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Why Final Fantasy VII Remake’s VR mod is a ‘bad idea’ for gamers with motion sickness

A recent Final Fantasy VII Remake mod has made the game VR capable, but is that a good idea? (Image via Square Enix)

Thanks to a modder, Final Fantasy VII Remake players now have access to a VR mod called the “ultimate VR legs test.” The creator of the mod, Luke Ross, previously worked on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 VR mods, though Take-Two did not appreciate the gamer’s work and sent a DMCA notice.

While it can be an immersive way to experience Cloud Strife’s adventure, is this really such a good idea? VR motion sickness is incredibly discomforting, and even people who think they won’t be affected can wind up being miserable as a result of this particular mod.

This isn’t to say that the mod is terrible or that it’s a bad idea, not at all. It is, however, going to potentially be nausea-inducing for many gamers.

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Final Fantasy VII Remake’s VR mod is an interesting but potentially nauseating idea

The notion of action RPGs set in VR is an interesting one, at the very least. It’s a way to dive deep into a game like Final Fantasy VII Remake in a way that no other experience can match.

People experienced with VR may not have issues with this particular mod, but anyone who experiences remote motion sickness will want to be aware of what they could be getting into. Several videos are available on YouTube showing the Final Fantasy VII Remake in VR, filled with constant shaky camera motions.

The writer of this piece watched several but could not get through them. The constant motion, combined with the combat and cutscenes, was nearly unbearable. A word of caution came from Luke Ross, the creator of the VR mod.

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He warned that it would “hit you with the force of a speeding steel train.” Even experienced VR gamers might have some issues playing it, but that’s not guaranteed. It’s incredibly immersive to walk into the Reactor areas and be able to look up at the skyline and see the world.

Combat was already fast and furious in Final Fantasy VII Remake, but in VR, it’s going to be multiplied by a fairly serious amount. The creator of the VR mod even talked about it briefly in a post online.

“Sooo…Tifa! And cities in the sky! And combat where the camera moves so fast that it feels like you’re riding the Formula Rossa!! What’s not to like?

It’s not just combat that would be difficult to watch either. The various driving cutscenes and events would be potentially very nauseating to endure. There’s the motorcycle stage and any cutscene that involves flipping, jumping, or quick combat.

The cutscenes and fights involving Tifa and Barret while beneath Midgar could be a horrifying experience. All that jumping, leaping, and dodging while in VR, in addition to the shaky cam from the VR headset? The writer of this piece had to take breaks when watching video clips from other YouTubers.

The wild, savage way that Cloud swings the Buster Sword when combined with constant camera motions can be incredibly taxing to watch, and gamers with motion sickness in or outside of Virtual Reality should definitely be careful before considering this particular mod for their PC version of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

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Australia

Council scopes out new Brisbane underground with suburban stations

Council scopes out new Brisbane underground with suburban stations

“The business case speaks about a 160km/hr train at 24 trains per hour.”

Wines said the faster trains would not allow for stops at McDowall and Stafford, however there would be a 750-space park-and-ride at Bridgeman Downs and another 175 spaces at Everton Park.

There would be an underground rail station at Chermside if a proposed 9.5km rail corridor from Exhibition line to Carseldine was approved. The red dotted line is the proposed underground rail line. The red full line is a new rail line on the ground from Carseldine to Strathpine.

There would be an underground rail station at Chermside if a proposed 9.5km rail corridor from Exhibition line to Carseldine was approved. The red dotted line is the proposed underground rail line. The red full line is a new rail line on the ground from Carseldine to Strathpine.Credit:North West Transportation Corridor August 2022.

Rail: Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow on Friday said the latest proposal out of the business case covered the “missing link” in the network that would also build capacity elsewhere.

“It will allow fast rail and it will allow rail services to support the new rail line from Beerwah to Maroochydore,” Dow said.

“Without it, the [rail] network doesn’t have enough capacity. It provides a way of getting trains quickly from Brisbane and up to Strathpine and on to the Sunshine Coast.”

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The business case outlines the potential for “eight to 12 additional trains in the peak hour, in addition to the 24 trains per hour service pattern by 2041”.

While Transport Minister Mark Bailey initially dismissed the motorway proposal as “feeble,” Wines called on him to be more open to a rail upgrade.

However, Bailey instead repeated his criticism of the council for considering issues outside of its control, with limited consultation, and without a way to pay for any of the options.

He said by not working with the government on the business case the council had “skewed its outcomes”.

“Robert Dow has made a much more considered and balanced contribution on this matter than the Brisbane City Council who have ignored public feedback in their business case which overwhelmingly wanted better public transport not new tollways and motorways,” Bailey told BrisbaneTimes.

“And Mr Dow did so free of charge and didn’t waste $10 million of taxpayer’s funds as the LNP have done with this business case.”

Bailey said the state government was focussed on delivering the Cross River Rail project, and would also look at “further enhancement of rail services between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane” as part of planning for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Member for Aspley Bart Mellish welcomed the council’s decision not to develop the corridor.

“There has been a lot of local opposition to it understandably for the reasons they identified, with its environmental values, and it is now pretty well built-up,” the Labor MP said.

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“People have bought these big large blocks out there and don’t want a motorway coming through their suburbs.”

Mellish agreed there should be a debate about long-term solutions to traffic congestion on Brisbane’s north-side.

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Technology

Spellslingers Is A New Card Game From Magic The Gathering Series Available Now

Spellslingers Is A New Card Game From Magic The Gathering Series Available Now

Featuring iconic characters from the Magic The Gathering universe, Spellslingers is a brand new game with unique gameplay that will offer a different yet familiar card battle experience.

Today, Wizards of the Coast officially unveiled the soft launch of Spellslingers, a new spin-off from the Magic The Gathering franchise on PC and mobile. This new Magic The Gathering entry is still a card-based PvP game, but with quite a different set of rules compared to what you have experienced in the Magic The Gathering Arena.

Spellslingers introduces a hero-based deck system, where unlocking every new character, known as Spellslingers, will result in access to 30 new cards based on the abilities of the unlocked Spellslinger.

DUALSHOCKERS VIDEO OF THE DAY

Currently, the game features 16 playable Spellslingers across all platforms, but it’s yet to be seen whether the roster will be expanded in the future. No announcement for extra heroes has been made bat this time.

The overall gameplay experience is similar to Blizzard’s Hearthstone, which makes it a familiar game for veteran Hearthstone fans, but with the aesthetics of a Magic The Gathering game. That being said, you are going to face many challenges to find the deck that will suit your playstyle best.

Aside from its PvP game mode which is the core of Spellslingers, the game also features a Team section, where players can either form or join a team to share resources and decks, or trade cards for getting the necessary materials to build new cards. This already sounds like the Clan feature in Clash Royale, but there won’t be any team-based battles in Spellslingers.

Bear in mind that Spellslingers has already been available for a limited amount of players, but today’s soft launch brings a polished version of the game with full content for players on all platforms. You can download the game for free from the iOS App Store, Google Play, or Steam.

You already have a long road ahead to grind for unlocking all the playable Spellslingers. So, if you feel like this is the game you are going to play for a long time, it’s better to start now!

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Australia

Chief law officer warns coercive control ‘widespread problem’ in Australia

Chief law officer warns coercive control 'widespread problem' in Australia

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has warned the scourge of coercive control is a widespread problem throughout the nation as he begins work with his state and territory counterparts to establish a nationally consistent response to the psychological abuse.

The nation’s chief law officers met on Friday to agree to a draft statement of principles, which will now go out for consultation, on the best way to recognize the abusive pattern of behavior which is steadily gathering more attention.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has warned coercive control is a widespread problem.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has warned coercive control is a widespread problem.Credit:eddie jim

They also agreed to adopt more consistent measures to allow the criminal justice system to better respond to sexual assault in response to calls by former Australian of the Year Grace Tame.

Coercive control is generally recognized as an abusive pattern of behavior which includes controlling what someone wears, limiting access to money, tracking their location, controlling whom they see, and persistent texting. It can be a precursor to physical violence.

The awareness of coercive control has grown significantly since the murder of Hannah Clarke and her three young children by her estranged husband, Rowan Baxter, in Brisbane in 2020. While Baxter had not previously been physically violent, he had subjected Clarke to escalating forms of controlling and possessive behaviour.

Clarke’s father, Lloyd, and his wife, Sue, have spearheaded a campaign to criminalize coercive control in Queensland, this week saying it was “fantastic” that the issue was being discussed at a national level because it was poorly understood.

Dreyfus said on Saturday that the tragic death of Clarke and her children was “absolutely a catalyst” for action to be taken on the development of a nationally consistent approach.

“But sadly, no one should think that the tragedy that occurred with Hannah Clarke and her children was an isolated incident and that’s, of course, why we are taking this collective action,” he said.

“It’s not, sadly, an isolated incident. We know that coercive control is a widespread problem. We know that we need to do more to recognize this problem.”

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Technology

GeForce Now brings thunder with Rumbleverse

GeForce Now brings thunder with Rumbleverse

GeForce Now is bringing a day-one release to the cloud service called Rumbleverse, a battle royale with a slight twist. On top of that, Worms Crazy Golf is finally available on Amazon Luna.

Bandwidth is 9to5Google’s weekly look at the cloud gaming market beyond Google’s own Stadia platform. Every Friday, we take a look at the biggest news regarding services such as Nvidia GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, PlayStation Now, and Xbox Game Pass, among others. Come back weekly, and don’t forget to check out Stadia Changelog, our weekly roundup of everything new on Stadia.

Rumbleverse on GeForce Now

GeForce Now has a very interesting lineup this week, including a new game from Epic Games Publishing that takes a lot of cues from Fortnite. The new game is called Rumbleverse, and it combines battle royale with melee combat in a very goofy way.

Rather than running around a huge playing field trying to find ranged weapons and stake out until you see someone running out in the open, Rumbleverse has you seeking others out to take them on, hand-to-hand. There are still weapons – stop signs, baseball bats, and the like – that you can ruin people’s day with, but you need to be ready to get down and dirty. Rumbleverse is a day-one release on GeForce Now, which means once you get it from Epic Games, you can play it in the cloud on GFN.

Besides Rumbleverse, there are a few other games worth mentioning from GeForce Now:

Worms Crazy Golf on Amazon Luna

A couple of weeks ago, Amazon Luna announced this month’s lineup with games like Dusk and Worms Crazy Golf, but without release dates. Well, Dusk came last week to Luna and this week brings Worms Crazy Golf.

In classic Worms style, Worms Crazy Golf has a very sinister twist – around every corner is violence, with explosions and setbacks to knock you off your game. Worms Crazy Golf is a fun addition to Amazon Luna’s Family Channel. The game is available now to play.

Boosteroid gets Northgard

Boosteroid is one of the lesser-known game streaming services out there, especially in the US. Of course, that doesn’t mean the service has nothing to offer. In fact, it houses some hard-to-find games for streaming.

Besides that, Boosteroid has a fun offering this week – Northgard. Northgard is a game set in the Viking-era north. The game is about making your claim to the land, sailing exploration ships, and defeating the threats that stop you from claiming and setting Northgard. Northgard is available now to play on Boosteroid.

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Australia

Why hundreds of people are tripping and falling near trains

Hundreds of melbourne commuters are tripping and falling near trains because they’re glued to their mobile phones.

CCTV on the rail network has captured near-misses and examples of inattention near oncoming trains.

In one shocking video, a distracted commuter stumbled over the yellow line before he fell off the platform and onto the track.

Hundreds of Melbourne commuters are tripping and falling near trains because they're glued to their mobile phones.
Hundreds of Melbourne commuters are tripping and falling near trains because they’re glued to their mobile phones. (9News)

While the train managed to stop in time, incidents such as this have prompted a warning from Metro Trains.

“Don’t take risks around the rail network, be safe,” CEO Raymond O’Flaherty said.

CCTV captured another incident at the Prahran Station level crossing where a pedestrian bypassed the boom games, waited for the train pass, and then walked to the other side.

According to new data, there were more than 380 slips, trips and falls across the city’s train network in the past year.

More than half of those resulted in injuries and trespassing was the most common safety risk.

Every mishap has the potential to cripple the entire network and potentially affect about 50,000 commuters.

Safety concerns also arise when commuters are rushing to get the train.

One woman had a misstep and fell in a rush to catch a city train.

She became wedged in the gap between the platform and the train but fortunately she was pulled to safety by safety workers

CCTV captured another incident at the Prahran Station level crossing where a pedestrian bypassed the boom games, waited for the train pass and walked to the other side.
CCTV captured another incident at the Prahran Station level crossing where a pedestrian bypassed the boom games, waited for the train pass and walked to the other side. (9News)

Station delivery manager Chloe Smith said railway workers “see a lot of injuries that are absolutely avoidable.”

“We have more services than we’ve ever had before – so if you don’t catch that train, please don’t run for it,” Smith said.

“There will be another one coming really soon.”

The vision has been released as part of Rail Safety Week, as a part of a range of measures to try and curb dangerous behaviour.

In addition to this, the government is building extra safety fencing to prevent trespassing.

Public transport, roads and road safety minister Ben Carroll urged commuters to be careful.

“Catch the trains safely, be mindful of others,” Carroll said.

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Technology

Spider-Man Remastered PC launched: Price, features

spiderman, spider-man, spider man, spider-man remastered pc,

After a long wait time, Spider-Man fans can finally enjoy Sony’s iconic Spider-man game from 2018 on PC. The remastered version that now comes to windows users can be grabbed from Steam as well as the Epic Games Store for Rs 3,999.

But before you go and get your hands on Spider-Man Remastered PC, here are five interesting facts about the game you should know about.

Spider-Man Remastered PC is technically the third reiteration of the game

With Sony’s original 2018 game remastered already in 2020 for the Sony PS5, complete with a new face for Peter Parker, the new Spider-man Remastered PC version is technically the third version of the game players will be able to get their hands on, essentially a remaster of the already remastered game.

More graphical controls

With advanced shadow, texture filtering options and full Ray-Tracing support among a number of other visual settings, Spider-Man Remastered PC allows PC gamers to fine-tune graphics according to their requirements and go all out if they have a top-end Graphics Card and other necessary system requirements.

Support for ultrawide monitors, multi-monitor setups

The game will also offer full support for ultrawide monitors including those with 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios. People with ultrawide monitors will be able to take advantage of the increased on-screen real estate and have a more immersive experience and will be able to see more of Spider-man’s environment during gameplay. Those using a triple monitor setup will also be able to make the most of the game with Nvidia’s Surround multi-monitor setup.

Low minimum requirements

Despite the graphical prowess that the game brings on top-end PCs, some users with older machines and dated internals will also be able to play the game.

As can be seen in the official spec-requirements of the title, Spider-man remastered will run fine on a system with a 4th-gen Intel i3 processor, an Nvidia GTX 950 GPU and 8GB RAM with 75GB HDD storage, albeit at 720p 30fps . While it certainly won’t be the best experience, the fact that the game is playable on older hardware is great.

Support for Steam Deck

The Steam Deck isn’t officially available in India, but if you reside in the US or have one brought to you from the states, you’ll be glad to know that Spider-Man Remastered PC is officially supported by the Steam Deck hand- held console and users will be able to enjoy the game on it without any ports or modifications needed.

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Australia

Inside the Liberal Party’s debate on how to win back Chinese-Australians and teal voters

Inside the Liberal Party's debate on how to win back Chinese-Australians and teal voters

When Keith Wolahan realized something was wrong, his campaign team decided to make 2,500 phone calls to Chinese-Australians in his electorate. What came back was toxic.

Many voters of Chinese heritage in the seat of Menzies, in Melbourne’s east, detested the Morrison government’s language on the prospect of war. Some felt unsafe in the community. Others worried they would never see their family in China again.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton is dealing with a dual debate within his party room on how to win back Chinese-Australians and teal voters.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton is dealing with a dual debate within his party room on how to win back Chinese-Australians and teal voters.Credit:James Brickwood

For weeks, then-prime minister Scott Morrison and defense minister Peter Dutton had been dialing up the rhetoric on China, claiming Anthony Albanese would “appease” Beijing in government.

With Menzies, which includes the suburbs of Doncaster, Box Hill North and Templestowe and has the third-highest percentage of Chinese-Australian residents in the country at 27 per cent, Wolahan knew he would be up against it. On May 21, he just held on to the seat for the Liberals, withstanding a 6.3 per cent swing.

In the seat next door, Chisholm, sitting Liberal MP Gladys Liu – the first Chinese-Australian female elected to the House of Representatives – was not so lucky, losing to Labor after a 6.9 per cent swing.

And in most other seats across the country there was a similar story. While some seats bucked the trend, there was generally an above-average swing against the Liberals in electorates with a high percentage of Chinese-Australians.

As former federal director Brian Loughnane and opposition frontbencher Jane Hume lead the review into the Liberal campaign, members are locked in a dual debate about how to win back Chinese-Australians, as well as voters who fled the party for one of the “teal” independents.

For many in the party, changing their stance on China would represent junking the Turnbull and Morrison governments’ biggest achievements: enacting landmark foreign interference laws; banning Chinese telco Huawei from the 5G network; and calling out Beijing’s human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

With the Coalition largely failing to advance any major economic reforms while in government, they believe the reforms to national security laws and reorienting the China relationship to a more realistic footing are its legacy.

Despite a swing against the Liberals, Keith Wolahan was elected MP for Menzies at the May election

Despite a swing against the Liberals, Keith Wolahan was elected MP for Menzies at the May election Credit:Jason South

Wolahan, a former Army captain, doesn’t believe the Liberals should change any of their policies on China. But he does think the party needs to do a much better job of differentiating the Chinese Communist Party from Chinese-Australians.

“A lesson from the election is that language matters. Our disagreements are with the Chinese regime, not the Chinese people,” he says.

“The more Chinese Australians hear us make that distinction, the better. But it would be counter to our national interest if we were to conclude that there was something wrong with the foreign or national security policies of the Morrison or Albanese governments.”

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Liberal Senator James Paterson, the opposition’s spokesperson for countering foreign interference and a long-time critic of the CCP, echoed a similar line on the ABC’s Q&A show on Thursday night.

“We have to be very careful about our language,” he said. “We have to be very clear that we are saying that our dispute and our disagreement is with the Chinese Communist Party or the government of China. It is not with the Chinese people.”

But there are also questions about whether the Liberal Party’s grassroots engagement with multicultural communities is up to scratch, and whether some members are using the China angle as an excuse for their own lackluster campaigns.

When Liberal members gathered for their party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, August 2, opposition frontbencher Alan Tudge told his colleagues that China was a significant reason for the 7.3 per cent swing to Labor in his seat of Aston at the election.

Some of Tudge’s colleagues questioned his intervention. More than 50 per cent of voters in his Melbourne electorate are women and the former education minister spent the campaign trying to avoid journalists over questions about an affair he had with a former media advisor in 2017.

After Tudge’s comments, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton asked Liberal MP David Coleman to offer his thoughts to the party room. Coleman is one of the MPs who withstood the tide; his Sydney seat of Banks has about twice as many Chinese-Australians as Aston but he only suffered a 3 per cent swing.

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Coleman told the party room the main issue wasn’t the Morrison government’s tone but its policies. And given the policies were correct, he said “we can’t do anything about it” in a macro sense.

But Coleman said Labor was now in government and rightly adopting the same policies, so to an extent the situation would improve over time.

Instead of laboring on what divides them, Coleman suggested that Liberal MPs should focus on the issues that would bring back pro-business Chinese-Australians.

A similar debate is going on inside the party on how to bring back inner-city voters who left the party for independents, the Greens and Labor.

It is here where issues such as climate change, integrity and the treatment of women were a disaster for the party at the election.

While accepting that some of these issues need to be addressed, Dutton has been telling colleagues that the party should also take an ambitious package of economic reforms to the next election. According to the plan, this would focus the mind of traditional Liberal voters who saw no daylight between Morrison and Albanese on the economy.

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Some of the Liberals who were defeated by teal independents at the election had a phone hook-up on Tuesday night to begin discussing how to win the seats back. The call was organized by senior opposition frontbencher Paul Fletcher, who suffered a 12.3 per cent swing to an independent in his normally very safe seat of Bradfield.

It was very much a stocktake on the first steps that needed to be taken, including a realization of just how much they were outplayed in the ground game of analytics and campaigning.

They didn’t even discuss the policy changes that were needed to beat the teals.

After all, it is a long way back.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.

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Technology

Sodapoppin regrets not moving to Mixer in 2019

Sodapoppin regrets not moving to the Mixer streaming platform (Image via Sodapoppin/Instagram)

During a recent OTK livestream, popular Twitch streamer Thomas Chance “Sodapoppin” expressed his regrets for not moving to Microsoft’s Mixer when it was scouring platforms for talent.

Mixer gained immense popularity in 2019 and also signed massive exclusive deals with streaming phenomena Tyler “Ninja” and Michael “Shroud.”

Expressing his frustration, the Twitch streamer revealed that he missed out on an unbelievable amount of money that other streamers received for joining the interactive streaming platform. With that being said, Mixer’s acquisitions didn’t amount to much as it was shut down in 2020.

The streamer lamented nonetheless:

“I f**king wish I went to Mixer.“

Sodapoppin reveals why he is jealous of Ninja and Shroud for moving from Twitch to Mixer

Sodapoppin has been among the top Twitch streamers for over a decade, boasting over 8.8 million followers on the platform. This figure makes him the 10th biggest channel on the Amazon-owned medium, behind high-profile streamers such as Ninja, xQc, and Pokimane.

The 28-year-old is mainly known for his IRL and gaming streams, which include various top titles such as World of WarCraft.

Sodapoppin recently joined the One True King Twitch channel for a livestream of their new PC building service Starforge. However, during the August 11, 2022 broadcast, the Twitch powerhouse revealed why he was willing to ditch the purple platform for the now defunct Mixer in 2019.

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The streamer even explained why he was jealous of Ninja and Shroud, both of whom accrued a massive fortune in their deals with Mixer. Furthermore, following the platform’s downfall, both streamers were able to return to Twitch, much to Sodapoppin’s annoyance. The clip has already crossed over 63k views on Twitch alone.

Regretting his decision, the American streamer lamented:

“I f**king wish I went to Mixer, I’m so jealous. These f**k-sticks signed these contracts for tens of millions of dollars, and then they got to come back! They shut down, and they get to keep the f**king money.”

I have further added:

“Do you know how that feels, to like get a contract and be like ‘Hmm, morals?! And I keep getting f**ked! I’m just gonna start doing shady sh*t. It hurts. Goddammit. The Mixer deal, f**k man, I wish I’d signed that s**t, I really do.”

About Mixer

Emphasizing on interaction between streamers, viewers and low stream latency, the start-up was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. It quickly entered the limelight with incredible features such as faster-than-light technology and multiple highly synchronized feeds.

Due to its increasing prominence, many reckoned Mixers could dominate the streaming industry and compete against Twitch. However, that wasn’t the case as it egregiously failed to replicate its rival’s follower count.

Millions invested in securing top creators didn’t translate to significant viewership as their overall growth on the platform was painfully poor. Following much scrutiny, it was shut down by Microsoft in July 2020.

Edited by Sijo Samuel Paul

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Technology

3 New Privacy Features Coming to WhatsApp

whatsapp logo on corner of mobile phone screen

WhatsApp users have for long agonized over their online activity being advertised to other WhatsApp users without their consent. Meta seems to have heard you and updated its privacy features accordingly.

Starting August 2022, you won’t have to sneak out of a WhatsApp group at 2 AM in the hope that no one will notice. Here are the details.

WhatsApp to Introduce 3 New Privacy Features

WhatsApp has added new features, long demanded by users, that should help you keep your messages secure and enhance your privacy online.

1. Leave Groups Silently on WhatsApp

Starting later in August 2022, it will be possible to exit a WhatsApp group privately without alerting everyone in the group. Instead, only the admins will be notified.

This will definitely eliminate the drama or embarrassment that comes with leaving a group, and the inevitable DMs from people wanting to know why you abandoned them. If you are like this writer, who likes to leave a party quietly, this feature will be a welcome relief.

2. Choose Who Can See When You’re Online on WhatsApp

WhatsApp started by letting everyone see when you are online. Then, it made it possible to hide your online status from everyone. Then, it made it so that only people who are in your contacts list, and people you have messaged with before, could see you online.

Now WhatsApp will make it possible for you to pick and choose who can and can’t see when you are online. One can only hope that those among your friends and family that you haven’t white-listed into this exclusive club won’t take offense.

3. Screenshot Blocking For WhatsApp’s View Once Messages

View Once, or disappearing photos, is a feature that has become popular for a wide array of reasons, not the least of which is that it goes a long way in preventing revenge porn by jilted lovers who happen to have your private photos. However, there was always the risk that someone could screenshot the disappearing photo.


WhatsApp will now enable screenshot blocking for View Once messages for an added layer of protection. This feature is currently undergoing testing. WhatsApp is yet to announce when it will go live.

Why Has WhatsApp Rolled Out These Privacy Features?

According to a post on Meta Newsroom, these three new features on WhatsApp will give you more control with added interlocking layers of protection.

However, People Magazine reports that these changes are in part driven by a new WhatsApp global privacy report that found:

72% of people value being able to speak in an honest and unfiltered way, with 45% not being able to engage without doing so safely and 59% worried that their private messages will be shared without their knowledge or consent.

One also cannot underestimate the impact of increasing legal scrutiny of big tech by regulators and courts. The more secure the app can make itself, the more liability and negative publicity it avoids from future, undetermined, legal suits related to crime or abuses perpetrated on the app.

Also, WhatsApp prides itself on its end-to-end encryption, and it is surely aware of the need to mitigate the competitive threat from other platforms like Signal, which have very robust privacy protections as well.

Wait a Few Weeks to Use WhatsApp’s Latest Privacy Features

WhatsApp has pointed out that these features are still undergoing tests and are not yet live on the app, so do not be frustrated when you cannot find them.

We are willing to wait because these features will certainly improve your WhatsApp experience, not to mention safety.