Welcome to this week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series which summarizes the latest operating system news, the applications they support and the money flowing through it all.
The app industry is still hot, with a record 204 billion downloads and $ 120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People now spend three hours and 40 minutes a day using apps, rivaling television. . Apps aren't just a way to spend inactive hours - they're a great business. In 2019, mobile-oriented businesses had a combined valuation of $ 544 billion, 6.5 times higher than those that were not mobile-oriented.
In this Extra Crunch series, we help you follow the latest news from the app world, delivered on a weekly basis.
This week we are reviewing mobile news of events that did not happen this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. This includes the launch of Android 11 beta, which would normally happen during Google I / O, as well as all the new Android development tools. Snap also held its partner summit this week, where it announced a number of new Snapchat features, new partner relationships, and plans for its AR ecosystem.
Not to be left out, Apple stole a little attention this week with its revelation of the WWDC20 calendar. Like many others, Apple's conference goes virtual for the first time. He even redesigned his forums to facilitate Apple engineer-developer interactions.
This week, in app trends, we're looking at data from new reports on the impact of COVID on home improvement apps and hypercasual games.
Securities
Android 11 beta launches with new development toolsAfter a series of delays and the cancellation of Google I / O, the Android 11 beta finally launched this week. This next major version of the Android operating system revolves around three themes, says Google: People, Controls and Privacy.
On the people side, Android 11 gives chat notifications a dedicated section at the top of the shadows, offers a Bubbles API for messaging apps, improves voice access, adds new emoji and more. New consolidated keyboard suggestions allow autofill apps and input method editors (for example, password managers and third-party keyboards) to now safely provide context-specific in-band entries suggestions.
New device controls make it easier for users to access and control connected / smart devices by long pressing the power button or accessing payment options. New multimedia controls in a future beta version will make it easier to change the output device for audio or video content.
