WhatsApp for Android might be developing a new feature that comes with several privacy benefits. Dubbed Username keys, there are two parts to this feature, a WhatsApp tracker revealed. The first part is the username itself, which is said to replace the need to share one’s number when sharing their WhatsApp account. The second is Username keys, which allow users to manage whether a first-time texter can contact the user or not.
Grok Imagine was officially released on Sunday as a multimodal feature that can generate images and videos. It is currently available in beta to all SuperGrok and Premium+ X subscribers on the iOS app. The feature also comes with a Spicy mode which can generate not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content of explicit nature.
WhatsApp is rolling out a new scam prevention tool, it announced on Tuesday. This feature, dubbed Safety Overview, works when someone who is not saved in your contacts adds you to a WhatsApp group. The Meta-owned messaging app will provide key information about the group, along with tips to stay safe from phishing and scams. As part of its ongoing efforts to protect its users from scams, it detected and banned more than 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centres.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman teased the company’s upcoming frontier artificial intelligence (AI) model, GPT-5, on Sunday. In a social media post, the executive shared a screenshot of a query and its response, highlighting the improvements in text generation that the model will bring. Notably, previous reports have claimed that the GPT-5 AI model could be released in August, although the company has not officially confirmed this.
Asus has announced that select laptops will soon be available for purchase via Swiggy Instamart in Indian cities like Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata. Available models include the Vivobook Go 15, Vivobook 15, and TUF Gaming F16, starting at Rs. 33,990. The Vivobook models offer 15.6-inch displays with AMD or Intel processors. The TUF Gaming F16 features an Intel Core 5 CPU, RTX 3050A GPU, 144Hz 16-inch display, RGB keyboard, and ships with Windows 11.
WhatsApp is reportedly rolling out a new feature that will potentially allow users to message people who do not use the instant messaging service. The Meta-owned company is said to be releasing this new functionality as part of its Google Play Beta program for Android phones.
OpenAI on Monday announced new improvements in ChatGPT that will allow the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to better cater to users’ digital well-being. These are not new features, per se; instead, these are backend changes made to the chatbot and the underlying AI model to tweak how it responds to users.
Spotify Premium subscription will now cost more in India, Europe, the Middle East, and select other markets. The streaming service announced its price hike on Monday, and it will be applicable to all of its plans. Users will have to pay more to continue uninterrupted access to ad-free music, along with other benefits.
Character.AI, the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered social app, is bringing its community feed to mobile apps. Announced on Monday, the California-based AI company is now adding a social feed to its platform where users can share different kinds of posts about their created characters and the ones they've been interacting with. Once shared, the community can also interact with it in multiple ways.
Instagram on Tuesday announced a new set of features to help creators keep a track of their audience growth metrics more effectively. The Meta-owned social media platform is rolling out insights for likes on photo carousels and Reels, showcasing the exact moment and the slide when others decided to like the post. Meanwhile, post-level demographics can help creators understand what type of content is resonating with their audience.
The Meta-owned photos and video sharing platform, going forward, will not allow its users to go live on Instagram if they do not have a public account with at least 1,000 followers. The tech giant silently disabled the feature by only updating the support page on its website.
Truecaller will soon stop offering the call recording functionality on iPhone. The Swedish caller ID app re-introduced this ability on both Android and iOS platforms almost two years ago, following the prior discontinuation after Google cracked down on APIs designed for accessibility features related to voice calls. Instead, Truecaller will focus on improving its core spam-fighting functionality with features such as real-time caller identification and automatic blocking of spam telephone calls.
WhatsApp banned over 98 lakh accounts in India in June to tackle abuse, with nearly 19.79 lakh removed proactively before any user complaints. The platform also received 23,596 user grievances and acted on 1,001 accounts, including bans and reinstatements. Most complaints were ban appeals, according to the company. Other concerns included account support, product issues, and safety. The Meta-owned platform stressed prevention and the use of abuse detection during account setup, messaging, and in response to negative user feedback.
Telegram has announced the rollout of its app version 11.14.0, which brings a slew of new features to Android and iOS users. While iOS users can download the app through the App Store, Android users have a choice of either downloading it from the Play Store or getting an APK from the official Telegram website.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy shared plans to introduce advertisements when users chat with Alexa+. The Seattle-based tech giant unveiled the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered version of Alexa voice assistant in February, which comes with several new capabilities. Currently available in the US, the company claims it has been rolled out to and is being used by millions of users.
ChatGPT has a feature that allows users to create a URL of their conversation with the chatbot and share it with friends or colleagues. As per a report, some of these shared conversations were discoverable when running a query on search engines such as Google Search, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. To see these conversations, one reportedly needs to filter the search results to a specific ChatGPT domain.
Google India has submitted a commitment proposal to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), suggesting a way to let more real-money games (RMGs) on the Play Store. The information comes from a notification issued by the country’s competition watchdog seeking comments or objections from the public and stakeholders over the suggested proposal.
Google plans to release an age assurance tool in the US that will assess whether an account is being used by a minor or an adult. On Thursday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced that it will be releasing this algorithm-based tool to a small set of users in the US in the coming weeks.
Adobe Photoshop is getting several new artificial intelligence (AI) features to make it easier for users to make complex edits. Announced on Tuesday, the software giant released a new Harmonize tool that can blend objects with realism in compositions within seconds, just by tapping on the tool. The company is also adding an image upscaler tool that can enhance the resolution of any image using generative AI.
Apple's iOS 26 update will bring Advanced Fingerprinting Protection to all tabs, to prevent web tracking even outside Private Browsing. This enhanced protection is designed to safeguard a user's identity while browsing the web. Mozilla's open source Firefox browser has provided similar fingerprinting protection since 2020.
Google is adding several new features to AI Mode in Search, the company’s latest artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search experience. On Tuesday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced four new features to expand the usability of the tool. The most prominent inclusion is the expansion of Search Live, which will allow users to ask questions from the video feed in Google Lens.
Google NotebookLM is getting another artificial intelligence (AI) feature to help users better understand complex topics. On Tuesday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced the rollout of Video Overviews, a tool that can generate a visual narrative-focused overview from the sources. The new feature is aimed at complementing the existing Audio Overviews feature, in scenarios where the topic is so dense that breaking it down visually would help users more.
OpenAI added a new study mode to its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, on Tuesday. This new mode is designed to assist students with their homework, test preparation, and learning new topics, without providing answers upfront. Available to all logged-in users, the new feature utilises several learning frameworks to break down problems, encourage students to come up with solutions, and guide them in the right direction.
YouTube is launching a new age verification feature in the US, utilising machine learning to estimate users' ages. This technology aims to ensure age-appropriate content is displayed for younger viewers, and is designed to bypass instances where users may have provided incorrect birthdates to circumvent age restrictions.
Harmonic, a New York-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup, announced the launch of its mobile app on Monday. The app, dubbed Aristotle after the AI model that powers it, is currently available in beta on both Android and iOS. The launch comes weeks after the startup released a waitlist to let interested individuals sign up for the iOS app.
Jack Dorsey has launched Bitchat Mesh, a new Bluetooth-based messaging app for iPhone. He previously unveiled Bitchat as a peer-to-peer (P2P) app, a weekend project designed to function without phone numbers, email, or access to the internet. Bitchat Mesh supports both end-to-end encryption and identity verification. An Android release date for the Play Store is expected to follow in the future.
Google Chrome is adding a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that will help users make informed decisions while purchasing products online. On Monday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced AI-powered store summaries that will show users relevant insights about products when they visit a product page on an e-commerce website.
WhatsApp is said to be developing a new feature for its Android app which aims to improve photography in low light conditions. As per a feature tracker’s report, a dedicated night mode option is present in the camera interface of a beta version of the instant messaging app. It reportedly optimises the image clarity and brightness when shooting in low-lit environments, without applying any overlays or stylisation to the image.
Microsoft is reinventing its Edge browser with artificial intelligence (AI) agents. On Monday, the Redmond-based tech giant announced a new experimental Copilot Mode in Edge, which allows the AI-powered browser to act as a collaborator to the user. The chatbot is capable of understanding context from all open tabs and can answer user queries, compare different products, find relevant information, and more.
Perplexity for macOS now offers users access to Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) to let the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot connect to the device. Last week, the San Francisco, California-based AI firm announced that its Mac app now offers local MCP support (connectivity across the device) to paid subscribers.
Microsoft is reportedly developing a new feature for Copilot, which could be powered by OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5 model. As per the report, Copilot is getting a new “Smart” mode, which can automatically deduce when to apply reasoning for a query and when to switch to fast responses. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also mentioned that the GPT-5 artificial intelligence (AI) model will mark the unification of the GPT-series and the reasoning-focused o-series models.
AI Mode in Search first received a shortcut in the Google app for Android in April for those who registered for the Search Labs experiment. Now, as per a report, this shortcut is rolling out widely to more users globally. This shortcut icon appears primarily in two places: in the Google app’s widget as the third icon, and in the app’s search box.
WhatsApp is said to be testing a new feature for its Android app which makes it easier to import profile photos from other existing social media accounts. According to a discovery by a feature tracker, the instant messaging client may bring support for directly importing profile pictures from other apps under Meta Platforms’ umbrella, such as Facebook and Instagram. This builds upon other cross-platform features such as single sign-on and unified avatar management.
Apple is expanding its App Store age rating system, introducing more granular ratings for apps and games. These new classifications will appear to users after developers implement them, and Apple has set a deadline for compliance. This announcement coincides with the release of public betas for Apple's upcoming operating systems, including iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and watchOS.
Elon Musk made the announcement in a post on X, formerly Twitter, but did not provide further details. X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking more information on the reboot.
OpenAI launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) agent last week, which is finally rolling out to users now. On July 18, the San Francisco-based AI firm announced the launch of ChatGPT Agent, which can perform a wide range of tasks. However, nearly a week later, users still did not see an option to use the AI agent.
Government has issued a crackdown against 25 apps and websites which published obscene content, according to a report. Action has been taken under the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, against apps and video streaming platforms such as AltBalaji, Big Shots, and Ullu for allegedly displaying "indecent" representation of women.
Google has added a new feature in the Gemini mobile apps, which will now make it possible for users to play Audio Overviews. Audio Overviews was first added in the company’s NotebookLM product, and was later brought to Gemini earlier this year. However, the functionality was such that while Gemini app users could upload a file to generate a podcast-style audio conversation, the app did not support playing the said audio file.
Google is bringing another new experimental artificial intelligence (AI) feature to Search. On Thursday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced Web Guide, a new filter on the search results page that categorises information and groups URLs to make it easier for users to learn more about the topic. It is currently an opt-in feature, which means users will not see it unless they proactively sign up for it.
WhatsApp is said to be testing a new feature for Android users that will allow them to have real-time voice conversations with Meta AI. As per a feature tracker, the new artificial intelligence (AI) feature is now rolling out to select beta testers, and allows users to either directly initiate voice chat or switch to it while within the chatbot’s interface.
The APK teardown of the latest Google app beta version, done by a publication, suggests that Gemini could offer a Google AI Lite plan for users, which could offer more AI features than the free version of Gemini at a reasonable price. However, there is no official confirmation from the tech giant.
Google Photos is getting two new artificial intelligence (AI) features that will allow users to transform their images in the gallery in different ways. On Wednesday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced an AI-powered image-to-video feature that will allow users to convert any photo in the gallery into a video.
WhatsApp is testing a new feature on Android that allows users to set reminders for messages that have already been read. This update enables beta testers to select from preset reminder times or customise specific delivery times for notifications. While WhatsApp currently reminds users about unread messages on both iOS and Android, this new functionality brings it closer to features for previously read messages that are offered by workplace platforms like Slack.
YouTube on Wednesday announced new creation tools for Shorts to make the process of creating them easier and fun. It introduces a new photo-to-video tool which lets creators turn photos from their camera roll into videos, using creative suggestions. They can animate and add movement to still photos, free of charge. Further, there are new generative edits which leverage AI to add effects for transforming doodles into images and selfies into videos.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is one of the first phones from the company to ship with Android 16-based One UI 8 firmware. It enables several new features on the clamshell-style foldable, such as the Galaxy AI-powered Now Bar on the Flex Window. Currently, it supports 20 apps and services that can be displayed on the cover screen. However, a report suggests that Samsung may expand it up to include support for up to 35 apps and services by the end of the year.
Google's I/O Connect India 2025 event was held in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Besides announcing new AI-based tools and programmes for the Indian developer community, the tech giant has showcased applications built with Google’s AI models. Startups ranging from education and governance to commerce and media are using Google's Gemini and Gemma 3 models for their new tools and features.
Meta announced a couple of new safety features for teen accounts on Instagram on Wednesday. The Menlo Park-based social media giant said it is expanding its Teen Account protection and safety features to offer more tools to teenagers while they exchange messages with other users via the platform’s direct messaging (DM) feature.
PayPal on Wednesday announced a partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) International Payments Limited and other global payment systems to build a new platform that will support cross-border transactions. Dubbed PayPal World, it will be a technology-agnostic platform that connects to all partnering payment systems. The San Jose, California-based company said it will create a multi-region deployment architecture for the platform that will be cloud native.
Meta launched Instagram Threads in July 2023. The social media platform was unveiled to rival Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter). On Tuesday, Meta announced that it is improving Threads Insights and making it easier for content creators to see how their posts have been performing and where their content is discovered by other users.
VSCO has launched a standalone camera app for iPhone users called the VSCO Capture. The app was earlier under testing in select markets such as Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand. It comes with over 50 camera presets and real-time effects. It will also allow users to take manual control of some camera features.
