Snapchat loses further 2 million users in the third quarter of 2018

Snapchat has reportedly lost 2 million users in the third quarter of 2018 and has shrunk further. The app announced in its earnings report that it had lost 3 million users in the second quarter. The share price of Snapchat also crashed to a low of $6.31 due to loss of such huge amount of users. The CEO of Snapchat Evan Spiegel said that the lost customers were mostly Android users because the app does not run on Android as well as it runs on iOS. The CEO also admitted that the Snaps created per day have also dropped from 3.5 billion to 3 billion per day.

It seems the predictions of tech gurus is coming true. Experts warned about a downfall in the Snapchat user base after Instagram and WhatsApp introduced “stories”. Instagram and WhatsApp stories are gaining popularity in developing countries. The CEO explained that they have more users in the US and Europe. Now down to $1.4 billion in cash and securities, Snap will need to start reaching more of those international users or improving monetization of those it still has to keep afloat without outside capital.

WhatsApp story status has 450 million daily users while Insta stories has grown to 400 million daily users. Snapchat faces a problem in third world countries where the phones are older and internet connections are slower. It will face a much more severe threat if WhatsApp and Instagram manage to clone the disappearing chats feature.

The way forward for Snapchat looks to lie in the Android overhaul which will help them in customer retention. It is also depending on the latest Snappable games feature that it introduced recently. The Snappable Tic-Tac-Toe managed to get 80 million users. Spiegel has said that they are aiming to reach break-even in 2018 and full profitability in 2019. At this rate of competition and losing daily users, Snapchat may run out of money rather than reaching profitability.

Drones that can pull 40x their weight!

Did you know spiders, wasps and ants can lift upto 20 – 120 times their body weight? Following the same principle engineers at Stanford and Switzerland’s EPFL have created drones that can lift 40x their weight.

Earlier it was difficult for drones to carry heavier objects while airborne. They were used for recording pictures and videos. They could not be used for lifting objects. These drones attach themselves to a support in the ground to get the necessary torque. Just as a wasp or spider drags its prey, similarly these drones drag objects by attaching a hook into them. A strong thread is used in these drones that aid the dragging. Watch the video below to see how these drones work:

These drones known as “FlyCroTugs” (a combination of flying, micro and tug presumably) operate like ordinary drones when they hover in the air but they have three additional components: an anchor to attach objects, sticky feet for firm grip and a winch to adjust the tension in the cable that pulls the objects.

“By combining the aerodynamic forces of our vehicle and the interactive forces generated by the attachment mechanisms, we were able to come up with something that is very mobile, very strong and very small,” said Stanford grad student Matthew Estrada, lead author of the paper published in Science Robotics.

This invention is indeed a revolution. These 100 gram drones can move objects weighing up to 4 kilograms. With a few of these drones combined that can do everyday tasks like picking up trash, transferring mail, carrying laundry and food items. They can also be used in other complex tasks like picking explosive devices which would otherwise require a human to do it.

WhatsApp decides to introduce Stickers in their app

WhatsApp has finally decided to introduce stickers! The introduction of stickers comes after months of anticipation and some initial rumors and leaks. The immensely popular app announced that it will roll out stickers in the Android and iOS version in the coming weeks.

The stickers will be introduced by WhatsApp’s own in-house designers and some other independent designers chosen by the company. It seems that in the future anyone would be able to add stickers since the company  is releasing a set of APIs and interfaces that will allow anyone "minimal development or coding experience" Interested designers could upload the sticker packs on Google play store or Apple App store allowing users to download them.

Competitors like Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Apple imessages and Viber already have this feature. The introduction of sticker feature is surely a “Facebook” led move because the creators Jan Koum and Brian Acton have been quite vocal about their disapproval of advertisements, stickers, games etc. They believe it will distort the core purpose and benefit of the app: simple and instant messaging.

Facebook formally revealed the arrival of stickers on WhatsApp back in May, following the announcement of group video calling support on the instant messaging app at the F8 developers' conference.