REAL Messenger is an app designed to help agents promote their listings and themselves.

Social media is table stakes now. But not all apps are created equal. Facebook is for friends. Instagram is for interests and LinkedIn is for work connections. So why shouldn’t real estate has its own social media platform that brings together a global community of agents, buyers, and sellers?

We’ve learned that there’s power in a platform to find what you’re looking for, to share, and to chat — opening doors and elevating your presence. We’ve watched how people become influencers with followers who devour every post. These influencers don’t have to pay to promote themselves, they’ve built their audience through content, personality, and what they stand for.

In contrast, real estate has become “pay-to-play,” restricting agents from showcasing their listings on well-known real estate platforms, unless they pay (a lot!) to promote them. Agents have lost control in the real estate process, while big proptech profits from agents’ hard-earned listings.

Social media meets real estate

Imagine a social media outlet just for real estate — one like Instagram or WhatsApp geared 100% to our industry. The audience is engaged in real estate. Agents connect to share information about listings with one another or potential buyers and sellers – and retain those connections. Agents can even share their knowledge of properties before they are listed publicly.

It’s now all possible with the REAL Messenger app, an incredibly fast social media platform for real estate agents to promote their listings and share their styles and specialties, as well as their sales history and approach. Integrated into the app is an easy chat feature that replaces the need for cold calls, excessive emails, and online ads that don’t yield much return on investment.

Giving agents back control

From the agents’ perspective, sites and apps like Zillow are taking listing information from MLS agreements, repackaging it to promote it on their sites, then selling the information back to the agents who owned it in the first place! Agents end up paying these sites expensive advertising fees. And while many agents use Instagram to let their followers know about their listings, they are not really targeting a real estate-specific audience. WhatsApp is also used for secure, data-encrypted conversations ensuring quick exchanges of information. But how can an agent build their business when they’re promoting to people who are not in the market? Our formidable team of developers created the best of all worlds for the world of real estate — it’s like Instagram with a secure chat feature similar to that of WhatsApp.

The REAL advantage

Self-branding and inbound marketing is built into REAL. Agents brand themselves by creating content that showcases their listings, providing information buyers will need, and sharing their successes with transactions. Agents use the app’s three-point rating system to describe their listing and other important characteristics.

Potential buyers can search for anything specific to their interests (i.e., a home with a patio, a garden, or a swimming pool) in particular zip codes. They can also browse by scrolling through the listings to find the hottest, most popular real estate properties in their areas. These potential buyers can follow agents whose posts resonate with their preferences and interests, expanding agents’ networks.

Can iPhones get hacked? What do you do if they are? And how can you secure them, once and for all? If these are questions that continually blow your mind – you’ve come to the right place to find the answers. In this article, we’ll guide you through some truly advanced iPhone security tips, from turning on 2FA to switching off auto-fill. No time to explain more – let’s get down to business!

1. Regularly install updates

Keep your iPhone updated. This simple action is necessary to get fixes for random bugs and access exciting new features. Apple takes the security of its clients very seriously, meaning many of its updates come with security patches. Keep installing them regularly and don’t give hackers a chance to target you or your personal information.  

If you’re not sure if your iPhone has all updates installed, then go to Settings > General > Software Update. If there is an update available, download and install it following the system prompts.

2. Enable Find My and Self-Destruct to protect your phone data

Here’s what you can do to keep your private data safe if someone steals your iPhone:

• Enable Find My on your iPhone as soon as you get the chance. The app allows you to track your phone using any device that has the app installed. Alternatively, you can remotely wipe your iPhone clean to protect personal data. To enable Find My, go to Settings > Apple ID > Find My, then switch on the Find My iPhone feature.

• An even more radical decision is to go nuclear. All it takes is ten failed attempts to log into your phone, and it will automatically erase all the data. Be careful: this feature might backfire, so make sure you back up your device regularly. If you still believe the risk is worth taking, go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode and move the toggle Erase Data.

3. Use password tricks

Everyone knows you need to set strong passwords to stay safe online, but that’s not the only strategy to protect your iPhone. You can also use iCloud Keychain to generate and store passwords. Don’t worry about forgetting them, though, as the service remembers passwords for you. To enable this feature, go to Settings and tap on your name. Then, choose iCloud > Keychain and switch the toggle on.

4. Activate two-factor authentication

This means hackers will have no chance of logging into your Apple services without you knowing. To enable this feature, go to Settings > Apple ID > Password & Security > Two-Factor Authentication.

5. Stay away from third-party apps and jailbreaking

Jailbreaking means allowing your iPhone to install apps and files from sources other than the Apple Store. Our advice: don’t do it. Once you decide to jailbreak your phone, leaking your personal data becomes so much easier. Any third-party app installed may breach your security. And if that’s not enough, jailbreaking your iPhone means your warranty becomes redundant.

6. Revoke location tracking permissions

Allowing apps to track your location might not seem like a high price to pay for the full set of features. But it actually means these apps have access to valuable information about yourself that you don’t want to leak. The apps with access to your location know the routes you prefer and the places you frequent.  

To change that, tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services. This is where you can review permissions for every installed app. Select those you consider untrustworthy and remove their permissions to track your location.

Cognitive computing is the use of computerized models to simulate the human thought process in complex situations where the answers may be ambiguous and uncertain. The phrase is closely associated with IBM’s cognitive computer system, Watson.

Computers are faster than humans at processing and calculating, but they have yet to master some tasks, such as understanding natural language and recognizing objects in an image. Cognitive computing is an attempt to have computers mimic the way a human brain works.

To accomplish this, cognitive computing makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other underlying technologies, including the following:

• Expert systems
• Neural networks
• Machine learning
• Deep learning
• Natural language processing (NLP)
• Speech recognition
• Object recognition
• Robotics

Cognitive computing uses these processes in conjunction with self-learning algorithms, data analysis, and pattern recognition to teach computing systems. The learning technology can be used for speech recognition, sentiment analysis, risk assessments, face detection, and more. In addition, it is particularly useful in fields such as healthcare, banking, finance, and retail.

How Does Cognitive Computing Work?

Systems used in the cognitive sciences combine data from various sources while weighing context and conflicting evidence to suggest the best possible answers. To achieve this, cognitive systems include self-learning technologies that use data mining, pattern recognition, and NLP to mimic human intelligence.

Using computer systems to solve the types of problems that humans are typically tasked with requires vast amounts of structured and unstructured data fed to machine learning algorithms. Over time, cognitive systems are able to refine the way they identify patterns and the way they process data. They become capable of anticipating new problems and modeling possible solutions.

For example, by storing thousands of pictures of dogs in a database, an AI system can be taught how to identify pictures of dogs. The more data a system is exposed to, the more it is able to learn and the more accurate it becomes over time.

To achieve those capabilities, cognitive computing systems must have the following attributes:

• Adaptive. These systems must be flexible enough to learn as information changes and as goals evolve. They must digest dynamic data in real time and adjust as the data and environment change.

• Interactive. Human-computer interaction is a critical component of cognitive systems. Users must be able to interact with cognitive machines and define their needs as those needs change. The technologies must also be able to interact with other processors, devices, and cloud platforms.

• Iterative and stateful. Cognitive computing technologies can ask questions and pull in additional data to identify or clarify a problem. They must be stateful in that they keep information about similar situations that have previously occurred.

• Contextual. Understanding context is critical in thought processes. Cognitive systems must understand, identify and mine contextual data, such as syntax, time, location, domain, requirements, and a user’s profile, tasks, and goals. The systems may draw on multiple sources of information, including structured and unstructured data and visual, auditory, and sensor data.

Examples and applications of cognitive computing

Cognitive computing systems are typically used to accomplish tasks that require the parsing of large amounts of data. For example, in computer science, cognitive computing aids in big data analytics, identifying trends and patterns, understanding human language, and interacting with customers.