When it comes to cloud growth, it’s probably safe to say that the sky isn’t falling, even though revenue growth rates have been. We’ve seen the aggregate public cloud revenue growth decline from 32% in Q1 last year to 19% this year. That’s a pretty steep drop-off, and it shows that the cloud has run into some headwinds.

As a result, we have seen folks talking about a great repatriation where cloud workloads will move back on-prem, but the evidence doesn’t suggest that’s happening. Instead, companies may be slowing cloud migration as they look at the most efficient way to distribute their workloads.

Clearly, companies have learned that not every workload is well suited to the cloud. Some that can’t deal with even a little bit of latency to get to the cloud and back, for example, need to be hosted on the edge to be closer to the compute source. But it doesn’t look like many IT departments long to go back to the days of racking and stacking new servers.

So why is public cloud growth slowing down? Customers have started to look at their hefty cloud bills, with budgets coming under ever more intensive review this year, looking for ways to cut costs, which Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky acknowledged in the company’s earnings call with analysts this week.

“Enterprise customers continued their multidecade shift to the cloud while working closely with our AWS teams to thoughtfully identify opportunities to reduce costs and optimize their work,” he said during the call. In CFO speak, that means that they aren’t abandoning the cloud, but they are taking a hard look at expenses, which is having a pretty significant impact on the company’s cloud growth numbers.

He added that the slowing growth could continue for a couple more quarters, but that overall customers are still high on the cloud. “So far in the first month of the year, AWS year-over-year revenue growth is in the midteens. That said, stepping back, our new customer pipeline remains healthy and robust, and there are many customers continuing to put plans in place to migrate to the cloud and commit to AWS over the long term.”

By now, the value proposition of the cloud, regardless of the vendor, is clear. It allows a level of flexibility that just isn’t possible when you run your own data center, and running your own data center is expensive and requires an entirely different set of skills from running cloud workloads.

So what does all this mean for the cloud infrastructure market revenue growth? If the data is right, it’s going to be fine. It just looks a little dicey in the short term.

In spite of recent a downward trend, the future remains bright for cloud by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” report. However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022, to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to 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.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Top Stories

Apple plans its next “sherlock:” journaling apps

Apple is planning to “sherlock” a new class of applications if a new report from The Wall Street Journal holds true. The paper reported Apple is planning to introduce an iPhone journaling application as part of its expansion of health initiatives. The new app, which is unnamed, would challenge those on the market like Day One (acquired by WordPress.com maker Automattic in 2021). The WSJ said a document describing Apple’s app noted journaling helps to improve mental and physical well-being.

The app is reportedly set to arrive with the launch of iOS 17 and would put Apple again in the crosshairs of regulatory scrutiny. The company has come under fire in recent years for its habit of lifting ideas from the wider app developer and partner community. The practice has become so common, it’s got its own name — sherlocking — a reference to Apple software that started this trend decades ago.

The timing of this move is worth noting. Apple is currently under DoJ investigation for alleged anticompetitive behavior in the App Store and in other business practices. The DoJ has spoken to companies who have been “sherlocking” victims as part of its inquiry, including Tile, whose business was hit by the launch of Apple’s AirTag. The Justice Dept. has also spoken to other app developers, including smaller companies like Basecamp and parent control software maker Mobicip, as well as bigger developers like Match and Spotify, about Apple’s App Store terms.

For Apple to now launch yet another app that competes with a number of third-party developers shows Apple is not worried much about the regulatory pressure and isn’t adjusting its behavior.

Related to this, The WSJ also recently ran a feature on Apple’s “kiss of death,” citing partners who detailed what it felt like when the tech giant came calling. After initially being excited by the prospect of an Apple partnership, many partners now say Apple has stolen their ideas for itself, hurting their own businesses.

Twitter’s Checkmark Apocalypse has arrived — and it’s quite the debacle

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Twitter has finally made good on its promise to yank its users’ verification checkmarks from their profiles in what has to be one of the more ridiculous decisions Elon Musk has made to date since taking ownership of the social media platform.

Seemingly not understanding the value of the company he owns, Musk believes that no one should be verified unless they’re paying Twitter. But in reality, the verification service was a resource provided to Twitter’s community that added value. The blue checkmark symbol indicated that a high-profile figure, celebrity, institution or journalist was who they said they were and not an impersonator.

Twitter is not a curated, visual platform like Instagram, where a verification mark (which you can also now pay for!) provides an influencer with clout or bragging rights. Instead, Twitter is a network that’s centered around the rapid-fire dissemination of news and information in real time. The checkmark meant the source had been already vetted to be the real person, organization or official in question, allowing for faster fact-checks. This aids in newsgathering and establishes a baseline of trust across the platform.

But of course, Musk doesn’t understand this.

He has such a low opinion and value for journalism that he went around adding “state-affiliated media” and then “government-funded” labels to the profiles of news outlets like PBS, NPR, CBC, BBC and others, lumping these editorially independent news-gathering organizations alongside state-run media entities like the Kremlin-backed Russia Today. Some of the news organizations finally left Twitter — something more should do, in fact. (No, I don’t control TC’s social media efforts.)

It’s unclear what’s happening with those labels now, as they’re disappearing from accounts on Friday, including those of China state-affiliated media.

Musk historically has demonstrated a callous disregard for journalism, calling The NYT “fake,” while tweeting out actual fake news himself. He also has Twitter’s comms email respond to press inquiries with a poop emoji. For that reason, it’s almost funny to watch Musk run headfirst into a wall with his complete mishandling of such a pivotal Twitter feature.

After all, if Musk had wanted to generate revenue from Twitter power users, he could have done so by giving ID-verified users their own checkmarks, perhaps with a different color scheme, that provided the set of special features and timeline prioritization that Twitter is now selling with its Blue subscription. That would have added value without disrupting the existing system.

Instead, he’s again created chaos by removing checkmarks from almost everyone, allowing for impersonation — and, in some cases, the spread of dangerous misinformation, as well. On top of that, he left legacy checkmarks on some high-profile accounts, like LeBron James and Stephen King, both of who said they would not pay for Twitter Blue. It was a power play, clearly. If the celebs don’t leave, they’re tacitly confirming they’ve accepted the new system.

In addition, Twitter is being dishonest about who is truly a paid Twitter Blue subscriber.

Yours truly paid for Blue earlier this year to fact-check a story and then immediately canceled. I now continue to have a checkmark despite the subscription’s expiration in February, as documented below. (In any event, don’t bother to follow me on Twitter, by the way — I’m on Bluesky, T2, Post and Mastodon.)

Along with the checkmark removals, Twitter has also now begun pressuring advertisers to either pay for Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations to continue running ads on the platform. Those businesses that already spend over $1,000 per month will have gold checks automatically, Twitter said.

Snap’s Partner Summit focuses on Shopping, AR and AI

Image Credits: Snap

Snap this week hosted its Partner Summit where it shared a number of features, updates and initiatives in areas like e-commerce, AR and AI. The company also used the time to introduce a range of consumer-facing updates for its Snapchat mobile app.

At the event, CEO Evan Spiegel commented on the proposed TikTok ban in the U.S., joking at first that Snap would “love that,” but noting that such a ban sets a dangerous precedent for other social platforms. Though he acknowledged there could be national security concerns, the exec, like Zuckerberg has, also pushed for tech regulations.

“It is important for us to be thoughtful and really develop a regulatory framework to deal with security concerns, especially around technology,” Spiegel.

Among the other event highlights and news:

• Snap said the Snapchat+ paid subscription now has over 3 million users. That’s up from 2 million in February and 1 million last August.
• Snap opened its Public Story revenue share program to creators with at least 50,000 followers and 25,000 monthly Snap views who post at least 10x per month.

Image Credits: Snapchat

• Snapchat added new Story modes like “After Dark” for posts after 8 pm and “Communities” which let users interact with people in their same school.
• Snapchat updated its flashback feature Memories to show friends what they were doing on a given day exactly a year ago.
• The Snap Map will start suggesting places that Snap thinks users would like. A new “Popular Last Night” tag will also show people where their friends were hanging out.
• Snapchat is adding an interactive Lens that lets users complete puzzles and play games together while they’re face-to-face on a video call.

Image Credits: Snapchat

• Snap also announced new AR Lenses powered by generative AI, starting with a new “Cosmic Lens” that turns you and your surroundings into an immersive, animated sci-fi scene. The move follows TikTok’s recently successful launch of the AI filter, “Bold Glamour.” The app will also use AI to recommend Lenses based on the photo or video users provided.

Image Credits: Snapchat

• Bitmoji’s avatar style is being updated with a more expressive look with realistic dimensions, shading and lighting.
• Snap’s enterprise biz, ARES, introduced AR Mirrors — a way to bring AR experiences to real-world locations, like retail stores. Men’s Wearhouse and Nike have used its AR Mirrors in stores and Coca-Cola is building a prototype drink machine with Snap that lets consumers use hand gestures to control the screen.

Image Credits: Snap

• Snapchat announced its AI chatbot, My AI, is now free for all Snapchat global users instead of only Snapchat+ subscribers, as before. However, Snap is also rolling out a subscriber-only My AI feature which will see the chatbot able to “Snap” you back using generative AI to create photos. The AI chatbot will also now be able to be added to group chats with an @mention, make recommendations for places on Snap Map, suggest Lenses and send chat replies when you send it Snaps.

Image Credits: Snap

Platform News

Apple

• Apple is introducing a new feature that will reduce the burden on app developers when it comes to solving subscription billing issues. Often, when an app’s subscribers have a payment method that fails, they’ll turn to the app developer for help. But the developer doesn’t handle billing issues for their App Store apps — those are managed by Apple itself. Now, Apple says a new warning message will appear to prompt users inside the app when their payment method fails, meaning they’ll no longer need to bother the developer for help with this common issue.

• Apple is rumored to be developing VR apps and services for its upcoming mixed-reality headset in categories like gaming, fitness, live sports and collaboration.
• Researchers said they found evidence that Apple’s Lockdown Mode has helped block an attack by hackers using spyware made by the infamous mercenary hacking provider NSO Group.
• Apple launched its Apple Card savings account inside Apple Wallet offering an attention-getting 4.15% APY. The accounts are open to Apple Card holders in the U.S. and are technically managed by Goldman Sachs, so they have FDIC protections.
• Apple Watch’s software is due to get its biggest update since its release, according to a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Details were sparse but we expect to hear more at WWDC.

Google

• Google Play will tell users to update their buggy, crashing apps: Google announced a new Play Store feature that will prompt users to update developers’ apps if the app crashes in the foreground and there’s a more stable version of the outdated app already available for download. The feature will apply to phones and tablets running Android 7.0 (SDK level 24) and above. Developers don’t need to do any integration work to take advantage of the feature, which is enabled automatically when Google Play determines a newer version of the app has a statistically relevant, lower crash rate.

• Ahead of Google I/O, a leak is suggesting the upcoming Google Pixel Tablet will be priced around €600-650 ($658.63-$713.52 if converted directly to USD) — pricier than rivals — and the dock will cost around $120.
• Google shared a number of updates to help app publishers increase revenue and grow their businesses with AdMob, including those around inventory access, bidding, revenue optimization and more.
• Google Play Points can now get you more stuff. The company this week announced changes to the program which rewards users with points for making purchases on Google Play to now include app offers — like $10 off DoorDash or Instacart; Google merchandise (like Chrome dino game socks!); in-game items and coupons; and Google Play Credit for making in-app purchases, apps, books and subscriptions.

Image Credits: Google

App Updates

Messaging & Communications

• Telegram’s latest update brings shareable chat folders, custom wallpapers and other features to users. The app’s chat folders can now be shared with a link, the company says, allowing users to invite friends or colleagues to dozens of work groups, collections of news channels and more.
• Google Fi, the tech giant’s carrier service, is being rebranded to Google Fi Wireless and gaining new features, including the ability to add on a Pixel Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch to their plan at no extra charge. Users can also get a free phone for adding a line if they agree to stay with the service for 24 months, among other things. The options are available from the Google Fi mobile app and website, where consumers manage their service.
• The company behind the popular iPhone customization app Brass and others launched an AI chat app called Superchat, which allows iOS users to chat with virtual characters powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Other companies already offer AI chats with characters in more advanced ways, including D-ID. Meanwhile, the developer of another AI chat app called Superchat says their concept was ripped off by another Superchat app before they could launch. “Super chat” is not a unique name, though, as it’s well-known as YouTube’s paid live chatting feature for creators and fans.

Gaming

• Roblox’s reach into a slightly older demographic is expanding, data shows. The gaming platform maker’s 17-to-24 age group has grown 33% year-over-year as kids are aging up but remaining on the platform.
• Netflix is launching a follow-up to the supernatural thriller Oxenfree after acquiring the studio behind the game (Night School Studio) in 2021. The company says Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will arrive on July 12 on Netflix, Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5 and Steam. Netflix recently announced it has 40 games slated for launch this year and has 70 in development with its partners.

• Netflix also just hired former Halo Infinite creative head Joseph Staten to develop a multi-platform AAA title for the Netflix Games division. Staten will serve as a creative director at Netflix, he announced in a tweet, adding that his work will focus on developing on original IP.
• Meta opened up its social VR space Horizon Worlds to teen users aged 13 to 17 after originally keeping it to 18 and up. The company said as part of its expansion it would include age-appropriate protections and safety defaults. Children’s rights activists had earlier urged Meta to abandon its plans to court younger users.
• Niantic announced a partnership with Capcom to launch a game within the Monster Hunter franchise later this year. The new mobile title will come to both iOS and Android and will have players hunt monsters in the real world.

Social

Image Credits: Meta

• Instagram said users can now add up to five links to their profiles, in a move that challenges Linktree, Beacons and numerous other “link in bio” solution providers.
• Reddit is shifting to a paid subscription model for API access, impacting app developers like the makers of the popular Reddit app, Apollo. The change will likely mean most third-party apps will need to shift to their own subscription model going forward. The company’s decision has to do with the demand for data to train AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and others. “The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable…we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free,” said Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.
• The Verge does a deep divide into ActivityPub, the open source, decentralized social networking protocol powering Mastodon and the wider Fediverse. Want to get up to speed on the state of the Fediverse and its potential? This is a good place to start.
• Fiction apps Wattpad and Yonder are now being overseen by KB Nam, previously head of Strategy and Research at their parent company Naver Webtoon. Nam will report directly to Webtoon Americas president, Ken Kim.
• The Jack Dorsey-backed Twitter alternative Bluesky arrived on Android but remains invite-only. The community has around 20,000 users but the app has been downloaded 240,000 times on iOS to date.

Image Credits: Bluesky

• Magazine app Flipboard is furthering its investment in the Fediverse with its newly launched “editorial desks” that curate news for the Mastodon community. Initially, the company will launch four desks — News, Tech, Culture and Science — which it says won’t be automated by bots but instead by professional curators who have expertise in discovering and elevating interesting content.
• Pinterest hired a Google Pixel VP to fill its CPO position. Sabrina Ellis spent the last 12 years at Google, where she led the work on Google Pixel. Previously, she spent eight years at Yahoo in numerous leadership roles. She will replace Pinterest’s current senior vice president of product, Naveen Gavini.
• Imgur plans to ban explicit images, while still allowing for artistic nudity starting on May 15. The company says the service will adopt a mix of automatic and human moderation. The changes may impact NSFW subreddits (communities) on Reddit which allow for explicit images. The MediaLab-owned company said explicit content was a risk to Imgur’s “community and its business,” as the reason for the move.

Streaming and Entertainment

Image Credits: Spotify

• Spotify announced it will now work with BeReal to allow the social app’s users to share what they’re listening to on Spotify through a new integration. After connecting your accounts, BeReal will automatically pull in the song or podcast you’re listening to on Spotify at the time you capture a BeReal.
• Creator company Jellysmack is partnering with Spotify to bring its creators to the streaming platform. A selection of its creators will upload weekly video podcast episodes to the service, including Ed Bolian (VINwiki), Audit the Audit, Christina Randall, Brooke Makenna, and Jessica Kent.
• Cameo introduced Cameo Collage, a free group-gifting feature. Gift givers can now combine celebrity Cameo videos with more personalized videos, images, GIFS and written messages from friends and family to create a digital collage for the recipient.
• Netflix in its Q1 earnings said it would begin its password-sharing crackdown in the U.S. and other countries this summer (Q2). It has already implemented the changes in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.
• Netflix reported mixed earnings with revenue of $8.16 billion, behind estimates of $8.18 billion. It reported higher-than-expected earnings of $2.88 per share in Q1, as analysts had anticipated $2.86 per share.

Transportation

Image Credits: Google / Waze

• Waze on Google built-in has come to Volvo Cars and Polestar 2 cars. After a one-time setup, Volvo and Polestar drivers can access Waze’s real-time routing, navigation, alerts, settings, preferences and saved places on a bigger, eye-level display.

Health & Fitness

• Marvel announced a new mobile fitness app, Marvel Move, featuring immersive audio-based running routines with popular Marvel Comics characters. The app, part of a collaboration with Six to Start, co-creator of the popular fitness app Zombies, Run!, includes five storylines to choose from including Thor & Loki, X-Men, The Hulk, Daredevil and Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch.

News

• Samsung launched its own take on Apple News with its new “Samsung News” app that gives users access to everyday news from a variety of publications. The app will replace the company’s current “Samsung Free” app, and includes custom news feeds in addition to morning and evening briefings about the top news of the day.

Government, Policy and Lawsuits

• WhatsApp, Signal, Viber, Wire and other encrypted messaging apps signed an open letter asking the U.K. government to “urgently rethink” its Online Safety Bill legislation, which they say will force tech companies to break end-to-end encryption on private messaging services, weakening the “privacy of billions of people around the world.”
• Google has asked the court to dismiss multiple claims in its antitrust trial with Epic Games, Match, state AGs and others. In a new filing, Google’s legal team is now asking the court to dismiss several of the plaintiffs’ arguments regarding the nature of its app store business, revenue-sharing agreements and other app store-related projects in a partial motion for summary judgment. Google believes the court should now have enough information on hand to make determinations on a handful of the plaintiffs’ claims before the case goes to trial, saying that these items are not in violation of antitrust law. If the court agrees with Google’s position, the trial would still move forward as other claims would still need to be argued in court.

• The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened a consultation on Google’s proposal to let developers use alternative payment methods for in-app purchases on Android, aka “User Choice Billing.” It’s inviting interested stakeholders to respond to Google’s proposal by May 19 and will then make a decision on whether to accept the comments and resolve the case. Google is suggesting it cuts its commission to 4% if the developer offers Google’s own billing alongside their own. But this would only be cut to 3% if just third-party billing was offered.
• Montana lawmakers approved a bill that would ban TikTok and would bar app stores from offering the app within the state, starting on January 1, 2024. It’s unclear how such a measure would be enforced as the app stores don’t offer a way to block distribution by state, only by country.

Funding and M&A

• Starboard (Formerly Olympic Media) concluded the acquisition of right-wing Twitter alternative Parler and shut it down. The company said of the decision: “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more [sic].” The Parler app will undergo a strategic assessment and it’s not clear what the company has in store for its future.
• Epic Games expanded its Latin American footprint with its acquisition of the Brazilian game development studio Aquiris. The developer is best known for “Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker,” a magic-themed game-creation sandbox available on Apple Arcade.

• Myxt, an audio file management platform for creators, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Accel Ventures and Quiet Capital. The startup offers a collaborative workplace app for audio creators that’s available on web, iOS and Android, where users can stream tracks, organize files and back up their library.
• SoundHound closed on $100 million in strategic funding from Atlas Credit Partners as part of a new $125 million loan facility. The publicly traded company is using the money to refinance its debt and continue to fund its long-term strategy.
• Japanese gaming giant Sega is acquiring Finland’s Rovio in an all-cash deal worth €706 million ($775 million). The deal is expected to close in Q2 or Rovio’s fiscal year (in the next couple of months). Sega’s offer represents a 63.1% premium on Rovio’s closing price on January 19.

Downloads

Wavelength

Image Credits: Wavelength

An interesting new chat app called Wavelength has arisen out of the ashes of the social networking app Telepath, which shut down last year. Now the team has shifted its focus to improving group chat experiences. Instead of having different group chats, it introduces the idea of threaded messaging combined with AI. The threads help to keep group chats less cluttered by making it easier to follow multiple conversations at once.

In addition, users can add OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 into their group chats by mentioning @AI. This makes the app among the first to offer chatting with AI. Snapchat is also now doing this with its My AI feature as is Ghost, which allows groups to chat with ChatGPT.

The startup aims to focus in other areas as well, like privacy, moderation, discovery and more. Notably, John Gruber is an advisor for the currently iOS and Mac-only app.

You can read more about Wavelength here.

Nocam

A new social video app called Nocam has a radical idea to make social networking more authentic — it’s turning off the camera so you can’t see how you look while filming. The idea is to make capturing a moment feel natural while reducing the friction that comes with seeing a preview of your own image, which can often leave users hesitant to post or scrambling to add edits and filters to touch up their appearance.

Image Credits: Nocam

Nocam believes this concept better reflects the way people interact in real life, where we aren’t faced by a mirror that shows us what we look like, that is. The company describes its app as BeReal meets TikTok. But perhaps it’s more accurate to say BeReal meets TikTok Challenges, as the app focuses on sending users fun or silly prompts they have to act out with the camera, like doing a dance or just showing what they’re up to. Users can also prompt their friends, too.

You can read more about Nocam here.

Proton Pass

Image Credits: Proton

Proton, the maker of the end-to-end encrypted email service Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Drive and Proton Calendar, this week launched a new password manager called Proton Pass. Everything stored in the app is end-to-end encrypted, and Proton itself never has access to your data. The beta version is live now to Proton users with a lifetime plan and will then roll out to other subscribers and customers in the future.

The app comes about from the company’s acquisition of SimpleLogin, an email alias startup, and is available as a desktop as a browser extension, iOS or Android app.

You can read more about Proton Pass here.

Etc.

Does anyone wish they still had their old phone?

This Week in Apps: Apple ‘sherlocks’ journaling apps, Twitter’s checkmark apocalypse, Snap summit recap by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google is hoping to speed along the resolution of its antitrust legal battle with Fortnite maker Epic Games, Match Group, and state Attorneys General. In a new filing, Google’s legal team is now asking the court to dismiss several of the plaintiffs’ arguments regarding the nature of its app store business, revenue-sharing agreements, and other app store-related projects in a partial motion for summary judgment.

According to Google, it believes the court should now have enough information on hand to make determinations on a handful of the plaintiffs’ claims before the case goes to trial, saying that these items are not in violation of antitrust law. If the court agrees with Google’s position, the trial would still move forward as other claims would still need to be argued in court.

Google specifically wants the court’s judgment on five key claims which would seemingly be pivotal to the plaintiffs’ ability to prove anticompetitive behavior.

It wants the court to dismiss the argument that Google’s Developer Distribution Agreement is illegal because it prohibits the distribution of other app stores. Google counters this by saying it doesn’t have a legal obligation to distribute to other app stores, and notes that most Android devices come preloaded with more than one app store. In addition, it points out that consumers can install additional app stores from the web browser.

“Android is the only major mobile platform that allows multiple app stores,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “In fact, most Android devices ship with two or more app stores preinstalled, and consumers can install others. Epic, Match Group and the state Attorneys General ignore the openness and choice Android and Google Play offer, and we look forward to making our case in court,” they added.

Another argument it wants dismissed is focused on “Project Hug,” a Google-run program that was designed to incentivize Android game developers to keep their games on the Google Play Store. The plaintiffs argued that Google quietly paid game developers millions of dollars in incentives as part of this initiative, which was later known as the “Apps and Games Velocity Program.” Epic Games alleged the program came about because Google was scared other developers would follow its lead after it exclusively released Fortnite for Android outside the Play Store through its own installer. Supposedly, Google was also worried Epic might strike up other exclusive pre-install deals with OEMs like Samsung to lower its revenue splits.

The program itself was fairly successful as Google was able to forge deals with a number of developers, including Activision Blizzard, to keep their games on the Play Store, earlier filings had stated.

Google, however, argues that Project Hug was not an anticompetitive move, but has been mischaracterized by the plaintiffs. It says the program offered developers benefits and early access to Google Play users when developers released new or updated content, but did not prevent developers from creating competing app stores.

The company is also pushing back against claims over revenue-sharing agreements with wireless carriers, saying they are outside the statute of limitations. The agreements have been expired for more than four years, Google says, so should be dismissed.

In addition, Google claims the AGs and consumer class were unable to show that Google harmed competition by selling app subscriptions and in-app purchases to consumers. For that reason, consumers should not be able to recover any of these alleged overcharges, Google says.

The final claim focuses on tying — or the allegation that in order to buy one product, the buyer also had to purchase a different (or tied) product. The plaintiffs argued that Google Play and Google Play’s billing services are illegally tied together, but Google says this isn’t true. Instead, it argues Play’s billing services are not a separate product. It also notes that over 90% of the apps on Google Play are free and developers pay nothing when they are downloaded.

The new push for a partial summary judgment follows shortly after last month’s ruling that Google’s failure to preserve some of its messages for discovery requires sanctions. The plaintiffs successfully demonstrated that Google employees tended to switch off chat history on internal discussions, in an effort to destroy sensitive communications related to the case. The DoJ recently cited the same issue in its own antitrust investigation. The judge gave the plaintiffs’ lawyers until April 21 to provide an amount in legal fees they are seeking as part of the sanctions, as a start.

Google earlier asked for the trial to be delayed and was denied.

Epic Games has been asked for comment and we’ll update if one is provided.

Google asks court to dismiss multiple claims in Epic Games antitrust trial by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” report. However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to 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.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Finally, finally, newsrooms leave Twitter

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

This week was one of the more interesting ones for Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover, as multiple newsrooms finally had enough of Elon Musk’s antics. After Musk labeled NPR and others as “state-affiliated media” — a label previously reserved for state propaganda accounts, like the Kremlin-backed Russia Today and China’s Xinhua — NPR and PBS have stopped tweeting.

After backlash to NPR’s new label, Twitter shifted to a newly made-up designation, “government-funded media.”

In addition to NPR, the news organizations PBS and the BBC received the new labels as well. The BBC objected, too, and Twitter changed its label to “publicly funded” instead. (PBS and NPR remain labeled as “government-funded” as of the time of writing.)

Musk’s capricious decision to lump independent news organizations alongside state-supported propaganda accounts is both misleading and dangerous. NPR, for instance, receives “less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.” PBS receives more of its funding from the public and philanthropic organizations than it does from the small amount it gets from government subsidies.

More importantly — unlike in state regimes where government officials heavily influence the spread of information to the people — NPR and PBS are editorially independent.

Whether you like the nature of their reporting is, of course, a subjective matter. But an objective analysis puts the two in the middle of the Ad Fontes media bias chart.

Musk, however, wanted to sully their brands by suggesting the U.S. government has influence over their reporting. That’s what labeling them “state media” or “government-funded” does, and he certainly knows it.

The Twitter owner delights in dragging down the media, having already done so on numerous occasions. He has tweeted conspiracies and called The NYT’s news “fake.” He banned reporters who commented on his own ban of a bot that tracked his private jet. He has shown so little regard for the media that he set Twitter’s press email to respond to inquiries with a poop emoji.

What he gets from these sorts of antics is unclear, because it’s not good for the business he runs.

The erratic billionaire seems more interested in performing stunts for his fans — followers who cheer on dumb things like this — than ensuring Twitter’s own brand can stay afloat.

But so far, the real-world fallout has been minimal. Not this week. To actually target media like this — by marring their brands on Twitter’s platform — was the last straw for some.

In addition to NPR and PBS, other news organizations have also now abandoned ship, including Boston NPR affiliate WBUR, Hawaii Public Radio and LA-based local news source LAist. You can be sure many others are reconsidering the extent of their investments.

What Musk may not understand is that, despite journalists’ own addictions to the app, Twitter actually sends very little traffic to news sites. And what it does send is declining. Largely, media organizations get inbound views from much bigger platforms, like Facebook, Google Search and Google News.

They can, in fact, live without Twitter. And now they will.

What’s more, if more newsrooms are to follow suit, Twitter’s reputation will be harmed. The app, after all, is not listed in the Social Networking category on the App Store, but in “News.” The network, if anything, is known as the first place news lands, not only from traditional media organizations but from on-the-ground, live tweets by regular people witnessing news events, too.

But if the news leaves Twitter, what will Twitter become?

Death by a thousand cuts: The Twitter alternatives grow

At the same time, Twitter alternatives are siphoning off portions of the user base, including those interested in discussions around news and other topical events.

This week, for instance, Twitter and Substack got into it over Substack’s launch of Notes, its new Twitter-like discussions feature for newsletter authors and their readers. In response, Twitter throttled Substack links, put up warnings and prevented users from liking, replying or retweeting posts with Substack links.

Musk also accused Substack of trying to download a massive portion of its user base to bootstrap Substack Notes.

In an exceedingly awkward interview with The Verge, where Substack CEO Chris Best should have been able to take a victory lap as a viable Twitter threat, he instead fully dropped the ball. The exec dodged questions over content moderation, making it clear to anyone following that Substack would permit all kinds of speech — potentially losing the company new subscribers who would have otherwise considered joining.

For example, when pressed about whether or not racist speech would be allowed on Substack, Best would not respond with an affirmative “no.” Instead, he replied, “We have content policies that are deliberately tuned to allow lots of things that we disagree with, that we strongly disagree with.” When pressed further, he wouldn’t even respond to a question as to whether or not it would allow “overt racism” on the platform. “I’m not going to engage in speculation,” he said.

Wow, just wow.

And yet, Best’s obvious signaling here could appeal to a certain toxic-leaning crowd that still hangs out on Twitter.

It’s clear at least that Elon Musk must view Substack as a threat to Twitter’s business because of its appeal to self-identified free speech enthusiasts who now rally around Musk himself.

Substack isn’t alone in targeting Twitter’s users with a new discussion platform at this time.

Though arguably aiming for a different demographic, the news aggregator app Artifact from Instagram’s founders this week rolled out commenting.

Like Substack Notes, the feature could appeal to those who want to engage in discussions around the news, though perhaps those of a more civil nature. Artifact promises it will engage in moderation, bans if needed, and it curates its news sources upfront. And with the app’s newly Reddit-like comment upvoting features and user reputation scores, it’s incentivizing people to spend their time building up a name for themselves on its platform, instead of over on Twitter.

Then there are the many, many Twitter alternatives to contend with, including Mastodon (and its app ecosystem), Bluesky, T2, Post and others still to emerge.

While most are being built as Twitter clones, Post’s idea is to create a feed that caters to news publishers by allowing for micropayments that let users read otherwise paywalled articles. The idea is interesting but, like all newcomers, the question is one of scale.

Still, as newsrooms scramble for Twitter’s exit doors, Post’s platform could look more appealing. And if the news orgs come, the people may follow.

Even if these alternatives only pull a few thousand users away from Twitter at first, those numbers could grow over time as each individual network grows. It’s too soon to say if any will pull ahead as the default “new Twitter,”  but they could deliver death by a thousand cuts, so to speak.

Why Twitter won’t die

That begs the question as to if or when Twitter itself will ever actually die. And the answer is that it may not for quite some time.

Myspace still lived long after Facebook took over. (In fact, you can still sign up.)

Google Plus became a barren wasteland long before Google pulled the plug. (It was even hacked and no one cared!)

BlackBerry phones were sold well into the iPhone era. (Kim Kardashian still carried one for years.)

In other words, we won’t just wake up one day to find Twitter has suddenly gone offline. It will slowly become less relevant, barring major changes to get it back on track, and when it dies we may not even notice.

Already, Twitter is morphing into something new. Today’s Twitter is nothing like its predecessor. Across every front, the app is being made over, often for the worse.

Musk revamped Twitter Blue with the goal of democratizing verification, only to create a system where something that was once a feature that made Twitter better, was now a curse. Verification previously served the purpose of confirming people were who they claimed. Now, it’s open to anyone, including bad actors, who want to masquerade as others or cause trouble. What’s more, Twitter says it plans to make the main For You (algorithmic) timeline only available to those who pay — a move that would make Twitter far less useful.

Musk also cut off API access to app developers, then updated its API pricing to make building simple Twitter tools, like helpful bots, out of reach. Apps and bots have since shut down.

He also reinstated controversial accounts, like those of white supremacists, and now generally uses Twitter to create chaos, leading to continual confusion among users as to what the state of the network is on any given day.

Twitter currently keeps itself in the news by being in a constant state of flux. 

Over the past several days, for instance, Twitter announced it would reduce Twitter Blue subscribers’ ad load; saw Twitter Circle bugs that allowed others to see private tweets; got sued by its ex-CEO and other execs over unpaid legal bills; announced a new date (4/20 ofc) to remove legacy checkmarks; rebranded Super Follows to Subscriptions, promising creators it won’t keep any of their money at first; partnered with the investment platform eToro to show real-time information about stocks and crypto prices; and added support for 10,000-character-long tweets.

All this activity masks what’s actually going on: Twitter’s slower, quieter demise.

Musk can claim all he likes that the company is now breaking even. The fact is, it’s been losing money compared to where it was before.

Over the past two months,the top 50 Twitter advertisers spent $83 million, down from $102 million year-over-year, and major brands including Mars, AT&T, VW and Stellantis haven’t returned. Traffic to Twitter’s ad portal was down 18.7% year-over-year, indicating declining interest from marketers. The percentage of Americans who reported using Twitter dropped from 32.4% to 29.5% from pre-Elon to post-Elon, one survey said.

Advertisers aren’t just on pause. They’ve also seemingly lost trust in Twitter, as Quartz reported this week with the damning headline “Elon Musk is personally ruining Twitter’s ad business.” The article notes the company is expected to bring in 28% less revenue this year than in 2022, or $2.98 billion down from $4.14 billion.

Despite everything, Twitter has perservered, and will likely take some time before it reaches its inevitable end. Widespread company-wide layoffs and Twitter’s refusal to pay its bills or its rent have helped it stay afloat in the near term.

But the company can’t run on Musk’s hopes and dreams about becoming a super app called “X” forever. Twitter will require funds to stay alive. And if cash isn’t flowing in from advertisers, then perhaps Musk will dig into his own pockets or those of its Saudi investors to keep the tweet engine going for a bit longer.

In other words, don’t hold your breath awaiting Twitter’s coming demise.

But feel free to withhold your attention.

Weekly News

Platforms

Apple

• iOS 16.4.1 was released with bug fixes related to emoji skin tone variations and Siri — the latter addressing issues that caused Siri to not respond at times; iPadOS 16.4.1 accompanied the release.
• Apple also released security updates for its older operating systems, including iOS 15.7.5, iPadOS 15.7.5, macOS Monterey 12.6.5 and macOS Big Sur 11.7.6.
• New beta builds rolled out, too, including iOS 16.5 Beta 2 and iPadOS 16.5 Beta 2, as well as macOS 13.4, watchOS 9.5 and tvOS 16.5.

Google

Image Credits: Brian Heater

• ANDROID 14 After two developer previews, Google launched the first of four planned public beta releases of Android 14. The beta is also the first release that anyone can install over the air if they have a supported Pixel device. There are only a couple of user-facing changes in the beta, including a new back arrow that matches your wallpaper or theme. Developers will also be able to add custom actions to the system sharesheet, which will now be smarter about how it ranks sharing targets.
• Google made a series of announcements at KotlinConf, where it was a gold-level sponsor. A summary of the latest news can be found here, including news that the K2 compiler will be released in Kotlin 2.0, Compose for iOS is in Alpha, the Gradle Kotlin DSL will be the default for new builds, Kotlin Multiplatform will become stable this year, and more.
• Google says that Play Store apps that allow for account creation will also have to add features that let users “initiate account and data deletion” from their app and online. The change is being rolled out slowly to give developers time to comply.

Image Credits: Google

• Starting May 31, Google will restrict personal loan apps from accessing sensitive user data like photos, videos, precise location, call logs, external storage and contacts after many app makers’ engaged in predatory behavior by harassing borrowers in India and Kenya. Google also introduced rules to ban unlicensed loan apps from the Google Play Store.
• Google brings its AirPlay-like Nearby Share feature to Windows so you can transfer files between Android and PCs.
• Google’s Android is gaining a new auto-archive feature for apps. The company says the feature will reduce unnecessary uninstalls and help users successfully install new apps. “Once a user opts in, auto-archive can help them automatically free up to nearly 60% of an app’s storage space, without removing the app presence or users’ data from the device,” said Google.

App Updates

AI

• Baidu sued various app developers and Apple over the numerous fake apps pretending to be its Ernie AI bot on the App Store. Launched last month, Ernie — a Chinese version of something like the U.S.-based ChatGPT — does not have an official app. At the time of the announcement, there were at least four fake apps found.
• Snapchat added new guardrails around its AI chatbot. The app had been criticized for responding in an unsafe and inappropriate manner shortly after its launch in February. Now, the AI bot will include an age filter and insights for parents and guardians about their children’s interactions with the chatbot in its parent controls hub, Family Center.
• The $4.99 ChatGPT app for Apple Watch, Petey AI, expanded to the iPhone with a recent update. The new app is faster than the watch-based counterpart and supports Dynamic Island and Live Activities. You can also switch out Siri with Petey using Siri Shortcuts.

Image Credits: Petey

• Poe’s AI chatbot app, made by Quora, now lets users make their own chatbots using prompts combined with an existing bot, like ChatGPT, as the base. Initially, Poe debuted with support for a handful of general knowledge chatbots, including Sage and Dragonfly, powered by OpenAI technology, and Claude, powered by Anthropic. Last month, Poe rolled out subscriptions that allow users to pay to access the more powerful bots based on new language models, including GPT-4 from OpenAI and Claude+ from Anthropic. The new chatbot feature will only work with Claude and ChatGPT as the base bots and works on both web and mobile.

• User spending on AI apps increased by more than 4,000% year-over-year, according to Apptopia data. Downloads also increased by 1506% year-over-year, reaching nearly 20 million in March. Multiple similarly named apps like Nova AI, Genie AI and Chat with Ask AI have broken into top charts. Chat with Ask AI was on the top 10 free apps list on iOS in multiple countries.

Image Credits: Apptopia

• The European Parliament is close to finalizing new AI measures that will require chatbot makers to reveal if they use copyrighted material, the FT reported citing sources.
• Pixelmator Photo rebranded as Photomator and introduced a new AI-powered subject selection feature, as well as others around selective adjustments, brush selections, gradient mask tools and more.
• Microsoft added three AI features to its SwiftKey keyboard app on iOS and Android: web search results, a tone option where AI writes text, and its AI chatbot. The features were previously available in Bing. The company also announced Bing recently hit 100 million daily users (and 100 million chats).

Social

Image Credits: Instagram

•   Instagram Reels gained a number of new features in a significant update. Among the changes are features that help creators see what’s trending in terms of both audio and hashtags, new tools that make it easier to edit reels in the app, an expansion of gifts to more markets outside the U.S., updates to Reels insights with two new metrics (total watch time and avg. watch time) and a new way to see how your reels are contributing to your growth.

Image Credits: Instagram

• Pinterest expanded its Creator Inclusion Fund to 5 more countries: Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. The program began in 2021 to help communities that Pinterest said have been “disproportionately underrepresented — including Black, Latiné, LGBTQIA+, Asian, Indigenous people and people with disabilities.” The fund has already supported creators in the U.S., U.K. and Brazil.
• Reddit posts on its main feeds were revamped to now have a cleaner layout with less unused space and more emphasis on community. The company said the changes will make it “easier for redditors to find the conversations they’re looking for.”
• Yik Yak users are angry about the changes being made to the anonymous chat app after its acquisition by Sidechat. Its new parent company revamped the Yik Yak app to look and function like the anonymous college chat app, when Yik Yak before was more community-based. The apps appear to now run on the same servers and users are asked for their student ID, which they worry will identify them or allow for targeted ads.

• Snapchat’s Lenses have arrived in Microsoft Teams. With the launch, Teams users gain access to a collection of 26 popular Lenses during meetings. The Lenses let you do things like turn yourself into a cartoon character or add fun backgrounds to your video calls.
• Snap also signed new music licensing deals to expand its Sounds library, which offers music that can be used in Snaps and Stories.
• Instagram added new features to its creator marketplace via new APIs to make it easier for brands to discover and work with creators on the third-party creator marketing platforms they already use. It also expanded access to brand agencies.
• Artifact, the recently launched personalized news app from Instagram’s founders, launched a social discussions feature. Previously in private testing, the feature introduces a way for users to comment and engage in conversations around news articles they’re reading on the service, which can then be up and downvoted by others, similar to Reddit. Users will also gain a visible reputation score based on their activity.

• Following last month’s NBC News investigation into Pinterest that exposed how pedophiles had been using the service to curate image boards of young girls, the company on Tuesday announced further safety measures for its platform, including a new set of parental controls and updated age verification policies, among other things. However, the company also said that it would soon re-open some of its previously locked-down features for teens to allow them to once again message and share content with others after approving contacts.

Messaging

• WhatsApp is now easier to use on multiple devices thanks to a new companion mode that lets you access your account across more than one smartphone.
• WhatsApp users in Brazil can also now pay merchants through the app, allowing consumers to have end-to-end shopping experiences from discovery to checkout.

Streaming & Entertainment

• Spotify shut down its Clubhouse-style live audio app Spotify Live, previously known as Locker Room ahead of its acquisition. Spotify bought the company in its €57 million acquisition of Betty Labs in March 2021.
• Spotify also said it’s shutting down Heardle, the Wordle-like music guessing game it acquired last year, saying its new focus will be on the discovery features it introduced recently at Stream On, including the new TikTok-like recommendation feeds.
• Spotify and activity tracking app Strava teamed up on a new in-app integration that lets users easily access their Spotify music, podcasts and audiobooks from the Strava app while tracking activities.
• Warner Bros. Discovery announced its new streaming service Max that will combine HBO Max and Discovery+ content into a single destination. The company promised a better-performing, more personalized app across platforms, which will include a range of new titles, including more spin-offs from Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, True Detective, Big Bang Theory and others, as well as more DC Comics movies. The HBO Max will automatically update to become Max on most platforms on May 23, but Discovery+ users will be allowed to remain in their same app if they choose.

Image Credits: Warner Bros. Discovery

• Despite the threat of a TikTok ban, U.S. advertising on TikTok grew 11% in March 2023 with top spenders including Apple, Pepsi, DoorDash and Amazon.
• TikTok was spotted testing a new “Explore” tab, similar to Instagram. The tab could replace the Friends tab where TikTok today lets users keep up with their contacts and post BeReal-like photos and videos in its own TikTok Now experience.

• TikTok quietly launched “animated video stickers” for direct messages in February. The new stickers work like GIFs and are an expansion of TikTok Stickers, which first rolled out last December, letting users create and upload their own custom images to be used in direct messages.
• YouTube added a Podcasts tab to channel pages globally on its website and mobile apps that show the playlists that creators have marked as podcasts. The new tab appears between “Live” and “Playlists.”
• YouTube added new features to its paid subscription YouTube Premium bringing enhanced bitrate 1080p support on iOS and the web for “extra crisp and clear” videos, plus support for Apple’s SharePlay, and access to managing your queue on mobile.

Image Credits: YouTube

• The popular music player Winamp is coming to iOS and Android after a big revamp, but it won’t be what users expect. Now owned by a company called Llama Group, the online player doesn’t look like the old Winamp at all. Instead, it will work as a streaming service where users only follow their favorite artists, who they also support in a sort of Patreon-like model of subscriptions. Currently, only some indie European and Vietnamese bands and singers were available. The player is available on the web for now, with mobile apps arriving in Q3.
• Sling TV came to the Amazon Echo Show 8 and 10, nearly two years after Amazon first announced it would.
• Spotify finally added an iPhone Lock Screen widget that offers an icon that will provide easy access to the app. The icon of the Spotify logo, when tapped, launches the iOS app before unlocking the phone.

Image Credits: Spotify

Gaming

• Nintendo and app developer DeNA officially launched Nintendo Systems, the joint venture first unveiled back in November, which is meant to help reinforce Nintendo’s business and “create value-added services,” the companies said. It’s not yet known what exactly the two companies are currently working on, as no games or software have been announced.
• Nintendo is pulling Mario away from the mobile gaming market. In a Variety report, Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto said that “mobile apps will not be the primary path of future Mario games.” The company had earlier launched two moderately successful iOS titles and others, Dr. Mario World, that was removed two years after its release. Super Mario Run grossed $60 million in its first year and 2019’s Mario Kart Tour has generated $300 million.
• Pokémon GO is sidestepping the App Store and Google’s Play Store by selling its PokéCoins via its new Pokémon GO Web Store. The company emailed it users to notify them of the launch where it’s selling the bundles. The U.S., however, was not among the countries supported at launch.
• Messenger introduced 14 free-to-play games you can play during video calls in the messaging app on the web, iOS or Android. Among the titles were Words With Friends, Card Wars, Exploding Kittens, Mini Gold FRVR and more.

Image Credits: Facebook Gaming

Fintech

• Social finance app Hyve opened to the public after earlier raising $2.25 million in a pre-seed round in January 2022 from an investor group that included The Flying Whale VC, MoreVC and the founders of Guardio. The app is targeting Gen Z and young millennials with tools to pay down debt, save and invest with the help of friends and family.
• Visa announced a new interoperable peer-to-peer (P2P) payment offering, Visa+, that allows people to transfer money to friends even if they use a different payment service. The service will later this year power a new integration that lets Venmo and PayPal users transfer money between their users — both are owned by PayPal, however. Other companies that have committed to Visa+ include Western Union, TabaPay, i2C and DailyPay.

Image Credits: Visa

Security

• Hackers used spyware created by an under-the-radar Israeli spyware maker QuaDream to create malicious calendar invites in order to hack the iPhones of journalists, political opposition figures and one NGO worker.
• WhatsApp introduced new device verification and account protection features, including new defenses against SIM jacking and other social engineering attacks. The downside of the changes is that moving WhatsApp to a new phone may become more difficult with added steps.
• Several security experts found malware on Chinese shopping app Pinduoduo that exploited vulnerabilities in the Android OS. The exploits were said to be used to spy on both users and competitors in an effort to boost sales and were found in off-Play Store versions of the app, as Google Play Protect would have likely identified the malware. The team working on the app was then moved to Temu, now a top U.S. shopping app.

Etc.

• You can now order a Domino’s pizza from your car thanks to the app’s new CarPlay support.
• Amazon removed systemwide hands-free Alexa access on Alexa Built-In smartphones, including a handful of models from OnePlus, as well as models from brands like Motorola, Sony, LG and Moto.
• Truecaller rolled out an update that will finally provide live caller ID support on iOS, available to people using its paid tiers. However, the system comes with a catch — it only works via a Siri interaction, due to Apple’s limitations on third-party caller ID apps.
• Opera, the makers of an ad-blocking web browser, rolled out an updated version of its iOS app that now includes its free VPN. Previously available on Mac, Windows, Linux and Android, the iOS release now makes Opera the first browser to offer a free VPN service across all major computing platforms, the company said.
• ComiXology vets return to startups with DSTLRY, a next-gen comics publisher that will distribute both in print and digitally via an app that will launch further down the road.
• Google Maps introduced new features to make it easier for users to navigate national parks, including trail maps that show the entire route, not just a pin.

Government & Policy

• Apple won an appeal against a U.K. antitrust regulator that wanted to open an investigation of the iPhone makers’ mobile browser and cloud gaming service. The Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) ruled the regulator was too late in deciding to open the probe. “We are pleased with the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s decision and will continue working to deliver support for developers and a safe and secure experience for users,” said Apple.
• TikTok was fined £12.7 million (~$15.7 million) for breaching U.K. data protection law, including rules intended to protect children. Per the ICO, TikTok had an estimated 1.4 million underage U.K. users during a two-year period (May 2018 and July 2020), contrary to the terms of service stating users must be 13 or older.
• Australia is the latest country to ban TikTok on government devices. Other countries with bans include New Zealand, the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Belgium and others in the EU.
• Germany’s antitrust authority confirmed Apple meets its test for special abuse controls — saying the company has “paramount significance for competition across markets”. The designation stands for five years and allows Apple to face an inquiry into its possible antitrust abuses. Apple plans to appeal.
• Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications is opening a probe into TikTok over harmful content and false information. The ministry said TikTok’s Vietnam arm had taken down 2.43 million videos uploaded by Vietnamese users in Q1 2023 over violations of community guidelines related to “nudity, sexual acts involving minors or inciting violence” and “for frightening content, harassment, bullying, suicides, and others.” Now the office believes that removal may not be enough and should be subject to tougher rules.
• South Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) fined Google $32 million for blocking developers from releasing games on a Korean Play Store competitor called One Store. Google allegedly required Korean video game makers to exclusively release their new games in the Play Store from June 2016 to April 2018, in violation of fair competition laws.
• Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill that requires that social media companies verify new users’ ages and get a parent’s consent for users under 18. The state is now the second to create its own laws to regulate social media, following Utah, due to the lack of federal oversight.

Funding and M&A

• Right-wing social media platform Parler was acquired by digital media conglomerate Starboard, which recently changed its name from Olympic Media. The company will temporarily shut down the app ahead of a revamp and relaunch of an updated version. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
• U.S.-based savings and investing startup Acorns acquired London-based GoHenry for an undisclosed sum. Acorns was most recently valued at $2 billion; GoHenry was believed to be valued at between $250 million and $500 million in October 2022.
• Savvy Games Group, a games and esports company that is part of the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund, is acquiring mobile games studio Scopely for $4.9 billion. Scopley’s top games include Yahtzee With Buddies, Star Trek Fleet Command, Marvel Strike Force, Stumble Guys and Scrabble Go.
• Emirates Telecommunications acquired a 50.03% stake in the super app Careem from Uber’s Middle East unit for $400 million. Uber will keep Careem’s ride-hailing business as part of this deal.
• SMB growth app Zeely’s raised a $1 million seed round from Ukrainian VC Vesna.Capital, Angel One Fund (a Ukrainian fund), Imaguru Ventures, and angels Murat Abdrakhmanov (an investor in Udemy), Adrian J. Slywotzky (a partner at Oliver Wyman) and ZAS Ventures. Zeely’s app can generate a web store quickly on a mobile, as well as allow a business to promote itself across social media platforms like TikTok quickly and easily.
• General Atlantic invested another $100 million in PhonePe, three months after leading a $350 million investment in the Indian fintech startup. At a $12 billion valuation, PhonePe is India’s most valuable fintech and competes with Google Pay and Paytm.

This Week in Apps: Newsrooms leave Twitter, Reels expands, Android 14 arrives by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s Chrome web browser is getting a speed boost. According to a news announcement out today, Google has made several under-the-hood performance improvements to its popular browser, leading to a significant new performance milestone across Mac and Android. Collectively, a series of adjustments gave Chrome a 10% increase on Apple’s Speedometer 2.1 browser benchmark over the course of three months, Google says.

The changes involve a range of tweaks from improved caching to better memory management, the company notes. This includes things like improved caching and better memory management. While not everyone will care about the technical details as to how the speed improvements were accomplished, many will care to see their browser get faster.

Despite user complaints over the years about Chrome’s growing sluggishness, Google’s browser still runs away with a large majority of the web browser market share. Per Statcounter’s March 2023 statistics, for example, Chrome is pulling in 64.8% of global market share, while its next closest rival, Safari, is at just 19.5% across all platforms. On the desktop alone, Chrome’s share is even higher — 65.8%, trailed by 11.12% for Edge then 10.91% for Safari.

Image Credits: Google

In a blog post, Google explained exactly what sort of tweaks it made to achieve the new milestone.

It said it found some targeted optimizations for the highly-used JS `Object.prototype.toString` and `Array.prototype.join` functions, specifically. It also implemented targeted improvements in CSS’s InterpolableColor. Additionally, the company noted that `innerHTML` is a common way of updating the DOM via JavaScript so it introduced specialized fast paths for parsing.

Another improvement involved more efficient pointer compression and involves better memory management techniques. This one impacts operations that take place frequently, leading to a more widespread performance boost. The post also talks about the relocation of frequently accessed objects — like JavaScript’s `undefined` — to the beginning of the memory bases, where they can be accessed with faster machine code.

If none of those details matter to you, this might: at least one of the improvements Google made will also benefit WebKit, the browser engine developed by Apple and used in Safari and will be included in that engine, too. That means even more web browser users may see improvements, not just Chrome users.

Google says it just made Chrome a lot faster on both Mac and Android by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google’s Android development cycle runs on a rather predictable cadence these days. Today, after two developer previews, the company launched the first of four planned public beta releases of Android 14. As with previous versions, the first beta is also the first release that anyone can install over-the-air, assuming they have a supported Pixel device, going back to the Pixel 4a 5G (but not the Pixel 4).

There’s no official support for non-Google phones yet. As always, keep in mind that these are betas for a reason and still mostly meant for developers who want to test their apps against this new version and early adopters who just can’t wait for the stable release. Things can — and will – break.

Image Credits: Google

For the most part, there aren’t many new features in this beta version, though there are two user-facing UI updates worth calling out. The first is a new back arrow (yes – we’ve reached the point in mobile OS history where new back arrows are pretty much the most exciting thing). As Google notes, the gesture navigation experience now “includes a more prominent back arrow while interacting with an app to help improve back gesture understanding and usefulness.” This arrow will match your wallpaper or device theme. Exciting stuff.

Developers will now also be able to add custom actions to the system sharesheet, and the sharesheet will now be smarter about how it ranks your sharing targets.

Otherwise, there isn’t all that much new here. Per-app language settings are here, as are Google’s previously announced new privacy settings.

I expect we’ll hear a bit more about what’s new in Android 14 — and see more user-facing features — at Google I/O next month. For now, though, this appears to be another evolutionary release.

Image Credits: Google

Google launches the first public beta of Android 14 by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

About a year ago, Google announced its Assured Open Source Software (Assured OSS) service, a service that helps developers defend against supply chain security attacks by regularly scanning and analyzing some of the world’s most popular software libraries for vulnerabilities. Today, Google is launching Assured OSS into general availability with support for well over a thousand Java and Python packages — and while Google didn’t initially disclose pricing when it first announced the service, the company has now revealed that it will be available for free.

Software development has long depended on third-party libraries (which are often maintained by only a single developer), but it wasn’t until the industry got hit with a number of high-profile exploits that everyone (including the White House) perked up and started taking software supply chain security seriously. Now, you can’t attend an open source conference without hearing about Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs), artifact registries and similar topics. It’s no surprise then that Google, which has long been at the forefront of releasing open-source products, launched a service like Assured OSS.

Google promises that it will constantly keep these libraries up to date (without creating forks) and continuously scan for known vulnerabilities, do fuzz tests to discover new ones and then fix these issues and contribute these fixes back upstream. The company notes that when it first launched the service with around 250 Java libraries, it was responsible for discovering 48% of the new CVEs for these libraries and subsequently addressing them.

“As organizations increasingly utilize OSS for faster development cycles, they need trusted sources of secure open source packages,” said Melinda Marks, senior analyst, ESG. “Without proper vetting and verification or metadata to help track OSS access and usage, organizations risk exposure to potential security vulnerabilities and other risks in their software supply chain. By partnering with a trusted supplier, organizations can mitigate these risks and ensure the integrity of their software supply chain to better protect their business applications.”

Developers and organizations that want to use the new service can sign up here and then integrate Assured OSS into their existing development pipeline.

Google’s free Assured Open Source Software service hits GA by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” report. However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to 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.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Top Stories

DUB DUB Returns

Image Credits: Apple

As expected, Apple announced its plans for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The big event will return to Apple Park in Cupertino on June 5-9. However, the event looks like it will still be another scaled-down version, similar to last year, with its keynote and State of the Union again livestreamed.

Apple also noted it will host a special all-day event for developers and students on June 5. And, as in previous years, developers will be able to meet some of the teams at Apple, celebrate top apps at the Apple Design Awards ceremony and enjoy various evening activities. Student developers will also participate in a Swift Student Challenge competition, which could win them WWDC23 outerwear, AirPods Pro, a customized pin set and a one-year membership to the Apple Developer Program. The deadline to apply is April 19.

The company will continue to post WWDC announcements leading up to and during the conference, so keep an eye on your inboxes and the Apple Developer app for updates.

The big question on everyone’s minds is whether or not Apple will present its AR/VR headset during WWDC this year. Various reports have suggested mass production on the device has been pushed back a couple of months to the third quarter of 2023. Plus, a concerning report by The New York Times indicated the device is among the first to generate rare, internal dissent among Apple employees — some of whom don’t believe it’s a fit for the company. Expected to be priced at $3,000, some are worried about its utility and the still unproven market. Still, Bloomberg is betting on a headset reveal and the accompanying xrOS software.

The company will also likely introduce the latest updates to its existing OS lineup, including iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, macOS 14 and tvOS 17. Not much is known about these coming releases except that iOS 17 is codenamed Dawn and will include several of users’ “most-requested” features.

ByteDance pushes another social app, Lemon8, into the App Store’s Top Charts as a TikTok ban looms

Image Credits: Lemon8

As U.S. lawmakers moved forward with their plans for a TikTok ban or forced sale, the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, began driving another of its social platforms into the Top Charts of the U.S. App Store. The ByteDance-owned app Lemon8, an Instagram rival that describes itself as a “lifestyle community,” jumped into the U.S. App Store’s Top Charts on Monday, becoming the No. 10 Overall app, across both apps and games. By the next day, it ranked No. 9 on the App Store’s Top Apps chart, excluding games.

This is a dramatic chart climb for the little-known app and one that points to paid user acquisition efforts powering this surge. Prior to Monday, the Lemon8 app had never before ranked in the Top 200 Overall Charts in the U.S., according to app store intelligence provided to TechCrunch by data.ai.

The firm confirmed that such a quick move from being an unranked app to being No. 9 among the top free apps in the U.S. — ahead of YouTube, WhatsApp, Gmail and Facebook — implies a “significant” and “recent” user acquisition push on the app publisher’s part.

The app was launched globally back in March 2020 but was only more recently launched on the U.S. App Store, seemingly for testing purposes. Over the past few days this week, it was more “officially” launched — that is, it was accompanied by the clearly sizable spend on paid discovery or app install ads. Globally, Lemon8 had 16 million total installs, Apptopia’s data indicates, with Japan as its largest market.

To push the app up the charts, ByteDance simply leveraged its own channels with influencer reviews on TikTok. Across a number of undisclosed ads, many creators began posting about Lemon8, with their new videos appearing in just the 24 hours prior to the app’s skyrocketing. Most of the reviews used similar language, describing the app as “cute” and a mix of “Pinterest and Instagram.” The creators didn’t tell their followers they were being paid to boost Lemon8.

Despite these efforts, Lemon8 may not be a viable backup plan for a TikTok ban, as lawmakers could consider a wide-ranging set of restrictions on Chinese tech, including on mobile applications far beyond TikTok alone.

Twitter alternative T2 capitalizes on Twitter’s plan to kill legacy verification, hires from Discord

As Twitter begins its shift to a “pay to play” business model, a new Twitter alternative is preparing to take flight. T2, the seed-funded Twitter rival developed by Google and Twitter veterans, is ready to capitalize on Twitter’s upheaval with the launch of a verification program specifically targeting those who are poised to lose their checkmark under Elon Musk’s new Twitter policies. T2 also this week announced a notable new hire with the addition of Discord’s former Senior Director of Engineering Michael Greer as its new chief technology officer (CTO).

Greer joined Discord in 2017, initially as director of Engineering, which touched on a number of areas, including revenue, growth, apps, community servers, design systems, messaging and more. He was promoted to senior director of Engineering just last June. Prior to Discord, Greer worked as the CTO at Tapp Media and The Onion for multiyear stints. At T2, Greer will now oversee the development team and guide the company’s technical growth.

Image Credits: T2 screenshot

Also this week, T2 debuted a new verification process with the launch of its “Get the Checkmark” program timed to correspond to Twitter’s removal of legacy verification checkmarks across all users who aren’t paying for the Twitter Blue subscription. Twitter said its own checkmark removals will begin on April 1st and will include removing the verification from organizations and individuals who had previously qualified as “notable” under the company’s prior rules. Ahead of this change, T2 users who are legacy Twitter checkmark holders can claim their T2 checkmark by filling out this form and then following the subsequent email instructions which involve communicating with T2 via Twitter DM or reply.

After April 1 (or whenever legacy checks actually disappear), will switch over to a new verification flow. For now, while the app is small and in closed testing, this will involve chatting directly with a T2 representative. (A process that would make it very hard for bots to be verified!) Later on, T2 plans to scale this verification using in-app identity and selfie checks. These will be designated as “T2 Authenticated” profiles and will have the standard verified check, not the ruffled edge version of the previously Twitter verified crowd.

Too bad T2 still requires an invite to get in — this is clever marketing!

Platforms

Apple

• Apple released the first betas of iOS 16.5, iPadOS 16.5, tvOS 16.5, watchOS 9.5 and macOS 13.4, shortly after the rollout of iOS 16.4. The beta includes the ability to use Siri to start and stop screen recordings, references to a multi-view mode in Apple TV and the introduction of a Sports section within Apple News, among other things.
• The iOS 16.4 update introduces a number of features, including a set of new emoji, voice isolation mode cellular calls, web push notifications for web apps pinned to the Home Screen, support for unfurling preview cards for Mastodon links (!!!) in iMessage and other apps, and various Apple Music tweaks, among other things.

• Meanwhile, iPadOS 16.4 brings new Pencil hover features. By hovering a Pencil 2 up to 12 millimeters above the new iPad Pro’s screen, you’re able to view line and line width and color previews, along with the ability to choose drawing implements in Markup.
• Apple reminded developers that starting on April 25, 2023, iOS, iPadOS and watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 14.1 or later. Xcode 14, which includes the latest SDKs, is a free download on the Mac App Store.
• Apple launched Apple Pay Later, a payment option that lets you split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments over six weeks without interest or late fees. However, the feature isn’t yet broadly available, despite its public debut. Instead, Apple said it will invite randomly selected users to access a pre-release version before rolling it out to all eligible users in the coming months.

Android

• Google won partial relief in its Android antitrust case in India. A tribunal court set aside four out of 10 directives, including the need to allow third-party app stores within Play Store and restrictions around the uninstallation of pre-installed apps by users. However, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal upheld the $161 million penalty levied on Google by the local watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
• PayPal introduced Android support for Passkeys, a quick new way to sign into PayPal. This password-free login system is backed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, the FIDO alliance and others. Android mobile device users in the U.S. running the Android 9+ OS can create a passkey for their PayPal personal account using the Chrome browser. The feature is rolling out as of March 23 and is becoming more broadly available over time.

App Updates

AI

• Snap said it’s seeking AI experts for its Safety Advisory Board. The company had clearly put the cart before the horse with its implementation of AI in its new chatbot. While chatting with a Washington Post columnist pretending to be a teen, the bot allegedly advised the columnist about hiding pot and alcohol at a birthday party. In addition, researchers at the Center for Humane Technology found that the bot gave sex advice to a user pretending to be 13 years old. Snap recently said it was working on giving parents more control around teens’ use of the My AI chatbot — another thing it should have done before, you know, launching the thing.
• Microsoft already slipped ads into Bing. The company said it was exploring putting ads in the responses given by Bing Chat, its new search agent powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 which is available on the desktop web and Bing mobile app.

Social

Image Credits: Flipboard

• Magazine app Flipboard is integrating Mastodon in its Android application, as the company broadens its commitment to the federated social web. The feature allows users to browse a feed of short updates from the people they follow, reply to, like and boost posts, as well as click on hashtags to follow discussions, among other things. As on iPhone, where the functionality launched first, Android users can find the new feature by navigating over the accounts section and then logging in with their Mastodon credentials for the instance they’re on. And if the user doesn’t yet have a Mastodon account, they can request access to join Flipboard’s own server from here.
• Twitter unveiled new API pricing, weeks after initially announcing its plan to shut down its free API. Now, there will be three new tiers for developers: a “Free” tier with 1,500 tweets per month, a $100 per month “Basic” tier with expanded access and an “Enterprise” tier that reportedly costs $42,000 per month. Many developers, including Twitter bot makers, are unhappy with the changes as they won’t be able to afford the access needed to run their smaller projects.
• Twitter will remove the legacy checkmarks on April 1st. Afterward, only Twitter Blue verified accounts will appear on the algorithmic “For You” timeline starting April 15.
• Twitter also open sourced some of its code on GitHub, including its algorithm for tweet recommendations on the For You feed, but not its ad recommendation algorithm.
• Meta will allow Facebook and Instagram users to opt out of tracking in Europe, according to The WSJ and confirmed by Meta. Users will be able to opt for a version of the service where they’re only targeted with ads based on broader categories, like age and location. The changes follow multiple multimillion-dollar fines in the EU.
• Reddit said it removed 473% more subreddits in 2022 and permanently suspended 244% more accounts for violations of its non-consensual intimate imagery policies.
• Snap’s head of growth and previously longtime product head Jacob Andreou announced he will be leaving the company in May after eight years to join Greylock as a general partner.

Media & Entertainment

• YouTube expanded its Analytics for Artists tool with the addition of YouTube Shorts-related data to the “Total Reach” metric, which gives artists and their teams an overview of how their music is reaching audiences across YouTube. Before this, the Total Reach metric only included official content uploaded by the artists and long-form videos uploaded by fans. Now it will include Shorts, too.
• Spotify was spotted testing out new card-style user profiles that offer the ability for users to establish more of a social identity on the platform in addition to providing easy access to Spotify’s unique features — like its personalized recommendations, Blend playlists, co-listening experiences and more.

Image Credits: Chris Messina via Twitter (opens in a new window)

• Spotify launched new personalized playlists called Niche Mixes that let you create mixes based on just a few words of description in the Search tab. For instance, you could type in an “activity, vibe or aesthetic,” the company notes, then append the word “mix” to generate the custom playlist. For example, you could make a “feel good morning mix,” “90s running mix” or “driving singalong mix.” The feature is available to all free and premium users in English.
• While the U.S. government debates TikTok’s future, the video app announced a new product called Branded Effects aimed at businesses. The solution will allow brands to collaborate with TikTok effect creators to design custom effects — like AR experiences and other interactive features — to accompany their online campaigns and marketing efforts.

Gaming

• Netflix appears to be working to bring its games to the TV with the iPhone as a controller. New code discovered inside the Netflix app is set to ask the user: “A game on your TV needs a controller to play. Do you want to use this phone as a game controller?” Netflix declined to comment on its plans.
• Pokémon GO fans are upset over changes to the pricing of Remote Raid Passes. The game’s maker Niantic said the cost of these items will nearly double to 195 coins for one pass or 525 coins for three passes. Previously, one pass was 100 coins (about $1) and three passes were 250 coins (about $2.50). Plus, players will only be able to participate in five raids per day. The pricing changes suggest the company is facing economic headwinds. Niantic has not been successful in translating its AR platform to other titles to create another hit as big as Pokémon GO.
• In Epic Games’ antitrust case against Google, lawyers for the plaintiffs submitted a number of exhibits to demonstrate Google employees’ tendency to switch off chat history on internal discussions. Epic believes this behavior is meant to destroy sensitive communications related to its Fortnite lawsuit. Shortly after the new filing, a federal judge ruled that Google’s failure to preserve messages requires sanctions. The judge is requiring Google to pay attorney fees and is debating what other non-monetary sanctions will be needed.

Fintech

• Block said on Thursday it had verified 44 million of its over 51 million monthly active users through its identity program as of December 31. The statement was made following an investigative report from short seller Hindenburg Research, which claimed 40-75% of Cash App accounts they reviewed were fake, committing fraud or were additional accounts belonging to a single individual.

Etc.

• Google Fi subscribers can finally use 5G on the iPhone. The support requires the new iOS 16.4 update on an iPhone 12 or newer, then the phone has to be switched over to 5G Auto in cellular settings.
• Google Search, including its mobile search app, will now include extreme heat alerts that will tell users when a heat wave is expected to start along with tips to help users stay cool.
• Lyft’s co-founders, CEO Logan Green and president John Zimmer, are stepping down. Green on April 17 and Zimmer on June 30. Ex-Amazon exec David Risher will be the new CEO.
• OverDrive, a longtime digital reading companion used by library patrons, will be shutting down for good. After announcing its plans to sunset the app and removing it from app stores last year, the company now says that OverDrive will fully shut down on May 1, 2023. Readers will be directed to use the newer digital app Libby instead.

Security Concerns

• Two targeted spyware campaigns involving several zero-day exploits for Android, iOS and mobile versions of the Chrome browser were detailed by researchers from Google’s Threat Analysis Group. Hackers were able to install a tool that allowed them to track the location of devices in Italy, Malaysia and Kazakhstan.
• A Washington Post report warns that many of the most popular VPN services and apps have misled users about their practices while also disguising their origins, ownership and locations. It noted also that many of these apps are based in China or controlled by Chinese nationals.

Funding and M&A

• New York City-based LeapXpert, which monitors employee communications with customers and co-workers across chat apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and WeChat, raised $22 million in Series A funding led by Rockefeller Asset Management.
• Indian fintech PhonePe will no longer be acquiring BNPL service ZestMoney, in a deal that was set to be between $200-300 million. The M&A was called off over due diligence concerns.
• YC and Foundation Capital-backed meditation app Simple Habit was acquired by wellness marketplace company Ingenio for an undisclosed sum. Simple Habit will rebrand itself to Sleep Reset as a result of the deal.
• Autio, a location-based audio entertainment app co-founded by actor Kevin Costner (previously known as HearHere), raised a $5.9 million seed extension led by iHeartMedia.
• Cabify — the Madrid-based platform that competes against Uber in Spain and Latin America — announced $110 million in funding. However, the exact breakdown of the funding is unclear. The figure includes a €40 million loan from the European Investment Bank announced in December 2022 and the proceeds of a funding round of an unconfirmed amount that Cabify secured in July 2022.

Downloads

Perplexity AI

Image Credits: Perplexity on the App Store

AI search startup Perplexity AI this week announced $25.6 million in a new funding round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The San Francisco-based company is one of now several hoping to challenge Google by offering users a new way to ask and get answers to their everyday system. Notably, Perplexity’s CEO worked previously as a researcher at DeepMind and the Google Brain project. That connection has brought some half dozen AI researchers at Google and DeepMind as investors, including SVP for Research and AI, Jeff Dean. While Perplexity launched in December, it’s been recently gaining more traction, Bloomberg reported, with February’s 13 million visits more than double that of January’s.

However, the company’s mobile app only launched this past week (March 28), offering a way for iPhone users to get instant answers on any topic with up-to-date (and cited!) sources. You can also ask the chatbot follow-up questions and engage with the app using either typing or your voice. Plus, you can keep your thread history to pick up where you left off. Noted one App Store review, “this really is too good to be true,” noting that the app was free to use despite all the functionality — making it a possible threat to OpenAI.

Apple Music Classical

Image Credits: Apple

Apple’s new app for classical music, Apple Music Classical, is now available as a free download for Apple Music subscribers. At launch, the service will be available globally, except in select markets, including China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Taiwan and Turkey. However, Apple says it will arrive in these countries at some point in the future.

The company said that there are more than 5 million tracks available on the app right now, as well over 50+ million data points with data attributes of 20,000+ composers, 115,000+ unique works and 350,000+ movements. This data helps Apple Music subscribers find recordings across the catalog through the app’s specialized search engine built for classical music.

As Apple explains, classical works have multiple movements and tracks, while famous pieces have hundreds of recordings with different orchestras, conductors and soloists. In addition, many composers have their own special catalog classifications, which means classical music search has to be built differently with these complexities in mind. Because of these challenges, it’s been difficult to find classical works on traditional music streaming apps.

In the new app, users can search for works using keyword combinations that include composer, work, opus number, conductor, artist, instrument or even the work’s name. Plus, when you look up a work on the app, you’ll find all its associated recordings as well as a hand-picked “Editor’s Choice” performance. Apple Music Classical’s editors created over 700 playlists to guide listeners through 800 years of music and plans to add more over time.

Arc’s mobile browser companion app

Image Credits: Arc

A buzzy new desktop web browser Arc has been rethinking how browsers should work. However, with the launch of its mobile app this week, Arc opted not to create another browser to compete with Safari. Instead, its app serves mainly as a mobile companion to Arc, offering users access to their Spaces and tabs from Arc for Mac while on the go, as well as the ability to save links from other apps to read later, and a way to view your saved Easels (a scrapbooking feature) and Notes. Arc is interesting because it’s trying to reimagine a basic part of everyday computing with an eye on the future — and it has a lot of fans. However, its focus is scattered, trying to solve many problems at once at the same time it’s inventing new tools to use, like its web scrapbooks which feels more like a standalone product idea that’s been mashed into a browser. The real test for Arc will be when it exits its private beta testing and opens to the wider public.

This Week in Apps: WWDC23, ByteDance pushes Lemon8 ahead of TikTok ban, T2 capitalizes on Twitter chaos by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

In a new filing in Epic Games’ antitrust case against Google, lawyers for the plaintiffs have submitted a number of exhibits that attempt to demonstrate Google employees’ tendency to switch off chat history on internal discussions. Epic believes this behavior is meant to destroy sensitive communications related to its lawsuit, but it’s not the only one making this claim. The issue with Google’s deletion of chat history was also recently cited by the U.S. Department of Justice in its own antitrust investigation, where it alleged Google had for years “routinely destroyed” an entire category of communication.

That makes the new discovery of communications where Google employees often instructed others to turn off chat all the more interesting.

In one particularly notable instance, Google CEO Sundar Pichai asked for the chat history to be turned off and then tried to unsuccessfully delete the preceding message. It’s not clear, however, from the exhibit shared with the court, that the topic of the conversation would have had bearing on Epic’s antitrust case against the tech giant.

However, in other chats, Google employees were found to be asking others to switch off chat history when discussing more potentially relevant matters, like Revenue Share Agreement (RSA) contracts, Mobile App Distribution Agreements and a topic called “Project Runway,” which was the internal codename for a project that involved changing the Google Play commission rate in response to developer complaints and the threat of regulation.

In another example, Google’s Head of Platforms & Ecosystems Strategy for Android, Margaret Lam, remarks “I talk about RSA related things all day and I don’t have have history on for all my chats :),” after another employee had informed her that any conversation about RSA needed to have chat history turned on “per policy.”

“We cannot delete it. I am also on multiple legal hold,” the employee advised her, to which she responded, “Ok maybe I take you off this convo,” followed by a laughing face emoji. When pressed as to why she was going against the company training on the matter, Lam said “it’s just causing more touchpoints on my end,” then added she would ping others directly — seemingly a choice meant to route around the chats with history, rather than allowing the conversation to be documented.

In other conversations, Lam is spotted again asking employees to turn off history, the exhibits show.

In a separate 2021 conversation, one Google employee asks another if they can discuss Project Runway and was reminded to “communicate with care” because everything said would be subject to discovery if there were any regulatory or legal proceedings in the future.” They were also reminded that group chats can’t have history turned off, “unlike 1:1 chat threads where you can turn off history and they disappear in 24 hours.”

Another couple of conversations features Google VP Tian Lim (who has since changed jobs to join Roblox) asking to turn chat history off. But the same employee had testified on January 12, 2023, that he had made “a good-faith effort to comply with obligations to preserve chat communications that were subject to the legal hold.”

Of course, it’s again not clear from the filings that Lim’s subsequent conversations would have been relevant to Epic’s case, but the point of these exhibits is to raise the question as to why switching off chat was such a common practice.

Epic originally filed suit against Google over the alleged antitrust violations in August 2020, shortly after it forced Google to remove its Fortnite mobile game from the Play Store by intentionally violating Google Play policies around in-app purchases. (The company had done the same thing with Apple, but both parties were unhappy with the outcome of that case, which is now in the hands of an appeals court.) As most of the chats submitted in this new discovery are from the following year, it would have been clear to Google employees by then that a litigation hold on their conversations was necessary.

That said, across the 35 new exhibits featuring various Google employees discussing when or if to turn off chat history, or asking others to do so, it’s not clear that they were actively planning to discuss Epic Games or its antitrust claims, specifically. Instead, it appears the Google employees were having business-related conversations that may or not have ultimately been relevant to the case — something it will be hard at this point to determine, as many chats had been moved to off-the-record locations.

What the records attempt to show is that many at Google had a habit of switching off chat history or shifting conversations to places where they couldn’t be tracked. However, it will be up to a judge to determine whether or not Google should be sanctioned for this behavior. But the judge’s determination could then be referenced in the DoJ case against Google, which is making similar claims about Google’s alleged destruction of evidence.  

Google has been asked for comment.

Epic Games produces documents in antitrust case showing Googlers avoiding its litigation hold by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” report. However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to 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.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Top Stories

TikTok tries to avoid a ban in U.S. congressional hearing

Image Credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Thursday’s testimony by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew before the U.S. House Committee on Energy & Commerce was largely unproductive. Representatives were often more interested in sharing their own opinions, posturing and shouting over the CEO’s answers to their questions, rather than attempting to learn any real intel about how TikTok works or what it does to protect its youngest users from harm.

Overall, it seemed the hearing was more for show than any sort of fact-finding mission — these reps already had their minds made up, for the most part, about whether or not the app should be banned.

During the hearing, however, a few legitimate questions were raised that had troubling responses. On the matter of Project Texas — TikTok’s plan to move all U.S. user data off of its own servers over to Oracle servers in the U.S. — it wasn’t clear how that would fully separate TikTok from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. As one line of questioning pointed out, TikTok employees use an internal software program known as Lark — a sort of Chinese Slack — to communicate with their ByteDance colleagues. TikTok’s CEO reports to ByteDance’s CEO, Liang Rubo. Chew also admitted that even under Project Texas there were exceptions that would allow data to leave the country for “interoperability purposes” and he would have to “get back to your team” on the specifics there. And when directly questioned about what sort of other software or IT services would still connect TikTok to ByteDance under Project Texas, Chew again said he would have to “get back to you” with his answers.

Image Credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In addition, the exec couldn’t confirm where TikTok sells its data. Chew said he didn’t “believe” they sold to data brokers, but said he would have to “get back” to Congress on who they may actually sell to.

While Chew may be correct that today’s TikTok isn’t doing more data collection than U.S. social giants, it’s being held to different standards. As a Chinese company with its hands on this data, there’s the potential for the CCP to meddle in TikTok’s operations, the politicians believe. Though that may not have happened yet, there is a threat posed by China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which compels businesses to assist in intelligence-gathering operations, if asked. TikTok claims it wouldn’t comply, but how could it not, if ByteDance is its parent?

The House reps also asked a range of questions about minor safety. Ironically, it was TikTok that led the way in this area by being the first of the big social apps in the U.S. to roll out in-app parental controls and lock down teen accounts. Still, dangerous challenges have proliferated on its platform (though Meta was later revealed to have had a hand in which ones made the news!). And like other algorithmic-based platforms, there’s always a danger that its recommendations could surface harmful content at times.

However, some of the dangers of social media aren’t unique to TikTok alone. Social media usage overall is contributing to increased anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction, disordered eating and other troubles, including suicide ideation, which is why it needs regulation or at least some basic guidelines. But today’s politicians don’t seem to be able to do the hard work of actually getting laws passed in this area, despite their bipartisan interest in doing so. They’d rather put on a show in Congress to make themselves look good to their potential voters so they can win their next election.

OpenAI launches ChatGPT plugins, and some of your favorite apps are already on board

OpenAI this week launched plugins for ChatGPT, which allow the bot to access third-party databases and other sources of knowledge, including those on the web. The company said it would start with a small set of users before rolling out access to the still now alpha stage product more broadly. OpenAI is also hosting its own plugins, including a web browser and code interpreter and is now extending plugin access to developers on its waitlist.

A number of companies consumers know and love have already built plugins for ChatGPT, including Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram and Zapier. For example, OpenTable’s plugin can search across restaurants for available bookings, while the Instacart plugin can place orders from local stores.

To get started, users pick a plugin to enable when they start a conversation on chat.openai.com. In a demo on OpenAI’s website, it shows a user asking in plain language for “one great restaurant suggestion on Saturday” and ” a simple recipe for Sunday” involving vegan food. The OpenTable plugin finds a local restaurant with a reservation, then follows detailed requests for returning the recipe info and ordering ingredients on Instacart. (If only this technology was available in Siri!) It’s easy to imagine a future where you could one day interact with these services through AI commands, not by tapping around on apps’ screens. And being able to talk naturally to the AI could make services easier to use for everyone, not just the technically inclined.

Microsoft plans a mobile games store

Microsoft is betting that incoming tech regulations will allow it a way to compete in the mobile gaming market alongside Apple and Google (and likely Epic Games, if things go its way). In an interview with the Financial Times this week, Microsoft gaming head Phil Spencer noted that the EU’s Digital Market Act (DMA) is expected to go into effect next March, which would allow companies to load their own app stores on Apple and Android devices. And Microsoft wants to do just that.

“We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play,” Spencer told the FT.

Microsoft had already hinted at its plans to launch an Xbox-branded mobile game store that would leverage content from Activision Blizzard — assuming that deal gains regulatory approval. The game maker’s IP could help Microsoft seed a new game store thanks to its titles like Call of Duty Mobile and those from the Candy Crush franchise. Microsoft has also acquired a number of gaming studios over the past several years, including Ninja Theory, Playground Games and Bethesda owner Zenimax Media.

If things progress as planned, the mobile apps and games market could have an entirely different shape in the years ahead. Netflix is also seemingly betting on this change, prepping its own vast library of games that come with a Netflix membership. For the time being, the games are just a perk of membership, but if one day Netflix could launch its own games store and fill it with titles, it seems it may choose to expand to paid games as well.

Platforms

Google

• Google says it prevented over $2 billion in fraudulent and abusive transactions via Play Commerce last year, in an update likely designed to convince developers to not switch to third-party billing.
• Google took down hundreds of loan apps from the Play Store in Kenya following the launch of a new policy, which requires digital lenders in the East African country to submit proof of a license to operate. The new policy went into effect in January.
• Samsung said its devices will get up to four generations of One UI and Android OS upgrades. The company had previously promised 3 upgrades. The expanded commitment will be offered on select Galaxy S series, Z series smartphones, A Series and tablets.
• Three large Android manufacturers in China — Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo — announced a partnership to make it easier to switch devices. The companies will offer a migration tool that will help consumers in China move their files and other phone data between the companies’ various smartphone models.
• Google flagged several apps made by Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo as malware, alerted users who had the apps installed and suspended the company’s official app for security concerns while it investigates. Google Play Protect, the Android security mechanism, was also set to block users from installing the malicious apps.

Apple

• Apple issues the Release Candidate versions of iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, watchOS 9.4, tvOS 16.4 and macOS Ventura 13.3.
• Apple’s iOS 16.4 includes new features like voice isolation for calls, which “prioritizes your voice and blocks out ambient noise around you,” says Apple’s release notes. It also sees the return of Apple Books’ curling animation and brings duplicate detection to iCloud Shared Photo Libraries.
• Code in the iOS 16.4 beta also leaked what seem to be references to new AirPods and Beats earphones.
• Apple fixed a bug that was allowing some Apple Music users to see other people’s playlists in their libraries.

App Updates

AI

• Adobe embraces generative AI. The company this week launched its new Firefly family of generative AI models and generative AI tools aimed at marketers, with its enterprise offering, Adobe Sensei Generative AI Services. Firefly offers a model designed to generate images and text effects from descriptions. The model will soon be able to create content across Adobe apps, including Express, Photoshop, Illustrator and Adobe Experience Manager after being given a text prompt. For now, it’s web-only while in beta.

Image Credits: Adobe  

• According to a new analysis of the AI app ecosystem from analytics provider data.ai, consumers this year have now spent more than $14 million in the 10 highest-earning apps that advertise their use of ChatGPT or OpenAI technologies. In February 2023, these 10 apps combined accounted for nearly $5.9 million in global consumer spending, the firm says. And within the first 20 days of March, the apps were averaging $232,000 in daily consumer spending, up 11% from the average of $210,000 in February.

Image Credits: data.ai

Social

• Snap unveiled a new business, AR Enterprise Services, which offers the company’s AR Lenses and Filters to brands. The SaaS business includes Snap tech like AR try-on, a 3D product viewer, Snap’s SDK for AR experiences, and more. Snap will work with clients to help customize their solutions, which can also be integrated directly into the business’ own apps and websites. The company says 250+ million people out of its 375 million daily active users now engage with AR on Snapchat.

• Twitter this week announced a number of changes and updates, including the global rollout of Twitter Blue, and a plan to kill legacy check marks on April 1st (April Fools?). It also quietly discontinued features like tipping and coins, apparently, as some report the creator-focused features are no longer functioning.
• Twitter was also spotted testing government ID-based verification.
• New data indicates Twitter Blue had 385,000+ subscribers on iOS and Android and made $11 million on mobile in its first three months after the Elon Musk-led relaunch. In the U.S., Twitter Blue pulled in around $8 million from 246,000 U.S. subscribers.
• Instagram announced a new plan to integrate ads into its search results. In the test, ads will show up in the feed that people scroll when they tap into a post from search results. The ads will roll out globally in the months ahead and will be labeled “Sponsored” under the account’s name. It’s also launching Reminder Ads that make it easier for businesses to announce, remind and notify people of future events or launches that they may be interested in.

Image Credits: Instagram

• Ahead of its congressional hearing, TikTok rolled out updates to its community guidelines. The company said it overhauled the guidelines to make them easier to understand, and added new policies on AI and climate misinformation. Plus, it added more detail about its existing policies regarding civil and election integrity, age restrictions and expanded a section covering deepfakes.
• TikTok also announced it had 150 million MAUs in the U.S., up from 100 million in August 2021. The company has over 1 billion MAUs globally.

Gaming

• Epic Games announced new animation tools that make it possible to create realistic facial animations using video captured from an iPhone, the Verge reported from GDC. The tools are an expansion of the company’s MetaHuman creator tools first introduced in 2021.
• Epic also launched its Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) on the Epic Games Store as a public beta. The software includes many of the same tools Epic uses to create Fortnite, it said.
• Plus, Epic announced it will now share 40% of Fortnite revenue with anyone who designs “islands” in the game, which includes the money the company earns from its in-game currency V-Bucks.

• Roblox rolled out new AI tools, including Code Assistant, which allows game creators to use text prompts to create code, and Material Generators for creating 2D surfaces in games.
• Netflix announced plans to release 40 more games this year and add Monument Valley to its lineup in 2024. Among the new titles are Ubisoft’s Mighty Quest: Rogue Palace, an unnamed Super Evil Megacorp game, and others. Monument Valley’s addition is interesting as that means the game will still be a paid download for non-Nextflix members and available through subscription on Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass.

Productivity / Learning

• Microsoft debuted Loop, a Notion competitor that offers a hub for managing tasks and projects that also syncs across Microsoft 365 apps and workspaces on the web. The debut version is available to users with a Microsoft Account or Azure Active Directory account, but will “soon” arrive on iOS and Android.

• Duolingo, a language learning app with over 500 million users, is working on a music app, TechCrunch learned. A job description seemingly confirms this plan, as it describes a candidate who is an “expert in music education who combines both theoretical knowledge of relevant learning science research and hands-on teaching experience.”

Messaging

• WhatsApp announced a new Windows client that brings performance improvements and better calling features. The app will allow for video calls with up to eight people and audio calls with up to 32 people, similar to its mobile counterpart. The company also said it will increase the number of people allowed in group calls going forward.
• WhatsApp also updated its Communities product with new controls for group admins that give them the ability to decide who is able to join a group. It will also now make it easier to see which groups you have in common with someone.

Image Credits: WhatsApp

Commerce

• YouTube is closing down live social shopping app Simsim less than two years after its acquisition. The startup helped small businesses in India transition to video-based e-commerce.
• DoorDash added new retail partners Lush Cosmetics, Victoria’s Secret and Party City and rolled out new shopping features to help consumers more easily find in-stock items, schedule deliveries and make substitutions. It also added support for cash in its white-label service for restaurants (not its main app).

Entertainment

• Spotify’s still relatively new audiobooks service expanded to Canada, bringing the experience to both English and French-speaking customers. The service now has 350,000 titles available and is live in the U.S. and other English-speaking markets.
• Twitch said it’s laying off 400 employees as part of parent company Amazon’s larger plan to lay off 9,000 workers across divisions, including AWS and advertising.

Government, Policy and Lawsuits

• Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox signed two bills that regulate social media apps, making it the first U.S. state to impose restrictions on the industry. The lack of federal regulation will likely see more states take the same path, which could become a massive headache for compliance, as each state’s rules may differ. Utah’s new regulations say that social media companies will have to age-verify all users, receive parents’ permission before minors can open social media accounts, restrict minors’ usage of social media from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am unless a parent changes the settings, limit personal data collection from minors and allow parents to access a minor’s accounts, including all their posts and private messages. Fines can be imposed for non-compliance. We guess Utah teens will be returning to texting pretty soon!
• The subscription economy may be headed for a crackdown. The FTC this week proposed a “click to cancel” rule that would require sellers offering subscriptions to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up. Watch out, Match and every meal delivery service ever invented!

Funding and M&A

Image Credits: Flash

• Newly launched Indian startup Flash offers a mobile app where consumers can create an email to be used on all shopping sites, allowing them to earn coupons and cash back instead of bogging down their inbox. The company raised $5.8 million in seed funding from a number of investors, including Global Founders Capital (GFC), White Venture Capital and Zinal Growth, and others.
• OP3N, a startup described as the “Web3 version of WhatsApp meets Amazon,” and makers of blockchain chat app Superapp, raised $28 million in Series A funding, valuing the company at $100 million. The round was led by Animoca Brands and included Dragonfly Capital, SuperScrypt, Creative Artists Agency and NEA’s Connect Ventures, Republic Crypto, Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund, Galaxy Digital and Warner Music Interactive.
• Snap quietly acquired Amsterdam-based 3D-scanning studio Th3rd in the second quarter of last year. The startup’s tech and team are helping with Snap’s AR efforts.

Downloads

Zigazoo

Image Credits: Zigazoo

Hoping to capitalize on the TikTok drama this week, startup Zigazoo announced the launch of a TikTok-like app for Gen Z users. The company previously offered a similar video app for Gen Alpha kids, but is now expanding to older teens. Its new Gen Z-focused app is a video thread-style platform, but unlike TikTok, it doesn’t allow users to comment. Instead, users can only respond to each other with other videos, which the company believes may reduce trolling. The startup hopes to create a more positive environment where users can share videos featuring dance, music, fashion, gaming, memes and more. You can read TechCrunch’s full review here.

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is back. Amid user complaints over the current state of Instagram, Hipstamatic returned to the App Store today with a relaunch of its social network for iPhone photography enthusiasts. Its refreshed app, which will today replace Hipstamatic X on the App Store, will offer a chronological feed, photo filtering tools, no ads and no TikTok-like feeds or videos. Users will earn stamps instead of likes, and will browse “stacks” of photos, instead of endless feeds.

During its decade-plus existence, the company had rolled out variations on its original concept, like its quirky Hipstamatic X for analog photography lovers, while also maintaining Hipstamatic Classic, one of the first apps to receive Apple’s “App of the Year” award.

With its revamped app, the company will try to bring some of its earlier pizazz to a generation that’s chasing retro tech, opting for things like flip phones and wired headphones at times for the “aesthetic.” The app will monetize via a $4.99 per month subscription (or $29.99/year), which unlocks its premium filters, editing features and other perks like claiming your preferred username.

Woolly

Image Credits: Woolly

The slow but steady Twitter exodus has brought a new abundance of third-party Mastodon apps like Ivory, Mammoth and Ice Cubes that connect users to the increasingly popular open source and decentralized social network. Today, we can add one more app to that list with the launch of Woolly, another solidly built iOS Mastodon client focused on offering a more customizable home screen, threaded views for reading longer conversations and a TweetDeck-inspired layout for the iPad.

The main differentiator between this app and others is its approach to home screen customization. With Woolly, users can pin things like multiple remote timelines, lists, bookmarks, search, hashtags or even other user profiles directly to the app’s main tab bar, enabling quick and easy access to your favorite content. Plus, on iPad, you can access a landscape view with columns, similar to TweetDeck. Read TechCrunch’s full review here.

This Week in Apps: TikTok goes to Congress, apps connect to ChatGPT, Microsoft’s mobile games store plan by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google just announced that the company is releasing its ChatGPT competitor Bard. But chances are you won’t be able to access the product right away as the company is starting with a limited public rollout.

Users in the U.K. and the U.S. can head over to bard.google.com and join a waitlist. The company calls Bard an “early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI.”

Like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, Bard is a chatbot based on a large language model. You can interact with Bard to ask questions and refine the answer with follow-up queries.

“You can use Bard to boost your productivity, accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity. You might ask Bard to give you tips to reach your goal of reading more books this year, explain quantum physics in simple terms or spark your creativity by outlining a blog post,” Google VP of Product Sissie Hsiao and Google VP of Research Eli Collins wrote in a blog post.

When Google first unveiled Bard last month, there wasn’t much to see other than a lengthy blog post written by Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The model used in Bard is based on Google’s own LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) — the company is using a lightweight and optimized version of LaMDA.

In a conference in Paris, Google explained that Bard would work particularly well for ‘NORA’ queries — questions to which there’s ‘no one right answer’. Of course, conversational AI also raises questions when it comes to accuracy, sources of information and ethical stopgaps.

In its blog post, Google shared a few screenshots of its chatbot product. Users are first presented with a blank chatbox with a disclaimer right under it that says “Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that doesn’t represent Google’s views.”

Image Credits: Google

There are a few sample prompts but users are free to type whatever they want in the text field. After that, Bard loads the answer and displays it all at once. It doesn’t feel like Bard is writing a word-by-word answer, but Google says that it works pretty much like other generative AI chatbots. It comes up with the next word based on the previous words.

At the bottom of the answer, you can rate the answer with a thumbs up or thumbs down, restart the conversation or click on a ‘Google It’ button to switch to Google’s search engine.

Unlike Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, Bard doesn’t have footnotes with web sources. Those footnotes can help you check the accuracy of the answer. If you aren’t satisfied with Bard’s answer, Google also gives you the ability to view more answers for the same query. You have to click in the top right corner named ‘View other drafts’ to load more answers.

Right now, Bard is a separate product from Google’s search engine. It seems like you can’t interact with Bard from the search results. But Bard will certainly foster some debates about plagiarism and the relationship between Google and third-party websites. This isn’t a new issue as Google already tries to give instant answers on Google.com without having to visit a separate website.

In other words, today’s limited release of Bard is the first step of a long process. It’s going to be interesting to see how people interact with the product when the product becomes more widely available, and how regulators and content creators feel about Google’s new product.

Image Credits: Google

Google opens early access to Bard, its AI chatbot by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” report. However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year over year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to 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.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. 

Top Stories

Our Everyday Apps Get AI

While the announcement wasn’t necessarily targeted toward mobile, the sweeping AI-fueled changes that are coming to the biggest productivity apps from Microsoft and Google will have a wider impact on the productivity app industry. That is, they’re now raising the stakes for what a productivity app should be able to do. It will no longer be enough to simply offer an elegant, refined, and efficient note-taking tool, docs editor, spreadsheet, slideshow maker, and so on — the apps will also need to have baked-in AI smarts.

This week, in case you missed it, both Microsoft and Google announced the new generation of their productivity software products. Microsoft, which calls its digital helper a “Copilot,” is bringing AI to everyday tools like Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams, and more. It’s integrating a new Business Chat feature that understands what a knowledge worker has in their inbox, calendar, chats, and across their files, and can be prompted to do things like create a status report on a project that’s then shared to the team. It’s even leveraging AI to help workers build their own line-of-business apps using natural language prompts.

Elsewhere, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn expanded its generative AI assistant to recruitment ads and writing profiles. The company’s AI-powered writing suggestions are built on advanced GPT models, including GPT-4 (profiles) and GPT-3.5 (job descriptions).

Google, meanwhile, said it would bring AI tools to Workspace, its productivity suite that includes Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Slides, and Chat. Though the company hasn’t fully shared its vision for Chat — saying only that it will “enable workflows for getting things done” — it’s likely aiming to keep up with Microsoft’s plans. In addition, Google is leveraging generative AI to create auto-generated images, audio, and video in Slides, which is an interesting angle on modern productivity — and, potentially, a threat to the one-off tools built to address each individual generative AI use case.

These enhancements to users’ everyday apps, from emails to docs to spreadsheets and more, will help to bring AI to mainstream users in a way that a ChatGPT-powered Bing alone cannot. The new tech is now just baked in, under the hood, offering additional functionality to the end user. It may eventually even reduce the working hours required to complete various tasks, as productivity users lean more on AI to write and edit for them, create presentations, take meeting notes, manage inboxes, and more.

But to what end? Will workers now be expected to fill their newly freed hours with ever more work or will technology finally fulfill its original promise of allowing us to lead more comfortable lives? Do we still need to work 40 hours a week when AI can work for us?

TikTok’s fate up in the air in U.S.

Will they or won’t they…ban TikTok? That’s the question sure to be on the minds of ByteDance execs as they weigh their decision to either spin off the U.S. operations of the TikTok app or risk being fully banned in the U.S. The anti-TikTok sentiment in Congress has rare bipartisan support at a time when the two sides can’t seem to agree on anything, which makes the potential for a ban look more likely. It’s not helping ByteDance’s case that the FBI and DOJ are investigating ByteDance’s use of TikTok to spy on journalists, either.

Other Western markets are also taking steps to limit TikTok’s threat, not just the U.S. This week, New Zealand banned TikTok from government devices days after the U.K. did the same. The moves follow lawmakers’ banning of the app in Canada and Belgium and in the E.U.

TikTok, for the time being, is hoping to assure lawmakers of its safety, even offering an audit by U.S. tech giant Oracle.

But while a full ban may put an end to lawmakers’ immediate concerns about the potential for CCP surveillance of U.S. citizens or the potential to manipulate the populace with pro-China propaganda, the real concern here is lawmakers’ inability to pass regulations over U.S. user data privacy for all our apps, not just those from China.

Expect next week’s Congressional hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to be an interesting one to watch!

SVB meltdown hits app makers, boosts crypto apps

Silicon Valley Bank’s failure was the biggest story of this week, as numerous tech companies, large and small, and their investors had funds tied up in the bank, which is now under regulator control and whose parent company is officially filing for bankruptcy. Among the public companies with exposure to SVB were big names like Roku, Roblox, Quotient, Vimeo, Rocket Lab, SoFi, Life360, Sezzle, Unity, AppLovin, Wish, and many others.

While there were several factors that played into the eventual bank run, from bad bets to bad decisions, the ability to stoke fear and panic on Twitter played a notable role, with some investors tweeting in ALL CAPS that people should be ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED RIGHT NOW.

U.S. lawmakers have since taken notice of how bad actors on Twitter factored into the bank’s collapse, even going so far as to blame VCs and others for using social media apps and online chats to coordinate their SVB withdrawals, effectively ensuring the bank’s failure.

“I’ve been supportive of the venture capital community — I was a venture capitalist before — but I think there were some bad actors in the VC community who literally started to spur this run by virtually crying fire in a crowded theater in terms of rushing all these deposits out,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in a report by The Hill. 

“No matter how strong capital and liquidity supervision are, if a bank has an overwhelming run that’s spurred by social media or whatever so that it’s seeing deposits flee at that pace, the bank can be put in danger of failing,” Treasury secretary Janet Yellen also said.

Whether the bank’s failure — and the subsequent failures of crypto-friendly banks Signature and Silvergate — will lead to new, retightened regulations remains to be seen, but one category of apps did benefit from the chaos.

Despite the seeming contagion to crypto banks, Apptopia reported the top crypto apps’ downloads rose over 15% following SVB’s collapse. At the same time, the top 10 traditional banks and top 10 “digital first” bank app downloads fell by about 5% and 3%, respectively. This begs the question of whether the people shouting FIRE! last weekend were also those who were heavily invested in crypto and therefore would have benefited from negative public sentiment toward traditional banking.

Though the fed is making SVB’s depositors whole, the crisis also exposed the reach of SVB’s tendrils beyond the Valley and the potential for a banking collapse to disproportionately impact some groups over others. The effects were felt as wide as the African startup ecosystem and highlighted the inequities in the broader tech industry. On one side, you have startups whose founders could self-fund their companies while waiting on a resolution, and on the other, there were serious concerns over missing payroll and business stoppage.

Many suspect we’ll see continuing fallout from SVB in terms of raising venture debt, something SVB was known for. Whether it opens up the floor to new entrants or drives up the cost of venture debt is being debated, but we’re sure to feel the impacts of this failure for months to come.

Platforms

Apple

• Apple rolled out its fourth developer betas for iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, watchOS 9.4, and tvOS 16.4.
• Apple launched a new way to shop for iPhones with help from a live specialist. The sales rep cannot see you but you can see them while asking questions about models, features, offers, trade-ins and more.
• Apple is reportedly moving forward with its AR/VR headset this year.
• Apple AI experiments? According to a new report from The New York Times, many teams at Apple, including those working Siri, have been testing “language-generating concepts.” A former Apple engineer told the paper Siri’s development had been slow because of clunky code, which made it harder to update. It’s not known if Apple is now building its own LLMs or adopting an existing model.

Android

• Google debuted a new open source program called Open Health Stack aimed at developers building health-related apps. The tools include a software developer kit (SDK) for Android and design guidelines for health apps. The Open Health Stack gives developers access to Android FHIR SDK to build secure apps that can also work offline, Google said.
• The March Pixel Drop is out, bringing Fall Detection, faster camera features (Night Sight), editing tools, safety and wellness features, and more.

• Google said its Google Play Games for PC service, which brings Android games to Windows users, will roll out to Japan and to European markets and will gain new titles and tools for game developers. Over the next couple of months, the service will add several popular games, including Garena Free Fire, Ludo King (a popular board game in India), and MapleStory M. It will also introduce early access to machine translation in the Play Console for translating games into 8 languages.
• Missed the Google for Games Developer Summit? Google has a recap here.

App News

Social Apps

Image Credits: Snapchat

• Snapchat added new parental controls that block “sensitive” and “suggestive” content from viewing by younger teens. The company said it’s introducing content filtering capabilities that will allow parents to restrict teens from being exposed to content that’s not prohibited but shouldn’t be recommended to younger users across Stories (Discover) and Spotlight. The feature still requires parents to access these parental controls in the Family Center, which they may not know exists.
• Pinterest is partnering with America’s largest publisher Dotdash Meredith on exclusive video content from brands such as Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living, Brides, Food & Wine, Serious Eats, Allrecipes and Martha Stewart. Pinterest recently announced a similar deal with Condé Nast.
• Meta is focusing on its “year of efficiency” by cutting another 10,000 jobs.
• Meta also gave up on NFTs, shutting down the NFT and digital collectible features on Instagram and Facebook.
• Instagram tests a feature that makes it easier to reshare Reels you sent to friends.
• Meta launched paid verification on Instagram and Facebook in the U.S. Meta Verified is $11.99 per month on the web or $14.99 per month on mobile. The feature delivers a verified badge, proactive impersonation protection and direct access to customer support.

• Twitter starts showing how many times a tweet has been bookmarked, initially on iOS. The company promises it won’t display who is bookmarking tweets, though. It’s not clear whether anyone cares how many bookmarks a tweet has, but the goal is likely aimed at making Twitter look more engaging.
• Twitter’s API packages are getting pricey. The company’s new Enterprise Packages start at $42,000/mo for 50 million tweets.

Entertainment & Streaming

Image Credits: TikTok

• YouTube said Trump can come back. (Which means he probably bought ads.)
• TikTok entered a multiyear partnership with Major League Soccer. Fans will be able to search “MLS” on TikTok and get access to a new “MLS Hub,” featuring new content from MLS clubs and players.
• TikTok also added a new “Refresh” button that lets users reset their feed recommendations with fresh content when their FYP gets stale (SEE ABOVE). When the Refresh button is tapped, TikTok will surface content as if you had just signed up for the app.
• And TikTok is adding a new STEM content feed alongside its FYP and Following feeds to U.S. users.
• Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is stepping down. One of the original founders of Justin.tv, Shear has worked at Twitch for 16 years and is ready to move on. Twitch president Dan Clancy will take the CEO role effective immediately.
• U.S. employees at Epic Games–owned Bandcamp, an online audio distributor, announced their formation of a union.
• YouTube TV is hiking prices to $72.99 per month due to rising content costs. Making up for the increase a bit, the service also announced it’s beginning to roll out multiview, which allows U.S. users to watch up to four streams simultaneously, initially for sports content.
• SiriusXM is planning to reboot itself as an app more focused on streaming. The company isn’t dropping satellite radio just yet, but moving toward a future where the delivery method won’t be as relevant.
• Sling TV launched new features for sports fans, including picture-in-picture mode and an iOS widget. The features include a new “Side View” that lets web users watch games in a small screen overlay on top of whatever it is they’re doing. There’s also a new custom widget for iOS devices and an updated live “Sports Scores” feature.
• Spotify said HiFi will still come out “at some point.” We’ll believe it when we see it.
• FilmRise launched FilmRise For Her, which streams rom-coms, movies with lead actresses, true crime, and more.
• Kakao Entertainment will shut down the Korean branch of Tapas Entertainment, its U.S.-headquartered storytelling platform, next month.
• TuneIn, the radio service that allows users to livestream news, sports, music and podcasts, rolled out an interactive map feature, TuneIn Explorer, to iOS and Android devices. The app now gives users the ability to listen to stations around the world.

Gaming

• The FTC finalizes Epic’s $245 million settlement over sketchy Fortnite purchases. “Fortnite’s counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration led players to incur unwanted charges based on the press of a single button,” the FTC wrote. It also criticized Epic for allowing kids to make unauthorized purchases without their parents’ permission.
• Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is set to launch on March 22, according to a tweet from an official Fortnite account.

AI

• Want to know more about Spotify’s AI DJ and its AI future? We sat down with the company at its press event last week to discuss.

• Be My Eyes, an app that allows blind and low-vision people to ask sighted people to describe what their phone sees, is gaining AI capabilities powered by GPT-4. The app’s new “Virtual Volunteer” will be able to answer questions about images users snap and provide instantaneous visual assistance for a wide variety of tasks.
• Language learning app Duolingo debuted a Max subscription for $30/month or $168/year that offers GPT-4 features for English speakers taking Spanish and French courses. The AI feature is rolling out to iOS first.

• Google Photos appears to be readying a Video Unblur feature, possibly for Pixel 8.
• Moon Photogate? Headlines circulated this week about how the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was taking “fake” moon pictures after a Reddit user tested the Space Zoom feature by taking a photo of an intentionally blurry moon image only to find Samsung’s AI and computer vision tech had optimized it like it had been shot with a high-res telescope. The debate around the feature is now leading people to wonder how Apple will approach the use of its rumored periscope zoom lens, expected to be added to the iPhone 15 Ultra later this year.
• Quora’s new chatbot app Poe added a paid tier that will let you ask questions to bots powered by newer models, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude. Subscriptions cost $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year and are available only on iOS and Mac for now.
• Microsoft revealed that Bing has been using GPT-4 all along. The company had previously referred to it as the “next-generation” of the GPT model.
• Hilarious weather app Carrot Weather’s new chatbot has been infused with ChatGPT to deliver even more sass. Users can also change the chatbot’s personality to be more helpful, sarcastic, crazy, drunken or annoyed, among other things.

• Discord had revoked several privacy policy promises when it announced new AI features, including a promise not to collect data from screen recordings and chats. People noticed and got mad, forcing Discord to revert the changes.

Etc.

• WordPress.com owner Automattic acquired the WordPress plugin ActivityPub and hired its developer. The company said it wants to help blogs integrate with the Fediverse, including apps like Mastodon.

• Apple’s 3D city maps are now available for Boston.
• Tinder will now let daters define their “relationship type,” add pronouns to their profile. Borrowing a feature from Hinge, another app owned by Tinder parent Match Group, Tinder users will now be able to indicate on their profiles the type of relationship they’re looking for — which today may involve various concepts around non-monogamy. It will also now allow members to display their pronouns on their profiles.

• The Verge covered a unique app, CoverScreen OS, that turns the Oppo Find N2 Flip’s 3.26-inch cover display into a fully functional mini-phone.
• Reddit had a multihour outage that was said to be an internal systems issue that took a while to fix.
• Waze rolled out a new feature to help EV owners find a compatible charger en route.
• Starbucks and DoorDash teamed up on a delivery partnership in Canada.

Security Concerns

• Twitter’s dumb decision to make SMS 2FA a paid feature will kick in this weekend. Here’s how to protect yourself.
• Google warns users to take action to protect against remotely exploitable flaws in popular Android phones. Google’s security research unit sounded the alarm about a set of vulnerabilities found in certain Samsung chips included in dozens of Android models, wearables and vehicles.
• Firefox launched Total Cookie Protection, which stops cookies from tracking you around the web, to its Firefox Android app.

Funding and M&A

Image Credits: Sidechat & Yik Yak logos, image via TechCrunch

• Anonymous app Sidechat picks up rival Yik Yak…and users aren’t happy. A quiet acquisition involving two press-shy companies was unveiled by a publisher name change on the App Store and users complained about being forced to move to Sidechat.
• NYC-based transportation startup Via will acquire London-based Citymapper, a Google Maps alternative for planning journeys in a city using public transportation. Citymapper has around 50 million global users. Financial terms are not being disclosed but are a mix of cash and stock. Sources said the deal is mostly a washout for investors.
• Walmart invested $200 million in Indian mobile payments giant PhonePe.
• Meal delivery startup Entrée raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding led by M25 with participation from investors, including Hustle Fund, Pillar VC and The Community Fund. The app offers fine dining meals delivered to the home with an average order volume of over $60.
• Bloomberg reports that Abu Dhabi–based G42 has acquired a $100 million+ stake in ByteDance at a ~$220 billion valuation. This valuation is down from the $300 billion valuation ByteDance set during a recent share buyback program.
• Ho Chi Minh City–based prescription delivery app Medigo raised $2 million in new funding from East Ventures, with participation from Pavilion Capital and Touchstone Partners.

Government, Policy and Lawsuits

• Use of Meta tracking tools found to breach EU rules on data transfers. “Austria’s data protection authority has found that use of Meta’s tracking technologies violated EU data protection law as personal data was transferred to the US where the information was at risk from government surveillance,” reported TC’s Natasha Lomas.
• India reportedly is planning to force smartphone makers to allow users to remove pre-loaded apps and will mandate screening OS updates via new security rules.

Downloads

Camo 2

A popular webcam app for PC and Mac is returning. Camo was originally launched in 2020 to allow iPhone users to use their phones as a webcam. Now, Camo 2 is out, offering support for any webcam, including regular webcams as well as built-in devices, monitors with built-in cameras, DSLR and mirrorless cameras, inputs from capture cards and HDMI dongles, action cameras and other software virtual cameras.

Mavn

Image Credits: Mavn

Reports Lauren Forristal: Mavn is “a new female-founded startup that connects content creators with brands and other businesses.” The new app gives users “access to a variety of experiences, from PR packages and paid posts to campaigns, photoshoots, events, dining at fancy restaurants and more.” The app is available for both iOS and Android.

Petey: AI assistant brings ChatGPT to the Apple Watch

Image Credits: Petey

The app was previously called watchGPT, but Apple’s crackdown on GPT apps led the developer to have issues getting the app approved. So the name was changed, and boom, the app went live. As the name implies, Petey offers a ChatGPT-like experience from your Watch, allowing users to ask questions either with or without typing and have the answers read out to you via text-to-speech. The app also includes a complication so you can quickly open the assistant with a tap on your watch face.

Ghost

Image Credits: Ghost

A new startup called Ghost believes that putting in extra guardrails around the anonymous experience will allow users to have fun, without the usual downsides. To test this theory, the company has launched its Ghost messaging app that allows users to share an anonymous message in a group chat with friends in order to flirt, joke, or ask questions without revealing their identity. The app also includes a range of other features, including the ability to ask ChatGPT a question directly within the group chat, among other things.

This Week in Apps: AI-powered productivity apps, US weighs TikTok ban, SVB crash boosts crypto apps by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch