All posts tagged: app

Lapse, a photo app that forced users to invite friends, is running out of steam

Published by skeptic

Lapse, a photo-sharing app that growth hacked its way to the top of the App Store earlier this year, is starting to lose steam. The app, which had forced users to invite their friends in order to get in — a technique now being used by new social app ID by Amo, saw early success with this method of “going viral.” This September, the app jumped from No. 118 Overall to reach No. 1 on the U.S. App Store. However, growth hacks alone cannot sustain an app, a new report shows. Throughout this month and the last, Lapse’s downloads have started to drop and have now fallen as far as 70% down from their October peak. The data, which comes from app intelligence firm Appfigures, indicates that growth hacking your way to the top of the App Store isn’t a formula for ongoing success unless your product is capable of retaining its new users over the long term. Image Credits: Lapse downloads via Appfigures Originally launched in 2021, co-founders (and brothers) Dan and Ben Silvertown …

Yup hacks together a cross-posting app for X, Threads, Bluesky and others

Published by skeptic

Decentralized social networking may be the future, but in the meantime, there are a lot of Twitter alternatives to keep up with. A new app called Yup aims to help by offering a single place to read feeds, follow friends across services, and cross-post to a range of social apps, including Twitter/X itself, as well as Bluesky, Farcaster, Lens, and Threads — although the latter comes with a big caveat. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced last month that a Threads API was in the works, which would allow developers to build apps that connect with the Threads ecosystem. However, that API is not yet publicly available, which means Yup has come up with a workaround to support Threads. The company told TechCrunch the app “informally uses the internal API” that the Threads web client uses, but it plans to migrate to the official API when one is released. Because of this hack of sorts, being able to use Threads via Yup means having to turn off Instagram’s two-factor authentication (2FA) — an additional means of …

Off/Script launches an app to create and buy AI-designed fashion

Published by skeptic

Founders of a new community-powered product creation platform, Off/Script, are making a huge bet on AI-designed merchandise. Created by Jonathan Brun and Justine Massicotte, the company today announced the official launch of its mobile app, allowing anyone to conceptualize, share and monetize product mock-ups for a chance to make the concept a reality. Creators can design anything from clothing, high-end handbags and other accessories to decor, furniture, electronics and more. Users vote on their favorites, and the Montreal-based startup leads the funding, manufacturing and shipping for the most popular designs. A product design must have at least 100 votes to be considered, we’re told. Off/Script also evaluates the complexity of the project, cost of production and how much inventory to order based on demand. Off/Script’s generative AI design studio helps anyone produce product mock-ups, regardless of whether they are an expert designer or not. Off/Script’s studio leverages the generative AI model Stable Diffusion, which the company has tailored for poses, variations and scalability. It also uses ControlNet — an open network protocol to control image …

Screenshots show xAI’s chatbot Grok on X’s web app

Published by skeptic

Shortly after X announced its plans to test a three-tiered subscription service, X owner Elon Musk teased that his new AI chatbot, xAI’s Grok, would be part of the top-tier subscription, X Premium+. Now we’re getting a first look at what Grok may look like when launched inside the X app, courtesy of new screenshots that show the feature in development on X’s website. The AI chatbot, which is Musk’s answer to ChatGPT, Bard, and others, answers questions in a conversational mode, but is said to have more of a personality. As the xAI team described it, Grok is modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and is designed to respond “with a bit of a wit” and has a “rebellious streak.” It also plans to answer “spicy” questions that are rejected by other AI systems, the company noted. Most importantly, Grok will have access to real-time knowledge via the X platform and through web browsing capabilities. Grok was first released on November 4 to a select group of testers, but Musk announced in …

This Week in Apps: Apple’s iPhone app of the year finalists, plus 7 hidden gems

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Is the App Store still a source for new technology innovations or has AI development become the hotter new tech to build for these days? We pondered this question this week when Apple unveiled its iPhone App of the Year finalists, which surprisingly included a trio of longtime favorites — hiking app AllTrails, language learning app Duolingo, and travel app Flighty. Instead of highlighting new releases that caught fire in the year, as it did last year with winner BeReal or in 2021 with Toca Life World, for example, Apple has selected several high-quality apps that have been around for some time and have built a following. But Apple’s selection, which ignores the AI app boom for some reason, may lead you to believe there aren’t many new and interesting gems to be found on today’s App Store — a place where apps like TikTok, Temu, and those from Meta and Google often dominate the top charts. As it turns out, that’s far from true. However, great new apps can be harder to find these …

Rooms, an interactive 3D space designer and ‘cozy game,’ arrives on the App Store

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Cozy game, interior decorating app, learn-to-code primer, or something in between, the interactive, 3D spaces builder known as Rooms has made its way to the App Store. The startup, which earlier raised $10 million in seed funding led by a16z, offers a way to design 3D spaces — its “rooms” — that are filled with furniture, décor, pets, and tiny avatars. You can turn those rooms into mini-games, if you prefer. The purpose of Rooms is merely to create and explore design, which is something many people find relaxing. However this “digital equivalent of LEGO,” as the company has described it, also has an educational aspect to it. First launched on the web earlier this year, the project was inspired by co-founder Jason Toff’s work in Google’s AR/VR division, including its now-shuttered VR and AR app-building service Poly and the 3D modeling tool for VR, Blocks. His co-founder Bruno Oliveira also worked with him at Google, while co-founder Nick Kruge’s background includes time at Smule, Umber, and Google’s YouTube. The idea with Rooms is to offer open-ended play …

Weapons banned in UK apparently found on shopping app Temu | Online shopping

Published by Sam

The Chinese online marketplace Temu is selling what appear to be illegal weapons, as well as knives and axes that should be age-restricted, an investigation has found. The UK consumer champion Which? says it discovered listings for batons and folding knives on the site that resembled items banned under UK law. Its researchers say they were also able to buy age-restricted items such as knives and axes without checks being carried out on how old the purchaser was. Some of the products were extremely cheap, starting from £4.48. Which? is calling for Temu to improve its checking process, remove dangerous items and hold third-party sellers to account where breaches are found. Age-restricted knives and axes that Which? researchers said they bought without checks being carried out on how old the purchaser was. Photograph: Which? Sue Davies, the head of consumer protection at Which?, said Temu, which has been touted as China’s answer to Amazon, “had a surge in popularity in the last 12 months”. She added: “Problems with dangerous products are only going to get …

A Quibi-like app called ReelShort hit record downloads and revenue this month

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Was Quibi a failure or just before its time? This month, a short video app and Quibi-like entertainment service called ReelShort found its way to the top of the App Store, which led to the app gaining 1.9 million downloads (so far) in the month of November alone. Last Saturday, the app also hit a daily record in terms of both downloads and revenue, with 326,000 new installs and $459,000 in net revenue — the latter meaning the revenue it retained after paying app store fees. This data, provided by market intelligence firm Appfigures, raises the question as to whether there’s a continued consumer appetite for short-form, produced entertainment, similar to what the failed startup Quibi once offered, or if ReelShort’s time at the top of the charts is more of a fluke — or perhaps one helped by heavy app marketing ad spend. Image Credits: Appfigures The company, Sunnyvale-based Crazy Maple Studio, didn’t respond to press inquiries about its app’s newfound success, but the studio’s other mobile products include animated interactive story apps, fiction …

Meta seeks legislation that would require parents to approve teens’ app downloads

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Meta wants to shift the burden of monitoring social media usage among teens back to the app stores — and to parents. In a blog post published today, Meta’s Global Head of Safety, Antigone Davis, argues that parents should be responsible for approving their teen’s app downloads and staked Meta’s position in supporting federal legislation that would require parental approval for app downloads for users under the age of 16. Guiding its reasoning, Meta pointed to recent Pew research that indicated that 81% of U.S. adults were in favor of requiring parental consent for teens to create social media accounts. While this may speak to popular opinion around parental sentiment, it doesn’t mean that parents have thought through who should be responsible for preventing or allowing teens’ access to social media, or how those apps should operate to protect teens. A coalition of 42 states and D.C. are currently suing Meta over its harms to teens and young users, in part referencing findings from Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen. The former employee had provided to news …

Mindful drinking app Sunnyside lands $11.5M to launch its AI-powered coach

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“Sober curious” and “mindful drinking” have become popular terms in recent years, with 47% of the U.S. adult population wanting to cut back on alcohol. Sunnyside, the app promoting healthy drinking habits, secured $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Motley Fool Ventures with major participation from Will Ventures, the company announced today. The funds will help Sunnyside roll out its new AI mindful drinking coach named “Sunny,” which generates recommended responses for Sunnyside’s team of human coaches. Other participants in the round include Uncork Capital, Offline Ventures, Joyance Partners, Wisdom Ventures, Eudemian Ventures, Adjacent, Scribble Ventures, Cooley LLP and MyFitnessPal founder Michael Lee. To date, Sunnyside has raised a total of $14.6 million. Alongside the funding announcement, the company revealed its newest hire– Steve Lloyd, chief product and technology officer. Lloyd previously served the same role for fitness app Strava. “Two years ago, I started using Sunnyside to help me get my own drinking habits under control,” said Lloyd. “From day one, there was never any guilt or shame about missing my weekly commitment, only positive …