Author: TechBrunch
At its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday, the maker of Snapchat unveiled new tools for creators aimed at bringing its app closer to rivals like TikTok and Instagram. The company also said it would make it easier for creators to connect with brands for sponsorship deals and partnerships. In an effort to catch up with its rivals, Snapchat creators can now reply to users' comments on their videos with video to further engage with their audience. Video replies to comments have been available on TikTok and Instagram for some time and are often used to keep conversations going in…
The makers of Snapchat announced a series of new AI features coming to the app at its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday, most notably that the app's My AI chatbot has been updated to respond to more complex snaps and behave more similarly to Google Lens. For example, you can take a photo of a foreign menu and send it to My AI to have it translated into English, or you can take a photo of a plant and send it to the chatbot to find out its name. You can also take a photo of a parking sign…
Snapchat announced at its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday that it's introducing a new AI video generation tool for creators that will allow select creators to generate AI videos from text prompts, and soon from image prompts as well. Snap said the tool is available in beta on the web to some creators starting today, and that there are currently no plans to open Snap AI Video to everyone outside of creators. The company didn't reveal any details about the AI video generation tool during the keynote, but a company spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email that the tool…
Snapchat is rolling out a stripped-down version of the app to some users as part of a test to make the disappearing photo app easier to use, the company announced at the Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday. “Simple Snapchat” declutters the app's home screen by removing the Snap Map and Stories tabs and consolidates the navigation bar into three icons: Chat on the left, Camera in the middle, and Spotlight, Snapchat's TikTok rival, on the right. Stories and Snap Map won't disappear completely from Simple Snapchat, but will be hidden away in other parts of the app. Stories will appear…
Just a day after third-party app stores were officially allowed on the iPad in the European Union, Epic Games announced on Tuesday that the Epic Games Store is now available to install on iPadOS, but only if you live in an EU country and have an Apple account registered in that country. Tuesday's announcement relates to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a set of rules on market fairness and promoting competition. Over the past year, the European Commission has designated several so-called gatekeepers that operate “core platform services.” iPadOS, the operating system that powers the iPad, was a later…
Google says it's making changes to Google Search to make it clearer which images in search results have been generated by AI or edited by AI tools. In the coming months, Google will begin flagging images generated and edited by AI in the “About this image” window in Search, Google Lens, and Android's Circle to Search feature. Similar disclosures may apply to other Google properties, such as YouTube, in the future. Google says it plans to provide more information on this later this year. Importantly, only images that contain “C2PA metadata” will be flagged as AI-manipulated in search. C2PA stands…
Friend-founders Thomas Magnano and Benoit Elbreteau set out to make life a little easier if you want to move your music between streaming services. The duo started Soundiiz in 2013, and while the company was originally meant to be a music search interface, they realized they had something even more useful to offer: a way to move playlists between dozens of different streaming platforms. How does Soundiiz work and why is it important to move your playlists from Spotify to Apple Music? Get the answers in TechCrunch Minute. Source link
iOS 18 allows users to replace the default camera app on the lock screen with a third-party app. Halide and Obscura, two popular camera apps designed as alternatives to Apple's default camera app with manual controls and different image processing algorithms, have already released updates that leverage that potential and feature lock screen shortcuts. Replacing the camera button on your lock screen takes just a few taps. First, you need to long-press on the wallpaper to enter the lock screen customization mode, where you can edit your lock screen or create a new one. Next, remove the default lock screen…
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…
Has social media peaked? It's an interesting question to ponder after the release of an iOS app that provides a social media experience for just one person (you). At first glance, SocialAI, billed as a pure “AI social network,” looks similar to Twitter, but with one very striking difference from traditional microblogging: there are no other human users at all. SocialAI allows you to share your thoughts with an always-available AI-powered bot that provides infinite chat replies. Think about it: your comments on SocialAI will never be ignored or go unanswered all together. It won't just be ignored. Fake users…