This Week in Apps: Google Play lowers commissions, Apple drops anti-steering rule, Pinterest clones TikTok, Android 12 arrives

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. […]

Apple updates its App Store Guidelines to permit developers to contact customers about other payment methods

Apple today introduced a new set of App Store Guidelines that include three key changes. One of the changes is the result of a previously announced settlement agreement with a class of U.S. app developers. It clarifies that developers are allowed to communicate with their customers about other payment methods available outside their app. Related […]

Instagram rolls out new tools for creators to collaborate and partner with brands

Instagram is testing new tools for creators to earn commissions and form partnerships with brands on its platform. The Facebook-owned company is expanding its existing native affiliate tool, which launched in June and allows creators to discover products, share them with followers and earn commissions for sales driven by their posts. With this latest launch, […]

Revue now lets you subscribe to newsletters directly on your Twitter timeline

Starting today, Revue writers have another tool to turn their Twitter followers into newsletter subscribers. Now, when you tweet out your newsletter, readers will see a subscribe button embedded in the tweet. Revue is making it very difficult to not use Revue. https://t.co/UaFS1lhrNM — Austin Rief ☕️ (@austin_rief) October 22, 2021 When you share individual […]