<p>Instagram appears to be quietly testing locked reels that viewers would have to unlock with a code and a provided hint. The feature is a simple way to increase engagement with the creator&#8217;s content, but it could also offer creators and celebrities a way to share exclusive reels with their most dedicated fans, who are [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Reddit Answers, the platform&#8217;s conversational AI search tool, gets an upgrade through an integration with Google Gemini. This comes over a year after Reddit expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to access its Vertex AI platform to build AI agents. Google and Reddit announced the update on Wednesday, explaining that by incorporating Gemini on Vertex AI, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Instagram head Adam Mosseri says the company is looking to improve the app&#8217;s search functionality, admitting this is an area where Instagram could do more to compete. The remarks, made on a recent episode of the &#8220;Build Your Tribe&#8221; podcast, come at a time when younger Gen Z users often turn to social apps like [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Tapestry, a new app designed to organize the open social web, is adding a valuable feature to help people who are keeping up with multiple social networks: It will now remove duplicate posts from your feed. That means if you follow the same person across social networking services like Bluesky and Mastodon, you won&#8217;t have [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Snapchat is introducing Sponsored AI Lenses, a new ad format that lets brands engage with consumers in an immersive way. While Snapchat has offered brands the opportunity to pay for sponsored lenses on the platform for years, now they can leverage AI-generated experiences powered by Snap&#8217;s proprietary generative AI technology. With these interactive lenses, brands [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Meta is introducing Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger. The feature, which automatically enrolls young users into an app experience with built-in protections, will be available on these platforms in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada before expanding to additional regions in the future. Teen Accounts first rolled out to Instagram last September after Instagram [&hellip;]</p>

<p>ChatGPT has seen India as its largest market by monthly active users and the second largest by downloads, per the external data seen by TechCrunch.</p>

<p>President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for the TikTok ban by 75 days. Trump shared a post on Truth Social on Friday stating that he is signing an executive order to allow more time to finalize a deal. The announcement comes just one day before the ban was set to go into effect. &#8220;My [&hellip;]</p>

<p>For its 50th birthday, Microsoft is teaching its AI-powered Copilot chatbot a few new tricks. Copilot can now take action on &#8220;most websites,&#8221; Microsoft says, enabling it to book tickets, reserve restaurants, and more. The bot has gained the ability to remember specific things about you, similar to OpenAI&#8217;s ChatGPT, like your favorite food and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Amazon is introducing a new &#8220;Recaps&#8221; feature for Kindle users to help them recall plot points and character arcs before picking up the latest book in a series. While the company&#8217;s press release for the new feature doesn&#8217;t mention AI, Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch that recaps are AI-generated. &#8220;We use technology, including GenAI and Amazon [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Zach Yadegari, the high school teen co-founder of Cal AI, is being hammered with comments on X after he revealed that out of 18 top colleges he applied to, he was rejected by 15. Yadegari says that he got a 4.0 GPA and nailed a 34 score on his ACT (above 31 is considered a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>As TikTok&#8217;s fate in the United States remains uncertain, the tech giant has quietly started testing a new &#8220;TikTok for Artists&#8221; insights platform that is designed to help artists build their careers, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The platform will provide artists with tools to promote their songs, understand performance metrics, and engage with fans. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>X&#8217;s plan to boost revenue by selling off dormant usernames on its service is starting to shape up. According to recent changes found in X&#8217;s web application, the company is setting up a &#8220;handle inquiry&#8221; process that will allow Verified Organizations &#8212; companies and other organizations that already have a $1,000 per month X subscription [&hellip;]</p>

<p>As YouTube Shorts continues to compete with TikTok, the platform is announcing new upcoming features to help creators publish engaging short-form videos. Creators will get access to an improved video editor, the ability to generate AI stickers, a feature that syncs content to the beat of a song, enhanced templates, and more. The launch of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been at the center of controversy in the U.S. for four years now due to concerns about user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. Earlier this year, the app experienced a temporary outage in the U.S. that left millions of users in suspense before it [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Spotify announced Gen AI ads, among other changes to its advertising business, at an event in New York City on Thursday. Notably, the company introduced a new programmatic offering, the Spotify Ad Exchange (SAX), which allows advertisers to reach Spotify&#8217;s logged-in users via real-time auctions. Expanding on the SAX news, Spotify said it inked new [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The caller identity app Truecaller said that it crossed the 450 million user mark earlier this week. The company said that it added 50 million users in the past 10 months and 15.5 million users since the beginning of 2025. India is the company&#8217;s biggest user base. So it wasn&#8217;t surprising when Truecaller promoted chief [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company makes Fortnite and tools for other developers, including Unreal Engine, called out Apple and Google as &#8220;gangster-style businesses&#8221; engaged in illegal practices while speaking at a Y Combinator event on Wednesday. The executive also emphasized how the big tech companies&#8217; practices directly affected his own business by scaring [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, and a range of other online services, is reducing its workforce. The layoffs will impact 16% of staff across divisions, an Automattic blog post published Wednesday reveals. Ahead of the layoffs, Automattic&#8217;s website listed 1,744 employees, which means north of 270 people may have lost their jobs. (Automattic [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Amazon has submitted a bid to acquire all of TikTok, according to a new report from The New York Times. The last-minute bid comes as TikTok faces an April 5 deadline to shed its Chinese ownership or face a ban in the U.S. However, the parties involved in the deal talks do not appear to [&hellip;]</p>