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.
After launching Photoshop for iPhone in February, a beta Android app is now available to download via Google Play. Much like its iOS counterpart, Photoshop for Android includes many features from the desktop version, including layers, masks, brushes, and Firefly generative AI tools, but with a UI optimized for mobile devices.
Adobe says all features are free to use while the app is in beta, and that more are “coming soon.”
The WhatsApp for iOS 25.16.81 update that’s rolling out over the coming weeks allows users to hold down on a message to select and copy specific sections, instead of being forced to copy the entire message text. Android users are still stuck with this limitation for now, but WABetaInfo reports that a similar update is in the works.
Following updates to the Nintendo Switch App and the Nintendo Today app, the Nintendo Music app has also been updated and now features a new sleep timer for those wanting to drift off to their favorite soundtrack.
A small crescent moon icon appearing in the lower right corner of the app’s interface while playing a track or playlist can be tapped to open a menu with timer options ranging from 5 minutes to 60 minutes.
In addition to launching a reboot on the web, Digg told users that it’s working on an Android and iOS app with “full feature parity,” offering access to profiles, communities, and leaderboards with the top daily posts, comments, and gem-finders.
The conversational mode for Anthropic’s AI chatbot is now becoming available for users of its mobile apps, “gradually.”
TechCrunch notes that chief product officer Mike Krieger confirmed the rumored feature was on the way in a recent interview, while Anthropic says that it can integrate with Google Workspace, and that free users can expect “20-30 voice messages” before session limits cut them off, while paid users have higher limits.
You can see the new metric by selecting a video in your Drive, clicking the three-dot menu, and then hitting “Details.” From there, you’ll find a new “Analytics” section that shows how many times the video has been opened.
After announcing its second browser, Dia, last year, the company stopped developing new features for original breakout Arc. Now CEO Josh Miller explains why, and admits he considered either selling or open-sourcing the software. Neither is on the table right now (because it would require giving up their custom development kit, or “secret sauce”), but “that doesn’t mean it’ll never happen.”
Dia is still in alpha testing, but will open up to Arc members next.
[browsercompany.substack.com]
Plus, in this week’s Installer: a cheap set-top box worth a try, a clever twist on the Stream Deck, where to go post-Pocket, and more.
After last month’s acquisition of Runna, mostly to get at its running plans, Strava is repeating the trick in cycling. It just acquired The Breakaway, an iOS biking app with a focus on... AI training plans.
It comes as Strava closes a round of funding that valued the business at $2.2 billion. Yesterday it announced new AI route planning and improvements to its cheat detection.
“We’re excited to have Selig bring that same craft and community-first thinking to Digg, helping us build something that feels good to use and even better to be a part of,” Digg CEO Justin Mezzell says in a press release.
You can read more about Digg’s revival in our article from March. And, if you don’t remember, Selig was a key character in the protests on Reddit a couple years ago.
“No more weird burner accounts,” David Heinemeier Hansson says in a blog post. “Now you can sign up directly for a real email address in HEY, and if you like what we have to offer (and I think you will!), you’ll be able to pay the $99/year for a subscription via a web-based flow that it’s now kosher to link to from the app itself.”
At Rest of World, Reem Abd Ulhamid writes about community-sourced apps designed to help Palestinians navigate Israeli-enforced movement restrictions, like checkpoints, Israeli-only roads, and Israeli police. Traditional GPS apps like Google Maps and Waze “try to find the fastest route, [whereas] Palestinian digital networks focus on avoiding risks.”
Last year, Patreon asked creators to switch to subscription billing after Apple said Patreon had to use the company’s in-app payment method or “risk being kicked out of the App Store.” Thanks to the latest Epic Games v. Apple ruling, Patreon has lifted its November 2025 deadline for all creators to make the switch to subscription billing.
Additionally, Patreon creators will once again be able to let supporters purchase memberships at the price they’ve set on iOS.
The update puts a focus on Formula 1 racing in promotion of both upcoming Apple movie F1 and the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix race happening later this month. The update is full of special Monaco Grand Prix-related things, including little renders of Formula 1 cars at the pits and road closure advisories.
Not that any of us will ever use it — this is basically an update for Apple exec and known sports fan Eddy Cue, right?
