Gmail will get a brand new look, Instagram journeys whereas attempting to be TikTok and India blocks Battleground Cell – TechCrunch

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The most learn story this week was about Battlegrounds Cell India, a well-liked battle royale title that has discovered an viewers of tens of tens of millions in India. Gamers woke as much as discover the sport all of a sudden blocked from each Google Play and Apple’s App Retailer by order of the Indian authorities. Why? That’s…not precisely clear but, however Manish has the breakdown of everything we know so far.

different stuff

New Gmail for all: Use Gmail? Don’t be shocked if it seems to be completely different quickly. The corporate introduced this week that the “Materials You” interface overhaul it has been testing will roll out to all customers within the coming weeks. Don’t like the brand new styling? For now, not less than, you will discover a toggle hidden within the settings menu to modify it again.

Instagram’s bad move(s): As finest anybody can inform, TikTok appears to be consuming Instagram’s lunch. Is the reply for Instagram to turn out to be extra like TikTok? Current updates — like a give attention to full-screen video and extra content material from folks you don’t comply with — have made the Insta interface really feel increasingly TikTok-y…and, nicely, the complaints have been loud. Instagram is not less than pretending to pay attention, although, and says it’ll be walking back many of said changes. Maybe.

Rivian layoffs: Rumors earlier this month advised layoffs had been looming at Rivian; positive sufficient, the corporate confirmed this week that it’s shedding round 6% of its workforce as a part of a “restructuring plan.”

A penny for your prompts?: OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 can generate unimaginable artwork seemingly out of skinny air, however typically getting the precise outcomes you need can require some…finesse. This startup needs to “promote strings of phrases that internet predictable outcomes” on DALL-E 2 and different such programs. An attention-grabbing story made all the higher by its oh-so-Seussian opening picture, which I’ll notice was created by an precise human (and a lovely one at that).

Meta shutters Tuned: Do you know Meta had a social app for {couples}? Most likely not! Known as Tuned, it was a part of Meta’s New Product Experimentation efforts, and it appears this explicit experiment is over. Meta introduced this week that Tuned will go away on September 19. The app was meant to assist {couples} talk and “create a shared scrapbook” of photographs/movies/and so on. It doesn’t assist that it was launched proper at first of the pandemic, when many {couples} in all probability had no bother conserving in contact as a result of they in all probability weren’t going wherever anyway.

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Is chopping your organization’s inside valuation ever a very good factor? Natasha and Anita targeted on that query on Wednesday’s episode of Equity. In the meantime, on Chain Reaction, Lucas and Anita chatted about Minecraft, saying, “No friggin’ thanks” to NFTs, and Lauren hopped on The TechCrunch Podcast to fill us in on why (as we realized final week) Netflix is bleeding clients.

further stuff

In the event you’re a TechCrunch+ subscriber, (a) thanks! and (b) we’ve received great things for you this week. Resembling:

3 views on Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical: Find it irresistible or hate it, Amazon is shopping for One Medical. Good factor? Unhealthy factor? Alex Wilhelm, Walter Thompson and Miranda Halpern weigh in with their views.

8 fintech VCs on how to pitch them: What are fintech traders on the lookout for proper now? Mary Ann Azevedo checked in with eight of the highest traders within the area.

Could the CHIPS Act spark another U.S. startup renaissance?: The U.S. Senate clearly needs extra semiconductor manufacturing occurring stateside — however chip manufacturing is wildly costly. Is that this “potential money injection” a possibility for brand new startups to vary the best way it’s achieved? As Haje places it: “These bizarre theories you had been learning as a part of your PhD thesis? Now’s the time to mud ’em off.”