The best apps download superpowers to your smartphone. The Verge covers the new and noteworthy Android apps, iPhone apps, and games, highlighting great design, impressive utility, and novel features. If it belongs on your phone, you’ll find it on The Verge.
You can select any f-stop setting with the latest update to Halide Mark III.
Dasher retail returns will also expand nationwide in November.
You can invite two or more friends to your group and match with other friend groups based on your interests, which starts a new group chat. Group Hangouts are rolling out starting today in the US. Bloomberg says Tinder’s also working on a “group planning tool” to help groups set up in-person gatherings.
The company says the new topic labels in its dedicated app for Facebook groups will help you find more conversations about that topic, highlighting things like “solo travel” or “Korean food” as examples.
Meta is also testing improvements to the “Ask” AI chatbot feature that help you compare information related to what you asked about.
A major update for Final Cut Camera is now available that introduces a redesign with customizable overlays and easier access to popular settings like shutter angle, white balance, and the iPhone 18 Pro’s new variable aperture. Apple Creator Studio has also been updated with new template collections and advanced selections for Pixelmator Pro plus trigonometry, statistics, and logic functions for Numbers spreadsheets.
An issue in Firebase’s analytics led some iOS apps that use the Google service to crash on launch, a problem which persisted for hours even after Google’s fix. That’s one more thing to worry about after internet outages and rogue AI attacks.
[Android Authority]
Along with an updated homepage, the Arts & Culture app has a new AI-powered search feature that allows you to ask questions using natural language. The app also adds two new AI experiments, including Chrono Look for virtually trying on historical attire, and Dial an Artist, which lets you “call” an AI chatbot modeled after a historical artist.
That revamped Trump admin app (now offering access to Trump TV) apparently bounced up to the top of the News list this week.
You might think that securing access to the Strait of Hormuz or really anything else would be the federal government’s focus, but hey, it had the number one app in a category, and as David Pierce wrote in February, the very best thing about that is “being able to tell people you were number one.” The app has since slipped to #2 in news behind X, and to #96 overall.
Google is rolling out the feature to all Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US, India, and Brazil. It scans your photos to build a digital wardrobe of your clothes, allowing you to view separate pieces and try on new outfits virtually.
You’ll also be able to unlock your account with the YouTube mobile app. Read all the details in this YouTube support post. This is a smart feature!
The app, which Google began testing in June, pulls information from across Search, Gmail, Photos, Calendar, and Gemini to provide AI shopping recommendations, travel suggestions, event reminders, and more. It pairs these suggestions with somewhat unsettling storybook-style drawings of yourself.
The latest iOS beta has given up details of an overhauled Apple TV Remote. Now how about making a physical Apple TV remote with a display?
The developer of the iPhone app told Business Insider that he examined the Bluetooth signals emitted by popular smart glasses to establish corresponding fingerprints. The app can then alert users when a pair of potential “pervert glasses” are nearby.
First announced at I/O in May, Daily Brief is an AI feature that generates a summary of your day with the emails, meetings, and other information pulled from apps connected to Gemini. It was previously only available to Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers.
TikTok user CatJacks created an app for Apple’s headset that allows him to see through walls. When he’s running cable in a house, he’ll peek in the attic, mark where the studs are, then come around the other side and be able to see them and the cavity in 3D.
The social media app for neighborhoods is doubling-down on local business discovery with a new “Local Faves” hub that promotes verified neighbor recommendations to combat fake online reviews. “Local businesses have always grown through word of mouth. Online, though, reviews can be bought, manipulated, or faked,” says Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia. “Nextdoor’s approach mirrors the value of real word of mouth: a real neighbor, in a real neighborhood, sharing a business they’ve actually used.”
It’s the top navigation app on Apple’s and Google’s app stores after it took a stance against renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Google Maps changed the name of the Great Lake over the weekend, while Apple Maps may make the switch following the company’s chat with President Trump, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
The company’s latest virtual synth is focused entirely on the low end. It’s purpose-built for EDM wubs, tuned 808 thumps, and even some heavy gabber kicks. It’s not a subtle instrument, that’s for sure. But it’s plenty of fun if you like rattling the walls.
The version 5.07 update will allow you to “add and adjust more metrics” to workouts you manually log, as well as view these changes more quickly in workout summaries. Google also says the Health app’s built-in map now has faster load times and smoother rendering.
[Google Health Community]
The themes menu for RCS chats now has options for different bubble colors and wallpapers, including an option to upload your own background image. Google says chat customizations are only visible to you, though, not anyone else in the chat.
With the option enabled, only your followers will see your posts in Bluesky’s Discover feed. Other apps running the decentralized AT Protocol may still include your content in their feeds, however.
You can find the feature by navigating to your settings menu, selecting “Privacy and Security,” and turning on “Ask apps to hide my posts from algorithmic recommendations.”
Android users will now see more information about non-contact callers, such as what country the number is from and if you have groups in common. Starting today, WhatsApp also lets you add full passwords to two-factor verification, and multiple passkeys to Android and iOS devices.
The feature, which initially launched on iOS, offers preset playlists for running. It’s available to Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden on both mobile platforms, Spotify says.
