Apps

X this week confirmed it’s lifting its ban on paid political ads — a move it committed to earlier this year, shortly after Elon Musk took over the social network previously known as Twitter. The company had originally banned such ads back in 2019 under then-CEO Jack Dorsey’s manag

Google is discontinuing its Pixel Pass subscription service, which allowed people to get a Pixel phone combined with premium services including YouTube Premium, Google Play Pass and YouTube Premium for a monthly fee. The company said on its support page — spotted first by 9to5Google — that it w

The Iconfactory, home to a number of popular apps like wallpaper app Wallaroo, puzzle game Frenzic and the unfortunately shuttered Twitterific, among others, is out today with its latest creation: Ollie’s Arcade. The new app aims to bring a retro gaming experience to iOS users with a collecti

Google Photos will now sync your private photos stored in your Locked Folder across your devices via cloud backup, the company announced today. First introduced in May 2021, the Locked Folder has allowed Android users to store private photos in a passcode-protected space so the photos aren’t

After the photo layout app Series became a must-have companion for Instagram Threads, its developer Ryan Carver has now decided to spin off a simplified version called Spreads, designed specifically for Threads users who want to post their full-screen panoramic photos to the new social network. Car

Instagram is experimenting with a new feature to let creators share notable fan comments to their Stories, such as comments on their posts or Reels. In a post on the “IG updates” channel, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the company wants to make it easier for creators to highlight inte

WhatsApp said that it has launched a new native app for Mac today. The app will allow users to participate in video calls with up to eight people and audio calls with up to 32 people. Mark Zuckerberg posted about the app’s launch on his Facebook account. Users can download the app from WhatsA

Snapchat is launching a new generative AI feature called “Dreams” that allows users to create fantastical images of themselves in different scenarios, such as a mermaid in a deep-seascape or a renaissance era royal. The official roll out comes a week after technewss reported that Snapc

Calm is introducing a new Sleep Story that is narrated by the voice behind TikTok’s text-to-speech voice, the company announced on Tuesday. Kat Callaghan, a Canadian radio host and voiceover artist who voices the perky and robot-like voice on TikTok, worked with Calm to help users drift off t

WordPress, a company that has been around for 20 years, is now selling domains with a 100-year registration length. That means your blog or website will probably live longer than you. The company announced in a blog post that this 100-year plan is ideal for families to preserve their history on the

Uber Eats is developing an AI-powered chatbot that will offer recommendations to users and offer them a quicker way to place orders, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The report says developer Steve Moser discovered details about the chatbot inside of code hidden within the Uber Eats app. T

Reports that X’s (formerly Twitter) downloads decreased after Elon Musk’s rebranding of the microblogging social network only tell part of the story. Twitter’s renaming also saw its weekly active users drop 4% over the following weeks after the rebrand (August 6-20), while the X a

Bluesky introduced a bunch of updates on Friday to its mobile apps and website, including a new tab to see your own likes, notification support for apps and an emoji picker for the web composer. Earlier this month, Bluesky’s rival Threads added a new tab in settings, called “Your Likes,

On-demand grocery delivery giant Instacart has finally dropped its much anticipated S-1. The company, actually named MapleBear, is one of the best-known unicorns on the IPO shortlist. Instacart's public-offering filing has been long awaited due to not only its massive fundraising history, but a