Google has a new messaging strategy, AT&T hints at a new, cheaper, streaming service and Square is hungry for acquisitions. All that and more in the Daily Crunch for April 20, 2018 — a date that has absolutely no larger meaning in popular culture, no sir. 1. Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS The company says it's now focusing on promoting the Rich Communication Services standard, which is being rebranded as Chat. Like iMessage, RCS allows free chats across different networks on Android or other devices. It can also be integrated into chat apps, as Google has done with Android Messages. This is bad news for Allo fans (?) however, since Google says it's "pausing" work on the app and moving the entire team over to Android Messages. 2. AT&T CEO says a new $15-per-month, sports-free streaming service is launching in a few weeks AT&T's Randall Stephenson brought this up while on the witness stand defending his company's proposed $85 billion merger with Time Warner against antitrust claims. 3. Twitter doesn't care that someone is building a bot army in Southeast Asia Scores of reporters and other Twitter users have noticed that they're being followed by swarms of accounts with generic names, no profile photo, no bio and no tweets over the past month. It's too early to say whether these accounts might be evidence of a new "bot farm" or the groundwork for more nefarious activities. 4. This robot can build your Ikea furniture The aptly-named Ikeabot is a project built at the Control Robotics Intelligence group at NTU in Singapore. The best part of watching Ikeabot at work is the fact that it also seems to get frustrated and fling parts around. 5. Square acquires corporate catering startup Zesty TechCrunch itself is one of Zesty's customers. Square, meanwhile, has been already been moving into food by acquiring delivery service Caviar. 6. SNK may be making a mini-console stuffed with arcade classics SNK is the legendary arcade game creator behind the likes of Metal Slug and Samurai Shodown, and it's teasing what looks like its own tiny arcade cabinet. 7. Equity podcast: Coinbase buys a startup, Discord's a unicorn and Netflix soars Today we've got a new episode of Equity, TechCrunch's money-focused podcast that unpacks the week's headlines. |
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