Meta Platforms is opening its WhatsApp messaging service to advertising. The company revealed that three ad modules will roll out gradually. The ads will be positioned under WhatsApp’s Updates tab, a section discreet from WhatsApp’s users’ message inboxes and private chats. The Updates tab is also the entry point to WhatsApp’s Status feature, which lets users share photos, videos and text that disappear after 24 hours, similar to Instagram Stories. Meta says the Updates tab gets 1.5 billion visitors per day. The company is also seeking to monetize WhatsApp’s Channels feature by offering paid subscriptions and promoted Channels. Read more

Google is testing podcast-like audio search summaries generated by AI. Audio Overviews uses Google’s latest Gemini models to generate “quick, conversational audio overviews for certain search queries.” It can be enabled through Google Labs, the company’s public-facing portal to AI experiments. An Audio Overview “can help you get a lay of the land, offering a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information,” Google says, noting that the feature displays search results “right within the audio player” to make it easy to delve further. Google already had AI audio summaries in NotebookLM and Gemini. Like those, Search features AI discussion “hosts.” Read more

Snapchat has introduced new editing tools designed to make it easier for creators to produce and share content on its platform. Capabilities of the new “Timeline Editor” include generating videos from saved Memories and viewing video content in a chronological way, making it simpler to move and rearrange clips. The “Create a Video” feature provides templates that let users select Memories vids, pick a song from the Snapchat Sounds library and generate a custom video compilation. The ability to auto-save public Stories to profiles has been added as Snapchat seeks to build-out creator tools to compete with Instagram and TikTok. Read more

Startup Zencoder (formerly For Good AI) has launched a cloud-based AI-powered E2E testing agent that simplifies the pipeline from initial code to production-ready applications. Now in public beta, Zentester tackles “verification,” which Zencoder founder and CEO Andrew Filev calls “the missing link” in scaling AI-created code from concept to market-ready app. That complicated process is often delayed by a bottleneck in final testing. Zentester is designed to take that late-stage verification process “from days to hours,” Filev says. Zentester has the typical agent superpowers — seeing and interacting as users do by clicking buttons, filling in forms and navigating workflows. Read more

Fox Corporation’s Tubi free ad-supported streaming service has partnered with Kickstarter to support independent filmmakers raising funds on the crowdfunding platform. The deal will bring more than 20 Kickstarter-funded films to Tubi for an exclusive period beginning this fall. As part of the arrangement, Tubi has joined with Kickstarter to launch the FilmStream Collective fund, which will channel completion funds to filmmakers active on the platform. Tubi reaches over 97 million monthly active users worldwide with FAST entertainment in the form of on-demand movies and TV episodes, including original content. Read more