Pinterest may be best known for shopping inspiration and design ideas, but the company’s newest product wants to inspire its users to tap into their own creativity. The company has quietly launched a new iOS app called Shuffles for putting together collages using photos, image cutouts, and other animated effects. The app is currently in an invite-only status with the ability to join a waitlist from its homescreen.

According to Shuffles’ description on the App Store, users can build their own collages using Pinterest’s photo library or snap photos of objects they want to include using the camera. They can also cut out individual objects from within an image using a tap — a feature that recalls iOS 16’s own clever image cutout ability. Images in Shuffles can then be rotated, layered and resized on the screen to create the collage, and animations and effects can optionally be added. The final project can be shared with friends for collaboration or posted to public groups where others can “remix” the original creation in their own way.

The app’s description suggests could be used for visualizing a room makeover, fashion ideas, moodboards, and more. 

While the company hadn’t formally announced its plans around Shuffles, a Pinterest spokesperson confirmed the app hails from its new in-house incubator, TwoTwenty. 

“Shuffles is a standalone app created by TwoTwenty, Pinterest’s innovative incubator team. Shuffles is an engaging way to create, publish, and share visual content,” the spokesperson said. “With more people coming to our platform for creative inspiration, we’re continuously experimenting with new ways to help Pinners and Creators bring their ideas to life.”

“As this app is in its initial test phase, we don’t have any additional details to share on the record at this moment,” they added, declining to share more about its future plans or monetization potential.

Image Credits: Pinterest

Launched last November and named after Pinterest’s first office, TwoTwenty’s goal has been to foster more internal experimentation at the social network and increase its pace of innovation. Other tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft and Google, have similar efforts with their own incubators — NPE, Microsoft Garage, and Area 120, respectively.

In Pinterest’s case, the company has been working to make the transition from its past as an image pinboard and bookmarking site that helps drive e-commerce transactions to adapt to today’s creator-driven era where consumers are prompted to make purchases through video content. To address consumer demand for video, Pinterest released its TikTok-like Idea Pins and a live shopping feature, Pinterest TV. The latter was also launched by TwoTwenty’s team, in fact.

But TwoTwenty isn’t just meant to experiment with video. The organization consisting of engineers, designers, and other product experts aims to research, prototype and test a variety of new ideas to see if any gain traction. Those that do will be handed off to other teams inside the company to scale.

The early-stage project Shuffles is just one of those ideas.

What’s funny is that Pinterest’s new app is similar to a mobile collage maker Meta ran a couple of years ago through its own in-house incubator, NPE Team. Known as E.gg, the zine maker of sorts developed a small following who enjoyed creating mixed media collages that combined images, text and GIFs. But like nearly all of Meta’s NPE projects, E.gg was shut down. Pinterest’s Shuffles could be looking to tap into that same consumer demand for image-led creativity and inspiration, which Meta had abandoned.

The app also arrives at a time when there’s an undercurrent of resistance to the idea that video has to be the only form of social expression and creativity in social media, as all tech giants are trying to morph themselves into TikTok. This past month, user backlash against Instagram’s deprioritization of friends’ content and photos reached a head after even the Kardashians begged the app to stop trying to be TikTok. Instagram rolled back some of its recent changes as a result but it’s still set on a video-first future.

Pinterest, to some extent, likely understands that its own pivot to video may not be able to retain users’ attention indefinitely in the face of the TikTok threat. Finding another area of growth through an experimentation could give it new avenues to explore.

Financially, the company’s most recent quarter’s earnings proved solid from a numbers standpoint, but it had missed on user growth. Monthly active users were down 9% year-over-year to 433 million.

The company is due to report its second-quarter earnings after the market closes today. Of note, these will be the first earnings since new CEO Bill Ready took over the job from co-founder Ben Silbermann, who transitioned to Executive Chairman on June 29, 2022.

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.

Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed down. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced 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. Global spending across iOS and Google Play last year was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps.

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.

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Top Stories

Users demand the TikTok-ification of Instagram must stop 

How do you modernize an app like Instagram, whose roots are in iconic iPhone photography, to support users’ growing engagement with short-form video? If you’re one of the many increasingly frustrated Instagram users, you simply wish it would not attempt this pivot at all. You’re sick of the app’s constant changes, its clutter, its ads, its force-fed recommendations, and you’re not a fan of its TikTok ambitions. You just want to see your friends’ posts.

This issue finally came to a head this week when celeb sisters and Instagram top creators Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian shared a petition that demanded Instagram to “stop trying to be tiktok.” The day after, Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted a video addressing the concerns and said the app would temporarily roll back some of its recent changes, including the test of a full-screen TikTok-like experience and the increase in “recommended” posts.

The company has brought this user backlash on itself, of course, with its continual “tests” of new UIs and its desperate admissions about how TikTok is eating its lunch, forcing it to adapt or die. Plus, Instagram claims video is what people want even when they’re saying otherwise. It insists its own data supports that video has been growing faster as mobile networks got faster and data became cheaper.

While that may be true, Instagram has been throwing out the baby with the bathwater as it attempts to prioritize elements of TikTok in its own app. People want different experiences from their social platforms — and Instagram is trying to do it all, without acknowledging that the real threat from TikTok is not the video content itself, necessarily, but rather TikTok’s addictive algorithm that increases users’ time spent in the app. TikTok has figured out how to recommend posts that users welcome, while Instagram’s attempt to do the same has fallen flat. Combined with TikTok’s ability to attract a younger demographic in terms of both creators and viewers alike, the app has become a massive force in social media.

Instagram will need to find a way to balance the demands of a user base that wants to still celebrate social connection (including through static media), with creator demands for increased discovery and the rise of video. This is not an easy task, but perhaps step one should be to allow users to engage with Instagram as they like. Just as how users can opt to scroll the main Feed instead of viewing Stories and vice versa, Instagram’s TikTok-ishness should rather be an optional entry point, not the entirety of the Instagram experience.

Snapchat+ outpaces Twitter Blue after just a month

Image Credits: Snapchat

Snapchat’s recent move into premium subscriptions has gained a bit of traction in its first weeks on the market.

The new Snapchat+ paid subscription launched on June 29, 2022 offering users access to various premium features, while also importantly giving the company a means of diversifying its revenue streams beyond advertising. This is critical for the social app given that the ad market is currently impacted by broader macroeconomic forces that have slowed demand. In addition, Snapchat continues to feel the effects of Apple’s 2021 privacy changes that allowed users to opt-out of tracking and is facing increased competition from rival TikTok.

For $3.99 per month, the Snapchat+ subscription allows devoted app users to see who has rewatched their Stories, change their app icon, pin another user as a “#1 Best Friend,” try out pre-release features and more. Earlier this month, the company also made web access a part of the Snapchat+ subscription.

Since the subscription’s arrival, Snapchat’s mobile app has generated approximately $7.3 million in worldwide consumer spending across iOS and Android according to Sensor Tower. This represents the first 30 days of Snapchat+’s availability, June 29, 2022–July 26, 2022. The figure is also around 116 times higher than the $63,000 the app pulled in via in-app purchases in the 30 days prior from May 30, 2022–June 28, 2022, indicating the bulk of the new revenue was driven by Snapchat+.

Notably, the number is already larger than Twitter’s in-app revenue, which totals nearly $4 million since Twitter Blue’s June 2021 launch — over a year’s time. Snapchat+ could be succeeding because it has more power users than Twitter, Sensor Tower data shows, as 34% of its active installs open the app every single day compared with just 19% for Twitter.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

TikTok gets into mobile games

Here’s a scoop: TikTok is getting into gaming.

The company confirmed the launch of a pilot test of “mini-games” that can be played inside the social video app and discovered through creators’ videos. The gaming pilot quietly launched just weeks ago with a variety of new partners, including game developers Vodoo, Nitro Games, FRVR, Aim Lab and Lotem.

The launch follows reports earlier this year that the social video app maker was looking to expand into HTML5 gaming after first testing the waters with gaming giant Zynga last November. The two companies had then teamed up to launch a TikTok exclusive title, Disco Loco 3D, which was similar to Zynga’s successful game (by way of acquisition) High Heels.

TikTok’s mobile games today don’t monetize through ads or in-app purchases of any kind, but if they find traction with users, things could change as TikTok further developed its games platform. In that case, the app would not only recall the social gaming era of early Facebook (which incidentally drove Zynga’s success), it would also allow TikTok to route around the app stores’ commissions.

Image Credits: TikTok

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

• Apple released the fourth beta of iOS 16. The update offers a variety of new features, like the ability to edit and delete iMessages — a feature that now includes an edit history log in response to user concerns that the editing feature could be used maliciously. Other new features include the ability for developers to test Live Activities, improved integrations with Continuity Camera, a new interface when updating the Home Screen’s design, more options for the “unsend” time in Mail, and a few new wallpapers, among other smaller tweaks.
• Apple announced Live Activities and Activity Kit won’t launch with the initial release of iOS 16 but will rather become available later in the year.
• Apple is also hosting summer programs that allow developers to attend live presentations and Q&A sessions with App Store experts.
• Apple reported Q3 earnings with revenue of $83B, up 2% YoY and above estimates of $82.8B. iPhone revenue was up 3% to $40.7B but Mac was down 10% to $7.4B. Apple’s services revenue grew 12% YoY to $19.6B and 860M paid subscribers, up from 825M in Q2.

Platforms: Google

• Google announced new Play Store policies around intrusive ads, VPNs, alarms, health misinformation, impersonation and more. The policies will roll out at different intervals and will, among other things, restrict apps’ usage of full-screen ads that aren’t closeable after 15 seconds and full-screen interstitials that appear before the app’s loading screen. Apps that use icons that trick users into thinking they’re affiliated with another brand will also be restricted along with VPNs that track user data or reroute traffic to make money through ads.
• At the Think with Google Gaming Day in China, Google shared ways to help developers earn more revenue and attract high-value players with a variety of new features and ad tools.
• Google updated its Google Maps app with location-sharing notifications, immersive views and better bike navigation in several markets.

Augmented Reality

• Snapchat launched its own spooky AR game called “Ghost Phone,” which sees players working to discover the secrets of an abandoned phone and hunting ghosts using AR. The game was built using the Lens Studio and web-first game engine PlayCanvas. It also uses Snap’s World Mesh technology and surface recognition to place game objects around the user. The company launched a Bitmoji dance game last month.

Fintech/Crypto

• A U.S. Senator sent a letter to both Apple and Google asking for details as to how they’re preventing cryptocurrency apps from engaging in fraud on their respective app stores.
• Messaging app Viber debuted a new digital wallet called Payments, offering bill pay, money transfers and support for buying goods.
• The new Google Wallet rolled out to all users with Android 5.2+. The wallet app is available as a separate app in the U.S. and Singapore and as a Google Pay update for other markets.

Social

• Snap missed in Q2 with revenue of $1.11 billion — a figure up 13% from the same period a year earlier but below its previous guidance of 20% to 25%. The company cited macroeconomic conditions for lower advertiser demand and continues to be impacted by Apple’s privacy changes. DAUs grew 18% YoY to 347 million. The company said it will reduce hiring, repurchase up to $500M in stock, and it locked in CEO and CTO roles until at least Jan. 1, 2027. Its stock tanked after earnings.
• Snap announced a new creator fund that will award independent musicians posting their music on Snapchat up to $100,000 per month. The company will distribute payments for up to 20 songs per month at $5,000/song starting in August for musicians distributing to Snapchat via DistroKid.
• Meta reported its first-ever decline in quarterly revenue year over year in its Q2 earnings. The company’s revenue was $28.82 billion, a 1% decrease from $29.07 billion in the second quarter of 2021. It also swapped its CFO.
• Meta is killing Tuned, its social app for couples which will cease operations on Sept. 19, 2022. The app was a project from Meta’s New Product Experimentation Team (NPE) — one of many now shuttered attempts designed to test if Meta could create new social experiences in-house.
• BeReal got ripped off. Because Instagram didn’t have enough drama this week, it also quietly rolled out a copycat of BeReal inside its app — which misses the point about why the new social network grew popular in the first place: It’s about your friends.
• Instagram said it will begin to survey its U.S. users about race to assess if it is “fair and equitable.” The optional survey will be hosted by research group YouGov.
• Twitter Blue is getting more expensive. Twitter announced it’s increasing the price of its premium subscription from $2.99 to $4.99 per month effective immediately for new subscribers and starting in October for existing subscribers. The hike is also rolling out to other Twitter Blue markets, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand at 6.99 AUD (previously 4.49 AUD), 6.49 CAD (previously 3.49 CAD) and 6.49 NZD (previously 4.49 NZD).
• Twitter also began testing a status feature that lets you add a mood (hot take, vacation mode, unpopular opinion, etc.) alongside your posts and a way to post multiple forms of media in a single tweet.
• The anticipated Twitter-Elon trial has set a date. The parties will battle it out in court starting October 17.

Photos

• The Google Photos app gained an AI-based new movie editor and video editing features, but only for Chromebook users for the time being.
• Amazon is killing its cloud storage service Amazon Drive and shifting users to Amazon Photos instead. Customers have until Dec. 31, 2023 to save their stored files.

Messaging

• WhatsApp rolled out chat migration from Android to iOS and iOS to Android for all users. The feature requires Android 5 or higher, iOS 15.5 or above, and the Move to iOS app.
• WhatsApp also appears to be working on a chatbot that will alert you to what’s new when the app is updated.

Streaming & Entertainment

Image Credits: YouTube

• YouTube’s mobile app added a new feature that allows creators to select any segment up to 60 seconds from an existing long-form video and turn it into a YouTube Shorts video that links back to the original.
• Baidu’s video streaming service iQiyi signed a content deal with TikTok’s Chinese sister app Douyin, which allows Douyin users to use iQiyi content to make short videos. The deal ends a dispute over alleged copyright infringement.
• Comcast’s streaming app Peacock’s paid subscribers stayed flat at 13 million, as losses widen to $467 million in the company’s first quarter.
• YouTube’s ad revenue grew just 4.8% YoY to $7.34 billion in Q2, below expectations of a 7% YoY increase to $7.49 billion. This YouTube’s slowest ad growth in over two years.
• Twitter for iOS updated the Spaces bar for live audio streams to make it easier to see who’s hosting, what topics are being discussed and more.
• Spotify rolled out a new Friends Mix playlist that gives users a way to discover new tracks based on the “Blends” they’ve created with their friends.
• TikTok filed a trademark application for a service called TikTok Music that could allow users to buy, share and download music. Parent company ByteDance already runs a music service, Resso, but not in the U.S. — although ByteDance has considered expanding it in the past.

Gaming

• Roblox rolled out an update that makes its materials appear more lifelike and overhauled aspects of its developer toolkit to support this change. The move is a part of the company’s mission to improve its visual fidelity, but game developers will be able to choose if they want to keep creating using the more blocky, traditional style.
• Backbone, the maker of a popular gaming controller for iPhone, expanded with the launch of the Backbone One PlayStation Edition. The new device allows compatible mobile games to use proper PlayStation glyphs (Triangle, Circle, etc.) instead of ABXY. It will cost the same as the original Backbone One at $100.
• K-pop stars Blackpink collaborated with PUBG Mobile, which just hosted its first in-game concert. The band released a new video featuring virtual avatars inside the game, which was earlier teased during the concert.

Government & Policy

• The popular mobile game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) was pulled by Apple and Google from their respective app stores in India to comply with a government order. Krafton had said it cut ties with publishing partner Tencent, so it’s unclear why the game was pulled. The game had over 16.5M MAUs.
• Google will be allowed to relaunch Street View in India in 10 cities initially, 10 years after the government shut down the service for security reasons.
• China’s government asked TikTok for a stealth social account to target Western audiences with propaganda, Bloomberg reported, but TikTok execs pushed back and denied the request.

Security & Privacy

• Messaging app JusTalk, popular in Asia, has been leaking users’ unencrypted private messages. The app, which has 20 million global users, had claimed to offer end-to-end encryption across its flagship apps and its child-friendly JusTalk Kids.

Funding and M&A

Livestream shopping app for collectibles Whatnot raised $260 million in Series D funding at a $3.7 billion valuation, up from $1.5 billion in September 2021. The livestream shopping market has only grown to $11 billion in the U.S. versus the $600 billion industry in China.

School communications app ClassDojo raised $125 million in Series D funding in September 2022, valuing the business at $1.25 billion. The company plans to launch a kids virtual space in August 2022.

Paris-based Contentsquare raised $400 million in Series F funding and $200 million in debt for its web and app analytics business. The round doubled the startup’s May 2021 valuation to $5.6 billion.

Conversational commerce startup Charles raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Salesforce Ventures to bring its service to WhatsApp in Europe. The company so far has seen the most traction in its domestic German market, but has received inbound interest from Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the U.K.

Blockchain infrastructure company Chain acquired Measurable Data Token for $100 million. The deal sees it acquiring a cash-back mobile app, RewardMe, and the financial data protocol MeFi.

Banking and networking platform Guava, targeting Black entrepreneurs, raised $2.4 million in a pre-seed round led by Heron Rock. The company aims to narrow the racial wealth gap by providing financial services to Black small businesses and creators.

Text-to-speech app Peech raised $550,000 in funding led by Flyer One Ventures. The app offers natural-sounding text-to-speech in 50 languages, allowing users to listen to Word docs, web articles or PDFs for $3/week.

South African startup Qwili raised $1.2 million in seed funding to scale its app and low-cost NFC-enabled smartphone. Qwili software can be downloaded to any phone in addition to being pre-installed on Qwili’s phones, which are used as point-of-sale devices for merchants selling data, pay-TV subscriptions, groceries or clothing to customers.

Brooklyn-based fantasy sports app Underdog raised $35 million in Series B funding, valuing the business at $485 million. The company plans to launch licensed sports betting in Ohio and Colorado in 2023.

Spotify’s latest SEC filing revealed it paid €291 million ($295 million) for its four recent acquisitions, Findaway, Podsights, Chartable, and Sonantic. Findaway, specifically, cost the company €117 million (around $123 million).

U.K. investing app Shares raised $40 million led by Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures, bringing its total raised to $90 million. The app has over 150,000 users.

U.S.-based digital bank Umba, which focuses on emerging markets, acquired a majority share of Kenyan microfinance bank Daraja for an undisclosed amount.

Downloads

Lock Screen widget TestFlights

A new type of app to download? We’re in!

If you’re running the iOS 16 public beta and looking to dig into Lock Screen widgets, there are a number of interesting apps now being tested that offer a look into how iOS developers are thinking about use cases for this prominent iPhone real estate. (If you ask nicely, the developers might add you to the TestFlight!)

A few apps we’ve found useful include:

• Lock Screen Contacts: This allows you to put a favorite contact directly on your Lock Screen, without having to give the app access to your iPhone Contacts thanks to Apple’s more secure Contacts API. Users can toggle and choose to remove the text, image and background. The app will sell for $3.99 at launch.  The same developer is also working on a Lock Screen Icon widget that will allow you to place any of some 4,000 icons on your Lock Screen to personalize your device.

• Day Ticker: This simple icon widget lets you quickly view how many more days until an important event — like a birthday, vacation, anniversary or anything else. Days until the kid goes to camp? Just two, my widget told me. We’d better start packing!

Can’t wait to use these!

• Parcel’s Package Tracker: This widget keeps track of your expected deliveries and lets you see their status right on your Lock Screen.

• Home Widget: This widget will bring your HomeKit devices to your Lock Screen.
• LockLauncher: Create custom Lock Screen widgets that can actually take actions — like open websites or apps, for example.
• Tally: The current beta of this quick counter app includes a Lock Screen widget and other goodies.
• Countdowns: Another widget for tracking the time until upcoming events.

YouTube wants to quickly ramp up the number of short-form “Shorts” videos available on its platform in order to better compete with TikTok. To aid with this effort, the company is today rolling out a new creator tool that turns existing YouTube videos into Shorts in a matter of moments. The update, now available on YouTube’s mobile app, allows a video’s creator to easily select a segment of any video they’ve uploaded previously, then publish that clip as YouTube Shorts content.

The company was already converting users’ uploaded vertical videos under 60 seconds as Shorts videos, even if the content had been originally uploaded as a standard YouTube video. (Not all creators were fans of this idea, we should note.) Now YouTube is hoping creators will more actively help build out the Shorts library even further with the launch of this new tool that allows them to clip interesting bits from their longer videos.

The move may signal how much YouTube parent Google is worried about TikTok’s dominance in short-form. Clearly, it doesn’t think that allowing YouTube’s Shorts library to grow organically through new, original content uploads will be enough to compete. Instead, YouTube has been relying on leveraging its existing long-form content to create more Shorts. This April, for example, YouTube announced that any public YouTube video could be “remixed” into YouTube Shorts unless creators opted out.

The new tool, meanwhile, at least puts some of the power back into creators’ own hands.

The updated mobile app allows creators to select a part of their video up to 60 seconds in length and turn that into Shorts content using the same editing tools they’re familiar with inside the app, explains the company. If their selection is less than 60 seconds long, they can then shoot additional videos using the Shorts camera or they can add gallery videos to complete their 60-second Shorts content.

Creators may be motivated to use the tool as a means of generating interest in their long-form content, as YouTube notes that Shorts created using VOD (video on demand) content will automatically link back to the original.

YouTube has been touting Shorts’ ability to drive views to creators’ long-form content as part of a trend it referred to as “the rise of the multiformat creator.” In June, the company said Shorts had topped 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users but only had anecdotal data to suggest that Shorts were helping to grow critical metrics like watch time or subscribers.

In the meantime, the fact that YouTube is leaning so heavily on its existing long-form content to build out Shorts suggests a possible lack of creator interest in filming original Shorts; or it could also mean that YouTube ultimately still sees more potential as a long-form platform — but it envisions Shorts as a marketing mechanism to boost views for its better-monetized content. 

The new Shorts creation feature is rolling out starting today on YouTube’s mobile app for both iOS and Android devices, the company says.

Snapchat’s recent move into premium subscriptions has gained a bit of traction in its first weeks on the market. Though the social app maker just last week reported a disappointing second quarter with an earnings miss amid a weak advertising landscape, its brand-new subscription Snapchat+ has already helped the app rake in over $5 million in revenue in its first month, according to new estimates.

The figure is a massive jump over the five-figure in-app purchase revenue number Snapchat had seen before the subscription’s arrival. In addition, the number is already larger than Twitter’s in-app revenue which totals nearly $4 million since Twitter Blue’s June 2021 launch, per data from app market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The Snapchat+ paid consumer subscription launched on June 29, 2022 offering users access to various premium features, while also importantly giving the company a means of diversifying its revenue streams beyond advertising. This is critical for the social app given that the ad market is currently impacted by broader macroeconomic forces, which have slowed demand. In addition, Snapchat continues to feel the effects of Apple’s 2021 privacy changes that allowed users to opt-out of tracking and is facing increased competition from rival TikTok.

For $3.99 per month, the Snapchat+ subscription allows devoted app users to see who has rewatched their Stories, change their app icon, pin another user as a “#1 Best Friend,” try out pre-release features, and more. Earlier this month, the company also made web access a part of the Snapchat+ subscription.

Since the subscription’s arrival, Snapchat’s mobile app has generated approximately $7.3 million in worldwide consumer spending across iOS and Android according to Sensor Tower, provided to TechCrunch. This represents the first 30 days of Snapchat+’s availability, June 29, 2022 – July 26, 2022, the firm notes. The figure is also around 116 times higher than the $63,000 the app pulled in via in-app purchases in the 30 days prior from May 30, 2022 – June 28, 2022, indicating the bulk of the new revenue was driven by Snapchat+.

Currently, Snapchat offers a few other in-app purchases for things like geofilters and tokens, per its App Store listing. But as of the time of writing, the app’s top three in-app purchases were all tiers of Snapchat+, said Sensor Tower. The $3.99 monthly plan was in the top spot, followed by the 12-month and 6-month subscriptions at $39.99 and $21.99, respectively.

For all time, Sensor Tower estimates Snapchat’s app has generated approximately $27.7 million in worldwide consumer spending.

Of course, in-app mobile spending represents only a small fraction of how a company like Snap makes money. The company pulled in $1.11 billion in revenue in Q2 2022, nearly all of which is from its advertising products including Snap Ads and AR Ads (like Sponsored Filters and Sponsored Lenses). The company also sells hardware products, like its Spectacles eyewear and new Pixy drone, but these have no substantial impact on its revenue at present.

Without first-party data, it’s not possible to exactly contrast how Snapchat+ is faring versus other social app subscriptions aimed at power users, like Twitter Blue. The audience demographics differ and Twitter offers a variety of other in-app purchases — like those associated with Super Follows (creator subscriptions) and live audio Spaces, for example. Snapchat also offers other in-app purchases. However, Sensor Tower reports that during Twitter Blue’s first 30 days, the app saw only around $9,000 in in-app spending. This comparison is a bit unfair, though, because the subscription was limited to select markets at launch.

Still, it seems Twitter Blue hasn’t yet proven to be a big winner. The Twitter app has seen nearly $4 million in worldwide spending across the App Store and Google Play since the launch of Twitter Blue on June 3, 2021, Sensor Tower estimates. The majority of that spending ($3.4 million) has been on iOS. This suggests Snapchat+’s first month could have already outpaced Twitter Blue’s lifetime revenue. (Snap declined to comment on Sensor Tower’s estimates.)

Sensor Tower analysts suggest Snapchat+ could be faring better because of Snapchat’s power users.

The app is tied with Instagram as having the highest percentage of power users in the U.S. in Q2 2022. That is, Snapchat and Instagram saw 34% of their active installs open the app every single day during the second quarter. This is in comparison to Facebook (31%), TikTok (23%), and Twitter (19%).

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

TikTok wants to determine its users’ appetite for mobile gaming with the launch of “mini-games” that can be played inside the social video app and discovered through creators’ videos. TechCrunch learned and has now confirmed TikTok’s new gaming pilot quietly launched just weeks ago with a variety of new partners, including game developers Vodoo, Nitro Games, FRVR, Aim Lab, and Lotem.

The launch follows reports earlier this year that the social video app maker was looking to expand into HTML5 gaming after first testing the waters with gaming giant Zynga last November. The two companies had then teamed up to launch a TikTok exclusive title, “Disco Loco 3D,” which was similar to Zynga’s successful game (by way of acquisition) “High Heels.”

At the time, TikTok said it was engaged in discussions with other game makers for similar deals, telegraphing a larger gaming expansion still to come. The move, if successful, could one day position TikTok as a home for casual mobile gaming that routes around Apple and Google’s app stores — and, potentially, their cut of future gaming revenues.

The list of new mini-games can be found inside the TikTok app when posting a video to the platform. On the final screen ahead of publishing, creators can add hashtags, a description, a location, and more, as well as optionally add a link to other content. Before, tapping the “Add Link” button allowed users to add links to a variety of other experiences via TikTok Jump, a third-party integration tool built into TikTok’s app. Creators could link to content in other apps, like Whisk’s recipes, BuzzFeed and Quizlet’s quizzes, Breathwork’s breathing exercises, Rotten Tomato’s ratings, and more. The new games are not a part of the TikTok Jump initiative, we understand, as they’re a first-party effort. However, they’re found in this same section.

Image Credits: TikTok screenshot

Now, when a creator publishes a link to one of the new games available in this section, it appears as an anchor above their username on the resulting video. From there, viewers are able to click through to the game when they come across the video.

At launch, the HTML5 gaming titles include the following games:

• Basketball FRVR (by FRVR)
• Tap the Difference (by Lotem)
• Peek a Who (by Nitro)
• Pride Run (by Voodoo)
• Influencer Run (by Voodoo)
• Space Destroyer (by Nitro)
• Mr. Aim Lab’s Nightmare (by Aims Labs)

TikTok had not officially announced the launch of its mobile gaming pilot, but a spokesperson confirmed the effort began testing in various global markets a couple of weeks ago.

“We’re always looking at ways to enrich our platform and regularly test new features and integrations that bring value to our community,” a TikTok spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. “Currently, we’re exploring bringing HTML5 games to TikTok through integrations with third-party game developers and studios.”

They said the initiative is in the very early stages of testing and could not comment on the deal terms with the individual game makers. However, none of the games are currently monetized either through ads or in-app purchases, we’re told. For the time being, the pilot is only looking to determine if and how TikTok’s existing gaming community interacts with these games, and to what extent users will create content around the titles. Of course, longer-term, things could change — if TikTok wanted to go in that direction.

Image Credits: TikTok screenshot

TikTok told us these new mini-games are a separate effort from the games being developed for TikTok LIVE, which allow creators to interact with fans when livestreaming.

App intelligence firm Watchful.ai noted the games were recently listed under the “Add Link” section under the heading “MiniGame,” but Zynga’s game Disco Loco 3D is still listed separately. It saw the addition recently rolling out to markets in Southeast Asia. However, we’ve found the mini-games available in this same menu here in the U.S.

TikTok is not the first tech giant to expand beyond its core focus into mobile gaming. Google Google, for example, embraced HTML5 games with its launch of the gaming platform GameSnacks, which it scaled across Google Chrome’s new tab page in markets like India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Kenya last year. Facebook also stepped into cloud gaming last year with its launch of Facebook Gaming on the web and Android. Netflix, meanwhile, has made free downloads of mobile games a part of its subscription.

There’s some irony here that TikTok is building a casual gaming platform and that its first partner on this effort was Zynga. The gaming company originally built its business on the back of Facebook, tapping into the social network’s growing user base to attract players to its titles. This helped it become one of the biggest companies in social gaming and led to its eventual IPO. These days, however, Facebook has become passé with younger people while TikTok is the world’s top app. Zynga, meanwhile, is no longer a standalone company. But mobile social gaming could grow again if TikTok’s pilot proves successful.

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.

Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed down. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced 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. Global spending across iOS and Google Play last year was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.

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

Top Stories

TikTok is getting a rating system

Some TikToks are too racy or mature for younger teens — a problem TikTok aims to address with the upcoming launch of a new content ratings system. The “Content Levels” system, as it will be called, is meant to provide a means of classifying content on the video app — similar to how movies, TV shows and video games today feature age ratings.

TikTok acknowledged some content on its app may contain “mature or complex themes that may reflect personal experiences or real-world events that are intended for older audiences.” It will work to assign these sorts of videos a “maturity score” that will block them from being viewed by younger users. Not all videos will be rated, however. The goal will be to rate videos that get flagged for review and those that are gaining virality. Initially, the system will focus on preventing inappropriate content from reaching users ages 13 to 17, TikTok says, but will become a broader system over time.

The launch follows a 2021 congressional inquiry into social apps, including TikTok and others, which focused on how their algorithmic recommendation systems could be promoting harmful content, like eating disorder content, to younger users. TikTok has also been making headlines for its promotion of dangerous and destructive viral stunts, like kids destroying public school bathrooms, shooting each other with pellet guns or jumping off milk crates, among other things.

TikTok, like other social apps, is in hot water over the potential negative impacts to minors using its service. But it’s under particular scrutiny since the reveal that parent company ByteDance — in China — was accessing U.S. TikTok user data. Alongside the maturity ratings, TikTok says it will also launch content filters that will let users block videos with hashtags or certain words from their feeds.

For all its ills, TikTok has more developed parental controls than its U.S. rivals and the launch of a content ratings system could push other apps reaching minors, like Instagram and Snapchat, to do the same.

Will he or won’t he? The Twitter deal heads to court

Elon wants out. The Tesla and SpaceX exec has got a serious case of buyer’s remorse. Musk offered to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share — it’s a weed joke! Get it? 420! — but the stock today is only trading at $36.29 per share. So it’s not so funny anymore. Now the exec is attempting to use some flimsy excuses about “bots” on the network in order to get out of the legal agreement. But Twitter just said, see you in court! (Well, in legalese, it said Musk’s termination was “invalid and wrongful.”) Twitter then delivered a few more jabs in a letter filed with the SEC, noting Musk “apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.” Burn!

Sadly, caught in the chaos are Twitter’s advertisers, some of whom are exiting, and of course, the Twitter employees who often don’t know what’s going on, who will prevail or what Musk may do if the deal is forced through. (Vent here if you want!) And what does this mean for Twitter’s conference Chirp later this year, if the deal is still in limbo?

This has been such a weird and fraught acquisition since day one, with some poor folks at the SEC having to collate tweets of poop emoji and memes as investor alerts. It’s also one that makes a pretty good case as to why we should tax billionaires more — too much money turns large companies and people’s livelihoods into toys for their amusement, apparently.

Non-game revenue tops games for the first time on the U.S. App Store

Image Credits: TechCrunch

A major shift in the U.S. app economy has just taken place. In the second quarter of this year, U.S. consumer spending in non-game mobile apps surpassed spending in mobile games for the first time in May 2022, and the trend continued in June. This drove the total revenue generated by non-game apps higher for the quarter, reaching about $3.4 billion on the U.S. App Store, compared with $3.3 billion spent on mobile games.

After the shift in May, 50.3% of the spending was coming from non-game apps by June 2022, according to new findings in a report from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. By comparison, games had accounted for more than two-thirds of total spending on the U.S. App Store just five years ago.

The trend was limited to the U.S. App Store and was not seen on Google Play, however. In Q2, games accounted for $2.3 billion in consumer spending on Google Play in the U.S., while non-game apps accounted for about $1 billion. Read more about the new data here.

Kids and teens now spend more time on TikTok than YouTube

Image Credits: Nur Photo (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

A study of 400,000 families performed by parental control software maker Qustodio found that kids and teens ages 4-18 now spend more time watching videos on TikTok than they do watching YouTube — and that’s been the case since June 2020, in fact. That month, TikTok overtook YouTube for the first time, as this younger demographic began averaging 82 minutes per day on TikTok versus an average of 75 minutes per day on YouTube.

YouTube had still been ahead in 2019 as kids and teens were spending an average of 48 minutes on the platform on a global basis, compared with 38 minutes on TikTok. But with the shift in usage that took place in June 2020, TikTok came out on top for 2020 as a whole, with an average of 75 minutes per day, compared with 64 minutes for YouTube.

In the years since, TikTok has continued to dominate with younger users. By the end of 2021, kids and teens were watching an average of 91 minutes of TikTok per day compared with just 56 minutes per day spent watching YouTube, on a global basis.

Likely aware of this threat, YouTube launched its own short-form platform called Shorts, which it now claims has topped 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users. The company believes this will push users toward its long-form content — but so far, that hasn’t happened, it seems. Read the full report here.

TikTok is eating into Google Search and Maps, says Google

In a bit of an incredible reveal (if one that helps Google from an anticompetitive standpoint), a Google exec admitted that younger people’s use of TikTok and Instagram is actually impacting the company’s core products, like Search and Maps.

TechCrunch broke this news following comments made at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech event this week.

“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search,” said Google SVP Prabhakar Raghavan, who runs Google’s Knowledge & Information organization. “They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

Google confirmed to us his comments were based on internal research that involved a survey of U.S. users, ages 18 to 24. The data has not yet been made public, we’re told, but may later be added to Google’s competition site, alongside other stats — like how 55% of product searches now begin on Amazon, for example.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

• The iOS 16 public beta has arrived. It’s here, it’s surprisingly functional, and it brings a number of great new features to iPhone users, including a customizable Lock Screen with support for new Lock Screen widgets, more granular Focus Mode features, an improved messaging experience with an Undo Send option, SMS filters, iCloud Shared Photo Library for families, CAPTHCA bypassing and this clever new image cutout feature that lets you “pick up” objects from photos and copy them into other apps. On iPadOS 16, there are a number of specialized features, including the new Stage Manager multitasking interface.

Apple’s new visual lookup feature. Image Credits: Apple

Platforms: Google

• Samsung rolled out its One UI 4.5 update for Galaxy Watches, which is powered by Wear OS 3.5. The update includes a full QWERTY keyboard, customizable watch faces and dual-SIM support, and will run on the Galaxy Watch4, the Galaxy Watch4 Classic and other models.
• Google expanded its Play Games for PC beta, which brings Android apps to Windows, to more regions, including Thailand and Australia.
• Google released the fourth and final Android 13 beta ahead of its official launch, which the company says is “just a few weeks away.” There were not many changes with this update, as Google already reached platform stability with Android 13 beta 3 last month.

E-commerce

• TikTok launched a new educational program targeting small businesses that want to learn how to use its platform to drive sales. The launch follows TikTok’s decision to pause the expansion of its Shop initiative. The program walks businesses through setting up an account, creating content and using TikTok ads products, and features coaching and tips from other SMBs.
• NYC fast delivery apps could face a shutdown if new bills proposed by New York’s City Council get approved. The city is concerned about the dark stores’ workers’ safety.

Augmented Reality

• Shopify showed off a wild internal experiment using Apple’s new RoomPlan API that allowed users to more easily reset their room in order to see how new furniture could work. The test lets you remove the furniture already in your room to create a lifelike digital twin of your room that can be overlaid in your real space using AR. Users could then swipe through new room sets to see how they’d look in their own space. Spotify said it has nothing in production related to this right now — but wow, someone should!

Fintech/Crypto

• FlickPlay, an AR social app that lets users unlock NFTs and display them in a wallet, was among those selected to participate in Disney’s 2022 startup accelerator, among others focused on AR, web3 and AI experiences.

Social

Image Credits: TechCrunch

• Two anonymous social Q&A apps are heading to court. Sendit’s maker, Iconic Hearts, is suing rival NGL for stealing its proprietary business data in order to build what’s since become a top-ranked Q&A app on the App Store. Of note, the court filing reveals that the apps are using fake questions to engage their users — something many had already suspected.
• Reddit and GIPHY partner. Reddit is now allowing its safe-for-work and non-quarantined subreddits to enable GIPHY for use in the comments. Those moderators who don’t want the GIF comments will need to opt out. Previously GIFs in comments were available as a paid subscription perk (via Reddit’s Powerups), but most of these will now be available for free.
• TikTok’s head of global security stepped down. Someone had to pay for that security debacle which found that U.S. TikTok user data was being viewed in China. Global security head Roland Cloutier will be stepping down effective September 2 and will be replaced by Kim Albarella, who’s been appointed the interim head of TikTok’s Global Security Organization.
• A children’s rights group called out TikTok for age-appropriate design issues, ahead of TikTok’s launch of new safety features. The group’s research looked at various apps’ default settings and terms offered to minors, including also WhatsApp and Instagram — spanning 14 different countries — including the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia and the U.K. The report noted TikTok was defaulting 17-year-olds to public accounts outside of certain EU markets and the U.K., lacked terms in people’s first languages and wasn’t being transparent about age requirements, among other things.
• Instagram began testing a Live Producer tool that lets creators go live from their desktop using streaming software, like OBS,  Streamyard and Streamlabs. Only a small group of participants currently has access to the tool, which opens up access to using additional cameras, external mics and graphics.
• Instagram also rolled out more features to its creator subscription test, including subscriber group chats, reels and posts for subscribers only, and a subscriber-only tab on a creator’s profile.
• Twitter is testing custom timelines built by developers around specific themes, starting with a custom timeline for The Bachelorette in the U.S. This is the latest product that attempts to allow users different views into Twitter, along with List, Topics, Communities and Trending. It’s also now testing a feature that reminds users to add image descriptions for accessibility.

Twitter custom timeline. Image Credits: Twitter/Amir Shevat

• Facebook started testing a way for users to have up to five separate profiles tied to a single account. The company said this would allow users to take advantage of different profiles for interacting with specific groups — like a profile for use with friends and another one for coworkers.
• Activist investor Elliott Management told Pinterest that it has acquired a 9%+ stake in the company. The Pinterest stock jumped more than 15% after hours on the news.

Messaging

• WhatsApp rolled out the ability for users to react to messages using any emoji, instead of just the chosen six it had offered previously. The feature is one of several WhatsApp developed for its broader Communities update but is making available to all app users.
• Meta’s smartglasses, Ray-Ban Stories, now let users make calls, hear message readouts and send end-to-end encrypted messages with WhatsApp. The glasses already support Messenger and offer other features like photo-taking and video recording, listening to music and more.

Dating

Image Credits: Match

• Match Group is expanding its use of free background checks across more of its dating apps. The feature, powered by Garbo, was first launched on Tinder earlier this year. It’s now available on other Match Group apps, including Match and Stir.
• Google has responded to Match Group’s antitrust lawsuit in a new court filing, which refers to Match’s original complaint as a “cynical attempt” to take advantage of Google Play’s distribution platform and other tools while attempting to sidestep Google’s fees. The two tech giants have been battling it out in court after Match sued Google this May over its alleged monopoly power in Android app payments. The companies have a temporary truce that sees Match setting aside its commissions in escrow while they await the court’s decision. If Google prevails, it wants to kick Match out of its app store altogether. 

Streaming & Entertainment

• Truecaller is taking on Clubhouse — even though the hype has worn off over live audio. The caller ID app maker ventured into a new market with the launch of Open Doors, a live audio app that lets people communicate in real time. Unlike Clubhouse and others, the new app offers no rooms, invites, recording tools or extensive moderation features. It claims to only scan user contacts on the local device.
• Netflix inked a deal with Microsoft for its upcoming ad-supported plan. According to reports, Netflix appreciated Microsoft’s approach to privacy and ability to iterate quickly. (It also helped it wasn’t a streaming competitor, like Comcast’s NBCU or Roku.)
• Apple added a new perk for Apple Music subscribers, Apple Music Sessions, which gives listeners access to exclusive releases in spatial audio that have been recorded in Apple’s music studios around the world. The sessions began by featuring country artists, including Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes.

Gaming

• Twitter’s H1 2022 report found there were roughly 1.5 billion tweets about gaming on its platform, up 36% year-over-year. Genshin Impact (No. 1) and Wordle (No. 2) were the most tweeted-about games.

Reading & News

• Upnext launched a read-it-later app and Pocket competitor for iOS, iPad and web. The app aims to differentiate itself by supporting anything users want to save, not just articles but also things like videos, podcasts, Twitter threads, PDFs and more. It then organizes this in a home screen that curates your collection with Daily Picks, and offers a swipe-based interface for archiving content.

Government & Policy

• TikTok this week paused a privacy policy change in Europe after a regulator inquiry over how the platform planned to stop asking users for consent to receive targeted ads.
• Confirming earlier reports, Kakao said it’s removing the external payment link from its KakaoTalk messaging app on the Play Store to come into compliance with Google’s terms, after being blocked from issuing updates. The move brought more attention to the policy and saw the regulator get involved in talks, which was likely the point of Kakao’s protest in the first place.
• After an FTC commissioner urged the U.S. to ban TikTok, rival Triller reported a surge in users. Triller had pivoted to focus more on entertainment and events as TikTok established itself as the top short form video platform in the U.S.

Funding and M&A

Match Group acquired the members-only dating app The League, which focuses on matching ambitious and career-focused professionals. The app has previously faced accusations it’s elitist, particularly because it screens and vets members after an application process instead of being open to all. Deal terms weren’t revealed.

Spotify acquired the Wordle-inspired music-guessing game Heardle for an undisclosed sum. The company believes the deal could help support music discovery in its app and could help drive organic social sharing. Heardle’s website had 41 million visits last month.

Tutoring marketplace and app Preply raised $50 million in Series C funding led by edtech-focused Owl Ventures. The startup has 32,000 tutors from 190 countries teaching over 50 languages, it says, and claims to have grown revenues and users 10x since 2019.

Fintech for kids GoHenry app acquired Pixbay to help it expand into Europe. The latter has 200,000 members across France and Spain. U.K.-based GoHenry has over 2 million users in the U.K. and U.S.

Japan’s SmartBank raised $20 million in Series A funding for its prepaid card and finance app. The round was led by Globis Capital Partners. The startup claims 100,000+ downloads so far and is aiming for 1 million by the end of next year.

Israeli company ironSource is merging with the game development platform Unity Software, after the latter saw its share price fall over 70% in 2022 and have a market cap of under $12 billion. IronSource went public a year ago at an $11.1 billion valuation and is valued at $4.4 billion at the time of the merger. Silver Lake and Sequoia will invest $1 billion in Unity after the merger.

Consumer fintech startup Uprise raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding from a range of investors. The company offers a website and app aimed at Gen Z users that takes in their full financial picture, including overlooked items like employer benefits, and offers recommendations.

Indian fintech OneCard raised over $100 million in a Series D round of financing that values the business at over $1.4 billion. The company offers a metal credit card controlled by an app that also offers contactless payments. The startup has over 250,000 customers.

Stori, a Mexican fintech offering credit cards controlled by an app, raised $50 million in equity at a $1.2 billion valuation and another $100 million in debt financing. BAI Capital, GIC and GGV Capital co-led the equity portion of the deal. The company claims to have seen 20x revenue growth in 2021, but doesn’t share internal metrics.

U.K. stock trading app Lightyear raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed. The startup said it’s launching in 19 European countries, including Germany and France.

Downloads

Linktree launches a native app

Linktree, a website that allows individuals, including online creators, to manage a list of links they can feature in their social media bios via a Linktree URL, launched its first mobile app this week. The new app for iOS and Android lets users create a Linktree from their phone, add and manage their links, customize their design and more. Users can also track analytics, sales and payments, among other things. (You can read more about the new app here on TechCrunch.)

The anonymous Q&A app NGL climbed to the top of the App Store by tricking its users with questions it claims are sent in by their friends and by charging for useless hints about who supposedly wrote those messages. But many of the questions users receive aren’t from real people; they’re generated automatically — an idea NGL’s top competitor, the maker of the Sendit apps, is now alleging NGL’s maker stole alongside other confidential business information, according to a new lawsuit.

In a complaint filed on July 1, 2022, in the Superior Court of California, Sendit’s creator, Iconic Hearts Holdings, Inc. (previously known as FullSenders), claims that NGL acquired its trade secrets through “improper means” as a result of a breach of duties by the suit’s defendant, Raj Vir, an Instagram software engineer, who had worked on Sendit on the side.

For those who don’t keep up with teen app trends, both Sendit and NGL are leading anonymous Q&A apps, a subgroup of social apps currently popular among a younger demographic. The apps have been ranking at the top of the app stores charts for months, as anonymous apps typically do — before they implode from bullying, lawsuits or get banned by the app stores themselves.

As of today, NGL is the No. 5 top (non-game) free app on the U.S. App Store. Since launching late last year, the company has generated over $2.4 million in revenue, according to third-party estimates. Sendit’s apps are currently ranked at No. 12 in Social Networking (Sendit) and No. 57 in Social Networking (Sendit — Q&A on Instagram), and have earned over $11 million, per data from Sensor Tower.

Both Sendit and NGL allow users to post links to their social accounts, like Instagram or Snapchat Stories, which friends can click on to send the poster anonymous questions. (Think: “who do you have a crush on?” and other teenage gossip.)

The recipient, in turn, receives the questions in the app’s inbox, and can then post their response to their social accounts for all to read. The apps monetize this activity by offering their users “hints” about the person asking the questions so they can find out who asked what.

While NGL focuses only on anonymous Q&As, Sendit offers two variations of its service. Its original app is aimed at Snapchat users and provides a variety of games in addition to the anonymous Q&A feature. Its newer app, meanwhile, brings anonymous Q&A’s to Instagram. It launched following Snapchat’s rollout of stricter policies earlier this year that banned anonymous apps from using its developer tools. (Sendit received an extension to come into compliance with those policies, Snapchat told us.)

The apps are problematic, however, because they’ve been demonstrated to be using misleading tactics to trick their young users into thinking they were receiving engagement from friends when they were not.

Both apps are also incredibly similar including in their visual design, how they work, their business model, and other aspects.

As it turns out, that may not have been an accident.

The recently filed Iconic Hearts lawsuit (see below) states that the company hired Vir to develop Sendit’s mobile apps back in September 2018. Vir then continued to consult with the company afterward, it says. In May 2021, Iconic Hearts began having conversations with Vir about offering him a full-time position or allowing him to continue as a contractor. But instead of taking the job, Vir took the company’s ideas and insights and used them to build his own version of Sendit’s app, the complaint explains.

“Vir was integral in founding, building, and launching ‘NGL – anonymous q&a,’ an app that is nearly identical to, and directly competes with, the Sendit apps,” reads the filing. It additionally details how Vir used his friendship with Iconic Hearts’ founder, Hunter Rice, and his role as a Sendit developer and consultant in order to gain information about the company and its apps. (Apparently, Rice and Vir weren’t just business colleagues, they were friends — former high school classmates who had bonded after college over their shared interest in tech, the filing notes.)

During Vir’s time working on Sendit’s apps, he had access to insider information — like which features drove the most user engagement and other future development plans, the lawsuit states. He had also signed a developer agreement, which forbade him from using this information for any other purpose beyond his work with the Sendit apps, it says.

Rice believes Vir was never serious about the job offered to him at Iconic Hearts, the complaint continues, but was instead using his ongoing access to build NGL, a copy of Sendit which launched in late 2021 on the App Store and soon became the App Store’s No. 1 app in June 2022.

The filing explains how Vir had access to detailed app data and KPIs (key performance indicators) and other metrics designed to make the app succeed. Because of his relationship with Sendit, Vir asked for and was given access to all sorts of business data and metrics — like click-through rates, conversion rates, which prompts were the highest performing, how they were ordered to create virality, the placement of call-to-action buttons, financial performance, MRR (monthly recurring revenue), churn rate, LTV (lifetime value), metrics related to average response rates, share counts, viral coefficients, and much more.

Among these business details, was Sendit’s use of fake questions. The company had previously denied using bots when TechCrunch asked.

Many users of Sendit and NGL’s apps had already suspected some of the questions they received were not really coming from their friends, but had been automatically generated. The app stores are filled with user reviews that claim these apps are tricking them, then ripping them off by charging for unhelpful hints — like those that only share a user’s city or the type of phone they have.

TechCrunch also recently tested both NGL and Sendit’s anonymous Q&A system by generating a link for questions but then didn’t show it to anyone, and yet still received half a dozen so-called “questions from friends” in our inboxes.

This feature is actually detailed in the new lawsuit as one of the many aspects of Sendit’s apps that NGL supposedly stole. Reads the complaint:

Iconic Hearts had also developed a unique system, “Engagement Messages,” which sends content to a inbox if interactions with the user had been idle over a certain period of time. “Engagement Message” re-trigger a user to use the app. This generates more “shares” on the app, more density within a user’s trend network (i.e. more people sharing more times), which adds to an app’s saturation, the most critical measure of success and growth. It took Iconic Hearts years of trial-and-error, testing, and iterating its product to optimize its proprietary Engagement Messages System and various components thereof, such as the optimal period of time after which to send an Engagement Message, how the Engagement Message gets pushed, the design of the Engagement Message, and the content of the Engagement Message.

This section essentially confirms users’ suspicions about the fake questions. It also now places a burden on the app stores to take action, we should think, as neither company discloses to its users that these “engagement messages” are not being sent by their friends as the app’s description would lead them to believe.

Surprisingly, Iconic Hearts didn’t know of Vir’s betrayal until recently. Even as late as June 2022, Vir concealed his involvement with NGL the complaint states. The lawsuit claims Vir finally admitted his involvement to Rice on June 21, 2022, by saying “okay, I’ll clear the air. I’ve been lying to your face this entire time. I am building NGL,” and then, “congratulations for being the Head of Product at NGL.”

Yikes, if true.

Neither party has responded to our requests for comment at this time.

As to what extent Iconic Hearts will be able to prove its claims in a legal fashion remains to be seen. The suit is asking for damages and injunctive relief. The suit also names dozens of unknown defendants who may be working or partnering with NGL, which Iconic Hearts hopes the court will reveal and name.

ICONIC HEARTS HOLDINGS, INC. vs. RAJ VIR; NGL LABS LLC; and DOES 1 through 50, inclusive, by TechCrunch on Scribd

A major shift in the U.S. app economy has just taken place. In the second quarter of this year, U.S. consumer spending in non-game mobile apps surpassed spending in mobile games for the first time in May 2022 and the trend continued in June. This drove the total revenue generated by non-game apps higher for the quarter, reaching about $3.4 billion on the U.S. App Store, compared with $3.3 billion spent on mobile games.

After the shift in May, 50.3% of the spending was coming from non-game apps by June 2022, according to new findings in a report from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. By comparison, games had accounted for more than two-thirds of total spending on the U.S. App Store just five years ago.

The trend was limited to the U.S. App Store and was not seen on Google Play, however. In Q2, games accounted for $2.3 billion in consumer spending on Google Play in the U.S., while non-game apps accounted for about $1 billion.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

This shift in the U.S. app market is the most significant finding in the new report and demonstrates how successfully Apple has managed to create a subscription economy that allows a broader range of apps to generate sizable revenues.

The new data also supports this, as it shows it’s not only the biggest players that are benefiting from subscription revenue growth. In Q2 2022, 400 apps generated more than $1 million in consumer spending on the U.S. App Store, which is eight times the total from the same quarter in 2016. In addition, 61 U.S. App Store non-game apps generated at least $10 million in U.S. consumer spending in Q2 2022 — that’s more than the number of non-game apps that had generated $1 million+ in revenue in Q2 2016.

A handful of non-game apps also topped $50 million in U.S. consumer spending in the quarter, including YouTube, HBO Max, TikTok, Tinder, Disney+, Hulu and Bumble.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

Subscriptions are the major revenue growth driver here, as non-game apps grew at nearly twice the rate  — at a 40% compound annual growth rate — since June 2014 compared with less than 20% for games, the report found.

The trend is a significant reversal of what mobile app spending looked like just a few years ago.

In 2019 and early 2020, for instance, mobile game spending growth was consistently higher than non-game spending. Game spending then surged again at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. But by late 2020, non-game growth had caught up and the gap widened in 2021.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

While non-games are enjoying their new dominance, it’s not all great news for the app economy in this most recent quarter. The report also found that U.S. app spending overall declined for the first time in Q2, following the wind-down from the spike generated by the pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic (around April 2020), year-over-year growth in consumer spending had jumped from around 20-30% in 2019 to 35-55% over the next 12 months. But in May 2022, U.S spending declined for the first time as consumers began to shift their dollars back to other non-mobile activities like restaurant dining and travel.

Despite this decline from the pandemic highs, consumer spending in Q2 2022 was still up 71% over Q2 2019.

In other key findings from the quarter, summer travel drove travel apps to record high downloads in the U.S. and U.K., and airline app downloads in these markets were up 30%+ compared with Q2 2019, before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the top five ticketing apps saw 10 million downloads, up 70%+ from Q2 2019 as consumers returned to concerts, sports games, and other events.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

Worldwide app downloads slowed also slowed in the quarter, as installs totaled 35 billion in Q2, down 2.5% year-over-year. App Store downloads fell 1.3% to 7.8 billion and Google Play installs dropped 3% to 27.2 billion.

The most downloaded non-game app worldwide was TikTok, which has held the top position 8 times out of the past 10 quarters. It was followed by Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. TikTok (including Douyin in China on iOS) had 187 million downloads in the quarter.

The top mobile game globally was Subway Surfers, with over 80 million downloads — its highest total since 2014, and following the game’s maker Sybo acquisition by gaming giant Miniclip in June 2022. The number two title was Garena Free Fire with 70 million installs for the third quarter in a row.

Kids and teens are now spending more time watching videos on TikTok than on YouTube.

In fact, that’s been the case since June 2020 — the month when TikTok began to outrank YouTube in terms of the average minutes per day people ages 4 through 18 spent accessing these two competitive video platforms. That month, TikTok overtook YouTube for the first time, as this younger demographic began averaging 82 minutes per day on TikTok versus an average of 75 minutes per day on YouTube.

In the years since, TikTok has continued to dominate with younger users. By the end of 2021, kids and teens were watching an average of 91 minutes of TikTok per day compared with just 56 minutes per day spent watching YouTube, on a global basis.

This new data is based on kids’ and teens’ use of TikTok and YouTube across platforms which was compiled for TechCrunch by parental control software maker Qustodio using an analysis of 400,000 families’ profiles who have accounts with its service for parental monitoring. The data represents their real-world usage of apps and websites, not an estimate.

And to be clear, these figures are averages. That means kids aren’t necessarily sitting down to watch an hour and a half of TikTok and an hour of YouTube every day. Instead, the data shows how viewing trends have changed over time, where some days kids will watch more online video than others, and will switch between their favorite apps.

However, the broader picture this data paints is one where the world’s largest video platform may be losing its grip on the next generation of web users — specifically, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Gen Z is typically thought to include people born between the mid to late 1990s and the 2010s. Meanwhile, Gen Alpha — a generation whose childhood was put on pause by Covid, then driven online — includes those born after the early to mid-2010s.

In a prior annual report, Qustodio had analyzed kids’ app usage and found that TikTok was nearing YouTube in terms of average time spent. However, that report examined the data in a somewhat clunky fashion. It had included early 2020 app usage in a report largely focused on 2019 trends — a decision the firm had made at the time in order to highlight the increased connectivity taking place at the beginning of the pandemic. The report also focused on a handful of top markets, rather than global trends.

The new data, compiled upon TechCrunch’s request, has been cleaned up to provide a clearer picture of the year-over-year shift in video viewing trends among the web’s youngest users.

According to the firm’s findings, YouTube was still ahead in 2019 as kids and teens were spending an average of 48 minutes on the platform on a global basis, compared with 38 minutes on TikTok. But with the shift in usage that took place in June 2020, TikTok came out on top for 2020 as a whole, with an average of 75 minutes per day, compared with 64 minutes for YouTube.

This past year, the averages grew even further apart. In 2021, this younger demographic spent an average of 91 minutes per day on TikTok versus just 56 minutes on YouTube.

Image Credits: Qustodio data

Image Credits: Qustodio data

The firm also broke out metrics for leading countries like the U.S., U.K., and Spain, which demonstrate an even more incredible shift on a regional basis, compared with the global trends. For example, U.S. kids and teens last year spent an average of 99 minutes per day on TikTok versus 61 minutes on YouTube. In the U.K., TikTok usage was up to a whopping 102 minutes per day, versus just 53 minutes on YouTube. These figures include both website and app usage, we should note.

YouTube, no doubt, is well aware of this shift in consumer behavior as are all other social app makers, including Meta and Snap. That’s why YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have all now copied TikTok’s short-form vertical video feed with their own products.

In YouTube’s case, that’s YouTube Shorts, a short video platform the company believes will prove to be a discovery engine that will drive users to its long-form product. The company recently touted YouTube Shorts had topped 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users, and suggested that channels producing videos of different lengths were seeing gains in watch time. It didn’t, however, share any specific figures on that front.

YouTube’s first-party data, of course, takes into account a broader global audience — not just kids and teens. And it includes cross-platform usage on phones, tablets, the web, smart TVs, game consoles, connected devices and more.

But despite Shorts’ growing adoption per YouTube’s data, Qustodio’s research seems to indicate younger people have simply been opting for the short-form content provided by TikTok. At the same time, TikTok has been slowly pushing its user base to consume longer videos. This year, for instance, TikTok expanded the max video length to 10 minutes, up from its earlier expansion to 3 minutes. And while most TikTok videos are not multiple minutes long, the “optimal” video length for a TikTok video has been growing.

In 2020, TikTok told creators that 11-17 seconds was the sweet spot to find traction. In November 2021, it amended that to 21-34 seconds.

Over time, this could also help to drive up the average watch time on TikTok, as well.

Qustodio’s larger annual report on digital trends indicates YouTube isn’t the only app to feel the impact of TikTok’s rise and the unique interests of Gens Z and Alpha. Young people use a different mix of apps than the generations before — like Roblox, for instance, which has been used by 56% of kids, or Snapchat, used by 82%. On average, they are totaling 4 hours of screen time per day, which includes educational apps.

The good news for YouTube, however, is that it’s still ahead of other video streaming services in terms of time spent.

Globally, kids spent 56 minutes per day on YouTube last year, ahead of Disney+ (47 mins.), Netflix (45 mins), Amazon Prime (40 mins.), Hulu (38 mins), and Twitch (20 mins.)

Earlier this year, TikTok said it was developing a new system that would restrict certain types of mature content from being viewed by teen users. Today, the company is introducing the first version of this system, called “Content Levels,” due to launch in a matter of weeks. It’s also preparing the rollout of a new tool that will allow users to filter videos with certain words or hashtags from showing up in their feeds.

Together, the features are designed to give users more control over their TikTok experience while making the app safer, particularly for younger users. This is an area where TikTok today is facing increased scrutiny — not only from regulators and lawmakers who are looking to tighten their grip on social media platforms in general, but also from those seeking justice over social media’s harms.

For instance, a group of parents recently sued TikTok after their children died after attempting dangerous challenges they allegedly saw on TikTok. Meanwhile, former content moderators sued the company for its failure to support their mental health, despite the harrowing nature of their job.

With the new tools, TikTok aims to put more moderation control into the hands of users and content creators.

The forthcoming Content Levels system is meant to provide a means of classifying content on the app, similar to how movies, TV shows and video games also feature age ratings.

Image Credits: TikTok Content Levels

Although adult content is banned, TikTok says some content on its app may contain “mature or complex themes that may reflect personal experiences or real-world events that are intended for older audiences.” Its Content Levels system will work to classify this content and assign a maturity score.

In the coming weeks, TikTok will introduce an early version of the Content Levels system designed to prevent content with overtly mature themes from reaching users ages 13 to 17. Videos with mature themes — like fictional scenes that could be too frightening or intense for younger users — will be assigned a maturity score to keep them from being seen by TikTok’s under-18 users. The system will be expanded over time to offer filtering options for the entire community, not just teens.

The maturity score will be assigned by Trust and Safety moderators to videos that are increasing in popularity or those that had been reported on the app, we’re told.

Previously, TikTok said content creators may be asked to tag their content as well, but it has yet to go into detail on this aspect. A spokesperson said that’s a separate effort from what’s being announced today, however.

Image Credits: TikTok

In addition, TikTok will soon launch another tool for filtering content from your For You and Following feeds.

This feature will let users manually block videos with certain words or hashtags from their feeds. This doesn’t necessarily need to be used for filtering potentially problematic or triggering content — it could also be used to stop the algorithm from showing you topics you simply don’t care about or have gotten sick of seeing. TikTok suggests you could use it to block dairy or meat recipes if you were going vegan, for example, or to stop seeing DIY tutorials after you completed the referenced home project.

Image Credits: TikTok content filters

Related to these new features, the company said it’s expanding its existing test of a system that works to diversify recommendations in order to prevent users from being repeatedly exposed to potentially problematic content — like videos about extreme dieting or fitness, sadness or breakups.

This test launched last year in the U.S. following a 2021 Congressional inquiry into social apps like TikTok and others as to how their algorithmic recommendation systems could be promoting harmful eating disorder content to younger users.

TikTok admits the system still requires some work due to the nuances involved. For instance, it can be difficult to separate out content focused on recovering from eating disorders, which could have both sad and encouraging themes. The company says it’s currently training this system to support more languages for future expansion to new markets.

As described, this trio of tools could make for a healthier way to engage with the app — but in reality, automated systems like these tend to have failures.

So far, TikTok hasn’t yet been able to tamp down on problematic content in a number of cases — whether it’s kids destroying public school bathrooms, shooting each other with pellet guns or jumping off milk crates, among other dangerous challenges and viral stunts. It has also allowed hateful content that involved misogyny, white supremacy or transphobic statements to fall through the cracks at times, along with misinformation.

To what extent TikTok’s new tools actually make an impact on who sees what content still remains to be seen.

“As we continue to build and improve these systems, we’re excited about the opportunity to contribute to long-running industry-wide challenges in terms of building for a variety of audiences and with recommender systems,” wrote TikTok Head of Trust and Safety Cormac Keenan in a blog post. “We also acknowledge that what we’re striving to achieve is complex and we may make some mistakes,” he added.

Google has responded to dating app maker Match Group’s antitrust lawsuit in a scathing new court filing which refers to Match’s original complaint as a “cynical attempt” to take advantage of Google Play’s distribution platform and other tools while attempting to sidestep Google’s fees.

The two tech giants have been battling it out in court after Match sued Google this May over its alleged monopoly power in Android app payments.

Match — which operates dating apps including Tinder, Match, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, Hinge, and others — is claiming Google has too much control over the Google Play app marketplace and uses anticompetitive tactics to maintain its hold on that ecosystem. The app maker is one of many larger publishers, alongside Epic Games and Spotify, that have been looking for relief from Google’s service fees. Epic Games is also suing both Apple and Google. The companies largely want to offer their own in-app payment systems instead of being forced to use Google’s own payments infrastructure and want to avoid the commissions that come with having their apps distributed through the Google Play store and App Store.

Earlier this year, Google and Match came to a temporary compromise about how they would proceed while the lawsuit was underway. Match said Google assured it would not ban or block its dating apps from Google Play for offering alternative payments and Match would place up to $40 million aside in an escrow account in lieu of paying Google’s fees until the judge determined the outcome of the case.

Now, Google has filed its counterclaim in this ongoing lawsuit, where it argues that Match is misleading the court in saying Google simply provides payment processing fees to the apps distributed on its platform.

Writes Google:

While Match Group claims that Google Play only provides payment processing, that simply isn’t true. Google Play provides tools and a global distribution platform that has allowed Match Group to thrive and build a successful network of users that is critical for its dating apps. Match Group now seeks to access Google Play’s global distribution platform and users and leverage Google’s substantial investments in the platform, all for free.

Google goes on to tout the discoverability made possible through the Play Store and the tools it provides to developers, including the free software provided that allows developers to build apps, its testing and monitoring tools, and its digital payments infrastructure. Plus, Google argues that its 15% fee for Match Group subscriptions is “half the amount” other major platforms charge — a reference seemingly to Apple, but misleading since both platforms reduce commissions from 30% to 15% in an app’s second year.

The response additionally points out that there are other ways to load apps onto Android phones, unlike on iOS which restricts sideloading.

Google also deals out a few key blows — for example, by noting that a senior VP at Match Group had once admitted that Match’s real problem with Google Play’s billing system is “the ease with which users can cancel their subscriptions” using Google’s tools.

This particular claim recalls an earlier lawsuit against Match filed by government regulators. In 2019, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Match for fraud. Among other things, it said the company made it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions and would use tricks that led consumers to think they had stopped the charges when they actually had not. (Most of the claims in that suit were dismissed earlier this year, however, based on the case’s legal standing as opposed to a judgment related to the complaints themselves.)

Google also references the FTC’s lawsuit in its new filing, adding that Match executives had acknowledged the cancellation process is “hard to find, tedious, and confusing.” A Match Group exec’s quote, unfortunately, is redacted in the filing.

Google is asking for a trial by jury and monetary relief related to Match Group’s breach of contract. It also seeks a ruling that would permanently ban Match Group from the Google Play store.

The lawsuit is proceeding in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. News of the filing was first reported by Bloomberg.

In a statement, Google said, “Match Group entered into a contract with us and this suit seeks to hold Match to its end of the agreement – we’re looking forward to making our case. Meanwhile, we will continue to defend ourselves against Match’s baseless claims.”

Match has also been asked for comment.

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

Elon says he’s killing the Twitter deal

The bird app buyout could be off, if Elon Musk has his way.

On Friday, Musk’s legal team informed Twitter the Tesla and SpaceX exec would be terminating the merger agreement because, as their letter alleges, Twitter made false and misleading claims about the health of its business. This, of course, refers to the drama Musk had been stirring up over the percentage of bots on the service, which Twitter says is estimated to be less than 5%. Upon Musk’s earlier pressing for more information on this figure, Twitter provided Musk’s team with API access to make their own determinations. The letter, however, states that this API access was capped and limited, preventing the team from being able to accurately analyze Twitter’s data with regard to bots. (Which makes Musk’s claims that the bot count is higher than Twitter said it was a bit hard to prove!) Musk’s lawyers also allege Twitter included known fake and bot accounts in its mDAUs and didn’t have a standard process for calculating its mDAUs or the percentage of bots. Even if the arguments were valid — and that’s not able to be determined at this time — they don’t allow Musk to simply walk away.

Musk has already legally agreed to this deal, which means the battle will now move to court where Twitter says it plans to enforce the agreement at the price and terms agreed upon. And even if both parties agree to terminate, Musk will have to pay out a billion dollars as a termination fee.

The real reason Musk is trying to terminate is not likely “bots.” It’s because he knows he overpaid. What looked like a decent deal earlier (@ $54.20 per share) quickly became an overpriced deal in a macroeconomic environment that’s led to tech stocks tanking. Since announcing the deal, Twitter’s stock hadn’t again hit the negotiated price, and in fact, was recently down as much as 28% below Musk’s offer price. By forcing the deal to go to the courts, Musk could be hoping for a shot at negotiating a better price. But that’s far from being a certain outcome.

Google blocked KakaoTalk for not following its rules

Image Credits: Jon Russell (opens in a new window) / Flickr (opens in a new window)

Google this week demonstrated it plans to enforce its new Play Store terms over in-app purchases, even if the developer is a $1.5 billion tech giant and leading app in its region. The Korean company behind the KakaoTalk mobile messenger popular in South Korea was prevented from issuing updates to its app over its failure to comply with Google Play’s terms, according to local media reports. This would be the first time Google has enforced its new Play Store rules over how apps can point users to their own websites for alternative methods of payments.

South Korea’s in-app payment law, better known as the “anti-Google law,” permits Android app developers to add third-party payment options in their app, but only if they offer them alongside Google’s own billing system. It doesn’t permit developers to add links to their app that allow users to bypass Google’s billing system entirely, however. That’s what KakaoTalk is continuing to do.

According to Google’s rules, failure to comply with its rules could see apps removed from the Play Store altogether. Google hasn’t gone that far just yet — instead, it’s only blocked the company from issuing updates. But this is still a serious punitive action and one designed to prompt the app to take action.

Companies aren’t happy with how Google complied with the country’s new law, as Google is only offering a discount on commissions paid for those using third-party payments, instead of allowing them to avoid commissions as they had hoped. On April 1, Google said all apps must either use Google’s own payments system and pay the usual 15-30% in commissions, or the apps could offer a third-party system for a discount of 4% on those fees.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) met with Google and Kakao on Thursday about the matter. Afterward, Kakao relented and chose to remove the web link to the third-party payments system as required by Google’s rules to come into compliance. Analysts speculated Kakao’s earlier refusal to remove the link was to simply bring the issue to regulators’ attention — that is, it aimed to demonstrate how Google had complied with the letter of the law, but not with the spirit. The KCC had been investigating how the law was being implemented but since most apps were already in compliance, Google hadn’t yet taken any punitive actions.

The Kakao Talk messaging app today is used by some 53 milllion+ people monthly, making it one of the biggest social apps in the country.

FTC asked to investigate TikTok

Image Credits: TikTok

Senate Intelligence Committee members have asked the FTC to investigate whether TikTok misled lawmakers about ByteDance employees’ ability to access U.S. users’ data. Democrat Senator Mark Warner and Republican Marco Rubio, the chair and ranking member of the committee, respectively, wrote a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan requesting a further investigation into whether TikTok may have lied in its testimonies to Congress over how it handles user data.

This demand follows a BuzzFeed News report that revealed that ByteDance employees in China were regularly accessing U.S. data into early 2022, despite TikTok’s prior assurances to the contrary. Last weekend, timed alongside the BuzzFeed scoop, TikTok wrote to Republican Senators to assure them it’s working on a program called “Project Texas” aimed at improving data security for U.S.-based users.

“In light of this new report,” the letter stated, “we ask that your agency immediately initiate a Section 5 investigation on the basis of apparent deception by TikTok, and coordinate this work with any national security or counter-intelligence investigation that may be initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Pressure on TikTok has been increasing as of late. Six senators sent a letter to the Treasury Department on June 24, asking for details about the negotiation between TikTok and CFIUS, which would have prompted Trump’s EO to ban the TikTok app in the U.S. An FCC Commissioner, Brendan Carr, also wrote to Apple and Google on June 28, requesting the companies remove TikTok from their app stores for “its pattern of surreptitious data practices.”

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

Image Credits: Apple

• Apple introduced an iPhone Lockdown Mode in iOS 16. The new OS, as well as updates for iPad and Mac, will include a feature that lets users who are most at risk from attacks take more extreme measures to lock down their devices and reduce attack surfaces. In Lockdown Mode, most message attachments are blocked and previews are disabled; some web technologies are disabled; FaceTime calls from people you haven’t connected with before are blocked; Shared Albums are removed from the Photos app; configuration profiles can’t be installed; wired connections to other devices or accessories are blocked; and more. Apple said it will add more protections to this mode over time.
• Apple rolled out the third developer betas for iOS 16, iPadOS 16, tvOS 16, watchOS 9 and macOS 13 Ventura. The news suggests the iOS 16 public beta is just around the corner, given it usually arrives alongside the third developer betas. The third beta also includes support for iCloud‌ Shared Photo Library, which lets families combine their photos and videos in one place.
• Apple also released iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 beta 5 to developers, alongside other platforms.

Platforms: Google

• The Google Play Store appears to be getting an updated logo with rounded corners on the triangle and colors that are more aligned with Google’s four colors (blue, green, yellow and red), instead of lighter variations.

E-commerce & Food Delivery

• Code spotted in the iOS 16 beta 3 suggests Apple is working on a new system to integrate virtual cards with Safari, reports 9to5Mac. The feature would allow users to pay with virtual card numbers when online shopping in mobile Safari.
• Amazon partnered with Grubhub and took a stake in its owner, Just East Takeaway. The deal will see Amazon offering free membership to Grubhub+ for one year to Prime members in the U.S. The retailer had previously offered a similar deal to Amazon Prime Student members and had a partnership with Deliveroo in the U.K. that offered a free year of Deliveroo+ to Prime members.
• Walmart folded its InHome grocery delivery service into its subscription plan, Walmart+. The service lets users monitor in-home grocery deliveries via an app where they can livestream the delivery as it’s in progress, watching as Walmart staff places their items inside their fridge and freezer.
• Pinterest introduced an API for Shopping and Product Tagging for Pins, among other merchant-focused updates. The API offers access to new catalog management and product metadata features, while Product Tagging allows merchants to make their “lifestyle” Pins shoppable, similar to shoppable photos on Instagram. In addition, video assets can now be used in product catalogs, and a new Shop Tab on business profiles lets merchants easily display their shoppable products.

Image Credits: Pinterest

• Pinterest also launched its ads business in Argentina, Colombia and Chile, joining other expansions to Brazil and Mexico last year, and Japan’s launch earlier this year. The ads allow retailers to connect with users searching for items that match those in their own catalogs, even if the searchers haven’t settled on a particular brand.
• Ex-employees at shopping app Wish detailed to The NYT about the app’s low product standards, unreliable shipping, counterfeiting, inappropriate ads and deceptive experiments which drove users away. The app saw MAUs drop from 101 million in Q1 2021 to 27 million in Q1 2022.
• Amazon readies itself for Prime Day with help from online influencers. The company is livestreaming creators who are promoting Prime Day deals via its Amazon Live platform. The streams are available on Amazon’s website and in its mobile app.
• Instacart rolled out a new rewards program for shoppers which offers priority access to batches for those with higher ratings. Other perks include discounted childcare, cash back on gas and car maintenance discounts. The company recently introduced other shopper features to protect their tips and remove ratings from customers who always dole out less than five stars.
• TikTok dropped its plans to expand livestream shopping in the U.S. and elsewhere after the feature failed to gain traction outside of the U.K., FT said.

Augmented Reality

Image Credits: The Met/8th Wall

• The Met launched a new AR experience that allows visitors or anyone to view the Sphinx in augmented reality. The Sphinx appears in your own space atop a grave stele and is annotated with interesting facts users can tap on to learn more. There’s also a selfie feature that lets users try on the Sphinx’s colors. The AR features are powered by 8th Wall and work in the Safari web browser app, instead of requiring a dedicated mobile app.

Crypto

Image Credits: Reddit

• Reddit launched a new NFT-based avatar marketplace that allows users to purchase blockchain-based profile pictures at a fixed rate. Users don’t need to have a crypto wallet to make the purchases, only a credit or debit card. The purchases are then held in Reddit’s own wallet called Vault, inside its existing mobile app. Vault is also used to earn blockchain-based community points and spend them on special features like badges and animated emoji. There are 90 NFT designs available at launch, and a total of “tens of thousands” of NFTs will be available during early access at prices ranging from $9.99-$99.99. The company partnered with Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain, to mint the avatars on-chain.

• Crypto exchange Binance.US hired a former Acorns and PayPal exec Jasmine Lee as its CFO, replacing interim CFO Eric Segal. The company offers one of the top crypto apps in the U.S. and operates as a separate entity from the global Binance exchange.
• The Chinese photo-editing app Meitu reported a $45.6 million crypto impairment in H1 2022. The company’s stock dropped more than 10% after it projected crypto impairments tripling from 2021 levels.

Adtech

• Glace, owned by adtech firm InMobi Group, will partner with U.S. carriers to launch a media service for Android lock screens. Glance serves media, news and casual entertainment to lock screens and already has a presence on around 400 million devices in Asian markets.

Social

• Snap’s unexpected new hire comes from the Secret Service. According to The Washington Post, Secret Service Director James Murray is retiring from his post and joining Snap as its chief security officer at the end of the month, where he’ll directly report to CEO Evan Spiegel.
• TikTok is facing multiple lawsuits from parents who allege their children died attempting the “blackout challenge” they saw on the app. The challenge encouraged users to strangulate themselves until passing out. TikTok claims users learned about the challenge on other platforms and says it was never a TikTok trend.
• TikTok is testing a new ability that would allow livestreamers to restrict their stream to viewers who are 18+. The company said it’s testing this feature with select users by offering an option to toggle a “mature themes” button that would restrict their TikTok LIVE’s to adults only.
• Meta is moving forward with its digital collectibles plan that will allow creators to generate revenue from NFTs, despite the crypto crash, reports FT.
• Twitter begins testing “CoTweets,” a feature that allows two users to co-author tweets — a feature that makes it possible for influencers and brands to post tweets together for brand partnership deals, among other use cases.
• Elon Musk may be still trying to get out of the Twitter deal, The Washington Post claims (see above). The Telsa and SpaceX exec is reportedly concerned about the number of bots on the service, but he’s likely more worried now about how much he’s overpaid for the social media company. Nevertheless, the ink is dry on the deal and will cost Musk $1 billion if he backs out. Twitter, meanwhile, told reporters it removes 1 million+ spam accounts per day and those accounts are well less than 5% of total users. It also confirmed layoffs of 30% of its talent acquisition team.
• An Israel-based startup called Notch is offering creators “Instagram account insurance,” which will pay out a stipend if their accounts get hacked causing them to lose access. The startup will also help them regain control of their page, it says.

Dating

• Tinder rolled out several in-app initiatives in the U.S. that allow users to take a stand against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Users can now include “Pro-Choice” as an interest on their profiles, and the app features an in-app promotion that supports the abortion rights campaign from Bansoff.org. The company is also donating in-app promotional space to Kansas Constitutional Freedom (KCF), a bipartisan coalition of reproductive rights advocates and allied organizations dedicated to protecting access to safe and legal abortions. The court’s decision could have an impact on the use of dating apps for casual dating in the U.S., which could impact Tinder’s business.

Messaging

• Messaging app Signal introduced a new thread view on Android, which allows users to see replies to messages bundled in a single place, similar to Slack.

Streaming & Entertainment

• Netflix rolled out support for spatial audio to all devices and subscribers to offer theater-like sound for its movies and shows. The support is currently available on original titles like the fourth season of “Stranger Things,” “The Adam Project,” “Red Notice,” “The Witcher,” “Locke & Key” and others. Users can find supported titles by typing in “Spatial Audio” in the search bar.

Gaming

• Code found in Meta’s iPhone app for VR headsets suggests the company’s “Project Cambria” VR headset is going to be called the Meta Quest Pro, which will cost over $1,000, per Bloomberg. Mark Zuckerberg had previously teased the high-end headset in a demo video.
• In an update to The Oregon Trail game on Apple Arcade, creator Gameloft added a new “Walk the Trail” feature that connects the game with Apple Health. As users walk throughout the day, their steps are counted in a virtual Oregon trail inside the app that crosses 64 locations like Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, Fort Hall and others. A stats screen highlights the steps, locations visited and more and a trivia screen offers details about the milestones you pay.

Utilities

• Apple is rolling out its improved Maps to France, Monaco and New Zealand, following tests. The regions will gain updated, more detailed maps, better navigation and other features.

Government & Policy

• Twitter sued the Indian government to challenge some of its takedown orders. The government has asked Twitter to remove hundreds of accounts and tweets that had denounced government policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Twitter had only partially complied with the requests and is instead fighting back against many of the challenges.
• In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. House Oversight Committee issued letters on Friday to data brokers SafeGraph, Babel Street, Digital Envoy, Placer.ai and Gravy Analytics, as well as period tracking app makers Flo Health, Glow, GP International, Clue developer BioWink and Digitalchemy Ventures. The committee is asking the companies about their data collection and retention practices, noting that the collection of sensitive data could “pose serious threats to those seeking reproductive care as well as to providers of such care, not only by facilitating intrusive government surveillance, but also by putting people at risk of harassment, intimidation, and even violence.”

Security & Privacy

• Related to its introduction of Lockdown Mode in iOS 16, Apple also established a new category within the Apple Security Bounty program to reward researchers who find Lockdown Mode bypasses and help improve its protections. Bounties are doubled for qualifying findings in Lockdown Mode, up to a maximum of $2,000,000 — the highest maximum bounty payout in the industry. The company said it’s also making a $10 million grant, in addition to any damages awarded from its lawsuit filed against NSO Group, to support organizations that “investigate, expose, and prevent highly targeted cyberattacks, including those created by private companies developing state-sponsored mercenary spyware.”

Funding and M&A

Mobile marketing firm Moburst acquired digital studio Layer, which offers web, mobile and app development services. Layer, launched in 2015, has worked with clients like Nissan, Renault and others. Deal terms weren’t disclosed. The two companies had previously worked together on multiple projects and will now allow Moburst to expand its services and offer a full-stack solution.

Digital banking app YAP, based in the United Arab Emirates, raised $41 million as part of a Series A round expected to close at year-end. The company aims to expand its services into Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and Ghana.

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