BeReal, LiveIn, Locket… what do these new consumer social apps have in common besides a highly-ranked position on the App Store’s Top Charts? They engage their users through a combination of push notifications and homescreen widgets, instead of forcing people to spend a long time browsing their app, scrolling feeds, or watching creator content.

The popularity of this homescreen-based form of social networking is, in part, tied to Apple’s move to launch a widgets platform for the iPhone with the release of iOS 14 in 2020. In doing so, it invited a new ecosystem of apps to emerge.

Initially, this began with apps that allowed users to better personalize their homescreens with widgets and custom app icons that matched their backgrounds, sending apps like Widgetsmith, Brass, Color Widgets, and others to the top of the App Store. But over time, developers realized that widgets didn’t just have to be homescreen decorations – they could, in effect, be an active extension of their own platforms. Their widgets could serve as a tool to engage users in the most personal space on a mobile device: the prime real estate that is the phone’s homescreen.

When Locket first launched in December 2021, this idea was more of a novelty.

Developer and former Apple WWDC student scholarship winner Matt Moss thought it would be clever to use a widget to send photos to his girlfriend as they embarked on a long-distance relationship. But soon, his friends were clamoring for access to the app he had built as a simple side project.

Since then, Locket has expanded from iOS to Android and how now seen a total of 20 million installs to date, according to estimates from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. But its popularity has declined a bit as newer competitors emerged. While Locket was No. 9 in the Social Networking category, as of the time of writing, it was only No. 42 Overall on the U.S. App Store. That rank is largely due to the fact that there are so many other apps now playing in this space and gaining momentum.

For instance, another app called BeReal had originally arrived in December 2019 – before iPhone’s widgets became broadly available. This social app encourages users to capture a photo within 2 minutes of receiving a push notification using BeReal’s camera — which takes both a front-facing photo and selfie at the same time. The idea is to give users a way to see what their friends are up to in real-time. Before this year, BeReal had seen steady, but not groundbreaking, growth, achieving 1.9 million worldwide installs, per Sensor Tower data. The app is backed by $30 million in funding, led by a16z, Accel, and New Wave.

Then, in February 2022, BeReal tapped into the idea to leverage the homescreen to capture friends’ reactions to users’ posts, with the launch of a feature called “WidgetMojis.” This addition allowed BeReal to display friends’ photos in a live-updating widget on the homescreen as they reacted to users’ BeReal posts, or what BeReal calls RealMojis. By April, the app intelligence firm Apptopia had reported that BeReal had grown its monthly active users 315% year-to-date and that 65% of its lifetime downloads had occurred this year. That figure has since grown to around 86%, Sensor Tower says, as the app now has a total of 13.9 million lifetime installs.

Over the course of 2022, BeReal’s popularity has skyrocketed. This year alone BeReal has gained some 12 million installs, the data further indicates. And, as of the time of writing, BeReal was the No. 10 Overall app on the U.S. App Store, beating out traditional social networking and communication apps like Messenger, Snapchat, Telegram, Discord, Twitter, and Pinterest. It was also the No. 3 app in the Social Networking category.

For younger users, BeReal also becoming a part of their cultural lexicon and everyday app rotation. On TikTok, the hashtag #bereal has over 390 million views, while variations on the name bring in thousands or millions more.

But BeReal is now only one of many competing in this space. Another vying for a part of this emerging market is the newer addition, LiveIn, which launched in January 2022 after pivoting from a Clubhouse-like app, Livehouse. This homescreen social networking app comes with its own twist. Instead of just sending selfie photos to friends’ phones, users can send videos and drawings, as well. Another new feature lets users “duet” photos and videos — taking a cue from the similarly-named mashup feature found on TikTok.

The company said in a press release it reached 4 million monthly active users in the first two months after launch. At the time, the hashtags #liveinapp and #livepic had generated more than 40 million TikTok views. Today, #liveinapp has 279.5 million TikTok views and #livepic has 37.6 million.

@tuckerthorn Guys use the link in my bio so I can send photos to your Home Screen #liveinapp @liveinapp #fyp #app #foryou ♬ As It Was – Harry Styles

In addition to the casual photo-sharing and updated widgets, these new social apps include a photo archive so users can look back at their memories. This serves not only as a way to incentivize users to launch the apps outside of designated photo-taking times, but also as a way to lock in users and keep them from abandoning the platform.

This sort of photo archive isn’t a new concept – it’s inspired by Facebook and Snapchat’s Memories features, but is designed to achieve the same results with a younger crowd.

In fact, these new social apps have taken many of the core concepts more recently popularized by Snapchat – access to real-life friends, private photo sharing, spontaneous and casual photo-taking, and memories – and have built their own differentiated platforms that tap into the smartphone’s notification system and direct homescreen access via widgets.

These three apps are only a handful of a growing number of apps building for social via the phone’s homescreen widgets.

Other top downloaded apps include Noteit Widget, which has gained 18.8 million lifetime installs per Sensor Tower data; Loveit: Live Pic & Note Widget (1.4 million installs); Widgetshare (3.1 million installs); Peek (704K installs); Widgetpal (374K installs), Snapwidget (185K installs); Rocket Widget (127K installs); Comet: Live Friends Widget (112K installs); and others.

There are even clones capitalizing on the names of popular brands like the not-so-subtly named app called “LivePic, Locket Photo Widgets” which has managed to pull in 79K installs — some of which likely came by way of misdirected App Store searches.

Gen Z’s shift to authenticity

Another one of the many things these apps have in common is that they promote sharing real-life photos that don’t involve heavy editing, filters, or AR effects – features Snapchat and Instagram had become known for. This speaks to a broader shift that’s helping fuel this trend: the end of the Instagram aesthetic and the increased desire for authenticity on social media.

We already saw hints of this emerging with the launches of other newcomer social photo apps like Dispo or Poparazzi, both of which focused on uncurated photostreams – the latter, where photos were snapped and posted by the user’s friends, not users themselves. There were also the apps that aimed at photographers abandoned by Instagram — like Glass, or Herd Social, which had positioned themselves as being “anti-Instagram” apps.

This broader group of photo apps promoted their defiance of Big Tech with its manufactured algorithms, the overabundance of features, and the hyper-competitiveness that now sees mainstream social networks chasing TikTok with short videos, not to mention their collective drive to incorporate all sorts of other activity — like e-commerce, creator subscriptions, virtual tipping, NFTs, and more. When it’s not trying to be an online mall, Instagram is trying to clone TikTok, for example. Snapchat is hosting creator content and now wants users to shop using AR.

Meanwhile, younger users – the key demographic that uses social apps – seemed to have actually just wanted simpler apps that focused on what they wanted social networking to be about: their friends.

It’s funny that it’s come to this. The “social graph” was once the holy grail of consumer social platforms – to know who someone was connected to in real life was perceived as valuable data. For one thing, it meant you could lock users into a walled garden they wouldn’t want to leave because their friends were all there, too. And making this social graph inaccessible to competitors meant every new network had to start from scratch. But these days, mainstream social networks are more heavily focused on connecting users with creators – after all, that’s where the money is. Users can subscribe to, shop from, and virtually tip content creators. Monetizing true friendships is much more difficult.

But Big Tech’s greed left a gap in the market where they began to underserve those in search of real-world connections. This impact isn’t just visible within the homescreen social app trend.

It’s also helped drive users to the almost too numerous to count “friend-finding” and friend discovery apps, like Yubo, LMK, Wink, Hoop, Wizz, Vibe, Fam, Itsme, Lobby, Hippo, LiveMe, Swiping, and others – many of which had built on top of Snapchat’s APIs until the company tightened its developer policy over child safety concerns.

The trend is similarly impacting dating, leading to Match’s biggest-ever acquisition of Hyperconnect for $1.73 billion, which had been building “social discovery” apps that weren’t designed specifically for romantic connections. Bumble today is beefing up its “BFF” feature as younger people are shifting their interest to friend-finding apps.

But this broader shift in social isn’t without concerns. Though mainstream social apps are now being held accountable regarding their user protections, newer social apps are flying under the radar. Parents haven’t heard of these new apps and don’t know to monitor or restrict them as a result. The same goes for lawmakers and regulators, too, who have their eyes affixed solely on tech giants. And as reports have shown, the apps’ privacy protections and policies, in some cases, are fairly weak. This is particularly concerning given that many are marketed towards and used by tweens and younger teens, who may inadvertently post to global, public feeds instead of to friends, post inappropriate content, or become the victims of cyberbullying.

But the apps’ freewheeling nature isn’t the only reason why homescreen social networking is having a moment. Beyond those mentioned above, there are many other factors at play here — including the apps’ clever use of TikTok to drive downloads, influencer marketing, and college ambassador programs to spread the word about new apps more “organically.” There’s also the continuous background noise related to social networking’s ill effects that Gen Z is aware of, even if only mariginally. Data scandals, high-profile leaks and whistleblowing, Congressional hearings, regulatory inquiries, and the resulting media coverage have helped fuel consumer demand for apps that weren’t created by today’s dominant players.

The market’s readiness for this type of networking is demonstrated by how well these “homescreen social” apps are currently doing. They’re dominating the Social Networking charts and are staking their position in the Overall Top Charts. While, longer-term, they could end up being another flash in the pan the way location-based social networking apps were in the 2010’s, there’s a sense that some Gen Z users no longer consider these apps experimental.

@carolinelusk it’s time sensitive man #fyp #foryou #foryoupage ♬ original sound – AnxietyGangOfficial

And while TikTok is certainly a viable threat in terms of capturing the valuable – and profitable – connection between users and creators, users’ social graphs are still up for grabs. In fact, many among Gen Z don’t want to share their real-world relationships with TikTok, they’ve said in videos posted to the platform. They appreciate that’s TikTok a network that’s about creativity and individualized interests, not their real-world connections.

@420koreaboono every time damn stop asking♬ ITSJULYSKI – JULYSKI

TikTok has realized this too and understands the risk it poses for its own business. It even got so pushy about acquiring users’ address books that it destroyed its own Discover page in favor of a Friends page in hopes of capturing that data.

If the trend continues, it could impact other mainstream social networks, which have largely ignored this new avenue to gain users and haven’t adopted the “live pics from friends” widget format, either.

With the social graph filtering to smaller, simpler homescreen social networking apps, there also now comes the potential to build a different kind of social network that could be monetized in new ways beyond ads. These apps could roll out premium features, a subscription service, direct payment, and more. But that future is still in question, as it remains to be seen whether homescreen social networking apps have long-term staying power among the historically fickle younger crowd who have adopted them.

A class action style lawsuit is being launched against Apple in the UK seeking damages worth a total of £768 million (circa $935M).

The representative action is being filed by consumer rights campaigner, Justin Gutmann, citing competition law — with the suit accusing the mobile maker of abusing its market dominance to engage in exploitative and unfair commercial practices when, per the claim, it misled iPhone users by applying a power management software update, first released in January 2017 in iOS 10.2.1, that throttled the performance of affected devices.

The suit is being filed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London on behalf of up to 25 million UK iPhone users who used any of 10 different models of iPhone, from the iPhone 6 through to the iPhone X (and including the iPhone SE).

The litigation, which is being bankrolled by a litigation funder called Balance Legal Capital , is opt out, not opt in — meaning affected UK consumers do not need to actively sign up to be part of the representative suit (although they would need to provide their details at a later date if the suit prevails and wish to receive their portion of any damages — albeit, damages could be as low as ~£30 per affected device).

A website has been launched with details about the suit at https://theiphoneclaim.com/.

Apple has already faced litigation over iPhone performance ‘throttling’ claims in a number of other European markets.

Back in 2020, it also settled a class action suit on home turf which had similarly accused it of intentionally slowing down the performance of older iPhones to encourage customers to buy newer models or fresh batteries — shelling out up to $500M to make the litigation go away, albeit doing so without accepting wrongdoing.

In the same year, France’s competition watchdog fined Apple around $27 million for throttling older devices without informing users. In that instance Apple paid the fine and agreed to display a statement on its website about the sanction for a month.

While, in 2018, Italy’s consumer watchdog stung Apple (and Samsung) with smaller financial penalties for forcing updates it found could slow or break devices.

The latest UK action over the throttling issue follows what Gutmann describes as expert analysis carried out by technical experts instructed by his lawyers, Charles Lyndon Ltd, which he said demonstrates that Apple’s tool was introduced with the aim of reducing the demands on the battery, which had the effect of slowing the processor’s speed at peak performance by up to 58% in the case of the iPhone 6s and 7.

The complainant further claims Apple mislead consumers because information about the tool was not included in the iOS 10.2.1 update’s download description — meaning users were not made aware ahead of time of the detrimental effect it would have on their device.

Instead, users who failed to update to the latest iOS version were told they risked exposure to bugs and security flaws by missing out on key security updates. And the suit also claims some users will have been prompted up to 70 times to install the update in notifications, while those who did accept the update were unable to uninstall it, meaning they were stuck with any negative impact on their device performance.

Apple did later add mention of the tool to the release notes on its website but, again, the complaint will argue it misled customers by failing to make it clear the tool would slow device performance — only stating the update “improves power management during peak workloads to avoid unexpected shutdowns on iPhone.”

It also went on to apologize over its handling of the episode — and ran a battery replacement scheme through 2018 for all affected iPhone models — but Gutmann also accuses the company of failing to sufficiently publicize that program.

Commenting in a statement, he said: “Instead of doing the honourable and legal thing by their customers and offering a free replacement, repair service or compensation, Apple instead misled people by concealing a tool in software updates that slowed their devices by up to 58%.”

“I’m launching this case so that millions of iPhone users across the UK will receive redress for the harm suffered by Apple’s actions. If this case is successful, I hope dominant companies will re-evaluate their business models and refrain from this kind of conduct,” he added.

Asked why the suit is being filed now, a spokesperson for the claimant said that along with his solicitors he’s been working on the claim for “some time”. “It takes time to build a claim like this, including investigating the technical aspects of it, and we are now in the position that we are ready to file,” they added.

“You are correct that a number of similar class actions have been filed. Although none of the European actions have yet been successful, Apple has been fined by the French and Italian regulators in relation to this conduct and has settled a number of class actions in the US. Mr Gutmann understands that consumer law class actions have been certified in Canada and Spain; and that class actions have been filed (but not yet certified) in Belgium, Italy and Portugal.”

Earlier this year a separate class action style litigation was launched in the UK against Facebook’s parent, Meta — which is also seeking to use competition law as a route to extract damages from a tech giant.

Privacy law-focused representative actions suffered a set back in the UK last year when the Supreme Court sided with Google — ending a long running litigation over a workaround it had applied to Apple’s Safari between 2011 and 2012 which overrode iPhone users’ privacy settings.

In the Safari workaround case the class action style litigation failed as the court deemed it necessary to demonstrate damage/loss on an individual basis, rather than agreeing uniform compensation could be applied — so it will be interesting to see whether litigation lawyers have more success using competition claims to extract representative damages over harmful Big Tech practices, either in court or through out of court settlements.

In an effort to present itself as a viable competitor to the reigning short-form video platform TikTok, YouTube announced today its rival service YouTube Shorts is now being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month, less than two years after its launch. By comparison, TikTok announced 1 billion monthly users in September 2021.

Though it hasn’t announced updated figures since, TikTok was forecast to hit the 1.5 billion month user figure sometime this year.

Related to its new milestone, YouTube also promoted Shorts’ ability to drive viewers to creators’ long-form video channels as a byproduct of its investments in Shorts. It’s referring to the trend as “the rise of the multiformat creator” but, in reality, it seems to be more an admission that YouTube still sees more value in its longer-form content.

The company, in its announcement, positioned its video platform as one that better reflects the reality of today’s viewer, who engages with video at different times and places throughout the day. In some cases, users will want to quickly scroll through shorter content — such as when killing time while out and about. At other times, they may be able to watch for longer periods and will turn to traditional YouTube videos to do so.

However, YouTube’s report doesn’t take into account how TikTok has been steadily inching into its territory with long-form content of its own, and could potentially lure creators to a platform where both shorter and longer content is more intertwined.

Though not yet differentiated as a separate product in the app, TikTok videos can now be up to 10 minutes in length, following a change made this February after previously expanding videos to 3 minutes the prior year. The move was designed to attract the same sort of longer-form video creators that YouTube typically courted. With the expansion, creators gained more flexibility to film things like cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational content, comedy sketches, and more, without having to worry too much about the video’s length. And further down the road, longer videos could also open the door to more opportunities to show advertising, of course.

YouTube, on the other hand, appears to be promoting a different strategy. Instead of making short-form the core of its service with long-form as an option, as TikTok does, YouTube sees Shorts as a way for creators to reach a new audience who may then become more regular viewers of their long-form content.

“Long-form content remains the best way for creators to deeply engage and develop long-term relationships with their audiences,” said Tara Walpert Levy, YouTube’s Vice President of the Americas. “But Shorts offer an exciting, new way to be a part of a viewer’s journey and to introduce themselves and their whole portfolio to new audiences. This approach is yielding real results; channels uploading both short and long-form content are seeing better overall watch time and subscriber growth than those uploading only one format,” she added.

The company didn’t share specific figures related to the average increased watch time, though, making this claim somewhat suspect.

Instead, it only pointed to a couple of case studies as proof of this trend. In one, creator Ian Boggs is said to have grown his channel has 4 billion lifetime views with 73% of them stemming from his Shorts feed. During the pandemic, Boggs leaned into Shorts and gained 5 million subscribers between 2021 and 2022, YouTube said. In another example, creator Rosanna Pansino is said to have more than doubled views on her channel since adopting Shorts, and Shorts is now her top traffic source.

But even in these two examples, there was an indication that the lift from Shorts could vary between creators. An earlier version of YouTube’s advisory had noted Shorts was then Pansino’s second-largest traffic source, driving over 20% of her total views. That reference was removed to reflect more recent stats, but YouTube didn’t share the new percentage of her views attributed to Shorts. (Still, it’s not likely as high as the 73% figure Boggs had seen.)

With these statements and examples, it sounds as if YouTube’s strategy is to position Shorts as a feeder to its long-form content, as opposed to a product that’s worthy all on its own. This aligns with YouTube’s broader goal to chase TV ad dollars instead of just digital ones. As part of that effort, YouTube this year for the first time hosted its annual Brandcast event during the TV Upfronts, instead of during IAB’s digital-focused NewFronts, where it made a case to marketers that it should be in the running alongside networks for their TV ad budgets. It also spoke about how much YouTube content is now watched on the living room’s big-screen TV, saying that YouTube has over 50% of ad-supported streaming watch time on TV screens.

Shorts, meanwhile, is not a product designed with the TV in mind. And while it’s useful for creators to have the option to create shorter content, it’s worth noting that YouTube is now speaking about Shorts as a way to boost traffic to longer videos. That’s a signal that YouTube believes its core value is not really in its TikTok clone, but in the longer video content it’s already known for — and which can fetch a higher price in the ad market.

Last year, Pinterest began its pivot from being an online image board to being more of a creator platform with the launch of Idea Pins. The new feature allows Pinterest users to tell their stories using a combination of video, images, music, and other editing tools, resulting in something that’s a cross between TikTok’s short videos and a Stories product with multiple pages of content. Today, Pinterest is opening up this new format to its advertisers with the launch of its new “Idea Ads.”

This ad format is designed to give brands a way to connect with their audience on Pinterest’s platform, which can then in turn drive traffic to their websites or inspire future shopping purchases — similar to much of Pinterest’s organic content. The Idea Ads themselves are basically just Idea Pins either crafted directly by marketers or produced in collaboration between a business and a creator who are working together. The latter is referred to as “Idea ads with paid partnership,” in Pinterest’s lingo.

The company envisions the new format as a better way for brands to reach their audience beyond using just video alone, as on TikTok and other video-first platforms. While video, of course, works well for storytelling, it can be difficult to share other crucial details — like the supply list for a DIY project, the ingredients or instructions needed to make a recipe, or the names of products used in a makeup tutorial along with links as to where to shop.

Both TikTok and YouTube have been experimenting with solutions to some aspects of this problem which involve placing shoppable items below the video in question. More recently, YouTube even laid the groundwork for a second-screen experience aimed at those watching videos on TV where they could shop on their phones while watching videos on the big screen.

In Pinterest’s case, however, brands may want to do more than just generate clicks to their website. They also may want to offer inspirational content to raise brand awareness or share a series of step-by-step instructions to help viewers complete a specific project. Those are things that aren’t as easily accomplished via merch shelves underneath videos alone.

Image Credits: Pinterest

According to Pinterest’s tests, people who saw Idea Ads were 59% more likely to recall that brand. Meanwhile, brands that worked with creators saw 38% higher brand awareness and 37% higher Pin awareness, it said. Scotch and Gatorade were among Idea Ads’ early adopters. Scotch worked with craft-focused creator Kailo Chic on a back-to-school shopping campaign that saw 64% lower cost per impression than Scotch’s benchmark goals. Gatorade worked with fitness creators VeraLaRo and Domonique Panton on Idea Ads that generated more than 14 million views and 34 million impressions.

In addition to today’s public launch of the new ad format, Pinterest also introduced a new paid partnership tool. The tool allows creators to both disclose and promote their brand partnerships. With the tool, creators can tag their brand partners directly in their content. Pinterest says brands who had tested the tool include Gatorade, 3M, Coty, and M.A.C. Cosmetics.

The new products were announced ahead of Pinterest’s return to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — a global ad festival that Pinterest will return to for the first time in three years, it said. It also follows this week’s news of its multi-million dollar partnership with Tastemade to scale creator content and live streaming across Pinterest starting later this year, which will also involve Idea Pins.

The company says the new ad formats and tools are now generally available to advertisers in over 30 countries worldwide.

It’s hard to get a thrill from glimpses of unreleased smartphone hardware these days, given the baked-in maturity of the mobile market and the general form and function sameness of the sticky rectangles we humans routinely spend hours poking at and peering into each day.

But this rear-view design-teaser (below) of a forthcoming handset made by hardware startup, Nothing, might just give you a little tingle: Meet the minimally named phone (1), in all its pure, deconstructed, ‘analog’ glory — parrot not included, presumably…

As design aesthetics go, it’s approximately akin to if The Ordinary made electronics. Which is to say clean, minimalist, functional looking, even clinical, as if to suggest it’s purged of performative frills — except that first-glance stark contrast is the performative visual thrill this type of look is shooting for as a differentiator so there’s plenty of contrivance at work.

In phone (1)’s case, by stepping away from the shiny, hermetically sealed look that iPhone maker Apple is so fond of — and scores of Android device makers have so keenly copied — Nothing is delivering some smart, instant visual differentiation vs the premium competition.

On its website, it sums up its approach with phone (1) as: “Designed with intention. Full of warmth. And joy.” Which suggests the parrot is there to represent all the fun stuff you can do with the stripped-back bit of cuttlefish-bone-white mobile kit it’s having a (staged) beak at.

As we’ve noted before, Nothing is a dab hand at teasers. Albeit, founder Carl Pei’s tweet about this pre-launch reveal claims the startup’s hand was forced by leakers ahead of next month’s official unboxing. (But if you believe that, well, I have a very healthy Norwegian Blue parrot to sell you… )

A previous Nothing teaser of phone (1) showed what look like illuminated light strips on the back of the device — a strikingly contrasting feature to the otherwise utilitarian look being revealed today. So all may not be as purely functional as the phone’s analog look might imply on first glance, as it seems to sprinkling a little fun into the design mix too.

Pei has previously said Nothing’s debut smartphone will pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, rock wireless charging and run a skinned version of Android (aka NothingOS) — which its marketing suggests will layer something “bold” and “warm” atop Google’s hyper-familiar smartphone platform. So if the user interface doesn’t — somehow — feature snazzy plumage we’re going to be disappointed.

The rest of phone (1)’s specs are tbc but Nothing will officially reveal all on July 12.

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 industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. App Annie says global spending across iOS and Google Play is up to $135 billion in 2021, and that figure will likely be higher when its annual report, including third-party app stores in China, is released next year. Consumers also downloaded 10 billion more apps this year than in 2020, reaching nearly 140 billion in new installs, it found.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that was up 27% year-over-year.

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

WWDC Wrap-up

This week, Apple wrapped up its first in-person WWDC since the pandemic began, and while there were no big surprises — like the first look at Apple’s AR smartglasses, for example — the company did announce a solid lineup of new products, services and software. It introduced new MacBook Airs and Pros, its M2 CPU, updated operating systems, Xcode Cloud and tons more developer tools.

Blurred lines

Image Credits: Apple

One theme that jumped out was how Apple is continuing to blur the lines between its different platforms. In macOS Ventura, it’s turning the System Preferences app into a new System Settings app, which looks just like the Settings app you’d find on the iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple’s new iOS 16 Lock Screen is gaining widgets that are inspired by Apple Watch’s complications — and in fact, developers can use the latest version of WidgetKit to build for both the Lock Screen and Watch using the same code.

M1 iPads running iPadOS 16 can take advantage of external displays and the clever multitasking feature, Stage Manager — one of the more exciting software developments to emerge from the event. Stage Manager offers resizable, floating and overlapping windows, plus a way to organize other apps’ windows off to the left side of the screen. It represents one of the biggest pushes yet to make the iPad more of a replacement for a computer, and less of a big-screened iPhone — hence the increased demand for processing power. But now the question users must ask is whether they need a computer at all, or would an iPad and an extra screen do?

Image Credits: Apple

And though Apple didn’t show off any big new projects in terms of hardware, there were suggestions that it’s working toward an AR future when it announced the new ability to integrate ARKit with its Nearby Interaction framework, allowing developers to build more directionally aware AR-powered apps that seem to lay the groundwork for its rumored AR smartglasses.

Plus, for everyone who still dreams of an Apple Car reveal, Apple instead gifted us an updated version of CarPlay that sees Apple working with automakers to integrate a new version of CarPlay that extends to the vehicle’s entire instrument cluster, instead of just the infotainment system. Hopefully, this is not what the rumors meant by an Apple Car! Of course, it will be years before this is actually available to consumers in their vehicles.

Image Credits: Apple

iOS 16 gets messy updated

As for iOS 16, Apple’s Lock Screen update and personalization features are the stars of the latest release. On the one hand, it’s great to have easier access to glanceable information that doesn’t require you to first unlock your iPhone. The new “Live Activities” will be useful too, as they can telegraph real-time information — like an approaching Uber or the latest sports scores — directly to your Lock Screen. This could minimize the need to launch apps for quick updates.

Access to this new screen real estate could inspire a new category of apps, too — the way that the launch of Home Screen widgets drove new apps like Widgetsmith and Brass to the top charts.

But on the other hand, I have this nagging feeling that the iPhone’s user interface is starting to get a little too messy and overcomplicated, while other parts of the experience are undercooked.

Image Credits: Apple

For starters, you can now customize your iOS 16 Lock Screen with a long press that pops you into a new editor interface where you can pick from Apple’s own photos and live wallpapers or your own images, then select your Lock Screen’s widgets, fonts and colors.

Given this new feature is all about redesigning your iPhone’s main interface, it’s disappointing to see Apple failed to deliver a variety of options for beautiful, built-in wallpapers. By comparison, the latest Android release includes some dozen-plus themed wallpaper collections, each with numerous images, as well as a large collection of animated wallpapers. Apple’s default options are embarrassing by comparison. Live weather and space wallpapers? Emojis? A single Pride rainbow option? Those same bouncing bubbles we’ve had for years? Even the options that are new don’t feel very inspired.

Considering Apple is asking us to think about our iPhone’s interface design with this feature, it missed the chance to blow us away with new imagery as the centerpiece for our custom designs which then coordinate with all the new widgets, fonts and colors as fully fleshed-out themes. (And don’t even get me started on how Apple’s app icons don’t match our new themes!)

Image Credits: Apple

Then there are the notifications that now scroll up from the bottom — but only on the Lock Screen. If your phone is unlocked, you still pull down from the top. Frankly, I’ve never liked that there are two different screens to see based on which side of the iPhone notch you pull down from at the top of the screen. It’s personal preference, of course — but I think Android does this better with its own control center that sits above the notifications, all in one view that’s pulled down from the top.

It’s not that we can’t learn to adapt to all these changes and new gestures; it’s just that it feels like it’s time to simplify these things.

For instance, now that we have Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, it’s probably time to ask if the right-swipe gesture to unlock the “Today View” is something that still needs to exist? It feels like unnecessary clutter at this point. (Sorry Today View fans.)

It’s also much more confusing than it should be to set a different background for your Lock Screen than for the Home Screen, since doing so isn’t a function of the new Lock Screen editor. Instead, you have to return to Settings to adjust the Home Screen’s wallpaper.

In other words, Apple seems to have approached the Lock Screen makeover as if it’s some standalone entity to customize instead of part of a larger iPhone theme and design system. That needs to change. And yes, I am going to point out that by the time the new iOS 16 Lock Screen launches, Android’s theming system and design language Material You will be a year old. You know, the one that lets you personalize the entire Android interface including the lock screen, notifications, settings, widgets, interface elements and even apps. We are not going to talk about how long Android has had widgets.

But yay, new Lock Screen I guess!

Image Credits: Apple

New APIs and developer tools

As for the new developer tools, there were some interesting updates emerging from this year’s WWDC.

Notable new APIs included RoomPlan — to tap into lidar for scanning indoor spaces; WeatherKit — a Dark Sky replacement that offers 500,000 calls/mo free with your Apple developer membership, then pricing that starts at $49.99/mo; LiveText to grab text from photos and paused video frames (video!!!); Focus filters — to show users relevant information based on the Focus mode they’re in; PassKeys to replace passwords with Face ID or Touch ID; ARKit 6, now with 4K video; Metal 3, WidgetKit; App Intents and others.

Image Credits: Apple

What’s great about these tools is that they offer the ability to not just build better apps, but build different types of apps, in some cases. That’s needed, because the App Store doesn’t feel as fresh and exciting as it did in earlier years when we were excited about the concept of running apps on a phone. APIs unlock developer innovation and we’re looking forward to seeing what these new APIs inspire.

Another interesting addition was Developer Mode, which could be laying the groundwork for sideloading if Apple is forced to allow this against its will — though today that’s not the case. Keep an eye on this one.

Image Credits: Apple

There was a lot more from WWDC, including useful updates to Apple’s own apps like being able to unsend messages, schedule emails, pay for purchases later with Apple Pay, track weather natively on iPad, keep up with your medication in the Apple Health app, use the Fitness app without an Apple Watch, better control your smart home and other updates — including little iOS 16 features Apple didn’t even tell us about.

And it teased a forthcoming app, Freeform, that’s an open, collaborative notetaking app that works with Apple Pencil.

One more thing…

But before we go, can we talk about this downright magical new iOS 16 Photo cutout feature? With this new feature, a part of Visual Lookup, you can now isolate the subject of the photo from the background, then copy and paste it into another app or a text. If you’ve ever tried to do this using photo-editing tools, you’re going to be surprised not only how easy this is, but also how well it turns out.

On the Lock Screen, this capability can separate the photo subject from the background of the wallpaper too, which makes for a layered look where the date and time and other elements can be behind the subject but in front of the photo’s background. Apple really undersold this one during the keynote.

You’ve got to try it yourself. This is the best new thing.

Image Credits: Apple

Weekly News

Platforms: Google

• Just ahead of Apple’s WWDC keynote, Google announced its latest Pixel feature drop. The release included Conversation Mode in Sound Amplifier to help the hard of hearing; air quality alerts; support for Nest Doorbell video feeds on the lock screen; a flashlight reminder (when it’s left on); a music and video editing app called Pocket Operator (created in partnership with Teenage Engineering and available for download on the Play Store); and other features.

• Google released Android 13, beta 3 for Pixel devices, and announced Android 13 had reached platform stability. That means the developer APIs and app updates are now final. Android 13 brings a bevy of new features, including more personalization options with themed icons, permission-based changes to push notifications, more granular file system controls, a new photo/video picker, better support for tablets and foldables and much more.
• Google also announced the launch of its initial developer previews for Privacy Sandbox on Android and said it will have more developer previews coming soon, as well as a beta later this year.

E-commerce

Image Credits: Amazon

• Amazon tapped into augmented reality in an attempt to appeal to sneakerheads shopping its site. The retailer announced a new feature called “Virtual Try-On for Shoes” that allows customers to visualize how a pair of new shoes will look on themselves from multiple angles using their mobile phone’s camera and AR technology. Participating brands include New Balance, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Saucony, Lacoste, Asics and Superga.
• TikTok e-commerce efforts in the U.K., TikTok Shop, are reportedly in turmoil after losing half the staff (20 people) since its October 2021 launch because of a toxic workplace culture, The FT reported.
• In hopes of prompting creator adoption of its short-form Shorts service, YouTube announced its first-ever “Shoppable Shorts Challenge” alongside its second annual YouTube Beauty Festival. The challenge will have creators making videos about Glossier’s Cloud Paint product.

Fintech

• PayPal announced it will begin allowing users to transfer cryptocurrency from their PayPal accounts to other wallets and exchanges. The feature will allow users to move crypto to external crypto addresses, including exchanges and hardware wallets, and send crypto to other PayPal users “in seconds.”
• Investments app Public introduced Public Premium, a new $10/mo membership tier that offers research, data and insights to help inform investment decisions. This includes access to deeper company metrics, research from expert analysts and more . The service is free to members with an account balance of $20,000+.

Social

Image Credits: TikTok

• TikTok rolled out new screen time “take a break” reminders designed to put users in better control of their TikTok usage. In addition its daily screen time limits tool, the new feature will allow users to have the app remind them to take a break from the app during a single session. By default, the tool suggests reminder options of alerts at 10, 20 or 30 minutes, in addition to allowing users to set their own times. The reminders can be snoozed or turned off at any time. The app also added a new screen time dashboard as well as reminders for minors (13-17) to enable TikTok’s screen time tools if they’ve used the app for more than 100 minutes per day.
• Pinterest launched applications for its Creator Fund in the U.K. Accepted creators get to join a five-week program of events, gain access to educational talks and equipment, and get a cash grant of £20,000.
• Twitter said it would give would-be acquirer Elon Musk access to its full firehose after his complaints that it wasn’t sharing data to prove that less than 5% of its service was made up of bots. The news came as a new study reported that Twitter could be around 10% bots and the Texas AG’s office began its own investigation into Twitter bots.
• Instagram expanded its in-app “sensitive content” controls to allow users turn off sensitive content in recommendations throughout the app, including search, Reels, hashtag pages, “accounts you might follow” and in-feed suggested posts, instead of just the Explore tab, as before. The app defines sensitive content as permitted but possibly upsetting content such as posts including violence (like people fighting; graphic violence is banned); posts that promote regulated products (tobacco, vaping, pharmaceuticals, adult products/services); posts that promote or depict cosmetic procedures; posts that attempt to sell products or services based on health-related claims (like supplements); and more.
• Instagram also added a TikTok-like feature that allows users to pin up to three posts to their profile in the app.
• TikTok launched TikTok Avatars, a new feature similar to Snap’s Bitmoji and Apple’s Memoji that lets users customize their appearance, add voice effects and more.

Image Credits: TikTok

• Link-in-bio service Linktree, popular among social media apps users and creators, launched Link Apps. The new feature lets creators embed services from Cameo, OpenSea, PayPal, SoundCloud and others via a new marketplace.
• Facebook is killing off its consumer-facing Portal video-calling device to instead focus on business users. The smart screen device had allowed access to apps like Messenger and WhatsApp and integrated with users’ Facebook accounts. The company is also scaling back plans for AR glasses.

Photos

• Photo editing app maker Picsart launched a new AI-powered image-enhancement tool that improves the overall quality of an image and resolution for printing or sharing online. The tool uses advanced AI models to remove or blur pixelated effects, add pixels and sharpen and restore scenes and objects, including faces. It’s being made available via the app’s API and on iOS, where it’s called “HD Portrait.”

Messaging

• WhatsApp was warned by European regulators it has just one more month to address the remaining concerns around its terms of service and privacy policy updates to clearly inform consumers about the changes. The company is being asked to clarify if it generates revenue from commercial policies related to user data, as well.
• Telegram is launching a subscription service later this month that will offer premium extra, like the ability to view “extra large” documents, media and stickers sent by Premium users, or add premium reactions if they’ve already been pinned to a message.

Streaming & Entertainment

• AT&T removed the HBO Max bundle from its new, premium tier unlimited wireless plan, Unlimited Premium, which replaced Unlimited Elite. The bundle deal had helped drive new subscriptions to the streaming app in prior years.
• Amazon simplified the pricing for its Amazon Kids+ entertainment bundle by making it $4.99/mo for Prime members and $7.99/mo for others. The changes will allow the service to be used for up to four child profiles, which increases the cost for those who had previously only paid for a single child, but decreases the cost for others. The service offers a kid-friendly selection of books, videos, apps and games, among other things.
• At Spotify’s Investor Day, the company reported on the financial health of its business with a big focus on podcasts, noting this area brought in nearly €200 million in 2021 revenue, up 300% from the prior year. The company said its overall gross margin was 28.5%, dragged down by its continued investments in podcasts, but it’s on track to a GM of 30-35%, and that podcasts have 40-50% GM potential, and audiobooks could soon follow suit.

Gaming

Image Credits: Netflix

• Netflix announced a number of new gaming titles during its annual Geeked Week event, some of which are tied to popular Netflix shows, including “The Queen’s Gambit,” “Shadow and Bone,” and “Too Hot To Handle.” The streaming service currently has 22 games available and plans to have 50 titles by the end of this year.
• Tencent is rolling out a new international version of one of the world’s largest mobile games, Honor of Kings, by year-end. The game had racked up $10 billion in worldwide revenue by 2021. The overseas version will be published by Level Infinite for TiMiStudio.
• Game studio HiDef announced it’s teaming up with Snap to develop an off-platform Bitmoji-based dance and music social game that will also leverage Snap’s AR tech. The game will launch in 2023.
• Apple’s new iOS 16 will allow iPhones to support pairing with Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers to give users more control while playing mobile games.
• No Man’s Sky is coming to iPad — well, the Apple silicon-powered ones, that is.

Health & Fitness

• Meta rolled out the ability for users to track their Meta Quest fitness stats from VR to their phone. The feature involves the Move app — Meta Quest’s built-in fitness tracker that lets you set goals for how many calories you’ve burned and how many minutes you’ve spent working out in VR. This will now sync to the Oculus Mobile app and Apple’s Health app.

Travel & Transportation

• Delivery company Uber said its food delivery business Uber Eats is launching a new product that will provide shipping of select specialty food items across the continental U.S.; 15 merchants from NY, LA and Miami are involved to start.
• Singaporean taxi operator ComfortDelGro partnered with Alipay+ to allow tourists in Malaysia and South Korea to use their mobile wallet apps (Touch ‘n Go eWallet and Kakao Pay) to pay for cab fare in Singapore.
• Travel app Hopper launched “Leave for Any Reason,” a $30 product that lets customers leave their hotel for any reason and rebook with another hotel of the same star category, with rebooking costs covered by Hopper.
• Traveling to the beach? Don’t forget to download the new shark-spotting app. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and New England Aquarium teamed up to encourage consumers to report shark sightings off Cape Cod in Massachusetts through an app called Sharktivity.

Government & Policy

• Wired reports on how Ukrainian civilians are using apps to help the army, which blurs the lines between civilians and soldiers and raises questions related to international humanitarian laws.
• Russian tech giant Yandex removed national borders between Ukraine and Russia from its maps app. Users still see the country names displayed — but lines depicting exact borders between countries like Ukraine and Russia are no longer visible.
• Nasdaq-listed language learning app Duolingo is back in China’s Apple App Store and Android stores nearly a year after its disappearance due to China’s regulatory crackdowns. The company had been told at the time of its removal to strengthen its “content compliance mechanism.”
• The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its final report on its year-long mobile ecosystem market study. The report found there are substantial concerns about Apple and Google’s market power which require regulatory intervention. Among the concerns are in-app payments and commissions, Apple’s ban on cloud gaming providers and non-WebKit-based browsers on iOS, switching costs between ecosystems, and more.

Funding and M&A

Hourly, an app that helps businesses track hours and payroll for hourly wage workers, raised $27 million in Series A funding led by Glilot Capital Partners. Hourly has around 1,000 customers in California, in areas like construction, home services, accounting and retail.

India fintech CRED raised $140 million in a fourth round of funding led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, valuing the startup at $6.4 billion, up from $2.2 billion in April 2021. Among other things, CRED allows users to manage credit cards, check their credit score and earn rewards.

Fintech app Fruitful announced a total of $33 million in equity funding raised across a seed and Series A round over the past 18 months. Emigrant Bank led the company’s $8 million seed round and 8VC led its $25 million Series A. The app will launch this fall to offer consumers financial guidance from experts via a $98/mo subscription service.

Mexico City-based neobank app Klar raised $70 million in Series B funding led by General Atlantic, valuing the startup at $500 million. The company added 1.4 million customers over the past 12 months and more than $100 million worth of loans.

Indonesia cryptocurrency-focused app Pintu raised a $113 million Series B from Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstar Group and Pantera Capital. The app offers 66 tokens and has more than 4 million installs.

Note-taking app maker Notion announced it’s acquiring the calendar app Cron. Notion already synced with Google Calendar, but this deal suggests the company wants to expand further into the productivity space. Cron had raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Deal terms weren’t disclosed.

Mobile app marketing solution Airship acquired Gummicube, an App Store Optimization service. The deal will see Gummicube’s ASO technology linked to Airship’s App Experience Platform. Terms were not disclosed.

Downloads

Brickit (update)

Image Credits: Brickit

Brickit, the clever mobile app that uses AI to identify which LEGO bricks you own and then suggest projects, rolled out a new version of its app that includes several new features that help people do more with their LEGO collections.

The updated app now includes a Finder feature that will identify the precise location of bricks within a pile of bricks. Its AI and ML capabilities have also been improved, the company says. Brickit’s AI has gotten better at identification, with a success rate as high as 92%, it claims. The app will also use machine learning to help it get better over time. If it gets something wrong, it asks the users to help correct the problem, then uses that information to improve its LEGO brick knowledge. A final new feature may be the best as it makes Brickit not just a tool, but a community. Brickit now lets users submit their own creations to the app which Brickit then transforms into instructions and share with other Brickit users worldwide.

Tweets

Hey, it’s a new HIG!

Good News, weather app devs

Graceful response to being sherlocked

It didn’t have to be this way, Apple…

Want to see something cool?

Wait, what now?

We’re obsessed too, this thing is wild!

The UK’s competition watchdog has published its final report on a comprehensive, year-long mobile ecosystem market study — cementing its view that there are substantial concerns about the market power of Apple and Google which require regulatory intervention.

Back in December, its preliminary report on the market study also identified concerns and discussed potential remedies for tackling lock-in and opening up the pair’s “largely self-contained ecosystems”, such as by making it easier for consumers to switch and reducing barriers for app developers.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)’s 356-page final report goes into greater depth and detail on all fronts, analyzing a smorgasbord of competition concerns attached to how Apple and Google operate their respective, dominant mobile ecosystems, iOS and Android — and digging into topics as varied as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature; a Google developer revenue-sharing agreement codenamed ‘Project Hug’; and the merits of developing web apps that features a chat with the maker of popular puzzle game, Wordle, to pull out a few highlights — but with the regulator pointing to the pair’s sustained profitability, and profits it assess as “high in absolute terms”, as an indelible, top-line signal that market distortion is afoot.

In a press release accompanying the report, the CMA sums up its conclusions by asserting that Apple and Google “hold all the cards” in the mobile ecosystems market — and that interventions are needed “to give innovators and competitors a fair chance to compete”.

While there’s likely to be a fair degree of déjà vu for industry watchers — given the CMA’s preliminary report last year also flagged some of the same problems and discussed potential remedies — this time the UK regulator is taking action. Albeit, the processes this will entail are not quick so it could be years before it’s in a position to actually intervene and order changes to how the tech giants operate in relation to concerns its report has identified. But, well, the train is now starting to leave the station at least.

Specifically, the CMA is now proposing to open an in-depth probe with two points of focus: One on Apple and Google’s market power in mobile browsers; and another on Apple’s restrictions on cloud gaming through its App Store. (NB: The regulator has a duty to consult before it opens what’s called a market investigation reference, or MIR, relying on its existing competition powers.)

On mobile browsing, the CMA is concerned about Apple’s ban on non WebKit-based browsers on iOS — which it suspects severely limits rival browsers from being able to differentiate vs Apple’s Safari, as well as suggesting the restriction limits Apple’s incentive to further develop its own browser.

The CMA is further worried about how Apple’s ban on non WebKit-based browsers on iOS limits the capabilities of web apps on its platform — hampering their ability to compete with native apps (which Apple of course monetizes via its App Store fees).

Mobile browser defaults also appear to be in scope of the proposed MIR, with the CMA noting that mobile devices typically have either Google’s Chrome or Apple’s Safari pre-installed and set as default at purchase — “giving them a key advantage over other rival browsers”.

On cloud gaming, the CMA says it wants to look into Apple blocking these services on its App Store and how that might be harming consumers, such as if its action is hampering the sector from growing. It further notes that gaming apps are a key source of revenue for the iPhone maker, suggesting the tech could also pose a threat to Apple’s strong position in app distribution.

Its consultation on the proposed MIR will run until July 22.

In parallel, the regulator is also announcing that it’s taking enforcement action against Google in relation to its app store payment practices — where it says it suspects the adtech giant of anti-competitive practices.

This competition law investigation will focus on Google’s rules governing apps’ access to listing on its Play Store — looking at conditions it sets for how users can make in-app payments for certain digital products. (NB: The CMA has an open investigation into Apple’s App Store, announced in March last year — so this looks like a mirror action to address Google’s practices but one that’s likely to lag the more advanced investigation into Apple’s mobile app store terms.)

According to its report, the CMA has decided to step up a gear now because mobile developers have been complaining to it in the months since its preliminary report also flagged a grab-bag of competition concerns.

But the regulator is also acting now using its existing powers because it’s essentially being forced to as a result of the UK government’s decision to decelerate a planned ex ante reboot of digital competition rules (which the CMA had previously envisaged as the best vehicle to address antitrust concerns linked to Big Tech market power, including in mobile) — hence its report acknowledging (with quasi regret) “we now understand this [legislation to empower the Digital Markets Unit] will not be in the current parliamentary session (ie within the next year)”, adding: “Based on these developments, we now consider it to be the right time to consult on making a market investigation reference [MIR] into mobile browsers and cloud gaming.”

So the bottom line is that the UK’s competition regulator is having to make do with its current (ex post) competition powers to address substantial and sustained antitrust concerns attached to fast-moving digital giants — because the UK government has failed to prioritize the necessary ex ante reforms.

The CMA’s report acknowledges that European Union regulation could, therefore, end up having a first mover impact on strategic digital market power — since the bloc has already agreed its own ex ante competition reform (the Digital Markets Act; DMA), which is likely to come into force early next year.  So, er, so much for Brexit taking back regulatory control then!

“[T]he DMA will be one starting point for Apple and Google when deciding how to address these international competition concerns, many of which are similar to ours,” the CMA writes in a chapter of the report discussing international developments. “As a result, Apple and Google may make changes to the mobile ecosystem that will address some of the current restrictions on effective competition on a global basis, which could resolve the competition concerns that have been raised in a number of jurisdictions, including the UK.”

One slight potential upside of the UK’s legislative delay on digital competition reform is that the CMA has at least used this interim period to undertake detailed scrutiny of the mobile market — the consequences of which are likely to be long and deep, as the regulator suggests its conclusions will feed future interventions by the DMU, aka the dedicated unit established inside the regulator last year to oversee a “pro-competition” regime in digital markets that’s intended to target the most powerful platforms (but sill lacks the necessary legislation).

“We expect the findings of this market study to be an input into any DMU assessment of whether Apple and Google should be designated with SMS in particular activities,” the CMA writes, making a reference to Strategic Market Status; aka the status in the planned reform that would mean they are in-scope of the future ex ante code of conduct (and also able to be subject to so-called ‘pro-competition interventions’ which are set to be tailored per entity, not one-sized fits all). “The study will also inform the appropriate range and design of potential interventions that the DMU could put in place, were it to find either Apple or Google to have SMS.”

“Our expectation based on the findings in this study and the evidence to date, is that Apple and Google would meet the criteria (as currently outlined in the government’s consultation response) to be found to have SMS in respect of the following activities within their ecosystems; mobile operating systems (and for Apple, together with the mobile device on which it is installed, to the extent these are inextricably linked), native app distribution, and mobile browsers and browser engines. As a result, we expect that the interventions which we have considered in this study would generally be in scope of the new regime,” it adds.

The UK regulator will surely be hoping that time spent waiting for the government to empower the DMU can — eventually — turn into future enforcement gains, i.e. once the DMU is on a proper legal footing, and as a result of it undertaking all this comprehensive market analysis in the meanwhile. (The CMA has previously done a deep dive into the digital advertising market — where it also concluded there are major structural problems with Google but, similarly, opted to wait for the government to legislate.)

But there’s no doubt the government’s decision to kick the reform down the road means tech giants like Apple and Google have bought themselves a lot more time to keep extracting UK rents.

Commenting on the mobile market study in a statement, the CMA’s CEO, Andrea Coscelli, said:

“When it comes to how people use mobile phones, Apple and Google hold all the cards. As good as many of their services and products are, their strong grip on mobile ecosystems allows them to shut out competitors, holding back the British tech sector and limiting choice.

“We all rely on browsers to use the internet on our phones, and the engines that make them work have a huge bearing on what we can see and do. Right now, choice in this space is severely limited and that has real impacts – preventing innovation and reducing competition from web apps. We need to give innovative tech firms, many of which are ambitious start-ups, a fair chance to compete.

“We have always been clear that we will maximise the use of our current tools while we await legislation for the new digital regime. Today’s announcements — alongside the eight cases currently open against major players in the tech industry, ranging from tackling fake reviews to addressing problems in online advertising — are proof of that in action.”

Apple and Google were contacted for a response to the CMA’s findings.

Both tech giants sought to play down the idea that their stewardship of their respective mobile ecosystems has any negative impacts for consumers or other businesses.

Here’s Apple’s statement: 

“We believe in thriving and competitive markets where innovation can flourish. Through the Apple ecosystem we have created a safe and trusted experience users love and a great business opportunity for developers. In the UK alone, the iOS app economy supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and makes it possible for developers big and small to reach customers around the world.

“We respectfully disagree with a number of conclusions reached in the report, which discount our investments in innovation, privacy and user performance — all of which contribute to why users love iPhone and iPad and create a level playing field for small developers to compete on a trusted platform. We will continue to engage constructively with the Competition and Markets Authority to explain how our approach promotes competition and choice, while ensuring consumers’ privacy and security are always protected.”

A Google spokesperson also sent us this statement:

“Android phones offer people and businesses more choice than any other mobile platform. Google Play has been the launchpad for millions of apps, helping developers create global businesses that support a quarter of a million jobs in the UK alone. We regularly review how we can best support developers and have reacted quickly to CMA feedback in the past. We will review the report and continue to engage with the CMA.”

For a hint of what (more) may be to come, finally — if/when the DMU finally gets empowered and a new UK competition regime is up and running — Chapter 8 of the CMA’s report discusses a broad range of potential remedies for addressing competition concerns attached to the Apple-Google mobile duopoly, from making switching ecosystems easier for consumers; to lowering barriers for new OSes; to making interventions to aid native app distribution, or at the level of app store commission, or to support competition between app developers.

The report also touches on a number of potential separation remedies — namely data separation; operational separation; and structural separation — but the CMA sounds wary of going that far, without entirely ruling it out. “Given the significant costs, business disruptions, and risks of unintended consequences associated with these forms of intervention, we consider there are alternatives available with the potential to deliver many of the benefits with significantly lower cost and risks,” it writes on that. 

“In particular, we envisage that at this stage the interventions proposed above to level the playing field between Apple’s and Google’s own apps and third parties, would have the potential to deliver many of the benefits with comparably lower costs,” it goes on, before adding: “However, should Apple and Google act against consumers interests by making it unreasonably difficult for competing apps to successfully enter and expand, then separation could be reconsidered as an alternative which directly addresses their incentives to favour their own businesses.”

Returning to the immediately proposed interventions, if the MIR goes ahead as the CMA is proposing, it will have 18 months from the date the reference is made to conclude the investigation of Apple and Google’s market power in mobile browsers and Apple’s approach to cloud gaming — with the possibility of an extension of a further 6 months in exceptional circumstances. So it could be spending two full years digging into this.

The aim of a market investigation is to consider whether there are features of a market that have an adverse effect on competition (aka AEC).

If the CMA finds there is an AEC, it has a range of (existing) powers to impose its own remedies, such as being able to enforce behavioral requirements or even order the sale of parts of a business, as well as being able to make recommendations to other bodies (such as sectoral regulators or the government) for other appropriate interventions to support improving competition.

But, again, such interventions aren’t likely to deliver overnight results as they can also take time to implement, plus there’s the high possibility that enforcement orders would be appealed. So, again, any UK fix for the Apple-Google duopoly won’t be quick. 

Amazon is tapping into augmented reality in an attempt to appeal to sneakerheads shopping its site. The retailer this morning announced a new feature called Virtual Try-On for Shoes that will allow customers to visualize how a pair of new shoes will look on themselves from multiple angles using their mobile phone’s camera.

The company says the feature will help brands to better showcase their products while also informing customers’ purchasing decisions. The launch follows the rollout of other virtual try-on technology for athletic shirts this past April, as part of an update to its “Made for You” custom clothing service. In that case, however, the technology was rendering the shirt on an avatar that represents the customer’s body, based on their actual measurements, and doesn’t use AR.

The new AR try-on feature for shoes will initially launch in the U.S. and Canada in the Amazon shopping app on iOS. To use the feature, customers will tap on the new “Virtual Try-On” button below the product image on supported styles to get started.

At launch, try-on will be available across thousands of styles from brands including New Balance, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Saucony, Lacoste, Asics, and Superga, Amazon says.

To try on the shoes, customers will point their phone’s camera at their feet and the AR shoes will appear. They can then use the included carousel to swap out colors of the same style of shoe without having to exit the experience. From here, shoppers can also snap a photo of their virtual try-on experience by tapping the “Share” icon. This lets them save the photo to their device and post to social media.

“Amazon Fashion’s goal is to create innovative experiences that make shopping for fashion online easier and more delightful for customers,” said Muge Erdirik Dogan, president of Amazon Fashion, in a statement about the new feature. “We’re excited to introduce Virtual Try-On for Shoes, so customers can virtually try on thousands of styles from brands they know and love at their convenience, wherever they are. We look forward to listening and learning from customer feedback as we continue to enhance the experience and expand to more brands and styles,” Dogan added.

The feature was previously in testing with select customers, Amazon notes, so some users may have access before now.

Image Credits: Amazon

Amazon has been fairly slow to embrace AR technology for online apparel shopping, despite increased competition from competitors in this space. In the past, it’s seen AR as more of a tool or toy. In years past, it has experimented with AR for furniture shopping, and has used AR for inconsequential features, like AR Stickers or to add AR features to seasonal shipping boxes.

Meanwhile, Big Tech rivals including Pinterest, Google and Snapchat have leveraged AR to allow shoppers to try on makeup, apparel and accessories. Snap recently expanded its investment in AR shopping with the introduction of tools that turn retailers’ photos into 3D assets and the launch of an in-app destination for AR fashion and virtual try-on called “Dress Up.” The company said that more than 250 million Snapchat users have engaged with AR shopping Lenses more than 5 billion times since January 2021.

Amazon’s top U.S. competitor Walmart also recently turned to virtual try-on with its March 2022 debut of an A.I.-powered try-on feature, “Choose My Model,” which was based on technology it acquired the prior year from the startup Zeekit. Here, Walmart shoppers can try on clothes in sizes XS through XXXL across virtual models ranging in height from 5’2″ and 6’0″. While that’s a more complex use of technology than Amazon’s virtual try-on of shoes, it does not leverage AR.

Asked if Amazon had any data that suggested virtual try-on actually increased conversions, an Amazon spokesperson didn’t have much to offer. They didn’t share any specific metrics and spoke only of how the feature was an “experiment” in making shopping easier. They also noted Amazon was experimenting in other areas, including virtually trying on eyewear and virtually trying on outfits on a personal avatar.

TikTok users regularly complain of hours lost on the platform, thanks to the video app’s unmatched ability to distract, entertain and engage users by way of its advanced recommendation technology. Its addictive nature has been the subject of numerous psychological studies and parents’ concerns, as TikTok becomes one of the most-used apps among children. In lieu of dialing back its digital dopamine dispenser, TikTok is today rolling out a new set of screen time features designed to put users in better control of their TikTok usage.

Among the new features are two new controls for monitoring and managing screen time usage, as well as a new digital well-being guide that’s being added to the app’s Safety Center.

The guide, titled “How can I reflect on my digital well-being with my family and friends?,” is meant to help users “reflect more holistically” about how they spend time online, TikTok said.

Image Credits: TikTok’s new Safety Guide

The new screen time features, meanwhile, are in addition to the screen time controls TikTok already launched for families, which have been available globally for over two years and include a way for parents to set screen time limits for children. The features are also supplemental to the daily screen time limits tool TikTok added in February 2020, which is available to all users from the app’s existing Digital Wellbeing section.

Instead, the newly launched in-app tool arriving today helps users control how much time they spend on TikTok in a single sitting by allowing them to schedule regular screen time breaks.

The feature aims to address app addiction issues that aren’t related to total consumption, but to losing track of how long you’re spending on TikTok each time you open the app. In other words, it’s a tool for managing screen time on a per-session basis.

Image Credits: TikTok

With the new tool, users can ask the app to remind them to take a break after a certain amount of time of their choosing.

By default, it suggests break reminders of either 10, 20, or 30 minutes, though users can set reminders for a custom time if they wanted to engage in either longer or shorter sessions before being shown the notification. These default suggested times for session breaks are much reduced from the daily screen time limits the existing tool recommends. The latter asks users to set a daily screen time limit of 40, 60, 90 or 120 minutes.

TikTok notes the tool can also be snoozed or switched off at any time, which would allow people to use reminders as they saw fit. For instance, users may not want to limit screen time on a lazy weekend at home, but would want to limit their TikTok time during the work week when they’re trying to get to bed early.

Related to this addition, TikTok is rolling out a new screen time dashboard that will provide more information about how much time users are spending on the app. It includes summaries of the user’s daily time spent on the app, the number of times they opened the app, and a breakdown of daytime and nighttime usage. Users can also opt in to receive weekly notifications that remind them to review their dashboard.

Image Credits: TikTok

While the new screen time tools are rolling out to global users of any age, TikTok says it’s also introducing new screen time prompts for minor users in between the ages of 13 and 17. Going forward, if a minor has been on the app for more than 100 minutes in a single day, TikTok will remind them of its new screen time limits tool the next time they open the app.

That such a feature even needs to exist suggests that many parents have still not bothered to configure TikTok’s existing parental controls, leaving the company to stand in as the digital parent.

Millennial and Gen X users — today’s parents — may have grown up with technology or used it throughout the majority of their adult lives, but a surprising number still do not use supervise their children’s screen time and digital device usage. A 2021 Kaspersky study found only half of U.S. parents were using parental control apps and only 44% supervised children’s use of devices. In other markets, the adoption of parental controls may be even lower. A 2020/2021 Ofcom study, for instance, suggested that around six in ten U.K. parents were aware of digital parental controls, but only around a third actually used them.

Image Credits: TikTok well-being page

The rollout of new screen time features follows a recent April 2022 investigation by the Wall Street Journal into the impact TikTok is having on children’s brains. The report cited a widely reported scientific study that examined how the app’s algorithm activates the reward centers of the brain — including those associated with addiction. While the study focused on college students and young adults, not kids, it found that about 5.9% of TikTok users may have “significant problematic use.”

Young people have an even harder time with managing their screen time use, The WSJ reported, because their brain’s prefrontal cortex — which targets impulse control and decision-making — isn’t fully developed until age 25.

Arguably, TikTok’s screen time tools, including those for minor children, are more robust than those on rival platforms like Instagram and YouTube due to the granularity of TikTok’s controls. And they’re well ahead of Snapchat, which has yet to launch its own parental controls. But given the now well-documented health impacts of addictive social apps — particularly on children’s brains — it’s expected regulators will soon step in to exert more control over the market so it’s not up to app makers to pick and choose what tools to offer and how they should work.

European Union co-legislators have reached provisional agreement on a common charging solutions for smartphones, laptops, tablets and other small and medium sized electronics — some 15 different categories in all — agreeing that, by autumn 2024, USB Type C will be the common charging port for in scope devices.

Laptop makers have been given a little longer to implement the common charging solution on account of different power charging characteristics — with 40 months after the rules enter into force to adapt their kit.

Wireless charging interoperability is also being addressed by the EU — although not immediately; lawmakers have agreed for the Commission to ask standards authorities to come up with a standard to enable wireless charging interoperability. The Commission will then be empowered to adapt the directive via delegated acts to ensure that wireless charging kit does not sidestep the requirement for a common approach.

The provisional agreement between the European Parliament and Council paves the way for a formal vote later this summer to approve the amendment to the EU’s Radio Equipment Directive — but the bloc’s co-legislators reaching a compromise is usually the crux moment for EU lawmaking.

The new rules will enter into force 20 days after publication in the EU Official Journal — with the common charger provisions starting to apply 24 months after that (hence 2024).

The parliament has been pushing for common charger rules for over a decade, arguing it’s a key step to shrink the volume of e-waste generated by consumers in the bloc. Unused chargers are estimated to represent about 11,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, per EU lawmakers.

The Commission finally came forward with a proposal last fall — and it’s notable that today’s compromise only took a matter of months to agree.

“The common charging solution will not only affect Apple. It will affect a lot of brands producing some of these 15 different types of products when it will come into force in two years time,” said the parliament’s lead negotiator on the file, Alex Agius Saliba, speaking during a press conference in which he dubbed the provisional agreement “historic” and a “great achievement”.

Under the incoming rules, EU consumers will have a choice to buy a new device with or without an external power supply — and must be provided with clear information on the charging characteristics of new devices so they can easily tell whether their existing chargers are compatible or not.

In-scope products placed on the market before the date of application will not be required to comply so it will be interesting to see whether or not there’s a flurry of device releases by manufacturers seeking to use up existing components ahead of the deadline.

Internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, who was also at the press conference to laud what he described as a “very important” agreement, said a common charging approach is in the interests of European consumers and the environment.

“It’s true we have been waiting for 10 years,” Breton went on. “It was not easy but we have been able to do it. Nine months — nine months only! It means we can move fast when there is a political will. When we are able to say to the lobbies sorry but here it is Europe; we are working for our own people not your interests.”

Electronics makers wanting to sell devices to EU consumers “will have to apply to our rules”, he warned — urging device makers to “be ready” and suggesting they shouldn’t wait the full two years to make the switch since “these will be the rules”.

Breton also reiterated that the Commission is working on ecodesign and energy labelling measures — which he said are intended to prevent premature obsolescence of smartphone and tablets, another issue he dubbed “very important”.

“These measures will include reliability, ease of dismantling, incentivizing repair, access to critical spare parts as well as boosting recycling,” Breton added, suggesting that proposed legislation will be ready after the summer break.

At a developer briefing following Apple’s keynote address at its Worldwide Developer Conference this afternoon, the company went into more detail about the different types of widgets developers can now build for the iOS 16 Lock Screen. Inspired by the Apple Watch’s complications, Apple said these new widgets can help developers leverage key information from their app and display it where people can view it at a glance. Notably, all these Lock Screen widgets will work on both iOS and watchOS because, starting with watchOS 9, complications will also be powered by WidgetKit.

That means, for the first time, developers will be able to use the same code to generate glanceable information on both platforms, where the differences between platforms are handled automatically, Apple noted. That is, the widgets will be created using the appropriate system fonts by default, and the Lock Screen widgets will be tinted for maximum legibility.

At launch, developers will be able to choose from three different widget designs: circular, rectangular and inline.

The circular widgets are ideal for displaying a small image, page or a few characters of text. These widgets would be great for doing something like letting the user know with a glance how active they’ve been today or if it’s time to go for a run, similar to Apple’s activity rings. Another widget design, rectangular, provides a larger canvas. This could be better for displaying something like an upcoming weather forecast, Apple explained.

The inline widget, meanwhile, provides a way to convey information with a tiny amount of text and SF Symbols — Apple’s library of iconography that today includes over 4,000 different symbols. These inline widgets would display above the Lock Screen’s clock and next to a system-supplied date string, such as “Mon 6” (for “Monday the 6th). In an example published alongside an upcoming WWDC 2022 session, Apple showed how this widget could provide the weather above the clock. Here, the date is followed by a sun symbol for the weather, as well as the current city.

All the widgets will be designed by developers using WidgetKit, which is the toolkit that’s already being used to build home screen widgets for iOS, iPadOS and macOS. With the WidgetKit update rolling out later this year, developers will also be able to build these new widgets as well as complications in watchOS. This could greatly expand the capabilities of home screen personalization apps like Brass, Widgetsmith and others, which could provide a set of matching widgets for the Home Screen, Lock Screen and Watch, allowing users to customize all their devices in the same way.

Another new feature will give widgets the power to show real-time information. Developers will be able to create Live Activities, which are built with Swift UI, in order to provide the most current information to the Lock Screen. Like widgets, these Live Activities are also built with WidgetKit. The difference between a standard widget and a Live Activity is that developers will update the latter’s presentation and state in real time so the most up-to-date is shown when the user looks at the widget. In reality, Live Activities are basically just real-time widgets of sorts, but Apple has given it a different name.

The updates to WidgetKit will roll out with iOS 16 later this year.

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 industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. App Annie says global spending across iOS and Google Play is up to $135 billion in 2021, and that figure will likely be higher when its annual report, including third-party app stores in China, is released next year. Consumers also downloaded 10 billion more apps this year than in 2020, reaching nearly 140 billion in new installs, it found.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that was up 27% year-over-year.

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

WWDC 2022 Preview

It’s that time again. Google I/O has come and gone, which means it’s now WWDC season. Apple’s big developer conference is back this year as a hybrid event with invites sent to some developers (and press), and a keynote that airs Monday, June 6 at 10 a.m. PT. Amid the possibility of new Macs (or maybe even the rumored AR headset?), app developers are most interested in the coming updates to Apple’s development platforms and what’s ahead for its mobile operating systems, including the big new release of iOS 16.

Thanks to leaks largely from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, iOS 16 — code-named “Sydney” — could be a fairly big upgrade. Rumored changes include an updated lockscreen that features the Today View widgets, perhaps — more real estate for app developers to capture users’ attention — as well as the chance that an iPhone 14/iOS 16 combo will include an always-on display. Other updates could see first-party apps like Messages and Health getting updates, the former with enhancements to its audio features, the leaks claim.

Elsewhere, we’re expecting multitasking improvements for iPadOS, plus updates to macOS, watchOS and tvOS, including other first-party app updates (Settings, Mail, Safari, Podcasts and Notes, potentially), new watch faces and more.

If Apple wanted to surprise us, it could announce the rumored homeOS or its smartglasses, but for the time being, we’re not betting on those releases.

Daily downloads to reach top of the App Store have increased 37% since 2019

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

New analysis indicates it’s gotten harder to get an app to the top of the App Store, in terms of downloads, over the past several years. According to new data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the number of downloads needed for an app to break into the No. 1 position on Apple’s iPhone App Store in the U.S. has climbed by 37% since 2019. Specifically, it estimates an app now requires approximately 156,000 downloads on a given day to hit the top spot on the U.S. App Store, up from 114,000 daily downloads back in 2019.

Meanwhile, Android apps only need 56,000 daily downloads, down from 83,000 in 2019.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

Of course, developers know that downloads alone don’t move an app to the top of the charts. It’s only one of several factors that Apple’s ranking algorithm takes into account for managing its Top Charts. Still, it’s an interesting metric to track as it does matter — and Sensor Tower has done the work to analyze the median needed per marketplace, by categories, and even among select markets. You can read our write-up here.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

• Apple updated its Apple Developer App in advance of WWDC. The app will allow developers to browse the WWDC tab to watch the complete schedule of each day’s session videos, as well as access Digital Lounge activities and the Coding and Design Challenges. The app also now supports SharePlay so developers can watch videos together with colleagues or friends.
• Apple also launched a new webpage, Beyond WWDC, devoted to listing a number of other events and gatherings related to WWDC, many of which are sponsored by or led by developer organizations.
• Ahead of next week’s reveal of iOS 16, Apple released the latest iOS 15.6 beta 2, as well as the second developer betas for iPadOS 15.6, tvOS 15.6 and watchOS 8.7. Notably, the update fixed the bug that saw the Apple Music app pushing other apps out of the iPhone’s dock.
• Mixpanel noted that Apple’s iOS 15 is now installed on 85% of active iPhones as we head toward the reveal of iOS 16.
• Apple featured a selection of its WWDC22 Swift Student Challenge Winners, which this year total 350 students from 40 countries and regions. Among the apps that Apple highlighted were Ivy, an app for gardeners; an app that teaches CPR; and an app that lets people try out different pronouns using sample texts.

Platforms: Google

• Google said Android users will soon be able to apply their Play Points to in-app purchases for apps published on Google Play. The points will be available right in the checkout flow.
• Google announced the General Availability (GA) of App Actions using shortcuts.xml, part of the Android shortcuts framework. By using the Shortcuts API, developers can add a layer of voice interaction to their apps, by using the Android tooling, platform and features they already know, Google said.
• Google’s latest Android update included new Gboard stickers, 1,600 Emoji Kitchen combos, new Play Points features and accessibility app improvements. Most notably, the company is bringing custom text stickers to all Android devices, after first launching them on Pixel phones in March.
• A number of South Korean app developers and content providers upped their paid subscription and service fees on Google’s Play marketplace due to the 15-30% commissions now required following Google’s policy changes that force apps to use its first-party billings and payments system. While South Korean law permits app developers to use a third-party payment option, this only reduces Google’s commission by 4% — and that’s not enough, developers believe.
• Google is said to be shutting down Android Auto for phone screens, according to messages users are seeing in the app.

E-commerce

• Amazon added an invite-only ordering option to its website and app designed to limit bots’ ability to score high-demand, low-supply products. The system launches in the U.S. with the PS 5 and Xbox Series X console preorders.
• Kohl’s is the latest retailer to sign on for Apple’s Business Chat, which allows customers to talk to live chat customer service agents through Apple’s Messages app.

Fintech

• SEC filings indicated banking app Varo, the first U.S. neobank to receive a bank charter, had $263 million equity, an $84 million burn rate and 98% of its income came from interchange and fees, according to an analysis by Fintech Business Weekly. The report suggested Varo could be out of money by year-end if it doesn’t cut costs and raise more capital.
• Visa and East Africa’s biggest telecom, Safaricom, the operator of the M-Pesa mobile money product, launched a virtual card that will allow M-Pesa users to make digital payments globally.
• Square said it would roll out support for Apple’s new Tap to Pay on iPhone feature inside its Square Point of Sale app later this year, and it launched an Early Access Program for select merchants.
• Coinbase said it will extend its hiring freeze for “as long as this macro environment requires” and said it would also rescind a number of accepted offers.

Social

Image Credits: Instagram

• Instagram launched AMBER Alerts on its app to tap into its wide user base to help find missing children. The alert will appear if you’re in the designated search area and will include information about the missing child, including an image, description, location of the abduction and other details.
• Twitter is said to be restructuring to focus on user growth and personalization, which is impacting staffing for other features like Spaces, newsletters and Communities, Bloomberg said.
• After 14 years, Meta announced COO Sheryl Sandberg is leaving the company. The resignation follows reports that the exec used Meta’s resources for personal interests, like wedding planning, and used Facebook resources to pressure Daily Mail to kill a story about then-boyfriend Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
• Meta announced a series of updates and new features for its Reels products across both Facebook and Instagram, including a Sound Sync feature on Facebook Reels and support for longer Instagram Reels of up to 90 seconds, instead of 60 seconds. It also rolled out more creative tools, including bringing Instagram’s Story stickers to Reels.

Image Credits: Meta

• Snapchat launched a new “Shared Stories” feature that makes it easier for users to collaborate and share memories. It also partnered with restaurant review website The Infatuation to help users to find local eats on its Snap Map.
• The Uvalde shooter used the Gen Z social app Yubo to meet people who he would then follow on Instagram and with whom he discussed buying a gun in private chats, The Washington Post reported. Yubo additionally announced new age estimating features to separate minors from adults on its app.
• Twitter said it’s shutting down TweetDeck for Mac, the social media dashboard app aimed at power users who want to view multiple columns within a single screen. The app will sunset on July 1 after which users will be directed to the web version, which is being updated.
• TikTok is testing a new feature, “clear mode,” that allows for a distraction-free scrolling experience on the app. The feature is in limited testing with select users and removes all clutter on-screen, like captions and buttons.
• Tumblr rolled out a way to gift ad-free browsing to friends at a rate of $4.99/mo or $39.99/year. It also introduced a way to turn off the ability for users to limit reblogs on their posts.
• Discord said it will give voice channels their own text-based chat rooms where users can share links and other texts without having to channel hop. The feature will roll out across platforms by June 29.
• Social events app IRL is laying off 25% of its team, or around 25 people, citing market dynamics. The cut comes around a year after the startup landed a $170 million SoftBank-led Series C and reached unicorn status.

Messaging & Calling

• Google announced plans to combine its Google Duo and Google Meet calling apps into a single app that uses Duo’s tech as the foundation but leverages the Google Meet branding. The Duo app will gain all of Meet’s features, including scheduled meetings, but users will also be able to use the new app for ad hoc calls. Google had previously sunset Duo’s chat-based sister app Allo ahead of this move.
• The Jonas Brothers-backed startup Scriber forgoes a standalone app to connect fans with exclusive celeb content over SMS updates to their preferred messaging app. The Jonas Brothers charge $4.99/mo for their fan subscription but plan to donate half the earnings to charity.

Streaming & Entertainment

Image Credits: YouTube

• YouTube announced its mobile app can now sync to your TV without using casting, for a “second screen’ experience.” The app will instead ask users if they want to sync to their TV, which will then allow the users to interact with the video, by liking, commenting and supporting the creator, as well as shop the products being featured.
• Google launched the Google TV for iOS app after moving the Movies and TV section from the Play Store to the Google TV app. The new app replaces the Play Movies & TV app for iOS and lets TV viewers use their phone as a remote control.
• A top streaming service in China, iQiyi, majority owned by Baidu, reported its first quarterly profit of $26.7 million in Q1 2022, after spending cuts.
• Apple is now injecting first-party ads for its own radio shows within the premium Apple Music service, to the anger of some users.
• Spotify faced a streaming outage on Monday and Tuesday when podcasts on Spotify-owned Megaphone were unavailable for more than eight hours from Monday night through early Tuesday morning due to an expired SSL certificate.
• Singapore-based TIYA, a Clubhouse-like social audio networking platform, launched a Spotify integration that lets its users listen to music and podcasts with friends. The app is a subsidiary of Chinese app maker LIZHI.
• TikTok is launching a live subscription comedy series in partnership with social media collaboration company Pearpop and creator Jericho Mencke. Episodes of the show, “Finding Jericho,” will air twice a week in June on TikTok LIVE, with eight 30-minute episodes in total. It will cost $4.99 to watch the series.

Gaming

• Google announced the return of the Indie Game Accelerator program for 2022. It said selected game studios from 78 eligible countries will be invited to take part in the 10-week acceleration program starting in September 2022 as the Accelerator Class of 2022. The program includes a series of online classes, talks and game development workshops. Develoeprs also get the chance to meet and connect with others from around the world.
• Epic Games is hosting its first major in-person competitive Fortnite event since the Fortnite World Cup in 2019. The upcoming FNCS Invitational 2022 will take place November 12-13 at the Raleigh Convention Center and will feature a $1 million prize pool.
• Popular iOS mobile games from Ustwo, the developer behind Monument Valley, will come to the PC with a launch on Steam on July 12.

Travel & Transportation

• The world’s second most frequently downloaded ride-hailing app after Uber, inDriver, was profiled by Rest of World this week. The Siberia-based app, which lets drivers haggle over prices, hit unicorn status last year with a valuation of $1.23 billion. It now serves 42 countries worldwide.

News & Reading

• Amazon removed in-app purchases from its Kindle and Amazon Music apps for Android, as well as direct audiobook purchases from its Audible app for Android, following Google Play’s policy change that forces developers to use its own first-party billing and payments service.
• Substack’s latest updates included the ability to embed TikToks into posts, a new reactions section at the bottom of posts, a new profile section that shows your recent likes and several updates to its mobile app. For the latter, readers can now change the font, text size and background color to enhance their reading experience, as well as for better collapsing and threading of comments.

Utilities

• Apple Maps began testing its more-detailed maps in more countries including France, Monaco and New Zealand. Users in these areas spotted updated maps with better renders of 3D objects, like the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral and Mont Saint-Michel in France.

Security & Privacy

• Canada’s privacy regulator found that coffee shop chain Tim Hortons had illegally collected customer location data through its mobile app without adequate user consent. An investigation found the app was tracking customers’ locations even when it was not in use.

Funding and M&A

Indian short video app ShareChat’s parent company Mohalla Tech raised nearly $300 million from Google, Times Group and Temasek Holdings at an approximately $5 billion valuation, according to Reuters sources. Google had previously backed rival short-form video app Josh.

Indonesian delivery app Astro, which offers 15-minute grocery delivery, raised $60 million in a Series B led by Accel, Citius and Tiger Global, bringing its total raise to date to $90 million. The app offers delivery within a range of 2-3 km through a network of dark stores and operates around 50 locations across Greater Jakarta.

LA-based metaverse startup TRIPP raised $11.2 million in a Series A extension led by gaming-focused investment firm BITKRAFT, and acquired world-building platform Eden. TRIPP’s vision for the metaverse includes AR smartglasses, VR headsets as well as smartphone apps, as it expects AR, VR and mobile to ultimately converge.

Latin American local on-demand delivery and transportation super app Yummy raised $47 million in new funding led by Anthos Capital. The app offers delivery of items, ridesharing and grocery delivery in less than 20 minutes, and the purchase of experiences like concerts and sporting events.

Sanlo, a San Francisco-based fintech startup that offers small to medium-sized game and app companies access to tools to manage their finances and capital to fuel their growth, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Konvoy.

Super, an Indonesian social commerce app that focuses on small towns and rural areas, raised $70 million in Series C funding led by NEA, bringing its total funding to $106 million. The startup plans to use its funding to expand into Kalimantan, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluka and Papua over the next few years.

Railway, a startup offering a dashboard for building, deploying and monitoring apps and services, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures.

Poparazzi, the anti-Instagram social app that hit the top of the App Store last year, announced its Benchmark-led Series A round, reported last year but not confirmed by the company until now. The company said it raised $15 million in funding, a bit under the $20 million being reported.

Pinterest acquired the AI-powered shopping service for fashion known as The Yes, founded by e-commerce veteran and former Stitch Fix COO Julie Bornstein and technical co-founder, Amit Aggarwal. Deal terms were not disclosed. The service will be used to help Pinterest personalize the shopping experience on its platform.