Houseparty

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android [...]

Houseparty, the social video app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games in 2019, has just announced a major new step in terms of integrating these two properties: the company says it will now allow gamers to livestream their Fortnite gameplay directly into Houseparty. The feature works to allow users to share their gameplay with up [...]

Give thanks for video technology this holiday. Since the coronavirus pandemic is keeping many of us apart, at least we can connect virtually.

To use the feature, players will also need an Android mobile device or Apple Inc's iOS, with the Houseparty app installed.

PC and PlayStation players are getting a new chat option.

Epic acquired Houseparty way back in June of last year, following an absolutely massive $1.25 billion raise. It was clear why the Fortnite publisher would be interested in the social video app. After all, Fortnite is one of the most social games around. Now, after several months of global quarantining, the deal is finally bearing [...]

Fortnite is getting a new in-game video chat feature, powered by Houseparty, which will be available first on PC, PS4, and PS5.

The company, which offers a social video calling service on macOS, iOS, Android and Chrome, is now integrating with Fortnite. The company has emphasized that the Houseparty service is restricted to people over the age of 13.

Houseparty, the video chat app that's seen a surge of growth during quarantine, is preparing to expand its service in a new direction: co-watching live video with friends. The company on Friday will launch its first experiential event series called In The House, which will feature over 40 celebrities who will dance, talk, cook, sing, [...]

How safe are our video-chat apps? We speak to experts and users about how we can make our video-calling experiences safer.

To help people feel more like they are together when video chatting (and let's be honest - to help fend off competitors like Zoom and Houseparty), Facebook is rolling out a new feature called Messenger Rooms.

Forget the calendar invite. Just jump into a conversation. That's the idea powering a fresh batch of social startups poised to take advantage of our cleared schedules amidst quarantine. But they could also change the way we work and socialize long after COVID-19 by bringing the free-flowing, ad-hoc communication of parties and open office plans [...]

Houseparty, for example, realized 50 million new signups over the past month - a jump of around 70x its normal usage in some markets according to co-founder and CEO Sima Sistani. In Apple's US App Store, Houseparty has been the...

In a report published on Thursday, the app market and insights company revealed that in the first few weeks of March, the worldwide average weekly time spent in apps (among Android phone users) increased 20 percent year over year.

Group video chat app Houseparty offered a reward of $1 million for evidence of what it said was a smear campaign against the company as it fought to quash claims that the app was stealing data from others installed on the same smartphone.

In the world of sustainable development, it is often said that business as usual is no longer viable. Little did we know, even a few months ago, that the world would be battling a global pandemic. The scale of disruption is unprecedented; almost nothing in our lifetimes has affected entire societies around the world so drastically. Few companies were prepared for the speed of the onset or the potential economic fall-out. At the moment, it's hard to predict how the situation will unfold, h...

Houseparty has denied any breach in the app and says there is no link between the app and the compromises of unrelated accounts.

The company says claims it exposed users data were part of a commercial smear campaign.

Work-from-home policies, social distancing, and government lockdowns have increased the demand for video conferencing apps, for both business and personal use. According to a new report from App Annie, out on Monday, business conferencing apps have been experiencing record growth, as a result, and just hit their biggest week ever in March, when they topped [...]

Your phone is an essential companion when you work from home. Apps can help with everything from video-conferencing and communication, to exercising, relaxation, and fetching the groceries. Here are the apps we recommend.