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If you are on a Spotify Family plan, you may need to verify your location to keep your account active. Like many streaming services, Spotify is cracking down on family sharing for users who don't live in the same household by requiring QR code verification for some plan members—and once prompted, you must verify within seven days or risk being locked out of Family and Duo plans for a full year.
Spotify does require users on shared plans to verify their address when they join to confirm that they live with the plan manager and to re-verify if the manager changes addresses. Users may also be prompted via to re-enter their full address if Spotify "can't confirm" their location. This obviously doesn't prevent users from sharing plans, as Spotify isn't actually tracking your location but rather cross-checking addresses.
Some users may start seeing a QR code verification requirement, which has stricter parameters and may be more difficult to get around if plan members aren't in the same location. In these cases, the plan manager must open a QR code on their phone via Profile > Your Premium > Manage, and plan members must scan it with the camera on their phone.
According to Spotify's support page, both users must be in the same location to complete the scan, and the QR code changes every few seconds, making it hard to send screenshots to anyone not present in person. However, as 9to5Google notes, some users have been able to work around these restrictions with video calls, using multiple devices to complete the scans.
If you are prompted to complete location verification either by email or QR code, make sure you do it within seven days of the notification—otherwise you'll be lose access and be downgraded to a free plan. Spotify says that you can rejoin the same Family or Duo plan again, but you'll be restricted from joining a different shared plan for a full year.
AllTrails is a popular tool for finding walking, hiking, running, and biking routes around the world. You can use it to locate trails and check user reviews, but the app has plenty of features for customizing activities, tracking conditions, and navigating (safely) in real time. Here are the tips and tricks to get the most out of AllTrails.
The elevation map is useful for visualizing total gain and loss on your route, but you can scrub the chart on mobile to see exactly where climbs or obstacles are on the map. For example, you can see where the grade increases (and what the percentage is) or how far you are from stream crossings or switchbacks. Open the map from the trail page or the Navigate function and drag your finger across the elevation profile to track the location marker on the map.
You may be most likely to search for trails based on length and difficulty as well as location, but AllTrails has a wealth of filters to find routes with specific features, or that are dog- or kid-friendly. You can also use filters to identify trails that are likely to be less crowded (though if a route is on AllTrails, it certainly isn't a secret). In the Search window, tap All to open available filters. Select Not very busy under Visitation and Loop under Route type (out-and-back trails can feel busier). Select a rating and add any other requirements, then hit Show trails.
When you use AllTrails to log an activity or write a review, a map of your track is saved to the trail listing and visible to other users. You can disable this in Settings > Privacy settings > Content—but even if you don't display your activity, you can use those that are public to find custom routes that string multiple trails together or add a ridgeline not included in the official AllTrails track. Scroll down to the reviews section and tap the activities link to pull up maps of completed activities. Note, though, that some variations in routes may not be actual detours, and you should still follow Leave No Trace principles and stay within your skill level when it comes to difficulty.
A free AllTrails account will get you most of the service's basic features, but you have to pay for a Plus subscription—$35.99 per year—for things like offline maps and wrong-turn alerts. If you have an REI membership, you get a 30% discount on paid AllTrails subscriptions, bringing the annual fee down to $24.99 per year. (A Peak subscription that usually costs $79.99 per year drops to $49.99 per year.) In the AllTrails app, go to your profile > Settings > REI Membership and follow the steps to connect your account and claim the discount.
User reviews can give you a good sense of current trail conditions, such as seasonal closures and whether there are muddy or snowy conditions, as well as more global environmental considerations like bugs and river crossings. You should obviously read the most recent reviews for your route, but you can also keyword search on desktop (CTRL/CMD + F) for terms like "mud," "scramble," "snow," "gate," "bugs," or "ticks." A trail may be marked as "easy," but this can reveal issues like snowmelt that have made running water trickier to wade through. You can read the reviews from the same month in previous years too.
When you search trails and trailheads by name on popular mapping apps, you may not always get directions to the exact starting location pinned on AllTrails. Instead, launch directions from the AllTrails listing to use the GPS coordinates, which you can then search in Google Maps or Apple Maps. On the trail page, scroll down to Get directions, then select your preferred map app (or copy the coordinates to the clipboard).
When you record an activity in AllTrails, you have the option to add a waypoint, which is essentially a note pinned to a specific location on the route. This can be useful if you want to remember details, such as tricky turns or hidden features, and you can opt into adding your waypoints to community layers to help other users. Open the Navigator in the mobile app and tap the arrow in the lower-right corner. Swipe up and tap Add Waypoint. Select the waypoint type, add details and select privacy settings, and tap Save.
Paid AllTrails subscribers have access to offline maps that allow you to navigate routes in real time even if you don't have a signal. To ensure you don't drain your phone's battery while you're mid-hike, download offline maps for your trail in advance and then switch to Airplane Mode once you lose connection. GPS passively receives signals to triangulate your position, but it does not require the ability to transmit, so you can still follow your location on the map in Airplane Mode without straining the battery by constantly searching for a signal.
AllTrails maps have optional layers that contain a lot more data than just the route itself. All users have access to the Wildfire overlay, which shows current wildfire perimeters in the U.S. With a premium subscription, you get additional overlays for precipitation, temperature, ground conditions, snow depth, fall foliage, and community heat maps so you can see real-time environmental conditions at that specific location. A Peak subscription unlocks advanced overlays for slope angle, high-definition terrain, and public and private lands. Open a map and tap the Layers button in the upper-right corner.
Basic trail safety includes letting someone know exactly where you're going and when you plan to return. The AllTrails Live Share feature (available on paid plans) centralizes this information and shows trusted contacts where you are in real time so they can send help if things go wrong. When you share a link with safety contacts, they'll be able to see your real-time location, planned route, recorded mileage and elapsed time, estimated end time, coordinate info, and cell signal strength. They can also opt into SMS alerts. Activate Live Share under the Navigate tab—you'll need to generate a unique link each time you head out.
The worst thing about your favorite chat app is trying to get your friends and family to use it. WhatsApp may be the most popular messaging platform in the world, but in the United States, it is hardly universally adopted. On the contrary, you'll find plenty of people who don't use it at all. In short, it's difficult to get a whole group to commit to any one platform, which can make casual video calls frustrating: If you don't use WhatsApp, and your friends are hosting a call, what are you supposed to do? You can't join a WhatsApp call without a WhatsApp account.
That's now changing. Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, announced "guest calling" on Wednesday. Now, any WhatsApp user can invite any non-WhatsApp user to a call, even if the recipient doesn't have an account. These calls still get the same core perks as traditional WhatsApp calls, Meta says: They're free and end-to-end encrypted, so you won't be compromising on your privacy by calling a non-WhatsApp user this way.
Non-WhatsApp users are still limited. Meta says these users always need a call host's approval to join. If you're a non-WhatsApp user, you'll find yourself in a waiting room until the call host lets you in. Meta also says that you can be kicked off the call at any time, and you won't be able to see other callers' phone numbers. You won't be able to send messages or add other users to the call. You are purely a participant.
If you're trying to add a non-WhatsApp user to a call, first head to the Calls tab in the app. Here, hit (+), create a call link, then send it to the recipient. Meta says the user can open the link in their computer browser, enter their name, and join. This applies to one-on-one calls as well as calls with up to 32 people. While guests will have the aforementioned limits, they do have some features available to them. They can share their screen, react with emojis, or raise their hand.
WhatsApp isn't the first chat app to offer such a feature. Apple's FaceTime platform, for example, lets you create call links that anyone can join, whether they're calling in on an Apple device or a device running Android or Windows (or Linux, for that matter).
All messaging apps should let you schedule texts by default. Sometimes, you need to send a message to a friend or family member, but you don't want them to get it just yet. Maybe they're in a different time zone, and it's too early or late to politely text them; maybe they're in an important meeting, and you don't want their phone sounding or buzzing as a distraction. Either way, a scheduled message can save you: You won't forget to text them later, and they'll get the message whenever you think they should. Win-win.
Of course, this is not a standard feature in all apps yet. Some apps have it, like Telegram or iMessage, and it's a great addition when you need it. Others, like Messenger or WhatsApp, are sorely missing it. While Meta doesn't appear to have any plans to bring scheduled texts to Messenger, it does seem like WhatsApp users are getting the upgrade on the horizon. In fact, you might be able to try it out today.
As reported by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is currently testing a new feature for users to schedule texts, photos, and videos to send at a later time. At this time, the feature works even when you're offline, so your scheduled messages will still send even if you don't have a wifi or cellular connection. In addition, the feature is not limited to single chats, as so many new messaging features are. You can schedule texts in both one-on-one and group chats, and all scheduled messages are still end-to-end encrypted.
At this time, it looks like Meta is only testing scheduling messages on WhatsApp for Android. The bright side for iPhone users is that this test is quite limited: Only select users are getting the feature at this time—and, while it's no guarantee, you should enroll in the WhatsApp beta if you want a chance at trying it out early. To start, head to WhatsApp's official beta tester page on the Google Play Store. Here, make sure you're logged into your Google Account, then enroll in the beta. Head back to the official WhatsApp Play Store page, and you should have a new update. This is the beta.
Once you're on the WhatsApp beta, you can check if you have the feature like so: Craft a new message in any chat, then tap and hold on the send button. If you have it, WhatsApp will present a pop-up, letting you cycle through a date and time to schedule your message. (You can choose to send the message in as little as 10 minutes, or as long as two weeks.) When you're ready to schedule, you can tap the green schedule button at the bottom of the menu. You can then tap the contact or group name at the top of this window, then tap "Schedule messages" to manage all scheduled texts in that thread.
TikTok is famous for its addictive algorithm. And while the videos are certainly the app's main focus, I find the most entertainment in the comments. TikTok commenters can be hilarious, especially since they can use both text and photos to make their jokes. Social media comments are often vile, and while TikTok isn't immune to trolls and their ilk, its comments are generally something else. Now, the comments are changing. On Thursday, TikTok announced four new features that will make comments more visual, interactive, and, well, loud. Not all of these features are out quite yet, but by next month, you might not recognize TikTok's comment section.
Text and photo comments aren't going anywhere, but you may find that the comment section is about to get a bit louder. Starting next month, TikTok will support voice comments up to 60 seconds long, which adds a wholly unique type of comment to the mix. Based on TikTok's press release, you can still attach a text-based comment to your voice comment, similar to how photo comments work.
While friends may post voice comments on each other's videos à la voice memos in a group chat, I'm guessing that commenters in general will use this feature in ways TikTok doesn't necessarily intend. In fact, this may birth a new type of meme, where users spam videos with obnoxious sound effects and reaction sounds. Think the sounds added to meme edits of viral videos, but in comment form. It's going to be messy, and, likely, hysterical.
Starting this week, you may see a new interactive element to TikTok comments: polls. TikTok says creators can add polls to the comments of their videos, with up to five voting options per poll. Rather than ask for opinions in the comments, creators can use a poll instead. Creators can choose how long voting lasts, and watch votes appear in real time. It's a small change, but one that could be useful to both big and small creators looking for input from their viewers.
You're no longer limited to posting static images in TikTok's comments. TikTok now supports uploading Live Photos to comments, which should also prove interesting. I could see people thinking they're posting a standard image, but accidentally uploading a Live Photo instead. But seeing as users already know how to add GIFs to comments, I'm not sure how many will want to upload Live Photos. This one might be reserved more for friends commenting on friends' videos, but we'll have to see how users react to know for sure.
This last update is perhaps a bit more useful than Live Photo comments. TikTok says it's working on allowing users to upload up to nine photos in one comment, which means the comments section may be literally full of pictures once this launches en masse. Like standard carousels, users will be able to swipe through your photo uploads, including in a full-screen view. This one will roll out over the course of this month.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America." The move was retaliation against Canada for walking away from contentious trade talks and in spite of the fact that Lake Ontario's name has nothing to do with the Canadian province. Regardless, tech companies are now dealing with the consequences.
If you live in the U.S., you may have opened Google Maps this past weekend to see that the app had already changed Lake Ontario's name. Even if you don't live in the U.S., you may see the name change: As it happens, there are now three different naming schemes for the lake in Google's navigation app. If you use the app in the U.S., you'll see "Lake America." If you use it in Canada, you'll see "Lake Ontario." If you use it anywhere else in the world, you'll see "Lake Ontario (Lake America)." Thanks, Google.
Google did the same when Trump "changed" the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America." While Google explains in a blog post that its policy is to follow the naming conventions of the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, it's also arguable that the company doesn't want to get into hot water with the Trump Administration, lest it be punished with future policies that could hurt its trillion-dollar business. Now, Apple Maps is in the same boat. While Apple's app kept "Lake Ontario" on its map longer than Google, it has since changed the name as well. Trump reportedly urged Apple directly to make the switch. (Like Google, the company previously changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America as well.)
Whether you consider it basic bureaucratic compliance or corporate cowardice, Google Maps and Apple Maps now call the lake by its "new" name. It doesn't affect how the apps work (maybe unless you're looking for directions to, or information about, Lake Ontario), but if the change rankles you, you have other options: As it stands, there are now two key alternatives that still label it "Lake Ontario."
As of this writing, only a couple of apps available to download call Lake Ontario by its official/"former" name. Whether that will remain true as the week goes on remains a question, but for now, the following apps are still reflecting the global consensus:
MapQuest
Organic Maps
Technically, Waze also still calls it Lake Ontario on its map, and the name pops up when you start to search for it. But once you tap the result, the app then swaps the name to Lake America. That's to be expected, given Google owns Waze, but the app initially tricked me into thinking it had maintained the previous status quo.
Will these apps maintain the Lake Ontario name over the long term? When I first published this article, Apple hadn't changed the name, but I had expected them to. As I said above, Apple ultimately changed the Gulf of Mexico's name, so it followed that it would likely do the same with the lake. However, MapQuest and Organic Maps still call the Gulf of Mexico by its correct name, so chances are good they'll keep Lake Ontario on their maps for the foreseeable future.
On Tuesday, WhatsApp announced a handful of new features and changes for its app. But unlike the usual feature updates, these changes are specifically for group chats. In total, WhatsApp has five new updates for your groups, one of which will make it much easier to get the entire chat's attention. Here's what's new:
If you've ever used Slack, Google Chat, or any messaging platform with an "@all" function, you know how useful (and potentially disruptive) it can be. By typing "@all" as part of your message, you can force everyone in the group chat to receive a notification for your text. It's especially useful for time-sensitive messages, since it lets you skip tagging all group members one by one.
Of course, "@all" can be overused and abused. No one wants unnecessary alerts, but this feature increases the risk that you'll be bothered by someone who didn't think through their "@all" use all that carefully—particularly since the feature breaks through muted group chats. Luckily, there is a notification setting that will let you choose to mute even @all alerts—though keep in mind you'll miss out on these all of those alerts going forward. While @all is available to all group chat members, WhatsApp notes the feature is limited to admins in groups of more than 32 people.
Polls are something I don't use enough in my chat apps. They're a great way to gauge your groups' opinions on any number of topics, from where to go for dinner to which movie you should all see. Now, WhatsApp says it is making polls "even more useful" by adding three new changes to the mix:
You can now set an end time for polls to close, so users have a deadline to respond by.
If the poll is particularly sensitive, you can hide responders' names, so people can vote more freely.
Finally, you can edit poll questions within 15 minutes of posting, in case you made a mistake or need to make a question clearer.
The next time you need to create a smaller group chat featuring members of an existing group, you no longer need to build it from scratch. Instead, you can make new group chats from your current groups, which should make splitting off much easier. WhatsApp sees this as a great way to "plan a surprise party" or "coordinate event logistics," but we all know this is going to be used in, let's say, less kind ways. Yes, the ability to create a side chat from a main chat will be used to talk smack inconspicuously. (I imagine the first text in these breakout group chats will be "Oh my god, can you believe they just said that?")
If you're on Facebook, you may soon see a new type of verification badge on user profiles meant to indicate that there is a real, live person behind them. The platform is adding a free verification feature that allows users to upload a selfie video and earn a white check mark, which will appear on their profile and across Marketplace, Dating, and Groups. (At launch, badges won't appear in Feed posts, but Facebook says that feature will be added in the future.)
Note that this is different from Meta Verified, a paid subscription that provides the blue check mark to accounts on Facebook and Instagram. This verification indicates that Meta has confirmed the user's identity based on a review of their government-issued ID and, in some cases, a selfie video.
Facebook Verified is available to users age 18 and older whose accounts are in good standing with the platform's community standards, though the feature is launching in select markets initially before being rolled out globally. Once you have access, you'll need to record a short video selfie, which Facebook will compare to existing profile photos on your account using facial recognition. If your verification is approved, the white check mark will be added to your profile. Verification is not available for Pages or ProMode accounts.
Facebook says it will store your selfie video for "up to 30 days" after verification, which is a one-time process. It's not entirely clear what happens with that video in the meantime, and it's worth noting that Meta has relied on user data to train its AI. Meta AI (and Meta more broadly) is a terrible offender when it comes to privacy and security, so you should consider whether the tradeoff of a verification mark is worth handing over more of your data and read the privacy policy before you agree.
Google also launched a video selfie verification feature this week, though its purpose is to prove your identity should you get locked out of your account. Unlike Facebook Verified, which is meant to be a trust signal to other users, Google's selfie verification allows access to your entire Google account, bringing with it some additional security considerations.
Samsung might have just announced a bunch of new products during its July Unpacked event, but that's not stopping WhatsApp from trying to steal headlines. As Samsung was unveiling the latest Galaxy Z devices, WhatsApp announced four new features that users on both Android and iOS can take advantage of right now. Here's what's new:
The goal of CarPlay and Android Auto is to make smartphone apps safe to use while on the road. You shouldn't text and drive, but if you can hear messages and respond to them with your voice while keeping your attention where it should be, that's a win-win. Unfortunately, that wasn't really the case with WhatsApp's previous experience in the car: You could send new messages and place WhatsApp calls, but that's it, and that made WhatsApp a much more limiting experience than other car chat apps.
According to WhatsApp, that's no longer the case. The latest update overhauls the experience, finally letting you listen to and respond to your messages. In addition to placing calls, you can see your call history, so you can check whether you missed a call from somebody. You can also access your list of favorite contacts, which should make it easier to start quick calls and messages to the friends and family you talk with most often.
With this update, you can now open PDFs directly in WhatsApp on the web or in the desktop app without downloading them first. What's more, you can edit those PDFs after opening them, including highlighting and annotating, while remaining in the app. WhatsApp says you can view and edit these PDFs via Adobe Acrobat, putting WhatsApp in the running against other lightweight and free PDF apps on the market.
If you're listening to a song you really like on Apple Music or Spotify, you can share it across many different social media apps, and that now includes WhatsApp, too. The company says you can share tracks from these music apps to your WhatsApp Status, which, presumably, will let your friends and family check out the song themselves in Apple Music or Spotify.
It took a while, but WhatsApp finally got an iPad app in May of 2025. Now, over a year later, WhatsApp is letting users create an account directly from WhatsApp on iPad, without needing to tie the account to a phone number. If you or someone you know uses an iPad as their main device, this should be some welcome news.
For frequent Instagram posters, it might seem like the app has let you add music to posts forever. But in reality, the company only rolled the feature out back in 2022. (If that doesn't sound right to you, you're just misremembering—you have been able to add music to Stories since 2018.) Over the past four years, it has been possible to attach a track to your pictures to set a mood for your post. It's a bit of an Instagram staple at this point: if you use the app with your volume up, you can't really scroll through your friends' posts without hearing a whiplash of songs.
In all that time, however, adding a song was all or nothing. If you posted with a particular tune, that was the permanent soundtrack to your post. Any regrets you might have about that particular song could only be remedied by deleting the post entirely—a bit of an extreme step in most cases. As such, you might have posts in your feed with tracks you don't care for anymore, but since you don't want to take down the pictures altogether, you've had to leave them up and accept your past poor choices. But no more!
On Tuesday, Instagram announced that songs on posts and carousels are now editable. You can swap out songs using Instagram's new "Replace Audio" feature, which lets you change the music on a post without deleting it or affecting any likes or comments. It's a simple change, but one that Instagram's user base will likely receive positively, and positive sentiment is definitely something the company needs in the wake of outcry over another high-profile feature that briefly let users generate AI images with posts from any public account. The company has since removed that option, and seems to be focused on adding new features users might actually want.
Changing the songs on your posts is relatively simple: Any time you want to swap out the song on one of your past posts, you can tap the two lines above the picture, tap "Edit," then choose the new "Original audio" option that appears in the menu. From here, you can change the song to anything in Instagram's library, and, presumably, return here as many times as you like to swap it out again.
While Apple has recently been forced to offer alternative app stores in the EU, they've been around much longer on Android: The more open nature of Google's mobile operating system means it's easier to access apps that haven't been specifically Play Store approved, and the quality and breadth of these apps is better than you might have realized.
Leading the way here is F-Droid, a repository of Android apps released as free and open source software, with an emphasis on security and privacy—both the code and the permissions of the apps are presented transparently, and there aren't the usual Google tracking and analysis extras on top.
You don't get the full Play Store security protection with F-Droid, and you are relying on the F-Droid team keeping its operations safe and secure—something it has a strong record in. However, down the years this alternative app store has proved a reliable source of safe and trustworthy apps, including the recommended ones below—just be sure to stick to apps that are well-known and frequently updated.
This is a timely moment to be recommending F-Droid apps, because the database is under threat from Google's stricter policies on apps from outside the Play Store, coming into force in several months time. It's going to mean more verification and less privacy for developers, and a more convoluted process for sideloading apps (these will still be allowed, but you'll have to wait 24 hours for each install).
F-Droid has put up a campaign page you can read through to understand the issues at stake, and you can sign your support to help it battle this "existential threat." In the meantime, the best way to support F-Droid and its openness is by making use of the platform, and the excellent apps below.
Head to the F-Droid site to get the app store up and running, which then gives you access to the app library, including those here. Once these apps are installed, they'll appear in the Android app drawer as normal.
Paperize is a polished, stylish wallpaper changer that lets you switch between your pick of backdrops for the lock screen and the home screen on a schedule. You choose the pictures and the timings, and you get more control than with the default settings inside Android. The app is smart enough to be able to adjust images to fit the dimensions of your device, and there are some handy effect and filter options as well if you need them.
OpenTracks is a fitness tracking app that respects your privacy—you don't even need to connect it to the web or sign up for an account. You can use it to track runs, hikes, and cycles, and plot them on a map with details like distance covered and average speed.
What you don't get with this app is full support for wearables and fitness trackers, though you can sync data over Bluetooth from certain heart rate monitors and cycling computers. Your phone is used as the main "tracker" device, so you'll need to always have it with you.
There are no shortage of weather apps out there, but Breezy Weather makes a solid claim for being your default. It's able to pull meteorological data from numerous public sources, and then presents the data in a variety of interesting and engaging ways.
It definitely holds its own against the default weather apps you get with Pixel and Galaxy phones, and there are tons of customization options here (including which weather info gets shown and where), as well as the all-important widgets for your homescreen.
Every alarm, clock, and timer app is much like another, right? To a certain extent, but Chrono has an elegance and an intuitiveness that not many other apps of its type have. From split times in the stopwatch to time zones in the clock, there's a lot to explore.
Some of the touches I like here are the alarm filters —see active, snoozed, and disabled alarms in a tap—and the presets in the timer section, to quickly launch a meditation or workout (for example). You get full control over the color scheme of the app, too.
F-Droid does keyboards too, and with HeliBoard you have a keyboard that's fully customizable and flexible and yet which can work fully offline too—so none of your keystrokes or typing patterns are getting beamed back to a data server somewhere.
Among the tweaks you can make to the keyboard are the style and the layout of the keys, and the colors used. You can add toolbars and dictionaries, configure swipes and long presses, and add sounds and vibrations. It's comprehensive, as well as being private.
Auxio is a "simple, rational" music player that will take you back to the days before streaming music. It focuses exclusively on local files stored on your own device, which means spotty internet access is no problem, and no one is tracking your musical tastes.
All the basic features you would expect to find are here, and once you've imported your music, it's neatly sorted by its metadata into albums, artists, and genres. There's a built-in equalizer here, as well as a playlist creator, and a handful of customization controls.
Librera Reader can turn your handset into a decent e-reader—it'll be of interest to anyone who has reading to do on their phone. The app can open up a whole host of e-book and document formats, from EPUB to PDF, and has a broad range of customizations available.
You get a choice over how you read your documents and e-books—including top-to-bottom infinite scroll, left-to-right book-style scroll, and even auto-scroll—and there's all the support you would expect for bookmarks, search, and document outlines.
Picture-in-picture (PiP) is great for us multitaskers. While some prefer to pay full attention to their content, others prefer to keep videos running while attending to other tasks. I frequently have a video playing in PiP on both my iPhone and Mac, while I scan headlines, chat with friends, or take care of any to-do that only requires half my focus.
While there are ways to manually trigger PiP, it's best on mobile, as most video player apps have adopted a natural method: When you play a video, you can simply leave the app, and the video continues playing in a PiP window. It's now muscle memory for me on iOS: I head to YouTube, choose a video, and swipe out of the app, knowing my video will keep running as I move to other apps on my iPhone.
Of course, like most things, PiP is only good when it works. You might have recently tried the exact shortcut I just described, only to find that nothing actually happens. You close out of YouTube, but your video doesn't follow in a PiP window. (Though it may still continue to play in the background.) And while some of you might be Android users, I'd be willing to bet most are on iPhones. What gives?
As reported by 9to5Google, YouTube is currently experiencing issues with PiP. This isn't something only a handful of users are dealing with. The problem is apparently so widespread, YouTube has confirmed the issue directly. In a statement on YouTube Help, a Google employee shared the following:
"We're aware that some of you are experiencing issues with the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) feature failing to trigger when exiting the YouTube app. While the vast majority of these reports are coming from iOS users, we are also seeing a significantly lower volume of reports from Android users...Our teams are actively investigating the issue, and we'll update this thread as soon as we have more information." At the time of writing, over 11,600 users hit the "I have the same question" button on this YouTube Help post.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there is any workaround. For what it's worth, PiP was intermittent for me this morning in the YouTube app on iOS. I had no problem swiping out of a video into PiP mode during an ad, but once the video started playing, PiP didn't work. Not only that, but playback stopped as well. I went back to YouTube, played the video again, and when I left the app this time, PiP kicked in. This continued on and off, not working one time, but working the next.
There are a dizzying number of ways you can keep up with what's new on the web and try to find articles and posts of interest: Your options include the chaotic algorithms of social media, classic news portals, old-school RSS, traditional web search, AI-powered search, and whatever it is Google is trying to do with Discover these days.
It's a lot, and the latest app I've spotted to try and cut through the noise (via TechCrunch) is HyperTexting (just for iOS for now). It's a sort-of RSS reader, though it isn't marketed that way, and the core idea is that you get updates from the sites and people you want, in chronological order—with no ads, AI, or algorithm-powered interface.
As the HyperTexting app landing page puts it: "HyperTexting is your timeline minus the ads, algorithms, and AI slop. It's like the 'for you' feed, but it actually works... for YOU (not the platforms)." You can even create a HyperTexting profile of your own and contribute posts yourself, which others can then follow in turn. Here's how the app works, and why you might want to switch to its simplified way of keeping up with the web.
When you launch the HyperTexting app for the first time, you don't need to sign up for anything or open an account right away: There's already a selection of news sources included for you to get started with, which you can add to or edit as needed.
The Timeline tab is where news and updates appear, presented in chronological order. You pull down from the top to refresh the feed, just like the old days, and you're able to tap on individual articles to read them. As with any RSS reader, whether or not you get the full article text or just a snippet directing you to the website depends on the publication. Tap the toggle switch button (top right) to change the colors and other settings.
In 2026, it's actually quite strange going back to a feed like this. I felt a twinge of nostalgia slowly browsing through the headlines, without any AI-generated animal videos, adverts for mobile games that don't exist, clippings from podcast interviews, and snippets of stories I've seen a dozen times already but have just gone viral again. You get your choice of story sources, in order, whenever you're ready to browse through them. Each post comes with buttons for sharing with others or viewing it on the web, and I also like the way each source has its own profile with more ways to explore: Posts to see all the stories, for example, and Attachments to see all the visuals.
Profile pages work a lot like profiles on social media accounts, and you can follow and unfollow publications from these pages. Many sites also offer multiple feeds—including ESPN, which has different feeds for different shows and sports—so if this is available you can customize your story list further.
The Explore tab is where you need to head to find and follow new websites, and there's also a Trending tab here that shows you the 100 most-linked pages from the feeds you're currently following. If you just want the most widely appealing stories from your selected sources, this is a great place to keep returning to.
Head to Discover and you can pick out new sites you want to follow: You can either enter a few keywords to search for something, or type out a full URL, then tap Follow when the right publication appears. This seems to be the part of HyperTexting that's most obviously a 'work in progress,' as I couldn't add all the sources I wanted—including the esteemed outlet you're currently reading.
It's possible that the app is having some early growing pains, or that being able to follow a page depends on how it's hosted (the HyperTexting website says that support for WordPress sites is "coming soon"). In any case, I did find plenty of feeds I was interested in following, even if I couldn't access everything.
You can switch to the Activity tab to get back to articles you've previously looked at, like a rudimentary browsing history, while the Post tab is where you can contribute to the HyperTexting community—this feature isn't widely available yet, but eventually the goal is to have mini-blogs available for users that work a little bit like social media feeds.
There's still work to do here, but I like what HyperTexting is doing already, and it's a reminder of how discovery on the web used to be—I'll be keeping an eye on it as another way of staying updated. It's definitely worth installing if you like your new content presented in a clean, accessible way.
You've got all kinds of options when it comes to choosing how to communicate digitally with friends and family: not just dedicated messaging apps such as iMessage and WhatsApp, but also the DM features built into social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Some of these apps put a lot of emphasis on security and privacy, with mentions of end-to-end encryption and disappearing messages (WhatsApp now lets you hide your phone number for example). For the ultimate in private messaging, though, there's an app you might not have heard of before.
Delta Chat is decentralized (so there's no one point of failure or control), open-source, end-to-end encrypted, and anonymous—you don't need to supply a phone number to get started. You can even message people who don't have the app. Here's what you need to know, and why you might want to make use of it.
Delta Chat has been around for about a decade now, and started as a way to keep your messages out of the clutches of big tech companies. Over the years, it's added more and more features, become easier to use, and expanded to more platforms. There have also been some changes in the way Delta Chat works as a platform.
For much of Delta Chat's existence, it's worked through email: You signed up with your email address, and the chat app was essentially a wrapper for certain conversations in your inbox. Much of the storage and infrastructure work was handled by your email provider of choice, and anyone with an email address could join in.
Now, though, Delta Chat provides an email address for you, and handles all of the necessary plumbing behind the scenes. Not only does this make the service more convenient, it means you don't need to reveal anything to use it—you won't be asked for a phone number, an email address, a name, or anything else.
That may sound like it leaves the service open to spam, but the encryption stops that: Essentially, no one can spam you without knowing your specific encryption key. Your address is a random string of characters that you can pass on to trusted contacts—there's no public directory of users, and no way of looking someone up.
There are plenty of the usual chat app features here: audio and video calls, group chats, read receipts, and the option to have your messages disappear after a certain amount of time. You can easily share files with contacts, and you can log in on multiple devices simultaneously.
You can start your Delta Chat journey through the desktop apps for Windows or macOS, or through the mobile apps for Android or iOS. As noted above, you don't need to provide any personal information to sign up for the service: Just tap or click Create new profile on the opening splash screen to begin.
The app will ask you for a username that your contacts will recognize you by, but it doesn't have to be your real name, and there's the option to add a profile picture as well. You are then taken to the main chat screen, though you won't have any chats yet—just a welcome message and a folder for your saved messages.
To add someone on Delta Chat, tap the QR code icon at the top (Android and desktop) or bottom (iOS) of the interface. Ask your prospective contact to scan this with Delta Chat on their own device, though there are also options if you're doing the scanning. You can also generate an invite link to paste into an email or another messaging app.
Everything works very much as you would expect once you're in the Delta Chat interface. Via a long press on mobile or a right-click on the desktop, you can find options for muting, pinning, and archiving specific conversations, while the new chat button (a plus icon on Android and the desktop; a pen-in-a-box icon on iOS) lets you start a new conversation or create a new group chat.
To get to the settings for an individual chat, tap the three dots (top right) on Android, tap the contact name at the top then the three dots (top right) on iOS, and click the three dots (top right) on the desktop. The options here let you set up disappearing messages, search through chats, and clear the conversation history, as well as muting and archiving.
There's a main settings screen, via the large cog icon on the desktop app interface, the three dots (top right) on Android, and the Settings tab on iOS. The options here include being able to set backgrounds for your chat, turn read receipts on and off, and configure the quality of shared media files.
There are all kinds of encrypted, secure chat apps out there, including WhatsApp and Signal—so what are the compelling reasons to pick Delta Chat instead? The fact that you don't have to offer any personal data is a big one: You don't need a phone number or an email address, and no one is going to find you (or spam you) unless you specifically decide to add them.
Then there's the decentralized aspect of it. Delta Chat's storage servers and nodes are spread out in several different locations, so one power outage or technical failure doesn't bring down the entire system. You can even host your Delta Chat data yourself, if you want.
Due to the email infrastructure underpinning Delta Chat, it's also harder to block and censor than something like Signal, and easier to get your messages exported out.
If you decide to give this app a go, there is the standard problem of trying to convince family and friends to install it too, on top of whatever they're already using—but you don't necessarily have to persuade your entire contacts list to join Delta Chat: It could work well as a private app for you and a handful of people closest to you.
Up to this point, adding someone on WhatsApp has meant giving them your phone number—which is perhaps not something you always want to divulge, especially if you only just met, or you're in a group chat with lots of other people.
That's finally changing: WhatsApp is embracing usernames. The update is launching "later this year," according to WhatsApp, though you can start reserving your name of choice this week. It'll work much like usernames do on other messaging and social media platforms, meaning you'll no longer need to give up your digits to chat with someone.
"Usernames are our latest step to make WhatsApp even more private," explains a recent WhatsApp blog. "There's no directory to browse and no suggestions—people will need to know your exact username to contact you for the first time."
There's also an extra level of security just in case you think someone else might stumble across or guess your username: There's an optional username key you can add, which other people will need in order to be able to add you.
WhatsApp didn't offer precise timings on the rollout, but it says usernames will start appearing "gradually over the coming months" and that users will get alerts when the feature is available in their region. Once usernames are enabled, they'll replace phone numbers when making new connections.
Creators, small businesses, and organizations can claim the same username they have on Facebook or Instagram. For everyone else, you can head to Settings in the mobile app and choose Account > Username—though the option doesn't seem to be live yet for everyone (if you don't see it, try updating the app).
And just in case you were thinking about reserving @TomHolland or @Zendaya, WhatsApp told The Verge that celebrity and politician names have already been reserved. If you're completely stuck for inspiration, there's going to be a username generator you can make use of, too.
The announcement blog post specifically says reservations will be open "starting this week," so if you're keen to bag your username of choice before anyone else, keep a close eye on WhatsApp in the coming days.
On Tuesday, Meta announced that Threads now has over 500 million monthly active users. While there's no Threads Plus subscription yet, Meta is announcing a trio of new features aimed at improving your feed and building communities on the platform. As reported by TechCrunch, you'll be able to influence what you see on your feed (there's no toggle to disable the bots, but you can get ahead of them), and how you connect with groups using the new Communities feature. Plus, Live Chats is getting an expanded release.
While Threads has offered users a way to customize their algorithms, it was far from ideal. "Dear Algo" forced users to make public posts asking Threads' algorithm to make adjustments. Posts would say things like "Dear Algo, show me more NBA and tech content." It worked, but it was a bit embarrassing. Luckily, going forward, Dear Algo is going private.
The updated feature, now called "Your Algo," lets you make those same adjustments (privately or publicly) from a new hub in the sidebar—you just need to define the timeframe (between one, three, or seven days). Unfortunately, there's currently no way to make Your Algo requests permanent, but it's at least something. The feature is rolling out today in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
The Communities feature that Meta launched last year is exiting beta. It's a gradual rollout, though, so it will take some time to make its way across the globe. On Threads, Communities are an evolution of tags and topics. What started out as 200 topics is now expanding to any topic across the globe. They have their own spaces in the Threads app, with flairs, tags, and "champions" (members who frequently engage with a specific Threads community).
Along with the public release, Meta is adding a new Communities Hub to the left sidebar. Here, you can view and switch between all the communities that you're a part of. Each community will have its own icons and visual identity, making it easier to spot community posts across Threads. Native-language tags are also coming to communities across Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
The Live Chat feature is yet another Meta attempt at stealing users from X. The Live Chat feature encourages real-time conversation around events. You can tag events, comment on them, and follow along with the Live tag. With the FIFA World Cup already underway, Meta is planning to roll out this feature to all communities by July.
On Wednesday, YouTube announced a plan to roll out direct messages (DMs) in the U.S. and several other regions. As such, you can now share YouTube videos with your friends on YouTube directly, rather than sending content to other chat apps. YouTube now joins the ranks of other apps that you might not expect to have DMs, like Spotify and Zillow. While it likely won't become the next WhatsApp, it might make sense for friends who frequently pass YouTube videos back and forth: Considering that the vast majority of my Instagram DMs are friends sharing reels, I can see how YouTube's DMs could be popular. This feature, which YouTube has been testing since late last year, is now available to everyone. Here's how it works.
You need to add people as YouTube friends before you can send them DMs on the platform. If the feature is available to you, then you'll see a messages icon at the top of the home screen in YouTube's mobile apps. Tap this icon, then select Invite to chat to send an invitation. Once the other person accepts your invite, you'll be able to send them a YouTube DM. When you receive a DM request from someone, you can choose to allow it or select Not now, which lets you review the invite later instead of declining it outright.
The next time you're watching a video you'd like to send, you can tap the Share button, and your YouTube friends will appear alongside other sharing options. Select any contact to share a video with them. You can also type messages alongside the video if you'd like to add a bit more context, and you can, of course, chat with your YouTube friends using this feature.
You'll have access to this feature in YouTube's mobile apps, as long as you're over 18 years old. YouTube DMs are available in 40 regions at the time of writing, including the U.S., the U.K., and many in Europe. It's worth noting that YouTube users from India don't yet get access to it. YouTube says this feature requires you to be signed in to your account, and that you might have to verify your age to use it. The company also emphasized that your DMs will be subject to its community guidelines, which prohibit spam, sensitive content such as nudes, violent or dangerous content, misinformation, and illegal activity.
TikTok users in the U.S. now have yet another way to engage with the TikTok ecosystem—this time through a new standalone app focused on live entertainment and "cultural milestones." TikTok Pro Events is centered on fan culture for events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup, encouraging users to search for trending hashtags, visit the event hub, and share related content. Doing so earns you rewards—called Stars—which can be redeemed in-app for official merch, TikTok Shop coupons, or TikTok-funded charitable donations.
The new app is now available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, though exclusively for those in the U.S. If you don't want to download a separate app, you can still access World Cup event hubs in the main TikTok app by searching "FIFA World Cup," which raises the question of why this new app is necessary—and whether any U.S.-based TikTokkers will actually bother to use it in favor of the main TikTok app.
Of course, it doesn't seem like the app is really for TikTok users as much as for the benefit of TikTok's new U.S. owners. As TechCrunch notes, TikTok Pro Events offers revenue opportunities for TikTok USDS Joint Venture, the new owner of the platform's U.S. operations arm, with sponsorships, partnerships, and advertising.
While this is the first standalone app introduced under TikTok's new ownership, it's not the first launch targeted at U.S. users. Local Feed, a feature designed to show you content from your immediate geographic area, rolled out to the main TikTok app in February (though exclusively in the U.S.). It's worth noting that Local Feed has opt-in GPS data sharing, which allows TikTok to see your precise location in order to deliver more specific content. If you don't enable this setting, the app will use "coarse location" data based on your IP address, network, and posting activity to customize your local feed.
In May, TikTok USDS JV also introduced TikTok GO, a travel-focused feature (similar to TikTok Shop) that helps users discover hotels, attractions, and tours, check availability, and complete their booking—all within the app. While the feature relies on partnerships with third-party engines like Booking.com, Expedia, and Viator, it does not require users to leave TikTok to complete their transaction.
It's happening: After months of testing and leaks, Meta is rolling out its long-awaited memberships for three of its most popular platforms. Starting today, users can subscribe to "WhatsApp Plus" for $2.99 per month, "Facebook Plus" for $3.99 per month, and "Instagram Plus" for $3.99 per month. As you'd expect, these subscriptions are entirely optional, and they add some novel and interesting features for power users: Facebook and Instagram's subscriptions are aimed squarely at creators (and a subset of lurkers). But these changes beg the question: As a regular user of these platforms, is any of this for you?
As reported by TechCrunch, Instagram Plus comes with a set of new features for stories. You'll be able to see how many people have rewatched your story, and you'll be able to create an unlimited number of custom lists that go beyond Close Friends. You can create different audience lists for different kinds of content and post only to the specific set. For example, for personal use, you can create lists for sharing stories with just your family, colleagues, or friends.
With the plan, you can "Spotlight" a story for a week and extend a story beyond the current 24-hour limit. You can search through your story viewer list to see if a particular profile viewed your story, and you can finally preview a story without showing up in the viewed list—a feature many users have been asking for, and finding workarounds in the process. Users can also react using "super heart" animations in stories, and customize their bios and profiles with new fonts, icons, and additional pins.
The feature list of WhatsApp Plus is pretty light right now. If you subscribe, you can finally pin more than three chats up top (up to 20 now). You can customize chats with custom alerts, ringtones, and themes. There are unique color and theme options for the app itself, and multiple icon options. You can also send exclusive "premium stickers" with added special effects that aren't available for the free users. However, that's all you get for $2.99 per month.
As TechCrunch highlights, Facebook Plus's feature set is quite similar to Instagram's subscription, though it's particularly focused on stories. Facebook users will be able to extend their story to 48 hours (instead of the regular 24-hour window), send super reactions to stories, search through stories, and get insights into how many times their stories were rewatched.
The Plus plans don't replace the Meta Verified membership, which focuses on identity authentication for creators. However, Meta is also testing two new plans at this time: Meta One Plus for $7.99 per month and Meta One Premium for $19.99 per month. The base Meta One Plus plan lets users generate AI images and videos, adds a "Thinking" mode, and gives higher compute limits compared to free users. The Premium plan has higher capacity for image generation, deeper reasoning skills, and higher compute access. (Meta hasn't provided hard numbers for anything yet, and given this is a test, it's bound to change over time.)
Confusingly, there's also a $49.99 Meta One Advanced plan that's designed for creators. It gives users higher visibility in Facebook and Instagram feeds and search results. It also unlocks advanced analytics, audience insights, and scheduling tools, among other perks. In an Instagram video, Naomi Gleit, Head of Product a Meta, said that while they are testing multiple subscriptions right now, eventually they see it all coming under the Meta One umbrella.
If, like me, you were hoping for an Instagram subscription to remove all ads and junk, this isn't it. And perhaps that's never going to be the case. The Plus subscriptions are clearly aimed at creators big and small, as well as power users who would like a few customization options.
If you're a regular, run-of-the-mill WhatsApp and Instagram user, there's little to be gained by these subscriptions. The ability to pin more users is nice, but not worth $3 every single month. The strongest case can be made for Instagram if you run a page with a sizable audience, or have an Instagram page for your business or side project. The additional data analysis, customization options, and the stories list can help you stand out. The rest, though, is mostly not worth it. I hope that this is just a teaser and that Meta keeps adding more features to the subscription (without raising the prices) to make the deal sweeter.
LastPass has come under fire in recent years following a 2022 data breach that compromised user vaults. Despite the controversy, it remains a popular and user-friendly option for saving credentials. But you don't have to stick to LastPass' default setup: If LastPass is your password manager of choice, these are the best hacks to optimize your experience.
If you have one LastPass account for both work and personal use, you can separate relevant items into sub-vaults. When you toggle between them, you'll see only the credentials relevant to that identity, and LastPass will suggest only those items for autofill. This reduces confusion and clutter, especially if you have both personal and professional accounts for the same services. You can also create mini-vaults based on category themes (such as travel or shopping) to organize your data. Go to Advanced options > Add identities on the left-hand navigation and click the Add icon. Name the new identity and drag and drop items into it. Then click Save. You can switch identities from the drop-down under your user account.
In addition to your username and password, LastPass has custom fields you can use if a website or app requires other inputs—such as a PIN or security question—for logging in. Instead of saving these as text in a notes box, you can specify the name and value in a custom field. Open your password, tap the Edit icon, and select Custom fields > Add custom field. Add the name in the Field label column, then enter the value in the Field content column and tap Save.
If you open the same sites over and over—such as your work email, calendar, or project management platform—you can add these to your LastPass favorites and launch them all with one click. This streamlines your morning workflow, so you no longer need to type URLs or open separate bookmarks. Find the item you want to favorite in your vault, hover and tap the Edit icon, and select Star > Save. When you're ready to launch, go to Advanced Options in the sidebar of your web vault and hit Open your favorite sites. Each will open in a new tab, and LastPass can autofill credentials if needed.
If you update credentials on a website or app, password managers will prompt you to automatically save the new version to your vault. Sometimes, though, the site itself glitches or fails to update the password, locking you out of your account. Instead of going through a tedious reset process, you can view the version history in LastPass to grab the most recent password. Open the item and select Edit, tap the History icon, and select View to see the last five changes.
If you need access to important documents like your passport, birth certificate, or medical records when you're away from home, but don't want to store them in the cloud unsecured, you can add them to LastPass. The app encrypts each document, so they're accessible only when your vault is unlocked on your device. Attachments can be up to 10 MB each. (Free users have a total storage limit of 50 MB, while LastPass Premium subscribers get 1 GB.) Select Notes in the navigation bar and tap the Add Item icon. Select Attachments and follow the prompts. LastPass supports a variety of file types, including .pdf, .docx, .jpeg, and .txt.
By default, LastPass limits logins to your vault to the country where your account was created—a security feature that protects your account from unauthorized access attempts. However, there may be times when you need to access from a different country, such as when you're traveling or using a VPN connection elsewhere in the world. You can whitelist additional countries under Account settings > General > Show Advanced Settings. Under Security > Country Restriction, check Only allow login from selected countries and select the countries you want to add. Then hit Update, enter your master password, and select Continue.
Credential sharing is a useful feature in most password managers, as it allows you to securely send logins for shared accounts. However, there may be times when you want to grant someone access to an account to complete a task but not allow them to view the password itself—for example, if you have an assistant who uses your social media or billing platforms, or a family member who wants temporary access to a streaming service. When you hide passwords, those you share with can use autofill but not view or copy the plain-text credential. When you share individual items, you can leave Allow Recipient to View Password unchecked; in Shared Folders, you can check Hide Passwords next to the recipient's name.
Unlike some password managers, LastPass has an explicit legacy access feature that allows you to will your vault to a trusted contact if you are incapacitated. Once invited, a trusted contact can request access to your vault. If you don't decline the request within a specified wait time, they will receive an Emergency Access folder in their vault containing all of the items in yours. Vault owners can revoke access later, but this is useful if your trusted contact needs to manage financial accounts or have access to other data, even temporarily. In your vault, go to Emergency access in the left navigation menu and open the People I Trust tab. Tap the plus sign and enter your trusted contact's email. (Note that they must also have a LastPass account or create one.) Specify the wait time, then hit Send Invite.
If you have a single account you use to log in across multiple domains or subdomains from a single provider, you can merge these items in your LastPass vault instead of maintaining separate entries. For example, you might have a single account used across Apple domains that you'd prefer not to store as individual items. This reduces clutter in your vault and streamlines your autofill options down to one. Go to Advanced options in your vault and select Autofill settings > Equivalent Domains > Add new. In the domain field, enter the domain you want to merge, then tap Add.
Another useful advanced setting is "Never URLs," which allows you to disable some (or all) LastPass interaction with certain sites. You can opt to prevent pop-ups prompting you to generate or save a password—which can happen if you're simply entering a two-factor authentication code—or disable autofill if multiple people are using the same device. Go to Advanced options > Autofill settings > Never URLs and select Add new. Enter the URL and select the desired action, then hit Save.
Instagram has a habit of stealing other apps' features and, in the process, making them mainstream. When Snapchat rolled out stories, Instagram did the same, and, arguably, better. When TikTok took over the world, Instagram launched "Reels," and managed to get millions (if not billions) of users addicted to short-form video. Now, Instagram is targeting Snapchat once again, taking "inspiration" from the app's most iconic feature: disappearing photos.
On Wednesday, Instagram announced Instants, which the company calls "a new way to share in the moment." Instants are photos you can share with your friends that disappear after you open them. (Sounds familiar.) While your friends won't be able to save them, they can react and reply to your Instants, both of which go to your DMs. Any Instants you share don't disappear from your account, however: Instagram says your captures remain in an archive for up to one year, which you can reshare to your stories if you wish.
None of this is groundbreaking, of course. Anyone who has used Snapchat is familiar with the process here. What is unique about Instagram's approach, however, is who you send Instants to. Rather than choose individual contacts and groups to share these ephemeral images with, Instagram presents two options: Close Friends (the list of Instagram users you have designated as such), and mutuals (followers you follow back). The latter is simply called "Friends" in the app, and is the first choice Instagram presents when inviting you to send an Instant—which means it's way too easy to accidentally send an Instant to literally everyone you follow that also follows you back.
If you're a public, outgoing Instagram user, this might not sound like a bad thing. But I imagine the rest of us out there don't necessarily want to blast each and every one of our mutuals with a casual Snap-like photo. (I know I don't.) As such, if you're going to try Instants, make sure you know where your pics are going before you hit send.
Instants live in your DMs, but in an awkward spot. You'll find it in the bottom right corner, in a tab that pops out from the screen. When you tap it, you'll be able to see any Instants that were sent to you. If you don't have any, you'll simply launch the Instants camera interface. The most important element here is at the bottom: By default, you'll see "Friends," which means your Instant will go out to all your mutuals. If you want to switch to Close Friends, tap "Friends," then tap "Close Friends." Instagram gives you the option to quickly edit your Close Friends list here if you want to make any changes, including clearing the whole list, but note that any changes you make here are immediate. I accidentally cleared my entire Close Friends list because I thought I was deselecting the contacts that were suggested.
Taking the photo itself is pretty straightforward, but dangerous: You can choose whether to use the front or back camera, or whether or not to use flash. If you want to add a caption, tap the viewfinder to pull up the keyboard. (You add captions before taking the photo here.) You'll also find the Archive in the top right if you want to review any previous Instants you've taken. Once you capture the photo, however, you only have a few seconds to hit "Undo" before it sends to whichever friends list you have selected, so be careful. If you'd prefer a dedicated Instants experience, Instagram actually made an app for the feature for both iOS and Android.
You can't get rid of Instagram Instants, but you can "snooze" it. Back in the DMs window, you can swipe on the Instants UI to push it back into the side of the screen. It'll disappear, but you can bring it back at any time by swiping left on that edge of the display.
If you tried to launch Spotify today to listen to a song or a podcast, only to find the player endlessly loading, you're not alone: Spotify is down. The company confirmed the issue on X via its "Spotify Support" page, posting "We’re aware of some issues right now with the app and are checking them out!"
You didn't need to see this X announcement to learn about the outage, however. Anyone trying to access the service right now will run into a roadblock. I can make it to my library, but when I try to stream a song, I just see the playbar loading over and over again. Downdetector, owned by Lifehacker parent company Ziff Davis, currently displays tens of thousands of user reports confirming the same.
Service outages are a dime a dozen these days. Most platforms and services experience downtime at one point or another, and, in most cases, the connection is restored relatively quickly. It doesn't seem to be an issue with a cloud service provider like AWS or Cloudflare, either, since Downdetector isn't showing many other apps and platforms with service issues at this time. We don't know exactly what's causing this Spotify outage, but, barring some unique event, the company's software development team will soon isolate the issue, and release a patch to fix it. Before long, I imagine Spotify users will be streaming again.
Outlook is among the best Gmail alternatives for most people. Microsoft's email service is free and has a bunch of features that Gmail does not. At the same time, there are some shared features you'll likely want to use if you're coming from Gmail—they're just not enabled by default. I've been using Outlook's email service for over a decade, and these are the best hacks I've discovered while sorting through my inbox.
Companies and organizations often use pixel tracking to see if you've opened their emails. Every one of these emails includes a hidden tracking pixel, which sends read receipts to the sender when opened. Outlook's default settings protect you from the worst of it, but you should take a few additional steps to safeguard your account. Go to Outlook.com and log in to your account. Click the gear icon in the top-right corner to open settings. Now, go to Mail > Junk email. Under "Security options," select Block attachments, pictures, and links from anyone not in my Safe senders and domains list.
Note that this might not be for everyone, as it requires you to manually vet people who send emails to you. From a security standpoint, however, it's your best tool against email tracking, phishing, and scam attempts. You can also go to Outlook settings > Mail > Layout, and choose Don't show sender images to add an extra layer of privacy protection. On a similar note, you can go to the Message handling tab in the same settings page, and uncheck For shopping-related messages show a sender logo and relevant links in the message header.
Outlook's "Safe senders" list lets you add people to a trusted contacts list. Emails from these people won't be sent to spam, and won't be subject to restrictions such as blocked links or attachments—perfect for anyone who uses the hack above. You can use this feature to ensure that important emails, such as account statements from your bank, or paystubs from your employer, are never sent to spam. To get started, go to Outlook settings > Mail > Junk email > Add safe sender. You can also select the Safe mailing lists tab to add mailing lists to the Safe senders list. This is great for newsletters from your favorite publications, or safety-related emails from your companies.
One of Outlook's best features is Sweep. It automatically checks your inbox for emails from certain senders, and follows your instructions to manage the clutter. For example, my bank sends me an email for every transaction on my credit card. At one point, I was looking at 150+ unread emails that I had no use for. So, I used Sweep to keep transaction emails from the past 10 days, and archive the rest. To set it up, select any email in your inbox, then choose the Home tab at the top of the page in Outlook's desktop or web apps. Select Sweep, and you'll see a pop-up asking what to do with emails from that sender. There are four options here:
Move all messages from the Inbox folder
Move all messages from the Inbox folder and any future messages
Always keep the latest message and move the rest from the Inbox folder
Always move messages older than 10 days from the Inbox folder
You also have a drop-down menu to select where you want to move these messages. I usually select one of the last two options above, and move the rest of the messages to the Archive folder, or Deleted Items. I've used this feature for a couple years now, and it works flawlessly in the background. If you ever want to change or delete Sweep rules, go to Outlook settings > Mail > Sweep.
Outlook's mobile apps support gestures to quickly triage emails without opening each manually. You can swipe left or right to archive, delete, or report emails. However, you can customize these gestures to suit your needs. Go to Outlook settings in the mobile apps, and navigate to Email > Swipe Options. On this page, select what happens when you swipe right or left. Some useful options include delete, archive, flag/unflag, mark read/unread, snooze, and read and archive.
In Outlook's desktop and web apps, go to Outlook settings > Mail > Customize actions. This will let you configure swipe gestures (for laptops with a touchscreen), and quick actions, which are the buttons that appear on each email in your inbox. I used this to replace the Pin button with Archive as I never pin emails in my inbox. You can select a maximum of four actions for each email.
In Outlook's mobile, desktop, and web apps, go to Settings > Copilot, and disable Turn on Copilot. This will turn off almost all AI features in the apps. You should also go to Outlook settings > Mail > Smart suggestions, and turn off Show suggested replies.
Microsoft also collects a bunch of data and enables AI services in your Outlook account. If you want to disable this, head to Outlook settings > Mail > Privacy and data > Privacy settings. Turn off all options on this page to disable optional diagnostic data collection, prevent Microsoft from analyzing your emails for "connected experiences," and disable online content linked to emails in your inbox. You can also select Delete history to clear your search history from Outlook. While you're at it, go to Mail > Compose and reply, and disable Microsoft Edge Autofill. With this feature enabled, Microsoft Edge will pull from your Outlook inbox to autofill information, namely flight info. This feature may be useful for those who use Edge a lot, but it's not of much use to those who don't.
While working on this article, I discovered Outlook's hidden bulk unsubscribe feature. This feature lists all the subscriptions in your inbox and lets you unsubscribe from all of them without opening a single email. To try it out, go to Outlook settings > Mail > Subscriptions. Click the Unsubscribe button next to any of the lists, and Outlook will handle the rest for you.
I've never liked Outlook's keyboard shortcuts much. As an example, "Ctrl-N" opens a new email in Outlook. In Gmail, it's "C." While Ctrl-N is the more familiar shortcut, it's not as fast as using a single keystroke. The good news is you can use Gmail's keyboard shortcuts in Outlook and save a lot of time. I love this hack because most people have Gmail as their primary email account, and now you don't have to remember two sets of shortcuts for email. To set this up, go to Outlook settings > General > Accessibility > Keyboard shortcuts. Select Gmail, and you're all set. Google has all of Gmail's keyboard shortcuts listed here, if you need a refresher.
I find myself marking emails read and archiving quite a bit, and I've set up a single-click workflow using Outlook's "Quick steps." You can do that too by going to Outlook settings > Mail > Quick steps. Give your Quick step a name, choose an action such as Mark as read, and click the Add another action button. You can now select Move to, followed by Archive. On the same page, you can add a keyboard shortcut for this action, and click Save. This is a basic example of what you can do with Quick steps. You can set up any multi-step workflow to suit your needs, which could include categorizing emails, turning emails into tasks, or muting an email conversation, among many others.
If you're ever regretted sending an email right after hitting the Send button, you're not alone. In Gmail, the undo send feature is enabled, but that's not true for Outlook. You'll need to enable it manually from Outlook settings > Mail > Compose and reply > Undo send. Use the slider to set a timer between 0 and 30 seconds, which is how long you have to stop sending an email where you've misspelled your own name. (Been there, done that.)
You can use Outlook's rules feature to filter out messages where you're marked in the cc or bcc fields of an email. This way, you can focus on emails directly addressed to you, and move the rest to a different folder. To set this up, go to Outlook settings > Mail > Rules, and select Add new rule. Give this rule a name, select I'm not on the To line as the condition. In the actions field, select Move to, and pick a folder. Select Stop processing more rules to avoid further rule conflicts, and click Save. Now, all emails where you're in cc or bcc will go to the new folder, keeping your inbox exclusive to direct messages.
For me, Venmo has always been the app to settle quick debts. Someone puts their card down at dinner, and I Venmo them my share; I covered costs on a trip, and the group Venmos me in return. But Venmo has always seemed like it wanted to be more than that. The app feels like a hybrid between a banking service, a social media platform, and a place to buy and sell crypto. None of that is changing with its new redesign; in fact, it feels like it's leaning into that multi-use experience more than ever. But it is making a big privacy change, at least for new users, that probably should have been there from launch.
Venmo is launching a redesigned app over the coming weeks, and the changes aren't subtle: The overhauled UI definitely looks like an app launching in 2026, with large rounded blocks, bolded names and text, and updated imagery throughout. Over time, the company also plans to introduce new sections to the app, which it calls "surfaces." There's "Send," which contains the usual Venmo features like fund sharing and payment scheduling; "Money," which lets you buy and sell crypto and link your account to other services; and "Rewards," which hosts Venmo's cash back program and offers.
If you're an existing Venmo user, you'll notice these changes immediately, of course. But perhaps the biggest change of all only impacts new Venmo users—in a good way, mind you. Going forward, users signing up for new Venmo accounts will have their transactions set to private by default. They can change this option, of course, but if they don't adjust their settings, all of the payments they use Venmo for will be hidden from their friends and contacts, rather than populate on the main feed.
This is a pretty radical change for Venmo. Throughout Venmo's history, new users' profiles were set to public from the get-go. If you didn't intervene, your transactions would be broadcast to anyone who follows you or the person you paid: That's a good thing if you're Venmo, which wants the extra engagement; or, perhaps, a nosey user who wants to see who's paying who for what. But most of us probably don't want or need the Venmo world knowing our financial business, even if we don't have anything to "hide." As such, this change is a good one.
Of course, Venmo doesn't force you to display your transactions publicly. You can change this setting at any time, and make all of your transactions private by default. You can also set individual payments as private, if you have some transactions you want to keep off the timeline. But many (if not most) users aren't going to go out of their way to change the default options after setting up their accounts. As such, I'm willing to bet that a good percentage of the transactions visible on Venmo aren't from people who want to share that information. That wouldn't be a problem had Venmo set their accounts to private from the start.
If you have a new Venmo account, your privacy situation is set. But if you've had your account awhile, you might be set to public if you've never changed it. Luckily, if you want to be private, it's easy: Open the app, then head to your profile. Hit the settings gear in the top right, then choose "Privacy." Here, make sure "Private" is checked off. If you're okay sharing with just friends, you can choose "Friends" as well. But for a totally off-the-grid experience, hit "Private." You can also set individual payments to Private if you don't want to hide all your payments. Once you reach the pay screen, hit "Public" in the same line as "Privacy," then choose "Private" or "Friends."
Now, your transactions will still appear in the feed, but will be visible only to you and the other party involved. You can tell from the little lock icon that appears in the payment.
If you're at the stage where you want to do more with your phone and start building automations—customized mini-apps to carry out tasks—then Tasker (for Android) and Apple Shortcuts (for iOS) are likely to be included in the tools you turn to. You'll find an introduction to both these apps and what they can do for you below, as well as an explanation of how they're similar and how they're not. The main difference is that Android continues to allow its apps to dig deeper into the operating system and its features than iOS does, and Tasker can take full advantage.
For those who've never looked into phone automations, there's an almost limitless array of possibilities here, all built around the idea of "if this happens, then do that"—so on the most basic level, plugging in your headphones can increase the volume level, or logging into the work wifi can put your phone in silent mode.
Even Tasker's biggest fans would admit it's not the easiest app to come to grips with. It's also going to cost you $3.99, so be sure you're going to make full use of it before purchasing. Once you're used to the app, though, you'll find it's a powerful and capable piece of software, and there is a simplified "Tasky" interface you can switch to that lets you edit existing automations rather than starting from scratch.
Head to the full Tasker interface, and you can see it's split into tabs: Profiles (the triggers that make something happen and the linked actions to take), Tasks (actions to carry out that aren't linked to triggers), Scenes (custom edits to the user interface), and Vars (stored values and settings, like your phone's battery life). Automations often combine these elements into projects, which can be found along the bottom tab.
Importing an example project is perhaps the easiest way to get started. Tap the + (plus) button (lower right), then choose TaskerNet and make your pick. When you've found something you like, tap the Import button, and it'll be added to Tasker and set up; you'll also need to grant the automation all the necessary permissions.
There's a Flip to Shhh automation that you should be able to find in the TaskerNet directory—placing your phone face down will mute it. When you've loaded the project, you'll see it at the bottom of the screen, ready for selecting: Under the Profiles tab, there's an Orientation Face Down toggle switch (which is what the automation is waiting for), and if you tap on it, you'll see the linked action—turning on Do Not Disturb. Under Tasks, we have a standalone task, which is the setup for the automation, and you can edit this to change the on-screen message.
To fully explain Tasker and its idiosyncrasies takes a lot more space than what's available here—check out the vast amount of information on the Tasker website—but you can start building simple automations from the Profile tab by clicking the + (plus) button and choosing a trigger and an action from the lists provided. You could pick a time as the trigger, and switching to dark mode as the action, for example.
If this already seems like too much effort, looking at what Tasker is capable of can encourage you to dive in: Run searches from doodled sketches, get a notification when your WhatsApp message goes from unread to read, or switch to voice typing automatically when your phone is flat on a surface, for example.
Apple Shortcuts is the iPhone Tasker in some ways, but it's much more straightforward: Creating and editing automations is simpler, and while there's less you can do with it in terms of interacting with the fundamentals of your phone, the capabilities here are going to be enough for most casual tinkerers.
All of your current shortcuts show up in the Library tab of the app, while under Automations, you can find the shortcuts that run automatically, without any input from you—maybe based on the time of day or the opening of an app. Under Gallery, you can browse through shortcuts curated by Apple.
As with Tasker, starting with an example is a good way to get into the flow of the app. If you open the Gallery, you should be able to find a Remind Me at Work shortcut: Tap the + (plus) button in the corner to add it to your own library. Getting within 100 meters of your office is the trigger, and displaying a reminder is the action.
The shortcut will want to know where you work, and will ask for this information when you add it to your library. When the shortcut runs, you get prompted for something to add to a work note inside Apple Notes—so you can build up a comprehensive list of everything you don't want to forget, specifically for your workplace.
Tap the three dots on any shortcut in your library to see a breakdown of how it works. Triggers can be based on times and dates, locations, apps opening or closing, Focus Modes, or on changes to settings like wifi and Bluetooth. Actions can include a host of tasks in Apple's own apps (from setting calendar entries to getting map directions), as well as some third-party ones, and you're also able to control various aspects of the phone, such as changing the Airplane Mode status or screen brightness level.
You'll find plenty of shortcuts written by users and available on the web. These tasks and automations can be set up to track a home move via QR codes, log your daily water intake, or get the weather forecast for the location of an upcoming calendar event. You can also start building your own by tapping the + (plus) button on the Library or Automation tabs.
Comparing Tasker against Shortcuts is an interesting way to look at Android versus iOS overall. Even as Google and Apple have borrowed features off each other over the years, there have remained some pretty distinctive differences as well, and many of them come to the fore when using these two tools.
Apple Shortcuts gives you a lot of guidance, and offers a workflow that's easier to follow—though it's still capable of some very clever automations. It is also more limited in terms of the control you get over the mobile operating system and the apps installed on it: Shortcuts can only dig into apps as much as the developers allow.
Tasker can interact with apps whether or not their developers or Google have done anything to help. Unlike Shortcuts, it can read the content of notifications, draw on top of other apps, and even carry out actions on your behalf (like screen taps and swipes), for example. Tasker can also do continuous monitoring better than Shortcuts can.
Apple (understandably) wants to keep some limits on Shortcuts because of security and privacy reasons, but Google puts the onus on you to only run the automations and tasks that you understand and trust. For better or worse, Tasker and Android give you more freedom if you want to truly hack into what your phone is capable of (and are patient enough to figure out the interface).
You don't necessarily need an app to see where an aircraft is at any given time—if you type the airline and flight number into Google, it'll show you the arrival and departure information and where it is en route based on data pulled from Flightview (which also has a standalone app). However, there are a handful of native and third-party flight trackers, both paid and free, that provide live updates and other alerts so you have the most current information when you travel, often faster than the airlines themselves. Here are five of my favorite recommendations.
Flighty is an iOS app with robust flight tracking features like real-time delays and cancellations and live updates shown on your lockscreen (as a Live Activity) for flights in progress, whether yours or someone else's. It's one of our favorite travel apps because it often has more current information than other sources, including airlines themselves. It also shows your plane's status starting 25 hours in advance. Most of these features require a paid subscription, which you can do by week ($5) if you don't travel often, or annually ($60) if you do.
If you don't want to pay for flight tracking and don't mind ads, you can get all the data you need with FlightAware. The free app allows you to search and track any flight in real time and set up custom alerts for departures, arrivals, cancellations, and more. You can see live progress to the destination and check for delays using the "Where's My Plane?" feature—plus, there's a global flight map, airport weather data, and other features for aviation nerds. FlightAware doesn't have a Live Activities integration, but it is an excellent no-cost tracker.
FlightRadar24 is similar to FlightAware in terms of the information available, including historical data, real-time flight status, and arrivals and departures at any airport around the world. It, too, has far more detail than the casual flyer needs, but the basic features are free, including tracking with Live Activities (iOS) and Live Notifications (Android).
Messages on iOS has a built-in flight tracking feature with real-time information about departures, arrivals, gate changes, and baggage claim numbers—and, if the flight is en route, a live map. To use it, you simply need to have texted yourself or someone else the flight number via iMessage (not SMS), meaning you can use Messages to track any flight. The flight info does have to be in one of a few specific formats, the simplest being airline + flight number (Delta 426, for example). Within the message, tap the underlined flight text to pull up the tracking info within Messages. This is a solid, if basic, free option for iOS, lacking both live updates and push notifications.
If you're an Android user, you can now see your own flight's live status on your always-on display and lockscreen. Google recently introduced Live Updates to Google Wallet—all you have to do is add your boarding pass, and tracking will pop up soon after your flight takes off. The icon shows flight duration, estimated arrival time, and progress to a destination. Obviously, this feature doesn't allow you to view other flights besides the one you're currently on, so it's not as useful for tracking flights more broadly.
Instagram ain't what it used to be. What started as a simple platform to share retro-inspired photos with friends and family quickly turned into a social media mega-app. You can still share photos, sure, but the platform now offers just about everything, from livestreams to short-form video feeds. In fact, for some users, the Instagram algorithm has turned their feeds into bona fide meme machines, with low-effort videos, images, and carousel posts dominating their experience as they scroll through the app. If you use Instagram, you may have a similar experience—especially if you have a taste for quirky, niche, or otherwise alternative internet humor.
That's likely changing in the near future. As reported by TechCrunch, Instagram is cracking down on "unoriginal" content—or posts from creators that they didn't create themselves. That includes single photo posts, as well as carousel posts. The idea here is to promote Instagram users who post original content, while limiting users who simply copy other people's work and share it on their own feeds. Much of the low-quality images and videos you see on Instagram (and other social media platforms, for that matter) are stolen from other creators, and reposted as if the uploader has any claim to that content in the first place. Carousels are particular egregious, since it allows a single user to post a number of different images from various creators.
This doesn't mean that any user who reposts something they didn't make themselves will be punished. As long as the poster made a meaningful change to that image or video, it should count as "original" content, in Instagram's book. Otherwise, there'd be a whole host of content—memes or otherwise—that would be banned from the platform. That doesn't include "low-effort edits," however, such as overlaying watermarks or adjusting the speed of the video. A user needs to make more material changes to a piece of content for it to be approved here. As Instagram explains, “an original meme transforms another creator’s photo or video...When meme creators add humor, social commentary, cultural references, or a relatable take by incorporating elements such as unique text, creative edits, and voiceover on a photo or video, they’re producing something original. The best meme creators take third-party content and make it unmistakably theirs by layering in a perspective, joke, or context that wasn’t there before. This is the kind of creativity we want to continue rewarding.”
As TechCrunch highlights, Instagram has already applied these rules to reels, so this isn't the first time the platform has tried implementing this policy. What I find interesting, however, is there doesn't appear to be much attention to "AI slop" at this time. In fact, Meta appears to be all-in on AI content, at least as of late 2025. I guess as long as the AI content is "original," Meta doesn't have a problem with it populating on its platforms, Instagram included. That's the opposite approach YouTube is taking: While both platforms suffer from low-quality AI clips, YouTube is actually trying to fight that type of AI content from spreading.
On Instagram, however, you might see a decrease in the amount of repeated, low-effort meme posts that may be flooding your feeds, but you also might have to deal with the same amount of odd AI videos that have been spreading like wildfire. Obvious AI videos are obvious, of course, but with advancing AI video models, new clips are sometimes difficult to tell apart from reality. Be careful out there.
Apple AirPods have always supported Bluetooth, so you can pair them with any phone, tablet, or computer you like—whether or not it's made by Apple—for basic audio listening. Until now, though, getting the full set of features on these earbuds, including head gestures and all the rest, required using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
That's now changed with the arrival of LibrePods, an app that actually launched a couple of years ago but that's now available on the Google Play Store. Previously, to get LibrePods to work, you had to jailbreak your Android device and sideload it. That's no longer necessary—you can just install it like any regular Android app.
According to developer Kavish Devar, Google recently fixed an issue with the Bluetooth stack in Android, and rolled it out with Android 16 QPR3. That means a jailbreak isn't required any longer, though you do need a phone with the Android 16 QPR3 update installed. At the moment, that means a Google Pixel, OnePlus, Oppo, or Realme device. As the Android update makes its way to other phones, including Samsung Galaxy handsets, they'll be able to use LibrePods too.
Among the AirPods features that LibrePods enables on Android, we've got head gestures (so you can accept or reject calls with a nod or a shake of the head), plus noise control modes (controlling how much external sound leaks), ear detection, more accurate battery level reporting, and conversational awareness (where the AirPods audio dips if you're talking to someone). Note that some of those features, including head gestures and conversational awareness, require a one-off purchase of $4.99 inside the app. You can see the differences between the free and paid-for versions of the app from the main settings screen—tap the cog icon in the top right corner of the app's front page to find it.
The app should work with all AirPods models, but first you need to connect your earbuds over Bluetooth. To do this on a Pixel phone, for example, head to Settings, then tap Connected devices > Pair new device. You also need to press the pairing button on the AirPods case or double-tap the case, depending on the AirPods you have. Once you've got your AirPods linked to your Android phone over Bluetooth, LibrePods should be able to see them, but the earbuds options will only show up when the AirPods are actively connected—so you may have to take them out of the case.
Finding your way around the app is straightforward. Right from the main screen you can switch between listening modes, if they're available on your AirPods: Transparency (letting external noises in), Active Noise Cancellation (blocking out external noises), and Adaptive (an automatic balance between the other two modes). You're able to customize the action taken with a press and hold action on the left or right AirPod—you can even launch Gemini, if you want—and there's also the option to customize which AirPod microphone is used by default.
Tap Head Gestures to enable this feature (if you've paid for it): You can tweak the sensitivity of the gestures needed, based on your preferences, and practice the detection. If you find that you need to use gestures that are aggressive and pronounced to get this to work, for example, you can dial up the sensitivity here. More options can be found by tapping the cog icon in the top right corner of the AirPods info screen: You can enable a home screen widget for battery information, choose the level of volume reduction for conversational awareness, and choose whether or not media playback should automatically connect to your AirPods.
On Friday afternoon, X officially launched XChat, the company's proprietary chat app. Unlike other chat app options, like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal, you need an X account to use XChat, which limits the user base to one specific social media platform. X users with a large enough social circle on the platform may find this new app to be useful, but XChat does come with some security contradictions that all new users should be aware of.
XChat's biggest sell, apart from being a place for X users to communicate, is that it is end-to-end encrypted. As the app reminds you upon setup, this encryption means there is no way for anyone—including X—to read the contents of your messages. Only the sender and receiver (or receivers) of an encrypted message have the ability to open and read it. In fact, XChat has you set up a passcode before proceeding to the actual app.
Once the app boots up, you'll find all of your X DMs arranged in the same way you'd expect from any standard chat app. However, it doesn't seem like encryption applies to previous chats: Once you send a new message, you see an alert that reads "This conversation is now end-to-end encrypted." Like other chat apps, you can send audio recordings, GIFs, files, photos, or take new pictures with the camera. By clicking on the recipient's profile picture, you can see their profile and shared media, plus customize the chat a bit. You can set a nickname, block screenshots, or turn on disappearing messages so that chats go away after a set period of time.
There's a decent level of customization available on the app level, too. There are the standard light and dark themes, but you can also choose whether left swiping on a message "likes" it or reveals info, such as when the message was sent, whether it was encrypted, or when the recipient saw it. You can also choose from one of eight different chat app icons, which I always appreciate.
I'm all for adding end-to-end encryption to X DMs, so there's some good stuff happening here. But it is a bit concerning that a messaging app advertising itself as a private experience with "no tracking" actually scrapes a number of data points and links them back to your identity. XChat's App Privacy page shows that the app reserves the right to take your contact info, contacts, identifiers, device diagnostics, and usage data, and links that information to you directly.
That's a big improvement from what the app was taking when it was first announced, which included things like location, search history, and user content. Maybe X adjusted these after facing pushback, but it rubs me the wrong way that a "private" chat app would still take this much data. If all you care about is end-to-end encryption, however, you can rest assured X isn't reading your messages
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