The rise of TikTok to the top position of social media game was very quick. In September 2021, TikTok reported a whooping 1 billion users as people on average spent 52 minutes in the app every single day. After the stunning rise, almost every other social network and tech company has imitated the content ideas of TikTok. The huge userbase along with the fact that its parent company, ByteDance is based in China, has been firing the alarms at the US government for some time now.
In the past, Trump administration banned TikTok in the US in 2020, only for the issue to vanish under Biden. Now FCC is once again after TikTok and this time they are looking for the complete removal of TikTok from the app stores. FCC’s chairman Brendan Carr has shared a letter in which he addressed the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook and CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. He said that TikTok is a sophisticated surveillance tool that takes your personal and sensitive data by collecting the search and browsing history, voiceprints, faceprints and your keystroke patterns. Concerns have also been shown about TikTok by both the Democratic and Republican politicians with many congresspeople expressing their concerns and calling TikTok a counterintelligence threat.

While Google provides a serviceable Android browser in the form of Chrome, Samsung’s browser has a surprising number of fans. A new beta release of this application has been released today and Samsung has called out few enhancements. The main enhancements include a new extraction tool, a more advanced form of tracker blocking and foldable tweaks.
Samsung Internet v18 has got a new “text capture” feature which you will find in context menu. This option allows you to grab text directly from images and drop it into your clipboard. However, you require the latest One UI 4.1.1 for this feature, so it is going to work on newer Samsung phones like S22 family. Even Z Fold3 is still on slightly older 4.1 release. The main reason behind using non-Chrome browsers by majority of people on Android is to level up their privacy. Samsung’s browser has got a feature known as Smart Anti-Tracking and it is getting even smarter in v18. The latest build of Samsung Internet bumps underlying Chromium framework to v99 which is few versions behind current stable release.

Action Launcher developer Chris Lacy is celebrating the release of its 50th version with some very impressive feature additions and the main shift in the app’s business model that will provide more premium features to each user especially for the ones who nominally can not pay for them.
Wit the 50th version of Action Launcher more of Action Launcher Plus features will be available to every user. Though how many will be dependent on market based on two factors whether in-app purchases are available and if Action Search is able to generate affiliate revenue from Bing. In this model, half of the features are free in most commercial markets including US and Canada. In the regions where in-app purchases are blocked Mexico and India, for example all the Plus features will be made available if the users enable Action Search. If you have not had a reason to try or even come back to Action Launcher in a while v50 might be it. This application can be launched from Play Store.

YouTube Music suggests better songs as well as playlists to its users than Spotify and Apple Music but it is getting better on Google owned music service. The streaming platform is only one of the few in the arena that allows you to pick music based on your mood like Focus, Workout, Energy and Chill etc right from the home screen. But you still have to select one of the moods in order to get the appropriate playlist recommendations.

The Mixed for you carousel on YouTube Music’s home feed now features ‘More’ button in top-right corner that takes you to whole new page where you can see mixes for all the moods under single umbrella in a very clean grid view which is lot easier to scroll through than before. In the past, you can only view mixes for the mood that you have selected so the new change works in a better way for discovering the playlists. The updated carousel has come out for Android, iOS and web apps.

In Android 11 we have seen a centralized hub for media control that is inside notification dropdown and now recently we have seen a smarter use of that place with the addition of playlist recommendations that you can tap on a whim you can get listening without opening the app. It now looks like YouTube Music is working for expanding on these outside-the-top controls.
The new music suggestions panel of YouTube Music now shows some extra options. The first one is shuffle button and you might require to squint a bit to see it right now because of an apparent visual bug. There is another playlist shortcut but instead of being recommendation, it lets you to access to your offline mixtape easily. You can access the options from your notification shade or even your lock screen without requiring to open full YouTube Music app saving you some taps. Both these options sit in the same place as the recommendation shelf currently does. If you have not seen the recommendation shelf on your phone yet then the chances are you will see it with these two options as well whenever it will come out to your device.

YouTube Music may have not been received well after the poor transition of Google Play Music but it is now shaping up to be competitive entry to music streaming market that you can get most out of. The service is adding new features, more music, revised designs and now YouTube Music has been spotted working on automated recommendations more front-and-center than before with some more music suggestions appearing in the media player area in the notification shade and also on the lock screen.
Music recommendations are starting to surface for the people on Android 12. They only show up when connecting with audio devices with Bluetooth or USB-C port, suggesting some playlists for you to dive into. The card makes it pretty much clear that the content is coming from YouTube Music with a YT Music label and the logo of the app appearing in the left and three suggestions visible on the right-hand side. YouTube Music has also started rolling out its personalized “Recommended radios” more widely. The playlist started rolling out in February for some and just now it has made its way in more phones.

After Twitter and Telegram, Snapchat is also introducing the subscription. The company is working on introducing the paid premium service which may give access to pre-release features and various other premium options. It might be known as Snapchat Plus and may cost about $5 per month.
Snapchat is currently in the initial stages of testing of its subscription. The company is planning to use it to share some exclusive and pre-release features with our subscribers and learn more about how to serve our community efficiently. According to an app sleuth Alessandro Paluzzi there are more features in the app code that are under testing at the moment. According to him, Snapchat Plus subscribers will receive publicly visible badge on their profile page like Telegram Premium offers. The new features include the option to pin a friend as your number 1 BFF, how many friends have rewatched your story and to get access to exclusive Snapchat icons for your phone’s home screen. There will also be option for your best friend’s whereabouts from last 24 hours.