Author: TechBrunch

Less than a week after the Wall St. Journal reported that Snapchat's feature called “Solar System” was increasing anxiety among teens, the company is making adjustments to how the feature works. I responded with The current ranking system for paid subscribers shows how close you are to your Snapchat friends by showing them their location in the solar system. For example, a friend with a Mercury position is someone you communicate with often, while a friend with a Uranus position is someone you don't get very close to. Of course, online chats don't necessarily correlate with real-world relationships, and such…

Despite the similarities, Instagram threads are not X. At least it's not X yet. The text-centric social network, and meta answer to Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter), missed its moment to shine on Friday when users turned to X again to discuss the New York/New Jersey area earthquake. The surge in traffic propelled #earthquake to the top of X's trending section, followed by other affected regions such as “East Coast,” “Long Island,” “Philadelphia,” “Manhattan,” and “Brooklyn.” I did. Meanwhile, even though the quake occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. Friday morning, earthquake-related terms didn't appear in the trending section of the…

Welcome to Startups Weekly — a weekly roundup of must-sees from the world of startups. Sign up here to receive the Startups Weekly newsletter in your inbox. This is the best thing that's happened this year… That's right, we're back with all the must-see companies from the current group of Y Combinator startups. Not surprisingly, AI was the top theme, with 86 out of 247 companies calling themselves AI startups, but given that 187 mentioned AI in their pitches, it's in bubble territory. is reaching. We've rounded up some of his favorites, including the 18 most interesting and his TechCrunch…

At the TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 event in Boston on April 25, there's one session to watch for early-stage companies navigating the turbulent waters of technology and staffing strategies. The session, titled “How to Evolve Your Technology and Staff Strategy for Future Rounds,” will be led by Brad Stanton, Managing Director of Business Development at Sand Technologies. Mr. Stanton leverages his extensive experience in consulting and software development at leading global companies such as Dell and Accenture to delve into the complexities of becoming an operational unicorn, not just a commercial unicorn, even in the face of resource constraints. I'll…

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai took to the stage Wednesday at a Stanford University event hosted by the university's business school to share his thoughts on running one of the world's most valuable technology companies. provided some small insights about. Pichai has been a bit unwell lately, so this was a notable appearance. Google is widely seen as a laggard in its generative AI efforts, trailing behind Microsoft-funded OpenAI. That's due to the fact that Pichai's company has focused on his AI for the better part of the past decade, with Google researchers writing a formative paper on the transformer model…

Meta has announced changes to its rules regarding AI-generated content and manipulated media following criticism from the Oversight Board. Starting next month, the company announced it will label a wider range of content, including applying the “Made with AI” badge to deepfakes. Additional contextual information may be displayed if the content is manipulated in other ways that pose a high risk of misleading the public about important issues. The move could lead to the social networking giant adding more labels to potentially misleading content, which is important in a year with many elections around the world. However, in the case…

Although Spotify's Live Audio app is currently unavailable, the company is using the technology to better connect fans and artists with its “Listening Party” feature. This feature gives engaged fans the opportunity to attend events like an artist's album launch and ask questions. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has been testing the feature in the US and Indonesia since December 2023, with plans to expand to more markets. “While it's still early days, we've had several artists test it in recent months, including Zara Larsson and Bleachers,” a Spotify spokesperson said. Image credit: Threads/Chris Listening parties are listed…

Get ready to ignite the world of technology with your passion and expertise! TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is set to rock San Francisco from October 28th to 30th. We're looking for vibrant speakers like you to liven up your event with your insights. Use this opportunity to apply and share your knowledge before April 26th. Here's how to become a speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt. Are you a pioneering startup founder, an insightful venture capitalist, or an industry celebrity? We want to hear from you. Inspire your fellow founders, innovators, and entrepreneurs by sharing your expertise across the startup ecosystem. Create your…

Renowned startup accelerator Y Combinator held one of its twice-yearly Demo Day events this week, showcasing hundreds of startups that have recently passed through its program. Judging from our coverage of the two-day event, TechCrunch found a lot to like about the exhibitors. However, if you're a little tired of AI chatter, you won't find the overview very enjoyable. AI wasn't the only thing on display. So today in his TechCrunch Minute, we've compiled some trends and vibes from the latest for your enjoyment. Please join us live if you can. If not, here are some highlights and trends that…

The tech-wide reckoning that began in 2022 and ran throughout into 2023 has continued into this year. And while 2024’s losses are not at that scale, they’re still significant, driven by big names like Pixar, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok. It remains to be seen if this year’s layoff trends follow last year’s, in which layoffs slowed down in the summer, before cuts began ramping up yet again toward the winter. Momentum for a tech sector rebound remains slow to build, outside of bright spots within artificial intelligence and adjacent companies, resulting in tech companies continuing to cut back on their…