This week in apps: Play Store revamp, Google antitrust lawsuit updates, real BeReal traction

Welcome to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest news on mobile operating systems, mobile apps, and the overall app economy.

Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up slightly from $64.4 billion in the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed down. But overall, the app economy continues to grow, having produced record numbers of downloads and consumer spending across iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Last year, global spending on iOS and Google Play was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps.

This Week in Apps provides a way to keep up with the rapidly changing industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, seed funding, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.

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Epic Games and Match are trying to expand their antitrust lawsuits against Google

Image Credits: Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Epic Games and Match Group are seeking to bolster their antitrust lawsuits against Google by adding new charges to their original complaint, filed last year, that illustrate Google's efforts to dominate the market. Android app market. A week ago, the companies filed a motion to amend their complaints in their cases against Google, which now allege that Google paid commercial rivals not to launch other app stores that would put them competing with Google Play. This would be a direct violation of US antitrust law known as the Sherman Act, the amended complaint states.

Epic Games and Match Group originally detailed Google's plans in a filing last year, where they detailed a Google program known as "Project Hug", or later, the " Apps and Games Velocity Program". The effort was intended to pay game developers hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives to keep their games on the Google Play Store, he said.

Now, Epic Games and Match Group seek to add two new allegations to their complaint detailing how Google either paid or induced potential competitors to agree not to distribute apps on Android that compete with the Play Store, including: via their o...