The Tech Landscape #159 đ
This is issue 159 of The Tech Landscape, a weekly collection of news about consumer digital technology. Stories are selected by me, Peter Gasston, with a little insight and opinion where appropriate.
The 159 London bus route was the last to use the famous Routemaster buses. People are quite nostalgic about the Routemaster, and it was a lot of fun to jump on and off wherever you wanted; but they were fundamentally non-inclusive, terrible if you had any kind of physical impairment.
I think this has been the busiest week of news (in digital tech, obvs) since I started this newsletter. Get yourself a slice of toast and settle in.
Snap Minis and Me
I had a quick chat with Campaign magazine about Snap Minis and social e-commerce.
Apple WWDC
Apple held its annual developer conference, WWDC, where it announced a ton of new features for iOS, MacOS, iPadOS, and more. You can read the headline announcements at Appleâs 13 New Innovative Technologies and Features Unveiled at WWDC20 or The Vergeâs Apple WWDC 2020: the 18 biggest announcements, but there were a lot of things that didnât seem big at first but have long-term implications. For example, a lot hinted at itâs future in XR/ARâsee Apple’s Future AR Pieces Hide in the Corners During a Virtual WWDC. And also App Clips, mini-programs which have interesting applications in the future of 5G and edge computing and in augmented reality, as I wrote on LinkedIn:
âApp Clips are similar to the Mini Programs that WeChat has been using for years, and also to the Minis that Snap recently announced [see intro]âand as useful as this feature is on its own, it also gives a hint at the future of both Apple and Snap (and the industry at large).
âApp Clips can be invoked by NFC tags, App Clip Codes (like QR), or suggested based on locationâwalking past the shop, for example. They are highly contextual and low-friction.
âApple is strongly rumoured to be launching AR glasses in 2023, and the old app model will be outdated; there probably wonât be âappsâ for AR glasses. This is where contextual mini-apps will be useful: by looking at a brand logo or a code the glasses can suggest a relevant App Clip, and the customer can use Siri to order a coffee, entirely hands-free and without using an iPhone at all. Ditto for future versions of Snap Spectacles.â
XR
Google released its Depth API, which uses the phone camera to create depth maps for more believable AR effects. I put together a short video explainer of depth mapping and the Depth API. The feature was announced at the end of last year but now fully available on âhundreds of millionsâ of Android devices. Apple has its own version coming this year with iOS 14, and Niantic recently revealed its own approach, Reality Blending. Depth mapping is a big deal for AR.
developers.googleblog.com/2020/06/a-new-wave-of-ar-realism-with-arcore-depth-api.html
Messaging
Google is expanding its Business Messages service, available through Maps and Search, to allow more types of business and to integrate with common CRM platforms. The chatbot rush has settled in to customer service.
blog.google/products/maps/now-sending-business-messages-google-maps-and-search/
Googleâs Nest Hub Max can now (in the US) make group video calls with Duo or join video meetings with Meet, following the success of Facebookâs Portal.
blog.google/products/assistant/hey-google-make-group-call-now-available-nest-hub-max/
Payments
Brazilâs central bank has ordered WhatsApp to suspend its new in-app payments feature, just a week after it launched. The bank says it wants to ensure compliance with regulation, but its interesting to note that the bank is preparing to launch its own instant payments system later this year. Donât expect a globalised currency exchange to be launched without some resistance.
theverge.com/2020/6/24/21301470/whatsapp-payments-brazil-suspended-central-bank-risk-regulators
Google has removed peer-to-peer payments features from its Assistant, Gmail, Contacts, and Messages app in the US, following a shutdown of the feature in the UK. Seems like it wants to consolidate payments into Google Pay, which is rumoured to be getting new retail features soon.
androidpolice.com/2020/06/24/google-pay-send-is-no-longer-available-in-assistant-contacts-gmail-and-messages/
Social
Instagram is expanding Reels, its TikTok competitor, to France and Germany after a trial in Brazil. I know Instagram sees TikTok as a threat but I donât know why it doesnât add more features to Stories rather than adding this to an app which already has Feed, Stories, and IGTV.
techcrunch.com/2020/06/24/instagram-expands-its-tiktok-clone-reels-to-new-markets/
Facebook will warn people when a news story they want to share is more than three months old. Sharing old stories as if they were new is a problem on the platform, but I canât help but feel that they should notify people before they go to share and potentially cut out some of the outrage (some news organisations, like The Guardian, automatically label older stories).
about.fb.com/news/2020/06/more-context-for-news-articles-and-other-content/
Gaming
Microsoft is closing its Mixer live-streaming service, and will help existing streamers move to Facebook Gaming. Mixer spent big money signing top streamers like Ninja on exclusive deals, but failed to grow the audience meaningfully; Twitch is still the king of games live-streaming. The surprise announcement was made during Appleâs WWDC keynote, as if Microsoft wanted to bury it.
news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/06/22/bringing-more-players-into-our-gaming-vision/
Facebook Gaming introduced new ways for creators to earn revenue, including subscriptions and auto-inserted ads in live streams. Interestingly its also looking at adding manually-triggered 90 or 180 second ad breaksâjust like TV.
facebook.com/fbgaminghome/blog/fan-subscriptions-for-level-up-creators
Fortnite hosted its first movie night in its new Party Royale island, showing a series of films by Christopher Nolan. Social watching (and listening) is an interesting area to observe.
eurogamer.net/articles/2020-06-24-fortnite-holds-its-first-movie-night-this-friday
Retail
Instagram is expanding its Shopping service to allow more businesses to sell on the platform, as long as theyâre direct sellers and not using affiliates. Why isnât this being done under the Facebook Shops banner?
business.instagram.com/blog/upcoming-changes-commerce-eligibility-requirements/
Amazon is discontinuing the Dash Wand, the combined barcode scanner and portable Alexa speaker. After the end of the Dash Buttons last year, it seems this line of experimentation is over.
voicebot.ai/2020/06/22/amazon-dash-wand-no-more-alexa-shopping-device-discontinued/
Stat of the Week
Tesco says online shopping has grown to 16% of all sales, up from 9% last year, as the COVID-19 lockdown forced many people to try the service for the first time. Delivery capacity doubled in just five weeks and 12,000 new staff recruited will be retained as âwe believe the increase is permanentâ.
theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/26/tesco-sales-soar-as-customers-turn-to-deliveries-in-pandemic-coronavirus
Advertising
Spotify is testing In-App Offers, an easier way for listeners to find the promotions offered by advertisers. Rather than having to remember the address (âgo to w-w-w-dotâŚâ, etc), the app will show the offer in the podcast episode description. Testing in the US and Germany for now.
spotifyforbrands.com/en-US/news/spotify-introduces-in-app-offers-for-podcast-ads
TikTok launched its For Business platform for brand marketers. Tools include access to ad formats, branded AR effects (through selected partners), and a trial of a creator marketplace in select regions. TikTok has had a very successful year.
newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/introducing-tiktok-for-businessuk
Privacy
Google will set the length of time it holds your location and web data to 18 months, and YouTube data to 36 months, after you enable recording history. You can still choose to set for longer, shorter, or disable entirely.
blog.google/technology/safety-security/keeping-private-information-private/
Androidâs ML Kit, which makes it easier for developers to add common machine learning approaches to their apps, will now use on-device models rather than cloud services. Local ML is better for speed and privacy.
android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/06/mlkit-on-device-machine-learning-solutions.html
Everything Else
Amazon announced Honeycode, a âcodelessâ tool for building web and native apps from spreadsheets. There are a few competitors in this market already, and Google acquired a rival called AppSheet earlier this year.
businesswire.com/news/home/20200624005803/en/AWS-Announces-Amazon-Honeycode
Google announced it will pay a licence fee to news sites for âhigh-qualityâ content later this year. Personally I donât buy the argument that Google steals newsâit seems like it drives a lot of traffic to news sites. But with regulation on the horizon this looks like a proactive move.
blog.google/outreach-initiatives/google-news-initiative/licensing-program-support-news-industry-/
Google Photos had a major redesign with more emphasis on nostalgiaâshowing âon this dayâ more prominently, and automated collections of activities with friends, plus a map showing everywhere your photos were taken.
blog.google/products/photos/redesigned-google-photos/
Google is adding its fact-checking labels to Image search results.
blog.google/products/search/bringing-fact-check-information-google-images/