News

Cameo’s New Feature Allows Live Calls With Celebrities

Celebrity video message app that lets users send their friends a greeting from a famous celebrity is expanding to allow live two-way video chats.

Published

4 years ago

August 19, 2022

Nour Nasir

Cameo

Have you ever wanted to sit down for an intimate chat with your favorite celebrity? Imagine being able to quiz your favorite musician about their guitar technique, or ask an actor about their experiences on set. Well, that just became a reality with the recently announced Cameo Live.

Cameo is an app that already allows you to request personalized pre-recorded video messages from celebrities by paying them a fee. Although the platform does have a direct messaging system, Cameo has recently upgraded its service with 10-minute live video calls.

Users can request a callback around their own schedule, and the sessions also allow an option to include more than one person to listen in. Here’s a breakdown of the features from Cameo itself:

Book the 10-minute live video call with one of the thousands of athletes, actors, musicians, comedians, creators, reality stars, and other pop culture personalities.
Opt for a one-on-one conversation, invite up to nine friends and family members to join you, or gift the call to a loved one.
Propose three date/time options that work best for you, giving you more schedule control.

Although the idea sounds promising, it’s difficult to see how users won’t abuse the new feature. Cameo seems to have thought of that very eventuality and put specific measures in place.

“Cameo uses technology to auto moderate the chat function of Cameo Live to protect against things like profanity and hate speech,” says Brandon Kazimer, Cameo Spokesperson.

Also Read: Intro Platform Connects Users To Celebrity Experts

Celebrities can decline calls if they feel threatened, as well as terminate chats mid-session if things go wrong. Concerns aside, the new feature does sound like a lot of fun, though depending on the celebrity, it could be pricey to set up a chat.

So who would you like to book for a celebrity chat? With prices anywhere from $100 to $900, you’d be well advised to make notes to ensure you get your money’s worth!

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.