Ivan Mehta, Author at TechCrunch

Instagram now allows anyone to download public Reels

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 07:50:04 +0000

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said Wednesday that the app now allows all users across the world to download public Reels to their devices. Prior to this rollout, you could only save Reels to the Instagram app for viewing them later. Mosseri said on his broadcast channel on Instagram that downloaded Reels will have an Instagram […]

Elon Musk says X will show headlines on the platform again

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 03:34:03 +0000

Elon Musk said that X, formerly Twitter, will start showing headlines in preview cards with URLs on the platform again after removing titles last month. In a post on X, Musk said in an upcoming update, the company will overlay the title in the upper portion of the image of a URL Card. He didn’t […]

Sunbird pauses its efforts to bring iMessage to Android amid security worries

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:31:03 +0000

Sunbird, which aims to bring iMessage to Android users, has halted development and pulled its app from the Play Store amid security issues raised this week. Earlier this week, the company sent a notification to its users, as noted by 9to5Google first, saying that it is pausing the development of the app to investigate security […]

Google admits Spotify pays no Play Store fees because of a secret deal

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 06:15:41 +0000

A Google executive said during testimony in the Epic versus Google trial that a deal with Spotify allows the audio company to bypass Play Store fees, as first reported by The Verge. Don Harrison, Google’s head of partnership, said that Spotify pays no fees when it processes its own payments and pays a measly 4% […]

Tinder redesigns profile pages with prompts, info tags and quiz

Ivan Mehta — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:00:55 +0000

Tinder is revamping its profile pages to make them more informative and create easier starting points for conversations. The company is launching features like profile prompts as conversation starters, profile quizzes, basic info tags and dark mode. Let’s look at these new features in detail. The Match-group-owned app is rolling out profile prompts so that […]

Change in X’s terms indicate EU researchers will get API access

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 12:52:11 +0000

After taking over Twitter last year, Elon Musk famously yanked API access from third-party apps and changed API pricing tiers to make it difficult for researchers to access and study the platform’s data. Now the company he’s since renamed X has backtracked in the European Union where legal obligations in the bloc’s Digital Services Act […]

Instafest now lets you create a music festival poster through a playlist link

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 10:08:36 +0000

Instafest, the app which went viral last year before Spotify Wrapped was officially unveiled, now lets you create a music festival poster based on artists that you have in a particular playlist. The app’s developer, Anshay Saboo, has added more themes and customization options as well. Users can create a music festival poster through a […]

YC-backed productivity app Superpowered pivots to become a voice API platform for bots

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 14:00:10 +0000

Calendar apps are essential for productivity but it is hard to differentiate enough to have sustained growth from just the core usage. Y Combinator-backed Superpowered, which is an AI-powered notetaker for your meetings that doesn’t involve recording bots, hit this roadblock and is now pivoting to become Vapi, an API provider so anyone can easily […]

Airbnb leans on reviews to make listings more reliable as it tests review summaries using generative AI

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 13:00:21 +0000

Airbnb has given hotels a run for their money with offerings that are often more flexible, sometimes cheaper, and more characterful than their traditional hospitality counterparts. One area where Airbnb has stumbled, however, is consistency: Hotels are still considered to have better service and customers still regularly complain that Airbnb listings are not accurate. Now, to […]

Instagram is finally testing a feature to let you turn off read receipts for DMs

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 07:23:27 +0000

Instagram is finally testing a feature that will let users turn off read receipts for Instagram DMs. This way, even if you have read someone’s message, they won’t see the “seen” label below the message. Both Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri announced this feature on their broadcast channels. “We heard your feedback and have started […]

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart says the chat app could introduce ads in Status

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:52:20 +0000

WhatsApp’s cat-and-mouse game with ads continues. While the company is not planning to show ads in the main inbox, it could still show ads in Status — the app’s Stories-like feature — and channels. In an interview with Brazilian media, WhatsApp’s head Will Cathcart said the company is not planning to show any ads in […]

Everything announced at OpenAI’s first developer event

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 06:17:51 +0000

OpenAI held its first developer event on Monday and it was action-packed. The company launched improved models to new APIs. Here is a summary of all announcements in case you missed the event. ChatGPT’s user milestone A year after of its launch, ChatGPT is pretty popular. OpenAI said that more than 100 million people are […]

Deft is building e-commerce search to help you find the right product quickly

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:00:14 +0000

E-commerce search startup Deft is releasing a multimodal search function for users to get better results. The company, which opened its service to beta users in May, has rolled out the new search experience so users don’t have to describe the item in words. The company is trying to solve the problem of finding the […]

Brave’s Leo AI assistant is now available to desktop users

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 16:00:11 +0000

Brave, a company building an alternative web browser, is releasing its AI-powered assistant, Leo, to all desktop users. The company is also releasing a $15 per month paid version called Leo Premium with features like access to faster and better large language models (LLMs) and higher-rate limits. Leo has been under testing for a few […]

Agentio is building a platform for YouTubers to sell ad slots in their videos

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 13:00:03 +0000

Should you devote a considerable amount of time to YouTube, you’ll likely encounter videos in which the creators discuss the sponsors supporting their content. Agentio is building a platform for creators to sell ad slots to brands. The New York-based startup was founded by Arthur Leopold, former president at celebrity talent marketplace Cameo, and Jonathan […]

YouTube is now cracking down on ad blockers globally

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 07:33:19 +0000

YouTube is now cracking down on ad-blocker usage globally, by showing warnings about breaking the platform’s terms of service. In some cases, the company is preventing users from viewing more videos unless they disable ad blocks. The video streaming platform started experimenting in June, when it showed a message to users saying that the video […]

Video app Detail’s new feature helps you record multi-camera podcasts using iPhones

Ivan Mehta — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:00:38 +0000

Detail, a startup with video recording and editing apps for Mac and iPhone, has released a new multiplayer feature that lets users easily record a multi-camera podcast through two iPhones (or iPads) wirelessly. The multiplayer feature, launched as an update to Detail for iOS, also automatically syncs video and audio feeds between two devices to […]

Instagram head says Threads API is in the works

Ivan Mehta — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 06:46:51 +0000

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said today that a Threads API is in the works. This will give developers a chance to create different apps and experiences around Threads. Mosseri was responding to journalist Casey Newton, who was conversing with a user about a TweetDeck-like experience for Threads. The Instagram head expressed apprehension about publishers posting […]

A year after Musk’s takeover, X says an average user spends 32 minutes per day on the platform

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 08:21:54 +0000

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Musk taking over Twitter (now X), the company published a retrospective blog post examining how it has fared under the new management. There are a lot of numbers in the post, but one that sticks out is a claim that an average user spends 32 minutes on […]

iOS 17.1 will let you continue AirDrop transfers over cellular data

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 12:50:06 +0000

Apple released iOS 17.1 on Wednesday to all users, with features including improved AirDrop sharing and updates to Apple Music. The biggest change with this release is the ability to use AirDrop when you move out of Wi-Fi range. AirDrop uses Bluetooth to securely create a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi network between two Apple devices when you […]