Sarah Perez
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This Week in Apps: Facebook’s other Clubhouse rival, Apple details ATT, App Store trial nears
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 is as hot as ever, with a
Consumers now average 4.2 hours per day in apps, up 30% from 2019
The coronavirus pandemic has increased our collective screen time, and that’s particularly true on mobile devices. According to a new report from mobile data and analytics firm App Annie, global
Samsung’s AirTags rival, the Galaxy SmartTag+, arrives to help you find lost items via AR
Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag+, the company’s competitor to Apple’s forthcoming lost-item finder known as AirTags, has now arrived. Samsung had first announced its Tile competitor known
Mercato raises $26M Series A to help smaller grocers compete online
The pandemic upended the way people shop for their everyday needs, including groceries. Online grocery sales in the U.S. are expected to reach 21.5% of the total grocery sales by 2025, after leaping f
Spotify stays quiet about launch of its voice command ‘Hey Spotify’ on mobile
In 2019, Spotify began testing a hardware device for automobile owners it lovingly dubbed “Car Thing,” which allowed Spotify Premium users to play music and podcasts using voice commands t
Pinterest announces $500K Creator Fund, ‘Creator Code’ content policy, moderation tools and more
Pinterest today hosted an event focused on its creator community, where the company announced a series of updates including the launch of a $500,000 Creator Fund, a new content policy called the Creat
Facebook tests Hotline, a Q&A product that’s a mashup of Clubhouse and Instagram Live
Facebook’s internal R&D group, NPE Team, has today launched its latest experiment, Hotline, into public beta testing. The web-based application could be described as a mashup of Instagram Li
As competition heats up, TikTok announces six new interactive music effects for creators
TikTok today is doubling down on its roots as a music-backed creation app with the launch of a half dozen new music effects for creators. The effects, which offer interactivity, visualizations, animat
Apple launches an app for testing devices that work with ‘Find My’
Apple has launched a new app, Find My Certification Asst., designed for use by MFi (Made for iPhone) Licensees, who need to test their accessories’ interoperability with Apple’s Find My ne
Facebook confirms ‘test’ of Venmo-like QR codes for person-to-person payments in US
Facebook confirms it’s testing a new QR code feature and payment links for use with Facebook Pay to make it easier for people in the U.S. to send or request money from one another. The QR code f
TikTok adds auto captions to make videos accessible to hard of hearing and deaf
TikTok this morning announced the launch of a new feature designed to make its app accessible to people who are hard of hearing or deaf. The company is today debuting auto captions — a feature t
Fortnite users can now livestream gameplay to Houseparty’s social video app
Houseparty, the social video app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games in 2019, has just announced a major new step in terms of integrating these two properties: the company says it will now allow gam
Fueled by pandemic, contactless mobile payments to surpass half of all smartphone users in US by 2025
Among other technology trends accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of contactless mobile payments boomed in 2020. According to a recent report by analyst firm eMarketer, in-store mobile payme
Spotify opens a second personalized playlist to sponsors, after ‘Discover Weekly’ in 2019
Spotify is opening up its personalized playlist, “On Repeat,” to advertising sponsorship. This playlist, launched in 2019 and featuring users’ favorite songs, is only the second pers
This Week in Apps: Clubhouse clones, WWDC21, apps have their best-ever quarter
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 is as hot as ever, with a
US iPhone users spent an average of $138 on apps in 2020, will grow to $180 in 2021
U.S. consumers spent an average of $138 on iPhone apps last year, an increase of 38% year over year, largely driven by the pandemic impacts, according to new data from app store intelligence firm Sens
Facebook launches profile frames that help you encourage friends to get the COVID-19 vaccine
As COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more readily available to larger groups of the U.S. population, Facebook has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Dis
Instagram officially launches Remix on Reels, a TikTok Duets-like feature
Instagram today is officially launching a new feature called Remix, which offers a way to record your Reels video alongside a video from another user. The option is similar to TikTok’s existing
Consumers spent $32B on apps in Q1 2021, the biggest quarter on record
The pandemic’s remarkable impact on the app industry has not slowed down in 2021. In fact, consumer spending in apps has hit a new record in the first quarter of this year, a new report from App
Spotify adds three new types of personalized playlists with launch of ‘Spotify Mixes’
Spotify this morning announced it’s significantly expanding its selection of personalized playlists with the addition of three new categories of playlists under the heading of “Spotify Mix