#001 The Design Insider: Digest
Apple release iOS14.5 update, Figma announces slew of new features, Facebook going all in on audio and more
🗞 In the News 🗞
Apple iOS 14.5 update is here
Apple has finally begun rolling out the highly controversial iOS 14.5 update to all iPhone users. With this latest update, users can now;
Control which apps that track their online activity and share with third-party data brokers and advertisers. Known as App Tracking Transparency, this new setting will require apps to ask for your permission to track your activity.
Unlock their phones while wearing a face mask and via Apple watch
Access updated version of Apple maps with crowd-sourced incident reporting
Choose from 217 new emojis
Figma gets a slew of new features
Figma seems set on smashing its competitors, unveiling several new features to improve the collaborative experience for users. These include;
Figjam: A collaborative whiteboard where teams can brainstorm ideas, diagram user journeys, and more. The tool will be free until February 2022, after which there will be some free and paid plans ($8-15).
New mobile app: Currently available in Beta on both iOS and Android, the app will make it easier for designers to access their designs and better visualise what they look like on mobile.
Audio: Those with professional and organisation plans will soon be able to initiate a call and invite colleagues directly from the editor.
500+ concurrent users - The limit on the number of people who can collaborate in a workspace will increase to 500 (100 editors, 400 viewers) initially, rising to 1000 (200 editors, 800 viewers) in the coming weeks.
Open access to Figma Community - In addition to viewing others, all users can now share their own tips, work and templates.
Facebook reveals new audio experiences
Facebook finally revealed several audio experiences they've been working on that we expect will go live very soon. These include;
Live Audio Rooms: This feature is essentially a clubhouse clone, where users can join a whole host of 'rooms' focusing on specific topics. It's currently in testing but will hopefully be available for all users on messenger and Facebook app by June.
Improved audio creation tools: These will give users the power to mix audio tracks and access facebooks growing library of sound effects, voice effects and filters.
Soundbites: These are short-form, creative audio clips for capturing anecdotes, jokes, moments of inspiration, poems, and many other things. Testing will begin with a select group of creators to refine this feature before it's rolled out.
Podcasts: Users will soon be able to stream their favourite podcasts directly from Facebook.
Google Meet gets facelift
Over the last year, Google Meet has experienced unprecedented growth, with this trend set to continue as more companies choose to remain either completely remote or adopt a hybrid model. In light of this, Google Meet's UI will undergo a significant update to make it more user friendly and improve the overall user experience. These changes include;
Pinning tiles: You'll soon be able to pin multiple tiles to customise what users screen you focus on.
Better identification: Participants names will be visible at all times, so you can see who's who and better engage with them.
Improved video quality: Google Meet web will detect underexposed areas in a users video feed and automatically increase the brightness to improve the quality.
New backgrounds: Users will soon be able to select video backgrounds in addition to the current selection of still images.
Apple redesigns podcast app and adds subscriptions
Apple will begin rolling out premium subscriptions on its podcast app to users in 170+ countries from May. The subscriptions will give creators the chance to generate additional revenue by giving subscribers access to more exclusive, curated and high-quality content.
In addition to this, the podcast app will see some tweaks to its design on iOS 14.5. These include;
Smart Play button: This button will allow users to listen to shows from the latest episode automatically.
Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard: This will allow creators to manage all aspects of their podcasts and learn more about how listeners engage with new performance metrics/visualisation tools, all in one place.
Channels: Creators will have the ability to organise shows into channels, with unique descriptions, artwork, and content.
Reddit reveals Clubhouse clone
The community based social platform will soon start testing its own clubhouse-style audio rooms feature. Known as Reddit Talk, the feature will initially allow only community moderators to create and moderate rooms, with the future direction to be decided based on how things go.
Twitter test professional profiles
Twitter will begin testing new look “professional profiles” for businesses with a small pool of users. First reported by Matt Navarra, its expected these new professional profiles will include business information such as company name, category, verification badge, plus other important info such as contact details, address and direction.
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🛠 Useful Tools and Resources 🛠
Book of the Week: The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Buy and Live as They Do - Find Out More
Tool of the Week: Iconduck - An excellent collection of over 100,000 + open source icons, illustrations and emojis that are free to download.