This Week in Apps: Facebook Reels goes global, Trump’s own social app arrives, all eyes on TikTok

This Week in Apps recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

According to the latest year-end reports, the app industry has continued to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the Apple and Google Play stores. App Annie says global spending on third-party app stores in China grew 19% in 2021, reaching $170 billion. Downloads of apps grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year-over-year to reach $295 billion.

Consumers are spending more time in apps than ever before, even topping the time they spend watching TV in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, but they spend 4.1 hours on their mobile device in the year 2021. They are not the world's heaviest mobile users. Users in markets like Brazil, Indonesia, and South Korea spent more than five hours per day on their mobile phones.

It's not just a way to pass time. They can become big businesses. In the year of 2021, 233 apps and games generated over $100 million in consumer spend and 13 topped $1 billion in revenue. This was up 20% from 2020 when only eight apps topped $1 billion.

This Week in Apps gives a place to keep up with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try.

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Top Stories

The world is horrified by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Many people are watching the conflict unfold in real time on TikTok, which has found itself squarely in the middle of the international conversation as a source for firsthand information from the region. In a number of cases, misinformation.

There is something unique about TikTok's window into the world and it isn't a new phenomenon. The juxtaposition of war footage with videos of cooking, fashion, dance and humor is a reminder of what life is supposed to be like. It is possible that a short scroll back through the profiles of the creators-turned-citizen journalists shows that they were uploading everyday content, including scenes from their lives with family and friends. Maybe it's the fact that TikTok creators have always come across as more authentic than those on social media, where they are more polished and perfect.

The video platform has been providing military intelligence with its videos of weaponry, planes, vehicles, rockets, soldier movements, protests and more, captured in short clips by everyday citizens. Young adults went live from underground train stations which have turned into bomb shelters, while a man walking his dog was filmed as a missile launchers passed by. And so on.

TikTok's advanced algorithm is involved in getting this footage seen. The more coverage you get on TikTok, the more you will get on your For You page. It remains to be seen how or if TikTok will moderate, elevate or suppress any of this content, but for the time being, it's all relatively easy to find.

Trump’s social app debuts

The image is from TRUTH Social.

According to Sensor Tower data, the TRUTH Social app gained over 400,000 downloads by the end of the week. It's difficult to determine if those figures represent true consumer demand, for example, if media reporting on the launch was related to curiosity seekers or Trump die-hards.

Many people who wanted to engage with the service received error messages when trying to create an account, and others were placed on a waiting list. Some people reported that they never received their email verifications and that they couldn't move past the verification step. It was a rocky launch. Without immediately gaining access, some of the more casual early adopters may not quickly return, even though TRUTH Social is still an app. Almost 25% of users will only open an app once.

Trump’s TRUTH Social launches at the top of the App Store, but no one can get in

It is possible that TRUTH Social has a verified Trump account, but it is not the only place for conservatives to gather.

TRUTH Social could end up being an echo chamber for the right, which could limit its appeal to a mainstream audience who would rather hear from both sides on a given topic. The main goal of the app is to stoke fires within Trump's base.

Facebook Reels rolls out worldwide

Meta is the image credit.

This week, Facebook Reels became available in more than 150 countries after being publicly launched in the U.S. The feature allows creators to share short-form video content on Facebook or cross-post it to other platforms in order to reach a broader audience. Facebook introduced more creative tools after the global roll out. New ways for creators to make money from their Reels through advertising and virtual tipping were detailed.

The company said it is expanding the tests of Facebook Reels to all Reels creators in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The test will be expanded to nearly all the countries where in-stream ads are already available. These new ads are not interruptive and sit on top of the playing content instead of pausing the video to show them. Banner ads are placed at the bottom of a reel, while stickers are static images that can be placed anywhere within the reel. Half of the ad revenue is retained by the creators. The ability to monetize a following could encourage creators to at least keep Facebook in the mix when considering publishing destinations, but it may not be enough to oust TikTok from its current top spot.

Top subscription app revenue grew 41% in 2021

The image is from Sensor Tower.

The top 100 non-game, subscription-based apps saw their consumer spend increase from $13 billion in 2020 to $18.3 billion in 2021, according to a new report from Sensor Tower. This is just a small portion of the total revenue from in-app purchases across both apps and games, which totaled $131.6 billion in 2011. This group's portion of the market is growing. For comparison, in 2020 subscription revenue in non-game apps represented just 11.7% of the total consumer spend.

The data showed that the U.S. figures were in line with global trends. The top 100 non-game subscription apps were spent $8.5 billion in the US last year, up from $5.9 billion in 2020 and more than double the rise seen the year prior. U.S. consumers spent over 40 billion dollars on in-app purchases.

App store revenue has become dominated by subscriptions. In the fourth quarter, 90 of the top 100 apps included a subscription. This figure is down from the previous two quarters, the 92 in Q4 2020 and the 93 in Q4 2019.

Weekly News

• Apple’s iOS 15.4 beta 4 adds a number of new features, including, most notably, the recently announced anti-stalking alerts for AirTag and a new gender-neutral voice option for Siri.
• Apple hasn’t changed its in-app purchase policies to allow third-party payments outside of a couple of markets with specific new regulations, but Paddle is touting how it signed up 1,500 developers who are interested in adopting its alternative payments system if it’s ever allowed.

Siri gains a new gender-neutral voice option in latest iOS update

• Etsy delivered a beat for its Q4 2021 earnings, with $1.11 EPS versus 79 cents expected, and $717 million in revenue, versus $685 million expected. The e-commerce company now has 96.3 million active buyers, also higher than expectations. However, there’s bad news for sellers, who will see transaction fees increase from 5% to 6.5% starting on April 11.

• Coinbase beat on revenue in its Q4 2021 earnings, bringing in $2.5 billion, versus $1.94 billion expected. It also saw EPS of $3.32 versus $1.85 expected. But the stock dropped as much as 9% after the company announced Q1 would see a “decline in crypto asset volatility and crypto asset prices,” which would impact retail monthly transacting users (MTUs) and total trading volume.
• Block reported $1.96 billion in bitcoin sales via its Cash App during its Q4 2021, which delivered $46 million in profits. For the full year, Cash App made $10 billion in bitcoin sales, with $218 million in gross profit.

The image is from the Tumblr.

• Tumblr’s latest attempt to make money asks users to subscribe to ditch the ads. The new subscription charges $4.99 per month or a discounted $39.99 per year to remove the ads from your Tumblr feed. Tumblr users tend to be ad sensitive, so this service could possibly gain traction given it will remove the ads across platforms. However, the service can only be enabled via the web — which means it doesn’t have to pay the app stores a commission on the subscription revenue for a feature that works on mobile.
• Facebook’s updated SDK v13.0 for Android will now include a permission request for the Android Advertiser ID by default, in line with the Google Play Services policy on Advertiser IDs.
• TikTok rolled out its recently announced set of safety features to users in Europe. Already live in the U.S., the updates include a new policy around dangerous acts, better reporting tools and promotional campaigns to stop and think before engaging with online challenges, among other things.
• Instagram quietly removed the 10-minute daily time limit setting in the app, in favor of adding longer options after having promised users they would be able to better control their time in-app using the feature.
• Nextdoor published its first-ever transparency report in the hopes of demonstrating to regulators how its community moderation features differentiate it from larger social rivals.
• Reddit debuted a major revamp of its mobile app for the first time in over two years with updated navigation and the addition of a new “Discover Tab.” The latter will offer personalized recommendations of new communities to join based on users’ current subscription, activity and general popularity.

Photos

• Halide’s mobile app was updated with a number of new features, including the ability to work with multiple photos at once (“batch actions”), tweaks to its Grid View and more. But notably, one of its features targets a specific iOS bug that can sometimes prevent Halide from saving photos. In this case, Halide will store a copy of the photo in the app, so you can later try to save it again.

Streaming & Entertainment

• Audio chatroom app Clubhouse introduced a new in-room chat feature that allows users, including both mods and listeners, to communicate in a chat interface while the room is live. Here, users can post texts and emoji to participate in the conversations.
• LinkedIn launched its own podcast network to deliver thought leadership in audio form, apparently. The in-house shows will come from the LinkedIn News team and other industry figures. One show, arriving in the spring, comes from Reid Hoffman, the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, and will focus on personal entrepreneurship.
• YouTube adopted a TikTok-style feature that adds rings around someone’s profile picture when their channel is livestreaming.
• Data.ai (previously App Annie) highlighted findings that showed how app users spent more than $7.8 billion on their mobile video streaming subscriptions in 2021, among the top 20 streaming apps. That’s up 60% YoY from the $4.9 billion spent in 2020. Time spent in these apps also rose 32% over pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
• Amazon Music has now overtaken Pandora to become the No. 2 streaming app in the U.S. behind Spotify, according to eMarketer/Insider Intelligence. By the end of 2022, Amazon Music will have 52.6 million users in the U.S., up 5.3% over last year. But Pandora’s user base will decline by 6.7%, to 49.1 million, the report said.

Gaming

• Sony’s PlayStation mobile app is making it easier to share PS5 gameplay screenshots and videos with their mobile devices by enabling an automatic sharing feature. The update first rolls out in the Americas.

Productivity and Utilities

• Google is planning to remove the “Lite Mode” feature from Chrome for Android in late March when Chrome version M100 arrives. The feature, previously called Data Saver, was designed for those with slow data connections. Google says it’s sunsetting the feature as it’s seen a “decrease in cost for mobile data” in many countries since the feature’s launch in 2014.
• Ring’s app will work with non-Ring cameras for the first time, starting in April. The app will then support ONVIF-compatible cameras. However, the feature will require a Ring Protect Pro subscription and a Ring Alarm Pro base station. Most ONVIF cameras are commercial grade, and come from makers like Reolink, Amcrest, Panasonic, Bosch, Axis, HikVision and Arecont Vision — not direct Ring rivals like Nest or Arlo.

Government & Policy

• In a speech, the European Union’s head of digital policy, EVP Margrethe Vestager, who also heads the EU’s competition division, took aim at Apple’s recent conduct in the Netherlands, suggesting the tech giant was choosing to pay the fines instead of complying with the Dutch antitrust order that would allow dating apps the ability to make use of third-party payments.

Security & Privacy

The image is from the internet search engine, Google.

• Google’s internal R&D group, Area 120, launched Checks, an AI-powered privacy compliance solution for mobile apps. The freemium solution will be offered to both Android and iOS app developers of all sizes, who will be able to have their apps analyzed then receive a report with actionable insights about how to address the problems that are found. The free tier can be used for completing Google Play’s new Data safety section, while paid tiers add more in-depth privacy and compliance checks, including insights into SDKs being used, and in some cases, access to a human compliance review team.
• A TechCrunch investigation detailed nine Android spyware apps which were installed on around 400,000 smartphones, and connected to servers controlled by Vietnam-based 1Byte.

Funding and M&A

Lightricks is an app maker that publishes popular apps like Facetune and Videoleap. The investment is not public.

Backbone raised $40 million in Series A funding from a celeb-filled list of investors. On the tech side, the co-founders of Discord, Nick Fajt, and Patrick Spence invested.

Pakistan-based payments and messaging super app NayaPay raised $13 million in seed funding. 5 million users will be onboarded by the next five years.

Niyo raised $100 million in Series C funding. More than 4 million people use the app for banking and wealth management.

Hopper acquired Paris-based Smooss, which helps travelers with alternate routes when flights are disrupted. Air France-KLM has a partnership with the deal.

Sanctuary acquired astrology video platform Hey Hero, which offers asynchronous video reading from psychics and astrologers. The deal terms were not disclosed.

Fireside is currently raising a $25 million Series A round and is looking to make a push into web3.

The language learning app, which uses excerpts from films and TV to help teach, raised $2.7 million in seed funding. After 51 million downloads, the app has an annual revenue run rate of $32.4 million.