This Week in Apps: Chinese giants take on Google Play, Iowa caucus disaster, TikTok’s power over App Store charts

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.

The app industry is as hot as ever with a record 204 billion downloads in 2019 and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie’s recently released “State of Mobile” annual report. People are now spending 3 hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

In this Extra Crunch series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.

This week, we look at the app making headlines for causing a disaster in Iowa, TikTok’s power to move apps up the charts, all the news from Apple’s new betas, the plan from Chinese mobile giants to take on Google Play, subscription scams, plus app trends and other news.

Headlines

Iowa’s caucus app was a disaster

A smartphone app really screwed things up in Iowa. The app, built by Shadow Inc., was designed to help the Iowa Democratic Party tabulate votes from the caucuses. But instead of helping, the app failed, causing a massive delay of almost an entire day. According to The New York Times, the app was quickly put together in just the past two months — and wasn’t properly tested.

The disaster led to more questions about how much we should rely on internet voting and mobile apps when it comes to elections. Most experts believe a conservative approach is required, given what all could go wrong — because it often does. This was a prime example. The chaos likely set back the use of similar apps for years to come.

TikTok can make music go viral — now it’s doing the same for apps

On January 30, 2020, an app called Lens for Watch became the No. 1 Social Networking app on the App Store and the No. 7 Overall app.

What happened? TikTok did.

On January 29, a TikTok user @applewatch95, whose account features Apple Watch tips, showed off Lens, which lets you view Instagram on your Watch. The TikTok video went viral. As of the time of writing, the video has 1.9 million views, 130,900 shares and 5,861 comments. That was enough to move the App Store’s needle, apparently.

Lens is not a top-quality app, it seems. It has only achieved a lowly 2.7-star rating on the App Store since its April 2019 debut, and many reviews talk of bugs and other problems. In other words, Lens didn’t get to the top of the App Store by being fantastic — it got there because of TikTok.

iOS and iPad OS 13.4 betas released

Apple introduced its latest set of iOS betas this week, which deliver on many of the promises announced earlier this year at WWDC. Notable new features include new Memoji stickers for Messages and FaceTime (now with eye-rolling and angry huffing!), plus iCloud Folder sharing and a CarPlay update that supports third-party navigation apps and additional Phone features, including car controls on the dashboard.

MacRumors and 9to5Mac also rounded up some of the more minor additions, like the new Mail toolbar,  a Shazam Shortcuts action, keyboard shortcuts in the iPad Photos app and more.

New “CarKey” feature discovered in iOS 13.4 will let you use your iPhone or Watch as a car key

One hidden surprise in the new iOS beta uncovered by 9to5Mac are references to a CarKey API that appears to make it possible to use an iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock, lock and start a car. The feature would work in NFC-compatible cars and won’t require a FaceID unlock, like Express Transit Cards. Apple is likely working with car manufacturers to implement the CarKey, so it’s unclear when such an option will be available to the public.

Apple’s been interested in making its iPhone replace the car key for some time. The company has been a member of the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), along with Audi, BMW, GM, Hyundai, LG, Panasonic, Samsung and VW. In 2018, the CCC announced a new Digital Key spec that would allow smartphone owners to download a digital copy of their car key to their iPhone that could be used in place of a physical key.

Image of CarKey reference via 9to5Mac, below:

Apple extends universal purchases to Mac

Apple surprised the app developer community this week by announcing that it will soon be able to sell its cross-platform apps as one universal purchase, including, for the first time, apps that run on macOS. For consumers, a universal purchase option allows them to just pay once for an app that works across devices, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and/or Mac. Developers, meanwhile, will be able to entice customers to buy their Mac and iOS app together, or other combinations of apps. They’ll also be able to more easily sync customers’ in-app purchases and subscriptions across platforms. The support will roll out publicly in March, but developers can get started now with the new Xcode beta.

Developers can now privately distribute custom apps to schools

As part of its suite of updates this week, Apple on Thursday announced that app makers could now privately distribute custom apps to schools. That opens up the door to more businesses interested in serving the educational market, as they’ll now be able to customize their app to the school’s unique needs, then offer it for purchase via Apple School Manager. Schools can also use the feature to distribute apps for their own internal use. Unfortunately for many developers, this feature comes too late. Apple School Manager has been around for years, so developers have already set up multiple accounts to deploy their custom apps. Switching them now would be non-trivial.

Get ready for Apple Watch apps with in-app purchases

With the public release of watchOS 6.2, developers will be able to offer in-app purchases directly in their watchOS apps — meaning they can sell digital goods, premium content, subscriptions and more right on the wrist. Subscriptions, in particular, have taken over the App Store as a means of generating revenue — but developers will need to be even more careful about their implementation of IAP on the Apple Watch’s small screen, given the limited space for taps and touches. Developers can start getting Watch apps ready now with Xcode 11.4 beta and StoreKit API.

Byte tops a million downloads in week one

Short-form video app Byte, heralded as Vine’s successor, saw more than 1.3 million downloads in its first week. We criticized Byte in last week’s column for its 13+ age rating, despite hosting a ton of videos featuring very adult humor, including jokes about sex, incest, child abuse, drugs and more on an app being used by kids. The app over the weekend updated itself to 17+ after Apple took a look. It also cleaned up its recommendations to remove some of the more distasteful humor — like the one where a teen jokes about coronovirus victims, for example. (Seriously.) Whether Byte can keep its community on track remains to be seen, given how it neglected to set the tone for what sort of content it wanted at its debut.

But Byte is pressing forward. This week, it revealed more news about its partner program plans and launched its first ad campaign, with Nike. 

Chinese mobile giants team up to take on Google Play

China’s Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo are teaming up to create a platform for developers outside China to upload apps to all their app stores simultaneously. This support is being added to the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA) platform, which is meant to make it easier for developers of games, music, movies and other apps to distribute them overseas. The platform is aiming to launch in March, but it’s unclear if it’s still on track. China isn’t the only market covered by the platform — nine regions will be covered, including India, Indonesia and Russia. The move is meant to challenge Google Play’s dominance in global markets and offer developers more exposure for their apps than the crowded Play Store today does.

U.S. dating app usage is on the rise

Dating app usage in the U.S. is on the rise, according to a new Pew Research Center report on online dating. Indeed, 30% of U.S. adults have at some point used a dating app or website. That’s up from just 11% in 2013. A smaller number of U.S. adults, 12%, said they found a long-term relationship via online dating. While a majority said they had a positive experience with online dating, when drilling down into specific areas, some significant issues around harassment surfaced.

Women — particularly younger women — were harassed more often on dating apps — including by continuing to receive messages after they said they weren’t interested, being called offensive names, being sent unwanted explicit photos and, in a few cases, threatened physically.

Tinder is today running away with the dating app market, pulling in a whopping $1.2 billion in 2019. But its next rival could come from an unexpected place. This month, Snapchat platform app Hoop, a “Tinder for Snapchat,” went viral, briefly hitting the top of the App Store charts and scoring 2.5 million downloads. Tinder parent Match Group said it hasn’t seen any correlated negative impact from Facebook Dating’s launch, but a Snapchat dating app targets Tinder’s core demographic: young adults who often aren’t on Facebook.

Streaming is boosting entertainment apps

Ahead of Oscar weekend, App Annie put out a report on the state of streaming apps. Globally, consumers spent 50% more sessions in Entertainment category apps (where the streamers reside) in 2018 versus 2017. This was across both emerging and mature markets, as well. For example, the U.S. saw 20% more sessions during this time, but France and Japan saw close to a 60% increase and India saw an 80% increase.

Streamers like Netflix aren’t the only ones driving the boost. User-gen entertainment apps like TikTok, which saw mobile sessions jump 135% from 2017 to 2019, are also involved.

The firm also shared the breakout streaming apps of 2019, meaning those that saw the highest year-over-year growth. Netflix ranked on this list in non-U.S. markets like Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea and the U.K., while Hulu made the list in the U.S.

VSCO rides the video wave

Photo-editing app VSCO, now best known for becoming a Gen Z meme, is expanding further into video. Before this week, VSCO supported video editing, but users couldn’t publish and share video directly to the VSCO feed. That now changes, starting first with VSCO members on iOS.

Over the past year, VSCO has seen video editing double, along with strong usage for its GIF maker DSCO. The company had also earlier signaled its intention to move further into the video market with the acquisition of video technology company Rylo.

A number of apps like VSCO are taking advantage of Gen Z’s preference for video and are building their own communities inside what otherwise would have been more utilitarian editing apps. VSCO, however, has had a social feed for some time — now it aims to make that more into a community for video sharing too.

BlueMail issues “call for unity” against Apple to dev community

An app developer is suing Apple for allegedly copying its anonymous email sign-in feature and suppressing its own app in the search results. Blix, the maker of the BlueMail email app, said “Sign in with Apple” was their idea first. It also claimed Apple kicked out its app from the Mac App Store and limited the reach of its iPhone app. Blix says it’s considering a class-action suit to resolve the problem. Apple, meanwhile, said BlueMail was removed for security issues. Now Blix is reaching out to the developer community in the hopes of finding similarly impacted developers, the FT reported this week (summarized by The Verge).

The developer is one of many claiming that Apple is taking their ideas for its own and wiping out their businesses in the process. But not all cases are alike. There are times when some apps make more sense as built-in iOS features, like flashlights and camera upgrades, and other times where it seems Apple isn’t playing fair — like its decision to launch a Tile competitor with deep iOS integration. BlueMail’s case seems weaker than others, given that the use of email aliases isn’t at all a new idea.

Subscription scams continue

Subscriptions have boosted app revenue and are helping developers earn a better living. But some developers are intent on ruining it for everyone — by scamming and tricking users into unwanted subscriptions. The latest platform dealing with the threat of unscrupulous developers is now Google Play. Its top free app charts in the U.K. this week featured several questionable apps with regard to their use of subscriptions, reported Android Police. The apps’ reviews are filled with user complaints and warnings of scams. As the report notes, developers can use Google’s Firebase remote config tool to change their app appearance without issuing an update.

At some point, Apple and Google will need to come up with better ways to monitor for subscription scams rather than relying on the app review process alone. Scanning reviews for keywords like “scam” and “don’t download!” alongside a number of one-star reviews seems within reason — particularly when we’re talking about protecting consumers’ wallets. If platforms don’t address subscription scams, users will eventually rebel. They’ll stop downloading and using apps that offer subscriptions entirely, losing both the developers and the platforms a lot of money.

WhatsApp stops working on old phones

When one of the world’s biggest messaging apps ends support for older devices, it’s likely to force users to upgrade. That may now be the case for WhatsApp users still using old iPhones and Android devices to chat with their friends and family. The Facebook-owned company said on February 1 that it’s ending support for iPhones running below iOS 8 and Android devices on Gingerbread 2.3.7 or older. In other words, update your phone, or get a new one already!

This is no small move on WhatsApp’s part. The end of support could potentially impact millions of devices, the BBC said.

Super Bowl ads boost mobile app installs

A number of streaming services and other apps advertised during the Super Bowl. Apptopia ran the numbers to see how well those ads paid off. According to its findings, YouTube TV did the best, boosting app installs 51%. Dashlane also did well, with a 22% bump. Following that were Disney+ (up 16%), Amazon Prime Video (up 15%) and Hulu (up 8%).

TikTok ran a Super Bowl ad, too, but this wasn’t included in Apptopia’s report.

Disney, in particular, may not have needed that Super Bowl bump. The app already reached 28.6 million subscribers as of February 3.

ACLU fights DHS efforts to use app locations for deportations

The American Civil Liberties Union plans to fight newly revealed practices by the Department of Homeland Security that used commercially available cellphone location data to track suspected illegal immigrants. Aggregators acquire location data from apps, including games, weather, shopping and search services. DHS is purchasing this data from commercial entities to investigate immigration violations. The ACLU says DHS shouldn’t be accessing location information without a warrant.

BTW, that wasn’t Kendall Jenner’s TikTok

TikTok’s procedures for account verification made headlines this week when it accidentally verified a fake account made by an impostor. Within 24 hours, the account was gone after accumulating nearly half a million followers. TikTok wouldn’t clarify how it verifies accounts or how such a high-profile account was given a blue check, when it was actually fake. But it did say the account was removed after an internal review.

As a reminder, TikTok was the fourth-most-downloaded app of 2019. It’s too big to be this bad at its job.

Fundings, earnings and M&A

More reading

How Dubsmash revived itself as No. 2 to TikTok

Dubsmash has managed to pull off a real comeback after its viral fame of a few years ago fizzled out. Now the app is seeing 1 billion video views per month — an indication that Gen Z isn’t just addicted to TikTok but has embraced short-form video as its preferred form of social networking. TechCrunch’s Josh Constine has the full story here.

VCs hunt for platform opportunities in “hyper-casual” gaming

TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney chatted with David Lau-Kee, general partner at London Venture Partners, about the opportunities in game development for less-experienced developers. Hyper-casual games designed for people who weren’t traditional gamers offer simple titles that can achieve a big audience. But not all hyper-casual games are investable, said Lau-Kee. Often, investors are interested in the tools for building and distributing these types of gaming experience — as with Coda, which LVP backed by leading its $4 million seed.

Apple makes the ugliest watch faces on the planet

John Biggs makes a good argument for opening up Apple Watch face designs to third-party development:

With Infograph…you realize that Apple misunderstands both horology and design and feels that some weird skeuomorphic fever dream can pass for a real watch face…

Apple thinks the Apple Watch is a watch. It isn’t. It’s a clever little screen that sits where a watch should sit. It has the ability to do everything these complicated watches can do and more and, thanks to its connection to the iPhone, it can connect to the world in ways that Breguet could only dream. That said, to call a mish-mash of ugly fonts, bright colors, and silly subdials a set of “complications” is like calling McDonald’s a fine meal.

Download this

Overcast’s update makes it easier to enjoy podcasts

Not a new app, but a notable update. Overcast recently rolled out a new version that includes a new audio engine called Voice Boost 2. Over a year in development, the new engine makes podcasts more listenable by normalizing the volume across all shows. This is particularly useful in an industry where a number of podcast producers are amateurs to semi-pros and don’t record in a professional studio. The new Voice Boost 2 offers the same dynamic compression and equalization as the earlier version, but now uses more sophisticated methods to do so. This leads to more consistent results and much better sound quality.

Tweet of the Week

Okay, $80 billion is great. But Apple has paid out nearly double ($155 billion).