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Apps

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.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Microsoft Excel turns 40 today.

If you’re feeling particularly spreadsheet-y today, this BBC podcast highlights some interesting details about the creation of Excel, including Gabe Newell’s involvement and how developers wanted to name it “Number Buddy.”

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Yelp is using DoorDash to expand restaurant delivery options.

Starting on October 1st, the partnership will give Yelp users access to more than half a million US restaurants via DoorDash’s delivery network. Tapping the “order” button will automatically take users to the restaurant page on DoorDash where available, instead of manually having to switch platforms.

Two screenshots showing the DoorDash integration on Yelp.
The partnership aims to combine the best features from both platforms: Yelp’s reviews and DoorDash’s delivery system.
Image: Yelp
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Adobe’s Premiere video editor arrives on iPhone.

The free iOS app is now available to download worldwide today, following its announcement earlier this month, bringing Premiere Pro editing features to mobile devices. An Android version is also in development, but Adobe hasn’t said when it will arrive.

Screenshots of Adobe’s Premiere mobile app and Premiere Pro desktop app.
Users can export projects from the Premiere mobile app to complete them using Adobe’s Premiere Pro desktop software.
Image: Adobe
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
I feel for the Google employee who torpedoed its Windows desktop app growth.

If you installed the new Google app for Windows, Google’s now telling you to remove it! To “keep receiving Google app updates,” you have to uninstall and reinstall from scratch. I wonder how many will skip the second step... particularly since it won’t uninstall until you dismiss this message and close the app.

“Keep receiving Google app updates”
“Keep receiving Google app updates”
Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Snapchat will start charging to store more Memories.

If you have more than 5GB of Memories, you’ll have to pay $1.99 / month to store up to 100GB of your past snaps. Snapchat will also include up to 250GB of storage in its Snapchat Plus plan and 5TB with its Snapchat Platinum subscription.

Snap notes that the “vast majority” of users have less than 5GB of Memories.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google Vids can now do more with your slides.

In June, Google launched the ability to turn your Slides presentation into a video, but now, you can have it automatically generate an AI script, voiceover, and background music to go along with each of your slides. The feature is rolling out now to Workspace and AI plan subscribers.

You just have to enable the AI toggle when importing your slides to Vids.
You just have to enable the AI toggle when importing your slides to Vids.
Image: Google
Anker’s latest sleepbuds can silence snoring

7

Verge Score

Good for side-sleepers but ANC kills battery life.

Thomas Ricker
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Checkmate.

Duolingo’s chess course is now available on Android, and the iOS version will soon get a player-versus-player mode, the company says.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Steve Ballmer’s Kawhi Leonhard controversy intersects with another scandal.

ESPN NBA writer Brian Windhorst points out that when Aspiration signed up to be the Clippers’ jersey patch sponsor (and, allegedly, help circumvent the NBA’s salary cap) it replaced another company.

That was Honey, the shopping tool exposed for swapping referral codes, which actually got ads featuring Kawhi.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Snapchat now lets you permanently save messages.

The app has introduced a new “infinite retention” feature, allowing you to save chats in individual conversations. Snap will notify everyone in the group when you enable the feature.

Previously, Snapchat only saved messages for 24 hours after everyone in the group viewed them, or 31 days after the message was sent, whichever is sooner.

The iPhone to get this yearThe iPhone to get this year
David Pierce
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
If you can’t clear your Slack unread count, try refreshing.

The app had an outage this morning, leaving many users staring at an unread count, even after reading all their messages. Slack reports it’s fixed, but if your app is still stuck, hitting CMD + Shift + R (Mac) or CTRL + Shift + R (Windows) to force refresh should clear things up.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
The Nintendo Today app has added special features unlocked by inaudible sounds.

Nintendo Today was updated to version 2.0 today with a new Kirby theme and exclusive content for the Nintendo Live 2025 event in Tokyo. But it will only be accessible at the event using an inaudible sound broadcasted at the venue the app will listen for to verify attendance.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Bluesky adds bookmarks.

You can finally save posts for later using the new bookmark icon that’s now available on Bluesky’s mobile app and web. And, if you’ve been using the “pushpin” emoji to save posts, there’s a tool you can use to migrate them to the new bookmarks tab.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Live Photos are coming to WhatsApp.

Wabetainfo says the WhatsApp for iOS beta 25.24.10.72 update adds support for Live Photos in chats, groups, and channels, after rolling out similar support for motion photos on Android last month. Users can decide whether to send them as a still image or the original dynamic clip.

Three screenshots showing the Live Photo support rolling out in the WhatsApp beta for iOS version 25.24.10.72.
The Live Photo support is available to some beta testers, and will be rolling out to more users “in the coming weeks,” according to Wabetainfo.
Image: Wabetainfo