Tech Trend 247

You may soon see a lot more NSFW content on Facebook. 

The social network is updating its community standards to allow more types of graphic or offensive content that would have previously violated its standards — if the content is deemed newsworthy or "important to the public interest."

"In the weeks ahead, we’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest — even if they might otherwise violate our standards," facebook's VP of Global Policy Joel Kaplan and VP Global Operations & Media Partnerships Justin Osofsky wrote in a statement..

It's not clear how Facebook will determine what types of content are allowed going forward, but the executives noted that the social network wants to avoid showing graphic content to "minors and others who do not want to see them." Whether this would be automated or whether there would be a specific way to opt-out is unclear. 

Facebook also said it would work with publishers, journalists, members of law enforcement and others as it develops its policies. 

Facebook has grappled with censorship for some time. The social network's somewhat nebulous content policies, which already allow for some kinds of graphic content if it's a matter of public interest, have come under fire repeatedly for uneven enforcement. Earlier this year, a Norwegian newspaper published a front page editorial taking Mark Zuckerberg to task for removing a famous photograph from the Vietnam War. 

Attempting to cash in on India’s Diwali festive season, WhatsApp’s India rival Hike Messenger today announced it is bringing popular Diwali-themed game 'Teen Patti Nights' on its instant messaging client. 

Hike said 'Teen Patti Nights' is its first game that has multi-player support. The company has been testing games on its platform since March this year, and claims it has registered over 1.3 billion game sessions since then. 

'Teen Patti Nights' is a popular poker game which sits well with a tradition among some Indians who play poker during Diwali. The game file is very light — weighing only about 1MB — and is aimed at all smartphone users in India, Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike told Mashable India. 

The addition of 'Teen Patti Nights' further illustrates Hike’s growing intent to build a platform on top of instant messaging. The app, which competes with Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger app, offers news and several other features on its platform. As of January 2016, Hike Messenger has over 100 million registered users. The company declined to share the latest number. 

Mittal added that the company will be adding more games to Hike app in the coming months. When asked if the company also plans to launch a desktop app, Mittal told us that desktop app won’t appeal to most people in India with majority of them using a mobile phone as their only computing platform. 

Earlier this August Hike became the latest unicorn startup from India after it raised $175 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion from China's Tencent and Foxconn.

Facebook has issued an apology for removing a Swedish video on breast cancer awareness and deeming the images offensive. 

The video from Cancerfonden, the Swedish Cancer Society, showed animated figures of women with their breasts represented by pink circles, with the aim of explaining to women how to detect suspicious lumps. 

Facebook later apologised for the blunder and said the images were now available: 

"We're very sorry, our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement to Mashable.

"This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologise for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ads."

Earlier Facebook removed the video saying the images were "offensive". Cancerfonden said it had tried in vain to get in touch with the company. 

It later wrote an open letter to Facebook explaining that the campaign "was not meant to offend." 

"We understand that you have to have rules about the content published on your platform. But you must also understand that one of our main tasks is to spread important information about cancer – in this case breast cancer," it said.

"After trying to meet your control for several days without success, we have now come up with a solution that will hopefully make you happy: Two pink squares!"

All ads on Facebook must not contain "nudity, depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative", according to the company's ad policy.  

The ad policy is separate from the company's community standards and Mashable understands the erroneous disapproval was related to the ads, not the content policies. 

Facebook's community standards, instead, “restrict[s] some images of female breasts if they include the nipple” but “always allow[s] photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.”

Facebook came under fire last month for removing the famous "napalm girl" photo published by Norway's largest newspaper saying it showed nudity. 

It later agreed to reinstate the picture. 

"Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

SAN JOSE, California — For as far VR has come and as good as the experiences have gotten, there still aren't many options for those who don't have a high end PC.

But during the keynote at Oculus Connect Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg briefly teased an all-new headset: a standalone viewer that doesn't rely on a mobile phone or a PC.  Right now the device, known at the Santa Cruz Prototype, is just that: a prototype. But it offers a tantalizing look at an untethered VR future.

Though the video demo of the Santa Cruz Prototype was more remarkable for how its brevity more than what it actually showed, Oculus was offering short demos of the device at Oculus Connect and Mashable got a chance to take the headset for a spin.

The demo took place in a windowless room that was set up to look like a living room, with a couch, a desk and other furniture set up around the perimeter. The middle of the room was empty — we were encourage to move around as much as we liked during the demo.

Photos and video weren't allowed inside the demo room but the headset looked just like what appeared in the very short video shown during the keynote. The headset itself resembled the Rift, but had four cameras attached to the front of the headset and the words "Santa Cruz Prototype" emblazoned on the front cover. On the back of the headset was a fan for cooling and a processor.

The three-minute demo consisted of two different animated scenes. One was a suburban neighborhood and the other a rooftop whee you could look down on the buildings around you. The overall image quality lay somewhere between the Gear VR and the Rift. The graphics were cartoon-like and pretty cheesy but the experience was meant to demonstrate the untethered concept of the prototype more than anything else.

There was nothing to actually do once in the scene other than walk around and explore the surroundings, which was sort of the whole point. You could comfortably explore the virtual world around you without worrying about bumping into something. 

That's because as soon as you got within a foot or so of a wall or piece of furniture a series of blue lines appeared in VR to let you know you were too close (you can see them faintly in the GIF above.) Take a step back and the lines disappeared. Move forward and there they were again.

It's difficult to overstate just how freeing this is. If you know anything about VR you know that there are really only two kinds of experiences right now: mobile VR, like the Gear VR and Google's Daydream VR, which use smartphones and wired experiences that rely on a PC connection like Oculus or the HTC Vive. Neither of these give you the freedom to comfortably move around while you're in VR.

The Santa Cruz Prototype does. During my demo, I moved side to side, spun around and walked to all sides of the space — I was never the least bit worried about bumping into anything. The blue lines always appeared as I approached the wall.

This is due to the combination of cameras on the headset, which are able to track your movements in relation to the objects in the room, Max Cohen, Oculus' head of mobile, explained. "What it's basically doing is that it's sampling the environment and so it's looking around at objects that it can then recognize," Cohen told Mashable. 

"You don't have to set up anything. You just put it on your head and in the environment it should, theoretically, work."

There are some caveats. Cohen cautioned that it won't work everywhere. Wide open outdoor spaces, for example, wouldn't work as there are no boundaries for the camera to detect. Some surfaces and lighting conditions may also limit it (my demo was in a brightly lit room with no windows).

So while it does offer the promise of an untethered mobile experience, don't expect to use it outdoors very much.

"We expect this standalone product to still be used in the home but also in the home of your friends because you take it with you. Or maybe you take it to your workplace," Cohen said. "We think it's very flexible but it's not like this one thing that magically works every single place you are."

It may not be magic, but it does feel like the future.

At last, there's another place to sell items to strangers on the internet.

Facebook debuted a new "Marketplace" for its iOS and Android apps Monday, allowing users to buy and sell items via a new tab at the bottom of their News Feed. Marketplace will let you make offers for items, but no money is directly exchanged on Facebook's platform, product manager Mary Ku told Mashable in an interview about the feature. 

"We're facilitating the connection between buyer and seller, and then they can figure out how to do the transaction themselves," Ku said. 

This is Facebook's take on Craigslist, in other words. You'll see items from people in your area, offer them money and figure out the details later. That's a clear distinction from sites like Etsy or eBay, which are glutted with businesses and directly facilitate transactions via credit card or PayPal — if all goes well, you never have to talk to a person to get your item. Not so with Facebook's Marketplace. 

How it works

It's pretty straightforward: Hit the new Marketplace tab at the bottom of your screen and you'll be taken to a page with listings in your area. You can search according to keywords or categories, and you can also broaden your query to include different cities. Once you've found something you want, you can message the seller directly or tap into their public profile — the same one they use to interact with friends — to make sure they seem legit. 

You'll have to come to reach an agreement with the seller about how you complete the transaction. Maybe you pop over to their apartment, pick up the basket of Beanie Babies and Venmo them a few bucks. Or perhaps you settle on a cash-for-cat-toys situation. Facebook doesn't care how you pay, which makes a lot of sense: In order for people to use Marketplace over an established service, it needs to be easy — no fussing over shipping fees, taxes, linked credit cards and so on.

Selling an item is simple, too: Just hit the "Sell" button, snap a picture and fill out some details.

Ku told Mashable that Marketplace will only work for people ages 18 and up, and it's only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand for now. 

Not automated — yet

While Facebook made headlines earlier this year with the introduction of chat bots — automated assistants that can help you order food and flowers via Messenger — Ku characterized Marketplace as by humans, for humans.

Businesses will not be able to target individuals based on how they use the feature

"We've seen a lot of people organically discover products on Facebook," she said. "We're building on top of that."

There are no ads within Marketplace, a representative for Facebook told Mashable, and businesses will not be able to target individuals based on how they use the feature. People will be able to report items that violate Facebook's terms (no guns allowed) and listings will be monitored by Facebook staff — though the company wouldn't say if there's an automated process in place to catch forbidden goods.

A new take on an old concept

Facebook started testing this iteration of Marketplace earlier this year, but the feature actually made its debut in 2007. At the time, users could use Facebook's desktop version to create their own classified ads. You might recall seeing your friends try to unload their used textbooks at the end of each semester. 

Facebook also claims that 450 million people already buy and sell items each month via its online groups.

The social network just wants "to make this easy and accessible," Ku said.

Artificial Intelligence is now a part of our daily lives. It's on our wrists in the form of Apple's SIRI and in our kitchens thanks to Amazon's Alexa. We use it, but do not always understand or trust it.

Now, a collection of tech industry giants has joined together to close the knowledge and trust gap. The vehicle for this new level of understanding and, maybe, acceptance, will be a brand new mouthful of an organization: the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society. In conversation it will actually go by the more manageable "Partnership on AI." Member companies of the new alliance are all knee-deep in artificial intelligence and Machine Learning. They include Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google's DeepMind and IBM. Notably absent, for now, is Apple.

The objective, according to Thursday's announcement, is "to address opportunities and challenges with AI technologies to benefit people and society."

Partnership AI will actually conduct open-source research, investigating AI areas such as ethics and human and AI system collaboration. One thing it will not do is lobby governments on behalf of AI initiatives by member companies.

"“The possibilities for positively impacting a global society with advances in AI are numerous, ranging from connectivity, healthcare, and transportation. As researchers in industry, we take very seriously the trust people have in us to ensure advances are made with the utmost consideration for human values," said Yann LeCun, the director of Facebook AI Research, in a release.

The partnership does plan to work with other third party AI organizations, including the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2).

“We’re excited about this historic collaboration on AI and its influences on people and society. We see great value ahead with harnessing AI advances in numerous areas, including health, education, transportation, public welfare, and personal empowerment," said Eric Horvitz, technical fellow a managing director at Microsoft Research, in a release.

IBM, which has aggressively spread the reach and influence of its own AI engine, Watson, gave Mashable exclusive access to an internal memo to global employees from CEO Ginni Rometty on the formation of the alliance and IBM's participation:

Team:

For more than a century, IBM has stood apart not only for creating world-changing innovations, but also for guiding their responsible adoption. This is foundational to why our company is respected both as an innovator and a trusted brand everywhere in the world. 

As you know, the most important innovation of our time – cognitive computing, led by Watson — is rapidly maturing and entering the mainstream of business and society. It is essential that this technology’s growth and development be robust, visionary and enduring.

That is why I am excited to tell you about an important new non-profit organization that IBM is forming with Deep Mind/Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. As the founding members of the Partnership for AI, we will work together to ensure the responsible development and deployment of cognitive and AI technologies.  

As with every world-changing innovation, cognitive raises new questions, new issues and new challenges, for both business and society. These range from ethics and transparency to control and jobs. In addressing these questions, we expect to be joined by many leading universities, foundations and other organizations as we conduct research, make its results available to the world and share best practices. Together, we will develop principles on collaboration between people and AI systems, and work to advance the trustworthiness and reliability of the technology.

A world with Watson will be healthier, safer, more productive, more convenient and more personal – in ways that we are only glimpsing today. As we deliver on this profound potential, we are committed to doing so in a way that benefits not only business, but the individual and society. We make that commitment because we're IBMers.

Count down three seconds in your head. It goes fast, right?  I bet you did it the "one-hippopotamus way." That's actually considerably more than 3 seconds. Ask Siri to set a 3-second timer and then try to read something on the web.

Exactly, it's barely enough time for a sentence, including this one.

A couple of years ago, Facebook apparently set 3 seconds or less as the benchmark for actual video ad engagement. A choice that, on its face, seems rational, even preferable for media planners and advertisers. 

Anyone who spends under 3 seconds watching a Facebook video ad was, for the last couple of years, not factored into the social media giant's average viewing time. 

Of course, an average that doesn't account for the total number of viewers, whether they're engaged or not, is probably not much of an average — a fact Facebook belatedly discovered and confessed to in a well-hidden blog post. Now, though, as ad partners stepped forward and called foul, Facebook made a more public apology, but insisted that "it did not impact billing," which is another way of saying that everyone got what they paid for.

The measure of a view

I bet advertisers and their partners miss the good old days, when a media platform (newspapers, magazines, TVs) simply handed them audience numbers. The size of the audience dictated how much a media company could charge for inches, pages and minutes. No one could prove if people skipped the ads in print and, before the DVR, everyone ignored the fact that most of us used commercials as snack and bathroom break times.

The problem is that the explosion of social media and mobile video has led to the rise of engagement as a measure of success. YouTube does a good job of measuring video engagement. It knows when a video is playing, for how long, and if it stopped playing. They still don't know if you left it playing and walked out of the room.

I am a little surprised that advertisers are trying to equate YouTube and Facebook video ad views. 

I am a little surprised that advertisers are trying to equate YouTube and Facebook video ad views. The interfaces and consumption styles are so different.

On YouTube, you find video and play it on a page basically devoted to that video. Facebook's newsfeed puts everything on a sort of user-controlled assembly line. Users scroll up and down, only occasionally pausing to actively engage with a piece of content or maybe an ad. Much of what they see in the newsfeed hits their retinas for a second or two. Even if a video autoplays, they might scroll right by it. This is why so many Facebook videos feature text overlays — you can ingest a sentence much more quickly that you can understand what's going on in a moving image.

I honestly don't think it's easy to know when people truly engage with video and if engagement leads to brand recognition or even action (buying a product or service), but you would think that measuring average video views would be a solved problem.

It's clearly not. In fact, there is no system or any kind of agreement about how to measure this stuff, which basically makes Facebook the poster boy for this entire mess.

Help me understand

It bothered me that I sort of sympathized with Facebook. If no one can agree on how to measure video ad views, how can Facebook be blamed for trying to do it their own way? Another part of me, though, knew that Facebook chose a measurement system that favored their platform and its performance. Once they do factor in all those Facebook users seeing a video ad for 3 seconds or less, the Facebook video add engagement numbers are going to drop, by a lot.

I decided to turn to an expert to help me work through some of my conflicting concerns and feelings.

In my inbox was an email from Brian Shin. He's the founder and CEO of Visible Measures, a social video measurement and activation company.  Visible Measures recently put out a report on engaged viewing times that shows, according to the company, that actual consumer attention is more important than view counts. 

Shin, who's been in the industry for 15 years and has a business degree from MIT's Sloan School of Management, seemed to have the answers. I wanted to clear up my own confusion and see if my feelings of sympathy for Facebook were ill-founded.

I was curious if you thought Facebook was trying to be fair by not counting any views below 3 seconds. After all, what can you glean in that period of time? Even on auto-play, you might see a second of a video ad.

Shin: Video viewership is like a going down a funnel. At the top of the funnel, you have viewers scrolling through their feed and the video player loads. On Facebook, before 3 seconds, those are considered 'ad impressions.' Progressing down the 'funnel' — if viewers stay long enough — that's when the video view event is triggered. So much money now is being spent on buying video views (which is an improvement over buying just 'ad impressions' or buying based on CPMs - cost per thousand impressions), but there is no standardization on what constitutes a video view. Hence the need to know your Engaged Viewing Time across platforms. 

How might Facebook have better measured engagement? Should they have factored in every potential view — anyone the ad is served to whether it played or not? What would that have done to their engagement numbers?

Shin: Properties [like Facebook] do not show you the whole funnel — 

video player loads ->

ad impressions ->

video views ->

viewing time ->

video completions

— for lots of reasons including not wanting to enable dissection of their economics or traffic patterns. Facebook should have shown, at a minimum, the total video views and combined it with an objective measure of Engaged Viewing Time. The inaccuracy of 'self-reported' stats is why an objective measure is needed. The lack of standardization in terms of how video views are calculated is why an objective measure of time is needed that goes across YouTube, Facebook and other places selling cost-per-view (and other forms of) video advertising.  

So much money now is being spent on buying video views... but there is no standardization on what constitutes a video view.

Facebook including ad impression data (the stuff before 3 seconds) would not help. Marketers are paying for views (post-3 seconds) and they need to know the "value" of what they bought — demonstrable by viewing time. 

How much of all this is media buyers and advertisers still not understating the nature of social media video engagement — especially video advertising on these platforms? It is fundamentally different than the video on YouTube, after all, which isn't even designed as a scroll. If you view a video on YT, you will likely see a pre-roll ad.

Shin: Much of the growth in video today is being driven by these 'social' experiences and we would include YouTube in that category. If you look at places like nbc.com, espn.com, etc., that's really repurposing and monetizing TV content or 'longer form' video. 

But places like YT, FB, Twitter, etc., are pushing advertising that offers more user choice (option to skip or scroll, or share or repost, comment, etc.) and that is presenting both opportunities and challenges for marketers.

Marketers are embracing this idea of more interactivity and choice in video advertising (hence the now billions of dollars going into cost per view and other types of video advertising). But the constantly evolving landscape requires new measures of consumer attention (vs. just ad impressions). Attention in video would include finding all the views that you are generating across all properties and copies and sharing (what we call True Reach) and the actual time that consumers are spending with your video content (what we call Engaged Viewing Time). Provide total views + viewing time (and you know the spend) — you can better assess the value of your ad campaign.

Here's what I glean from what Shin said. 

As long as companies like Facebook make up their own measurement strategies, there will be a fundamental inequity in video ad measurement on social media platforms and other services that include video ads. 

Standards would help, but so would more transparency from Facebook and others. With hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, someone needs to step in and level the playing field for everyone. 

We all agree that video is the future, so it's time to get on board with a future that's equitable and fair. Facebook's mea culpa is a step in the right direction, but no matter what it might cost them in the short term, an agreement on video ad metrics will probably help them and everyone else make billions more in the future. 

In the end, I realize this was never about 3 seconds of video. It's about math, averages, the measure of engagement and standards. Facebook simply couldn't run away from those realities anymore — certainly not in three seconds or less.

Facebook has hired high-profile Indian executive Anand Chandrasekaran for top strategic role of Messenger. Chandrasekaran has previously led mobile and search operations at Yahoo, and held similar positions at top Indian companies.

Chandrasekaran will oversee global strategies and partnerships for Facebook's Messenger. The move comes at time when Facebook is increasingly focusing on expanding Messenger’s mobile features. 

Chandrasekaran is a big name in the industry with expertize in mobile products. He served as the senior director of mobile and search products at Yahoo between 2011 and 2014. Chandrasekaran also brings to Facebook his experience with the Indian market.

Chandrasekaran quit Yahoo to join Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator by subscriber count. During his 13 months stay at the company, Bharti Airtel launched music and mobile payments services. He later joined Snapdeal, one of India’s top ecommerce companies as its chief product officer. Snapdeal's franchise, consisting of Freecharge and Exclusively among others, sees over one million daily transactions.

"They say the best journeys bring you home. We embarked on one 2.5 years ago, and it has been nothing short of incredible - I am super excited to share that building on the learning and experiences - I am joining Facebook to work on Facebook Messenger platform. Really looking forward to working with Ime, David, Stan, John and the team to listen and learn and help build on the momentum," Chandrasekaran wrote. 

"Core to every major platform I've worked on is a belief that technology should help level the playing field for all - something that is at the heart of Facebook and Messenger," said Chandrasekaran.

"It's hard not to look back - the past couple of years have been the most intense, humbling and incredible periods I've experienced professionally living in India and being a part of Snapdeal / Freecharge and Bharti Airtel. 'Going native' and re-connecting with the country you grew up in is something I didn't imagine I would get to do, let alone witnessing the entrepreneurial energy that's driving India forward. I saw first hand how it became cool to build code and products that solve problems - the heart of what makes the Valley and other ecosystems what it is," he added.

Mobile is increasingly important for Messenger as Facebook finds new avenues for its chat platform. The company has added capabilities such as a digital assistant ‘M,’ and the ability to send and receive money. At its developer conference, Facebook announced bots for Messenger, which would allow businesses to automate responses and some services.

But more importantly, the company has also been trying to make it easier for users to make use of Messenger. In the recent months, Facebook has positioned Messenger as the de facto text messaging app on Android phones, and also enabled them to use Messenger without a Facebook account.

Chandrasekaran’s experience with India could prove instrumental in Facebook’s further expansion in the country. India is Facebook’s second largest market with over 155 monthly active users. Over 90 percent of Facebook’s users in India access the service on their mobile phones.

Facebook just announced it is changing one very important part of WhatsApp.

The messaging app, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014, will soon begin to share its users' phone numbers and usage information with the social network as part of an effort to build out its own business communication platform. The change marks the first time WhatsApp is formally sharing user data with its parent company. It's also a move that some users have been dreading since Facebook's acquisition was first announced. 

Luckily, there is a way to opt out.

Whether you find WhatsApp's assurances that it won't misuse user data unconvincing or you're simply uncomfortable with the idea of your WhatsApp account being linked to Facebook, you can easily opt out, although you only have a limited time to do so. 

WhatsApp is providing users with two ways to opt out. One way can only be done the first time you see the new terms of service so if you have already agreed then skip ahead to the second.

Option #1

You're able to opt out of sharing your WhatsApp account information the very first time you see the app's new terms of service. After seeing the notification that the terms of service have changed you'll need to hit "read" to view the full document. 

Scroll all the way to the bottom and you'll see a checkbox that says "share my WhatsApp account information with Facebook to improve my Facebook ads and products experiences." Uncheck it, then tap agree.

Option #2

If you have already agreed to WhatsApp's new terms of service and the account sharing, you can still opt out provided you do so within 30 days of when you first agreed. 

Head to Settings —> Account —> Share my account info and uncheck the box. 

You can read more about opting out on WhatsApp's FAQ page. Note that WhatsApp says that even if you opt out, "the Facebook family of companies will still receive and use this information for other purposes such as improving infrastructure and delivery systems, understanding how our services or theirs are used, securing systems, and fighting spam, abuse, or infringement activities." So you may never be fully unlinked from Facebook. But, at the very least, your WhatsApp account can't be used to surface more creepily targeted Facebook ads. 

Facebook is making its 360-degree videos more immersive and easier to navigate.

The social network introduced a new "guide" feature that allows users to highlight specific portions of the video before posting it. The feature launched alongside a bigger update to Facebook's publisher tools, which included a set of new features that allow page owners to see more detailed stats around how their readers are interacting with their video content.

The new guide feature for 360-degree videos, which you can see in action in the video below, is meant to make it easier for people viewing the clips to find the most interesting parts. Unlike viewing in a 360-degree video in a headset, watching the spherical clips on the web may be less intuitive for users. 

With the new tool, anyone who posts a 360 video on Facebook can identify the specific parts of the clip they want to direct users to during the video. When the guide — indicated by a circular symbol on the right side of the video — is enabled, the video will automatically move to preset areas of the clip. The feature is enabled by default, but users can also opt out if they prefer to "steer" the video themselves.

Facebook is also providing a new analytics tool called Heatmap for 360-degree videos that have more than 50,000 views. Heatmap tracks which parts of a 360 video have been watched the most and provides a visualization that shows the "hottest" parts of a clip

360 video aside, Facebook is also giving publishers new analytics tools that offer a much more comprehensive look at who is watching their video content, and how they are interacting with it. 

A new audience demographic dashboard will show minutes viewed broken down by age, location and gender for any given video. 

Additionally, page owners will be able to keep tabs on whether video views came directly from their own post or from another page or user sharing it.

Facebook is also proving new analytics specifically for live video, with tools that track which moments in a live video garnered the most comments, reactions and likes. 

Some of these video metrics may sound a little creepy. That Facebook knows exactly where, when and how users are consuming video (like other insights the company provides, it tracks these stats in aggregate) may be off-putting to some. But it fits in nicely with Facebook's goal of a video-dominant network.

And as Facebook continues that push into video, tools like these will be increasingly important to the network's publishers looking to gain favor with the site's ever-changing News Feed algorithm. The company already has deals with many media companies (including Mashable) to pay them to produce live broadcasts, and in March, the company announced it would rank live videos higher in News Feed.

More recently, Facebook revealed it would begin experimenting with commercial breaks during live broadcasts. But if Facebook (and its media partners) hope to make serious money off their burgeoning video business, they'll need a much better understanding of how users are consuming video content. 

As any seasoned Instagram user knows, crafting the perfect post can take awhile. There are settings to adjust, filters to choose — not to mention the caption, which can make or break the whole thing.

Now, it appears Instagram may soon have a way to save posts for later. The app is currently testing a new drafts feature that allows you to save your progress mid-post — edits and all — to finish later.

The test, which users have reported seeing for at least a couple of days, will prompt you to save a photo that's been edited after you hit the back button mid-post. Saved drafts will appear separate from your other photos the next time you open the app to post a photo or video.

The test appears to be fairly widespread, with a number of Twitter users reporting they have seen the change. It also has the distinction of being a new Instagram feature that is widely well-received.

Instagram won't say if it has plans to make the feature official yet — a spokesperson told Mashable "we're always testing new ways to improve the Instagram experience" — but given how useful the feature is, don't be surprised if it makes its way to the app in a future update.

If there's one constant at Facebook it's that your News Feed will change.

The company is once again adjusting the algorithm that powers News Feed. The changes are (again) aimed at reducing the amount of "clickbait" in users' feeds.

With the changes, which will arrive over the next couple weeks, Facebook is using two key factors to define clickbait (emphasis their own): 

(1) if the headline withholds information required to understand what the content of the article is; and (2) if the headline exaggerates the article to create misleading expectations for the reader

Links from pages that routinely post these types of headlines will be demoted in users' News Feeds, Facebook said.

While these changes are new, clickbait is an issue Facebook has addressed before (and likely will address again). The social network previously made a change that tried to reduce clickbait based on the amount of time people spent reading a given link. If a user clicked on a link but navigated back to Facebook quickly, then the quality of that post was likely lower than those with more time spent, the thinking went. 

Clickbait is an issue Facebook has addressed before

However, as Mashable's business editor Jason Abbruzzese noted at the time, relying on time spent may not have been the most effective way to reduce the problematic content, since it also favored big-name publishers with overall higher engagement. 

The newest change appears to use more precise methods for weeding out clickbait-style headlines. "The system looks at the set of clickbait headlines to determine what phrases are commonly used in clickbait headlines that are not used in other headlines," Facebook said in a statement, noting its system functions a lot like an email spam filter. 

Facebook says it doesn't anticipate that most publishers will be negatively impacted by the change, though it's difficult to know for sure what the effect will be until the update rolls out. If publishers suffer, Facebook proposes a simple solution: 

"If a Page stops posting clickbait headlines, their posts will stop being impacted by this change."