Instagram has announced new features that are intended to enhance the experiences for the 500 million daily active users of its Stories feature — one of these features is available right now while the other may take some time and adjustment to get used to. The social media platform is also building a new way for users to browse and buy the clothes their favorite influencers are wearing.
Read MoreInstagram Stories camera will get makeover, influencers will be able to tag products for you to buy
New Google ad tech uses machine learning to only harass game players who aren't likely to spend on IAPs
In this day and age, it's easy to be cynical about the games industry, advertising, and the general state of a lot of consumer technology. Google has magnanimously decided to help Android game developers increase monetization opportunities by offering means to re-capture wayward players and keep paying ones happy in ad-free bliss. How, you might ask? Two ways: using ads to draw people back into a game and by using machine learning to only serve advertisements to those deemed less likely to buy in-app purchases.
Read MoreWhatsApp to monetize by selling ads and charging business users
How to go about bringing in revenue is a problem Facebook has failed to solve in the four years since it acquired WhatsApp. The world's most popular messaging app cost roughly $22 billion, but other than a brief experiment with charging an annual 99-cent subscription fee, there has been no clear plan on how to monetize the service.
The company's reluctance to serve advertisements to its now 1.5 billion users is admirable, but it looks like that could change starting next year. According to the Wall Street Journal, there are plans to show ads in the Status section of the app.
Read MoreWeekend poll: At what point does an app cost too much?
I've noticed that there are two kinds of people, generally speaking, when it comes to app purchases. Those that consider a couple bucks towards a new app no big deal, and those that wait until the last minute, if ever, to drop a few dollars on a "Pro" version or IAP for a full app. Personally, I jump at the chance to disable ads, add additional features, and support independent developers. But, even I can acknowledge that it depends on how much an app costs.
Spending a quick buck on a new app is no big deal, but I've got a psychological barrier somewhere around $3 where an impulse purchase suddenly becomes worth deliberating.
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Snapchat Will Soon Include Many More Ads As Company Tries To Wean Itself Off Venture Capital
Snapchat, not long ago an ad-free platform, is preparing to ramp up the promotional content. In a series of industry-targeted announcements, the company has detailed several initiatives that will inevitably result in users seeing ads more frequently than they do now.
Read MorePushbullet Introduces A Pro Plan, Will Soon Require $5 A Month Or $40 A Year For Some Of The Currently Free Features
We here at Android Police have a thing for Pushbullet. You could even call it a crush. Not everyone on the team uses it, but we and many of our readers agree that it's a solid service. You get to send text, links, images, and notifications from one device to another with minimal effort.
But the persistent question remained: How was Pushbullet going to monetize the service? Now we know. The company has rolled out a new paid plan costing $5 a month. Folks who already know they're hooked can save money by paying $40 annually instead.
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Forbes' Interview With Sundar Pichai Hints At An Uncoupling Of The Various Google+ Entities, Further Monetization Options On Mobile, And Google's Future Strategies
The Czar has spoken. After his anointment as Google's Senior Vice President of Products last October, which put him in charge of Chrome, Android, search, ad technology, Google+, Maps, social, commerce and infrastructure, Sundar had been operating in incognito mode, occasionally letting loose a few tidbits of information, like Inbox' deployment to Apps users. In a recent interview with Forbes, the man behind most of the things we talk about here on Android Police has answered some interesting questions regarding his vast portfolio of products, tried to put an end to a few concerns, and remained mum about other issues.
On Google+
The most intriguing section of the interview starts when Google+ is addressed.
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CloudMagic Reveals Monetization Strategy With New Pro Account Costing $4.99 A Month Or $44.99 A Year
The CloudMagic Android app is capable of managing multiple email accounts from a single location, and by indexing your messages on its servers, it can provide significantly faster search results than much of the competition. The experience is free, but now the company has unveiled how it plans to make money going forward—by encouraging power users to sign up for a pro account.
Premium plans unlock features that will not be provided in the free version, such as support for unlimited accounts, syncing preferences across devices, downloading attachments in the background, and remotely wiping your data.
CloudMagic has priced its pro plan at $4.99 a month, but as usual, people who are looking for a longer commitment can save $15 over the course of a year by spending $44.99 upfront instead.
Read MoreThe Best Of AP
YouTube Now Offers Fan Funding In Four Countries - Here's A Look At How It Works
YouTube thrives off the videos produced by independent content creators all over the world, and while it compensates many of them through ads, that money is hardly enough to make a living off of in most cases. Earlier this summer Google said that producers would soon have the option to request donations right on their YouTube pages. The feature's live now, so here's a look at how it works.
When you're watching something produced by someone who's willing to accept donations, an icon will appear in the top left corner of the video. In some cases, hovering over that icon will reveal a banner with the option to support to current channel.
Read More
Some Mobile Game Publishers Are Forcing Developers To Go Free-To-Play (And Pay-To-Win) Or Go Home
Free-to-play is a divisive topic in the games industry right now. Some developers and publishers, especially in the mobile gaming world, love it - free games get downloaded more, and they have the potential to bring in more revenue. Gamers used to the "pay once, pay forever" model of games and software in general over the last 30 years think it's changing the industry and damaging both the economics and the mechanics of gaming itself.
But at the end of the day, the decision of how to make a game, how to monetize it, and whether or not to adopt that tempting, lucrative, and divisive "pay to win" model should rest with the people actually making the game.
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Blast from the Past
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