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

In the first half of the year, global app spending was $65 billion, up slightly from the $64.4 billion in the same period in the previous year. According to multiple year-end reports, the app economy is continuing to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the Apple and Google Play stores. Consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps and global spending was $133 billion.

The latest from the world of apps can be found in this week's edition of This Week in Apps.

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Top Stories

App Store icon on iPhone screen

This image was taken at TechCrunch.

Apple is trying to open up its platforms to allow support for third-party app stores in the EU in order to comply with the Digital Markets Act, which is due to take effect in 2024, according to a report. EU regulators want to level the playing field for app developers and improve the consumer experience, and they believe forcing Apple to compete on merit with other app stores is one way to do it Apple has long argued that third-party stores introduce too much risk to consumers in terms of safety, security and privacy. Apple handles payment processing for the apps it sells on its own store. App makers can't track users with the new App Tracking transparency protections.

Apple is trying to become a bigger competitor in the ads business by focusing on privacy. Some of Apple's protection doesn't apply to its own apps. Many would argue that it seems like an imbalance to charge apps that compete with Apple's own services a commission on their businesses, the way it charges Spotify when it runs Apple Music, or how it charges streaming apps commission when it runs Apple TV+. Apple continues to expand into new app markets, with subscription services like Apple Fitness+, cloud storage through iCloud, and news reading and magazines with News+.

Apple will reportedly allow sideloading apps with iOS 17

App developers feel that Apple's 30% price for discovery, distribution and security is too high. Larger companies are more likely to market, distribute and sell their own apps. The anti-trust issues that Apple is being sued over are currently under appeal. It wants to be able to sell its apps directly to consumers.

Even if the EU force platforms to open up to more competition, it is possible Apple could adjust its policies to apply a commission structure to the third-party apps and app distribution systems.

The problem has been allowed to get this far by Apple. In an effort to appease regulators and lawmakers, the company has cut back on commission for a number of apps. Apple may have made a mistake by not just cutting commission across the board to appease the developer backlash. The downfall of Apple may be its greed as it will now be up to regulators to set the terms.

Lensa drives more AI art apps to top of App Store

The image is from amockup by TechCrunch.

There has been a noticeable impact on the App Store's Top Charts this week. The photo and video editing app has a new feature that allows users to turn their selfies into styled portraits of themselves as sci-fi or fantasy characters. Consumer demand for the app, and for AI edits more broadly, pushed numerous other "ai" apps into the U.S. App Store's top charts. The top three spots on the U.S. App Store were all held by artificial intelligence photo editors.

In the first 11 days of December, the app had over 12 million global installs, up 600% from the 1.8 million installs it had in the same period in November. Estimates show that the U.S. accounted for 3.6 million of the new installs.

More artificial intelligence apps have climbed the charts. Eight of the top 100 apps by downloads on the U.S. App Store were artificial intelligence art apps, according to data.

The No.2 and No.3 apps were included. During the month of December, the former saw 1.7 million global installs, up 229% from the 71,000 it saw during the month of November. Dawn saw 1.7 million installs, up from the 28,000 it saw in late November.

There were more than one app in the Top Charts, including Wonder and Voi. In the Graphics & Design category, you can find Profile Artificial Intelligence:Avatar Creator, Dream by Wombo, and Inspire.

It's clear that developers learned to exploit consumer demand for artificial intelligence by stuffing their app names and descriptions with terms like "ai" and "avatar"

Some people are worried about the ethics of using artificial intelligence.

The Stable Diffusion model is controversial for how it uses images from artists without their permission. It was found that Lensa was tricked into making pornography. According to MIT Technology Review, Lensa created topless images and skimpy and sexualized avatars when tried by a female reporter who was of Asian heritage.

Instagram weighs taking on Twitter with text-based “Notes”

Instagram now supports text updates, as shown on a phone screen

This is an image on the social media site.

A number of new features have been introduced to make it easier for users to keep up with their real world friends. The new products include Notes, a feature that Meta had considered turning into a competitor to the popular micro-messaging service. Adding a different format for social updates beyond the images and videos is possible with Notes.

The idea of leaving text notes for others to read is similar to the idea of hand-picking people who can read your posts. Users can leave notes by going to the top of their inbox and selecting the followers they follow from their existing list. They will type out the note in 60 characters or less. For 24 hours, the note will appear at the top of friends' inboxes, and replies will be sent as Direct Messages.

Meta had considered making Notes a more direct competitor to the social networking site. The New York Times reported that Meta considered making Notes its own feed in the app. The product that the company is launching has been in testing for a while. It's too bad.

Developer News

Here are the top features of Apple’s iOS 16.2 update

  • iOS 16.2 is also bringing a mystery AirTag firmware update. No one knows what it does yet.
  • Apple also released the first betas for iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3 and macOS Ventura 13.2.
  • Android 13 for TV has shipped.
  • Compose for Wear OS 1.1 is now stable. 
  • Android 13 QPR2 Beta 1 is now available. The Android 13 Beta is continuing with the next round of updates for its March 2023 release. These Quarterly Platform Releases are delivered to Pixel phones as Feature Drops.
  • Android 13 is now hitting Sony smartphones, according to user reports, including the Xperia 1 IV, the Xperia 5 IV, the Xperia 1 III, the Xperia 5 III and the Xperia Pro-I.
  • Google completed the rollout of the Matter smart home standard to Android and Nest. Apple and Samsung have already rolled out Matter support, and Amazon will support Matter by end of 2022.

The image is called flipboard.

  • Flipboard is capitalizing on Twitter’s chaos. The social magazine app will now allow its magazine curators to start discussions with readers through a new Notes feature, where they can write posts, share images and links, ask questions and more.
  • Twitter re-launched its subscription service Twitter Blue with different price points for those who subscribe on iOS and those who subscribe on the web. The new subscription will provide the verified checkmark and reduce ads, among other things, but will now have increased protections to prevent spam and impersonation, the company claims. Blue for Business will give businesses on Twitter gold checks instead of blue. (That’s right — Blue will give out gold checks, too. Did anyone think through the branding here?!)
  • Twitter made its community fact-checks visible to worldwide users. (The Community Notes feature was previously called Birdwatch.)
  • Meanwhile, Twitter shut down its newsletter platform Revue, shortly after former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey used it to write a post about the Twitter Files, warning against attacks on Twitter’s staff. He also touched on decentralization and his own effort in that space, Bluesky.
  • Elon Musk suspended a Twitter bot that tracked his jet’s coming and going. For, you know, reasons. After issuing his new jet-tracking-inspired anti-doxing policy, Twitter then begin banning prominent journalists without warning, including those who tweeted about Musk’s decision to also ban Mastodon’s account. Some of the suspended journalists had posted images of the tweet that got the Mastodon account banned — a post that pointed to the bot (ElonJet)’s account on Mastodon.

Twitter suspends Mastodon’s account and bans links to Mastodon servers

  • TikTok goes horizontal. The company confirmed it’s testing a horizontal full-screen mode which makes the app more competitive with YouTube.
TikTok's new full screen mode

This image is from a Screenshot/TechCrunch.

  • Microsoft is shutting down its Authenticator app for Apple Watch users in January 2023.
  • A little-known phone monitoring app called Xnspy has stolen data from tens of thousands of devices, TechCrunch reported.
  • A nifty media organizer app, Sofa, was updated with new features like shared lists, Lock Screen widgets, support for Shortcuts and more.
  • Game maker Playtika has laid off 610 employees and is shutting down three titles — MergeStories, DiceLife and Ghost Detective.
  • Netflix launched two more games, this time with top game publisher Annapurna Interactive. One is Kentucky Route Zero, developed by Cardboard Computer and published by Annapurna Interactive. The other is Twelve Minutes, developed by 24 Bit Games. The company also said it’s developing a new game based on its historical drama “Vikings: Valhalla.”

Netflix rolls out two more mobile games, will release a Vikings: Valhalla game next year

  • Spotify is scaling back its live audio plans. As the Clubhouse frenzy wears off, Spotify is ending several of its live shows, including “Deux Me After Dark,” “Doughboys: Snack Pack,” “The Movie Buff” and “A Gay in the Life.”
  • Tinder launched “Relationship Goals,” similar to sister app Hinge, which allows daters to more specifically say what they’re looking for.
  • YouTube will now notify users whose abusive comments are removed for violating the rules, and will then ban the user from posting for 24 hours if they continue to leave abusive comments.
  • Instagram launched a new hub to help users who suspect their accounts have been hacked, or who can otherwise not log in due to more common problems like a lost password or lost access to two-factor authentication.
  • PayPal and MetaMask teamed up. MetaMask said it’s adding an integration in its crypto wallet that will allow users to buy cryptocurrencies using their PayPal account.

Government, Policy and Lawsuits

  • A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill that would ban any social media company, including TikTok in — or under the influence of — China or Russia or other U.S. adversaries.
  • Triller responded to the Sony Music lawsuit over its unpaid licensing fees, confirming it has been unable to issue payments for a “range of reasons,” but did not disclose what they were.
  • An advisor to France’s privacy authority (The Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, or CNIL) recommended fining Apple €6 million, saying iOS 14 didn’t meet EU privacy requirements. The issue at hand is that Apple didn’t extend the same tracking protections offered to users (like ATT) to its own first-party apps.
  • Twitter’s lead privacy regulator in the EU, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), is reviewing Twitter’s plan to force personalized ads on users unless they pay for a Twitter Blue subscription allowing them to opt-out of ads.
  • The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, after 13 states imposed similar bans due to security concerns over use of the app.

The image is called Trendio.

A former Amazon Prime Video executive co-founded the video shopping app Trendio. The app offers easy ways to purchase beauty products through live and recorded videos from creators, as well as personalized content. Coola and Avene are supported brands.

The startup was co-founded by the former vice president of Prime Video U.S. and head of Beauty at CVS. Also on the team are Julie Novak and a former head of Make-up category management. The full review can be found here.