mobile apps
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Sequoia-backed startup Empower aims to replace your bank’s app
Empower, a startup looking to help millennials better manage their finances, is today launching its mobile app for iOS devices. The new application combines the ability to see an overview of your day-to-day transactions and spending behavior, with other tools to transfer money between accounts, automate your savings, and soon, pay bills and pay down your debt. The ultimate goal… Read More
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Yik Yak shuts down after Square paid $1 million for its engineers
Yik Yak co-founders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington published a farewell note to users on Friday, announcing they would shut down their once-popular anonymous social network this week. The app allowed people to connect with other users within a certain radius, and was widely marketed in and used on college campuses. Read More
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Figure 1, a knowledge-sharing app for doctors, launches sponsored content
Since its launch in 2013, Figure 1, a photo- and knowledge-sharing app for medical professionals, has focused on “traction” that is winning over new users and keeping them around. The app now boasts registered users in 190 countries, with three-quarters of U.S. med students using Figure 1. Today, the Toronto- and New York-based startup revealed how it has begun to generate revenue. Read More
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Tumblr launches Cabana, a new app for watching videos with friends
Tumblr today is launching a new app, called Cabana, which allows a group of friends to video chat and watch videos together, in real time. The app is being introduced under the Tumblr brand, and will cater to the type of users who frequent Tumblr’s blogging service – teens and young adults – but it’s not currently designed to interoperate with Tumblr’s product… Read More
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Twitter stops counting @ Replies towards its 140 characters on web and mobile
Nearly a year ago, Twitter announced it would begin distancing itself from the requirement that all tweets could only contain 140 characters by no longer counting some things – like media attachments or @ replies towards the character count. However, it didn’t begin testing the change with @ replies until last fall. Today, Twitter says this change to replies is rolling out to all… Read More
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JoyRun, a food delivery app with a twist, raises $8.5 million
A Santa Clara, Calif. startup called JoyRun has raised about $10 million in Series A and seed funding for its peer-to-peer food and drinks delivery app. It may be hard to believe that VCs are still putting money into food delivery concepts that don’t involve self-driving cars, robots or drones. What’s new about JoyRun is not so much technology as business model innovation. Read More
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Facebook tests an enhanced local search and discovery feature offering business suggestions
Facebook is testing an enhanced local search feature that could see the social network creeping in on Google Maps, Foursquare and Yelp territory, TechCrunch learned and Facebook confirmed. Facebook users are now able to surface recommendations of nearby places – like “dinner nearby” or “bars nearby,” for example – by entering a query in… Read More
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Fam raises $1.8 million for its iMessage-based group video chat app
The iMessage App Store may have its struggles, but one app aimed at bringing group video chat into the iMessage experience is reportedly taking off. Smack, the company behind the video chat app called Fam, has raised $1.8 million in funding for its Top 25 Social Networking app on the App Store that allows groups to chat with one another via iMessage with just a few taps. Read More
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McDonald’s begins testing Mobile Order & Pay ahead of nationwide launch
McDonald’s began testing mobile ordering and payments on Wednesday in select U.S. markets — the first to receive the technology as part of a pilot test aimed at working out the kinks ahead of a full rollout across the U.S. and to other international markets by year’s end. Read More
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Soon’s event-finding app is a social calendar for the mobile generation
Facebook’s Events feature is fairly good at recommending the sort of real-world meetups and activities you may be interested in, but there’s a whole host of other “events” you could be missing out on — like TV show premieres, live broadcasts, pre-orders for a hotly anticipated device, Twitch streams and more. A new app called Soon, from Lowercase Capital… Read More
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Walmart’s app will now let Pharmacy and Money Services customers skip the line
Walmart is today rolling out an updated app that will allow those visiting the store’s Pharmacy or Money Services desk to skip having to wait in line, the company says. After entering their personal information in the app, customers can order prescription refills or fill out other necessary paperwork from their phone. When they arrive at the store, they will then get in a… Read More
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YouTube Kids gets its own original shows
YouTube Kids, the app offering a curated selection of age-appropriate videos sourced from YouTube, is launching its own original programming, the company announced today. The four new shows are a part of the YouTube Red subscription service, and were created with the kids’ app in mind. This is also the first time that YouTube Red has invested in creators who are making original… Read More
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Starbucks unveils a virtual assistant that takes your order via messaging or voice
Starbucks is embracing the trend towards voice-based computing with the launch of a new feature in its mobile app called My Starbucks barista, which allows customers to order and pay for their food and drinks just by speaking. This includes being able to modify their drink order, as if they were speaking with a barista in real life. Additionally, the company is launching a skill for the… Read More
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Ludacris partnered with a startup founder to launch Slang N’ Friendz
Rapper and actor Ludacris has teamed up with startup founder Edwin Benton to launch Slang N’ Friendz, a mobile word game for iOS and Android. “I thought it was a perfect partnership just because hip hop is a genre that is known for creating slang and some of that slang even making it into the dictionary or having double entendres or things of that nature,” Christopher… Read More
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The new Google Voice launches, bringing a modern look, group chat, photo sharing & more
Confirming reports from earlier this month that a Google Voice update was in the works, Google today has launched a refreshed version of its VoIP calling service on mobile and the web. Largely, the update is about giving the product a more modern look-and-feel, after having not received a major upgrade in years. But the relaunch also includes a few new features, like support for… Read More
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Google for Android gets new feature to deal with inconsistent internet connections
As more of the world’s population comes online for the first time, so Google is focusing on making the web and its services more accessible. That means smaller sized apps for budget devices with limited space, and offline support to help deal with intermittent, spotty or weak internet connections. Read More
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Foursquare adds list search to make its app more useful, as Google prepares its rival
Google Maps is preparing to roll out a list-making feature that lets you star places, favorite places, and make bucket lists. That has led Foursquare to now respond by making its own lists feature more useful. The company announced this morning it’s introducing a new way to seek out lists on its app, through the launch of list search. This is a surprisingly late addition for the… Read More
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The mobile app gold rush may be over
Ten years ago, Apple announced the iPhone, which soon gave birth to the App Store and the resulting broader app ecosystem. That industry has now matured, having reached critical mass, according to a new report from Flurry out this morning. While there’s still some growth to be seen — app usage is up 11 percent over last year, for example — that growth is slowing. And many… Read More
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Microsoft launches StaffHub, a new Office 365 app aimed at shift workers
Microsoft today unveiled the newest addition to its Office 365 suite with the debut of an application for shift workers and management, called StaffHub. The program is aimed at those who don’t tend to work from desktop computers and have different schedules from week to week, such as in retail, hospitality, restaurants and other industries. The program was originally introduced in… Read More
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