apps News of 01/16/21

Bumble Files To Go Public

Bumble files to go public image The dating and networking service Bumble has  filed to go public. The company, launched by a former co-founder of the IAC-owned Tinder , plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange, using the ticker symbol “BMBL.” Bumble’s ...

WhatsApp Delays Enforcement Of Privacy Terms By 3 Months, Following Backlash

WhatsApp delays enforcement of privacy terms by 3 months, following backlash image WhatsApp said on Friday that it won’t enforce the planned update to its data-sharing policy until May 15, weeks after news about the new terms created confusion among its users, exposed the Facebook app to a potential lawsuit , triggered a ...

This Week In Apps: The Year’S Best Apps, 2020’S Biggest Downloads, The App Store’S Newest Hire

This Week in Apps: The year’s best apps, 2020’s biggest downloads, the App Store’s newest hire image Welcome back to This Week in Apps,  the TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry is as hot as ever, with  a record  204 billion downloads and $120 billion in ...

Grab-Singtel And Ant Group Win Digital Bank Licenses In Singapore

Singapore on Friday granted four firms including Ant Group and Grab the licenses to run digital banks in the Southeast Asian country, in a move that would allow tech giants to expand their financial services offerings. The nation’s central ...

Twitter Finally Shuts Down Its Abandoned Prototype App Twttr

Twitter is shutting down its experimental app twttr, which the company had used publicly prototype new features back in 2019. The app was first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2019, then launched to testers that March. Its ...

Android’S Winter Update Adds New Features To Gboard, Maps, Books, Nearby Share And More

Android’s winter update adds new features to Gboard, Maps, Books, Nearby Share and more image Google announced this morning Android phones will receive an update this winter that will bring some half-dozen new features to devices, including improvements to apps like Gboard, Google Play Books, Voice Access, Google Maps, Android Auto, and Nearby ...

IPhones Can Now Automatically Recognize And Label Buttons And UI Features For Blind Users

Apple has always gone out of its way to build features for users with disabilities, and Voiceover on iOS is an invaluable tool for anyone with a vision impairment — assuming every element of the interface has been manually labeled. But the company ...

Google Now Lets Anyone Contribute To Street View Using AR And An App

An update to Google’s Street View app on Android will now let anyone contribute their photos to help enhance Google Maps, the company announced this morning. Using a “connected photos” tool in the new version of the Street View ...

VSCO Acquires Mobile App Trash To Expand Into AI-Powered Video Editing

VSCO acquires mobile app Trash to expand into AI-powered video editing image VSCO , the popular photo and video editing app, today announced it has acquired AI-powered video editing app Trash , as the company pushes further into the video market. The deal will see Trash’s technology integrated into the VSCO app in ...

PhonePe Raises $700 Million, Becomes A Separate Entity

PhonePe, the crown jewel in Flipkart’s acquisition by Walmart, is “partially” spinning off, the financial services firm said on Thursday. To kick off its new journey, the firm said it has secured $700 million in a new financing round. ...

Daily Crunch: Apple Announces Its Best Apps Of 2020

Daily Crunch: Apple announces its best apps of 2020 image Apple releases its annual best apps list, a self-driving truck startup raises $350 million and the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine gets emergency approval in the United Kingdom. This is your Daily Crunch for December 2, 2020. The big story: ...

Wellory Raises $4.5m For Its ‘Anti-Diet’ Nutrition App

Wellory raises $4.5M for its ‘anti-diet’ nutrition app image Wellory , a startup that bills itself as taking an “anti-diet approach” to nutrition and wellness, is announcing that it has raised $4.2 million in funding. The round was led by Story Ventures, with participation from Harlem Capital, ...

Jio Platforms Backs SF-Based AR Gaming Startup Krikey

Jio Platforms, the biggest telecom operator in India and which has raised over $20 billion from Facebook, Google and other high-profile investors this year, is leading a financing round of a San Francisco-based startup that develops ...

Apple Releases Its ‘Best Of 2020’ App Store Winners And Most Downloaded Apps Of The Year

Apple releases its ‘Best of 2020’ App Store winners and most downloaded apps of the year image Apple today released its highly anticipated annual list of the best apps and games of 2020. As in previous years, App Store editors selected the winners based on factors like the app’s quality, creative design, usability and use of Apple ...

Google Maps Takes On Facebook With Launch Of Its Own News Feed

Google Maps takes on Facebook with launch of its own news feed image People are getting frustrated that Stories are everywhere now , but Google Maps is keeping it old school. Instead of adding tiny circles to the top of the app’s screen, Google Maps is introducing its own news feed. Technically, Google calls ...

U.S. Shopping App Downloads On Black Friday Reached A Record 2.8m Installs

U.S. shopping app downloads on Black Friday reached a record 2.8M installs image Many U.S. consumers spent this year’s Black Friday sales event shopping from home on mobile devices. That led to first-time installs of mobile shopping apps in the U.S. to break a new record for single-day installs on Black Friday 2020, ...

Uber Officially Completes Postmates Acquisition

Uber today announced the official completion of its Postmates acquisition deal, which it announced originally back in July. The all-stock deal, valued at around $2.65 billion at the time of its disclosure, sees Postmates join Uber, while ...

WhatsApp Is Upping Its Wallpapers And Stickers Game

WhatsApp is upping its wallpapers and stickers game image WhatsApp is finally upping its wallpapers and stickers game. The instant messaging service said on Tuesday that it will now allow users to set custom wallpapers for different chats in a bid to make it easier for users to easily distinguish the ...

Google Play’S Best Of 2020 Awards Highlight The Stressful Year It’S Been

Google Play’s Best of 2020 Awards highlight the stressful year it’s been image Continuing its annual tradition, Google today announced its Best of 2020 awards — the company’s list of the best apps, games, movies and books for the year. Not surprisingly, the top apps picked by both Google Play users and editors ...

Singapore-Based Mental Health App Intellect Reaches One Million Users, Closes Seed Funding

Singapore-based mental health app Intellect reaches one million users, closes seed funding image Theodoric Chew, co-founder and chief executive officer of mental health app Intellect Intellect , a Singapore-based startup that wants to lower barriers to mental health care in Asia, says it has reached more than one million users just six ...