Mobile

The app economy will again set new records in 2021. According to a review of the global app ecosystem in 2021 by Sensor Tower, released today, first-time app installs grew to 143.6 billion during the year, a half percentage point higher than 2020, but consumer spending in apps is up a much larger 19.7% year-over-year

TikTok has launched a new app for its seller community taking advantage of its suite of TikTok Shopping features, but the app is only available in Indonesia at present. TikTok Seller, as the app is called, allows TikTok’s seller community to run all aspects of their TikTok shop from their mobile device, from initially registering

Apple today released its anticipated annual list of the best apps and games of the year across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch. This year, children’s app maker Toca Boca won iPhone App of the Year for “Toca Life World,” and Riot Games’ “League of Legends: Wild Rift” was the iPhone Game of

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. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes

The holiday shopping season kicked off last week with some lackluster results, but employers are still in dire need of workers. The tight labor market, driven in part by “The Great Resignation,” is highlighting the need for more tech-enabled tools for connecting employers with available workers. Shiftsmart, a New York-based labor management resource, is the

SoftBank-based digital creation platform Picsart, which recently hit uniciorn status, announced today it’s acquiring the research and development company DeepCraft. The deal is a combination of both cash and stock and is in the seven-figure range, but the exact terms aren’t being disclosed. Picsart today offers a range of digital creation and editing tools aimed

Spotify’s anticipated year-end retrospective, Spotify Wrapped, is rolling out today to consumers, artists and podcast creators. The experience offers Spotify users a look back at their year on Spotify, highlighting listening trends across both music and podcasts. Artists and creators, meanwhile, can check in on all the ways their fans listened. This year, Wrapped has

Well, so much for a relaxed post-holiday week on Monday. News broke this morning that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down from the company entirely. The company’s CTO, Parag Agrawal, will be taking over at the helm. Saleforce exec Bret Taylor will take over as board chairman. So, Amanda and Natasha and Alex jumped

A number of startups are experimenting with what a better social app could look like. For a startup called Alms, the answer is a social network that focuses on users’ well-being through participation in creator-led challenges in areas like personal growth, sustainability, and others with positive impacts. Instead of driving the collection “likes,” as on

As more of the world shifts to doing everything from their smartphones, the ability to build better iOS and Android apps has to move with it. Bitrise aims to be the go-to company closing the gap between that mobile demand and a company’s ability to get apps out faster while also balancing all of the

Looking for the soundtrack from your favorite Netflix show? Now, it will be easier to find thanks to an expanded partnership between Netflix and Spotify. The streaming music service today introduced a new “Netflix Hub” on its app, which will offer a centralized place for finding the official soundtracks, playlists, and podcasts for top shows

“Buy now, pay later” company Afterpay announced Wednesday that it was going after the $1.5 trillion global subscription payments market by offering to its U.S. customers payment installments for subscriptions, like gym memberships, entertainment subscriptions and online services. The service will launch in both the U.S. and Australia beginning early in 2022 and will be

Fairphone, the Dutch social enterprise dedicated to making consumer electronics (more) sustainable and ethical, including by supporting repairability so that users can hold onto their hardware for longer, has announced public testing of Android 10 for the six-year-old Fairphone 2. Owners of the modular handset that was first released back in 2015, running Android 5,

TikTok has seen its short-form video feed copied by a host of competitors, from Instagram to Snap to YouTube and even Netflix. Now it looks like you can add Spotify to that list. The company has confirmed it’s currently testing a new feature in its app, Discover, which presents a vertical feed of music videos

Earlier this month, Netflix’s new gaming service became globally available across both iOS and Android with a debut lineup that included two “Stranger Things”-themed games and a few more casual gaming titles. In the days since its launch, Netflix has expanded its lineup with two more games, including another casual game “Bowling Ballers,” and now,

Twitter’s e-commerce initiatives now include livestream shopping and Walmart will be the first retailer to test the new platform. Over the past year, Walmart has invested in live shopping by hosting events across social platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and soon it will debut Twitter’s first-ever shoppable livestream. On November 28, Walmart will kick off

After years of ignoring consumer demand for in-app lyrics, particularly in the U.S., Spotify announced today it will make a new Lyrics feature available to all global users, both Free and Premium, across platforms. The feature is powered by lyrics provider Musixmatch, and expands on a prior deal Spotify had with the company to offer

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. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spending in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes

Looking for a new apartment is either a leisurely thing to do or something that has to take place quite quickly. When you don’t reach anyone in the leasing office, you often move on to the next one on the list, even if it was one you would have considered. Zuma wants to ensure that

Short-form video apps have seen major successes, like TikTok, as well as dramatic failures, like Quibi. Now, a new app called Snax wants to offer a twist on the popular vertical video format by giving users a way to not just watch mini-movies on their mobile devices, but also interact with them. The subscription streaming

Waldo, a photo-sharing platform that has historically targeted businesses, schools, camps, sports leagues, and other organizations, is capitalizing on the growing anti-Facebook sentiment to promote its newly launched consumer product. The company today is introducing a service aimed at private photo-sharing among family and friends which it’s promoting as an “ad-free, non-toxic” and private alternative

Runway, a startup that emerged from the challenges that faced Rent the Runway’s first iOS team, is now exiting beta and launching its service that simplifies the mobile app release cycle — or, as the team describes it, offers “air traffic control” for mobile releases. The company has additionally raised a $2 million round of

Earlier this year, Netflix launched a TikTok-like “Fast Laughs” feature in its app, offering short-form funny videos that would introduce members to its comedy programs, stand-up specials and more. Now, the company is developing a similar feature for kids with a Kids Clips feature discovered inside the app and confirmed by Netflix as launching this

For many small businesses, trying to manage their employees’ Apple devices and keep them up-to-date is a huge challenge. These businesses tend to lack sophisticated IT departments, and when devices break down or users have questions, they are often left to figure out things on their own using Apple’s consumer support tools. Recognizing this issue,

Nestled in Rivian’s S-1 IPO filings was a note that there the EV company’s “cornerstone investors” had “indicated an interest” in buying up to $5 billion worth of its stock at its IPO price. One of those parties was Amazon, and the American e-commerce giant appears to have pulled the trigger Friday afternoon on its

In an effort to expand beyond music, Spotify has been investing hundreds of millions to build out its podcasts business. Now the company has set its sights on another form of audio, with today’s acquisition of digital audiobook distributor Findaway. Spotify declined to share the financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close

Instagram really wants you to post Reels — they’ll even pay you up to $10,000 for one, if you’re lucky. As TikTok surpasses the 1 billion monthly active users mark, competitor platforms like YouTube Shorts, Snapchat Spotlight and Instagram Reels are incentivizing users to post their short-form content on their apps instead. YouTube established a

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today the comapny has begun testing a new feature this week called “Take a Break” which will allow users to remind themselves to take a break from using the app after either 10, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on their preferences. As an opt-in feature, however, the reminders may have

Last week, Netflix launched its debut lineup of mobile games to Android users globally. Today, the games are expanding to users on iOS. The lineup, which includes two “Stranger Things” games and a few other casual gaming titles, will be delivered to iOS users the same way they are on Android. That is, they’re not

Internet-based sexual exploitation of minors in Kenya was found to be more rampant on Facebook than on any other site, according to the newly released Disrupting Harm report – making the tech giant’s platform exceedingly unsafe for children. The report by Interpol, UNICEF’s Office of Research – Innocenti and End Violence against Children, found that