Spotify might be adding real-time lyrics to its app, again. Dozens of Twitter users around the world have reported that lyrics are now popping up as they listen to Spotify. A user with beta 8.5.46.848 confirmed the feature to Android Police. But, this seems to be server-side enabled, as not all users with that beta can see the lyrics.
But this isn't Spotify's first karaoke. The lyrics showing up today are provided through Musixmatch, the same company Spotify partnered with to deliver lyrics in the past. In 2016, the companies ended their partnership.
"It was a great partnership and there is mutual respect between both companies as our business strategies move us each in different directions," a Spotify spokesperson told Engadget at the time. It's unclear what changed, but hopefully this time around the partnership will last.
Today, a Spotify spokesperson offered the company's standard canned response:
"At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve our user experience. Some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning. We don't have any further news to share at this time."
You can now search for videos with your voice on YouTube mobile even while you're casting to a bigger screen. The Google-owned platform has announced the feature, which works on both iOS and Android devices, along with the revelation that it's now possible to watch YouTube in HDR on the PS4 and the PS4 Pro. YouTube's post also talked about the other capabilities it rolled out over the past year. Those include "Who's Watching," a feature that lets you switch between the profiles linked to the device you're watching on, as well as YouTube's debut on Amazon Fire TV devices.
The platform has more cast-related features in the works, as well. German site SmartDroid (via Android Community) has spotted what seems to an experimental feature rolling out to select Android users, which turns the mobile YouTube app into more of a bona fide remote control while you're casting.
At the moment, you can only pretty much use the app to pause, play and adjust the volume while you're casting to a TV. The updated controls, however, show a directional pad that makes it easier to browse videos, and include quicker access to captions and playback quality settings. You'll be able to access those new elements through the volume panel that pops up when you tap on the cast button -- that is, so long as you're one of the users lucky enough to get the feature.
TikTok will exit the Hong Kong market and cut off access to all residents of the semi-autonomous region, parent ByteDance told Reuters. The company has said that it’s concerned Hong Kong may fall under China’s jurisdiction after new security laws came into effect. “In light of recent events, we’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” a spokesperson said.
Though ByteDance is based in China, the TikTok app itself is not available in the nation. Rather, China has access to another, similar app called Douyin. In addition, the company (led by former Walt Disney exec Kevin Mayer) recently decided to stop using Chinese moderators for the app and has said that no data is stored in China. All of that was done to avoid the impression in the US and other markets that the app or its data is controlled by the Chinese government.
All those efforts aren’t necessarily helping, though. When asked about it by Fox News, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US is “certainly looking at” banning Chinese social media apps like TikTok. In addition, the US Senate recently asked intelligence services to probe TikTok to see if it presents any kind of a national security risk. TikTok was recently banned in India, along with dozens of other Chinese apps.
Facebook recently said it would “pause” responses to data requests from Hong Kong, despite the new security law that gives police the power to order companies to remove content. However, Apple, which still has a large presence in China, complied last year with communist government demands to remove a Hong Kong protest-tracking app.
ByteDance has continued to try to distance itself from China and by exiting Hong Kong now, is avoiding the appearance of any potential conflicts. TikTok previously said that it has 150,000 users in the city and a source told Reuters that it’s a money-losing region for the company.
