Here’s how WhatsApp plans to interoperate with other messaging apps

Illustration: The Verge

WhatsApp, like many other major tech platforms, will have to make some significant changes to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). One of those changes is interoperability with other messaging platforms, a move WhatsApp engineering director Dick Brouwer explains in an interview with Wired.

The shift toward interoperability will first include text messages, images, voice messages, videos, and files sent from one person to another. In theory, this would allow users to chat with people on WhatsApp through third-party apps, like iMessage, Telegram, Google Messages, and Signal, and vice versa.

However, it all depends on whether other companies get on board, as there are still concerns about how the Meta-owned app will...

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Ikea’s AI assistant gives design inspiration — at least it tries to

Screenshot of the Ikea AI Assistant | Ikea

Trips to Ikea can easily be an overwhelming exercise if you go in without a plan. Ikea’s AI assistant on the GPT Store was created to help — it will tell you all about its products and visualize them in a room.

Francesco Marzoni, chief data and analytics officer at Ingka Group, the largest Ikea franchise holder, said in a press release the AI assistant is part of a series of experiments the company is doing “so that we can take part in the AI evolution as we shape our company strategy.”

I figured an Ikea AI Assistant should be a good way to make the experience less exhausting; this is part of Ikea’s pitch to potential users. So I decided to give it a try. However, I found that the Ikea GPT was not a good partner in interior design.

T...

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The best deals on MacBooks right now

Some of the latest M3 MacBooks have returned to their Black Friday pricing, while some have fallen to new lows. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. The offerings start with the 13-inch MacBook Air from 2020 at $999 and go all the way up to the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro starting at $2,499. But finding a deal on a current Mac with an M1, M2, or even the new M3 chip — as well as the higher-end M3 Pro and M3 Max — is actually not that difficult.

While Macs may not experience perpetual discounts, it’s not uncommon to see various current models discounted by as much as $400. Alternatively, purchasing refurbished options directly from Apple is another way to save money without as much waiting for the changing winds of deals to blow your way. Apple’s refurbished store provides a...

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Here are the best deals on headphones and wireless earbuds we could find

Bose’s new QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are $50 off at multiple retailers. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

When it comes to headphones and true wireless earbuds, there are a ton of brands and products to choose from. However, the sheer range of available models can also make them difficult to shop for, especially since many of them cater to different lifestyles, budgets, and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights and vigorous workouts, for instance, while others let you tune out noise so you can focus better.

That’s why we’ve curated a list of the best headphone and earbud deals available. Here, you’ll find sales on all kinds of earbuds and over-ear headphones, all of which come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a buying decision, we’ve put together guides to...

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The EU proposes slashing pollution 90 percent by 2040

Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge

The European Commission today recommended reducing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels by 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990 levels.

At face value, it’s an ambitious target for transforming the European Union’s energy system. As always, though, the devil is in the details. And the proposed plan is already garnering a range of strong reactions.

A formal proposal still needs to be issued, but it has already faced pushback on how much of those pollution cuts should come from risky tactics aimed at capturing rather than preventing pollution. Some environmental groups are also criticizing a glaring omission in the draft: while it mentions phasing out coal, there’s no strategy to phase out oil and gas.

“It’s like building a bike...

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You can score a rare discount on Apple’s AirTags

Apple’s AirTags are going for about $20 a pop when you buy four of them. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Gadgets that make life easier in a ton of ways without costing a fortune are my favorites, which is why I love location trackers like Apple’s AirTags. The tiny trackers function like a second pair of eyes, helping my loved ones and me keep tabs on just about anything — suitcases, keys, remotes, pets, parked cars, wandering toddlers, you name it. And right now, you can buy a four-pack for about $79 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, which factors out to $19.75 a pop. You can also buy a single AirTag for $24 at Amazon and Walmart, which is just a penny more than its price during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

For iPhone owners, there’s simply no better location tracker on the market. The AirTag can tap into Apple’s vast Find My system and...

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Suicide Squad hides its brash personality under a generic looter shooter

Image: Warner Bros. Games

Rocksteady Studios returns to the superhero genre with an ill-conceived attempt to merge Arkham-style action with a live-service game.

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The Vision Pro’s killer app: Cybertruck clout-chasing accessory

Image: Edert Lopez (TikTok 1, 2), @lentinidante (X)

The Vision Pro era is only a few days old, and while people continue to debate whether this is the future of entertainment and productivity or something else entirely, one group of people has found a well-defined use case for Apple’s new gear: chasing views.

The new genre of “wearing a Vision Pro unusually” social video has many forms, with robot dogs, subways, and crosswalks making appearances, but the niche that keeps popping up in our feeds is the one that includes an element of Tesla / Autopilot / Cybertruck hype to the mix. The Verge asked Apple about the videos appearing on social media, but the company has not responded.

See X user Dante Lentini, who had to explain that his video was a “skit,” and he wasn’t actually arrested for...

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Adam Neumann got kicked out of WeWork — now he wants to buy it

Photo by Shahar Azran / Getty Images

Five years after driving WeWork into the ground, co-founder and ousted CEO Adam Neumann has now hatched a plan to buy it out of bankruptcy. In a letter to WeWork’s advisors obtained by The New York Times, Neumann and his new real estate business Flow Global express interest in buying the co-working space solution — but claims WeWork has been ignoring attempts to get more information so they can come up with a bid.

Neumann and his real estate company Flow Global have been exploring a purchase of WeWork since December 2023, with the help of funding from Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point. However, as noted in the letter written by Neumann’s attorney, Alex Spiro — the same person who represents Elon Musk — WeWork doesn’t seem interested in...

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Taylor Swift has bad blood with student tracking celebrity flights via public info

Taylor Swift departs Perth Airport on March 4th, 2012, in Perth, Australia. | Photo by Faith Moran / GC Images

Taylor Swift’s attorneys have threatened legal action against Jack Sweeney, a college student who has attracted the ire of celebrities and billionaires over his social media accounts that share publicly available information about private jet landings and takeoffs.

An attorney for Swift sent a cease-and-desist letter to the University of Central Florida junior, Jack Sweeney, in December, according to The Washington Post. The letter, which Sweeney shared with the Post, says that Sweeney’s social media accounts cause “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress.” It says that unless Sweeney stops the “stalking and harassing behavior,” the artist would “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies.”

“...

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How AI will change phones — and the whole internet

Arc Search, from The Browser Company, is one of the better mobile browsers we’ve tried. It also represents something of an existential threat to the internet, at least as we know it now. By searching the web for you and creating a bespoke webpage every time you ask a question and tap “Browse for me,” Arc — and other AI-focused search engines like Perplexity — could change everything from Google’s business model to the way our favorite blogs work.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk with Josh Miller, The Browser Company’s CEO, about all things browsers and AI. He makes the case that there’s a lot left to solve here, but the web is changing no matter what, and in many ways, it’ll change for the better. He’s definitely right that the...

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Bluesky is ready to open up

Bluesky

There was a moment last year when Bluesky — the weird, irreverent Twitter competitor with a decentralized twist — had captured lighting in a bottle.

The app quickly amassed over two million users while in closed beta and became a hot topic of conversation in newsrooms like The Verge’s. Now, the conversation about what comes after the platform-now-called-X has largely shifted to ActivityPub, the decentralized protocol powering Mastodon, a budding ecosystem of other services, and eventually, Meta’s Threads.

Even with ActivityPub taking off, Bluesky is ready to have its moment in the spotlight again. Starting this week, the app is removing its invite system and throwing open its doors to anyone who wants to sign up. And later this month,...

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Mozilla’s new service tries to wipe your data off the web

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Mozilla is introducing a new paid subscription privacy monitoring service called Mozilla Monitor Plus. For $8.99 a month under its annual subscription, Mozilla says it will automatically keep a lookout for your information at over 190 sites where brokers sell information they’ve gathered from online sources like social media sites, apps, and browser trackers, and when your info is found, it will automatically try to get it removed.

Mozilla Monitor product manager Tony Cinotto told The Verge in an email that Mozilla partners with a company called Onerep to perform these scans and subsequent takedown requests. While requests usually take between seven and 14 days to process, he says sometimes information can’t be removed. Mozilla will...

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Meta says you better disclose your AI fakes or it might just pull them

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Meta will start labelling AI-generated photos uploaded to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads over the coming months as election season ramps up around the world. The company will also begin punishing users who don’t disclose if a realistic video or piece of audio was made with AI.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in an interview that these steps are meant to “galvanize” the tech industry as AI-generated media becomes increasingly difficult to discern from reality. The White House has pushed hard for companies to watermark AI-generated content. In the meantime, Meta is building tools to detect synthetic media even if its metadata has been altered to obfuscate AI’s role in its creation, according to Clegg.

Meta already...

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YouTube is experimenting with red, blue, and green video feeds

Some app users are seeing options to filter homepage videos by green, blue, or red. | Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube is testing a new feature that allows users to filter videos on their home feed by color, creating a more visually cohesive and pleasing experience when browsing. 9to5Google and users on Lemmy have reported seeing a new prompt window appear on the YouTube mobile app, asking users if they’re “craving something new,” with options to create a video feed by red, blue, or green hues.

This is an experimental feature and hasn’t been rolled out widely. YouTube spokesperson Allison Toh confirmed to The Verge that it’s currently available to “select users on Android and iOS mobile devices.” The company did not explain why it was developing such a feature, however, or provide a timeline for when (or if) it will be widely available.

...

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Spotify subscribers rise to 236 million after record year

Spotify’s growing userbase. | Image: Spotify

Spotify now boasts 236 million Premium subscribers, a 4percent increase over last quarter, while its total number of monthly active users rose 5 percent to 602 million. The announcement came as part of its fourth quarter earnings release, which covers the three months ending on December 31st. Over the course of 2023, Spotify’s userbase and premium subscribers grew by 113 and 31 million, respectively, setting records for the company.

The results cap off a year that included both cost-cutting and price increases for the world’s largest audio streaming service. Last December the company announced it would be laying off 17 percent of its workforce, or over 1,500 people, in what was its third major round of layoffs in 2023. Spotify also...

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Elden Ring mobile game reportedly under development at Tencent

Image: Cook and Becker

Tencent is reportedly working on a free-to-play mobile version of FromSoftware’s 2022 smash hit title Elden Ring. That’s according to Reuters, which cites three people familiar with the company’s plans. The Chinese tech giant apparently has a team of “a few dozen people” who’ve been working on the title after Tencent Holdings acquired a stake of a little over 16 percent of FromSoftware in August 2022. Tencent did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

If the report is accurate, Elden Ring would be the latest in a long line of major game IPs licensed by Tencent to create mobile free-to-play versions. Among the most successful of these have been PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile, but Tencent and its subsidiaries are...

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Sony’s latest PS5 beta improves DualSense controller audio and screen sharing

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony has started testing a new PS5 beta update that will improve the speakers and microphone on the DualSense controller, alongside adding pointers and emoji reactions to the Share Screen feature. The update is available to testers today via an email invite, and it also includes the ability to dim the brightness of the PS5 power indicator.

The firmware for both the DualSense and DualSense Edge wireless controllers has been updated with this PS5 beta to improve the volume of the speakers that output in-game sounds and voice chat. Sony is also improving the microphone capabilities of both of the DualSense controllers to better deal with noise.

“The mic input quality on these controllers has been improved, courtesy of a new AI machine...

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Sony just let slip a Final Fantasy VII Rebirth playable demo is imminent

Image: Square Enix

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is nearly here. It’s coming February 29th, and yes, we will find out what happens to Aerith unless the game’s producer was playing us. But we won’t have to wait that long to get a taste, because Sony will release a playable demo as soon as tomorrow, February 6th.

That’s the word from Wario64, who spotted a trailer for the demo on PlayStation Network, one you can watch below — and the news that the demo will let you “step into the shoes of either Cloud or Sephiroth during the Nibelheim episode.”

PSN confirms that a Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo is coming tomorrow (says it's "out now" but I think the trailer was meant for tomorrow)

"...allowing you to step into the shoes of either Cloud or Sephiroth during the...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The entry-level Apple Watch SE is a gateway smartwatch if there ever was one. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Editor’s note: Apple was recently banned from selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 due to a patent dispute with medical device maker Masimo. A federal appeals court recently stayed the resulting import ban, however, forcing Apple to begin selling both models without blood oxygen measuring features. Read more about the ban here.

In September, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.

But with all...

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Huawei just retasked a factory to prioritize AI over its bestselling phone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reuters reports that Huawei will focus on increasing the manufacturing of its AI chip, the Ascend 910B, at the expense of production of its Mate 60 phones in at least one facility.

Huawei makes both its Ascend AI chip and the Kirin chip, which powers the Mate 60, in one facility. However, production in the plant has been low, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, so the company now plans to prioritize the AI chip. Demand for Ascend chips, which aid in training AI models, has been growing domestically. By delaying the production of chips for Mate 60, Huawei can focus on improving the number of usable and sellable chips from the facility. The Mate 60 helped Huawei beat Apple’s phone sales in the country in 2023, writes the South...

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Lego’s epic limited-edition Parisian Street and Mountain Fortress are about to go on sale

Image: BrickLink Designer Program

If you consider yourself a diehard fan of adult-grade Lego, you might want to be hovering over these buy buttons on Wednesday, February 7th, at 11AM ET. That’s when Lego will begin selling five limited-edition sets that are literally a fan dream come true: fans entered a BrickLink Designer Program contest to create these Lego sets all by themselves, and they’ll get 5 percent of the proceeds!

They’re also just really cool builds. I’m definitely eying the $380 Mountain Fortress that looks like an excellent counterpart to my Lion Knight’s Castle, the $50 Snack Shack that reminds me of a shrimp truck I loved in Hawaii, and the $320 Parisian Street with its timeless Haussmann architecture and charming storefronts.

I’ll tell you more about...

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Microsoft to share details on bringing Xbox games to PlayStation next week

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is planning to share details about its plans to bring Hi-Fi Rush and other Xbox exclusives to PS5 and Nintendo Switch consoles, according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans. Details of Microsoft’s multi-platform plans have been gradually leaking, with The Verge revealing over the weekend that the upcoming Indiana Jones game is being considered for PS5. Now, Microsoft is getting ready to outline the future of Xbox next week after a weekend of leaks and uncertainty for Xbox fans.

“We’re listening and we hear you,” says Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in a post on X. “We’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox....

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YouTube says a Vision Pro app is ‘on the roadmap’

I just like this photo a lot. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Here’s a little bit of an about-face: YouTube now says it has a Vision Pro app on its roadmap. I mean this literally, as YouTube spokesperson Jessica Gibby just emailed me the following statement: “We’re excited to see Vision Pro launch and we’re supporting it by ensuring YouTube users have a great experience in Safari. We do not have any specific plans to share at this time, but can confirm that a Vision Pro app is on our roadmap.”

This of course follows YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix all declining to allow their iPad apps to run on the Vision Pro before launch — and the last time we asked, there was no mention of a proper visionOS YouTube app coming in the future, so something’s changed in Mountain View. (One theory: the immediate...

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Apple’s latest AirPods have fallen to some of their best prices to date

Unlike their predecessor, the third-gen AirPods offer IPX4 water resistance. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Apple’s AirPods are some of the most popular wireless earbuds in the world, so it’s a safe bet your valentine will love receiving them as a gift. Fortunately, Apple’s two most affordable models — the third-gen AirPods and their second-gen predecessor — have returned to some of their best prices to date. The third-gen model is available for $139.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target with a Lightning charging case or at Costco for $139.99 with a MagSafe case. Meanwhile, the last-gen AirPods, which don’t offer MagSafe charging, are down to $89.99 ($40 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

For those who don’t need active noise cancellation, Apple’s entry-level earbuds are terrific. They integrate well with other iOS devices,...

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TikTok’s fallout with Universal Music Group is ruining viral trends and thirsty fancams

TikTok users were not best pleased when the removal of UMG-owned music muted their favorite Pedro Pascal fan edit. | Image: 20th Centuary Fox / Canva / The Verge

Remember TikTok’s thirsty Pedro Pascal fan edits? For several months beginning in January 2023, many of us couldn’t open the video platform without being blasted by the familiar sound of Shaggy’s “Hey Sexy Lady” hit, to which many of the biggest videos were set. If you dive back into any of those videos now, you’ll find that swathes of these filtered, edited clips of the Chilean actor have been completely muted — because “Hey Sexy Lady,” along with many other popular songs used in viral trends, have been taken off TikTok.

Last week, TikTok failed to reach a deal to renew licensing rights with Universal Music Group (UMG), leading to thousands, potentially millions, of songs from UMG’s library being suddenly removed from the platform....

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Amazon’s kitchen-friendly Echo Show 15 is going for $80 off right now

Amazon’s biggest smart display includes an Alexa Voice Remote and integrated Fire TV support. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

A smart display can amalgamate the various smart home and virtual assistant tools at your disposal, whether you prefer voice-activated assistants or smartphone-like interfaces for direct control. That’s exactly what Amazon’s Echo Show 15 provides, and right now, the wall-mountable panel is down to $199.99 ($80 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.

The Echo Show 15 is a solid 15.6-inch smart display that can double as a 1080p TV thanks to its Fire TV integration, which makes it ideal in the kitchen for viewing recipes or enjoying a side of entertainment with whatever meal you’re cooking. The touchscreen display lets you control a range of compatible smart home devices using various widgets and apps — which are great for viewing calendar...

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Semafor reporters are going to curate the news with AI

Semafor editor Ben Smith speaks on stage during the Semafor Media Summit on April 10, 2023 in New York City. | Getty

Suddenly, building news products on the web is back in fashion.

As social traffic collapses and Google makes ominous AI-powered sounds about search, publishers across the board have started to reemphasize their websites as destinations, and that means there are a lot of new ideas about what makes websites valuable again.

Interestingly, a lot of those ideas sound a lot like blogging: that’s our redesign, of course, but it’s also Business Insider, which hired Katie Notopoulos and Peter Kafka to blog all day. And now it’s new-look politics site Semafor, which is officially launching a product it calls Signals to curate coverage from around the web on the biggest stories of the day.

The easiest way to understand Signals is to go look at one...

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1Password is down, preventing some users from logging in

Image: 1Password

1Password says it’s looking into reports that users are unable to log in to the app. The company’s status page says the issue “is currently impacting sign-ins to the 1Password web interface” and is affecting users in Europe, the US, Canada, and elsewhere.

A chart on the company’s status page shows issues with Single Sign On have hit the company’s US / global users and European users, but not Enterprise and Canadian ones. Problems with sign-in, syncing items across devices, and saving passwords are known to be affecting users in all regions.

1Password posted about the outage at 11:36AM ET. We discovered there was an issue soon after that at The Verge, when one of our writers was being repeatedly bombarded by his browser extension asking...

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Roblox releases real-time AI chat translator

Illustration: The Verge

Roblox built an AI model that it says translates text chats so quickly users may not even notice it’s translating the messages of other players at first. It works with 16 languages, including English, French, Japanese, Thai, Polish, and Vietnamese.

Dan Sturman, Roblox CTO, said in an interview with The Verge that the goal is to make Roblox users feel more comfortable engaging with each other by letting them understand what they are saying. The translator automatically translates chats, but users can click an icon to see the original message.

“We know engagement goes up when users speak or interact with others in their own language,” Sturman said. “We took that concept and removed the language barrier with the automatic translation.”

R...

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