Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Suffer Service Disruptions Reported Worldwide

File photo of a woman checking her phone during an Instagram outage in 2021.Photo: Ed Jones (Getty Images) Meta platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are experiencing a global outage with thousands of reports of the app not working properly since roughly 2 p.m. ET Wednesday.WhatsApp appears to have gone down first, with Instagram and Facebook … Read more

WhatsApp vs. Signal vs. Telegram vs. Facebook: What data do they have about you?

Over the past week or so we’ve seen a lot of chatter about people shifting their messaging platform from WhatsApp to Signal as a result of fallout from a change to its privacy policy. People were concerned that WhatsApp was going to start funneling data to its parent company Facebook. There’s been subsequent clarification, but … Read more

The Greatest App of All Time Day 17: Instagram vs. WhatsApp

Welcome back to Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time! Yesterday’s tournament was a bloodbath with Calculator taking more than 87 percent of the vote. Twitch goes home empty-handed. Today, we have the crown jewels of Zuckerberg’s empire going head-to-head. If you’re just tuning in, you can read all … Read more

The Greatest App of All Time Day 9: SwiftKey vs. Telegram

Welcome back to Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time! Yesterday’s lineup was an extremely close race and Read It Later fans put up an admirable fight but with 52 percent of the vote, Twitter goes to the next round. Today, we have a contest between apps for people … Read more

Facebook, Instagram, and Threads Are Coming Back Online After a 2-Hour Outage

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg used to describe his company’s mission as “making the world more open and connected.” Tuesday it did the opposite, as nearly all of Meta’s social platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger, experienced widespread outages around the globe for around two hours. Some people found themselves being suddenly logged out … Read more

March Madness Bracket Day 3

Graphic: Gizmodo Welcome to day 3 of Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time! WhatsApp barely beat out Dark Sky in our second round of the tournament, garnering 53 percent of the overall vote. RIP Dark Sky. And today we have an epic grudge match between Google Maps and … Read more

March Madness Bracket Day 2

Graphic: Gizmodo It’s day 2 of Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to crown the greatest app of all time! The mighty Fart App has fallen to Instagram in our first round and today’s challengers are WhatsApp vs Dark Sky. Will Mark Zuckerberg win again? That’s up to you. Threads Needs These Five Missing Features to … Read more

The Privacy Danger Lurking in Push Notifications

To send those notifications that awaken a device and appear on its screen without a user’s interaction, apps and smartphone operating system makers must store tokens that identify the device of the intended recipient. That system has created what US senator Ron Wyden has called a “digital post office” that can be queried by law … Read more

WhatsApp is preparing to roll out third-party chat support

With a month away from the Digital Markets Act (DMA) deadline, WhatsApp is preparing to allow other messaging networks in its app. In an interview with Wired, Dick Brouwer, an engineering director at WhatsApp, said that the company is ready to offer interoperability on the platform with over 2 billion users. “There’s real tension between … Read more