-
YouTube’s mobile app gets a dark mode
YouTube’s mobile app is getting a dark mode. The company announced this morning its dark theme, first introduced on its desktop site last year, is launching today on the YouTube iOS app and arriving soon after on Android. With the setting enabled, YouTube’s background turns from white to black throughout the YouTube experience as you…
-
France takes legal action against Apple and Google for their app stores
France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire criticized Apple and Google for the way they run the App Store and Play Store. According to him, Google and Apple have too much power against app developers. Le Maire will ask a court to look at it and fine tech giants if necessary. “When developers want to develop…
-
Facebook launches Express Wi-Fi app for its local-operated hotspots
Facebook wants you to pay for internet. This week TechCrunch was tipped off that Facebook had quietly launched an Express Wi-Fi Android app in the Google Play store that lets users buy data packs and find nearby hotspots as part of Facebook’s distributed Wi-Fi network. The company’s Express Wi-Fi program is live in five developing countries…
-
Zoosk relaunches dating app Lively as a way to meet new people while playing trivia games
Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of trivia applications like HQ Trivia, dating app maker Zoosk has just released an experimental app that combines trivia with the potential for meeting someone new. The app is a relaunch and complete makeover of Zoosk’s Lively, which first debuted in July 2016 as a dating app that used…
-
Wayfair’s Android app now lets you shop for furniture using augmented reality
AR-enabled shopping is expanding again today. This time, online furniture retailer Wayfair is introducing an augmented reality feature in its mobile app for Android that will allow customers to visualize furniture in their own home ahead of purchase, just by holding up their smartphone. The feature, called “View in Room 3D,” was previously available on…
-
Google’s simple new app lets you draw white lines
Today, a bunch of app developers showed off their latest AR apps for Google’s augmented reality platform, but Google didn’t stay too still either. The team at Google released what could be one of its simplest apps ever. It’s called an “experiment,” and with good reason — it’s literally just an app for drawing white…
-
Telegram chalks up 200M MAUs for its messaging app
Another usage milestone for messaging platform Telegram: It’s announced passing 200M monthly active users “within the last 30 days”. The platform passed 100M MAUs back in February 2016, when it held a lavish party at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona to celebrate the metric. At the time it said it was adding 350k new…
-
YouTube just became the Top Grossing iPhone app for the first time
YouTube just became the Top Grossing iPhone app in the U.S. for the first time on Tuesday, after flirting with the top spot a number of times over the years, but never reaching higher than No. 3. The milestone was first spotted by the app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which notes that the U.S.…
-
Amazon adds fingerprint authentication to Key app for Android
Building technology is all about learning as you go. Amazon knows this, and has today added fingerprint ID to the new Amazon Key app, which enables in-home delivery of goods. The Key app was announced in October, alongside the Cloud Cam, which lets users watch goings on in their homes as delivery professionals come in…
-
Even with double the subscribers, Spotify says Apple will always have some edge owning the app store
Spotify just filed for a direct listing in the U.S., sidestepping the traditional IPO process, and now we’re starting to see some of the true financial guts of the company — and some of the significant risks it faces from challenging services from Apple and Google. Apple, for example, charges apps a percentage of revenue…