The 6 Most-Used Social Networks on Mobile in the U.S.

Every social media company knows that enhancing the mobile user experience is necessary for a network's success. But among all the app updates, bug fixes and design changes, how much time do users actually spend on social media with their mobile devices?

According to a new report from comScore, Instagram users in the U.S. spend 98% of time with the network on mobile — which isn't very surprising, considering the platform was originally mobile-only and is innately conducive to mobile device use

Perhaps more interesting is that Pinterest users spend 92% of time on mobile, while Twitter users choose apps over their desktops 86% of the time. Read more...

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Facebook Adds Free Voice Calls to Messenger App

After Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $16 billion, some wondered what would happen to the company's existing messaging app. Now it seems they had nothing to worry about.

The company updated the app Thursday with a major new feature — one that allows users to make free voice calls to their Facebook friends.

See also: Money Talks: Who's Afraid of Facebook's WhatsApp Deal?

The new feature is similar to voice calling built in to other messaging apps such as Viber and WeChat. Users can make phone calls to friends for free, provided they have at least a wifi connection

Now, when you view Facebook contacts from within Messenger, a phone icon appears next to their name. Tap the icon to start a phone call. Both participants need to have a wifi or data connection to make or receive calls. Read more...

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Hands on with Vine Messages: The Creative Way to Chat

Get ready to waste a whole lot more time on Twitter's Vine video creation and sharing tool

The 6-second video creation app, a favorite of animators and artists, got a major update on Thursday, including an entire suite of new tools called Vine Messages

Vine Messages is a new private messaging system that sits within the Vine App ecosystem. If you want to use it, you'll need to download the Vine 2.0 app from the App Store for iOS, or from Google's Play store for Android devices

As soon as the update arrived, I took it for a test drive on my iPhone 5s. Here's what I found

Getting started

Messaging is a big deal for the folks at Vine (and Twitter). To see that, you need only install the latest update, which includes a roadblock prompting you to try the new feature. Read more...

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Tay Zonday's Tips for YouTube Success

Tay Zonday found success back in 2007 when he decided to experiment on a new video sharing platform called YouTube. His song "Chocolate Rain" became one of the earliest viral hits on the site, and remains among the top videos ever with more than 96 million views.

But don't rush to call him a one-hit wonder. His YouTube channel currently boasts more than 830,000 subscribers, and his "greatest hits" playlists does not have a single video with less than 1 million views.

See also: When YouTube Stars Make a Movie, Superfan Marketing Is Baked In

YouTube success aside, Zonday still struggles to figure out how his talents will translate off your computer screen. "Maybe myself and the world are still figuring out what to do with that uniqueness," he says in an interview with Mashable's Lamarr Wilson. "While I am widely known, widely recognized, [I'm] still looking for the perfect role for that young looking dude with a deep voice." Read more...

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Vine Releases Private Messaging Feature

Vine released a new private messaging feature Thursday.

A Twitter and Vine editor, Jason Mante, posted this video to his Vine account Thursday that shows an incoming message arrive on his phone through the app. Mante geo-tagged his location as "Vine HQ."

See also: Why Social Networks Are Crazy for Private Messaging

Vine users are currently able to leave comments on other videos, but there is no private messaging feature currently available. A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment

Vine co-founder, Colin Kroll, also posted this Vine video Wednesday. The video appears to show a new message icon, and includes an audio overlay that includes the words "sharing together." Read more...

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Ukraine to Get Its Own Social Network — Once the DDoS Attacks Stop

Ukraine may soon get its very own social network, Mashable has learned, but its debut is being delayed by ongoing DDoS attacks.

The social network, which will live at WeUA.info (slogan: "We live for Ukraine), was scheduled to go live Monday night, but has not been able to launch due to a sustained attempt to keep it offline.

See also: 9 Essential Questions About Ukraine, Answered

"We have not opened the website for the public yet, although we are already seeing very strong DDoS attacks," WeUA's founder, Bogdan Oliyarchuk, told Mashable via email. "We see deliberate attacks every day."

Oliyarchuk added that while it is difficult to track where the attacks are coming from, he has information that suggests the attacks are coming from Russia — and elsewhere in Ukraine Read more...

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No Surprise: Mark Zuckerberg to Keynote F8 Conference

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will keynote this year's F8 conference, the social network's major developer event slated for San Francisco at the end of March.

Facebook announced the keynote and an expanded conference agenda on Wednesday, which includes speakers from the company and its subsidiaries Instagram and Parse. The conference will be highly technical, with topics such as cross-platform apps and Facebook's server infrastructure on the schedule

See also: Where in the World Are Facebook's Developers?

Facebook will also have its Internet.org Innovation Lab at the conference, so attendees and press can preview some of the lab's new technology. The company announced the lab and a partnership with telecom giant Ericsson in February as part of its effort to bring Internet access to everyone in the world Read more...

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