TikTok to rank as the third largest social network, 2022 forecast notes

A new forecast has dubbed TikTok as the world’s third-largest social network, just behind Facebook and Instagram. In its inaugural forecast on TikTok’s global install base, Insider Intelligence — the firm previously known as eMarketer — predicts that TikTok will reach 755.0 million monthly users in 2022, after seeing 59.8% growth in 2020, followed by […]

Amazon fixes its broken Appstore on Android 12 devices, which caused issues with apps launching

Amazon says it has fixed an issue with its Amazon Appstore that was causing issues with app launches for customers who had upgraded to Android 12 on their mobile devices. Earlier this month, reports began to circulate that Amazon’s Appstore was still not functional on Android 12 following its fall release. Users reported that not […]

This Week in Apps: Apple’s App Privacy Report arrives, Google details Android 12 Go edition, Instagram tops 2B users

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 number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the […]

Amazon to lower its cut of Alexa skill developer revenue starting in 2022

Amazon is joining other tech giants by lowering its cut of developer revenue generated by voice apps, known as Alexa skills, which run on Amazon’s smart speakers and other Alexa-powered devices. The company this week announced it would next year reduce its commission from 30% to 20% for Alexa skill developers who earn less than […]

Facebook’s new website lets fans buy ‘Stars’ without paying the app stores’ commissions

Meta (formerly Facebook) has found a new way to avoid the app stores’ commissions on in-app purchases with the launch of a new website where people can buy “Stars” — the virtual items that allow fans to express their support for favorite creators during Facebook videos and livestreams. Typically, Stars are bought as in-app purchases […]

This Week in Apps: Apple and Google’s best apps of the year, Amazon Appstore fails, Twitter’s new CEO

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 […]

This Week in Apps: Twitter launches livestream shopping, Netflix snags new games, Tile gets acquired

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 […]