Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.
This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place 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, too.
Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters
Apple lost its request to delay App Store changes
Image Credits: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg / Getty Images
A federal judge ruled this week that Apple can’t push back the deadline to update its App Store policies, as previously ordered in the court’s decision on California’s Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit. Though Apple largely won that case when the judge declared that Apple was not acting as a monopolist (as Epic Games had alleged), the court sided with the Fortnite maker on the matter of Apple’s anti-steering policies regarding restrictions on in-app purchases.
The original ruling stated that Apple would no longer be allowed to prohibit developers from pointing to other means of payment besides Apple’s own payment systems. But Apple wanted that decision put on hold until its appeals case was decided — a delay that would have effectively pushed back the App Store changes by a matter of years.
The judge heard Apple’s requests for a stay on the injunction that was ordered, which would have pushed back the December 9 deadline which forces Apple to start allowing links to alternative payment options inside apps.
The question is now whether or not Apple will actually comply (in the way developers are imagining) and if so, how exactly it will interpret the ruling. In South Korea, Apple was ordered to do something similar but said it believed it was already in compliance due to how the law was written, leading to further discussions between it and regulators. Meanwhile, Google complied with the South Korean law but noted it still requires commissions for third-party payments, just at a reduced rate. While it’s a major step to see any of these app stores open up at all, these moves indicate that the language used to direct changes across the app store has to be precise, or else the companies will find a loophole.
In the meantime, Apple says it intends to ask the Ninth Circuit for a stay as it believes “no additional business changes should be required to take effect until all appeals in this case are resolved.”
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney pointed out the judge’s ruling was good for developers, not necessarily good for Epic itself, as Apple plans to block Fortnite from the App Store throughout the appeal process.
2022 Mobile Forecast
App Annie released its annual mobile forecast, this time predicting six major trends to keep your eyes on for the year ahead. Its key takeaways?
- TikTok will continue its rocketship growth. The firm predicts the app will reach 1.5 billion active users — a figure it will reach 1.75 years faster than WhatsApp did.
- Big new milestones are ahead for a number of top apps. Pinterest and Temple Run 2 will reach 1 billion downloads. Subway Surfers will hit 2 billion. TikTok will reach 3 billion and reach $3 billion in consumer spending.
- Metaverse apps will gain big. The apps (e.g. Roblox, Minecraft) will see over $3 billion in consumer spending.
- Gen Z fintech apps will grow. Mobile-first fintech apps will grow by 160% in 2022, with crypto driving adoption.
- Video streaming subscription apps will also win big, as entertainment apps hit $12 billion in consumer spending.
- Creator economy heats up on mobile. Social apps will see $9 billion in App Store spending thanks to creators.
Platforms: Apple
- Apple to keep App Store Connect open over the holidays. In a change from previous years, Apple said it will keep the App Store open to developer submissions over the 2021 holidays. However, it cautioned that during the dates of November 24 to 28 and from December 23 to 27, submissions may take longer — signaling it’s running with a reduced staff.
- Apple releases iOS 15.2 into beta. The standout addition in this release is Apple’s new safety feature for kids in iMessage, which allows parents to block potentially sensitive photos in iMessage that may contain nudity, and alert parents if kids decide to view the messages anyway. Other notable new additions include the new Digital Legacy program that allows users to designate people as “Legacy Contacts” who can access your account and personal info in the event of your death, and the new Find My app feature that will alert users to “Unknown Items” that are following you around (an anti-stalking feature). The Apple TV app also got a visual refresh on iPad.
- Apple reminded developers that a COVID-era deferral on in-app purchases related to virtual group events is nearing its end. In 2020, Apple temporarily deferred the requirement to offer paid online group event services (one-to-few and one-to-many real-time services) through its in-app purchase system. This included businesses like online tutoring, medical consultations, real estate tours, virtual fitness and more. As COVID raged on, Apple deferred that deadline twice more, to June 2021 and then to December 2021, with the goal of supporting businesses impacted by the pandemic. But it now says the deadline will not be pushed again and apps will have to implement IAP by December 31, 2021, or they won’t be approved.
Image Credits: Apple
- Apple introduced its own device management platform for smaller businesses, Apple Business Essentials. The solution is aimed at businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and includes device management, storage and support in a single subscription. (The storage piece can be iCloud or a third-party provider) and support is offered both to admins and employees through AppleCare+. The new product emerged from a combination of Apple’s Fleetsmith acquisition and its Apple Device Enrollment Program.
Platforms: Google
- Google this week recapped its #AndroidDevSummit announcements, culminating in the release of Jetpack Compose 1.1 beta. The new APIs in 1.1 are now stable, and offer new functionality and performance improvements, the company noted. 1.1 also introduces new features like improved focus handling and touch target sizing or ImageVector caching and support for Android 12 stretch overscroll. And it graduates a number of experimental APIs to stable and supports newer versions of Kotlin.
- Google additionally noted it has released compose-material3, a new artifact for building Material You UIs with Jetpack Compose. It offers updated components and color system, including support for dynamic color, creating a personalized color palette from a user’s wallpaper.
E-commerce & Food Delivery
- YouTube is launching a holiday “Stream and Shop” event on November 15-22 which will feature a week of livestreams from creators and brands offering a look at favorite products, deals and discounts.
- NBCU’s Bravo cable brand is livestreaming a shopping show on Instagram on Black Friday. The show will be hosted by curve model and TikTok influencer Remi Bader, and called “Impulse Try with Remi Bader.” Fans will be able to ask Bader questions about merchandise in real time while viewing items for sale.
- Apple’s own Apple Store app added a new “Lists” feature that makes it easier to save the items you’re thinking of buying, which can also be shared with a specialist in-store. The app also added videos with audio descriptions that detail the products.
- Facebook launched Shops in Groups and improved Live Shopping for Creators. The former would allow a group to raise funds by selling merch, while the latter will allow influencers and brands to promote cross-streaming live events, instead of pointing to each other’s pages.
- Instacart rolled out a new “Deals Tab” in its app where it featured reduced and free delivery options in select markets. The feature will offer daily coupons, sales, bulk product discounts and more. Another feature called “Dollar Store Hub” will allow users to shop from discount stores like Dollar Tree, 99 Cents Only Store, Five Below and Family Dollar.
Image Credits: Instacart
Augmented Reality
- Niantic places its bet on a “real-world” AR metaverse. The Pokémon GO maker announced the launch of Lightship, an AR Developer Kit (ARDK) that makes it easier to build AR experiences. In introducing the new tools, CEO John Hanke referred to Meta (Facebook)’s vision of a VR metaverse as a “dystopian nightmare” and said his company’s tools would bring people together in person — in the real world, not a virtual one.
Fintech
- Coinbase stock sank over 13% after missing analyst estimates on its Q3 earnings with $1.31 billion versus the $1.57 billion expected. The company also said monthly transacting users fell from 8.8 million in Q2 to 7.4 million in Q3, and trading volume fell to $327 billion from $462 billion.
- Discord paused its plans to explore crypto integrations and NFTs after significant backlash from the platform’s users. The company clarified the original screenshot it had shared was part of a hackathon project, not an official announcement. Some fans were concerned over the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining while some had objections to “NFT bros.” And others were worried about the potential for crypto scams across Discord. Users were encouraging each other to cancel their subscriptions in protest, leading to the company’s decision to press pause.
Social
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
- TikTok (including Douyin) remained the most-download app worldwide in October 2021 in the non-games category with more than 57 million installs, per Sensor Tower data. China contributed to 17% of installs, followed by the U.S. at 11%. Instagram was the second most downloaded app, with 56 million installs, a 31% year-over-year increase.
- Instagram announced the company is testing a new feature called “Take a Break,” which will allow users to remind themselves to take a break from using the app after either 10, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on their preferences. As an opt-in feature, however, the reminders may have a limited impact, as users would have to be motivated to set up the new control for themselves.
- Instagram is also offering huge creator bonuses for posting content on its TikTok rival, Reels. Some creators are reporting earning up to $10,000 in monthly bonus money, but the system’s criteria is opaque, making the reward feel more like a lottery win than an income. In another challenge to TikTok, Instagram added text-to-speech and voice effects tools to Reels, as well.
- Instagram looks ready to launch creator subscriptions. On November 1, the company added new in-app purchases to its U.S. app, which are labeled “Instagram Subscriptions” and range in price from $0.99 to $4.99. When we asked what was up, the company said it had nothing to share at this time.
- Facebook announced new partners for its Creative App Platform, first introduced at F8, which allows people to discover…
Court orders Apple to implement App Store changes, 2022 forecast, TikTok tries gaming –