Apps

The social media app for neighborhoods is doubling-down on local business discovery with a new “Local Faves” hub that promotes verified neighbor recommendations to combat fake online reviews. “Local businesses have always grown through word of mouth. Online, though, reviews can be bought, manipulated, or faked,” says Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia. “Nextdoor’s approach mirrors the value of real word of mouth: a real neighbor, in a real neighborhood, sharing a business they’ve actually used.”

It’s the top navigation app on Apple’s and Google’s app stores after it took a stance against renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Google Maps changed the name of the Great Lake over the weekend, while Apple Maps may make the switch following the company’s chat with President Trump, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

The company’s latest virtual synth is focused entirely on the low end. It’s purpose-built for EDM wubs, tuned 808 thumps, and even some heavy gabber kicks. It’s not a subtle instrument, that’s for sure. But it’s plenty of fun if you like rattling the walls.

The version 5.07 update will allow you to “add and adjust more metrics” to workouts you manually log, as well as view these changes more quickly in workout summaries. Google also says the Health app’s built-in map now has faster load times and smoother rendering.

The themes menu for RCS chats now has options for different bubble colors and wallpapers, including an option to upload your own background image. Google says chat customizations are only visible to you, though, not anyone else in the chat.

With the option enabled, only your followers will see your posts in Bluesky’s Discover feed. Other apps running the decentralized AT Protocol may still include your content in their feeds, however.

Android users will now see more information about non-contact callers, such as what country the number is from and if you have groups in common. Starting today, WhatsApp also lets you add full passwords to two-factor verification, and multiple passkeys to Android and iOS devices.

The feature, which initially launched on iOS, offers preset playlists for running. It’s available to Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden on both mobile platforms, Spotify says.

Now you can upload attachments up to 20MB, twice the previous 10MB cap. But Discord also says its mobile apps will now check file sizes before compressing attachments, just like the desktop app already does.

While recent stats from Similarweb showed a decline in Bluesky’s active users, the app is continuing to build that big tent Toni Schneider talked about and is now testing support for videos that are up to 10 minutes long. It’s also announced Bluesky Protocol Services, which is supposed to make it easier to build apps that connect to its AT Protocol infrastructure.

There were so many other options.

Wahoo is revamping its app to expand beyond its core cycling hardware to become a “connected training ecosystem.” And that means subscriptions. Under its new three-tier model, basic Wahoo device support is still free; $4.99/month adds performance analytics, insights, and training load tracking for self-guided athletes; and $17.99/month adds structured training guidance.

Aptoide is the first third-party app store inside Google Play after Epic’s victory, but Aptoide CEO Paulo Trezentos tells me “I’d say 50% of people with a US account are not yet able to access it.” Most Verge staffers I’ve asked can, but a fully updated Pixel 9 review unit can’t. Google spox Dan Jackson tells me the feature is fully rolled out. Can you see it?

Internal communications viewed by Bloomberg suggest that Phoebe Gates — Bill Gates’ daughter — knew that her shopping app, Phia, claimed commission for sales it didn’t drive using a method known as “cookie stuffing:”

OpenAI announced that the new app is available in preview on Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora, and includes ChatGPT along with Work and Codex.

The flight-tracking site claims Kalshi is using its data to “run gambling markets on flight cancellations” even after it asked the prediction market platform to stop. “Kalshi instead accessed FlightAware’s data without authorization and then represented to customers that market outcomes were ‘verified from FlightAware,’” the lawsuit states.

The new version of the read-it-later app has “firmware-level integration” that Boox says significantly reduces screen ghosting and offers a faster refresh rate. It’s rolling out now on the Palma 2 and Palma 2 Pro in the V4.2 firmware update.

Google announced that you can now pay with your Venmo account on the Play Store, allowing you to purchase games and other content with your existing funds, linked cards, or bank accounts.

Arturia’s Pigments is my go-to synth plugin. It’s powerful, versatile, and shockingly easy to build complex patches in. It’s currently marked down to $129 from its usual price of $199. But if you’re hesitant to commit even that much, the company just launched Pigments Play, a free stripped-down version.

Support for sending emails from third-party accounts like Yahoo or Outlook is ending in January 2027, Android Authority reports. Google’s also discontinuing Gmailify and the ability to fetch emails from third-party accounts in Gmail, but says you can still use “send as” for Gmail addresses and aliases, and “Google Workspace ‘Send as’ functionality is not affected.”

The communications app has introduced an “@all” alert to get everyone’s attention instead of tagging people individually — a feature that’s thankfully restricted to admins for group chats with more than 32 members. You can now also start new group chats from existing groups, and polls have been updated, adding the ability to hide voter names, edit questions, and set voting deadlines.