Apps
The app economy continues to grow, having produced a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores. Keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.
The new bylines go beyond the typical @username references that often accompany link posts from news publications and those pointing to other written content, like a WordPress blog or Substack
X weighs adding a downvote button to replies — but it doesn’t want to emulate Reddit
code references found in the X iOS app indicate that the company could be considering adding downvotes for replies only to improve how they’re ranked.
Snapchat is introducing new ways for users to personalize their accounts, the company announced on Tuesday. The updates, which are mostly available for Snapchat+ subscribers, allow users to do things…
Figma disables its AI design feature that appeared to be ripping off Apple’s Weather app
The Make Design feature is available within Figma’s software and will generate UI (user interface) layouts and components from text prompts.
Apple adds support for new languages across lock screen, keyboard and search on iOS 18
Apple unveiled iOS 18 last month at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Since then, the company has released two developer betas in the last few weeks with extended support for…
Music, podcasts, audiobooks…emergency alerts? Spotify’s latest test has the streaming app venturing into new territory with a test of an emergency alerts system in its home market of Sweden. According…
Meta changes its label from ‘Made with AI’ to ‘AI info’ to indicate use of AI in photos
After Meta started tagging photos with a “Made with AI” label in May, photographers complained that the social networking company had been applying labels to real photos where they had…
Investment app Robinhood is adding more AI features for investors with its acquisition of AI-powered research platform Pluto Capital, Inc. Announced on Monday, the company says that Pluto will allow…
As Google described during the I/O session, the new on-device surface would organize what’s most relevant to users, inviting them to jump back into their apps.
Google’s trying to make waves with Gemini, its flagship suite of generative AI models, apps and services. So what’s Google Gemini, exactly? How can you use it? And how does…
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that the company will begin to surface AI characters made by creators through Meta AI studio on Instagram. The tests will begin in…
Just in time for the debates, Meta fixes bug impacting users’ political content settings on Instagram and Threads
Meta has fixed the bug that caused people to believe the company had adjusted their selections in a political content settings tool without their consent. The issue had impacted users…
YouTube Premium upgrade adds smart downloads and picture-in-picture mode for Shorts
YouTube is adding several new features for Premium users, including smart downloads and support for picture-in-picture mode for Shorts, as well as a wider rollout of its “Jump Ahead” feature…
a16z-backed Character.AI said today that it is now allowing users to talk to AI characters over calls. The feature currently supports multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Japanese…
TikTok to challenge Amazon Prime Day with its own sales event in July
TikTok is gearing up to challenge Amazon’s Prime Day event in July. The social network announced on Thursday that TikTok Shop is holding a “Deals For You Days” sales event…
Bluesky lets you curate accounts and feeds to follow with its Starter Pack feature
Social network Bluesky has added a new feature for users to create a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow. This feature, called “Starter Pack,” is intended to…
Google Translate adds support for 110 languages, representing 614M speakers
Google said today that it is adding support for 110 languages to its translation service. The company has used its PaLM 2 AI model to power translations.
Facing new competition from startups like Arc, Google announced on Wednesday that it’s bringing five new features to the Chrome browser on mobile devices, each designed to enhance the search…
Like Instagram, Whee also supports the use of photo filters and includes messaging. However, the company’s plans for Whee aren’t clear.
Video editing app Captions releases AI edit feature that automatically adds effects to your video
Video editing app Captions, which is backed by a16z, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, has launched a new feature that takes an existing unedited video and adds custom graphics, zooms,…
Strava to shutter 3D mapping platform Fatmap 20 months after acquisition
Activity tracking platform and community Strava is shutting down Fatmap, the Europe-based 3D mapping platform it had acquired last January.
Flipkart Group launches payments app, Super.money, in fintech push
Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has quietly started rolling out a payments app, dubbed Super.money, as it broadens its fintech ambitions.
Opera’s browser adds AI-powered image generation and better multimedia controls
Opera said today it is releasing Opera One’s second version in developer beta with features such as new multimedia controls, split tabs, and new AI capabilities. The company is introducing…
Apple has finally added support for Rich Communication Services (RCS) to its Messages app.
You can now more easily use ChatGPT on your Mac computer. OpenAI’s popular AI chatbot is available to all macOS users, the company announced on Tuesday. The app was first…
Reddit’s upcoming changes attempt to safeguard the platform against AI crawlers
Reddit says the update shouldn’t affect the majority of users or good faith actors, like researchers and organizations, such as the Internet Archive.
Threads users can now share to the open social web, aka the fediverse
Instagram’s Twitter/X rival Threads is furthering its expansion into the fediverse — the interconnected social network that includes apps like Mastodon, PeerTube and others running the ActivityPub protocol. On Tuesday,…
Firefox now lets you choose your preferred AI chatbot in its Nightly builds
As browsers continue to add AI features into their products, Mozilla is looking to give users some choice in the matter. The company announced on Tuesday that it’s launching an…
Inspired by Gen Z, Pinterest users can now turn boards into videos for sharing on Instagram and TikTok
The new addition was inspired by the video-sharing activity that was already taking place on apps like TikTok.
Popular productivity tool Notion has long allowed its users to make any of their pages public. Now, the company is expanding on this with the launch of Notion Sites, which…
