Lauren Forristal, Author at TechCrunch

Thursday, the dating app that you can use only on Thursdays, expands to San Francisco

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 18:58:31 +0000

Thursday seeks to shake up conventional online dating in a crowded market. The app, which recently expanded to San Francisco, fosters intentional dating by restricting user access to Thursdays. At midnight, all matches disappear. The idea is that by restricting usage to one day a week, potential matches will be encouraged to set up real-life meetings […]

TikTok partners with Warner Bros. to become a discovery engine for TV and movies

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 13:00:22 +0000

TikTok’s latest offering is capitalizing on the app’s ability to serve as a discovery engine for other media — something its users already take advantage of by sharing short clips of movies and TV shows. Today, the company is partnering with studios like Warner Bros. to launch a feature that lets users discover movies and […]

Audible is testing an AI-powered search feature

Lauren Forristal — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Audible, the audiobook company owned by Amazon, announced on Wednesday that it is testing an AI-powered search feature to assist users in narrowing down their audiobook search. Starting today, select U.S. customers can interact with “Maven,” Audible’s new personal recommendation expert that surfaces title suggestions based on users’ specific requests. A user can use natural […]

Reddit to test AI-powered search result pages

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 22:10:28 +0000

Reddit users will soon see AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told investors during its earnings call on Tuesday that the company plans to test AI-powered search result pages to “summarize and recommend content.” He noted this will help users “dive deeper” into content and discover new […]

X is getting closer to launching its payment service

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 18:00:11 +0000

X (formerly Twitter) appears to be making progress on its upcoming payments system, bringing it closer to Elon Musk’s vision of turning X into an “everything app.” According to a recent finding by app researcher Nima Owji, the company is working on adding a “Payments” button to the navigation bar under the bookmarks tab. Owji, […]

Amazon Music’s new AI feature lets you browse podcast episodes by topic

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 16:24:55 +0000

Amazon Music announced Tuesday the launch of its new AI-powered feature, “Topics,” which allows users to explore podcast episodes by specific topics discussed in the episode. When you visit the page of a podcast episode, look for new Topic tags below the episode description. You can tap on a tag to see a list of […]

AI music startup Suno claims training model on copyrighted music is ‘fair use’

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 21:50:57 +0000

Following the recent lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against music generation startups Udio and Suno, Suno admitted in a court filing on Thursday that it did, in fact, train its AI model using copyrighted songs. But it claimed that doing so was legal under the fair-use doctrine. The RIAA filed the lawsuit […]

Twitter disappears from Mac App Store

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 16:32:04 +0000

X (formerly Twitter) can no longer be accessed in the Mac App Store, suggesting that it has been officially delisted. Searches for both “Twitter” and “X” on Apple’s platform no longer surface the app. The URL no longer works, either. Instead, it displays a pop-up message indicating that it is unavailable. This means new users […]

Match Group cuts 6% of staff as it shuts down livestreaming in dating apps

Lauren Forristal — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:54:19 +0000

Match Group announced Tuesday that it has discontinued livestreaming services in its dating apps, resulting in a 6% reduction in workforce. The news was delivered during the dating app giant’s second-quarter earnings report. The move finds Match shifting its focus to other offerings, including generative AI. The decision to end livestreaming will directly impact dating apps […]

Date Like Goblins, a new dating platform, allows users to virtually date and play video games

Lauren Forristal — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:04:10 +0000

Date Like Goblins is geared toward the gaming community and allows users to connect through voice chat while playing video games.

Spotify expands lyrics access for free users

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 17:50:03 +0000

Back in May, Spotify quietly started putting lyrics behind a paywall, limiting free users to lyrics for three songs per month. The move was a bid to push more users to pay for the service. After receiving numerous complaints, the company is now expanding the monthly limit. Starting today, Spotify is raising the limit on […]

Luxury fashion startup The Floorr empowers personal stylists with tools to grow their businesses

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 20:16:08 +0000

The Floorr offers tools for conducting sales, hosting tailored styling sessions, creating mood boards, and engaging in text or voice chats with clients, all in one place.

Google Play gets ‘Comics’ feature for manga readers in Japan

Lauren Forristal — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:05:00 +0000

Alongside a slew of announcements for Play — such as AI-powered app comparisons and a feature that bundles similar apps — Google has introduced new “Curated Spaces,” hubs dedicated to specific topics. Announced Wednesday, “Comics” is designed to appeal to manga fans. Positioned at the top of the screen in between “For You” and “Top […]

Google adds AI-powered comparisons, collections and more data controls to Play Store

Lauren Forristal — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Play Store is getting AI-powered app comparisons, automatically organized categories for similar apps, dedicated hubs for content, data personalization controls, support for playing multiple mobile games on PCs, and more features.

Flashfood users can now save money on groceries at their local grocery store in addition to bigger chains

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Grocery app Flashfood's new offering is designed for independently owned grocery stores that want to reduce food waste and consumers who want to save money.

The Scene’s new app helps New Yorkers find dining and nightlife spots

Lauren Forristal — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 17:14:55 +0000

Choosing between New York City’s nearly 25,000 restaurants can be overwhelming. The pressure is especially high when you’re trying to impress a first date (or investor) or entertain family from out of town. A new app launched over the weekend to address precisely that. The Scene, an iOS-only “pocket concierge service,” uses machine learning to […]

Apple Vision Pro debuts immersive content featuring NBA players, The Weeknd and more

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:14:59 +0000

Apple on Thursday announced its upcoming lineup of immersive video content for the Vision Pro. The list includes behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an immersive performance by The Weeknd, new series, films, concerts and more. The headset launched in February with more than 150 3D movies and immersive titles. Apple is adding […]

Meta puts a halt to training its generative AI tools in Brazil

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 18:47:08 +0000

Meta has suspended the use of its AI assistant after Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) banned the company from training its AI models on personal data from Brazilians. The move puts a dent in Facebook’s attempt to build out its AI products in Brazil, a market with more than 200 million people. As cited […]

Tinder’s AI Photo Selector automatically picks the best photos for your dating profile

Lauren Forristal — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Tinder revealed last year that it was testing a photo-selection feature that uses AI to help users choose the best photos for their dating profiles. Now dubbed “Photo Selector,” the Match-owned dating app officially launched the feature on Wednesday. It’s now available to all users in the U.S. and will roll out to international markets […]

YC-backed CrowdVolt shakes up the secondary ticket market with its bid-ask model

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 14:00:00 +0000

CrowdVolt operates on a model similar to sneaker resell marketplace StockX, meaning buyers submit bids on tickets, and sellers set asking prices.