This time I want to highlight some most important things that happened during this period in the world of beta testing!
What's new?
- ⚓️ Twitter fleets
- 💼 New Instagram UI
- 🏕 Google Maps Go tab
- 🎅 Facebook rooms
- 📻 Telegram voice chats
- 👻 Snapchat public profiles
- 🧜♂️ League of Legends MOBA is out
- 📸 Google Photos free plan change
- 💎 And some extra stuff
Being available in certain countries for quite a while, this feature finally got released to everyone in November.
This release added one more app to the list of services that support stories format along with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and many others.
This update came as a quite surprise for those who didn't follow all the latest feature leaks. Instagram was used as a marketplace for a long time already but having a separate section on the nav bar positions it as one of the core features of Instagram platform.
This feature can be renamed as "pinned routes" and comes quite handy if you move around the city quite often. It also gives you an overview of the time when you can reach a certain place. Could be an interesting use case if you are hungry and want to find the closest restaurant from your favourites list.
Being quite a big feature on itself, Facebook Rooms looks like a response to the recent situation around COVID-19 and WFH mode. Now they also promote this feature as a place where you can celebrate New Year with your friends remotely. Keeping in mind their VR projects, Rooms feature seems to be a good playground for Facebook to gather some data around social behaviours in such circumstances where people have to gather virtually.
Telegram Voice Chats and plans for 2021
Telegram came with its own unique way to handle the "Work from home" situation. Voice Chats feature feels rather like a walkie-talkie than video calls that you can find everywhere else.
This release came along with a post about future plans for monetization on Telegram. Now it sounds like Telegram will get native ads in 2021 in public channels. The revenue will go to Telegram directly while those channels will receive some extra traffic from the platform.
Not sure why did it take so long for Snapchat to get it but this is one of the core features that existed on other social platforms since the beginning. Apart from this, you could notice a new "cartoon" filter that went quite viral in November.
Lol: Wild Rift went live after a long pre-registration period. This game can finally compete with Mobile Legends MOBA. Obviously, there is also a huge Facebook group about this game already if you want to get serious about it.
Google Photos app is no longer free storage for all your photos. After some volume, you will have to get a paid version if you want to keep all your photos backed up as usual. Or check for its alternatives, like Amazon Photos for example.
Some extra stuff
There are also 3 apps in beta that I want to share:
- Photo Room beta - this app simply can remove a background from your photos. It has a Facebook group for beta testers as well.
- Chess beta - Many people got interested in chess after watching Queens Gambit movie series. This is a classic chess app with many different game modes.
- Freeletics beta - a lot of people are not going out as they used to do before the pandemic. This is a fitness app that is tailored for remote workouts.
Which one did you enjoy the most? Tell us in comments below 👇
