Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.
Shh, Snapchat Is Trying to Update
The platform is keeping it on the down low, but advertisers are loving Snapchat's newest additions to Snap Ads – especially the feature that redirects users out of Snapchat and into other apps. Also, a new auto-fill feature allows advertisers to offer a form for user sign-ups (such as a food delivery service). The ad can pull in any information users have already granted to Snapchat. As we all know, every advertiser loves data!
What’s Up With What’s App?
The messaging service app WhatsApp announced that users will be able to make video calls on iPhone, Android and Window Phone devices this week. For years, users were only allowed to send texts to each other. WhatsApp wanted to avoid any errors, so the service has been beta testing video calls for a few months. One of the biggest advantages of this new feature is that WhatsApp will work cross-platform, opposed to Apple Facetime, which only works on iOS devices. Who will be your first WhatsApp video call?
“Flying” Out New Messaging
We have all been there: that frantic rush to send one more message out before having to put your phone on airplane mode. There’s hope. This week, Alaska Airlines introduced Free Chat, a complimentary service that allows passengers to send messages from air. This texting feature will be available for flights that use Gogo wireless and will be limited to services that use Wifi to operate, such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Facebook Messenger. “We know that staying in touch while on the go is essential to our guests, many of whom don’t need full Internet access,” said Andrew Harrison, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Alaska Airlines.
InstaBetter
Who needs an actual camera to take stunning imagery when you can just use your iPhone 7? A couple of months back, Apple revealed that the camera on the iPhone 7 would be able to capture view wide color photos – meaning that images will appear more vibrant than other standard images. This week, Instagram enabled all mobile users to view the vibrancy. Also, Instagram added Live Photos support to the app, allowing iPhone users to turn their Live Photos into Boomerangs. Say cheese!
Weekly Moment of Zen
You don’t need to look at ads to figure out your next getaway.
Tyler Wilcox : September 13, 2019
