Mobile
Google Meet’s new feature lets users consume YouTube and Spotify together
As Google continues the great merger between its Duo and Meet video communications apps, the company today announced that it’s introducing new Apple SharePlay-like live-sharing features to Meet,
Plex introduces a social experience to its streaming app with launch of ‘Discover Together’
Streaming media platform Plex, already an expansive service for personal media, free streaming TV and new content discovery, is venturing into a new area with today’s launch of a new feature, D
Meta Portal owners can now use their devices as a second screen for PCs and Macs
Portal, the beleaguered brand of smart displays released in 2018 by Meta (then Facebook), is reportedly slated for a phase-out as the company refocuses the product line on the enterprise. Ahead of the
FullStory secures $25M to help companies spot issues in their apps and websites
FullStory, which sells analytics tools for apps and websites, secured $25 million in new equity financing, paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week shows. According
Samsung’s new foldables arrive August 26
Over the past year, Samsung recognized something we’d known all along: The clamshell form factor makes sense. It’s something those of us who are old enough to remember a pre-smartphone era are wir
Shopic lands $35M to bring its item-scanning ‘smart cart’ tech to more stores
Stores face new challenges in a world forever changed by the pandemic. Amazon and other tech giants are encroaching on their business. But perhaps more urgently, supply chain snarls haven’t gone
South Korea to probe Apple and Google over in-app payment rule break
South Korea’s communication watchdog, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), said Tuesday it will investigate Apple and Google over potential violations of the country’s in-app payment
WhatsApp extends time limit to delete a message to 60 hours
WhatsApp now allows you to delete a message for up to two days and 12 hours (60 hours in total), so you can remove an accidentally sent chat even after hours. Previously, this limit was 1 hour, 8 minu
Google launches a website version of its Read Along education app for children
Google has launched a website for its Read Along app for encouraging young children to practice reading. The website, which is introduced as a public beta, works with Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers
Snapchat officially introduces parental controls through a new ‘Family Center’ feature
Snapchat today is rolling out its first set of parental controls, after announcing last October it was developing tools that would allow parents to gain better visibility into how their teens used the
HBO Max attempts to fix its notoriously buggy app with oft-requested features
For years, HBO Max has been under fire for its buggy app. Today, the streaming service’s re-platformed app completed its global rollout on desktop, iOS, Android and Amazon Fire tablets. New features
Less than 1% of Netflix’s subscribers want to play its mobile games
As Netflix struggles to keep consumers subscribed to its streaming service, its mobile games venture is looking like a flop. CNBC reported that according to app analytics company Apptopia, Netflix gam
This Week in Apps: French developers sue Apple, time spent in apps grows, Instagram adds NFTs
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 th
Top anonymous social app NGL forced to stop tricking its users
A popular anonymous social app that was misleading its users with fake messages has been forced to change. The top-ranked app NGL, which became the No. 1 app on the U.S. App Store in June, quietly rol
Let’s check in with Samsung before next week’s Unpacked event
It has become something of a tradition: Samsung announces an Unpacked and all or most of the big products get teased out in leaks in the weeks leading up to event. Sometimes the leaks come before the
A new app called Banish blocks those annoying ‘open in app’ banners
A new app for iPhone users can help you browse the web without being constantly bothered by pop-up panels that beg you to use the company’s app instead. The app, called Banish, is a Safari exten
Kakao says emoji subscription purchases fell by a third due to Google’s new in-app policy
The number of emoji subscription purchases on the South Korean messaging app KakaoTalk has dropped by a third over the year, parent firm Kakao said in quarterly earnings call Thursday. It blamed Googl
Club Feast quietly pivoted to catering and left its consumer customers in a lurch
A year ago, Club Feast, a subscription-based service aiming to disrupt the food delivery industry, emerged from stealth with $3.5 million in seed funding and the backing of prominent investors, includ
Starbucks to unveil its web3-based rewards program next month
Starbucks will unveil its web3 initiative, which includes coffee-themed NFTs, at next month’s Investor Day event. The company earlier this year announced its plans to enter the web3 space, notin
Twitter to revamp Spaces, tests themed stations and a daily digest
Twitter is developing an updated version of its audio chat rooms product known as Spaces, TechCrunch learned and Twitter confirmed. The company said it’s currently working a new experiment for t