New Tumblr update brings Facebook contact sync, new notification system

Tumblr yesterday rolled out updates for its iPhone and Android clients. The update adds more functionality to the version 3.0 update launched in June this year. While the 3.0 update saw the interface being reshuffled with gestures, larger icons, and a new photo viewer, besides many performance improvements, the current update allows you to sync the app with your contact list and Facebook. The new social network integration makes for faster searching of friends’ blogs, tag tracking, reblogs, along with the ability to sign in from within the app itself, as per a report by The Verge.

The new update builds on the long list of features in version 3.0 such as Spotify integration, offline functionality, tag searching and high-resolution images. Users can now send Fan Mail and use a new in-app notification system to be alerted of new events, besides having access to additional sharing options.

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Tumblr recently redesigned its mobile website too. This, along with the continued functionality and performance updates, points towards Tumblr adopting an increasingly mobile-centric focus to provide a complete Tumblr experience on mobile devices. However, the blog hosting service, bewilderingly, has still not released an app for the iPad.

Tumblr updates iPhone, Android app with even more functionality

Tumblr, as a company, has taken a stance on self-harm and has started blocking blogs that promote activities such as anorexia and bulimia (and other eating disorders), self mutilation and suicide. As a blog hosting service, Tumblr recognised that there are blogs on virtually every subject that is out there, but it decided that there are some topics that should not be promoted. Some of the topics that they have come down heavily in the past are spam and identity theft. In February, it stated in a company blog post that their Content Policy had not previously banned self harm promoting websites.

Currently, any blogs that currently promote any form of self-harm have a week’s grace period to edit or download their content. Furthermore, Tumblr has said that it would start showing public service announcement-type messages when people search for tags that are a form of self-harm. For instance, if someone searches for the words “anorexia”, “bulimia”, “binge-purge” or other words relating to eating disorders, they would see a message along the lines of, “Eating disorders can cause serious health problems, and at their most severe can even be life-threatening. Please contact the [resource organization] at [helpline number] or [website].”

Tumblr has added the following to its Content Policy:
“Promotion and Glorification of Self-Harm: Don’t post content that actively promotes or glorifies self-harm. This includes content that urges or encourages readers to cut or injure themselves; embrace anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders; or commit suicide rather than, e.g., seeking counseling or treatment, or joining together in supportive conversation with those suffering or recovering from depression or other conditions. Dialogue about these behaviors is incredibly important and online communities can be extraordinarily helpful to people struggling with these difficult conditions. We aim to sustain Tumblr as a place that facilitates awareness, support and recovery, and to remove only those blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm.”