This week in apps: Uber adds a safety feature, Gorrilaz launch an AR app and Microsoft tries social media
It's been a busy week: Elon Musk confirmed that the Tesla Semi truck is coming soon, Instagram announced reaching 200 million daily active users on stories and Messenger reached 1.2 billion, so it's understandable if you missed some of this weeks best apps.
Luckily, we've kept up for you. Each week, we round up the latest app news, along with a few of our favorite new and updated products, to keep you in the loop with everything coming to your smartphone.
SEE ALSO: Apple could kill almost 200,000 apps with iOS 11
Here's what caught our eye this week. If you're looking for more, make sure to check out the last installment.
Uber adds a new safety feature
While Uber continues to be caught up in controversy, the company has rolled out a widely requested safety feature - cross streets for pickup and destination points for users who may not be comfortable sharing exact addresses. Now, users can just enter two cross streets for pickup or drop off to keep their comings and goings a little more private.
Gorrilaz launch an AR app
The tech savvy band has launched a new app that uses augmented reality technology to display objects from their recent music videos in the user's surroundings. Users will also be able to listen to the band's upcoming album, Humanz, which according to NME will soon be released early via an in-app "houseparty."
Giphy launches "Giphy Says"
A new app from the internet's favorite called "Giphy Says" converts words into gifs. The app is simple - just record a video of yourself or someone else saying something and Giphy will transcribe and beautify your message with "filters." One filter even converts everything you say to emoji!
Download iOS.
Elsewhere:
Microsoft launched Sprinkles, an experimental app that can "make your photos fun in 2 seconds." The app combines the company's previous experiments like guessing your age or emotion with the popular Snapchat-like aesthetic of stickers and captions. You can try the iOS app here. This week the company also launched an iMessage app called "Who's In" that aims to make it easier to meet up with your friends, but ends up making it harder than ever.
Apple has ended all updates Workflow, the task automation app that the company acquired in March and then made free on the app store. The app is reportedly going into maintenance mode, which means that it will no longer expand functionality, though the company plans to keep supporting the existing functionality -- at least for now.
Fitness app Runtastic has launched a new healthy recipe app called Runtasty. The video based app makes it easy to find and cook healthy recipes.
And lastly, check out Easter Egg Peg, a silly but addictive game. Download iOS.
Freia Lobo wrote about Tech News for Mashable in NYC. You can follow her on twitter at @freialobo
