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Facebook app will soon display new content & allow comments even when you’re offline

Modern ironies: a metro or train journey is one of those occasions when you have some time to catch up on your Facebook feed, but you often have no data connection or a very intermittent one. The company is currently testing a couple of features that should help.

The first is caching posts that have been downloaded but not yet viewed. When you’re offline, the app will display these posts.

We look at all the previously downloaded stories present on your phone that you have not yet viewed, and rank them based on their relevance. We also factor in whether the images for the story are available. This way we can immediately display relevant stories you haven’t seen yet, instead of showing a spinner while you wait for new stories.

Second, it will allow you to comment on posts even when offline, storing your comments in the app and then uploading them once you’re back online.

There’s no indication on when we’ll see the new features, but the fact that Facebook is sharing them suggests that they are likely to be introduced sooner rather than later.

Via Engadget. Photo Dado Ruvic/Reuters.

YouTube offline viewing coming soon – but no details revealed

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The YouTube Creator blog reveals that offline video viewing will be launched in November, but doesn’t reveal any details.

We’re always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we’ll launch a new feature on YouTube’s mobile apps that will help you reach fans — even when they’re not connected to the Internet. This upcoming feature will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable. So your fans’ ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute … 
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