News

Meta’s Twitter Rival, Instagram Threads, Launches July 6

If you’ve been considering ditching Twitter, the new competitor might be just what you’ve been waiting for.

Published

2 years ago

July 4, 2023

meta's twitter rival, instagram threads, launches july 6

Meta’s hotly anticipated Twitter competitor, Instagram Threads, is expected to launch on July 6th, after tech sleuths noticed an Apple App Store listing for the new app, as well as an Android equivalent on Google’s Play Store.

As well as the new apps, Meta has now added a launch date ticker to their Instagram app, which can be activated by typing “threads” into the search box (plus several related keywords), causing a ticker icon to appear in the search bar, along with a link to what is expected to be the platform’s homepage The countdown ticker confirms the July 6th launch date, ending at 10 AM ET.

instagram threads mobile screens

The App Store and Google Play Store descriptions of the new Instagram Threads app show screenshots of how users can log in using their Instagram handles and views of an interface similar to Mastodon, Bluesky, and of course, Twitter. Like those platforms, Threads will allow users to follow and connect with their favorite creators and other users who love the same things or share similar opinions.

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Last month, Meta explained that Instagram Threads would integrate with the decentralized social media protocol ActivityPub, with one of the executives noting, somewhat controversially: “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run,” which sparked a humorous exchange that led to a potential cage match fight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

In response to the news of the launch of Instagram Threads, Elon Musk issued a handful of tweets concerning the amount of user data that Meta’s apps would collect. However, it should be noted that Instagram’s existing app already has access to the same dataset.

News

Truecaller For iPhone Gets Real-Time Caller ID And Auto Spam Blocking

The latest update integrates with Apple’s Live Caller ID Lookup framework, launched with iOS 18 last year.

Published

3 hours ago

January 23, 2025

Nour Nasir

Truecaller

Truecaller has rolled out a major update for iPhone users, introducing API support that brings real-time caller identification and automatic spam blocking. The upgrade aims to bring the iOS version of the app closer to its Android counterpart, which has long offered these advanced call-screening features.

The latest update integrates with Apple’s Live Caller ID Lookup framework, launched with iOS 18 last year. The technology allows third-party apps to cross-check incoming calls against a database of known spam numbers in real-time. Importantly, the process employs “homomorphic encryption,” ensuring user privacy by masking the caller’s number, concealing the client’s IP address, and using anonymous authentication.

With this update, Truecaller has also introduced global automatic spam call blocking for iPhones. However, the real-time caller ID feature is being released gradually and is available only to Truecaller Premium subscribers on iPhones running iOS 18.2 or later. Free users will still have access to ad-supported features, such as manual number searches and caller identification for verified businesses.

How To Enable The New Features

To activate the new features, follow these steps:

Update the Truecaller app to version 14.0 or newer via the App Store.
Go to Settings > Apps > Phone > Call Blocking & Identification on your iPhone.
Turn on all Truecaller toggles, then restart the app.

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While these features are new to iOS, Truecaller has hinted at this update for months. Following Apple’s iOS 18 update and the introduction of its Live Caller ID API last September, Truecaller Co-founder Alan Mamedi shared his excitement on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Truecaller finally works on iPhone”.

The global rollout of spam call blocking is already live, but users may need to wait for gradual access to the live caller ID feature.