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Snapchat's 'My AI' chatbot can now set in-app reminders and countdowns | TechCrunch

May 2, 2024 1:45 AM0


Snapchat is launching the ability for users to set in-app reminders with the help of its My AI chatbot, the company announced on Wednesday. The social network is also rolling out editable chats, AI-powered custom Bitmoji looks, map reactions, emoji reactions, and more.

With the new AI reminders feature, Snapchat is hoping users will use its app instead of their device’s default clock app when setting countdowns or reminders. Users can do so by asking the app’s My AI chatbot to set a reminder for a specific task or event directly in the AI’s chat window or when chatting with a friend.

The feature lets users do things like set a reminder to finish an assignment or set a countdown for an upcoming date night, for example. It also pushes Snapchat into productivity app territory, potentially driving increased usage.

Image Credits: Snapchat

As for the editable chats, users will soon be able to edit their messages for up to five minutes after sending them. The feature will be available first for Snapchat+ subscribers before rolling out to all users at some point in the future, the company says.

In addition, users will soon be able to design their own digital garments for their Bitmoji using generative AI.

For instance, you can customize a pattern for a sweater for your Bitmoji by typing out a prompt like “vibrant graffiti” or “skull flower.” The app will then generate a pattern that you can further customize by zooming in or out. Once you’re happy with a look, you can apply it to your Bitmoji or save it for future use.

Image Credits: Snapchat

In another update, users who have opted in to share their location with friends can now quickly react to their map locations. For instance, if you pass your friend on your morning commute, you can send them a wave. Or, if you see that your friend has made it home safely after hanging out, you can send them a heart.

Snapchat is also launching emoji reactions in chats. Although users have been able to react to messages with their Bitmoji to quickly respond to a chat, they can now do so with an emoji. Emoji reactions have become popular on many other platforms, like Instagram and Messenger, so it makes sense for Snapchat to roll out the functionality as well.

The launch of the new features comes a few days after Snap reported that it had 422 million daily active users in Q1 2024, an increase of 39 million, or 10% year-over-year. The company also saw the number of Snapchat+ subscribers more than triple year-over-year, surpassing 9 million subscribers.


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Robotic Automations

Substack now lets writers paywall their 'Chat' discussion spaces | TechCrunch

May 1, 2024 10:21 PM0


Substack is launching the ability for writers to paywall their entire Chat or specific threads to paid or founding members only, the company announced on Wednesday. The rollout of the new feature comes 18 months after Substack launched Chat as a way for writers to communicate directly with their loyal readers.

The company believes paywalled Chats will help keep conversations intimate and free of trolls, while also acting as a paid perk for readers. Substack says its data shows that active Chat participants are 12% more likely to retain their subscriptions.

Writers can choose to paywall a whole Chat or individual Chat threads. Once a writer paywalls their Chat, free subscribers and non-subscribers will be prompted to upgrade to view the Chat.

Image Credits: Substack

Substack is also upgrading the Chat interface to make it easier to navigate large groups. The company is launching the ability to search Chats to make it easier for people to find old threads. Plus, it’s introducing thread notifications and new reply badges to ensure people don’t lose their place in a conversation. Substack is also upgrading its back-end systems to load new Chats and replies in real-time, making it easier to stay up-to-date on conversations when discussing live matters.

When Substack first launched Chat, the company hoped to capitalize on Twitter’s upheaval in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover. Substack still sees Chat as a viable alternative to Twitter (now X), as it noted in its latest blog post that “many readers prefer the simplicity of Substack Chat to other platforms.” The company then highlighted a comment from a paid subscriber saying chat is a good substitute for X.

Chat isn’t the only Substack feature looking to take on X, as the company introduced a Twitter-like “Notes” feature a year ago. The Notes feature lets users share posts, quotes, comments, images, videos, and more in a Tweet-like format. The short-form content is displayed in a dedicated Twitter-like feed.

Substack’s Notes feature is getting more Twitter-like capabilities


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

LinkedIn is the Twitter/X rival no one is talking about | TechCrunch

May 1, 2024 8:37 PM0


Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in the fall of 2022, the market for Twitter alternatives has been saturated with would-be competitors ranging from smaller startups to open source apps to well-funded efforts like Threads from Instagram. But there’s one overlooked Twitter/X alternative that’s been growing right under our collective noses: LinkedIn. As of March, LinkedIn’s web traffic was up 10.6% year-over-year compared with a decline of 15.2% for X, according to traffic analytics data from digital intelligence platform SimilarWeb.

Compared with November 2022 — or right after Musk took over Twitter — X’s web traffic has declined by 10%, while LinkedIn’s has grown 18%.

In March, Twitter/X saw 727.6 million (deduplicated) unique visitors worldwide, a decline of 7.5% year-over-year. LinkedIn had a much smaller total — 269.2 million — but that figure was up 11.1% year-over-year, Similarweb said.

In addition, the firm found that worldwide Android app usage of LinkedIn was up 14% since November 2022 as of March, while X had dropped by 20%.

Another source for app data, Appfigures, doesn’t see the same trend playing out across mobile, however. Its data indicates that LinkedIn’s monthly downloads were up 10% year-over-year, while X’s were down by 24% — but Appfigures attributes this decline to the rebranding of Twitter to X, not other consumer behavior. LinkedIn’s average downloads have stayed consistent before and after the Musk Twitter takeover, the firm said.

Still, given that people work at their desktops and laptops during the day, it makes sense that some business professionals could have shifted a portion of their web usage of X over to LinkedIn as a result of Twitter’s transition.

Now, with features like games (launched today) and short-form videos coming to LinkedIn, it’s clear that the social network’s owner, Microsoft, is hoping to capture the attention and interest of those users who used to network via Twitter — and particularly the younger Gen Z crowd.

The strategy appears to be working. As Appfigures also points out, LinkedIn’s mobile app is earning more than X and Snapchat combined across both iOS and Android.

That’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, given that LinkedIn’s subscriptions are higher priced, starting at $29.99/month and going up to as much as $69.99/month on the app stores. X’s monthly subscriptions instead range from $4 to $22, though users can opt to pay for higher-priced annual subscriptions, as well. Snapchat Plus, meanwhile, is only $3.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

Image Credits: Appfigures

In other words, LinkedIn doesn’t have to sell as many subscriptions to boost its revenue — and it hasn’t had trouble outcompeting X or Snapchat on mobile before.

However, Appfigures notes that LinkedIn’s mobile app revenue has been rapidly growing from $20 million in Q1 2021 to $91 million in Q1 2023. It has now hit its biggest quarter ever, at $119 million in app revenue as of Q1 2024.

By comparison, X and Snapchat saw $23 million and $67 million, respectively, in the first quarter, totaling $90 million combined — or lower than LinkedIn.

LinkedIn launches gaming: 3 logic puzzles aimed at extending time spent on its networking platform


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Instagram is updating its ranking systems to surface more content from smaller, original creators | TechCrunch

April 30, 2024 6:34 PM0


Instagram is introducing a few new changes to its ranking systems to better highlight content from smaller, original creators across the social network. The Meta-owned platform says that historically, creators with large followings and accounts that share reposted content have gotten the most reach on the platform. So now it’s seeking to give all creators an equal footing in terms of reach with a set of new changes that will be implemented over the next few months.

The platform is introducing a ranking change that will give smaller creators more distribution, replacing reposts with original content in recommendations, adding labels to reposted content and removing content aggregators from recommendations.

Instagram says it has been working on a new way to rank recommendations that will show eligible content to a small audience that it thinks will enjoy it. As people engage with the content, the top performing set of Reels will be shown to a slightly wider audience, then the best of these will be shown to an even wider group, and so on. Instagram believes this change will give all creators an equal chance of finding audiences.

In addition, if Instagram finds two or more identical pieces of content on Instagram, it will only recommend the original one. This change means that the original content will directly replace the reposted content in the app’s recommendations. The company notes that it won’t replace content if it has been significantly changed. For instance, Instagram won’t replace content that has been edited to become a meme or a parody. Plus, content will only be replaced in places where Instagram recommends posts, such as the explore page, Reels and in-feed recommendations.

Instagram is also going to start adding labels to reposted content that will link users to the original creator. The label will be visible to followers of the account reposting it. The company says that for now, the original creator or the account reposting the content have the option to remove the label. It’s possible that Instagram might not let creators remove the label in the future.

Another new change will go after meme accounts or pages dedicated to reposting other creators’ content. The company says that in the coming months, accounts that repeatedly post content from other users that they didn’t create or enhance will not be shown in recommendations. Instagram notes that this change won’t affect how it shows people content from aggregator accounts they follow.

Meta adds its AI chatbot, powered by Llama 3, to the search bar across its apps


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joins board of Mastodon's new U.S. non-profit | TechCrunch

April 29, 2024 8:54 PM0


Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder, is among those who have joined the board of directors of Mastodon’s new U.S. non-profit, Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko announced over the weekend. Mastodon’s service, an open source, decentralized social network and rival to Elon Musk’s X, has gained increased attention following the Twitter acquisition as users sought alternatives to X’s would-be “everything app” that felt more like the old Twitter of days past.

Mastodon only somewhat fits that bill. Though the service resembles Twitter in many ways, it’s underpinned by different infrastructure. As part of the “fediverse” — or the open social web made up of interconnected servers communicating over the ActivityPub protocol — Mastodon benefits users who no longer want to be locked into a centralized social network that can be bought and sold to new billionaire owners, like Musk.

Though Mastodon was already established as a non-profit in Germany in 2021, the creation of a 501(c)(3) non-profit in the U.S. will allow the company to receive tax-deductible donations and other financial support. The change also comes as Mastodon has inexplicitly lost its non-profit status in Germany.

“…we have received a notice from the same tax office that our non-profit status has been withdrawn,” wrote Rochko on the Mastodon blog. “This came with no advance warning or explanation. Earlier this year we went through a successful tax audit, which in fact resulted in some favourable adjustments as we’ve been paying too much tax. Our tax advisor immediately submitted an appeal to the decision, but so far, we have no new information,” he said.

Mastodon’s day-to-day operations were unaffected by this change, as most of its income comes from the crowdfunding platform Patreon. It also received donations from Jeff Atwood and Mozilla at $100K apiece, which allowed the company to hire a third full-time developer this year.

However, being established as a non-profit enables Mastodon to communicate how it differs from other social media businesses. While becoming a non-profit in the U.S. will help Mastodon regain its status, it wants to remain based out of the EU.

In addition to Biz Stone, other board members include Esra’a Al Shafei, a human rights advocate and founder of Majal.org; Karien Bezuidenhout, an advocate for openness and experienced board member across sustainable social enterprise; Amir Ghavi, a partner at law firm Fried Frank, where he’s the co-head of the Technology Transactions Practice; and Felix Hlatky, the Chief Financial Officer of Mastodon since 2020, who originally incorporated the project as a non-profit LLC in Germany and helped it raise additional funds.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Curio raises funds for Rio, an 'AI news anchor' in an app | TechCrunch

April 26, 2024 11:37 PM0


AI may be inching its way into the newsroom, as outlets like Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, CNET and others have experimented with articles written by AI. But while most respectable journalists will condemn this use case, there are a number of startups that think AI can enhance the news experience — at least on the consumer’s side. The latest to join the fray is Rio, an “AI news anchor” designed to help readers connect with the stories and topics they’re most interested in from trustworthy sources.

The new app, from the same team behind AI-powered audio journalism startup Curio, was first unveiled at last month’s South by Southwest Festival in Austin. It has raised funding from Khosla Ventures and the head of TED, Chris Anderson, who also backed Curio. (The startup says the round has not yet closed, so it can’t disclose the amount.)

Audio journalism app Curio can now create personalized episodes using AI

Curio itself was founded in 2016 by ex-BBC strategist Govind Balakrishnan and London lawyer Srikant Chakravarti; Rio is a new effort that will expand the use of Curio’s AI technology.

First developed as a feature within Curio’s app, Rio scans headlines from trusted papers and magazines like Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Washington Post and others, and then curates that content into a daily news briefing you can either read or listen to.

In addition, the team says Rio will keep users from finding themselves in an echo chamber by seeking out news that expands their understanding of topics and encourages them to dive deeper.

Image Credits: Curio/Rio

In tests, Rio prepared a daily briefing presented in something of a Story-like interface with graphics and links to news articles you could tap on at the bottom of the screen that would narrate the article using an AI voice. (These were full articles, to be clear, not AI summaries.) You advance through the headlines in the same way as you would tap through a Story on a social media app like Instagram.

Curio says Rio’s AI technology won’t fabricate information and will only reference content from its trusted publishers partners. Rio won’t use publisher content to train an LLM (large language model) without “explicit consent,” it says.

Image Credits: Curio/Rio

Beyond the briefing, you can also interact with Rio in an AI chatbot interface where you can ask about other topics of interest. Suggested topics — like “TikTok ban” or “Ukraine War,” for example — appear as small pills above the text input box. We found the AI was sometimes a little slow to respond at times, but, otherwise, it performed as expected.

Plus, Rio would offer to create an audio episode for your queries if you want to learn more.

Co-founder Balakrishnan said that Curio users had asked Rio over 20,000 questions since it launched as a feature in Curio last May, which is why the company decided to spin out the tech into its own app.

“AI has us all wondering what’s true and what’s not. You can scan AI sites for quick answers, but trusting them blindly is a bit of a gamble,” noted Chakravarti in a statement released around Rio’s debut at SXSW. “Reliable knowledge is hard to come by. Only a lucky few get access to fact-checked, verified information. Rio guides you through the news, turning everyday headlines from trusted sources into knowledge. Checking the news with Rio leaves you feeling fulfilled instead of down.”

It’s hard to say if Rio is sticky enough to demand its standalone product, but it’s easy to imagine an interface like this at some point coming to larger news aggregators, like Google News or Apple News, perhaps, or even to individual publishers’ sites. Meanwhile, Curio will also continue to exit with a focus on audio news.

Curio is not the only startup looking to AI to enhance the news reading experience. Former Twitter engineers are building Particle, an AI-powered news reader, backed by $4.4 million. Another AI-powered news app, Bulletin, also launched to tackle clickbait along with offering news summaries. Artifact had also leveraged AI before exiting to TechCrunch’s parent company, Yahoo.

Rio is currently in early access, which means you’ll need an invitation to get in. Otherwise, you can join the app’s waitlist at rionews.ai. The company tells us it plans to launch publicly later this summer. (As a reward for reading to the bottom, five of you can use my own invite link to get in.)

 

Former Twitter engineers are building Particle, an AI-powered news reader, backed by $4.4M




Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Despite complaints, Apple hasn't yet removed an obviously fake app pretending to be RockAuto | TechCrunch

April 26, 2024 10:49 PM0


Apple’s App Store isn’t always as trustworthy as the company claims. The latest example comes from RockAuto, an auto parts dealer popular with home mechanics and other DIYers, which is upset that a fake app masquerading as its official app has not been removed from the App Store, despite numerous complaints to Apple.

RockAuto co-founder and president Jim Taylor was first alerted to the situation when customers began complaining about “annoying ads” in its app — something he said “surprised us since we don’t have an app.”

Fake RockAuto app on the App Store. Image Credits: Apple (screen capture by TechCrunch)

“We discovered someone placed an app in the Apple App Store using our logo and company information — but with the misspellings and clumsy graphics typical of phishing schemes,” he told TechCrunch.

On closer inspection, the fake app doesn’t look very legit, but it’s easy to see how someone could be fooled. Its App Store images show a photo of a truck with the word “Heading” across the image as if a template was hastily used and the work was unfinished. In addition, despite being titled “RockAuto” on the App Store, the app refers to itself as “RackAuto” throughout its App Store description.

What’s more, it promises customers that “Your privacy is a top priority” and that “all your data is securely stored and encrypted, giving you peace of mind.” That’s not likely, given the nature of this app.

The issue is not only concerning because of the app’s ability to fool at least some portion of RockAuto’s customers but also because it undermines Apple’s messaging about how the App Store is a trusted and secure marketplace — which is why it demands a cut of developers’ in-app purchase transactions. The tech giant has been fighting back against regulations like the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), by claiming these laws would compromise customer safety and privacy. Apple believes that customers will be at risk if they conduct business outside its App Store with unknown parties. But, as these cases show, bad actors can too easily infiltrate its own app marketplace as well.

Image Credits: Fake RockAuto app on the App Store. Image Credits: Apple (screen capture by TechCrunch)

Apple has so far ignored RockAuto’s requests to remove the fake app, which were all sent through proper channels, according to documentation the company shared with TechCrunch.

While searching for a solution to this problem, RockAuto came across our coverage of a similar situation with LastPass. The password manager was also the victim of a similar scheme when a fake app pretending to be LastPass was live on the App Store for weeks. LastPass eventually had to warn its customers publicly in a blog post, as Apple had not yet taken the fake app down until after the press coverage and LastPass’s own post went live.

Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment at the time. The company wasn’t immediately available for requests for comment about RockAuto’s complaint either.

Apple pulled a fake app masquerading as password manager LastPass from the App Store

Taylor says that RockAuto’s Customer Service manager initially reached out to Apple to resolve the situation. When he didn’t get a response, Taylor got involved.

“It’s mostly one-way since the only replies we’ve had from Apple are ‘you shouldn’t have emailed, go use the online form’ and ‘upload screen prints of the app store listing and your trademark registration,’” Taylor explains, both of which RockAuto had already done, its documentation indicates.

“Neither the uploaded documents nor the online form submissions produced any response at all,” Taylor noted, “not even the promised ‘case number in 24 hours’ despite multiple submissions,” he said.

Since filing the complaint on April 18, 2024, RockAuto has shared its trademark registration with Apple, emailed the company, called the number provided on Apple’s copyright infringement page, sent a DMCA Takedown request and filled out Apple’s required forms.

It has not received anything other than automated responses and the fake app remains live as of the time of publication.

Apple’s reluctant, punitive compliance with regulators will burn its political and developer goodwill


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Despite complaints, Apple hasn't yet removed an obviously fake app pretending to be RockAuto | TechCrunch

April 26, 2024 8:49 PM0


Apple’s App Store isn’t always as trustworthy as the company claims. The latest example comes from  RockAuto, an auto parts dealer popular with home mechanics and other DIYers, which is upset that a fake app masquerading as its official app has not been removed from the App Store, despite numerous complaints to Apple.

RockAuto Co-Founder and President Jim Taylor was first alerted to the situation when customers began complaining about “annoying ads” in its app — something he said “surprised us since we don’t have an app.”

“We discovered someone placed an app in the Apple App Store using our logo and company information — but with the misspellings and clumsy graphics typical of phishing schemes,” he told TechCrunch.

On closer inspection, the fake app doesn’t look very legit, but it’s easy to see how someone could be fooled. Its App Store images show a photo of a truck with the word “Heading” across the image as if a template was hastily used and the work was unfinished. In addition, despite being titled “RockAuto” on the App Store, the app refers to itself as “RackAuto” throughout its App Store description.

What’s more, it promises customers that “Your privacy is a top priority” and that “all your data is securely stored and encrypted, giving you peace of mind.” That’s not likely, given the nature of this app.

The issue is not only concerning because of the app’s ability to fool at least some portion of RockAuto’s customers but also because it undermines Apple’s messaging about how the App Store is a trusted and secure marketplace — which is why it demands a cut of developers’ in-app purchase transactions. The tech giant has been fighting back against regulations like the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), by claiming these laws would compromise customer safety and privacy. Apple believes that customers will be at risk if they conduct business outside its

App Store with unknown parties. But, as these cases show, bad actors can too easily infiltrate its own app marketplace as well.

Image Credits: Fake RockAuto app on the App Store

Apple has so far ignored RockAuto’s requests to remove the fake app, which were all sent through proper channels, according to documentation the company shared with TechCrunch.

While searching for a solution to this problem, RockAuto came across our coverage of a similar situation with LastPass. The password manager was also the victim of a similar scheme when a fake app pretending to be LastPass was live on the App Store for weeks. LastPass eventually had to warn its customers publicly in a blog post, as Apple had not yet taken the fake app down until after the press coverage and LastPass’s own post went live.

Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment at the time. The company wasn’t immediately available for requests for comment about RockAuto’s complaint either.

Apple pulled a fake app masquerading as password manager LastPass from the App Store

Taylor says that RockAuto’s Customer Service manager initially reached out to Apple to resolve the situation. When he didn’t get a response, Taylor got involved.

“It’s mostly one-way since the only replies we’ve had from Apple are ‘you shouldn’t have emailed, go use the online form’ and ‘upload screen prints of the app store listing and your trademark registration,’” Taylor explains, both of which RockAuto had already done, its documentation indicates.

“Neither the uploaded documents nor the online form submissions produced any response at all,” Taylor noted, “not even the promised ‘case number in 24 hours’ despite multiple submissions,” he said.

Since filing the complaint on April 18, 2024, RockAuto has shared its trademark registration with Apple, emailed the company, called the number provided on Apple’s copyright infringement page, sent a DMCA Takedown request, and filled out Apple’s required forms.

It has not received anything other than automated responses and the fake app remains live as of the time of publication

Apple’s reluctant, punitive compliance with regulators will burn its political and developer goodwill


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Bluesky backs a project that would let Mastodon apps, like Ivory, work with its network | TechCrunch

April 25, 2024 10:38 PM0


Social networks Bluesky and Mastodon may soon be accessible from within a single app — at least, that’s what Bluesky hopes. The new decentralized social network, originally incubated inside Jack Dorsey-run Twitter, is backing a project that would connect — or “bridge” — Mastodon requests into Bluesky requests so that consumer apps, like Ivory, would be compatible with Bluesky, too.

The project, dubbed SkyBridge, was among the recipients of a small distribution of $4,800 in grant funding from Bluesky, distributed across projects. SkyBridge was the second-largest recipient in this current cohort, with $800 of the total.

Bluesky had announced last month that it would use some portion of its funds to fuel efforts in the developer ecosystem via the AT Protocol Grant program. From a financial standpoint, the program is fairly insignificant, as it’s only doling out $10,000 in grants, with $4,800 already distributed. That’s not enough to found a new company in this space, but it represents a way to encourage developers who may have wanted to dig into the new AT Protocol anyway. It also serves as an early signal of the kind of development work Bluesky supports — something that could help drive adoption among developers who have been previously (and repeatedly) burned by Twitter and its changing priorities.

Other program recipients are doing valuable work as well.

For example, Blacksky Algorithms is building a suite of services to provide custom moderation services for Bluesky’s Black users. Others are building Bluesky consumer apps, developer tools, analytics resources and more.

But SkyBridge is particularly interesting because it could potentially open up the small startup to a wider audience.

Twitter’s restrictive API may leave researchers out in the cold

Unlike Mastodon and other decentralized apps powered by the older ActivityPub protocol, Bluesky is developing a new, decentralized social networking protocol. Unfortunately, for end users who have begun exploring the open-source social networks broadly known as the “fediverse,” Bluesky’s decision to build on a different protocol means users have to switch apps to access Bluesky’s network. They can’t use their preferred Mastodon app to browse Bluesky content, that is.

If successful, SkyBridge could change that as it would be able to translate Mastodon API calls to Bluesky API calls. The bridge is currently being tested on Ivory on iOS and Mac; it’s the Mastodon app from the company that previously developed a popular third-party Twitter app, called Tweetbot. Notes SkyBridge’s developer @videah.net on Bluesky, the project is currently undergoing a significant rewrite from Dart to Rust, which is why its GitHub repo hasn’t seen much activity lately.

Still, he thinks the work is promising.

“It’s already proving to be much more stable, hoping to show it off soon,” videah posted on Bluesky when sharing the news of the grant.

Today, Bluesky has nearly 5.6 million users, while the wider ActivityPub-backed fediverse has over 10 million users. Instagram Threads (which is integrating with ActivityPub) now has more than 150 million monthly active users, Meta announced this week during earnings.

The move to bridge Bluesky and Mastodon has been the subject of some debate as of late. People have disagreed about how bridging should be done, or whether a bridge should be built at all.  Another software developer, Ryan Barrett was the recipient of some backlash on GitHub when building another bridge called Bridgy Fed, which would be opt-out by default — meaning Mastodon posts would show up on Bluesky even if the post’s author hadn’t opted into this. He readjusted his plans to build a discoverable opt-in instead, which would allow users to request to follow accounts on the different networks.

With its backing of SkyBridge, Bluesky is signaling a desire to blur the lines between Mastodon and Bluesky.

Eventually, people may not need to think about what protocol an app runs on, just like no one thinks about their email client using SMTP, POP3 or IMAP. And in an ideal outcome, people could connect to friends on any social network, regardless of its underpinning, and see their friends’ replies in return, too.

Bluesky and Mastodon users are having a fight that could shape the next generation of social media


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

RevenueCat raises $12M Series C as it expands its subscription management to the web | TechCrunch

April 25, 2024 8:41 PM0


RevenueCat, a top subscription management platform for apps that monetize via in-app purchases, is now flush with new capital as it expands to the web. The company has closed on a $12 million Series C led by Adjacent, following the launch of a new product, RevenueCat Billing, that allows web app developers to integrate subscription purchases into any website. Later, it will also support Roku.

The timing of the product’s launch is notable, as it arrives amid the implementation of the E.U.’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulation, which is forcing Apple to open up the iPhone and the App Store to new completion. As a result, Apple initially blocked iPhone web apps (Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs) in the E.U., likely fearing developers would abandon its App Store, before reversing that decision under regulatory pressure.

For RevenueCat, however, the changes ahead for iOS — not to mention Apple’s refusal to cut its default 15%-30% commission rate — mean there are now more developers who are looking to the web to monetize their apps.

“It could be for progressive web apps or any kind of customer that wants to take payments outside of the App Store,” explains RevenueCat CEO Jacob Eiting, of the new web billing product. “It’s going to play within all the new [DMA] rules…it’s going to be a pretty significant product expansion for us,” he said.

The company says it moved in this direction because of the inbound interest from developers. Even if they didn’t have a web app, many developers wanted to shift their customers to the web to pay.

Though Stripe already enables this functionality, what developers were lacking was a system that’s specifically designed for consumer subscription apps. Now, even if developers are processing payments through Stripe or others, they’re getting their data and insights in the same format and within the same dashboard where they already manage their in-app purchase data. This makes it easier for them to focus on how their subscription apps are monetizing, overall, regardless of where the payment comes from — web or mobile.

Though Apple has historically not allowed app developers to steer customers to the web from inside their iOS apps, it has permitted steering from other channels — like the developer’s website or emails to customers. The E.U.’s DMA rules should also permit developers to steer customers to the web from inside their mobile apps, too.

With RevenueCat Billing, essentially a web SDK, developers can accept subscription payments from any website. It joins other recent product releases like Paywall, Targeting, and Experiments, which are all designed to help developers grow their revenue. Today, RevenueCat powers subscriptions in over 30,000 apps and handles over $2 billion in subscriptions annually, it says.

The new Series C from Adjacent (led by Nico Wittenborn — a Series A investor, now board member) totals $12 million. Other investors include Y Combinator, Index Ventures, Volo Ventures, and SaaStr Fund. Ahead of this round, RevenueCat had raised $56 million, bringing its total raise to $68+ million.

In addition to fueling its new products, the fundraise will help RevenueCat expand to new markets, including Japan and South Korea.

“Our main competitor is ‘cobbling together monetization technology yourself’,” said RevenueCat CTO and co-founder Miguel Carranza, in a statement about the fundraise and expansions. “In the U.S., we’ve done a good job at educating developers, product people, marketers, and CEOs on the challenges of building in-house. In many other regions, it’s unfortunately still the default for businesses to sink valuable resources into something that provides zero differentiation or value for that business’s end users. We’re investing in those regions by expanding our support for languages and local currencies later this year, deepening our relationships with local technology partners and agencies, as well as hiring in-market where possible,” he added.

Image Credits: RevenueCat

RevenueCat is not yet a profitable company, but Eiting says that profitability is always on the horizon. The company still has the money it raised in 2021 and now has over $40 million in the bank in addition to around $20 million in ARR. It has also halved its burn rate since last summer.

“There’s so much stuff we can build by deploying capital and doing it on a profitable basis would just slow us down right now. So while there’s access to capital, which isn’t always the case…the best thing for our customers and investors is to take more capital and deploy it faster,” he told TechCrunch.

“RevenueCat is too important to too many apps to risk the company driving towards a financial cliff. This may be counter to the prevailing narrative of how venture-backed companies should be built, but our investors are aligned with us and know that Miguel and I are leading the company to maximize the value for developers. Investors make more money when developers make more money,” the CEO added in a blog post. “To that end, we’re still aiming to take the company public in this decade,” he said.




Software Development in Sri Lanka

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