This week in apps: Instagram hits 700 million, Apple's new music deal, and more
With the fallout from the ill-fated Fyre Festival still unfolding and Amazon's slightly creepy new Echo, you may have missed some of this week's best new apps.
Each week, we round up the latest app news, along with a few of our favorite new and updated apps, to keep you in the loop with everything coming to your phone. Here's what caught our eye this week. If you're looking for more, make sure to check out last week's look at top apps.
Gabsee
Wonder what all the fuss is about augmented reality? Look no further than Gabsee a new app that shows just how much fun AR can be. Make an avatar (think, 3D Bitmoji with fewer customization choices), choose a mood, and watch your avatar act out the mood right in front of you. Gabsee uses your phone's camera to overlay your avatar right onto your surroundings and you can record videos of your creation to share with friends outside of the app.
Free: iOS
Apple + Muscial.ly
Apple may have a new music partner. The tech giant is reportedly teaming up with Musical.ly, the popular music video app. Under the deal, which was first reported by Recode but hans't been officially announced, Apple Music will provide song snippets to the service (and promote its paid offering to the app's highly engaged younger users..)
Samsung's new use for emoji
Okay, we all love emoji. But Samsung is putting everyone's favorite Unicode characters to good use with a new app called Wemogee that's meant to help people with speech disorders like aphasia, which affects people's ability to communicate with words. Designed with speech therapists and other professionals, Wemogee translates common words and phrases into emoji sequences that are easier to understand. The sender chooses the relevant emoji and, nce sent, the app translates the emoji into text for the receiver.
Free: Android
Elsewhere:
Instagram crushed yet another milestone. The app now has 700 million monthly active users, up from 600 million just under four months ago.
Samsung is working on an app to help combat distracted driving. In-Traffic Reply, which will launch next month, will automatically respond to your texts while you're in the car.
Apple is reportedly working on a Venmo competitor, according to a new report in Recode. The service could be called Apple Cash, but it's not clear when it could launch.
YouTube Kids, YouTube's kid-specific offering, is now available for smart TVs.
Freia Lobo wrote about Tech News for Mashable in NYC. You can follow her on twitter at @freialobo
