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The habitual nature of people means this data could be used to give insight into our mental wellbeing
Smartphones come with an assortment of sensors that can track behaviours such as our internet search and browse history, where we go, what music we listen to, who we speak to, just to name a few.
The habitual nature of people means this data could be used to give insight into our mental wellbeing. Acute changes in behavioural patterns may indicate a need for support, and the use of any health diaries on a smartphone may enable us to monitor chronic conditions more effectively.
Sleep, relax, track, anxiety, stress and depression: the most common keywords in mental health apps as found in the review comments. Only apps that advertised depression and mental health were considered.Author provided
Our smartphones have become access points for mental health support and therapy aids. It is not unrealistic that they could aim to take on a therapist role.
But are people really ready for this? Do consumers and end users actually want this development? Would it meet needs without causing harm?
None of this is easily answered. History has shown any tool being developed must integrate consumers, health professionals and technology experts, along with rigorous testing, to provide an ethically sound and evidence based approach, and this is no less true for smartphone technologies.
Instagram is now testing shopping products through its posts. Just like instant articles, where one can read news articles without leaving Facebook, users can buy products without leaving Instagram.
Each post by a brand has a picture of the product and also displays the price of the item on a single tap. The 'Tap to view' option which upon clicking shows you a bigger image of the product with description about it. Instagram showcases up to five products and can be purchased from the website by tapping the shop now icon.
Instagram said a survey found that vast majority of purchases take a day or longer, with only 21% of purchases made within a day. This means users take their time, compare it with other products and then take a call on the item.
Kate Spade from Instagram for Business on Vimeo.
If everything works for Instagram, with more than 500 million monthly active users, it can grab a significant digital ad revenue from big brands. Facebook's ad revenue stood at $5,201 in Q1.
Buoyed by the positive response from over 1,000 companies that are currently using Workplace (formerly known as Facebook at Work) including in India, the company has announced it will make the app available to all.
This means you can chat with a colleague across the world in real time, host a virtual brainstorm in a Group or follow along with your CEO's presentation on Facebook Live.
"People have created nearly 100,000 groups and the top five countries using Workplace are India, the US, Norway, UK and France," Facebook said in a statement on Tuesday.
"We're announcing that Workplace will now be available to any company or organisation that wants to use it," it added.
Large multinational companies like Danone, Starbucks and Booking.com, international nonprofits such as Oxfam and regional leaders such as YES Bank in India and the Government TechnologyAgency of Singapore have all embraced Workplace.
"It's a whole new paradigm in employee engagement! L&T @Work is leading our thrust to digital.Technology is nothing without people and this platform reflects the perfect synergy of people driving technology," said SN Subrahmanyam, Deputy Managing Director and President, Larsen & Toubro.
Facebook also announced a competitive pricing model that is based on a monthly fee per active user.
World's most popular online video community YouTube has announced a brand new app, YouTube Go, designed and built from insights gathered from India.
The new mobile app is completely re-imagined from the ground up for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer.
YouTube Go is result of extensive research done across 15 cities in India by teams of engineers, designers, and researchers collecting ideas and testing prototypes with hundreds of people. Over the next few months, YouTube will be rolling the app out gradually to more testers, getting their feedback and improving the product before launching it to the general public.
"We've always believed that connectivity should not be a barrier to watching YouTube. In 2014 we launched YouTube Offline so you could watch videos without suffering from buffering. A few months ago we rolled out Smart Offline, a feature that allows you to schedule videos to be saved offline later at off-peak times, when there's more bandwidth so data is faster and cheaper. But we realised that for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer, we had to re-imagine the YouTube mobile app from the ground up," said YouTube Vice President for Product Management, Johanna Wright.
"With YouTube Go, we're bringing the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while being relatable and... Read full Story
