GameSnacks brings HTML5 games to Google products

Last February we announced GameSnacks, a HTML5 gaming platform from Area 120, Google’s workshop for experimental products. We launched GameSnacks to test whether lightweight, casual games would resonate with people who use the internet via low memory devices on 2G and 3G networks, especially in countries like India and Indonesia.Since then, millions of people from around the world have played our games. GameSnacks now has more than 100 games built by early game development partners. These games ...
Tags: Google, Indonesia, India, New York City, Developers, Kenya, New Delhi, Area 120, Ani Mohan, India Indonesia Nigeria, Cake Slice Ninja

A Czech developer helps fellow students learn remotely

As students all over the world were making the transition to online learning last spring, 17-year-old Matěj Krček, a Google Developer Group member, realized that many of his fellow students in Czechia needed tutorials in their native language on how to use Google Workspace.Matěj usually works on coding and programming projects within his Google Developer Group, a program that connects local developers with similar interests, and it gave him a deep familiarity with Google technologies.  He realiz...
Tags: Google, Education, Developers, Google Calendar, Matej, Czechia, Google in Europe, Google Developer Group, Jennfier Kohl, Matěj Krček, Czech Ministry of Education Conference, Czech Ministry of Education Conference He, Ivana Kopkova, Google YouTube Channel

Top 100 subscription apps grew 34% to $13B in 2020, share of total spend remained the same

Apps saw record downloads and consumer spending in 2020, globally reaching somewhere around to , according to various estimates. But a growing part of that spend was subscription payments, a new report from Sensor Tower indicates. Last year, global subscription app revenue from the top 100 subscription apps (excluding games), climbed 34% year-over-year to $13 billion, up from $9.7 billion in 2019. The App Store, not surprisingly, accounted for a sizable chunk of this subscription revenue, giv...
Tags: Apple, Google, Google Play, Mobile, Apps, Youtube, Disney, Tech, Developers, Netflix, App Stores, Play Store, Espn, Subscriptions, Google One Google

Google updates Play Store policies on gamified loyalty programs following confusion in India

Google has updated and broadened its Play Store policy on gaming loyalty programs to help developers better understand the practices that are permitted, months after confusion about the guidance prompted some backlash in India, the biggest Android market by users. The company said on Thursday that it now specifies guidance on gamified loyalty programs that are based on a qualified monetary transaction in an app and offer prizes of cash or other real-world cash equivalent perks. Scores of apps ru...
Tags: Google, Android, Apps, Asia, India, Tech, Developers, Frey, Google India, Samat, Sameer Samat, Suzanne Frey

LottieFiles, a platform for the animation format, lands $9 million Series A led by M12, Microsoft’s venture fund

LottieFiles, a platform for JSON-based Lottie animations, has raised a Series A of $9 million. The round was led by M12, Microsoft’s venture capital arm, with participation from returning investor 500 Startups. Based in San Francisco and Kuala Lumpur, LottieFiles was founded in 2018. The platform includes Lottie creation, editing and testing tools, and a marketplace for animations. It now claims about one million users from 65,000 companies, including Airbnb, Google, TikTok, Disney and Netflix, ...
Tags: Fundings & Exits, Startups, TC, Asia, Design, Microsoft, Southeast Asia, San Francisco, Developers, Netflix, Malaysia, Animation, Airbnb, Lottie, PNG, JSON

Twitter’s new API platform now opened to academic researchers

Twitter today is rolling out a new product track on its API platform, as part of its ongoing efforts to rebuild the Twitter API from the ground up. The track, which aims to serve the needs of the academic research community’s efforts, offers broader access to the Twitter archive and fewer restrictions on tweet retrievals, so researchers can access the entire history of the public conversation on Twitter’s platform. In addition to gaining access to all the Twitter API v2 endpoints released to dat...
Tags: Twitter, Developer, Tech, Research, Developers, Api, Academic Research, Researchers, Twitter Researchers

What I learned from Google for Startups Founders Academy

For years, I struggled with eczema and dry, itchy, sensitive skin. I looked endlessly for products that were healthy, effective and designed for the Black community. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I decided to create my own. As a former human rights attorney, I am passionate about giving people access to things that make their lives better and more beautiful. Spraise is a healthy skincare company designed to meet the needs of women of color. At first my local community loved the pr...
Tags: Google, Small Business, America, Entrepreneurs, Developers, United States, Founders Academy, Google for Startups Founders Academy, Dominique Boseman, Tony Wilkins, Goodie Nation, Joey Womack, Tiffini Gatlin

21 websites and apps to make your 2021 better

Google Registry is always on the lookout for interesting websites that have launched using our top-level domains. 2020 was a rough year, so to help you make 2021 (at least a little bit) better, we’ve rounded up 21 ways you can start something .new, get .appy, turn a new .page, and make .dev(elopment) a breeze. Start something .new: Collage.new:Looking for a new direction in 2021? Craft an inspiring vision board with BeFunky’s Collage Maker.Resume.new:If you’re looking for a new job this year, sp...
Tags: Google, Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Developers, Sites, Shopify, Google Registry, Flutter Google, Christina Yeh

This Week in Apps: Parler deplatformed, alt apps rise, looking back at 2020 trends

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 is as hot as ever, with  218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day...
Tags: Apple, Ios, Google, Amazon, Android, TC, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, China, India, Samsung, Tech, Paypal, Ios Apps, Developers

Swimm raises $5.7M to help teams document their code

Most developers don’t enjoy writing documentation for their code and that makes life quite a bit harder when a new team member tries to get started on working on a company’s codebase. And even when there are documentation or in-line comments in the source code, that’s often not updated and over time, that information becomes close to irrelevant. Swimm, which today announced that it has raised a $5.7 million seed round, aims to automate as much of this process as possible after the initial docume...
Tags: TC, Developer, Israel, US, Tech, Information, Ceo, Developers, Code, United States, Comment, Swimm, Documentation, Toledano, Pitango, TAU Ventures Axon Ventures

Hash Code 2021 is going virtual

Hash Code, Google’s flagship team programming competition, is back...and fully virtual. Join developers around the world as they grow their coding skills and work to optimize real Google engineering problems. Registration is open now — and whether you’re just starting your coding journey or consider yourself a programming expert, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about Hash Code 2021:Solve real Google engineering problems. Hash Code problems are based off of real Google engineering probl...
Tags: Google, Developers, Facebook Group, Torey Markowitz

This Week in Apps: Social apps react to riots, Parler gets booted, FTC threatens regulation

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 is as hot as ever, with  204 billion downloads and $120 billion in global consumer spend in 2019. Consumer spend also hit a record $112 billion across iOS and Android alone. Not including third-party Chinese app stores, iOS and Android users 130 billion apps in 2020. Due to COVID-19, time spent in apps 25% year-over-year ...
Tags: Apple, Google, TC, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram, Microsoft, China, US, Tech, Developers, Bbc, Beijing, Epic

Developer Says Apple Wanted Him To Change App’s Branding Because It 'Promoted' Controlled Substances

In Apple’s world, an app can be inappropriate one day, but acceptable the next. That’s what the developer of Amphetamine—an app designed to keep Macs from going to sleep, which is useful in situations such as when a file is downloading or when a specific app is running—learned recently when Apple got in touch with him…Read more...
Tags: Apple, Apps, Science, Developers, App Store, Amphetamine

This Week in Apps: Apple bans party app, China loses 39K iOS games, TikTok births a ‘Ratatousical’

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 is as hot as ever, with  204 billion total downloads and $120 billion in global consumer spend in 2019. Not including Chinese third-party app stores, iOS and Android users in 2020 130 billion apps and spent a record $112 billion. In 2019, people spent three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Due to COVID-...
Tags: Apple, Google, Android, Google Play, Facebook, Apps, New York, Hollywood, Media, Instagram, China, Disney, Samsung, Tech, Ios Apps, Developers

Twitter expands API features for developers tracking the public conversation

Twitter is rolling out new features to its developer community with an update to its recently rebuilt Twitter API. One addition to the now expanded collection of API v2 endpoints will allow app developers to eventually better support Twitter’s newer conversation controls — the feature that allows users to specify who can reply to their tweets. Other endpoints allow developers to track tweets by particular accounts, those mentioning a certain account, or retrieve a list of of accounts who follow ...
Tags: Social, Apps, Twitter, Developer, Tech, Developers, Api, SocialOpinions, Jamie Maguire, Twitter API v2 Twitter

AWS launches CloudShell, a web-based shell for command-line access to AWS

AWS today launched CloudShell, a new, fully-featured web-based shell environment, based on Amazon Linux 2, for developers who want to be able to use some of their favorite command-line tools — and scripts — right inside the AWS Console. CloudShell, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels explained in his announcement today, is a new browser-based service that will give developers access to a Linux console. When uses start a new CloudShell session, it will automatically be pre-configured to have the same API...
Tags: Google, Cloud, Microsoft, Developer, Tech, Developers, Aws, Command Line, Google Cloud Platform, Werner Vogels, Vogels, Asia Pacific Tokyo, Amazon Linux, US East N, AWS re:Invent 2020, CloudShell Amazon CTO

Appboxo gets $1.1 million seed to build a mini-app ecosystem for all developers

Pioneered by WeChat almost four years ago, mini-apps are now common in China and India, and gaining traction in other markets, too. Mini-apps, or lightweight apps designed for integration into host apps, allow smartphone users to access several services through one app, saving them data and storage space. They also give host apps more ways to make revenue. But most mini-app ecosystems are currently tied to a specific app or company. Appboxo, a Singapore-based startup, wants to make mini-apps mor...
Tags: TC, Asia, Europe, China, Southeast Asia, Singapore, India, Tech, Developers, United States, Klook, Zalora, Sdk, China Mobile, APAC, Kaniyet Rayev

This Week in Apps: Apple scolds adtech, Facebook hit with antitrust suits, Twitter buys Squad

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 is as hot as ever, with  204 billion downloads and $120 billion in global consumer spend in 2019. Not including third-party Chinese app stores, iOS and Android users 130 billion apps in 2020. Consumer spend also hit a record $112 billion across iOS and Android alone. In 2019, people spent three hours and 40 minutes per day ...
Tags: Apple, Google, Amazon, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, Twitter, Spotify, London, Sweden, Instagram, Australia, California, France, Saudi Arabia, China

Google Is Now Calling on You to Help Develop Its Enigmatic Fuchsia OS

While it’s never been officially called a replacement for Android or Chrome OS, Fuchsia is an operating system Google has been working on for the last five years, and this week, Google announced that now it’s opening up Fuchsia to public contributions. Read more...
Tags: Google, Android, Science, Os, Developers, Operating Systems, Consumer Tech, Fuchsia, Fuchsia Development Goes Public

This Week in Apps: Snapchat clones TikTok, India bans 43 Chinese apps, more data on App Store commission changes

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications, and the overall app economy. The app industry is as hot as ever, with  204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People now spend three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a  $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those wi...
Tags: Apple, Google, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, Microsoft, Washington, China, India, Samsung, Tech, Paypal, Developers, Snapchat, Nintendo, Microsoft Office

Apple is slashing its App Store payment fees in half for smaller developers, to 15% from 30%

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Karl Mondon/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images Apple on Wednesday announced it's reducing the commission it takes on App Store in-app purchases, to 15% from 30%, for small developers starting January 1. Apple's price reduction will apply to developers that made up to $1 million in revenue over the past year. Apple has been engaged in a bitter fight with major developers such as Spotify and Epic Games over its App Store commission. Its rules have attra...
Tags: Apple, Spotify, Europe, US, Trends, Developers, New York Times, Tim Cook, Antitrust, App Store, Match Group, Epic Games, Tech Insider, Getty Images Apple, Isobel Asher Hamilton, Visit Business Insider

Apple is slashing its App Store payment fees in half for smaller developers, from 30% to 15%

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Karl Mondon/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images Apple announced Wednesday it's reducing the commission it takes on App Store in-app purchases from 30% to 15% for small developers, starting January 1, 2021. Apple's price reduction will apply to developers who made up to $1 million in revenue over the last year. Apple has been engaged in a bitter fight over its App Store payments commission with major developers such as Spotify and Epic Games. Its rules ...
Tags: Apple, Europe, US, Trends, Developers, New York Times, Tim Cook, Antitrust, App Store, Match Group, Epic Games, Tech Insider, Getty Images Apple, Isobel Asher Hamilton, Spotify Tinder, Visit Business Insider

This Week in Apps: Conservative apps surge, Instagram redesigned, TikTok gets ghosted

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the TechCrunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app industry is as hot as ever, with   204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People are now spending three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a   $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher ...
Tags: Apple, Ios, Google, Android, Mobile, Facebook, Apps, Hbo, Instagram, China, Nigeria, Time, Disney, US, Samsung, Tech

What to expect in Series 2 of the Apps, Games & Insights podcast

Can apps become the key to education?Interest in e-learning has been growing over the last few years but, with the emergence of distance learning, it’s poised to change all types of education. In the first episode, we talk with Elliott Rayner, Head Of Product Marketing, and John Quintana, Head of Guided Learning Experiences, from online language learning developer Babbel. Elliott and John discuss how Babbel is transforming and "thinking big" about the future of education: Can apps take the place...
Tags: Android, Google Play, Developers, John, Babbel, Deliveroo, Daniel, Drew, Jam, Lifesum, KPI, Nir Eyal, Howard Chen, Daniel Farkas, Star Trek Fleet Command, Lily Sheringham

Google Maps launches a new developer solution for on-demand ride and delivery companies

The Google Maps Platform, the developer side of Google Maps, is launching a new service for on-demand rides and delivery companies today that ties together some of the platform’s existing capabilities with new features for finding nearby drivers and sharing trip and order progress information with customers. This isn’t Google Maps Platform’s first foray into this business. Back in 2018, the company launched a solution for in-app navigation for ridesharing companies, for example. At the time, ...
Tags: Google, Cloud, Developer, Tech, Developers, Google-Maps, Google Maps Platform, Eli Danziger

Coalition for App Fairness, a group fighting for app store reforms, adds 20 new partners

The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), a newly-formed advocacy group pushing for increased regulation over app stores, has more than doubled in size with today’s announcement of 20 new partners — just one month after its launch. The organization, led by top app publishers and critics including Epic Games, Deezer, Basecamp, Tile, Spotify and others, debuted in late September to fight back against Apple and Google’s control over app stores, and particularly the stores’ rules around in-app purchases...
Tags: Apple, Google, Apps, Spotify, Tech, Developers, Policy, Regulation, Itunes, United States, Coalition, Schibsted, App Stores, App-store, Advocacy, Sdk

Facebook introduces a new Messenger API with support for Instagram

Following the updates to Instagram and Messenger that delivered cross-app communication and other features, Facebook today announced its Messenger API has also been updated to allow businesses to manage their communications across Instagram, in addition to Messenger . Before today, businesses could only respond to customer inquiries through the Instagram app and through Facebook’s unified business inbox. This could work for some smaller businesses, but for larger brands with a high volum...
Tags: Social, Facebook, Apps, Messenger, Instagram, Shopping, Social Media, Brands, Tech, Developers, Messages, Api, However Facebook, Clarabridge, TechStyle Fashion Group, Stories Facebook

Application security platform NeuraLegion raises $4.7 million seed led by DNX Ventures

A video call group photo of NeuraLegion’s team working remotely around the world Application security platform NeuraLegion announced today it has raised a $4.7 million seed round led by DNX Ventures, an enterprise-focused investment firm. The funding included participation from Fusion Fund, J-Ventures and Incubate Fund. The startup also announced the launch of a new self-serve, community version that allows developers to sign up on their own for the platform and start performing scans with...
Tags: Security, Fundings & Exits, Startups, TC, Enterprise, Israel, US, Tech, Developers, Tel Aviv Israel, Mostar Bosnia, SAN FRANCISCO LONDON, DNX Ventures, Hiro Rio Maeda, Application Security Testing, DAST

Frontegg raises $5M to help SaaS companies build SaaS faster

Frontegg, a Tel Aviv-based startup that helps SaaS companies build their products faster by giving them access to a set of enterprise-ready building blocks for often-used features like authentication and notifications, today announced that it has raised a $5 million seed round. The round was led by Pitango, with backing from i3 Equity and Global Founders Capital. The founders of Frontegg, Sagi Rodin (CEO) and Aviad Mizrachi (CTO), met during their time at security company Check Point, where Mizr...
Tags: Startups, TC, Tel Aviv, Tech, Investment, Developers, SaaS, Global Founders Capital, Cto, Rodin, Check Point, Mizrachi, Pitango, Recent Funding, Frontegg, Aviad Mizrachi

Funding Black founders fuels generational change

As part of a series of racial equity commitments made in June, we announced the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, a $5 million initiative to provide cash awards up to $100,000 to Black led startups in the US. These awards are non-dilutive, meaning that unlike most investments, founders are not giving up any ownership in their company in exchange for funding.  Today, we’re announcing the 76 inspiring founderswho have been selected to receive awards from the Black Founders Fund. They’re bui...
Tags: Europe, Small Business, US, Entrepreneurs, Developers, Chicago, United States, Brazil, Ashley Edwards, Varuna, Nate Washington, Qoins, Seyi Fabode, Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, Burks Solomon, Jewel Burks Solomon