Ivan Mehta

Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web. You can reach out to him at im[at]ivanmehta[dot]com

The Latest from Ivan Mehta

Meta AI is restricting election-related responses in India

Last week, Meta started testing its AI chatbot in India across WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. But with the Indian general elections beginning today, the company is already blocking specific querie

Meta adds its AI chatbot, powered by Llama 3, to the search bar across its apps

Meta’s making several big moves today to promote its AI services across its platform. The company has upgraded its AI chatbot with its newest large language model, Llama 3, and it is now running

TikTok starts testing its Instagram competitor TikTok Notes in Canada and Australia

TikTok is rolling out its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, in select markets. The app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in Canada and Australia, the company said. The compan

Brave Search is adopting AI to answer your queries

The new "Answer with AI" feature returns neatly formatted answers for questions like "People who walked on the moon," "List of all actors who played Batman" or "How do descale Nespresso pixie."

a16z-backed Rewind pivots to build AI-powered pendant to record your conversations

a16z-backed Rewind is now pivoting to build AI-powered meeting suit along with a hardware product to record your conversations.

Snap plans to add watermarks to images created with its AI-powered tools

Social media service Snap said on Tuesday that it plans to add watermarks to AI-generated images on its platform. The watermark is a translucent version of the Snap logo with a sparkle emoji, and it w

WhatsApp is adding filters to easily find messages

For those who use WhatsApp more like an inbox, the app will now become more useful. WhatsApp on Tuesday announced a handful of new chat filters for the app to access certain types of messages easily:

TikTok partners with AXS to sell tickets for live events worldwide

TikTok said today that it has partnered with ticketing company AXS to sell tickets for events worldwide. The ByteDance-owned app is introducing this feature in the U.S., U.K., Sweden and Australia at

Meta’s Oversight Board probes explicit AI-generated images posted on Instagram and Facebook

The Oversight Board, Meta’s semi-independent policy council, is turning its attention to how the company’s social platforms are handling explicit, AI-generated images. Tuesday, it announce

After struggling with real-time trends, Threads tests a ‘recent’ filter for search results

Meta-owned social network Threads is finally testing a "Recent" filter to sort search results.

Elon Musk plans to charge new X users to enable posting

Elon Musk is planning to charge new X users a small fee to enable posting on the social network and to curb the bot problem. In reply to an X account that posted about changes on X’s website, Mu

Bluesky is now allowing heads of states to sign up

Social networking service Bluesky is now allowing heads of state to sign up and join the platform. The move comes ahead of major general elections in countries like the U.S. and India this year.

Meta is testing an AI-powered search bar in Instagram

Meta is pushing ahead with its efforts to make its generative AI-powered products available to more users. Apart from testing Meta AI chatbot with users in countries like India on WhatsApp, the compan

X is removing the ability to hide checkmarks for premium users

Last year, Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly known as Twitter) rolled out a feature for paid users to hide their blue checkmarks from others after the checks became primarily a paid feature

Arc browser launches Live Folders to auto-update tabs for you

Fresh off the heels of raising $50 million at a $550 million valuation in March, The Browser Company continues to bring in more features to its Arc browser, set up to provide a genuine alternative to

DuckDuckGo launches a new subscription to bundle VPN and identity theft protection

Privacy-focused consumer tech company DuckDuckGo launched a new Privacy Pro subscription on Thursday that bundles a VPN service, personal information removal and identity theft restoration. The plan,

Alternative browsers report uplift after EU’s DMA choice screen mandate

A flagship European Union digital market regulation appears to be shaking up competition in the mobile browser market. It’s been a little over a month since the Digital Markets Act (DMA) came in

Truecaller launches a web client for its Android users

Truecaller has launched a web version of its eponymous caller ID application that brings a range of features, including SMS and chat mirroring, call notifications, and number search functionality to t

Life360 launches flight landing notifications to alert friends and family

Algorithms can detect takeoff and landing times, and alert family members when you connect to the network post-landing.

TikTok’s Instagram competitor likely to be named TikTok Notes

TikTok’s upcoming Instagram competitor app for sharing photos could be named TikTok Notes, according to screenshots posted by users. TikTok also confirmed the app was in development. Over the la
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