the opportunity to contribute to this movement as a partner,” she added.

The Indian version of Bumble will be available in both Hinglish and Hindi for iOS and Android and will include yet-to-be-announced security features, beyond the photo verification and profile moderation offered today.

The move to launch in India comes at a time when Bumble and Tinder are head-to-head in a bitter rivalry. Bumble is now suing Tinder parent Match Group over fraudulently obtaining trade secrets, and Match is suing Bumble over patent infringement. The two companies have been unable to work out these differences and are headed to court.

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Top 6 Underground Search Engines You Never Knew About

I love Google and Bing just as much as the next person. But normal search engines only brush the surface of the internet. To dive into the underground internet, you need to use underground search engines.

What’s the underground internet?

Most people don’t realize that there are a lot of areas you can’t get to with a normal search engine. These include dynamic pages that provide information when you load then, online databases that only return results when you search them, and then there’s the entire dark web.

The following specialized underground search engines let you access all those hidden areas of the internet.

1. Torrent Search Engines

If you aren’t familiar with torrents, it’s essentially a shared file that other nodes (computers) on the network can download. People access these networks using torrent clients like BitTorrent or uTorrent. Downloads take place in pieces so that even if you shut down your computer in the middle of a download, you can continue your download later.

With that said, finding available torrent files isn’t easy.

However, if you use any of the following popular torrent sites, you’ll have little trouble finding what you need.

The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay has been a source for searching torrents for a long time. While other torrent search engines have shut down, this one remains.

You can search it for anything from music and TV shows, to games, and applications.

For listings, you’ll see links to launch your torrent client to download.

Limetorrents

Limetorrents is another one that’s been around for many years.

If you click on the Other or Browse links, you can sift through available torrent files (there are millions).

When you start browsing through the available torrent files, you’ll be surprised at the wide assortment of files available.

Torrent networks get a bad rap because of the illegal content you’ll find there, but you can also find useful things like free e-books, manuals, and other hard-to-find content.

There’s even an anime category!

RARBG

RARBG has been a favorite among torrent fans for some time. You can click on the Torrents tab to use the torrent search engine (or browse the list of new additions).

Or you can browse specific categories by clicking any of the links along the left side of the main page. You’ll also find a frequently updated top 10 list or read any recent torrent news.

Torrentz2

Torrentz2 has been around since around 2016 and sprung up when the original Torrentz site shut down. It’s what’s known as a “meta-search” engine, meaning that it scours through results from multiple torrent search engines so you don’t have to.

The main page touts over 61 million files in its database. So whether you’re looking to find something specific, or you’re just looking to browse, you’re likely to find what you want here.

Search results show you download size, user rating, and the estimated download time (based on the number of peers that are sharing).

AIO Search

AIO Search is another meta-search engine for torrent files.

What makes it unique is that you can select specific torrent search engines that you want to include.

The list of torrent sites this search engine plugs into is impressive. The results show up almost like an embedded web browser, with an individual tab showing search results from the individual torrent search engine.

You can also use it to search secret torrent search engines for images, videos, sub-titles, shared files, and even your favorite show.

Other Free Torrent Search Engines You Can Try:

• 1337X
• YTS.AM
• EZTV.AG

2. Hidden Bargains and Deals

If you search Google for cheap laptops or other gadgets, you’re likely to see results from standard corporate entities like Amazon or eBay.

However, there are databases of extremely cheap (or free!) stuff buried inside a multitude of website directories.

Prospector

Prospector has been around for many years.

It’s like a massive yard sale where everyone is giving away stuff for free.

The site boasts thousands of links to websites that offer things like free file hosting, free stock photos, and free applications.

Bargains on Facebook

What’s the best way to get actual free goods from your local neighbors? Since most of them are on Facebook, the answer seems obvious.

Just visit Facebook Marketplace, and search for “free stuff” to see what your neighbors are giving away.

Since Facebook already knows where you live, all the listings are in your local area. Or you can set the search area by changing the location field.

If you don’t mind paying a little bit of money for even better stuff, just adjust the price min and max fields to add a price filter.

With so much waste in the world already, why let your neighbors throw away things that you need?

Free Stuff on Craigslist

It would be foolish to overlook Craigslist if you’re looking for free stuff.

Nearly every community on Craigslist has a free category under the for sale section.

Instead of going to Walmart to buy something, why not check Craigslist to reuse someone else’s?

It’s better than adding even more items to the world’s growing landfills.

Other Good Freebie Sites You Can Try:

• Free Stuff
• The Freecycle Network
• FreeSamples

3. House Foreclosures

One of the easiest ways to get into a home at a below-market price is to shop for foreclosures.

There are piles of these properties sitting in official databases throughout the web, but no easy way to find them with Google.

Foreclosure Free Search

Foreclosure Free Search is a search engine that sifts through various sources of foreclosure listings from across the country (U.S. only).

Unlike the paid sites—it offers price, address, and other information about the property.

Foreclosure Free Search is one of the unsung heroes of free foreclosure search engines.

Trulia

Trulia has been around for many years now. It’s a real estate search engine that provides real estate information from various sources.

To get the best bargains, search in your desired neighborhood, and then click All For Sale from the menu. Choose Foreclosures.

If you prefer to avoid foreclosures, Trulia also shows recent price fluctuations up or down. This way you can jump on a good deal the moment a seller drops their price.

Other Property Search Engines You Can Try:

• MLS.com
• Equator.com
• HomeFinder

4. Public Records Search Engines

Another common search that isn’t easy to find are public records. Most public records search engines are disguised commercial companies trying to sell paid public records as search results to you.

The following search engines give you access to “secret” databases where you can search public records for free.

Public Record Center 

The Public Record Center is different. It’s more of an underground “portal” to government websites than a search engine.

However, it’s organized so well that it’ll save you a lot of time if you’re not sure where to go to find the public database.

Using the Public Record Center you can find government databases for court judgments and liens, conduct asset searches, and even look up copyright and trademark information.

The Public Record Authority

Like the Public Record Center, the Public Record Authority is a trustworthy resource for links to your local and state public databases.

The site offers browsable lists of court records, federal agency databases, and unclaimed funds.

Make sure to check your state records for unclaimed funds under your name. You never know what might turn up!

Other Public Records Portals You Can Try:

• VitalRec
• Family Tree Now
• Census Finder

5. Legal Search Engines

Ever hear of a search engine that lets you dig up legal information from the web?

Neither did I, until I discovered Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.

This amazing little search engine digs through the institute’s extensive legal library and pulls out any information that you might need. This could include family law, criminal law, labor law and much more.

There are search engines buried throughout this excellent legal resource providing court opinion information, constitutional insights, and much more.

If you have any interest in law at all, take some time to check this one out.

Other Legal Search Engines You Can Try:

• Justia
• FindLaw
• Google Scholar

6. UFO Sightings

If you’re into UFOs, you’ll love the amazing stories you’ll read about in all the underground databases for UFO sightings.

All the private national UFO sightings centers maintain meticulous records of everyone who calls in a report.

MUFON Case Management System

The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is one of the nation’s central clearinghouses for UFO sightings.

MUFON investigators receive calls about sightings and then head out on field investigations. They then enter the information they gather into their reporting database.

This database is completely open to the public and searchable only through this case search form. Google has no idea any of these stories exist.

UFO Stalker

One of the most entertaining UFO databases is UFO Stalker. At this site, you’ll see an interactive map that shows most of the recent UFO sightings.

If the sighting was a UFO, it’ll have a UFO icon. If it’s a black triangle, it’ll show a stealth fighter… I mean a black triangle UFO, and so on.

When you click on any of the icons, you can click on the title to read the story.

Many of these sightings include lots of great blurry video and photos as evidence!

Other UFO Databases You Can Try:

• National UFO Reporting Center

Searching the Underbelly of the Internet

I hope you’ve enjoyed strolling through the deep, dark, depths of the underground internet.

If you’re hungry for more, continue on by exploring our list of the best dark web websites online. Just remember that once you head down the rabbit hole, there’s no turning back.

Read the full article: Top 6 Underground Search Engines You Never Knew About

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The Google Assistant gets more visual

Google today is launching a major visual redesign of its Assistant experience on phones. While the original vision of the Assistant focused mostly on voice, half of all interactions with the Assistant actually include touch. So with this redesign, Google acknowledges that and brings more and larger visuals to the Assistant experience.

If you’ve used one of the recent crop of Assistant-enabled smart displays, then some of what’s new here may look familiar. You now get controls and sliders to manage your smart home devices, for example. Those include sliders to dim your lights and buttons to turn them on or off. There also are controls for managing the volume of your speakers.Even in cases where the Assistant already offered visual feedback — say when you ask for the weather — the team has now also redesigned those results and brought them more in line with what users are already seeing on smart displays from the likes of Lenovo and LG. On the phone, though, that experience still feels a bit more pared down than on those larger displays.

With this redesign, which is going live on both Android and in the iOS app today, Google is also bringing a little bit more of the much-missed Google Now experience back to the phone. While you could already bring up a list of upcoming appointments, commute info, recent orders and other information about your day from the Assistant, that feature was hidden behind a rather odd icon that many users surely ignored. Now, after you’ve long-pressed the home button on your Android phone, you can swipe up to get that same experience. I’m not sure that’s more discoverable than previously, but Google is saving you a tap.

[gallery ids="1725618,1725621,1725611,1725608,1725609,1725614,1725615,1725617,1725616,1725619,1725620,1725624"]

In addition to the visual redesign of the Assistant, Google also today announced a number of new features for developers. Unsurprisingly, one part of this announcement focuses on allowing developers to build their own visual Assistant experiences. Google calls these “rich responses” and provides developers with a set of pre-made visual components that they can easily use to extend their Assistant actions. And because nothing is complete with GIFs, they can now use GIFs in their Assistant apps, too.

But in addition to these new options for creating more visual experiences, Google is also making it a bit easier for developers to take their users money.

While they could already sell physical goods through their Assistant actions, starting today, they’ll also be able to sell digital goods. Those can be one-time purchases for a new level in a game or recurring subscriptions. Headspace, which has long offered a very basic Assistant experience, now lets you sign up for subscriptions right from the Assistant on your phone, for example.

Selling digital goods directly in the Assistant is one thing, but that sale has to sync across different applications, too, so Google today is also launching a new sign-in service for the Assistant that allows developers to log in and link their accounts.

“In the past, account linking could be a frustrating experience for your users; having to manually type a username and password — or worse, create a new account — breaks the natural conversational flow,” the company explains. “With Google Sign-In, users can now create a new account with just a tap or confirmation through their voice. Most users can even link to their existing accounts with your service using their verified email address.”

Starbucks has already integrated this feature into its Assistant experience to give users access to their rewards account. Adding the new Sign-In for the Assistant has almost doubled its conversion rate.

[gallery ids="1725662,1725659,1725661,1725657,1725658,1725660"]
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Apple’s Tim Cook is sending a privacy bat-signal to US lawmakers

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has today been announced as the keynote speaker at a European data protection conference taking place in Brussels later this month — at a time when US lawmakers are asking tech giants outright if they’ll support “EU-like” privacy rules to shield US consumers from platform power.

For a week this month Europe’s data protection commissioners will gather to discuss the bloc’s shiny new privacy framework, GDPR, and what comes after it. They will also gather to listen to Cook talking on the theme of data ethics.

It’s a topic the Apple CEO has been speaking out about publicly for years.

Just this week, in an interview on US television, he couched privacy as “one of the most important issues of the 21st century” — describing it as a human right, and saying he supported “some level” of regulation, even as he professed himself “not a pro-regulation kind of person”.

Privacy is too important to keep being screwed with — or screwed over — was his clear subtext.

In a few weeks’ time Cook will literally stand alongside the architects of Europe’s GDPR, talking up privacy and ethics at the center of a Union whose founding charter grants its citizens data protection as a fundamental right.

The signalling is clear.

Europe is drawing fresh battle lines around the ethics of big data

While Apple might so far have fallen just shy of calling for a full copypaste of GDPR-level data protections into US law, there’s perhaps an element of strategic caution at play that’s moderating its plain-text political messaging.

Because the company’s actions from all other angles show Apple consistently defending privacy rights in a big data ethics fight that’s pitting Europe against a small number of powerful US adtech giants whose ‘best’ argument in defence of the unethical stuff they’re doing is they need to ‘keep up with China’ — a country that neither respects human rights nor privacy…

Zuckerberg urges privacy carve outs to compete with China

These same self-interested adtech giants are now, of course, hard at work lobbying US lawmakers that big data is a tenet of tech faith — when it really doesn’t have to be that way.

Privacy-respecting data-based innovations are both possible and available. The father of the World Wide Web thinks so — and is now doing a startup to make it so. And Apple’s business is an incredible testament to the power of putting people in control of technology, not vice-versa.

Apple is also a testament to how handsome a profit can be turned from privacy.

At a recent Senate hearing to discuss how the US should approach setting a federal privacy law, its VP of software technology, Bud Tribble, summed up the company’s position as: “We want your device to know everything about you but we don’t think we should.”

It’s notable that no other tech giants can make that claim. Not Amazon, not Facebook, not Google.

These platforms fall awkwardly silent when faced with questions about data ethics.

Nor can they comfortably stand on a public podium and discuss what does and does not produce “a result that’s great for society”, as Cook can. They have to invent their own ludicrous measures — like ‘relevant ads’.

Frankly speaking, if that’s your price for giving up on human rights you really are selling out.

So it’s left to Apple to send out the privacy bat-signal.

Let’s just hope the lawmakers are watching. Because the lobbyists are busy whispering.

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The Google Assistant gets more visual

Google today is launching a major visual redesign of its Assistant experience on phones. While the original vision of the Assistant focused mostly on voice, half of all interactions with the Assistant actually include touch. So with this redesign, Google acknowledges that and brings more and larger visuals to the Assistant experience.

If you’ve used one of the recent crop of Assistant-enabled smart displays, then some of what’s new here may look familiar. You now get controls and sliders to manage your smart home devices, for example. Those include sliders to dim your lights and buttons to turn them on or off. There also are controls for managing the volume of your speakers.Even in cases where the Assistant already offered visual feedback — say when you ask for the weather — the team has now also redesigned those results and brought them more in line with what users are already seeing on smart displays from the likes of Lenovo and LG. On the phone, though, that experience still feels a bit more pared down than on those larger displays.

With this redesign, which is going live on both Android and in the iOS app today, Google is also bringing a little bit more of the much-missed Google Now experience back to the phone. While you could already bring up a list of upcoming appointments, commute info, recent orders and other information about your day from the Assistant, that feature was hidden behind a rather odd icon that many users surely ignored. Now, after you’ve long-pressed the home button on your Android phone, you can swipe up to get that same experience. I’m not sure that’s more discoverable than previously, but Google is saving you a tap.

[gallery ids="1725618,1725621,1725611,1725608,1725609,1725614,1725615,1725617,1725616,1725619,1725620,1725624"]

In addition to the visual redesign of the Assistant, Google also today announced a number of new features for developers. Unsurprisingly, one part of this announcement focuses on allowing developers to build their own visual Assistant experiences. Google calls these “rich responses” and provides developers with a set of pre-made visual components that they can easily use to extend their Assistant actions. And because nothing is complete with GIFs, they can now use GIFs in their Assistant apps, too.

But in addition to these new options for creating more visual experiences, Google is also making it a bit easier for developers to take their users money.

While they could already sell physical goods through their Assistant actions, starting today, they’ll also be able to sell digital goods. Those can be one-time purchases for a new level in a game or recurring subscriptions. Headspace, which has long offered a very basic Assistant experience, now lets you sign up for subscriptions right from the Assistant on your phone, for example.

Selling digital goods directly in the Assistant is one thing, but that sale has to sync across different applications, too, so Google today is also launching a new sign-in service for the Assistant that allows developers to log in and link their accounts.

“In the past, account linking could be a frustrating experience for your users; having to manually type a username and password — or worse, create a new account — breaks the natural conversational flow,” the company explains. “With Google Sign-In, users can now create a new account with just a tap or confirmation through their voice. Most users can even link to their existing accounts with your service using their verified email address.”

Starbucks has already integrated this feature into its Assistant experience to give users access to their rewards account. Adding the new Sign-In for the Assistant has almost doubled its conversion rate.

[gallery ids="1725662,1725659,1725661,1725657,1725658,1725660"]

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12 Surprising Things All Snapchat Users Should Know

Even for long-time users, Snapchat can be confusing. This is an app that’s far from intuitive, with a feature list that seems to change with every update. It’s no wonder you’re continually left feeling like you’re missing out on something.

So, what are some things that all Snapchat users should know? Here are 12 pointers for old heads and newbies alike.

1. Snapchat Emojis Explained

Snapchat is a maze of emojis—even the company’s official online documentation is full of them. Everywhere you turn inside the app, you will run into one.

And these aren’t just randomly placed emojis, they almost all have a meaning, purpose, or hidden backstory.

Luckily, we’ve got you covered. We explained the meaning of the Snapchat emojis in our detailed guide. Check it out if you’d like to learn more.

2. What Is a Snapchat Streak?

A Snapchat streak—officially called a Snapstreak—is when you and a friend exchange at least one snap per day for several consecutive days.

When you complete five days, you’ll see a fire emoji. When you complete 100 days, you will see the 100 emoji. There also a fabled mountain emoji for exceptionally long streaks, but no one is really sure if it exists. Finally, there’s an hourglass emoji which you’ll see if your streak is about to end.

For more tips on getting long streaks, check out our Snapstreak tips for beginners.

3. How to Get a Snapchat Trophy

Snapchat trophies are a bit like Reddit karma. On the one hand, it’s just meaningless virtual kudos; on the other, everyone wants a huge score.

The trophies don’t have any practical usage—they’re just there for a bit of fun. As such, many people overlook their existence.

But what do all the Snapchat trophies mean? After all, there are more than 50 trophies to collect. Explaining each one is beyond the scope of this article, but we’ve previously detailed all the Snapchat trophies and how to get them.

4. How to Boost Your Snapchat Score

Accumulating Snapchat trophies isn’t the only means of achieving God-like status on the app. You can also rack up your Snapchat score.

Once again, the process behind boosting your Snapchat score is somewhat murky. There’s no official documentation on the matter, but we think these actions are the ones most likely to get your score moving in the right direction:

• Sending snaps.
• Receiving snaps.
• Adding other users as friends.
• Creating a lot of Snapchat Stories.
• Maintaining Snapstreaks.
• Using the app again after a period of not logging in.

5. Verified Accounts Exist on Snapchat

Did you know Snapchat has a form of verified accounts like Twitter and Facebook? Well-known public figures from the worlds of sports, entertainment, politics, and music have verified Snapchat profiles.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, instead of using a tick, Snapchat uses emojis to show that a certain user is legitimate. Each person is free to pick their own emoji. For example, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton uses a checkered flag and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger uses the bicep emoji.

6. Your Personal Snapchat URL

With its Snapcodes, Snapchat popularized the idea of using QR codes as a way to connect with people and engage with a platform.

They proved to be so successful that, unlike every other social media network, Snapchat never bothered to add a traditional URL address for users.

The situation finally changed in 2016. Other people can now add you as a friend using either Snapcodes or a URL.

Your personal Snapchat URL is www.snapchat.com/add/[username].

7. You Can Flip Between Cameras While Filming

Most in-app cameras have a dedicated on-screen button that allows you to flip between the front- and rear-facing cameras. Snapchat does not have such a button.

But the lack of a button doesn’t mean the action isn’t possible. Just quickly double tap anywhere on the screen while recording to switch cameras.

8. Pin People to the Top of the Contacts List

Naturally, there are going to be people you interact with more frequently than others. It makes sense that you want to keep their stories near the top of the list so you don’t need to go scrolling every time you want to send them a snap.

Snapchat doesn’t offer a native “Pin” feature, but there’s a workaround. You can edit the way a user’s name appears on your screen (open a contact and go to Settings > Edit Name). To make some stay at the top of the list, prefix their name with an “A”.

9. Create Your Own Filters and Lens

Did you know that you can create your own filters and lens? The only downside being that it comes at a cost.

You cannot create a Snapchat filter or lense via the smartphone app. Instead, you need to head to the online portal at create.snapchat.com.

The price of your creation will vary depending on your geofence location, size, and duration.

10. What Is a Snapchat Story?

A Snapchat story is a collection of snaps that you’ve taken over the course of a day or event.

The snaps are displayed in the order they were taken. They are available for 24 hours and can be viewed an unlimited number of times by any of your friends.

Add snaps (either videos or pictures) to your story by pressing the square button in the center-left of your screen and selecting Add.

11. You Can Edit on Snapchat

Snapchat is never going to replace the main photo editor on your Android or iPhone, but you can tweak your content before it goes live.

For example, you can insert re-sizeable emoji stickers, add stylized text, or draw freestyle on your image. The features are a great way to add your own spin to the images before you hit the send button.

12. You Can Watch Live Video

In early 2018, Snapchat announced the launch of live video.

Users cannot stream live, but you can watch live news and noteworthy events. The feature was rolled out to coincide with the start of the Winter Olympics, but since then we’ve seen live content from CNN, National Geographic, and some other notable channels.

More Snapchat Tips and Tricks

The complexity of the Snapchat app means that this list could go on forever. But alas, all good things must come to an end. If you’d like to learn more about teenagers’ favorite app, make sure you check out our beginner’s guide to using Snapchat.

Read the full article: 12 Surprising Things All Snapchat Users Should Know

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MIT, Google, Cisco and USPTO create Prior Art Archive for better patents

The patent system is broken — there are too many ways to list here, really. The problems surrounding prior art are certainly among them, and a team of high profile companies and organizations are joining forces to address some of the these with the Prior Art Archive.

The database is a collaboration between MIT’s Media Lab, Google, Cisco and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which certainly has the most to gain here. Using the MIT-hosted archive, patent applicants can find easily accessible examples of prior art and other technical information for reference.

“The patent examination process should stop patents from being issued on old or obvious technology,” MIT writes. “Unfortunately, just because technology is old doesn’t mean it is easy for a patent examiner to find. Particularly in the computer field, much prior art is in the form of old manuals, documentation, web sites, etc. that have, until now, not been readily searchable.”

Google also has a blog post detailing its own work with the archive, which mostly revolves around search. The company is also implementing AI and ML technologies to help bolster searches. “To this end,” the company writes, “we’ve recently created an open ecosystem, the Google Patents Public Datasets, to make large datasets available for empirical public policy, economics, and machine learning research.”

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10 Truly Effective Tinder Pick-Up Lines That Actually Worked

Being single and ready to mingle can be tough, hence the growing prevalence of fast and convenient online dating. But if you want really fast, then you probably won’t find a better online dating platform than Tinder.

The problem with online dating sites is that they try to match suitable partners using mathematical formulas. These matches aren’t always local, which leaves you stuck in an online relationship. And if you’re just looking for something casual, ending such a relationship is never easy.

So, Tinder. It may have started as a “dating” app, but these days it’s all about hooking up. And as long as you don’t make these Tinder mistakes, you might even find success. But the real magic is in your first impression, and the following examples show what a striking opener can do for you.

Note: Since most pick-up lines are delivered male-to-female, this post assumes you’re a guy trying to impress a girl.

Before You Start…

Traditionally, pick-up lines are seen as ineffective and juvenile—and in any other context, they would be. But on Tinder, the rules are different. Since Tinder has become the standard for mobile hookups, pick-up lines are somewhat necessary.

After all, you need an icebreaker, but not just any icebreaker. You’re not looking for a serious conversation or an intimate bonding experience over swapped life stories. You need something quick, to the point, and something that makes the other person laugh.

Enter the pick-up line. Here are a few things to remember as you consider which pick-up line you’re going to use:

She’s on Tinder, which means she understands what Tinder is about and she’s looking to get what Tinder offers. In most cases, that means a casual fling or something similar. She’s already bought into the idea, so that’s already half the battle won.

She swiped right for you. You can only message those who have “accepted” your profile, which means you can only try your pick-up lines on girls who have already decided to give you a chance. You’re already “in” with her, so don’t be afraid to go all out.

Contextual lines trump canned lines. Some canned lines are good enough to stand on their own—and some so clever that it’d be a shame not to use them—but if you can come up with a line that matches the situation, you’ll set yourself apart.

Warning: Mature content below!

The Best Tinder Pick-Up Lines

Sometimes being honest and straightforward is the best way to go.

Rather than presenting the other person a single line that they can either accept or reject wholesale, you might fair better if you get them actively engaged with a miniature guessing game and pull a plot twist on them at the end.

Creativity can be the difference between a Yes and a No. The above exchange is little more than asking for a phone number, but the execution is novel.

Another example of a straightforward phone number request masked with unexpected creativity.

Everyone hates puns—except when they’re good. There’s a growing trend in Tinder that involves using the other person’s name in a punny way. If you can land the joke, it’s pretty much a guaranteed win.

Double entendres have long been a staple of dating quips. Not much else to say about this one.

If they say “No,” then you better stop. But if they don’t stop you, persistence can be quite flattering.

Not as clever as the ones before, but straightforward mixed with unexpected can have pretty good results.

Another example of a name pun. See? It works.

What Are Your Favorite Pick-Up Lines?

We know that a lot of you who are reading this are creative in your own ways. Hit us with your best pick-up lines in the comments below. Whether clever, funny, or downright serious, give us your best shot and try to swoon us with one line.

And if none of these appeal to you, keep going and check out our collection of hilarious Tinder pick-up lines worth trying.

Image Credit: Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

Read the full article: 10 Truly Effective Tinder Pick-Up Lines That Actually Worked

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