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 continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports out this week. App Annie says global spending across iOS and Google Play is up to $135 billion in 2021, and that figure will likely be higher when its annual report, including third-party app stores in China, is released next year. Consumers also downloaded 10 billion more apps this year than in 2020, reaching nearly 140 billion in new installs, it found.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that was up 27% year-over-year.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try, too.

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This week, both Sensor Tower and App Annie released their year-end estimates on the app economy in 2021. Sensor Tower is forecasting that, by the end of the year, Apple’s App Store and Google Play will see a combined record consumer spend of $133 billion and 143.6 billion downloads. Its report came out first and we covered it here on TechCrunch. Today, we’ve got App Annie’s report in our hands, too.

App Annie’s estimates come in slightly higher than Sensor Tower’s on consumer spend, but lower on downloads. App Annie says global consumers will spend a record $135 billion across the App Store and Google Play in 2021, up from $112 billion in 2020. However, it reports 140 billion new app installs, instead of 143.6 billion.

The firm also found iOS spending continues to top Android spending. It notes that 65 cents in every app economy dollar is now spent by Apple users. And gamers spend the most. They will have contributed around 60% of the iOS revenue and nearly 80% of Google Play revenue in 2021. In total, gaming contributed around $90 billion of the total global spend in 2021.

App Annie also saw many of the same trends as Sensor Tower did, including the revenue growth in non-gaming categories, particularly entertainment and social apps — the former which is rising to $12 billion next year, or double that of 2020.

In terms of app downloads, India was the top market, contributing 20% of global downloads across both stores, followed by the U.S. (9%), then Brazil (8%).

App Annie selected TikTok as a top “breakout” app for consumer spending the year. (It’s No. 2 on App Annie’s “breakout” chart that ranks the apps that saw the biggest change in the past 12 months.) But TikTok is also influencing other apps. For example, a video editing app called CapCut — a popular TikTok editing tool — was the No. 1 breakout app by downloads.

App Annie’s report focuses more on “breakout” apps and games rather than the traditional top apps by downloads and consumer spending. It’s an interesting way to view the data as it points to more newcomers and fast risers, but it doesn’t tell you which were the “biggest” apps of the year, necessarily. The full report is here.

Image Credits: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg / Getty Images

Image Credits: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg / Getty Images

Apple will not have to implement changes to its in-app purchase system and App Store guidelines as ordered by the judge’s ruling in its court battle with Epic Games. Apple largely won that case, as the court ruled Apple was not acting as a monopolist. But the company had been ordered to stop preventing app developers from adding links that pointed users to other means of paying for their in-app purchases outside the App Store. Both Apple and Epic appealed the original ruling — Epic because it was not successful with its larger antitrust claims, and Apple because it disagreed with this aspect of the ruling over in-app purchases.

Apple originally had until December 9 to update its App Store policies, but had asked the court for a stay on the injunction regarding the changes to its in-app purchasing guidelines until the appeal was decided. Apple had tried to argue its case for a stay before but the lower court denied the motion. Its latest attempt, however, was granted by the U.S. Court of Appels for the Ninth Circuit after Apple argued, among other things, that it would have to come up with a whole new system to commission purchases that took place outside the App Store. Yep, that’s right — Apple doesn’t think that allowing app developers to point to their own websites for payments means it can’t still take a cut. (After all, isn’t that what Google decided to do in South Korea?)

In any event, Apple successfully argued this would cause “irreparable harm” as Apple wouldn’t get back the money, time and resources it spent on this new system if the appeal came through in its favor. As a result, Apple won’t have to make any changes until the appeals court has heard the case.

(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified before Congress for the first time Wednesday to defend the app’s teen safety track record. Senators were not impressed with the 3 AM release of promised teen safety features the night before the testimony as some sort of last-minute effort to look like the company had plans to fix its systems. There was a sense of frustration in asking Mosseri many of the same questions that had been asked to other Meta execs over the past couple of years, Sen. Blackburn (R-TN) noted, saying “I feel like the conversation repeats itself ad nauseam. Nothing changes — nothing.”

Mosseri denied that research showed Instagram’s products were addictive and said the company had put into place protections and age-approrpriate experiences for minor ages 13-17 on the app. But Blackburn’s office had discovered teens’ accounts still defaulted to public rather than private when created on the web. Mosseri also used the hearing to propose a new industry body that would create a series of best practices for apps around things like age verification, parental controls and product designs for teens and kids.

Social media algorithms got a beating during the hearing as well, and Mosseri revealed Instagram was planning to bring back the chronological feed next year.

There's a new way to try the @Novi digital wallet. Starting today, a limited number of people in the US will be able to send and receive money using Novi on @WhatsApp, making sending money to family and friends as easy as sending a message. 💸💬 pic.twitter.com/dGz3lejri7

— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) December 8, 2021

🤝 Twitter acquired Quill, a would-be Slack rival, whose team will now be refocused on improving Twitter’s DM (messaging) product. Deal terms were not disclosed but the company had raised $16 million to date. Some were not happy with the fast shutdown, given they were running their businesses on Quill’s system.

💰 Singapore startup Upmesh raised $7.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures, and launched its first Instagram live selling app for merchants and backend automation features for live commerce.

💰 Indonesian fintech Flip, an app focused on making interbank transfers easier, raised $48 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital India, Insight Partners and Insignia Ventures Partners. The company will use the funds to expand its business in the market, improve the tech and grow its team.

💰 French fintech and super app Lydia raised $100 million in Series C funding, valuing the business at over $1 billion. New investors include Dragoneer and Echo Street, joining Tencent, Accel and Founders Future.

💰 Cerebral, a startup offering app-based mental health services, raised $300 million in funding in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing the business at $4.8 billion. Gymnastics champion Simone Biles is also an investor to the app, which has offered care to over 200,000 patients since January 2020.

💰 U.S. mobile bank MAJORITY, aimed at immigrants, raised $27 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures. The company lets users sign up for a bank account without an SSN — instead, they can use a government ID for any other country alongside proof of a U.S. address. In addition to mobile bank services and a Visa debit card, the app offers culturally specific features like discounts at local businesses.

💰 Banking app Nearside, aimed at SMBs, raised $58 million in Series B funding led by Valar Ventures. The bank offers checking accounts with no fees, a Mastercard debit card and cashback rewards. The startup, previously known as Hatch, notes its userbase has grown 800% since its Series A just 7 months ago.

💰 Jordan-based mobile game publisher Tamatem raised $11 million in Series B funding led by KRAFTON, the South Korean game developer behind PUBG, marking its first investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Tamatem has published more than 50 games since 2013, including VIP Baloot, VIP Jalsat, Fashion Queen and Clash of Empire. It has over 120 million collective downloads across its portfolio and 3.5 millionM DAUs on its top games.

💰 U.K.-based social audio app Wisdom raised $2 million in seed funding in a round led by First Round Capital. The company focused on offering life advice and mentorship, and says its users have now shared some 600,000 minutes of content.

💰 Berlin-based instant grocery delivery app Flink raised $750 million in Series B funding led by strategic backer DoorDash for its service that runs in 60 cities around four countries, reaching 10 million customers.

Looking to decorate for the holidays?…Not your home, that is, but your phone?

A number of iOS home screen theming apps have rolled out holiday features, allowing users who celebrate to theme their icons, widgets and wallpapers to get into the Christmas spirit. Apps like Aesthetic Kit, Brass and ScreenKit have tons of Christmas Themes, which they’re promoting by way of those new App Store Events. If you come across an event, you can tap it to launch directly into the Christmas section of the app you have installed. If you’re not into Christmas, the winter themes could be another good look for this time of year. In addition to the iOS home screen apps, other apps focused on motivational quote widgets, like Motivation and I Am, among others, have also added selections of Christmas-themed quotes and affirmations (great for those trying to survive a trip home to see the fam, perhaps!).

More companies are embracing the iOS home screen customization trend, which has remained popular since the launch of the iOS 14 widgets. People figured out how to use Apple’s Shortcuts to update their icons’ look to match their widgets and wallpapers, creating a whole new category of apps as app makers emerged to simplify the process through the use of downloadable profiles that can install all your icon designs at once. (Apple, for now, turns a blind eye to the use of profiles for this purpose. But if Apple comes out later with its own version of Android’s Material You, well, who knows…).

Some apps also offer custom icons for their paying customers, but Twitter is taking things even further. Although its Twitter Blue subscription doesn’t just offer alternative icons, it’s making seasonally themed icons, too. Its winter collection is rolling out now.

Image Credits: Twitter screenshot via @retromauro

Image Credits: Twitter screenshot via @retromauro

We’re still not ENTIRELY sure Apple meant to approve this one, so get it while you can? The new Apple Watch app, uBrowser, offers a limited mobile browser experience for Watch owners. It lets you create bookmarks, see your recently visited pages and search the web using DuckDuckGo, which means it’s…kinda like a real browser. Except, of course, many web pages can’t run on watchOS through the app — particularly JavaScript-heavy pages or those that would require video playback. Web pages that need a login won’t work either. The app uses the Authentication dialogue to open a website on watchOS (this is meant to allow users a way to provide their credentials to an app that requires web authentication.) The app also offers an iOS companion where you can manage your bookmarks.

Founder Arno Appenzeller says he began work on the app after seeing complaints that said the new Series 7 Watch needed a browser — and he agreed. He decided to see if his app would pass App Review, as other browser apps had. This was a risk as the other browser apps are different — the watchOS app Parrot requires an iPhone to be nearby and Lazer only supports a reader mode experience, for example. UBrowser was approved twice so far — once for launch and a second time for an update, so maybe it’s not a mistake! The app is 99 cents on the App Store.