Facebook vs. Apple, iOS 14.5, the decline of Clubhouse, Telegram updates, and other news
Let’s talk about the most important news of April in a nutshell. New iOS 14,5 (it will restrict access to IDFA), Android 12, Telegram’s big update, a new set of audio products from Facebook, the decline of Clubhouse, and more. Share with your colleagues! Go!
iOS 14.5, permission to track your data and Android 12
Apple introduced new products and AirTag was the most talked about among them. With new features in iOS 14.5, you can unlock your iPhone with Apple Watch (it’s handy when you’re wearing a face mask). Apple also introduced new emoji, diverse parameters of Siri voice and new privacy controls.
Apple has confirmed that starting with iOS 14.5 will require apps to get permission to track data. Marketers, don’t get the idea that everyone will refuse and check this research with remarkable results. This week Google released its third developer preview of Android 12 — it’s the last version before the official launch. There will be better privacy controls, enhanced notification permissions, and more.
Updates: Clubhouse, Telegram, Instagram
All apps copy each other again. Facebook announced a set of audio products, including Clubhouse’s clone with Live Audio Rooms, which is available across Facebook and Messenger, the Spotify integration for music and podcasts, and also Soundbites — it’s an audio-only version of TikTok competitor. Instagram released the Remix feature in Reels that resembles TikTok Duets. Snapchat is also working on its own Duets feature with the same name ‘Remix’. Reddit announced its own Clubhouse-rival — Reddit Talk. There are more and more clones of Clubhouse, but, clearly, the number of installs of Clubhouse itself in March 2021 dropped by 72%. Plus, Clubhouse has changed the logo icon — in case you haven’t noticed. But there is still no Android version.
At the same time, TikTok improves its security, because it got sued for collecting children’s data. Instagram plans to launch a version for children, but everyone is against it, there is even a petition. Telegram pleased us with a big update — now merchants can accept credit card payments in any chat and buyers can tip; admins of groups and channels can schedule a chat for a specific day and time instead of creating it right away. You will have time to get ready and let everyone know in advance. More here. We have also noticed that Instagram added the ‘Live donations’ feature, allowing viewers to donate directly from the Live stream they are watching, and WhatsApp allows you to speed up voice messages — but it doesn’t work for everyone yet.
For marketers, developers and ASO specialists
Instagram is testing ads in Reels. The ads can be up to 30 seconds long and people can like and comment on. TikTok plans to launch a range of new ads, e.g. ‘Collection Ads’, allowing brands to combine their product catalog listings and branded videos. Dynamic product ads are also about to appear.
The App Store will add a second ad slot to the ‘Suggested Apps’ section in its search page. It will allow developers to place ads for all users who got on this tab, not just those who have already searched. And Google made it possible to customize KPI on the app’s dashboard.
Facebook will change ad measurement protocol in response to Apple’s new user data tracking policy. Also, only its own monetization platform Facebook Audience Network will remain. And more, Facebook plans to test new business tools in News Feed (for now, in the US only). The principle is like this: users tap on topics they’re interested in under posts in Feed and explore content from related business companies. Click here for an explanatory video.
Numbers, statistics and forecasts of the month
The mobile market is growing and there are no trends to reduce the dynamics. In the fourth quarter of 2020, users spent nearly 50 billion U.S. dollars on mobile apps across all platforms. Some predict that app spending will grow to $270 billion by 2025.
If we look at specific examples, the number of installs of wellness apps in the first quarter of 2021 grew by 33% compared to the same period last year (in the US), and the number of financial apps — by 34%.
Here’s another curious opinion and data on what happens to the mobile market in the post-quarantine period. It seems that the growth of game installs should fall, but in fact, the opposite is true.
New tools, webinars, in-app and indexing guides
And now about our news: we have drastically updated Keywords Explorer, developed a new index and launched two new sections at once. The first one is Ideas, where you can segment all potential keywords and make it easier to collect semantics for ASO iterations. The second one is In-Apps — a section to work with in-app purchases (IAP). Sign up for a free demo to test all features.
We also held two webinars in Russian and English, where we talked about new tools for convenient and quick work with semantics and in-apps. This is not all. We released one guide on how to increase your revenue by optimizing in-apps, and another guide on methods to improve indexing in stores. If you are still a beginner, you can start with our text ASO mini-course.
P.S.
Don’t forget about the importance of mobile analytics and accurate data. Good conversions!
