7. Make the Most of Online Social Networking Apps

One of the reasons why online social networking services have become so incredibly popular around the world, allowing them to change the way people stay in touch and communicate with each other, is because access to these services is incredibly easy.

Available for free from the App Store are official apps from all of the major social networks that enable you to fully manage your online account, stay in touch with your online friends, and share photos, videos, or other content while you’re on the go.

Meanwhile, iOS 8 has Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo integration built in to several of the preinstalled apps. This means you can quickly create and publish app-specific content without actually launching a social networking app.

To begin using any of the popular online social networking services from your iPhone or iPad, you first must set up a free account with that service. This can be done either by visiting the service’s main website (such as www.facebook.com or www.twitter.com) on your primary computer or using Safari on your mobile device, or by clicking on the new account setup-related option in the official iOS mobile app for that service. Figure 7.1 shows the opening screen for the official Facebook app. From here, either sign in using your existing email and password related to your Facebook account, or tap on the Sign Up For Facebook option displayed near the bottom center of the screen.

FIGURE 7.1 The opening screen of the Facebook app enables you to set up a new account by tapping on the Sign Up For Facebook button.

After you’ve set up an account, enter your username and password in the social networking app on your iPhone or iPad.

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Caution

Many of the online social networking apps automatically tap in to the Location Services function of your iPhone or iPad and publish your location anytime you create a new posting to that service (or upload a new photo or video). To prevent this and protect your privacy, do not grant permission for the online social networking app to access your mobile device’s Location Services as you’re first setting it up.

Anytime thereafter, it’s possible to customize privacy-related settings for many apps by launching Settings and tapping on the Privacy option. Turn on or off the virtual switch associated with Facebook, Twitter, and other displayed online social networking apps (shown in Figure 7.2). Some services, such as Instagram, enable you to add your location to a posting, but only if you want to.

FIGURE 7.2 From the Privacy menu in Settings, you can determine whether Facebook and Twitter can automatically share your exact location whenever you publish content to that service.

Many people opt to leave Location Services turned on, but as they’re using a social networking service from their mobile device, they pay attention to when this feature is going to be utilized and opt to include or leave out their location when creating a new post or uploading content.

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Setting up account integration with iOS 8 (and many of the apps that come preinstalled on your iOS mobile device) must be done only once per account on each of your iOS mobile devices.

To set up this integration for each service, follow these steps:

1. Launch Settings from the Home screen.

2. Scroll down to the Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or Vimeo option that’s displayed as part of the main Settings menu. Tap on the app you want to configure.

3. Tap on the Username and Password option and enter the appropriate information (shown in Figure 7.3).

FIGURE 7.3 Add your existing Twitter account information to the Twitter submenu within Settings, and then tap Sign In to log in to your account. This enables iOS 8 and many apps to include a Share via Twitter option as part of the app’s Share menu.

4. Tap on the Sign In option.

5. If you haven’t already done so, tap on the Install button displayed next to the app logo to download and install the official app. Once the app is downloaded, you must sign in to the service from the app, and once again supply your account username and password (this time, while using the app).

6. When the app is installed, if applicable, tap on the Settings option below the app icon on the service-specific menu within Settings to customize specific features of the online social networking app.

7. Near the bottom of the service-specific menu within Settings, under the heading Allow These Apps To Use Your Account, turn on or off the virtual switches associated with specific apps. Your Calendar and Contacts apps can synch with your Facebook account if you allow them.

8. When applicable, tap on the Update Contacts button that’s also displayed on the service-specific menu within Settings. This enables your iPhone or iPad to access your online account and compare your online friends with the entries you already have in the Contacts app. When appropriate, the Contacts app pulls additional information from services such as Facebook and adds details to each Contacts entry. For example, when you do this for the Facebook app, Contacts adds Profile pictures, birthdays, and other information listed on the Facebook profile to your Contacts entry.

From the Share menu of many apps (shown in Figure 7.4), you can now publish new content directly to your compatible online social networking account. However, if you want to fully manage your account and interact directly with your online friends, you must download and install the official app for each other service on which you’re active. Find these apps by performing a search in the App Store or looking in the Social Networking category.

FIGURE 7.4 After you turn on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Vimeo integration, options for publishing content to these services appear in the Share menu of many compatible apps, including Photos.

Available by tapping the More icon found near the bottom of the official Facebook app on the iPhone, or in the top-left corner of the app’s screen on the iPad, is the Menu icon, as well as the Friend Request, Messenger, and Notifications icons.

Tap on the Menu icon to access the Facebook app’s main menu. From here (on the iPad), you can access your own Wall, read your news feed (which includes the status updates from your online friends), see a listing of events you’ve been invited to, manage your friends, and see which of your friends are close to your current location (based on their last check-in). On the iPhone, tap on the News Feed command icon that’s displayed in the bottom-left corner of the screen to read your News Feed.

From this main menu, a handful of other options for managing all aspects of your Facebook account are available. Meanwhile, near the top of the screen when viewing the News Feed screen, you’ll see the Status, Photo, and Check-In options.

When viewing your friends list in the official Facebook app, a green dot displayed to the right of an online friend’s name indicates that person is currently online and able to chat. A cell phone icon to the right of his name indicates he’s accessing Facebook from his mobile phone. If a time, such as 4m, for four minutes, appears with the phone icon, this tells you the last time they accessed Facebook from their mobile phone.

After tapping on a Facebook friend’s name to initiate or return to a chat, the Facebook Messenger app automatically launches and a chat window is displayed (shown in Figure 7.5). Text bubbles down the left side indicate what your friend types, while the text bubbles down the right side show what you’ve typed.

FIGURE 7.5 Participate in real-time text or audio-based chats with your Facebook friends via the Facebook Messenger app, which works on its own or with the official Facebook app.

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Tip

To initiate an Internet-based audio call with someone else via the Facebook Messenger app (shown in Figure 7.6), tap on the phone icon that’s displayed near the top of the screen when engaged in a text message–based conversion with someone.

FIGURE 7.6 In addition to sending/receiving text messages, video clips, audio clips and emoticons, Facebook Messenger enables you to participate in Skype-like voice calls via the Internet with your Facebook friends.

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To enter a new message, tap on the empty field to make the virtual keyboard appear, and type your message. To attach a photo/video clip to the message, tap on the photo icon, or to take a photo/video clip using your iPhone or iPad’s camera, tap on the camera icon. If you want to include an emoticon in the form of a Facebook sticker into your message, tap on the smiley face icon. Tap on the microphone icon to record and send an audio message. After you’ve composed your message, tap the Send button to send it to the other person.

Scroll down a bit to read your current News Feed. The postings are displayed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent or most recently commented-upon posts listed first. Just below the poster’s name is the time they posted it and their location. Along the bottom of each posting are three icons. Tap Like to “Like” the post. If you want to add a comment related to the update, tap the Comment icon. If you want to share the post with your friends on your own Facebook Wall, tap the Share icon.

When composing a tweet with the official Twitter app (shown in Figure 7.7), or by selecting the Twitter option from the Share menu of any compatible app, the Compose Tweet screen (iPhone) or window (iPad) is displayed. Use the virtual keyboard or the Dictation feature to compose an outgoing tweet to publish to your Twitter feed. It’s also possible to use Siri to compose and publish content to either Facebook or Twitter using voice commands.

FIGURE 7.7 Manage all aspects of your Twitter account, which include composing and sending tweets using the official Twitter app.

A tweet can be up to 140 characters in length. Aside from text, you can also attach a photo that’s taken using the iPhone or iPad’s built-in camera (or a photo that’s already stored on your mobile device), include a website URL, or add your exact location to the tweet.

To find and follow your real-life friends who are already active on Twitter, launch the Twitter app, tap on the Add Friends icon, and then use the Find People, Categories, or other Find Friends tools that are built in to the app. For example, if you tap on the Find Friends button, the app searches through your Contacts database and matches up email addresses in your Contacts entries with active Twitter members and enables you to follow those people by tapping on a Follow button that appears next to each Search result.

One nice feature of the official Twitter app is that you can manage multiple accounts and quickly switch between them. As you’re composing a tweet, if you have multiple accounts, simply tap on your Twitter username in the Compose Tweet screen/window, and you can choose from which of your accounts you want to send the tweet.

You can create or update your personal profile at any time from within the Twitter app. To do this, launch the app, tap on the Me option, and then tap on the gear-shaped icon. From the menu that appears, tap on Edit Profile. You can then change your profile photo, Twitter feed header, your name, the optional website URL you associate with your account, and your short (one-sentence) bio or description. Tap the Save button to save your changes.

If you want to access your YouTube account, watch YouTube videos, or upload your own YouTube videos from an iPhone or iPad, the easiest way to do this is using the official YouTube app. Alternatively, you can visit www.youtube.com from the Safari web browser.

The interface for the YouTube app is pretty straightforward. Tap the menu icon displayed near the top-left corner of the screen to sign in to the YouTube service using your established username and password, and then tap the Settings option to customize how the app functions.

Displayed under the From YouTube heading of the main menu, tap on the category for videos you’re interested in viewing. From the main YouTube screen, tap on the Search icon, and then within the Search field, enter any keyword to quickly find videos you might be interested in related to a certain topic.

When you tap on a video listing, what’s displayed on the screen (shown in Figure 7.8) is similar to what you’d see when accessing YouTube from your primary computer. This includes a video window in which the YouTube video plays. Tap on the video window to access onscreen controls to play or pause the video, view the time slider, and tap the Full Screen mode icon or the AirPlay icon.

FIGURE 7.8 The official YouTube app enables you to watch unlimited videos for free or manage a YouTube Channel and publish your own videos to share them with others.

Tap on a video’s About tab to view details about the YouTube channel on which the video was published and details about the video itself. You can utilize Like, Dislike, and Share icons, as well as a Subscribe button and Suggested Videos related to the one you’re watching.

The main menu of this app offers Home, Explore, Activity, and Profile options. To shoot and upload a video using the video camera and microphone built in to the iPhone or iPad, tap the movie camera icon displayed near the top-right corner of the screen.

To view videos from your online friends, tap the Home option and then scroll down. As you watch each video, tap on the Smiley Face icon to “like” a video, the Comment icon to write and publish a public comment, or the Share icon to share someone else’s Vine video with your online friends. Tap the More icon to reveal a submenu which offers options that enable you to Report This Post, Share This Post, or Cancel. You can also read the comments related to a video that have been posted by other people.

FIGURE 7.9 Snap or select a photo, crop it, and then add a special effects filter and/or border before publishing it on Instagram.

Instagram offers a fun and easy way to share with others moments of your life, in the form of snapshots taken using the camera that’s built in to your iOS mobile device (shown in Figure 7.10).

FIGURE 7.10 Instagram users can share individual photos and manage their online account using the official Instagram app.

The official LinkedIn app enables you to access your online account from anywhere using your iOS mobile device. A separate version of the app is available for the iPhone and iPad. Using the core LinkedIn service is free; however, various subscriptions are available as in-app purchases ($9.99 to $99.00 per month) that offer access to premium content and features.

Many of the most popular blog hosting services, including Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, Blogger.com, and Tumblr, have their own proprietary apps that enable you to create engaging content using text, photos, and video clips.

What’s great about blogging is that you can fully customize your content and you’re not constrained by having to stick to a particular format or length for each entry. Whether you’re creating and managing a personal blog to be shared with close friends and family or you operate a blog on behalf of your business, the official WordPress and Blogger apps, for example, enable you to create content, manage your account, and track traffic to your blog from virtually anywhere.