This Week in Apps: Twitter Notes, Instagram age verification, Spotify’s Live Events

The latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy can be found in this week's This Week in Apps.

According to the latest year-end reports, the app industry has grown with a record number of downloads and consumer spending. $170 billion was spent on third-party app stores in China in the first half of the 21st century. Downloads of apps grew by 5% and mobile ad spend grew by 23%.

Consumers spend more time in apps than they ever have before, even topping the time they spend watching TV. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV a day, but they spend 4.1 hours on their mobile device. They are not the world's heavy mobile users. Users in countries like Brazil, Indonesia, and South Korea spent more than five hours per day on their mobile phones.

apps aren't just a way to pass time They can be big businesses. There were 233 apps and games that generated over 100 million dollars in consumer spend. The number of apps and games that topped 100 million dollars in annual consumer spend increased by 20% from 2020.

The latest news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps to try can be found in this week's This Week in Apps.

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Top Stories

This is an image on the social media site.

Video selfies, vouching from adult friends and providing an ID are some of the new features that are being tested. Users who try to change their age to 18 or over after being set to under 18 will be tested. The users may be trying to correct an earlier mistake or they may be teens trying to circumvent the app's age-appropriate restrictions.

Meta will keep an ID card on its server for 30 days before it is deleted. Users will need at least three other adult friends to vouch for their age if they choose the social vouching option. It is not possible for those users to vouch for others at the same time.

The company uses artificial intelligence to estimate users' ages in selfies. The London-based digital identify firm Yoti will examine the file, make an estimate, and then destroy it.

As a result of tighter regulations, age verification is more common in social apps. Yubo is another company that caters to Gen Z users.

Instagram tests new age verification tools, including video selfies

Twitter goes long form

The long form writing feature was being tested. After our report went live, they announced it officially.

One of the more significant changes since doubling the character count from 140 to 280 is that it will allow users to write directly on the micro-messaging service. Users can use rich formatting and uploaded media to create articles, which can be shared with followers upon publishing. The company said it would combine its newsletter service with the social networking site.

The "Write" link in the navigation allows users with access to create notes on the micro-blogging site. Notes is being tested by a small group of writers in the United States, Canada,Ghana, and the UK. The notes can be as long as 2500 words.

The feature could encourage users to use other methods to share their longer thoughts, ideas or stories with their followers, community or circle. It's possible that it will end the use of a screenshot from the Notes app to send a long message. The potential for viral distribution that comes with posting to the platform can be tapped by the notes. The Notes would have a link to their own website and could be used to send and receive messages. It is possible to be reported and to comply with the rules of the social network.

As it further develops the product, the company will have a new business as well as a revenue stream. The social platform might be able to compete with established services.

Twitter to expand into long-form content with upcoming Twitter Notes feature (Update: confirmed)

Weekly News

The image is from Shopify.

• As part of its ongoing efforts to expand into e-commerce, Twitter announced a new partnership with Shopify. The deal will see Twitter launching a sales channel app that will be made available to all of Shopify’s U.S. merchants through its app store. The app allows merchants to onboard themselves to Twitter’s Shopping Manager, the dashboard offered by the social media company where sellers can access product catalog tools and enable other shopping features for their profiles. Merchants will be able to use the new sales channel app to connect their Twitter account to their Shopify admin then get set up with Twitter’s Shopping Manager and other free tools Twitter built for “Professionals.” This includes Twitter’s launch of a new feature called Location Spotlight, which allows local businesses in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia to display information like their street address, contact info and operating hours directly on their profile.

Twitter partners with Shopify to bring merchants’ products to Twitter Shopping

Augmented Reality

• Walmart gave its app an AR upgrade with the launch of View in Your Space, which allows customers to see home décor and furniture in their own homes. The feature will be rolled out to over 300 items on Walmart’s iOS app by early July.
• Tim Cook may have hinted at Apple’s AR headset plans when he told a Chinese state-run news outlet to “stay tuned” to see what Apple had in store next for AR in an interview. A later investor note by Ming-Chi Kuo also suggested the new hardware could arrive as soon as early 2023.
• IKEA launched a new in-app design experience, called IKEA Kreativ, that lets U.S. shoppers visualize furniture in their own spaces using AR and AI. The feature can also remove the existing furniture from your room so you can better imagine the changes.
• Snap shared some data about AR shopping trends, noting that there was a 32% increased use of shoppable AR during the pandemic and that 69% of consumers believed AR was a part of shopping’s future.

Fintech

• Coinbase is shutting down its standalone Pro service by year’s end and replacing it with Advanced Trade across its website and app. The latter offers comparable features to the Pro service, which had lowered fees to traders who interacted directly with the Coinbase Exchange order book.
• Facebook Pay formally rebranded to Meta Pay. The change had already been announced but is now rolling out in the U.S. before expanding globally.

Social

The image was posted on the social media site.

• Snapchat announced its first accelerator program for emerging Black creators, which will see 25 selected participants receive $10,000 per month to launch their careers across a total $3 million investment.
• Instagram has been experimenting with a new feature that would allow users to leave notes for their friends at the top of the DM inbox. The feature could help users share urgent or more important messages that could be overlooked in Stories or in messages.
• Meta announced more ways for creators to make money on Facebook and Instagram and the expansion of other monetization tools to more creators. The company will keep paid online events, fan subscriptions, badges and its upcoming independent news products free for creators until 2024, instead of 2023, as it had said before. Meta is also testing a designated place on Instagram where creators can get discovered by brands for partnerships; will launch a way for users to subscribe to Facebook Groups even for those who have paid for access on another platform; and is expanding the Reels Play Bonus program to more creators and making Facebook Stars available to all.
• Twitter announced the return of its developer conference, Chirp. The event was first held in 2010 but was then canceled the next year. At the time, the event had been a reflection of Twitter’s attitude toward its developer community in general — disorganized and constantly in flux as the company’s business initiatives changed. Times have since changed and Twitter has been trying to woo back developers with its new API, even by promoting some apps on Twitter itself.

Twitter is bringing back its long-lost Chirp Developer Conference in November

Messaging

• Telegram said it now has over 700 monthly active users and announced Telegram Premium, a subscription that gives users access to exclusive features like doubled limits, 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, improved chat management and more.

Photos

• Camera+, an alternative to Apple’s built-in app, added a new “UltraRes upscaling” feature. With machine learning technology, the app can upscale images to up to four times what the native sensor can capture.

Dating

• Match-owned Hinge added a new feature that allows users to share their “Dating Intentions” — meaning whether they’re looking for long-term, short-term, open relationships and more. The update changes Hinge’s focus as the company has historically been the app designed to connect people looking for more serious relationships, while Match-owned Tinder was aimed at those seeking casual encounters.

Streaming & Entertainment

The image is from the streaming service.

• Spotify revamped its concert discovery feature with the launch of a new Live Events Feed. The personalized feature will allow users to find favorite artists’ events in your area and will now include artist imagery and more tour details. Local events will also be highlighted while streaming and soon, in other places in the Spotify app.
• Clubhouse is testing a new feature called Houses, per Bloomberg, which are private rooms aimed at encouraging social interactions where anyone can unmute themselves and speak.
• Reddit Talk, the company’s live audio Clubhouse-like feature, announced its Host program would launch on July 11th. The program will promote hosts’ audio across the site. Reddit Talk also gained new features like a soundboard and topic selector for discovery purposes.
• Apple Music raised the price of its student plan in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. In the United States and Canada, the price for the plan has increased from $4.99 to $5.99. In the United Kingdom, the price has increased from £4.99 to £5.99.

Gaming

• Epic Games has come up with a new system for game ratings. While these changes apply to its own online games store, it’s an example of why alternative app stores could be useful to provide competition with Apple’s own — they can be a ground to test out new ideas. In Epic’s case, random players who have played a game for over two hours will be asked to rate the game on a five-point scale. Over time, these will create the game’s Overall Rating. The system, which relies on random sampling, could cut down on review bombing and reviews left by those who aren’t actual players, the company notes.
• China’s regulation of the mobile gaming market may be leading to declining use of the App Store in the country, according to Morgan Stanley. The firm’s latest analysis estimated that the App Store only saw 1% growth in June so far, compared with 6% growth in May.

Health & Fitness

• Fitbit added a new premium feature, “Sleep Profile,” which will allow users to track their sleep patterns across 10 key metrics, including new data points like bedtime consistency, the time before sound sleep and disrupted sleep. The feature is rolling out to the Fitbit app’s Premium users and supports devices including Sense, Versa 3, Versa 2, Charge 5, Luxe or Inspire 2.

Travel & Transportation

• Apple is planning to expand its CarPlay experience to China, according to a job posting.
• Polestar has now added Apple CarPlay to its all-electric Polestar 2 sedan via an over-the-air software update, after previously only supporting Android Auto.
• Car rental apps saw their MAUs grow 19% year-over-year in the U.S. in May, reported Apptopia, despite rising gas prices.

The image is called Apptopia.

Government & Policy

• TikTok offered a series of commitments in the EU to improve user reporting and disclosure requirements around ads/sponsored content as well as an agreement to boost transparency around its digital coins and virtual gifts. The agreement follows a series of complaints over child safety and consumer protection complaints filed back in February 2021.
• The U.S. Department of Justice today entered into an agreement with Meta to resolve a lawsuit that alleged Meta engaged in discriminatory advertising in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). As a result, Meta has agreed to develop a new system for housing ads and will pay a roughly $115,000 penalty, the maximum under the FHA.

Reading & News

• India-based VerSe Innovation rolled out its news aggregator Dailyhunt in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, with over 5,000 content partners in the region.

Security & Privacy

• Google Chrome for iOS gained a number of new features in a recent update, including access to Enhanced Safe Browsing to protect users from dangerous websites and malware, as well as the ability to make Google Password Manager your Autofill provider. Other additions include Chrome Actions (typed commands in the URL bar) and access to Google’s Discover feed on the main page.
• Daycare apps including those from Brightwheel, HiMama and others were found to lack 2FA and other privacy protections, in an analysis.
• Google threat researchers detailed a commercial spyware system called Hermit, used in Kazakhstan and Italy, which targeted both Android and iOS. The iOS version had six exploits, including two zero-days. Targeted victims are tricked into installing a malicious app — which masquerades as a legitimate branded telco or messaging app — from outside the app store.

Google is notifying Android users targeted by Hermit government-grade spyware

Funding and M&A

The Series B funding round was led by GV. notifications can be sent across multiple channels, including email, text, web and mobile, with the company's application programming interface.

Israel-based private equity fund Fortissimo Capital led a $30 million Series A round of equity investment and debt funding for theGhana-based tech company. The equity investment raised so far is $38 million. The startup says it will enter Uganda later this year.

The shareholders were asked to approve the deal. A $44 billion deal looks very good because the company's market cap has dropped below $30 billion.

Downloads

The image is from watchtube

This week, 9to5Mac highlighted the new app WatchTube, which allows you to view videos on your Apple Watch. Really?

The app isn't the best for watching videos, but it does work. You can change the genre of the videos that appear in the app so that they are more in line with your interests. The developer added other features such as the ability to search for videos, save videos to the app's local library, and subscribe to channels, in addition to bringing YouTube to the watch. When you return to your other devices, you can use a QR code to send the video back to your device.