This Week in Apps: 2022 in assessment

Welcome again to This Week in Apps, the weekly series that recaps the newest in cellular OS information, cellular purposes and the general app financial system.

World app spending reached $65 billion within the first half of 2022, up solely barely from the $64.4 billion throughout the identical interval in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed down. However total, the app financial system is constant to develop, having produced a record variety of downloads and shopper spending throughout each the iOS and Google Play shops mixed in 2021, in response to a number of year-end reports. World spending throughout iOS and Google Play final 12 months was $133 billion, and customers downloaded 143.6 billion apps.

This Week in Apps provides a strategy to sustain with this fast-moving business in a single place with the newest from the world of apps, together with information, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and rather more.

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Yr-Finish App Scoreboards

Picture Credit: Apptopia

Apptopia is first out of the gate with its full-year retrospective of the highest apps globally. The app intelligence agency this week launched 33 high charts primarily based on knowledge from iOS and Google Play mixed, aside from knowledge from China which is iOS solely. The information was collected from Jan. 1 2022 via Dec. 20, 2022.

The corporate even created its personal classes to spotlight apps that don’t but have their very own app retailer class — like quick-serve eating places. (McDonald’s topped Starbucks right here.)

General, the agency discovered that the highest app worldwide was TikTok with 672 million installs. It was adopted by Instagram, WhatsApp, CapCut (driving on TikTok’s success), Snapchat, Subway Surfers, Fb, Stumble Guys and Spotify.

Apptopia additionally selected to this 12 months categorize TikTok as Leisure, not Social Networking, which allowed it to high Netflix because the most-installed Leisure app.

Apart from Subway Surfers, an limitless runner that first launched in 2012 (!!), different older video games proved to have endurance, like Sweet Crush Saga, 8 Ball Pool and Amongst Us!

Picture Credit: Apptopia

Different highlights embrace the first-time look of SHEIN because the No. 1 Purchasing app of the 12 months, after beforehand rating No. 2 final 12 months and No. 4 the 12 months prior. Want, in the meantime, didn’t make the lower. Crypto apps had been additionally absent from the highest charts as was China’s Didi, because it was impacted by the nation’s zero-Covid coverage. Nevertheless, the token-based plan for Sweatcoin made the exercise app the No. 1 Well being & Health app globally.

Will probably be attention-grabbing to match Apptopia’s knowledge with these from different companies because the 2022 experiences start to reach.

Google

• Google’s Play Retailer will now allow parents to approve apps and in-app purchases initiated by youngsters. Dad and mom will act because the household supervisor of the household account to approve the purchases when there’s no fee technique, specifying how they need to pay for the app or different purchases.
• Google is appealing a ruling by India’s antitrust body that claims the corporate engaged in anti-competitive practices surrounding Android cellular gadgets.
• Google launched HD maps as a part of its Google Automotive Providers. Volvo and Polestar are first to combine with it.
• Android Auto introduced a brand new design meant to make it simpler to navigate, play music and podcasts and talk whereas on the go.
• At CES, Google announced new media playback options, together with higher playback choices for Spotify Join-compatible gadgets and cross-device notifications for resuming media playback on the transfer.

Apple

• Apple lastly shut down Darkish Sky, the climate app it acquired to enhance its personal Climate app providing. The app was popular with customers however much less so by meteorologists, a Slate article noted.
• Apple needed to briefly pull the new HomeKit architecture from its iOS 16.2 replace to repair a Dwelling sharing subject.
• A French courtroom fined Apple €1 million over its abusive App Retailer practices with regard to “important imbalances” in its relationship with app builders.

Messaging

• Amazon-owned encrypted messaging app Wickr Me has stopped accepting new sign-ups and will shut down on Dec. 31, 2023, the corporate introduced. The app had come under fire beforehand for enabling folks to commerce little one sexual abuse materials.
• WhatsApp ends support for a large number of older devices together with telephones from Apple, HTC, Huawei, LG, Samsung, Sony and others.
• WhatsApp additionally launched official proxy support for world customers, permitting customers to remain linked even when their connection is blocked or disrupted. The characteristic depends on servers arrange by volunteers and different organizations.
• Telegram was updated with new options like hidden media, which provides a layer to blur a picture; new instruments for managing the space for storing utilized by media, information and music; and new drawing and textual content instruments; and different modifications for profiles and teams.

Gaming

• Cryptic tweets from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney have folks questioning if Fortnite will probably be returning to the iPhone in 2023. In a put up, the exec tweeted “Subsequent 12 months on iOS!” — suggesting, maybe, the sport maker will launch the sport once more on Apple’s platform. Epic is at the moment interesting its antitrust lawsuit with Apple and is engaged an analogous go well with with Google.
• The FTC also fined Epic Games $520 million for violations of the Youngsters’s On-line Privateness Safety Act, and manipulative “darkish patterns” that tricked customers into making purchases. The cash will probably be refunded to prospects and is the biggest refund in a gaming case, and the biggest FTC administrative order in historical past.
• Amazon brings its subscription-based Prime Gaming to India, providing video games throughout PC, Mac and cellular. High titles embrace League of Legends, DeathLoop, Quake, COD Season 1, EA Madden 23, FIFA 23, Apex Legends, Future 2 and Brothers: A Story of Two Sons.
• China’s on-line gaming regulator approved 45 foreign games, ending the crackdown on gaming releases from exterior the nation. Pokemon Unite was among the many newly authorised titles.
• Nvidia upgraded its $20/mo GeForce Now plan (Final) with new servers with higher {hardware} elements. The service works throughout Home windows, macOS, Android, Android TV, and choose net browsers, together with Safari on the iPhone and iPad.

Social

• Tumblr added support for livestreaming on its cellular apps for iOS and Android. The service is powered by Livebox, which permits customers to tip streamers. The service, dubbed Tumblr Stay, may be present in a brand new Stay tab and arrives at a time when the app has seen a surge of development due to the Twitter exodus.
• TikTok is now telling users why a video is on the For You feed. Customers will be capable to entry a brand new characteristic, “Why this video?” from a query mark icon to study why a video was advisable to them — for instance, due to content material they’ve beforehand watched, looked for, feedback that they had posted, or movies they shared.
• Snapchat’s subscription service, Snapchat+, added three extra options — the flexibility so as to add customized backgrounds for chats; reward a subscription to a pal; or change the digital camera button to a coronary heart, soccer ball or one other picture.
• Twitter’s subscription service Twitter Blue now supports video of up to 2GB, 60 minutes in size, and 1080p on iOS; Android is proscribed to 512MB, 10 minutes.
• Twitter added support for crypto to its “cashtags” feature for monitoring a given coin’s market value. It additionally added publicly visible tweet counts, which was a non-public analytics characteristic. It additionally noticed a 12+ hour outage in Australia and New Zealand. Yikes.
• Instagram added a Reels template for making a 2022 recap of as much as 14 images. Up to now, customers had usually turned to third-party apps, like Top Nine, for recaps.
• Meta closed down a Cameo clone called Super which had supplied digital meet and greets with creators.
• Mastodon has climbed to 2.5 million monthly active users, due to the Twitter exodus, up from round 300K customers in October. The corporate is basically financed by Patreon, bringing in round $31,000 per thirty days, up from $7,000 in November. The corporate has rejected provides of funding from VCs, saying they don’t perceive its goals and need to commercialize the platform.

A.I.

• Quora launched an A.I. chatbot in its iOS app that lets customers ask questions and have interaction in back-and-forth conversations. The bot, referred to as “Poe,” is at the moment invite-only and provides entry to a variety of text-generating A.I. fashions, together with ChatGPT. (It’s unclear if the corporate has a partnership right here — however ChatGPT doesn’t provide a public API).
• Apple launched A.I.-powered book narration in Apple Books. The corporate stated the characteristic will assist impartial authors who won’t be capable to convert their titles to audiobooks due to “the price and complexity of manufacturing.”
• Picsart debuted an iOS app, SketchAI, that turns images and drawings into digital artwork utilizing A.I.

Streaming

• YouTube beat out Apple for the NFL Sunday Ticket streaming deal. The landmark deal will permit the corporate to supply the subscription as an add-on to YouTube TV or YouTube Primetime Channels. The multi-year deal is pegged at $2 billion.
• Amazon is developing a standalone app for streaming sports activities content material, The Information reported. The transfer might assist Amazon higher promote its stay sports activities content material, together with the NFL’s Thursday Evening Soccer.
• Spotify may also be working on HealthKit integrations presumably to counsel songs primarily based on the workout routines customers had been performing.
• Snap shut down its desktop camera app, Snap Digital camera, which supplied filters for video calls on Skype, YouTube, Google Hangouts, Skype, and Zoom.
• TikTok expanded its viewers controls characteristic which now provides creators the flexibility to limit their movies to grownup viewers. Beforehand this was solely accessible on TikTok Stay.
• TikTok partnered with IMDb to introduce a brand new characteristic that lets customers tag motion pictures and TV exhibits of their TikTok movies. The hyperlink takes viewers to an in-app web page with IMDb data concerning the title and permits creators to save lots of titles to a brand new Favorites tab on their profiles. MovieTok goes to like this.

Purchasing

• Pinduoduo’s low cost market app Temu became the most downloaded U.S. app from November 1 to December 14, Sensor Tower knowledge discovered. The app noticed 10.8 million U.S. installations from September 1 on.

Fintech

• The IRS decided to delay a requirement that may have compelled e-commerce apps like Venmo, PayPal, Money App and Etsy to ship tax varieties to SMBs with $600+ in transactions.

Authorities, Coverage and Lawsuits

• France’s knowledge safety watchdog, the CNIL, fined Apple €8 million (~$8.5M) for not acquiring cellular customers’ consent previous to inserting (and/or studying) advert identifiers on their gadgets associated to its show of personalised advertisements on the App Retailer.

Safety

• Viva Republica, which runs the South Korean finance tremendous app Toss, raised $405 million in Series G funding, valuing the enterprise at 9.1 trillion gained ( $7 billion). Beforehand, the corporate was valued at 8.5 trillion gained in June 2021.
• Indian fintech app Cash View raised $75 million in a Sequence E funding spherical led by Apis Companions, valuing the enterprise at $900 million. The corporate is trying to scale its credit score enterprise and construct extra merchandise for the South Asian market.
• Jakarta-based fintech app Akulaku raised $200 million from Mitsubishi UFJ Monetary Group (MUFG), the biggest financial institution in Japan. The strategic funding will assist the corporate increase into new markets and construct merchandise along with MUFG.
• Product Science, the maker of cellular app performance-monitoring instruments, raised $18 million in seed funding up to now from backers, together with Gradual Ventures, Coatue, K5 World, Mantis Ventures, Benchmark’s Peter Fenton, Perception Companions co-founder Jerry Murdock and unnamed Snap VPs.
• Indian fintech KreditBee has raised an additional $100 million led by Introduction Worldwide as half of a bigger Sequence D funding now closed at $200 million.

• 10-year old Chipolo explains why it’s not worried about Apple’s AirTag: Chipolo nonetheless runs its personal app for its AirTag-like tracker, but it surely’s additionally embraced Discover My integration. Not like Tile, the corporate informed the DoJ it wasn’t nervous about Apple’s entry into its market.
• FluentPet’s talking button system lets you get a ‘text’ from your dog: FluentPet launched an app-connected speaking button system, FluentPet Join, that integrates a cellular app with its canine communication instruments — programmable buttons that, when pressed by a doggie’s paw, say phrases you might have recorded. The brand new product is an replace to the mannequin first made in style by a canine named Bunny, whose 9 million+ social media followers landed the sheepadoodle on Forbes’ listing of the highest 50 social media creators of 2022.

Picture Credit: FluentPet