News

SMBs Can Now Join TikTok’s First Digital Marketing Academy In MENA

The digital marketing academy is the first virtual education platform of its kind in the MENA region, and it was created from the ground up to address the needs of SMBs.

Published

4 years ago

June 9, 2021

Joanna Melki

smbs can now join tiktok's first digital marketing academy in mena

In their never-ending race to compete with large enterprises, SMBs must take advantage of every tool that can give them even the slightest competitive advantage, and marketing their products and services on social media networks such as TikTok is a great example.

The only problem is that small and medium-sized businesses rarely have the resources to hire in-house marketing experts who know how to navigate popular social media networks. Now, TikTok’s business arm is offering all SMBs in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT) region a cost-effective alternative in the form of its new digital marketing academy.

The digital marketing academy is the first virtual education platform of its kind in the MENA region, and it was created from the ground up to address the needs of SMBs. Those who decide to join it will complete a five-week training program consisting of five distinct courses that cover everything how TikTok works to advertising best practices.

“From introducing participants to the TikTok app to demonstrating how they can sign up to the Self-Serve ads, to best practice on optimizing their content and performance, to finally creating their first campaign, this module will provide participants with a shortcut to unlocking the potential of TikTok for their business,” explains Shant Oknayan, TikTok’s general manager of global business solutions MENA.

Also Read: How To Use TikTok Auto Captions To Make Your Videos More Accessible

After completing the entire course, participants will receive an SMB TikTok Pro digital badge. Although of little value to small businesses that have no intention of showing off their newly acquired skills to others, the digital badge is a boon to agencies, which may use it to promote their services.

You can learn more about TikTok’s first digital marketing academy in the MENA region on its official website.

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.

Also Read: “AI Seal” Certification Now Required For Dubai Gov Partnerships

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.