Google has announced that with the help of AI, it blocked 1.75 million apps that violated its policies in 2025, significantly down from 2.36 million in 2024. The lower numbers this year, it said, are because its "AI-powered, multi-layer protections" are deterring bad actors from even trying to publish bad apps.
Apple has steadily expanded home screen customization on the iPhone over the past few years, and iOS 26 continues that trend with more visual control over app icons. Building on the changes introduced in iOS 18, the latest update lets you resize icons, remove app labels, apply system-wide color tints and make icons translucent using Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language.
As a former Mint user, I had to find a new budgeting app not too long ago. Intuit, parent company of Mint, shut down the service in March 2024, and prompted users to transition to its other financial app, Credit Karma. However, after testing Credit Karma myself, I found it to be a poor Mint replacement — that meant I needed to branch out and look elsewhere for a trusted app to track all of my financial accounts, monitor my credit score, follow a monthly spending plan and set goals like building a rainy-day fund and paying down my mortgage faster.
Last year the UK declared that Apple and Google were a duopoly with "strategic market status" in the mobile platforms market, making them subject to special regulations. However, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will not regulate Google and Apple's app stores like the EU has done.
Apple plans to allow third-party voice-controlled AI apps in CarPlay, Bloomberg reports. Siri is the default voice assistant for things like controlling music and looking up directions, but future AI apps in CarPlay could handle the complicated, open-ended requests Siri can't answer.
Meta is developing a standalone app for Vibes, its feed of AI-generated videos, according to reports from TechCrunch and Platformer.
Fitbit's founders have a new startup. Two years after leaving Google, James Park and Eric Friedman announced a new platform that shifts the focus from the individual to the family. They say the Luffu mobile app "uses AI quietly in the background" to collect and organize family health information.