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Apple introduced some amazing updates across iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS at the worldwide developer conference (WWDC) last week. The company announced a few new features never seen before on iOS like Stage Manager for better multitasking and Safety Check to get away from abusers. But there are others that Apple simply Sherlocked — the

On a very special episode of The TechCrunch Podcast this week, I’m joined by Apple Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing Kurt Knight, who talks us through some of the big updates Apple announced at its WWDC conference on Monday. Kurt specifically talks us through the big new changes to Apple’s Continuity suite of features

The Zendesk ownership saga took several new turns this week, with an external investor, Jana Partners, agitating against the company, a review of its strategic options coming to a close, and the business software company deciding to stay independent. Now worth less than $10 billion, Zendesk has made more noise in recent months than you

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Per Layoffs.fyi, a layoff tracker, over 16,000 tech workers lost their jobs in May, and June is off to a similarly brutal start. TechCrunch’s senior reporter Amanda Silberling and I have accidentally,

Free messaging app Telegram is getting into the subscription game. Founder Pavel Durov confirmed today a paid offering is coming later this month which will go above and beyond the current free experience — so a premium offer — without, per the post on his Telegram channel, any negative changes to existing features for (non-paying)

According to Crunchbase, more than 17,000 tech workers have lost jobs since the start of this year. That’s painful, but for perspective: TechCrunch tracked more than 100,000 tech layoffs between August and December 2008. In my experience, founders and investors usually come out unscathed on the other side of events like these. For below-the-line employees,

Meta is scaling back its plans for its augmented reality (AR) glasses and is pivoting its Portal smart display device away from the consumer market, according to a new report from The Information. The report notes that the company had originally planned to launch the first version of its AR glasses, which are codenamed Project

Jailed Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, has hit out at adtech giants Meta and Google for shutting off advertising inside Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine which he argues has been a huge boon to Putin’s regime by making it harder for the opposition to get out anti-war messaging. The remarks came after Navalny was

TikTok announced today that it’s launching a new Avatars feature that is designed to help users showcase their individuality on the app. The launch makes TikTok the latest social media app to add an avatar feature, as it now joins the likes of Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and more. You can access the new avatar feature

Link-in-bio platform Linktree is launching a new one-stop directory for users to browse its platform partners and integrations. The company says the new hub, which is called Linktree Marketplace, is designed to drive exposure to its partnerships. Linktree is also introducing Link Apps, which embed Linktree partners’ digital experiences and services for platform visitors, including NFT

Last year, Instagram added a way for users to filter some kinds of “sensitive” content out of the Explore tab. Now, Instagram is expanding that setting, letting users turn off that content in recommendations throughout the app. Instagram doesn’t offer much transparency around how it defines sensitive content or what even counts. When it introduced

Instagram announced today that it’s launching the ability for users to pin up to three posts, including photos or Reels, to the top of their profile grid. The company says the new feature will give creators more flexibility to express themselves on their profiles. The official roll out comes as Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch in

As Elon Musk tries to squirm out of his commitment to buy Twitter, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is running interference for the newly minted Texan. Paxton just announced that his office is investigating how Twitter may be “misleading Texans” about the number of automated bots on its platform. “It matters not only for regular

India is proposing to create an appeals panel with the veto power to reverse content moderation decisions of social media firms, it said Monday evening, republishing the draft changes to the IT rules after quietly withdrawing it last week. If enacted, it would be the first time globally that a nation creates an appeals panel

In a fresh SEC filing this morning, Twitter shared a letter it received from Elon Musk’s legal team indicating displeasure with the company’s offered information regarding the level of “spam and fake accounts” on its service. This is the same concern that the technology entrepreneur has posted about extensively since his deal to buy the

Snapchat is partnering with restaurant review website The Infatuation to enable users to find local eats on the Snap Map, the company announced today. The social media app is adding a new Map Layer from The Infatuation to give users access to restaurant recommendations for places near them. Users in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago,

TikTok is launching a live subscription comedy series in partnership with social media collaboration company Pearpop and creator Jericho Mencke. Pearpop told TechCrunch that episodes will run twice a week in June, with eight 30-minute episodes in total. The new series, which is called “Finding Jericho,” will stream exclusively on TikTok Live. It will cost

Meta is rolling out a new Calls tab for Messenger, the company announced this week. The company says the new tab will make it easier to connect with friends and family through the app in one tap. The new Calls tab is now available globally on iOS and will roll out to Android users in

Outdoor Voices founder Ty Haney made a name for herself by making sportswear the hottest trend among non-athletes. Now, the 33-year-old entrepreneur is betting she can bring together another underrated duo — consumer brands and crypto. Haney joined TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast this week to talk about her latest venture, Try Your Best (TYB). The

Twitter Communities — the private, interest-based networking feature launched last year — will now gain their own algorithmic-based timelines, similar to Twitter’s Home timeline where the most relevant and engaging conversations will be surfaced. The company announced on Wednesday it would begin testing this option within Communities across iOS, Android and the web, initially with

Discord is giving its voice channels text-based chat too. The company announced Wednesday that it would roll out text chat for the platform’s voice-based chat rooms, adding a way for anyone hanging out out loud to easily share links and other text without having to channel hop to go find it. The feature will roll

Sheryl Sandberg announced today on Facebook that she is leaving Meta after more than a decade as the company’s chief operating officer. Sandberg joined Meta, then Facebook, as COO in 2008. Over the course of 14 years, Sandberg steered the company through an IPO, an unprecedented period of explosive industry growth and its at-times rocky

Instagram announced today that it’s launching in-app Amber Alerts to allow users to see and share notices of missing children in their area. With this new feature, if an Amber Alert is activated by law enforcement and you are in the designated search area, the alert will now appear in your Instagram feed. The alert

Tech companies got their way in Texas on Tuesday. The Supreme Court just blocked a controversial law that allows Texas residents and the attorney general to sue social media companies over their content-moderation decisions. The law, HB 20, prohibits tech platforms from removing or restricting content based on “the viewpoint represented in the user’s expression”

TikTok is testing a new feature that would allow for a distraction-free scrolling experience on the app, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The new feature, which is called “clear mode,” is currently in limited testing with select users. Clear mode gets rid of all of the clutter on-screen, such as captions and buttons, when viewing

TikTok is extending its Marketing Partner Program to add new content marketing partners, the company told TechCrunch. The expansion will allow marketers to manage their TikTok accounts without leaving their third-party content marketing platforms. The short-form video app is partnering with Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Emplifi, Dash Hudson, Khoros, Brandwatch and Later for the initial launch.

In an effort to make its notoriously dense user agreements less labyrinthine, Meta has rewritten and redesigned how that information is presented. The company insists that the changes are in form, not function, bolding some lines, adding subheaders and illustrations instead of presenting that information as a giant wall of text. The result is still

OnlyFans founder Tim Stokley is getting into the web3 game with a new NFT startup, Zoop, launching this summer. On Zoop, people can buy, sell, and trade 3D NFT “playing cards” of their favorite influencers and celebrities. The limited-edition digital cards on Zoop will be officially licensed, according to the company, though it wasn’t clear

The world’s richest man isn’t above trying to get a discount, apparently. In a new lawsuit, Twitter shareholders are suing Elon Musk, alleging that he manipulated the price of the company’s stock for his own benefit in the course of agreeing to buy the company. The lawsuit represents a group of Twitter investors but would

After buying Bungie earlier this year, Sony is moving fast to integrate the company’s expertise into its broader vision. In an investor presentation Thursday, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan outlined a near future for the company that focuses heavily on continually updated online games inspired by Destiny, Bungie’s long-running hit. Sony expects to spend