Facebook to stop 'Nearby Friends' and 'Weather alerts' soon; Here are all the details

Facebook will stop offering two features to its users - Facebook nearby friends and Facebook weather alerts. In a notification that has been sent by Facebook to users, the application has clearly mentioned that "Nearby Friends, Weather Alerts, Location History and Background Location are going away soon".

From May 31, 2022, Nearby Friends and Weather alerts will not be available on Facebook's application. Adding to it, the platform also says that information shared by users for these services will no longer be collected after May 31, 2022.

Users can access and download Location History until August 1, 2022, in the section called 'Access Your Information'. The meta-owned platform also says that it will delete any location history or background location information users have previously shared. However, Facebook will continue collecting location and other user data for other services it offers. It is important to note that Facebook has not disclosed the reason behind the discontinuation of these features.

Recently, Facebook has been facing a lot of pressure from several regularities around the world about the data collection practices it follows on its applications. Since Facebook is catering to a huge audience, greater than two billion users around the world, it is important that the application uses users' data with utmost precaution. However, over the past few years, more and more cases of Facebook's abuse of user data have come up. 

Facebook Messenger adds new shortcuts 

• @everyone: this shortcut will allow users to grab the attention of all the participants in a group chat. 
• /silent (available on Instagram as @silent): this shortcut will allow users to send a message that does not pop up as a notification for other members of the group, also called silent messages. 
• /pay: this shortcut will be available for users in the coming days and will allow them to send and receive money directly in one-to-one Messenger chats.    
• /gif: this feature will be available for iOS users in the coming days and will allow users to send a particular GIF by typing the shortcut on the screen, followed by the theme of the GIF. 
• /shrug & /tableflip: these shortcuts will allow users to share the old-school text-based tableflip emoticons, also called ASCII emoticons.