This Week in Apps: App Store advertising expands, Google Play plans for safety, Epic v. Apple trial begins
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 continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 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, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Tinder to roll out new 48-hour, in-app events called ‘Vibes’
On the heels of strong first quarter earnings, dating app giant Match announced its plan to introduce a new live event experience to its flagship app, Tinder. Dubbed “Vibes,” the new feature combines aspects from earlier Tinder events, Swipe Surge and Swipe Night, to create a new kind of in-app experience that’s both time sensitive and focused on finding new ways for users to break the ice.
Swipe Surge, for context, is longtime Tinder feature that lets users know when Tinder usage in the area is busier than usual. During a Surge, activity may be up to 15x higher, which increases users’ potential to get matched by 250%, the company has said. Users are alerted to “Surges” via push notifications or when they open the app.
On the heels of strong first quarter earnings, dating app giant Match announced its plan to introduce a new live event experience to its flagship app, Tinder. Dubbed "Vibes," the new feature combines aspects from earlier Tinder events, Swipe Surge and Swipe Night, to create a new kind of in-app experience that's both time sensitive and focused on finding new ways for users to break the ice. Swipe Surge, for context, is longtime Tinder feature that lets users know when Tinder usage in the area is busier than usual.