Instagram News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Floe into the new year with Season 3, featuring our newest Blackrock Leader, Emperor Thaurissan, and two new emotes!

If leakers are to be believed, we'll be getting a Lego Zelda set before the year is out, and honestly? I'm hyped.

Mortal Kombat 2 has finished filming and some of the sequel’s Kombatants have marked the occasion by getting together for a wrap party.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra might have retained the same 5,000mAh battery capacity as the Galaxy S23 Ultra from last year, but the chipset improvements, coupled with the software optimizations, would have helped Samsung’s flagship beat the competition in the latest battery drain test. One YouTuber placed four premium handsets next to each other to perform the benchmark, and even the iPhone 15 Pro Max with its 3nm A17 Pro found it difficult to overtake its newest rival in the flagship space.

Magic: The Gathering's Ravnica Remastered set was released earlier this month, and it's already introduced some pretty pricey cards. For example, one of the more expensive cards in the set is the serialized shock land card Godless Shrine, which has been selling for up to $500 due to its limited number. There were 500 of these cards released in Ravnica Remastered, but we're now down to 499 thanks to the antics of Magic: The Gathering fan Lillian_of_the_veil.

One talented designer has mocked up custom GTA 6-themed PS5 covers for themselves, and damn it if I don't want one.

Samsung at the Galaxy Unpacked event launched the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, which also featured the premium Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with a new flat design and a titanium frame. The new frame follows quickly on the heels of the iPhone 15 Pro models, making the smartphone stronger and much lighter. With Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung unveiled its new AI features and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 3 processor. This year, Samsung has brought massive upgrades to the S-series which may attract buyers simply on the strength of the features on offer. Know more about the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra launch, price, specs here to have an understanding of what new has been included in the smartphone. Notably, the S-series consists of Samsung's flagship smartphones.

In a surprising turn of events, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of Instagram, are shutting down their highly anticipated news app, Artifact, just shy of its one-year anniversary. The announcement, delivered through a Medium post by Systrom, outlined that the app's core news reading features would remain accessible until the end of February, but commenting and posting capabilities were immediately disabled.

Last week, we asked you to travel to the shores of Valhalla to face Kratos’ past in God of War Ragnarök using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

The Last of Us season 2 news has been flooding in over the past few days, with Dina being the latest character cast. We now know the pivotal character will be played by Madame Web star Isabela Merced in the HBO show, and her co-star Bella Ramsey had a touching reaction to the news.

In a follow-up statement to recent comments regarding uncomfortable behavior from Marvel's Spider-Man fans, Stephanie Tyler Jones, the capture model for Mary Jane Watson (MJ) in Insomniac's superhero series, affirms that she'll remain open to playing the role "as long as the game creators will have me."

Teens and their consumption trends on social media has always been controversial. In effect, they have been able to access almost any content that there is, even those ones that are clearly inappropriate for their age and experience. While big platforms such as Meta do not share the actual data on how the different kinds of content affect the teen mind, governments across the world are concerned about how youngsters perceive the same. Therefore, to take a step forward to solve this problem, Meta Platforms has announced it will ban teens from accessing harmful content such as self-harm, nudity, suicide, eating disorders, and others. Know what Meta said about the new move.

Stephanie Tyler Jones, who provided the face likeness for Mary Jane Watson in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, is speaking out about fans who have “crossed boundaries” over the character.

If you're looking to showcase your creativity and engage with your audience on via Instagram Reels, creating and sharing outstandingly unique and interesting content is an excellent way to do so. This step-by-step Instagram Reels guide will walk you through the process, making it easy for you to record, edit, and share compelling content.

Stephanie Tyler Jones, who provided her likeness for the Mary Jane character in Insomniac Games' Spider-Man series of video games, has called out fans who recently “crossed boundaries”.

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer absolutely dominated this year's Golden Globes, taking home five awards. But not all of the cast members were feeling the love that night as one actor was left out of the group picture for the most hilarious reason.

More often than not these days, video game characters are modeled after real people. A lot of fan-favorite characters, such as Ashley in Resident Evil 4, Dina in The Last of Us Part 2, and Alan Wake in Alan Wake 2, are just a few examples of this. Mary Jane in both of Insomniac's Spider-Man games is another good example, but sometimes the extra attention of being a face model can be too much.

Stephanie Tyler Jones, the face of Mary Jane Watson in Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man, called out harassing behavior in a letter addressed to the superhero game's community.

In an age of successful movies based on video game characters like Mario, Sonic, and Nathan Drake, it was perhaps inevitable that we would get a Minecraft movie starring Jack Black as unassuming player-insert Steve. The actor confirmed the casting on Instagram in a suitably silly style; the film is targeting a 2025 release.

Fans of Pixar’s Luca — specifically those who ship the titular young sea monster and his best friend Alberto — are rejoicing on social media, announcing that “Luberto” (as the ship has been dubbed) has been declared canon. This conversation sparked when McKenna Harris, story artist on Luca and director of the companion short Ciao Alberto, shared a sequence of cute (and unofficial) art of Luca and Alberto in an Instagram story, ending with a picture of the two kissing beneath an umbrella.

Loot box researcher Leon Xiao has released the results of his latest study into loot box advertising, which found that ads for games on social media routinely run afoul of UK and EU regulations when it comes to disclosing the presence of loot boxes, or even in-game purchases of any kind.

Netflix’s Fool Me Once is currently blowing up the Netflix charts and, as it turns out, one of its key locations has a very explosive history of its own in another popular drama.

The Instagram account shared by miniatures game designer Bryan Ansell and his wife Diane has announced that he died at home with his family on December 30, 2023. He was 68 years old.

Bryan Ansell, one of the chief architects of the Warhammer franchise alongside Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley, has died. He was 68.

Bryan Ansell, co-creator of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and the leader of Games Workshop through the late 1980s, passed away at home on the morning of Dec. 30. He was 68. The announcement was made on the Instagram account he shared with his wife, Diane.

Cinema or politics, chocolates or perfume... social media influencers cover it all and are set to spread their influence further and wider in 2024 with MNCs, movie stars and even politicians using them to reach target audiences, bypassing mainstream media and traditional marketing avenues.

With 2023 nearing its end, it is safe to say that artificial intelligence (AI) has been the buzzword of the year. Throughout the year, we've not only seen the rise of AI chatbots, but also the integration of AI into legacy applications such as Microsoft Office, and Adobe Photoshop. New AI tools have also surfaced, that make light work of tasks like image generation, and copywriting. One such AI-powered tool that aims to automate your social media content creation and AI marketing is Copy.ai. Know what is it and how it works.

Move over Mean Girls, we have a new Christmas dance in town! A Christmas-themed video recently went viral on the internet and it is a dance-off between a group of girls and a flock of chickens. Dubbed the ‘chicken dance' by netizens, this video is both entertaining and hilarious and people on social media cannot have enough of it. It is being shared across platforms and so far, we have seen it on TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and even in WhatsApp group chats. So, where did this video come from, who made it, and why is it going so viral? Let us find out.

We lost Twitter and got X. We tried out Bluesky and Mastodon (well, some of us did). We fretted about AI bots and teen mental health. We cocooned in private chats and scrolled endlessly as we did in years past. For social media users, 2023 was a year of beginnings and endings, with some soul-searching in between.

With 2023 set to end, companies around the world are enjoying the Christmas period. However, malicious threat actors are taking advantage of this lapse in security measures.  Phishing scams, malware, and other forms of cyber-attacks are being discovered almost every day that target innocent people. Now, a new Instagram phishing email campaign is doing the rounds where threat actors are targeting the login credentials of users by posing as Meta employees in a bid to not only get access to their usernames and passwords but also their backup codes. Know how this new Instagram phishing email campaign takes place and how to stay safe - 5 tips.

Global smart devices brand OPPO, has launched the OPPO A59 5G, and it claims that it is the most affordable 5G smartphone. The price of the device starts at Rs. 14,999 and it will be available from December 25, 2023, at the OPPO store, Flipkart, Amazon, and other retail outlets. The OPPO A59 5G is available in two variants- 4GB and 6GB RAM. The colour options include Silk Gold and Starry Black.

 Avi Schiffmann is an entrepreneur with a crazy idea that might become our new reality. Recently, he went on a podcast and then wondered afterwards about how he'd presented himself. Instead of asking a human being for feedback, he asked a pendant he'd been wearing around his neck during the recording. It told him he needed to be a better listener. 

South Park's New Kid (aka you!) is back in South Park: Snow Day!, the new PvE game from South Park Digital Studios and THQ Nordic that allows you to play with bots or up to three friends in co-op to take on your rivals after a blizzard has canceled school. The latest trailer (watch it above) confirms Snow Day's release date: March 26, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The price for the standard version is $29.99. A Digital Deluxe Edition will be available for $49.99.

Narcotics police the world over are sprucing up their video game skills, as cartels go increasingly online to sell drugs and recruit dealers.

X outage: Many X (formerly Twitter) users who opened the app and website to check posts and catch up to the daily trends today morning were met with a rude awakening when they found empty timelines on their home feed. The realization set in quickly that the Elon Musk-owned social media platform had suffered yet another outage. This was the experience of thousands of users, and the situation is still ongoing. However, it was not the first time a social media platform has suffered an outage, with similar incidents making headlines throughout the year. Let us take a look at the 5 major social media outages in 2023.

A trade group that represents TikTok and other major tech companies sued Utah on Monday over its first-in-the-nation laws requiring children and teens to obtain parental consent to use social media apps.

Dive into double the chaos in Update 3.0.0 and Season 2 with our latest Beast Troop, Chimaera! Check out our latest PvP map, Arathi Basin, and two new emotes. We've increased Leader Honor in PvP, the number of Mini copies earned from PvP Honor rewards, and made some adjustments to Leaders, Talents and Arclight Surge.

You can’t get Kenough Barbie, right? Well, at least that’s what Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson are hoping as a new version of 'I’m Just Ken' is landing this Christmas season.

Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for December 19: A plethora of events have been introduced by the developers of Garena Free Fire in recent weeks including the Last Man Standing event, Frostfire Hyperbook, Helping Hands event, Booyah with Friends event, and the Moco Store. These in-game events offer players an opportunity to get their hands on amazing items. All they need to do is either spend diamonds to make spins or complete a specific set of missions in Garena Free Fire. While most of these items only provide a cosmetic advantage, they can help your character stand out from the millions of other Garena Free Fire players around the world. 

Adobe Inc. walked away from its $20 billion acquisition of startup Figma Inc. after clashing with regulators in Europe and the UK. Adobe will pay Figma a $1 billion termination fee, the companies said in a statement on Monday. They saw “no clear path” to getting regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.  

Max Payne and Alan Wake voice actor James McCaffrey has died after a battle with cancer, according to a TMZ report. He was 65.

The iconic voice of Max Payne, James McCaffrey, has passed away at the age of 65 because of cancer. For videogames, he was most famous for playing Max Payne across all three games but he was prevalent in a lot of big games. They include Alone in the Dark, Alan Wake, Control, and most recently in Alan Wake 2.

On Dec. 1, George Santos became only the sixth congressman to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives. On Dec. 18, Santos became the first expelled congressman to go on Ziwe’s show (which she’s revived just for this; more on that below), making for a new chapter in his bizarre congressional history.

Twitch has taken back a rule change it made just two days ago. After seeing what some streamers did with the freedom to stream «artistic depictions of nudity,» the site said it «went too far.»

Ottawa will keep pushing Meta to comply with a new law requiring large internet companies to pay Canadian news publishers for their content, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, but the Facebook parent stood by its decision to block news sharing rather than pay. The government on Friday published final regulations for the Online News Act before enforcement starts Dec. 19. The law requires technology companies with 20 million unique monthly users and annual revenues of C$1 billion ($748 million) or more to compensate Canadian news outlets for publishing links to their pages.

Last week we asked you to explore the fast-paced world of Cyberpunk 2077 and share epic moments from the main game and its Phantom Liberty expansion using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

The biggest online phenomenon of the year is an animated video series that primarily appeals to children, filled with obscure internet and gaming references that most adults wouldn't understand, and with a name that all but screams scatological humour.

The artificial intelligence (AI) wave has swept the world and the world's biggest tech companies are making efforts to incorporate this technology into their suite of products. Apps like Instagram and WhatsApp have benefitted from AI adoption, adding new and intuitive features. Over the past few months, Telegram has also been adding several features to enhance the user experience. Now, it is also set to get an AI boost. Voicemod has launched the VMgram, the “Ultimate Voicemod Telegram Mod”, for Android smartphones. Know all about VMgram.

Meta in September launched its new AI smart glasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban with an in-built voice assistant and cameras to capture amazing pictures and videos. During the launch Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised a new AI feature that would enable the AI tool to tell more about the surroundings, and now finally, the company has rolled out the update. However, as of now only a few users in the US will get access to the update as part of a free trial. Know more about the upcoming AI features of Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses.

Facebook owner Meta's text-based app Threads arrived in the European Union on Thursday, months after its global launch in July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Threads is a spin-off of the Instagram photo app and is intended to be a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, after that platform alienated many users and advertisers following Elon Musk's purchase last year.

Apple has revealed the year-end charts for the most popular apps and games on the App Store in over 35 countries and regions. Consequently, the iPhone maker has announced the most downloaded apps and games of 2023 in India, as well. Unsurprisingly, WhatsApp has emerged as the top free iPhone app, while the DSLR Camera app, which provides users professional-grade camera controls, is the top paid iPhone app of the year. Earlier this month, Apple also revealed its 2023 App Store Award winners.

Temu, the Chinese e-commerce company whose app is now attracting longer engagement times than Amazon, is Apple’s most downloaded free app in the U.S. for 2023. The Cupertino-based tech giant today released an App Store feature that showcases the top iPhone apps of the year, free and paid, as measured by app installs — its proxy for overall popularity. This year, apps from Chinese-based companies have taken over spots previously held by U.S. tech giants like Meta and Google, as CapCut and TikTok, which hail from Beijing-based ByteDance, came in at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.

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In a bid to enhance user experience, Meta is gearing up to introduce a slew of innovative features for Android enthusiasts. Among the forthcoming updates is the much-anticipated WhatsApp Channel Alerts feature, along with the ability to search for messages by date and a feature designed to streamline navigation within the app.

As of right now, the official GTA 6 trailer has been watched on YouTube more than 140 million times. It’s become one of the most-watched video game announcements of all time. Given that, it was inevitable that some would want a piece of that success by recreating their own versions.

WhatsApp continues its commitment to elevating user experience through a series of updates, and the latest addition is set to revolutionize the way users interact with status updates. The messaging giant has introduced a new reply bar feature for status updates, aiming to foster increased engagement among its vast user base. In its ongoing pursuit of innovation, WhatsApp has recently implemented several intuitive features, such as the ability to share high-quality photos and videos within status updates. This latest move to roll out WhatsApp reply bar for status updates underscores the company's dedication to enhancing the overall user journey.

It is undeniable that Ncuti Gatwa is the perfect choice for The Fifteenth Doctor, and it seems like he thought so too as the star has revealed that securing his Doctor Who role was actually a product of his own manifestation. 

Ever since the launch of Threads, the Instagram-powered text-based social media platform to rival X (formerly Twitter), users have been demanding two features in particular. The first was the ability to search keywords to look for topics of interest and see the posts that contain those keywords. This was added to the platform a week ago. The second was hashtags, which is an easy way to categorize your post into certain topics on the platform to make them more discoverable. To the joy of the users, this too has been added to Threads now. But, there is a twist. These are not those typical hashtags you probably are familiar with. Check out what you can do with Threads hashtags in detail below:

A new Troop, and a new PvP map is coming to Season 2 of Warcraft Rumble, so get ready for all new exciting content arriving on December 10th.

Last week, we asked you jump into the creative worlds in Fortnite and share epic moments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

By Alex Cranz, managing editor and co-host of The Vergecast. She oversaw consumer tech coverage at Gizmodo for five years. Her work has also appeared in the WSJ and Wired.

Meta Platforms has fulfilled a longstanding promise by introducing default end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations and calls on Facebook Messenger. The company asserts that with this encryption enabled, only the sender and recipient of a message can access its contents. Initially introduced as an opt-in feature in 2016, end-to-end encrypted texts and calls for individual discussions will now be the standard, marking a significant milestone after an extended development process.

YouTuber Trevor Jacob, a former Olympian and self-styled adventurer and entrepreneur, has been sent to jail for six months for deliberately crashing a plane in 2021, filming the whole thing for views, and putting the cherry on top by lying to US investigators about what happened. Even Jacob himself admitted after the sentence that this was the «right decision,» per the BBC.

Belka Games, the hit-making studio behind Clockmaker, Bermuda Adventures, and Solitaire Cruise, has added another colorful casual title to its library. 

GTA 6 fever is spreading faster than a five-star wanted chase across the streets of Florida.

Meta Platforms Inc. is betting artificial intelligence will convince people to spend more time on its social media apps next year and is using the technology to make the biggest changes across its platforms since introducing short-form video Reels in 2020.

Garena Free Fire redeem codes for December 7: The developers of Garena Free Fire have rolled out a lot of events recently in the game. Players can take advantage of these special campaigns to get their hands on exciting in-game items. The new Mystery Shop in Garena Free Fire is also live, and players can get up to a 90 percent discount on in-game items across the entire store, such as weapons, skins, tokens, gloo walls, room cards, and other items. Moreover, the new Luck Royale in the game is still live, offering Lamborghini-themed rewards to players! Check out the details of this event in the game.

Something new may be brewing for the Devil May Cry series, as the composer of the fifth entry in the series recently hinted at something.

A strange glitch is causing frustration for many longtime Instagram users. Reports have found that the oldest posted videos on the platform are suddenly losing their audio without any explanation. This has not been reported on any of the newer videos, but the ones posted in or around 2014. This is also not a case of audio being intentionally removed from the video due to copyright issues, as Instagram informs the user both in-app and via email of the steps taken. Users who have reported the issue have not received any such message from the company.

Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for December 6: The developers of Garena Free Fire have recently rolled out many events in the game. Players can take advantage of these special campaigns to get their hands on exclusive rewards. Moreover, Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes offer an opportunity to nab amazing items for free. But before moving on to the redeem codes, know that the new Mystery Shop in Garena Free Fire is now live! Check out the details about this new event.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Final Fantasy 16, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and so many more – 2023 has been a defining year for video games.

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GTA 6's reveal trailer was meant to go up today, but it was leaked. So, Rockstar pushed it out early, which is great as now we can see what it looks like without a big crypto ad plastered on top.

Meta Platforms is quietly starting to roll back the cross-platform chats feature it added to Facebook Messenger and Instagram that allowed users to send and receive messages from their contacts on the other platform. So, how will it affect users? As per the company, the ability for users to send a message to someone on Instagram while using Messenger or vice versa will be killed off by mid-December 2023. Alongside this, users of one platform will not be able to see the activity status of the users on the other platform in the message window.

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

After a long wait of 3,156 days since Grand Theft Auto 5 first appeared on PC, the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer is finally here a day early, following a leak. Drink it in above.

In the past few months, we have seen some drastic changes in WhatsApp in terms of bringing advanced features to its users. This year, Meta introduced channels, locked chats, screen-sharing video calls, email authentication, and more. Now, the company is working on a new WhatsApp feature which will enable users to share their status updates to Instagram. The feature is expected to work exactly like how we share stories on Facebook and Instagram at the same time. Know about the WhatsApp feature that Meta may roll out here.

Garena Free Fire MAX redeem codes for December 4: A plethora of events have been introduced by the developers of Garena Free Fire MAX in recent weeks including the Helping Hands event, Booyah with Friends event, and the Moco Store. All of them have offered players an opportunity to get their hands on exciting rewards in the game. Now, another Luck Royale has been brought to Garena Free Fire MAX, and players can nab special Lamborghini-themed rewards! Know all about the new Garena Free Fire MAX Lamborghini Royale event.

Meta Platforms was told by EU tech regulators on Friday to provide more details on measures taken to tackle child sexual abuse material on its photo and video sharing app Instagram by Dec. 22 or risk a formal investigation under new EU online content rules.

We're just days away from getting our first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, after Rockstar teased a reveal for a game that couldn't be anything but the long-awaited sequel. It wasn't clear at first how much info the reveal trailer would give us, but now, we can confidently assume that it's going to be huge, as Rockstar deletes all of its Instagram posts in preparation.