Apple finally put itself on equal footing with rivals by allowing users to rate and review its own, first-party apps for the first time this fall, amid increased regulatory pressure ahead of a likely antitrust investigation. Although some of Apple’s apps had been available to download separately, they had never been able to be reviewed. […]

Gringo, a Brazilian startup that has built an app aimed at supporting drivers in a variety of ways, has raised $8 million in a new round of funding. Kaszek led the financing, which also included participation from GFC and OneVC. Kaszek also led the company’s seed round in 2020. The latest investment brings its total […]

Instagram announced on Wednesday that all users now have access to its Link Sticker feature in Instagram Stories. The expansion comes as the company recently ditched the “swipe-up” link in Instagram Stories in favor of the new Link Stickers. Both the previous “swipe-up” link and new Link Stickers have been historically limited to businesses and […]

In September, analysts at eMarketer predicted Spotify was poised to overtake Apple Podcasts in U.S. listenership sometime this year. Today, Spotify announced for the first time it may have succeeded on that front. During the company’s Q3 2021 earnings call, the company said that according to Edison Research and its own internal sources, it “recently […]

This morning Brazilian neobank Nu, better known as Nubank, announced that it has filed to go public. Today its S-1 filing remains private, but the announcement of its existence implies that Nu is on track to go public soon, perhaps inside of 2021. The company filed with both the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) […]

Hinge is rolling out a new ‘Voice Prompts’ feature to give its users a new way to connect with their matches. Voice Prompts will allow users to answer a prompt through a 30-second voice recording. The new feature is rolling out globally starting today. Hinge says the new feature allows people to give others a […]

TikTok announced today it’s expanding its Video Kit offering for developers to include those building apps for the web, desktop, and consoles, in addition to its previous support for mobile platforms. Alongside the news, the company unveiled a host of new third-party apps that would now integrate with TikTok, including Clipchamp, Combo, Grabyo, Kapwing, Mobcrush, […]

Over the last year, the company saw that list more than triple, as did the number of meetings hosted on the platform.

Snap said today it has amassed 100 million monthly active users in India, an impressive feat in the key overseas market where Facebook and Google reach over half a billion people, and is inking deals with a range of firms including Android smartphone vendors, entertainment TV channels Sony and Zee TV and e-commerce giant Flipkart to […]

Representatives from TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security today to discuss how to protect kids online. This hearing follows Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen‘s document leaks to the Wall Street Journal, which — among many things — exposed Facebook’s knowledge that Instagram is toxic for […]

Apple News is expanding its local news coverage to Charlotte, Miami and Washington, D.C. Local news coverage will give users access to numerous publications such as Axios Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer, Eater Miami, the Miami Herald, DCist, Washingtonian, the Washington Post and more. Each local news experience is curated by Apple News editors and features coverage […]

YouTube and Snapchat were asked by lawmakers to defend whether or not their respective social media apps were appropriately rated on the U.S. app stores, given the nature of the content they hosted. In a line of questioning led by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Snap was given specific examples of the types of content found […]

In its first-ever Congressional hearing, TikTok successfully dodged questions about what it plans to do with the biometric data its privacy policy permits it to collect on the app’s U.S. users. In an update to the company’s U.S. privacy policy in June, TikTok added a new section that noted the app “may collect biometric identifiers […]

Apple is expanding its all-in-one Apple One Premier subscription bundle to 17 new countries on November 3rd. The service will be available in Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. In these countries, Apple One Premier will include Apple Music, […]

Amazon is said to be working on a live audio app that sounds like it will let anyone be the DJ of their own radio show — including music. It's called 'Project Mic,' and will be U.S-focused at first.

Apple has launched a new way for Fitness+ users to work out or meditate with people in other locations through group workouts powered by SharePlay. The tech giant first teased the feature at its September 14th virtual event. Fitness+ subscribers can use SharePlay to start a group workout or meditation session with up to 32 […]

YouTube is rolling out a designated “New to you” tab on its platform after testing the feature earlier this year. The new tab is now available on the YouTube homepage across mobile, desktop and TV devices. YouTube says the feature will help users discover new creators and content beyond the recommended videos they usually see. […]

Digital lenders that share personal data of loan defaulters, with third parties, risk license withdrawal in Kenya after lawmakers added a clause – granting the banking regulator the mandate to revoke permits of operators who breach customer confidentiality – to the new law passed by the country’s National Assembly.  Typically, loan apps collect borrowers phone […]

Make way for yet another ‘quick-commerce’ player in Europe’s heavily heating on-demand grocery space: Pop Market is a Greek startup which launched last week in Athens — taking orders via and app and touting 15min delivery times and a curated selection of “thousands” of items (including fresh fruit and vegetables). The seed round, which Pop […]

Meet Routine, a new startup working on a productivity tool that should help you manage your work day more efficiently. It’s a brand new take on to-do lists as it combines both tasks, non-actionable notes and a daily planner. The two co-founders of Routine are Julien Quintard and Quentin Hocquet, two French entrepreneurs who previously […]

Meet Hera, a new calendar app that wants to turn the calendar into the main work interface. Hera helps you schedule meetings more easily with natural language processing and lets you share availabilities in an email or any messaging app. The startup is also going to build integrations with your other work tools so that […]

As scores of Indian startups populate their catalogs with live and recorded courses to reach and serve students in the world’s second largest internet market, a handful of new-age firms are beginning to explore different approaches to tackle the challenge. Teachmint, one such startup that is helping teachers and institutes create their own virtual classrooms […]

Justos, a startup that says it will be the first insurance company in Brazil to use data when determining rates, has raised a $35.8 million Series A round of funding led by Ribbit Capital. SoftBank’s Latin American Fund and GGV participated as new investors, in addition to existing backers Kaszek, BigBets, Nubank CEO David Velez […]

Groww has tripled its valuation to $3 billion in just six months as the Indian fintech startup looks to broaden its offerings and help more millennials start their investment journey in the world’s second largest internet market. Iconic Growth led the Bangalore-based startup’s $251 million Series E financing round. Alkeon, Lone Pine Capital and Steadfast […]

Social-audio apps need to leverage the same strategies used by major news organizations.

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 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. […]

Like it or not, memes are part of how we communicate now — we even reference memes in our headlines. But iterating upon existing memes can be a needlessly clunky user experience. First, you need to find a meme template, then you need to figure out how to add text, even if that means reverse-engineering […]

Apple today introduced a new set of App Store Guidelines which include three key changes. One of the changes is the result of a previously announced settlement agreement with a class of U.S. app developers. It clarifies that developers are allowed to communicate with their customers about other payment methods available outside their app. Related […]

Instagram is testing new tools for creators to earn commissions and form partnerships with brands on its platform. The Facebook-owned company is expanding its existing native affiliate tool, which launched in June and allows creators to discover products, share them with followers and earn commissions for sales driven by their posts. With this latest launch, […]

Starting today, Revue writers have another tool to turn their Twitter followers into newsletter subscribers. Now, when you tweet out your newsletter, readers will see a subscribe button embedded in the tweet. Revue is making it very difficult to not use Revue. https://t.co/UaFS1lhrNM — Austin Rief ☕️ (@austin_rief) October 22, 2021 When you share individual […]