Skip to main content

Facebook celebrates 2016 by showing off its best hackathon-developed products

2016 was a year of innovation for Facebook, and to celebrate, the company has named some of its favorite projects and products that came from its hackathons at its offices around the world during the year.

Among the items on the list are a richer and more detailed Safety Check, “adaptive attachments,” and instant verification for Android — all in all, Facebook’s 2016 was a pretty productive one.

Recommended Videos

Perhaps the coolest feature developed during the year is Instant Verification on Android, which works through Facebook’s Account Kit. In days past, to verify an app, that app would have had to send you a verification code via SMS, after which you would need to check that code and enter it into the Facebook app. The new feature allows other apps to use Facebook data to verify a phone number, getting rid of the extra SMS steps.

Next up is a better, richer Safety Check. Safety Check was itself developed at a hackathon, but the new version makes it even easier for people to tell friends and family that they’re safe in an emergency. How does it do that? Well, it basically enables extra context through images and calls to action, which can be embedded within notifications. Another extra module within Safety Check allows users to get access to information like where to find shelter, food, water, and even first aid.

Last but not least are “adaptive attachments,” an innovation created at a hackathon in New York, which basically gives users a new way to upload photos to shared albums, create a crowdsourced video, and even play multiplayer games, all only by commenting on a post.

Of course, hackathons aren’t unique to 2016, so we can expect some more innovative products to come from hackathons in 2017, too.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more