Meta’s Connect conference held earlier this week had announcements ranging from the new $1,500 Quest Pro headset to the company’s partnership with Microsoft to bring productivity tools to VR. However,…
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Meta and news outlet’s spar deepens India’s trust deficit
Tech giants and news organizations sparring over news reporting isn’t new. Companies often complain to journalists about getting nuances wrong and usually air their dismay “off the record.” Journalists usually agree to include the rebuttals provided the companies can offer the same assertions on-record. The companies don’t follow through and the conversation typically ends there…
Meta didn’t hold back with their announcements at Meta Connect this year. As Facebook has done every year or so, the company is shaking up their avatar products. This year…
Meta’s Quest Store hits $1.5 billion in total revenue to date
While outside research data suggests that the number of VR headsets being shipped over the past couple years has surged, the release of new VR titles hasn’t always kept pace.…
Mark Zuckerberg will make his impassioned pleas that the metaverse is a real thing and a valid Next Big Business for Meta (neé The Facebook) on Tuesday. The annual Meta…
Brands are spamming WhatsApp users in India, Facebook’s largest market
As Meta makes deeper inroads with businesses on WhatsApp, its biggest bet to monetize the instant messaging app with over 2 billion users, we are getting an early glimpse at…
Facebook is rolling out new ways to customize what you see in your feed
Facebook is rolling out new ways for users to customize their feed, the social network announced on Wednesday. Beginning today, you will start to see new “Show more” or “Show…
Meta shuts down Bulletin newsletters, moves resources to its discovery algorithm
Meta is shutting down Bulletin, the off-platform newsletter product it launched last summer. Available to writers on an invite-only basis, Bulletin allowed readers to subscribe to newsletters from contributors like…
Meta settles lawsuit for ‘significant’ sum against businesses scraping Facebook and Instagram data
Facebook parent Meta has settled a lawsuit in the U.S. against two companies that had engaged in data scraping operations, which had seen them gathering data from Facebook and Instagram…
TikTok is hunting for partners to launch its live shopping offering in the U.S. as it is looking to outsource operations for these features. According to a report from Financial…
All Facebook and Instagram users in the US can now share NFTs, cross-post between both apps
Meta announced today that all Facebook and Instagram users in the U.S. can now connect their wallets and share their NFTs. All users in the U.S. also have the ability…
Meta’s rebranding of Facebook Pay to Meta Pay is rolling out globally
Facebook Pay is officially being renamed Meta Pay for users around the world, the company announced on Wednesday. Meta kicked off the rebrand in the United States in June, and…
Meta wants you to create more Instagram and Facebook accounts and hop between them easily
Meta is working on making it easier for users to switch between Facebook and Instagram accounts through a new profile switching tool. Anyone using either app will be able to…
Italy fires Meta urgent request for info re: election interference measures
Days ahead of the Italian general election, the country’s privacy watchdog has sent Facebook’s parent (Meta) an urgent request for information, asking the social media giant to clarify measures it’s…
Facebook users sue Meta, accusing the company of tracking on iOS through a loophole
Apple’s major privacy update to iOS last year made it much more difficult for apps to track user behavior beyond their own borders, but a new lawsuit alleges that Facebook…
Meta ordered to pay walkie-talkie app maker Voxer $175M for patent infringement
A jury in a Texas federal court has ordered Meta to pay walkie-talkie app company Voxer more than $174.5 million in damages, according to court documents filed on Wednesday. Voxer,…
Facebook adds new Pages features to help creators connect with fans and get discovered
Facebook is introducing new Pages features that are designed to help creators get discovered and connect with their followers, the company announced on Tuesday. Most notably, the social network is…
Nintendo is ending support for account logins via Facebook and Twitter
Nintendo is ending support for account logins through Facebook and Twitter on October 25, the company announced on Tuesday. After that date, players won’t be able to sign in or…
Advisor to Europe’s top court backs antitrust watchdogs looking at privacy
A non-binding opinion issued today by an influential advisor to the Europe Union’s top court could foreshadow a major regional development at the intersection of privacy and competition regulation —…
Bainbridge Growth wants e-commerce brands to stop sales guessing game
The company gathers sales data for financial modeling and forecasting to track progress, show planned value and then value in real-time.
Facebook debuts a Reels API for sharing from third-party apps
Meta is going all in to expand the reach of its short video products. In the latest step to those offerings widely reachable, the company is launching a Facebook Reels…
Unsealed docs in Facebook privacy suit offer glimpse of missing app audit
It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up… The scandal-hit company formerly known as Facebook has fought for over four years to keep a lid on the gory details of…
Think of activation as getting users to a point where you know for sure that they will stay for a longer period of time. Which metrics separate customers who find…
Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter dodge questions on social media and national security
Executives from four of the biggest social media companies testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, defending their platforms and their respective safety, privacy and moderation failures in recent…
Facebook’s latest app update brings iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets
One of the most notable changes with Apple’s iOS 16 launch is the ability for users to personalize their Lock Screen with widgets. Many app developers have worked to make…
Europe wants to shape the future of virtual worlds with rules and taxes
EU lawmakers are moving in on the metaverse and making it plain that, whatever newfangled virtual world/s and/or immersive social connectivity that tech industry hype involving the term may refer…
Apple’s in-app purchase prices jumped 40% year over year, likely tied to privacy changes
It’s become increasingly difficult to estimate how much money Apple’s App Store business makes, as it’s lumped in with other services on Apple’s balance sheet — and because Apple has…
Facebook parent Meta launches startup accelerator with India’s IT ministry in metaverse push
Meta Platforms is looking at India’s burgeoning startup ecosystem as it bolsters its bet on the metaverse. The social juggernaut has partnered with the Indian IT Ministry’s startup hub to…
Don’t leave your Meta Quest Pro prototype in your hotel room
Looks like someone made a booboo. A video game streamer in Mexico, Ramiro Cardenas, claims to have found an engineering prototype of the Meta Quest Pro in a hotel room.…
This Week in Apps: Apple’s event brings a ‘Dynamic Island,’ new widgets and iOS 16
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…
