Apps

Stay up to date on the latest developments in the app industry, including news, updates, funding, mergers and acquisitions, and more.

Uncover the Greatest WWDC Highlights You Might Have Missed

Wwdc24 Ios18 Control Center 02
Image Credits: Apple Image Credits: AppleAnother messaging-related update is that on iOS 18, you can see who hit tapback on what emoji. Image Credit: Screenshot by TechCrunchThere is a new Apps menu in Settings, which replaces all listed apps on the main page. Image Credit: Screenshot by TechCrunchYou can now define the recommended charging limit in the settings. iOS 18 now shows this if you are using slow charger like 5w. iOS 18 will allow users to experience music through haptics such as taps, textures, and refined vibrations that match the track’s audio.

Yahoo Enhances News App and Introduces AI Summaries to Homepage

Gettyimages 493360993
Still, Yahoo has more AI plans in the works, including for its Yahoo News property on the web. However, while the Yahoo News app is taking learnings from Artifact when it comes to offering AI features, the AI summaries feature found on its Yahoo News is not related to its acquisition of the well-liked AI news app that had been created by Instagram’s founders, but had shut down after failing to reach a wider audience. That would explain why most visitors to the Yahoo News website would not have likely encountered these AI summaries as of yet. The code doesn’t reveal much about the underlying technology Yahoo is using for the AI summaries, only how they would appear to site visitors — in a lightbox, a type of web component used for displaying content. Combined with the Artifact-inspired revamp of Yahoo News and the AI features that arrived on Yahoo Mail, it’s clear that Yahoo is betting on AI to give its older web products and services a push.

Dave Burke, Android Engineering VP, relinquishes position to pursue “AI/bio” roles within the company

Dave Burke
Long-time Android Engineering VP Dave Burke said today that he is stepping down from the role. Burke, who spent 14 years building Android, is not leaving Alphabet and is exploring “AI/bio” projects within the company. Burke was involved in pivotal projects, including building Nexus/Pixel phones, developing Chrome for mobile phones, starting Android TV, and spearheading efforts to build and ship developer tools. “So… after 14 yrs leading Android engineering, I’ve decided it’s time for a change. So… after 14 yrs leading Android engineering, I've decided it's time for a change.

iOS 18 takes strong action against apps that demand complete access to address books

Wwdc24 Ios18
iOS apps that build their own social networks on the back of users’ address books may soon become a thing of the past. In iOS 18, Apple is cracking down on the social apps that ask users’ permission to access their contacts — something social apps often do to connect users with their friends or make suggestions for who to follow. To give users more control over the contacts an app can and cannot access, the permissions screen has two stages. Before that, apps like Poparazzi and Clubhouse had demanded full address book access — a growth hack that helped them quickly expand their networks. iOS 18 will let users decide which contacts an app can access.

360 One, an Indian company, purchases the mutual fund application ET Money for $44M.

Gettyimages 1238109771
360 One WAM, India’s largest wealth manager focused on ultra-high-net-worth individuals, has agreed to acquire popular Indian mutual fund investment app ET Money for about $44 million. 360 One disclosed (PDF) the deal in a stock exchange filing Wednesday evening. ET Money boasts over 900,000 transacting clients and tracks assets under management of approximately $8.3 billion. The platform has been a popular choice for retail investors, with monthly mutual fund net flows of around $89.9 million. ET Money is the second startup from local media powerhouse Times Internet’s portfolio to be sold in recent weeks.

Waymo Announces Second Recall Following Robotaxi Collision With Telephone Pole

Gettyimages 2155631838
Waymo has voluntarily issued a software recall to all 672 of its Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis after one of them collided with a telephone pole. This is Waymo’s second recall. NHTSA confirmed to TechCrunch that it has received Waymo’s recall documents and is processing them for publication on its website. The accident that prompted Waymo’s second recall happened on May 21 when a Waymo vehicle in Phoenix, driving without a human safety operator, collided with a telephone pole in an alley during a low speed pullover maneuver. The Waymo vehicle slowed down to pull over and struck a pole at a speed of 8 miles per hour.

RetailReady, a Y Combinator alumnus, secures $3.3 million in funding for its innovative AI-based warehouse application, revolutionizing the potential of reducing costs for businesses.

Elle Sarah
Co-founders Elle Smyth and Sarah Hamer came up with the idea while working together at supply chain unicorn startup, Stord. “We met each other and bonded over our love for the supply chain industry,” Smyth told TechCrunch. Warehouse workers have to reference “phone book-sized” manuals of how to ship items to retailers, like Target and Walmart. If shipping/warehouse workers don’t pack these items correctly, retailers will charge the brands fees, known as a chargeback. RetailReady replaces those manuals with a digital version that gives workers a directed workflow on how to pack an order correctly.

“WWDC 2024: Apple’s Rob, Or Borrowed? A Look at the Apps that Got Sherlocked”

Tim Cook Apple Wwdc 1
But a lot of those features were already available to some extent on Apple devices through third-party apps. So, just like the past few years, we will examine the ideas that Apple “Sherlocked” in this year’s updates. But what do we mean that Apple “sherlocked” something? Feature: Voice transcriptionSherlocked apps: Otter, AudioPen, Voicenotes.comApart from call transcription, Apple will also offer voice transcription in apps like Notes with the upcoming updates. That said, some of these Sherlocked apps might survive by offering customized or enterprise solutions, but some small-scale indie apps will eventually lose users to Apple.

Illuminating the Way: Danish Startup Emerges from Stealth with $13M in Seed Financing to Revolutionize AI Integration in Financial Records

Light Co Founder Filip Kozjak Cto And Jonathan Sanders Ceo 2jpg Dime
That’s according to Jonathan Sanders, CEO and co-founder of fledgling Danish startup Light, which exits stealth Wednesday with $13 million in a seed round of funding led by European VC giant Atomico. The Copenhagen-based startup is reimagining general ledger software from the ground up, replete with AI to cleanse transactional data, while also enabling finance teams to ask plain-English questions and receive straightforward answers from their data. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is king, packing support for CRM (customer relationship management), HR (human resources), project management, and perhaps the most crucial component of all, the general ledger. And it’s this element of the ERP that Light is focused on dragging into the modern digital era, where AI increasingly rules the roost. “Our mission is to be the first automated ledger for global companies,” Sanders told TechCrunch.

Apple’s Messages App Finally Adds RCS and Scheduling Text Features

Scheduled Send
The biggest updates coming to Apple’s iMessage and its Messages app in iOS 18 aren’t its AI emoji, Genmoji, or even the ability to send texts via satellite. Because of Apple’s longtime refusal to add support for RCS, texting with Android users meant no typing indicators or read receipts, broken group chats, and blurry photos and videos. Instead, the text box indicates in a light gray font that your texts with someone support both “Text message + RCS,” while the texts themselves are still green. However, issues that make the Messages app a broken experience for Apple’s customers will be addressed, it seems, as Apple says it will support the standard later this year. That’s likely why there was no mention of encrypted messaging in Apple’s announcement of RCS.