You Can Now Make Calls With Google Home For Free

Smart speakers can already respond to your voice commands to turn on your lights, play music, and answer trivia questions — and now, they can call your mom.

Allyson Laquian / BuzzFeed News

Google Home, a voice-activated smart speaker powered by artificial intelligence software called Google Assistant, is adding calls to its list of features.

Starting today, users with the $109 speaker can now say “Hey Google, call…” to dial mobile and landline numbers hands-free over Wi-Fi. Google Home can recognize the name of a contact in your address book, or a business like “nearest florist.” But beware — you can’t call 911 and other emergency services through Home.

Unlike Android users, whose contacts are synced with Google Contacts by default, iOS users will only be able to access their Google Contacts through Home. Home won’t be able to call numbers you’ve only saved to your iPhone. A Google spokesperson says the team is “working on allowing iOS users a more seamless experience soon.”

The device, which recently added support for multiple accounts and voice recognition, can also determine which “dad,” “mom,” or other common nickname you want to call based on your voice.

Unfortunately, if whoever you’re calling has caller ID, “Unknown” or “No Caller ID” will appear when a Google Home user rings. The company says that by the end of the year, you’ll have the option to display your own mobile number when you place calls, but Google did not offer details on how that would work. Signing up for Google Voice, however, will not be necessary.

Those with Google Voice or Project Fi accounts can already choose to have their number displayed to recipients in the app. The calling feature is only available to US and Canada customers for now, and Google has not specified whether calling will roll out to other countries.

An Amazon Echo Show

Allyson Laquian / BuzzFeed News

In May, Amazon rolled out Alexa Calling and Messaging, a similar Internet calling and text messaging feature for its own Echo smart speaker line. But although Google Home can call any phone number, you can only voice call other Alexa app or Echo users through Amazon's service. Despite that limitation, Amazon is continuing to promote its Echo smart speaker as a communication tool. A few months ago, the e-commerce giant unveiled the Echo Show, a new device with a small display and front facing camera designed for video chat.

Google and Amazon (and soon Apple with its upcoming Siri-powered HomePod speaker) are offering these features in attempt to win you over in the battle for your voice.

After reviewing both Google and Amazon’s offerings extensively, I’ve found Google Home’s voice authentication and multi-room audio capabilities are impressive, as well as its ability to answer queries (it’s powered by Google’s search engine, while Echo taps into Bing and Wolfram Alpha). But compared to the Amazon Echo, Home is slower to respond to commands and doesn’t have as much support for third-party devices and integrations.

In my testing, the Echo’s response time is much quicker, and Amazon also has a number of smart speakers customers can choose from at different price points, including the flagship Echo speaker, the more affordable Echo Dot that can connect to the home audio system of your choice, and the new Echo Show, which has a screen that makes it easier to see more information, like the weather and news, at once. As an added bonus for less tech-savvy folks, Amazon has a very robust customer service and support operation should anything go wrong with your new device.

If all this makes you think about getting a smart speaker, you may want to hold off for now: Google may be working on a next-generation version of Home with Wi-Fi mesh networking built-in, according to a report from The Information. Meanwhile, a smaller Echo with better sound quality is rumored to arrive later this year, and Apple’s music-focused $349 HomePod is slated to hit shelves in December.

View Video ›

Facebook: video.php

Quelle: <a href="You Can Now Make Calls With Google Home For Free“>BuzzFeed

Twitter Adds Algorithmically Curated Tweets By Topic To Its Explore Tab

Now you can view tweets sorted by topic, without having to follow anyone, right in Twitter's Explore tab.

The social platform released the new feature globally on iOS and Android Tuesday, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

Twitter's algorithms will show you these topics based on what they know about your interests. Eventually, the platform will give users more control over what they see, the spokesperson said.

The feature is one Twitter users have long requested. Importantly, it will give new and casual users a way to gain value from the platform without having to build a list of people to follow, a task that can be burdensome to those trying the platform out.

Here's what the new tweets sorted by category look like:

Quelle: <a href="Twitter Adds Algorithmically Curated Tweets By Topic To Its Explore Tab“>BuzzFeed

Uber Is Also Willing To Ban White Supremacists

Tim Gionet, left, and James Allsup, right, after their Uber driver kicked them out of her car outside the Washington Monument in Washington DC on Friday evening.

Baked Alaska / Via Twitter: @bakedalaska

Uber permanently banned white supremacist James Allsup from its ride-hail platform on Saturday after an Uber driver in Washington DC kicked him and alt-right leader Tim Gionet, better known as Baked Alaska on Twitter, out of their ride for allegedly making racist remarks. The decision makes Uber one of a handful of tech companies that denied service to groups or individuals associated with the violent white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

“Drivers always have the right to refuse service to riders who are disrespectful or make them feel unsafe, as the driver in this case rightly did,” Uber said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “We’ve reached out to the driver to make sure she’s okay, and express our support for her and how she handled this situation. The rider has been permanently removed from our platform.”

According to Uber, Allsup and Gionet were riding past the African American Museum in DC on Friday evening when their comments finally made their driver, an unidentified African-American woman, uncomfortable enough that she ended the ride and told the pair to leave. Gionet posted a video to Twitter in which he repeatedly asks the driver, “why are we racist?” The video ends shortly after the driver pulls away, leaving them standing beside the Washington Monument.

The exchange took place one day before the white supremacist group Unite the Right hosted a rally at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12. The rally turned violent, leaving one anti-racist protester dead and 19 others injured. Both Gionet and Allsup were reportedly scheduled to speak at the event, which Allsup later said he only attended in a media capacity. Neither immediately responded to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News. Allsup has since resigned his position as president of the College Republicans at Washington State University.

“The events surrounding the white supremacist rally in the City of Charlottesville are deeply disturbing and tragic,” said Uber in a statement. “We stand against this hate, violence, and discrimination.”

After talking with Gionet and Allsup’s Uber driver on Saturday morning, Uber decided to permanently ban Allsup, who tweeted about it Saturday afternoon. Uber said while it did initially issue Allsup an automatic refund after he filed a complaint, the driver was paid in full for the ride.

Meanwhile, also on Saturday, the company shared the following note with drivers in the Charlottesville area, warning them that a State of Emergency had been declared following violent clashes, and reminding them of their “right to feel safe and respected when you use our platform.”

Here’s the email in full:

Uber

In the aftermath of the violent protests, other tech companies have also pushed back when groups associated with the alt-right movement, including white supremacists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis, have used their services to promote hate speech and the encourage violence. On Sunday, the internet domain company GoDaddy refused to continue hosting the domain for a white supremacist website called The Daily Stormer. The Stormer re-registered with Google, only to be banned once again within hours. Smaller digital platforms, including the email newsletter service MailChimp and nascent chat app Discord, followed suit. But while these companies waited until at least 24 hours after the rally took place, gig economy companies like Uber and Airbnb that facilitate interactions between strangers in real life have to make these decisions much faster, or risk putting their users in real danger.

Before the rallies, Airbnb decided to ban known white supremacists from its site, prohibiting some — including the well-known neo-Nazi Richard Spencer — from booking a place to stay at Charlottesville via the platform.

“Earlier this month, we learned that some people were organizing to stay in and hold a series of after parties at several Airbnb listings while in town to attend this terrible event,” said CEO Brian Chesky in a statement released Monday. “When we see people pursuing behavior on the platform that would be antithetical to the Airbnb Community Commitment, we take appropriate action. In this case, last week, we removed these people from Airbnb.”

After a number of Airbnb guests publicly shared stories of racial discrimination in 2016, causing a public relations crisis for the company, Airbnb acknowledged that racist hosts posed a threat to users, and set to work devising a system to prevent them from joining the platform. Both guests and hosts now have to pledge not to harass or discriminate on Airbnb, known as the Airbnb community commitment, in order to use the site.

There are a number of scheduled rallies supporting the broader alt-right movement scheduled for the coming weeks, including March on Google events protesting the firing of James Damore to be held in nine cities, as well as neo-Nazi events in San Francisco and Berkeley. Chesky said in his statement that Airbnb will “continue to do all we can to enforce our community commitment.”

But not all tech companies have made statements as strong as Airbnb’s. While Facebook and Twitter have policed doxxing and hate speech on their platforms since Saturday, neither will change their current policies around safety and speech on the platform.

Quelle: <a href="Uber Is Also Willing To Ban White Supremacists“>BuzzFeed

Uber Shareholders Defend Former CEO And Ask Rebel Investor To Leave Board

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

A group of Uber Technologies shareholders have come to the defense of the company and and its former CEO Travis Kalanick a day after one of Uber's largest investors sued Kalanick for fraud.

On Friday, early Uber investor Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital and two other shareholders, Ron Burkle of the private equity outfit Yucaipa Companies and Adam Leber of the entertainment management firm Maverick, wrote that they were “distressed” to learn of Benchmark's suit against Kalanick. Benchmark, which holds a seat on Uber's board, sued Kalanick on Thursday for withholding important company information and stacking the company's board to create a more favorable corporate governance structure for himself. Axios was first to report on the letter.

“Naturally, we share your concerns about the problems that the Company has confronted in recent months, but we are greatly concerned about the tactics employed by Benchmark to address them, which strike us as ethically dubious and, critically, value-destructive rather than value enhancing,” wrote Pishervar and his two co-signers in a letter sent to other investors and the media.

Benchmark's lawsuit sent another shockwave through Uber's management team and board after a year that has been plagued by scandals and the resignation of its leader Kalanick. It is incredibly rare for a major shareholder to sue one of its portfolio companies, especially one that is valued in the billions of dollars.

In their letter, the shareholders ask that Benchmark step down from the board and divest from the company so that it ceases to have board appointment powers. They also note that they have investors lined up to acquire 75% of Benchmark's current position, which is currently near $9 billion at Uber's current $69 billion valuation, if they are willing to withdraw their lawsuit.

Benchmark led an $11 million round in Uber in early 2011, and today holds about 13% of the company's stock — or 20% of its total voting power — according to its lawsuit filed yesterday.

A spokesperson for Benchmark could not be immediately reached for comment. An Uber spokesperson declined to comment.

Pishevar and his co-signers encouraged other shareholders to sign on to show their support.

“Even less so your escalation of this fratricidal course – notwithstanding Mr. Kalanick's resignation – through your recent lawsuit, which we fear will cost the company public goodwill, interfere with fundraising and impede the critical search for a new, world-class Chief Executive Officer,” he wrote. “Benchmark has used false allegations from lawsuits like Waymo as a matter of fact and this and many actions has crossed the fiduciary line.”

As BuzzFeed News learned earlier, the company has called for an emergency board meeting on Friday to discuss the Benchmark lawsuit. Pishevar, Burkle, and Leber asked in their letter for the company to take a symbolic vote on their proposals and to show support for Kalanick.

Quelle: <a href="Uber Shareholders Defend Former CEO And Ask Rebel Investor To Leave Board“>BuzzFeed

"This Is Just Like GamerGate": How The Pro-Trump Media Turned James Damore Into A Hero Overnight

Discord

A week ago, James Damore was anonymous. Now, the Google engineer who lost his job after he wrote a viral anti-diversity screed has become an icon of the alt-right, with more than 40,000 Twitter followers (literally overnight) and a dedicated online constituency.

This didn't happen by accident: Damore's swift lionization as a casualty of both unchecked social justice warring and an unregulated Big Tech monopoly that silences dissenting voices is the work of a well-oiled pro-Trump media machine, one that's able to instantly bring its brand of digital insurgency to any skirmish. And in the case of Google, and Silicon Valley as a whole, the New Right is digging in for a long, hard fight with Damore at the center.

According to multiple self-proclaimed leaders of the New Right, the Damore fiasco isn't just this week's latest outrage, but a tentpole moment in the larger online culture wars.

Silicon Valley offers a perfect target. For years, anti-social justice trolls and right-wing media personalities have railed against the tech industry for censoring their viewpoints and blocking them from services. And in recent months, the battle has intensified. BuzzFeed News reported recently that online payments and crowdfunding companies have “banned or hobbled the accounts of several prominent people and groups that promote far-right politics.” Last week, YouTube announced it would put extremist content “behind an interstitial warning” that prevents them from being “monetised, recommended or eligible for comments or user endorsements.” And the pro-Trump crowd has attempted to counter with their own platforms — a movement the New York Times called “Alt-Tech.”

Andrew Torba, CEO of the free speech social network, Gab, discusses platform censorship in a post on the site on August 11.

“This is just like GamerGate and it will play out just the same way,” Milo Yiannopoulos told BuzzFeed News. “Frothing outrage from the Left, joyful victory for the libertarian Right, and a public left even more skeptical than before about the liberal institutions who presume to rule over them: the media, the academy, Hollywood, and of course Silicon Valley.” Yiannopoulos argues that the Google incident is just the latest blow to the progressive left, which he claims is dying.

And according to the New Right, the fight has just begun. In an email to BuzzFeed News, Chuck Johnson — a former freelance journalist who has reportedly worked with the Trump transition team and now owns the right-wing crowdfunding site WeSearchr, alleges that he's working with supporters to surveil and undermine Silicon Valley “until either the companies change or go under.”

“The five Silicon Valley monopolies have been behaving illegally on hiring and firing decisions for years, and it is now coming to a head. The no platforming has continued capriciously and vindictively for years, and we are now fighting back,” Johnson wrote.

The battles, it seems, are forthcoming. Trump Twitter personality Jack Posobiec has organized a “March On Google” slated for Saturday August 19 at Google campuses across the US. And New Right leader Mike Cernovich is planning an equally confrontational approach.

“If you ban us from Twitter, we're going to chain ourselves to the front door at Their offices. If YouTube puts me in their video ghetto, I will show up at the CEO's house. Don't worry, it'll be perfectly legal — we'll just hold signs,” Cernovich told BuzzFeed News of his plans for what he is calling the New Right's newfound activism.

But every major New Right movement needs a leader. Here's how Damore went from engineer to hero overnight.

Multiple sources told BuzzFeed News that Chuck Johnson first approached Damore.

Peter Duke

Once Google fired Damore, Johnson approached him and offered to help with his media strategy. Within minutes, Johnson helped set up a crowdfunding page for Damore on Wesearchr. In four days, it has raised over $40,000 of its $60,000 goal.

WeSearchr.com

Soon after, Johnson told BuzzFeed News he persuaded Damore to bypass traditional media — he reportedly had offers to speak to multiple cable and TV networks — and give his first interview to pro-Trump YouTube star, Stefan Molyneux.

“I no longer believe in PR that starts with the lying media first,” Johnson told BuzzFeed News of the interview decision. “James is obviously brilliant and should be allowed to elaborate on his views on camera.”

Bypassing traditional media for a longform video interview is a tried and true pro-Trump media strategy.

In general, the pro-Trump media believes in unedited interviews, which they argue are authentic and can't be edited to reflect bias.

Others in the pro-Trump media cite the Molyneux interview as a crucial move for Damore. “I think it indicated to our whole group that he was the real deal,” Posobiec told BuzzFeed News. Cernovich agreed that the decision to forego legacy news endeared him to the pro-Trump base.

“He's red pilled on the fourth generation media strategy,” Cernovich said. “You don't give the ratings and ad dollars to the the people who want to go out there and trip you up or demonize you.” Cernovich argued that the Molyneux interview allowed Damore to reach his target audience — which doesn't read, listen, or watch mainstream media.

Almost immediately, Damore's supporters gathered on social media around the hashtags “#GoogleMemo,” “#GoogleManifesto,” and “JeSuisJamesDamore” to voice their support and publicize the firing.

And then Breitbart and other pro-Trump media outlets immediately piled on with stories alleging to expose Google corporate culture as hostile toward conservative viewpoints.

Across pro-Trump message boards and Discord chatrooms, pro-Trump trolls quickly began throwing out anti-Google conspiracies and making the company a target of its vigilante investigations.

And then the memes started coming…

reddit.com

As the pro-Trump internet ramped up its campaign, some of its more prominent figures, including Milo Yiannopoulos, began singling out Google employees who supported Damore’s firing online.

As interest in Damore's cause kept growing, he gave a series of interviews to other anti-social justice and conservative personalities, including Canadian professor Jordan B. Peterson and Ben Shapiro.

Each interview upped his profile and provided more fodder to his supporters, who quickly began comparing his memo to Martin Luther's 95 Theses.

Next, Johnson enlisted photographer Peter Duke to come to the Bay Area and photograph Damore.

Duke was recently dubbed as the Annie Leibowitz of the Alt-Right by the New York Times and specializes in photos of pro-Trump/new media personalities. Duke took a series of photos of Damore on Thursday which were then used to start Damore's Twitter account.

Johnson and Duke then spread the word to other pro-Trump personalities that Damore was officially on Twitter.

“I was hanging out when I got a message from Peter about the photos and the account,” Cernovich told BuzzFeed News. “He had like127 twitter followers, and so I tweeted out that picture, and said this is Damore's real account. And it took off and went viral.”

Just as Damore's Twitter account took off, California congressman Dana Rohrabacher tweeted his concern about the Damore's firing, calling for an investigation in Congress.

Then Damore headed to Mountain view to stage a protest.

Two sources said that, on Johnson's advice, Damore and Duke headed to Google's Mountain View campus to allegedly crash the employee town hall meeting Google CEO Sundar Pichai had organized to discuss diversity issues at the company. Pichai was planning to address questions from employees about the memo, Damore's dismissal, and about company culture regarding politics.

Around this time, some of Google's internal communications leaked to major news outlets, including Wired. They included a number of the questions employees planned to ask the town hall. Coupled with fact that employees had been outed throughout the week by Vox Day and Yiannopoulos, Pichai cancelled the town hall.

“Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be 'outed' publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall,” Pichai wrote in a memo announcing the cancellation. “In recognition of Googlers’ concerns, we need to step back and create a better set of conditions for us to have the discussion.”

But the pro-Trump media took credit for the cancelled meeting, suggesting that Damore intimidated the company and CEO.

“I don't believe the cancellation was due to people being doxxed — all the information that was published was public. It's more that they knew Damore was gonna infiltrate and come up and try to go onstage to talk, and that it would be the perfect media spectacle,” Cernovich told BuzzFeed News. Cernovich and two other sources told BuzzFeed News that Damore's plan was to Periscope the Google town hall and force the company to address his concerns.

The cancelled town hall only exacerbated the online vitriol directed toward Google. Pro-Trump personalities like Posobiec railed against the company Thursday night, suggesting that Google was unwilling to have an open dialogue with Damore and his supporters. “It's like — wait — you guys are Google. You have all our data. You know everything about us. We can't shine any light on what your policies are?,” Posobiec said of the cancelled meeting. “Double standard.”

Now, the pro-Trump media say that Damore's newfound fame is indicative of a bigger movement — an all out protest against Silicon Valley.

To hear the pro-Trump personalities tell it, their protests have only just begun. As of today, anti-Google billboards at bus stops have popped up around California with phrases like “Goolag” and “search for diversity of thought somewhere else.”

“I think it'll be a wake up call to other tech companies to let us be,” Posobiec said. “We've pushed the fight into the mainstream now, and it's huge — I keep waiting for Trump to tweet about it.”

Quelle: <a href=""This Is Just Like GamerGate": How The Pro-Trump Media Turned James Damore Into A Hero Overnight“>BuzzFeed

Google Cancelled Its Meeting About The "Anti-Diversity Memo" Because Employees Got Doxxed

Google CEO Sundar Pichai

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has cancelled a Thursday all-hands meeting originally organized to discuss diversity issues in the aftermath of an “anti-diversity manifesto” that recently went viral within Google, and the firing of James Damore, the Google employee who wrote the document.

According to Recode, which first reported the news, Google employees expressed concern about online harassment after their questions for Pichai and names appeared on right-wing sites in advance of the scheduled meeting.

A Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “We’ll find a better way to help our employees connect and discuss these important issues further.”

Here is the full text of Pichai's memo to employees, which Google provided to BuzzFeed News:

“Dear Googlers,

“TL;DR Sorry for the late notice but we are going to cancel today’s Town Hall.

“We had hoped to have a frank, open discussion today as we always do to bring us together and move forward. But our Dory questions appeared externally this afternoon, and on some websites Googlers are now being named personally. Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be “outed” publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall.

“In recognition of Googlers’ concerns, we need to step back and create a better set of conditions for us to have the discussion. So in the coming days we will find several forums to gather and engage with Googlers, where people can feel comfortable to speak freely. We’ll share details soon.

“Over the past two days, I have had the chance to meet with so many people here, and I have read each of your emails carefully. The vast majority of you are very supportive of our decision. A smaller percentage of you wish we would do more. And some are worried that you cannot speak out at work freely. All of your voices and opinions matter…and I want to hear them.

“In the meantime, let’s not forget what unites us as a company — our desire to build great products for everyone that make a big difference in their lives. I have been in a few product discussions today and felt energized by the important things we are working on. We can, and will continue, to come together to do the very best for the people we serve.

“Stay tuned.”

4chan's /pol/ message board, known for doxxing people who don't agree with its extremist views, tweeted the names and Twitter handles of Google employees to be doxxed:

Milo Yiannopoulos did the same:

View Video ›

facebook.com

And the right-wing site Vox Populi published the names and job titles of people allegedly arguing for Damore to be fired.

James Damore appeared to be staging a small protest nearby Google headquarters, per his Twitter account, @Fired4Truth.

Quelle: <a href="Google Cancelled Its Meeting About The "Anti-Diversity Memo" Because Employees Got Doxxed“>BuzzFeed

11 Questions You Probably Have About The Sarahah App, Including WTF Is It?

Have you seen people strange turquoise screenshots of an app called Sarahah?

It's suddenly everywhere, and we have thE SCOOP.

1. How does Sarahah work?

Everyone gets their own personal webpage, on which others can anonymously write messages to them. Ideally positive ones. Like a personal suggestions/compliments box at a restaurant, but you know, for people.

2. Can you reply to the messages?

No, but according to Sarahaha's website, the company is “studying this option.”

3. Do you need an account to write someone a message?

Nope, anyone can post on your page (unless you make it private).

4. Couldn’t this be used for bullying?

UM, DUH.

5. Seriously, right? An anonymous thing where you can write to a person? Sounds bad.

Well, it says “Leave a constructive message :)” at the top of the text box… But yeah.

6. Is it really anonymous? Like if I tell someone “I wanna nuzzle your hog” they won’t know it’s me?

Yes. A few weeks ago, a rumor spread that a hack could reveal who said what, but that was false. Of course, as with any app or website, nothing is ever 100% secure. Is it possible some hackers could steal all the metadata? Sure.

7. Who made this?

Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq, a developer from Saudi Arabia. He told Mashable that his idea was originally for workers to leave anonymous feedback for their bosses. But then he realized that it could be interesting for anyone to use.

9. How did this app blow up?

It only entered the App Store in early June, but quickly became popular in Saudi Arabia, then spread to Canada and the U.S., and now it’s blowing up in India — all through word of mouth. There’s a sort of built-in impulse to want to share these messages, so people have been on Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. People love bragging! The anonymity makes sharing a compliment seem somehow less, well, obviously braggy. Like maybe you just want to thank whatever person out there said “your hair looks great!” but the only way to thank that person is to blast it out to all your followers.

10. Isn’t this just like CuriousCat or Formspring or YikYak?

CuriousCat and Formspring are more about asking questions – you could do this on Sarahah, but it’s implied that you’d give a statement not a question: “Your hair looks great!” instead of “what hairspray do you use?” And YikYak was more general.

But, yeah. Similar.

11. Should I actually make an account? Or is this just opening me up to bullying?

Look, I get it – you’re curious what people would say. Would someone profess their secret crush? Would you get compliments and validation and feel good? Or would someone say something small and petty like, “you really shouldn’t wear red, it’s not your color” that would tear you down and keep you up at night, fuming and questioning yourself.

The appeal is this tension. It’s Russian Roulette for your ego. Most likely you’ll get some pleasant comments, but only if you take the risk of getting that soul-crushing loaded chamber.

My opinion? Eh, do it. But more importantly: promise yourself you’ll only be nice to other people on there. You reap what you sow.

Quelle: <a href="11 Questions You Probably Have About The Sarahah App, Including WTF Is It?“>BuzzFeed

Snap’s Dancing Hot Dog Was The Highlight Of Its Earnings Call

Snapchat’s dancing hot dog was the star of its second quarter earnings call Thursday. The animated character, which you can bring to life with your phone’s camera while using the app, was deemed the “world’s first augmented reality superstar” by Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel in a call with analysts, where he also noted the hot dog has been viewed an astounding 1.5 billion times inside Snapchat.

For Snap, that was pretty much the end of the good news.

The rest of the report was fairly miserable. The company missed analyst revenue expectations, turning in $181.7 million vs. an expected $186.2 million. It missed on earning per share too, losing 16 cents vs. an expected loss of 14 cents. And it missed on user growth, reaching 173 million daily active users vs. an expected 175 million. After the call, its stock promptly dropped more than 16%.

Most notably, Snap’s user growth has slowed. As this tweet from Bloomberg’s Alex Barinka makes clear, Snap isn’t adding users at anywhere close to the same rate it was a year ago.

This slowing growth is a major problem for Snap as it takes on Facebook, a behemoth with 1.32 billion daily active users that dwarf Snap’s 173 million. Facebook has ruthlessly cloned Snap’s features over the course of the past year, which has coincided with the user growth slowdown. Instagram Stories, essentially a Snapchat clone, already has more than 250 million daily users.

In a move meant to reassure investors, Spiegel did say he and co-founder Bobby Murphy wouldn’t sell any Snap stock for the rest of the year. And Snap also released a new number stating that users under 25 spent more than 40 minutes daily inside the app, exceeding the 32 minutes a day users under 25 spend on Instagram. But these positive notes did little to salvage the day.

Still, people had fun on Twitter talking about the dancing hotdog.

Quelle: <a href="Snap’s Dancing Hot Dog Was The Highlight Of Its Earnings Call“>BuzzFeed