HouseParty
Remembering the startups we lost in 2021
When we penned the intro for this piece last year, little did we know that — in many ways — we’d still be deep in it by the time 2021’s feature rolled around. Amid another holiday seas
SquadPal is a social app to help remote working teams gel
The future of office work, post-COVID-19, is driving plenty of startup activity. Not just around core business needs like comms (Zoom, Slack et al.) — but entrepreneurs are also competing to com
Ben Rubin, who founded Houseparty, Meerkat and Slashtalk, will peer into the future of social at Disrupt
Ben Rubin understands where social is going. In fact, he understands it so well, he’s always there early. Rubin is the current CEO and co-founder of Slashtalk and an angel investor who scouts fo
Epic Games to shut down Houseparty in October, including the video chat ‘Fortnite Mode’ feature
Houseparty, the social video chat app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games for a reported $35 million back in 2019, is shutting down. The company says Houseparty will be discontinued in October when
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
Houseparty adds ‘Fortnite Mode,’ bringing video chat to the popular game
Epic acquired Houseparty way back in June of last year, following an absolutely massive $1.25 billion raise. It was clear why the Fortnite publisher would be interested in the social video app. After
Six things venture capitalists are looking for in your pitch
Founders pitch venture capitalists at every available chance, which is why most of them quickly develop the skills required to identify whether someone is offering them an opportunity or wasting their
Houseparty expands beyond video chat with co-watching of live events
Houseparty, the video chat app that’s seen a surge of growth during quarantine, is preparing to expand its service in a new direction: co-watching live video with friends. The company on Friday
Houseparty reports 50M sign-ups in past month amid COVID-19 lockdowns
Houseparty, the popular video chat application acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games in 2019, has seen massive growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With government lockdowns keeping people from being
Creative ways to host a virtual birthday party for kids
Social distancing requirements amid the COVID-19 pandemic may have canceled kids’ birthday parties, but parents are finding new ways to take the celebrations online. While video chat apps like Z
No proof of a Houseparty breach, but its privacy policy is still gatecrashing your data
Houseparty has been a smashing success with people staying home during the coronavirus pandemic who still want to connect with friends. The group video chat app, interspersed with games and other bell
Videoconferencing apps saw a record 62M downloads during one week in March
Work-from-home policies, social distancing and government lockdowns have increased the demand for video conferencing apps, for both business and personal use. According to a new report from App Annie,
The best video chat apps to turn social distancing into distant socializing
The vicissitudes of social distancing have taken many people by surprise, making video calls a new necessity for distant socializing. But which of the two dozen apps out there should you and your (per
Startups Weekly: #CodeCon, the ‘techlash’ and ill-prepared CEOs
In this week's newsletter: Epic Games throws a houseparty, CrowdStrike soars and a VR startup raises fresh funds.
Daily Crunch: Fortnite-maker acquires Houseparty
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe her
Fortnite maker Epic acquires social video app Houseparty
What does a gaming company do after raising $1.25 billion? Acquisitions seem like a pretty good place to start. Epic Games — of Unreal Engine and the ridiculously successful Fortnite phenomenon
Bunch scores $3.8M to turn mobile games into video chat LAN parties
The best parts of gaming are the jokes and trash talk with friends. Whether it was four-player Goldeneye or linking up PCs for Quake battles in the basement, the social element keeps video games excit
Instagram now lets you 4-way group video chat as you browse
Instagram’s latest assault on Snapchat, FaceTime and Houseparty launches today. TechCrunch scooped back in March that Instagram would launch video calling, and the feature was officially announced
Apple is adding group FaceTime video calls to iOS 12
Apple is adding the ability to FaceTime more people onto a video call, allowing up to 32 people to be on the call — and tapping an increasing interest in group video calling stemming from apps like
Snap introduces group video calls for up to 16 people
Snapchat has today introduced a new group video chat feature, letting users chat with up to 16 of their closest friends. If users need more people in the chat (which, for those of us who have large co