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Florence invites you into an interactive graphic novel about finding love (and losing it)
The latest game from Monument Valley designer Ken Wong doesn’t have much in common with the brilliant pastel puzzler, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth experiencing. Florence, available now in the App Store, isn’t really a game so much as a graphic novel strewn with a few interactive moments, kind of like quicktime events…
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Facebook’s child-friendly texting app Messenger Kids arrives on Android
Facebook’s controversial app Messenger Kids, which lets parents control who kids can talk to, is today rolling out to Android devices in the U.S. with its launch on Google Play. The app will also now include a variety of new features for Valentine’s Day, like themed masks, stickers and frames, so kids can send special…
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Snapchat finally gives creators analytics
Snapchat has always been terrible at analytics, only showing daily Story view counts that content creators had to screenshot just before they disappeared every 24 hours in order to prove their worth to sponsors. But starting today, tens of thousands creators who make official Stories or have large followings will start seeing a slew of…
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Tinder to adopt Bumble’s ‘ladies first’ feature in a future update
Tinder will make a change to its dating app in an upcoming update that will allow women to message first, according to a report from MarketWatch this morning, which TechCrunch has also confirmed. The new option will allow women to choose when to start a conversation, but it will not be the default setting as…
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iHeartUs helps couples grow their relationship
Today’s Valentines Day, and while it’s certainly the quintessential consumer-driven holiday, it’s also a day where many couples take stock of their relationship. iHeartUs, a new app for couples, is launching today to help those couples keep and grow their relationships. Using a proprietary ‘love language’ algorithm, iHeartUs offers personalized recommendations for date ideas, gifts,…
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Varsity Tutors lands $50 million in Series C funding
Varsity Tutors, the learning platform founded in 2011, today announced the close of a $50 million Series C funding round led by Learn Capital. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and existing investor TCV also participated in the round. Varsity Tutors started as an offline service, connecting the best tutors on campus with those who needed help…
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Overtime gets $9.5M to build a new style of sports network that young people will actually watch
ESPN may be going from a sure-fire cable bounty to something that needs a little more flexibility in a cord-cutting era — like launching a new streaming service in 2018. But an even more troublesome trend may be emerging among younger sports fans, according to Overtime CEO Dan Porter: they just aren’t getting the content the way…
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Adikteev raises $12 million for its mobile marketing platform
French startup Adikteev raised a $12 million funding round led by Ring Capital and BNP Paribas Développement, with existing investors ISAI, Ventech and Laurent Asscher also participating. It’s also worth noting that it represents Ring Capital’s first investment after raising its initial $170 million fund. Adikteev is an adtech startup that previously acquired Motion Lead,…
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A Google R&D team wants to bring Smart Reply to all your chat apps
Smart Reply, the clever A.I.-powered technology that automatically creates responses to your inbound messages, first debuted in Google’s email client Inbox over two years ago, before later rolling out to Gmail, Android Messages on Project Fi, and Allo. Now, a team inside Google’s internal incubator Area 120 is working to bring the Smart Reply feature to…
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Why Google Stories will save, not screw, Snapchat Discover
Snapchat has a new ally or enemy depending on how you look at Google’s new mobile magazine format, but the social app is welcoming the search giant. Google’s clone of Snapchat Discover, called AMP Stories, officially launched today, allowing news outlets to create photo/video slideshows that appear in mobile search results and on their site. …