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I remember when Instagram first launched back in 2010, and all my mates at school were crowded around my friend's iPhone 4 making our Instagram accounts and brainstorming cool handle ideas. Things have changed so much since then, and I truly miss the 'old' Instagram. That being said, I don’t think I miss it enough to have TikTok step in and try to fill in the gap. A notification on the app stated that TikTok is gearing up to release a photo-sharing app for users to post their pictures, called TikTok Notes, which will also convert “existing and future public TikTok photo posts” into posts on the new platform. Currently, Tiktok users can post photo slideshows against music tracks, so it’s safe to assume these will be translated to Instagram-esque posts on the new platform. According to The Verge, TikTok states that it’s “exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a dedicated space for those formats”. So, from that, we can assume you’ll also be able to add captions to your Notes posts as well. Could TikTok actually take Instagram on? People have been done with Instagram for a while now. The idea of posting to the general public has been left largely to the influencer types, with most people I know having their Instagram account set to private and reserved for friends and family or using their 'Finstas' exclusively. Finstas, or fake Instagrams, became super popular among young people in 2016 and onwards - a tool for those who wanted to keep using Instagram but have a section carved out to be themselves and post without worrying about having perfect photos. Finstas still did not save Instagram from being labeled a wasteland of a platform. Where Instagram is a lot more controlled in terms of its feed, TikTok has an interesting setup in that publicly posted videos could be thrown across to anyone on the app, no matter if you’re mutually following people or not. So, it would be interesting to see how this translates to a photo-based app. TikTok is an insanely popular app and the fact that the new app will be incorporating already existing photo posts could give it the head start it needs to compete with Instagram. I’m assuming it’ll be a similar case to Instagram Threads, where everyone is already allocated an account and you simply have to activate it. That opens the door to TikTok's estimated one billion monthly active users to log in and try the app out. Of course, not every social media doppelganger is guaranteed success. The downfall of Twitter (sorry, 'X') brought on several other similar apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, and despite how awful things have been on Twitter they’re not really seeing massive numbers that would make them as big as the app they’re replacing. Threads seemed to be a guaranteed hit given the number of already-established Instagram accounts, but it only has 160 monthly million users, compared to X’s 250 million daily active users. I honestly think X would have to be wiped off the web and our phones before people flocked to any of the alternatives. Overall though, TikTok Notes has the social media scene buzzing with anticipation. TikTok's smart move to integrate existing photo content and its massive user base could challenge Instagram's reign. Though, history teaches us that not every alternative is a winner. As TikTok Notes prepares to debut, we can only speculate about its potential to topple Instagram - or forge its own path in the digital realm. View the full article

Facebook is down, with and Meta itself citing "major disruptions". And Downdetector is also indicating outages, with Instagram also appearing to be down in some regions. After checking the Facebook app on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, I was informed the session had expired and I needed to log in again. After putting in the password, Facebook appeared to do a virtual hiccup and then tell me there was something wrong. As a result, this also means Facebook Messenger is also down and boots users back to a login screen where their credentials don't appear to be accepted. However, I can still login to Instagram, while some of my colleagues report that they can't. So it looks like the outage is somewhat sporadic. This story is developing so read on. So when I try to login to Facebook or Facebook Messenger I get a pop up saying an "unexpected error occurred" and no joy in getting around it. Taking a look at Downdetector and Facebook has just had a huge outage spike. (Image credit: Ookla ) Apparently WhatsApp users are reporting outages too, but my WhatsApp app is working fine. This is odd. (Image credit: Ookia) it's hard to tell, but it would appear that these outages are partially region-specific. WhatsApp and Instagram are fine for me, but Facebook isn't letting me log in. However, others are saying they can't get into Instagram and Downdetector is flagging WhatsApp outages. Ah! News Editor Mark Wilson has just pointed out that WhatsApp has only 300 or so outage reports, while Facebook's outage reports are at 250,000. So it looks like Meta's main social network is bearing the brunt of the outage. As one might expect X, the social media site formerly known as Facebook, is awash with people flagging Facebook outages. Has Facebook and Messenger logged you out and then rejects your password?Don't panic, you're not alone, LOADS of people seem to be experiencing this right now.I guess we just gotta wait and see what the heck this is pic.twitter.com/YiQz17AeXRMarch 5, 2024 See more "Has Facebook" Yes it has pic.twitter.com/PsipryfCrGMarch 5, 2024 See more No official Facebook statement has landed in our inboxes, but Andy Stone, Communications Director at Meta, tweeted (or is that X-ed) that: "We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now." We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.March 5, 2024 See more Ever the intrepid tech journalist, our own US Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff was quick to ask Andy Stone what's going on. Can you tell us what happened? It seems unusual for all services to go down together.March 5, 2024 See more Anyway, here's the Downdetector image for Instagram. Looks like things ain't rosy on Meta's tech side. (Image credit: Ookla) Also for our American readers, don't put this down to Super Tuesday conspiracy theories. I know it's tempting but no, just no. One of the great things about such outages is they spawn a load of quick and dirty memes. See below! #instagramdown#facebookdown When Facebook and Instagram went down Everyone : pic.twitter.com/KvlOy0fo5zMarch 5, 2024 See more So what could have caused this outage? Well there's a myriad of regions. It could be a problem with a clutch of servers or a Facebook data center could have gone down. Equally, there could have been a misconfigured cloud instance, as Facebook uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its global operations. So something wrong on that side could be the culprit. So what do you do now that Facebook is down? Well I guess you'll have to find old school friends and crushes on X or in old photos, rather than lurking on the social network. Or you could just go outside... Or you could just be a bit of prat on X, much like the below tweet from Elon Musk. If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are workingMarch 5, 2024 See more So Meta's Facebook login page is citing "Major disruptions". The phrase that comes to mind rhymes with 'go hit'. (Image credit: Meta) Oh, if you're just getting to this live blog, don't worry you've not been hacked. Facebook is just down. For more hacking information, heck out TechRadar Pro's article on Social media hacking: how to protect your account against intruders. Despite the outages, Instagram is still up and running for me. That means I can continue to feel inadequate in the face of fitness influencers and people who can cook really rather nice meals or have massive Lego collections. If you want some social media goodness to keep you amused while facebook is out, then check out the TechRadar TikTok account. There we've got a load of cool videos of the latest and most interesting consumer tech. And here's a video of me making a fool out of myself on it... The whole outage has come a day after Instagram did some notable changes to its process of direct messaging between users. So maybe some code gremlin or misconfigured cloud server has had some cascade effect after the change was implemented. Of course, this is just speculation on my part. Sometimes you have to fix that typo https://t.co/bigVZWyAeuMarch 4, 2024 See more Remember that bit on The Social Network when Mark Zuckerberg (played by Michael Cera) said "We don't crash ever"? Yeah that's not aged well. FYI, if you've not watched The Social Network then fix that right away as it's excellent. Another problem with Facebook being down is where does your uncle with the questionable views post, or comment, on equally dubious content? Makes you think... When Facebook's login problems are fixed, I really hope Mark Zuckerberg responds with something like: "Meta late than never." Yeha, ok, that's not great but I haven't had enough coffee today. View the full article