Snapchat launches creator subscription in the U.S.
Snapchat will let creators set their monthly subscription price.
Apps
Airbnb expands its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” globally
The feature allows users to cancel eligible bookings if there is a change of plans — without losing money upfront.
How to un-Big Tech your online life
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 116, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy National Ferris Wheel Day to all those who celebrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Letterboxd and Mike […]
Airbnb plans to bake in AI features for search, discovery and support
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company wants to increase its use of large language models for customer discovery, support and engineering.
Airbnb says a third of its customer support is now handled by AI in the U.S. and Canada
Airbnb has shifted a third of its North American customer service to its AI agent, CEO Brian Chesky said.
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads mocking AI with ads helped push Claude’s app into the top 10
The numbers suggest that Anthropic’s Super Bowl commercials, combined with Anthropic’s recent release of its new Opus 4.6 model, worked to drive attention to Claude’s app and its key differentiator from ChatGPT.
A Stanford grad student created an algorithm to help his classmates find love; now, Date Drop is the basis of his new startup
“Our matches convert to actual dates at about 10x the rate of Tinder,” Weng told TechCrunch.
YouTube finally launches a dedicated app for Apple Vision Pro
When Apple Vision Pro first launched two years ago, YouTube hesitated to launch a dedicated app. Today is the day they officially launch one.
US FTC airs concerns over allegations that Apple News suppresses right-wing content
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, FTC chair Andrew Ferguson cited reports from Media Research Center, a right-leaning think tank, which accused Apple of excluding right-leaning outlets from the top 20 articles in the Apple News feed.
Uber Eats launches AI assistant to help with grocery cart creation
Uber Eats launched a new AI feature, “Cart Assistant,” that can automatically add items to your cart based on text or image prompts.