Sonos teases a major new product coming next year
Illustration: The Verge
Sonos is in a bit of a rough patch with its consumer hardware business. Demand isn’t nearly on the same level that it was a few years ago, and CEO Patrick Spence has used the word “challenging” more than once when discussing the company’s last several financial quarters. Today’s earnings, which saw revenue decrease by 5.5 percent year over year, are another example.
“While it was a challenging year in the categories in which we play, the strength of the Sonos brand and product portfolio enabled us to retain a strong market share position,” Spence said in Sonos’ press release.
But Spence and the Sonos team predict big things ahead in 2024. Namely, some sort of significant new product is on the roadmap for later next year that Sonos seems pretty excited about.
“This is the beginning of a multi-year product cycle where we expect to reap the rewards of our R&D investments,” Spence said. “This cycle begins with our entry into a new multi-billion dollar category in the second half of the year that will complement our current offering, delight customers and drive immediate revenue.”
During Sonos’ earnings call, Spence shared a few more tidbits. “All told, we expect to generate over $100 million from new product introductions this year [fiscal 2024], with this exciting new product accounting for a large portion of this revenue in the second half,” he said.
Could he be talking about the long-rumored Sonos headphones? The headphone and earbud market is massive, and if Sonos is looking for a revenue driver, that’s certainly one way to get there. The mention of R&D could also mean we’re finally going to see the fruits of Sonos’ acquisition of Mayht, a startup that came up with an innovative new approach to speaker transducers to produce massive sound from small components.
Just about one year ago today, Spence announced that Sonos would be entering four new product categories over the coming years. The first one, Sonos Pro, ended up being commercially focused. It’s a subscription offering for businesses that are seeking easy control over the music played throughout their space. That kind of thing is important for Sonos’ long-term strategy, but it’s also a bit of a snooze for regular consumers like you and me. Hopefully we can count on something a little more intriguing next year. Based on Spence’s tease, I certainly am.
The timing is starting to feel right for headphones. Between LE Audio and upcoming earbuds that will use Wi-Fi to make up for Bluetooth’s weaknesses, Sonos might finally see an opening to do something unique compared to other tech players — perhaps with intelligent handoff with the company’s speakers, soundbars, and portable devices. As for new in-home audio products, I wouldn’t expect a new Sonos Arc anytime soon, but the Sonos Five is a prime candidate for a revision in the next couple years now that the company is so invested in spatial audio.
Microsoft investigating Windows activation issues after closing a key loophole
Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Microsoft is investigating Windows activation issues that appear to be linked to the company’s recent move to block Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys from activating copies of Windows 10 and Windows 11. If you have an installation of Windows 10 / 11 that has been activated using the free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8, then there’s a chance it might become deactivated if you swap some hardware components or even upgrade your BIOS version.
I personally experienced this in late October on a copy of Windows 11 after swapping a motherboard in one of my test PCs and no longer being able to activate it using the digital key assigned to my Microsoft account. I had to purchase a new Windows 11 key instead.
A Verge reader experienced the same issue and claims to have filed a complaint with the FTC over the problems. Daniel Mittelman upgraded some PC parts and kept the same Windows installation and was met with activation issues.
“Automatic activation would not work, so I contacted customer support. They told me because my Windows 10 license had been upgraded from Windows 7, and that they had discontinued support for Windows 7 product keys, that they could not continue my license for Windows 10 Pro after the hardware change,” says Mittelman in an email to The Verge. “They also acknowledged that changing the hardware is not a violation of the Windows license so there is no reason my Windows 10 license should be revoked or altered in any way.”
Mittelman isn’t alone, others have noticed similar issues when swapping hardware. Microsoft moved to block a long-standing Windows activation loophole last month. This previously allowed people to install Windows 10 or 11 and use a Windows 7 or 8 key to activate the install. Windows 7 / 8 keys are now fully blocked from clean installs of Windows 10 / 11, and it appears this block is affecting anyone trying to reactivate due to a hardware change. BIOS upgrades can occasionally trigger a Windows reactivation, so this is a problem that custom PC builders could run into over time.
“Microsoft is aware of these customers reports and is investigating,” says Bill Babonas, principal product manager of Windows, in a statement to The Verge. “Customers who are experiencing technical difficulties should contact customer support.”
We No Longer Need a Big Carrier’s Wireless Plan. Discount Ones Are the Way. We are overpaying for phone plans from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Budget wireless services, similarly fast and robust, can save thousands.
YouTube’s non-solution for AI podcasts
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign upherefor more.
Today we have a look at how YouTube’s new AI rules will (and will not) affect podcasting, another late-night host ditching TV for audio, and a bunch of your recs on podcasts covering the Israel-Hamas war.
What do YouTube’s new AI rules mean for podcasts? Not much.
This morning, YouTube released new terms regarding AI-generated content on its platform. As my Verge colleagues Mia Sato and Nilay Patel reported, the company is creating a two-tier system in the way it moderates such content: a strict set of rules for music and a looser, nearly unenforceable standard for everything else (including podcasts). For creators who make podcasts using AI and people who may discover an AI-generated clone of their voice on the internet, there are very slight new rules to which to adhere.
First, podcasts that use “realistic” AI-generated (or altered) content have to label their videos as such. That is something that is already happening with some of the bigger podcasts that use AI, like with The Joe Rogan AI Experience, but it’s generally good practice, so no harm in requiring people to do it. Even with the labeling, though, people can request YouTube take down videos that “simulate an identifiable individual, including their face or voice.” It is then up to YouTube’s discretion, based on factors such as whether the content counts as satire or if the person being replicated is a public figure. Music, meanwhile, has no such exceptions because YouTube needs to keep the labels happy (if you can believe it, the podcast lobby is somewhat less influential).
These guidelines, which will roll out next year, are being issued in the absence of any real legal framework for dealing with AI-generated content. While it does seem like an attempt by YouTube to do something, its effectiveness is necessarily limited — and the lack of clarity could lead to some confusing and inconsistent enforcement decisions.
“It doesn’t have the weight of law, and it doesn’t have the advantage of being done out in the open,” says attorney Emily Poler, who handles copyright infringement cases. “There are going to be situations where it’s really hard [for YouTube] to make a principled decision, and those [decisions] will be entrusted to some reasonably low level employee at YouTube. I don’t think that that’s a recipe for success.”
Moderation was already a mess for these platforms before AI got involved, and each one is taking a different approach. While Spotify is quite permissive (and even encouraging!) of AI spoken-word content, Audible has a blanket rule against AI-narrated audiobooks. YouTube seems to be attempting some middle ground. I’ll be curious to see how it plays out when the new AI rules are in place. As always, if you see anything weird, hit me up.
Another former late-night host turns to podcasting
Last year at Hot Pod Summit LA, we held a panel with Team Coco based on the premise that as late-night shows lose relevance, their hosts will (much like Conan O’Brien) turn instead to podcasts. Since then, Trevor Noah left The Daily Show and cut a deal with Spotify, and James Corden left The Late Late Show and will soon launch a show with SiriusXM. Now another former late-night host has a podcast deal: Daniel Tosh.
Tosh Show from iHeartMedia is refreshingly not a celebrity interview show, which makes sense! Tosh.0 was a hit in its day for being the opposite of standard late-night fare, tapping into lowbrow YouTube culture instead of featuring fluffy interviews with the rich and famous. If you are too young to remember or too old to care, it was a big deal circa 2009-2012. (Sidebar, I was truly shocked to learn that Tosh.0 did not end until 2020). Since dumb internet videos don’t exactly translate to podcasting, Tosh’s first interview is with his wife’s gynecologist. Respect!
Who from late night will be next? My money is on Jon Stewart, whose Apple TV Plus show was canceled last month. The podcast always outperformed the show, and it would be a relatively easy lift to continue without Apple’s support.
Your Israeli-Palestinian conflict podcast recs
You gotta love how the Hot Pod audience is always armed with recs. After my open call for suggestions, a number of you reached out with shows that approach this extremely complicated conflict with nuance. I have had a chance to listen to a few of them and return to some I haven’t tuned into in a while. Check it out:
The Ezra Klein Show, per Think Again host Jason Gots (and staffers at Vox, and various members of my family). It’s a go-to pick for a reason: Klein has dedicated several episodes of his show to exploring the conflict from different perspectives, including one standout episode in which he talks to pollster Amaney Jamal, who ran a public opinion survey in Gaza in the week leading up to the attack. Spoiler: Gazans aren’t big on Hamas.
Israel Story, as recommended by Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro. You might remember Israel Story — which is basically the Israeli This American Life — when it was featured on Radiolab in 2015. In the weeks since the war began, Israel Story has published two dozen accounts from Israelis about how the conflict has touched their lives.
On the Nose and Unsettled are recommended by audio producer Sam J. Leeds. On the Nose is from progressive outlet Jewish Currents and has been covering anti-war activism on the left in Israel and the US. Unsettled — which is sponsored by the Institute for Nonprofit News and was started by activists involved in IfNotNow — regularly features accounts from Palestinians and published an episode last week about the escalating violence in the West Bank since the war started.
Unholy: Two Jews on the News, per Sandra Shmueli, development editor at The Economist. It is hosted by Keshet 12 news anchor Yonit Levi and The Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland. So far, this is my favorite of the bunch — I particularly enjoyed its most recent episode with Kara Swisher on how discourse about the war is playing out on TikTok.
Keep the recs coming! Especially if you know of any great pods produced from a Palestinian perspective.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back next week with the latest audio news.
The best ebook reader to buy right now
Image: Will Joel / The Verge
From reading in the bath to scribbling notes in the margins, from diving into the Amazon ecosystem to avoiding it outright, there’s an e-reader for everyone.
Any ebook reader will let you cram a Beauty and the Beast-sized library’s worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. An ebook reader offers a more book-like reading experience, with fewer distractions and less eye strain, and many include extra features, like adjustable frontlighting. Some really are pocketable. Others are waterproof or offer physical page-turning buttons, while a few even let you take notes.
I’ve been using ebook readers for nearly a decade, and I’ve gone hands-on with dozens, from the Kindle Paperwhite to lesser-known rivals like the Pocketbook Era. Whether you want something your kid can throw against the wall or a waterproof, warm-glow Kindle that won’t ruin your spa ambiance, these are the best ebook readers for everyone.
As a final note, it’s worth mentioning many of these e-readers will likely be on sale during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We’re keeping tabs on e-readers and other gadgets in our roundup of the best early Black Friday deals, so be sure to bookmark that page and stay tuned in the weeks ahead.
The best Kindle
Dimensions:6.9 x 4.9 x .32 inches/Weight:205 grams /Screen area and resolution: 6.8-inch screen, 300ppi resolution /Storage:8GB or 16GB /Other features:IPX8 waterproofing, Bluetooth audio support
If you mostly buy ebooks from Amazon, you’ll want a Kindle, and the 11th-gen Kindle Paperwhite is the best choice for most people. Starting at $139.99, it’s cheaper than the Kobo Libra 2 — my top non-Amazon ebook reader, which I’ll dive into later — for many of the same features. Those include a large 300pi display and an adjustable warm white frontlight, which make for a clear and enjoyable reading experience. The latter also conveniently improves sleep by cutting down on blue light that interrupts melatonin production.
That warm white frontlighting is an advantage over the cool white of the $99.99 base-model Kindle, and unlike the base Kindle, the Paperwhite has IPX8 water resistance. The $189.99 Signature Edition Paperwhite also has an auto-adjusting frontlight and no lockscreen ads. It also has wireless charging, which is a rare feature to find in an e-reader.
Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
The Kindle Paperwhite comes with an adjustable warm white frontlight.
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and it dominates the US ebook market, so Kindle owners have access to advantages owners of other ebook readers don’t. Much of Amazon’s hardware strategy depends on offering cut-rate discounts to pull you into its content ecosystem. If you have Prime and buy a lot of Kindle ebooks, the Paperwhite is the best choice because Amazon makes it incredibly easy to buy and read its stuff. Its ebooks and audiobooks are often on sale, and Prime members get more free content through Prime Reading. Rivals like Kobo offer sales, too, but it’s hard for them to offer discounts as steep as Amazon does.
There are downsides, though. The Paperwhite has lockscreen ads unless you pay $20 extra to get rid of them. It’s also too big to hold comfortably with one hand. Perhaps the Kindle Paperwhite’s biggest flaw, though — which it shares with all Kindles aside from Fire tablets — is that it’s not easy to read books purchased outside of Amazon’s store. Kindle ebook formats are proprietary and only work on Kindle. Unlike Kobo and other ebook readers, Kindles don’t support EPUB files, an open file format used by pretty much everyone except Amazon. So, for example, if you often shop from Kobo’s bookstore (or Barnes & Noble or Google Play Books or many other ebook stores), you can’t easily read those books on a Kindle without using a workaround. There are ways to convert and transfer file formats so you can read on the Kindle and vice versa, but it’ll take a couple of extra steps.
However, if you don’t buy your books elsewhere or you don’t mind shopping from Amazon, you’ll be more than happy with the Kindle Paperwhite.
Dimensions: 5.69 x 6.36 x 0.35 inches /Weight:215 grams /Screen area and resolution: 7-inch screen, 300ppi /Storage:Up to 32GB /Other features:Physical page-turning buttons, waterproofing, Bluetooth audio support
The Kobo Libra 2 is an excellent alternative to an Amazon ebook reader, especially for readers outside the US. It’s just as nice as the Paperwhite, with many of the Paperwhite’s standout features, like waterproofing, USB-C support, and a 300ppi display. It doesn’t work as well with Amazon’s ecosystem, of course, but it offers a few extra perks that make the e-reader, in some ways, even more enjoyable to use.
For one thing, it supports more file formats, including EPUB. It’s also much easier to directly borrow books from the Overdrive library system, while native support for Pocket means you can read your saved articles offline. The Libra 2 also comes with easy-to-use physical buttons and starts at 16GB of storage, double the capacity of the base Paperwhite. There are no annoying lockscreen ads to contend with, either. Plus, instead of a flat-front screen, the display is slightly recessed into the frame. I loved that as it meant I didn’t accidentally tap the screen and skip a page, as I often did with the Paperwhite. It also kept the screen cleaner and — combined with the wide side bezel — made the Libra 2 more comfortable to hold.
The Kobo Libra 2 is my favorite ebook reader to use. I kept having to restrain myself from using it all the time to give the other e-readers on this list a fair chance.
However, at $189, it costs $50 more than the ad-supported Paperwhite, though it’s only $20 more than the ad-free Paperwhite. That gap widens even more when the Paperwhite is on sale, which it regularly is. Plus, as somebody whose digital library consists mainly of Amazon ebooks, I found the fact that I couldn’t easily and quickly read my vast collection of Kindle books frustrating. You can do it, but you’ll have to convert file formats using third-party apps, which can take time, especially if you have a large library. But if those things don’t matter or apply to you, the Kobo Libra 2 will give you the best digital reading experience of all the e-readers on this list.
The best cheap ebook reader
Dimensions:6.2 x 4.3 x 0.32 inches/Weight:158 grams /Screen area and resolution: 6-inch screen, 300ppi resolution /Storage:16GB /Other features:USB-C support, Bluetooth audio support
The base-model Kindle ($99.99 with ads) is the best cheap ebook reader. Its 300ppi resolution makes text clearer and easier to read than the lower-resolution screens on other ebook readers in its price range, and its 16GB of storage is double even that of the Paperwhite. It even has USB-C for relatively fast charging.
Reading on its six-inch screen feels a little more cramped than it does on the larger displays of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Libra 2. However, the flip side is that its small size makes it pocketable, light, and easy for small hands to hold. Combined with its relatively affordable price, the Kindle is also the best ebook reader for kids — especially in the kids version Amazon sells for $20 more. It shares the same exact specs but is ad-free with parental controls, a two-year extended replacement guarantee, and a case. It also comes with one year of Amazon Kids Plus, which grants kids access to thousands of kids books and audiobooks for free. After that, though, you’ll have to pay $79 per year.
Image: Kindle Kids
The kid-friendly version of the Kindle comes with colorful cases.
The base Kindle doesn’t have extra conveniences like the physical page-turning buttons found on Barnes & Noble’s entry-level e-reader, the Nook GlowLight 4e. However, you do get something more important: snappier responses. On most of the other entry-level ebook readers I tested, including the GlowLight 4e, I had to wait a few seconds after tapping the screen for the page to turn. The Kindle, in comparison, offered no perceptive lag.
There are other tradeoffs. There’s no water resistance, unlike the Paperwhite, and battery life is good, but it’ll last you three weeks tops — not months, like the Paperwhite. And because it’s an Amazon ebook reader, you’re also locked into the Amazon ecosystem and have to pay extra to get rid of ads. But if you can do without all of that, the Kindle delivers the essentials for under $100.
Dimensions:7.6 x 8.94 x 0.30 inches /Weight:390 grams /Screen area and resolution: 10.3-inches, 227ppi resolution /Storage:32GB /Other features:Handwriting to text conversion, magnetic stylus, Bluetooth audio support
Of all the large ebook readers I tested, the Kobo Elipsa 2E stood out the most because of its excellent note-taking abilities. You can directly write on pages, and the notes will not disappear, which makes for a more intuitive note-taking experience than the Kindle Scribe, which only supports on-page notes on select Kindle titles. Otherwise, you’re limited to making annotations on cards that are like disappearing sticky notes.
You can also sync your notes with Dropbox or view them online, and Kobo can even convert handwriting to typed text. Amazon recently rolled out a similar capability for the Kindle Scribe, but it can only convert handwriting to typed text when you export notebooks and not as accurately. By contrast, Kobo lets you convert your handwriting not just while exporting but also from within a notebook itself.
The Elipsa 2E also offers other helpful note-taking tools. It’s even capable, for example, of solving math equations for you. You can also insert diagrams and drawings, and it’ll automatically snap it into something that looks cleaner and nicer. There’s also a great selection of pen types and ink shades.
True, the Kindle Scribe starts at $60 less, but the Kobo Elipsa 2E comes with twice the storage. You can step up to the 32GB Kindle Scribe if you want the same storage capacity, but that puts it at essentially the same price as the Kobo. I recommend just forking out the money on the Elipsa 2E instead.
I also recommend the Elipsa 2E over the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus, even though it, too, offers much better writing tools than the Kindle Scribe. That’s because it costs a whopping $449 and also isn’t as readily available in the US market. The Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus also comes with too many distracting extras, like an easy-to-access music player and the Google Play app store preinstalled so you can download multiple reading apps, including both the Kindle and Kobo apps. However, Kindle and Kobo notes didn’t show up on the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus — and you can’t annotate their books anywhere as easily as you can on their respective devices.
Note-taking capabilities aside, the Kobo Elipsa 2E is also a good e-reader, but it comes with the same strengths and weaknesses as other Kobo e-readers. There’s support for a wide range of file formats, but you can’t easily read Kindle books without converting them first. Its 227ppi display is also slightly less sharp than the 300ppi screen found on the Kindle Scribe and the Kobo Libra 2. However, the 10.3-inch screen does balance things out a bit and makes text easier to read, so it’s not really a noticeable drawback.
Other ebook readers that didn’t make the cut
There are some other ebook readers I tested that I didn’t feature above but are still worth highlighting. Here are the most notable:
If you’re looking for a non-Amazon alternative that’s more affordable than the Kobo Libra 2, the Kobo Clara 2E is worth a look. It sells for $139.99 and also offers waterproofing as well as a sharp, 300ppi display, but it lacks buttons. As I mentioned in my review earlier this year, I also liked that it doesn’t come with ads but found it’s not as fast as the Kindle Paperwhite. However, now that I’ve used the e-reader for quite some time, I find it’s snappy enough, and the occasional lag isn’t as distracting as I imagined it’d become. The Libra 2 is still faster, though.
I also didn’t mention the Kindle Oasis, which has physical page-turning buttons and which many consider a high-end device. At this point, though, it’s old and lacks some features even the base Kindle offers, like USB-C support. That makes it less appealing at $249.99. If you are willing to pay that much for a high-end reader, I’d take a look at the Kobo Libra 2 or the Kobo Sage instead. The latter is $269, yet not only does it come with buttons and USB-C, but you can also use it to take notes. The eight-inch screen feels very cramped to write on, though, so I wouldn’t recommend it as a primary note-taking device.
Finally, Barnes and Noble recently released the new Nook Glowlight 4 Plus. If you own a lot of digital books from Barnes and Noble, this could be a good Kindle alternative. Otherwise, I’d still recommend the Kobo Libra 2 to everybody else. The $199.99 Nook Glowlight 4 Plus is a good e-reader with a lot to offer, including a lovely 300ppi screen, waterproofing, physical page-turning buttons, and even a headphone jack. However, it’s just not as snappy, which makes setting it up, buying books from the device itself, and navigating the interface a slow ordeal. It didn’t help that the screen sometimes froze, too, which meant I had to restart the device while in the middle of a book.
Update November 14th, 2023:Refreshed links / prices and added a note about Black Friday.
Latest US climate assessment shows the extreme toll taken by climate change
Homes and businesses in Lahaina, Maui, are in ruins on August 16th, 2023, after a devastating wildfire swept through town. | Photo by Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Climate disasters are costing the US billions of dollars a year, and the damage isn’t spread out evenly, according to a new national climate assessment.
The assessment, produced about every four years, lays out the toll climate change is taking across every region in the United States. This is the fifth one — but for the first time, this year’s report includes chapters dedicated to economic impact and social inequities. As floods, fires, heatwaves, and other calamities tied to climate change intensify, households pay the price with higher costs and worsening environmental injustices.
Climate change has created circumstances that the planet hasn’t seen for thousands of years, the report says. Global temperatures have risen faster over the past half-century than they have in at least 2,000 years. That’s led to all sorts of new threats, like the 2021 heatwave that killed more than 1,400 people in the typically temperate Pacific Northwest. And old problems get much bigger, like droughts sucking the Southwest dry. Drought in the Western US is currently more severe than it’s ever been in at least 1,200 years. Since 1980, drought and heatwaves alone have caused more than $320 billion in damages.
Extreme weather disasters make up some of the most devastating displays of climate change and are becoming way more common — and more costly. Back in the 1980s, a billion-dollar disaster hit the US once every four months on average (a figure that’s adjusted for inflation). Now, the US has to cope with one every three weeks. Those extreme events come with $150 billion in losses every year, according to the assessment. That’s a “conservative estimate that does not account for loss of life, healthcare-related costs, or damages to ecosystem services,” the report says.
There are also more insidious ways climate change takes a bite out of the US economy. Consumers have to shell out more money for food and other goods as prices reflect damages caused by climate change. In the Midwest, pests, diseases, and whiplash between wet and dry conditions linked to climate change threaten corn and apple harvests. And climate change has already supercharged 18 major fishery disasters in Alaska “that were especially damaging for coastal Indigenous Peoples, subsistence fishers, and rural communities,” according to the report.
None of these challenges are happening in a vacuum. Like pollution, climate disasters disproportionately affect Americans of color, low-income households, and other groups that have been historically marginalized. While 20 to 40 percent of small businesses that shutter after a natural disaster never open their doors again, those owned by women, people of color, and veterans are even more likely to close for good.
Flood losses are expected to balloon much faster in communities with a higher proportion of Black residents. Census tracts where at least 20 percent of the population is Black are projected to see average annual losses from floods rise at a rate twice as fast as other census tracks where less than 1 percent of the population is Black. It’s partly a symptom of racist housing policies like redlining that have left certain communities without the infrastructure and resources to cope with hazards brought on by climate change. Formerly redlined neighborhoods can also be around 12 degrees hotter than surrounding areas because of fewer green spaces and more paved surfaces that trap heat.
All of these risks grow as long as the US, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, and other countries keep running on fossil fuels. The world has warmed by a little more than 1 degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, and the report says 2 degrees of warming would more than double the economic toll from climate change.
The US isn’t taking action fast enough to stop that outcome, the report shows. Planet-heating pollution in the US has only fallen by an average of about 1 percent annually since 2005. It needs to drop by more than 6 percent per year to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which commits countries to keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
What Google Argued to Defend Itself in Landmark Antitrust Trial The tech giant, which is wrapping up its arguments in the federal monopoly trial, has framed itself as a good corporate citizen that has pushed innovation and helped consumers.
Google’s C.E.O. to Take Another Turn on the Antitrust Witness Stand Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, is expected to testify on Tuesday for the second time in two weeks to defend his company against monopoly claims.
Threads finally lets you delete your account separately from Instagram
Image: The Verge
Meta is rolling out a way for you to delete your Threads profile without having to delete your Instagram account, too. You’ll be able to access the new feature from the settings menu in a new “Delete or Deactivate Profile” section, according to a post from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri. I don’t have the feature yet myself, but I suspect Meta will make it available to everyone soon enough.
This new ability to delete just your Threads profile addresses an early complaint with the app, which currently requires that you sign up with an Instagram account. However, shortly after the app’s launch, Mosseri said the company was “looking into” a way to be able to delete a Threads account on its own. (And if you don’t want to permanently delete your Threads profile, you can always deactivate it.)
Mosseri also shared that the platform is rolling out a way to opt out of having your Threads posts featured on Facebook and Instagram. The feature first popped up over the weekend, and Meta introduced it after it “heard feedback that you want more control over the experience,” Mosseri says.
Sony’s PlayStation Portal gives a confusing first impression
The Portal boots up and prompts you to connect to your PlayStation 5. Beyond that, there’s not much going on.
Sony’s new PlayStation Portal that launches November 15th is a $199.99 device that does just one thing: it streams games via Wi-Fi off of your home PlayStation 5, requiring that you already own Sony’s pricey console.
It doesn’t do any kind of cloud streaming like Nvidia’s Geforce Now or Sony’s own PlayStation Plus Premium subscription, and it can’t run anything locally (not even YouTube or Netflix). The Portal is purpose-built to use a singular feature Sony first debuted with the PS3 and PSP back in 2006 that’s also widely available on other devices you may already own, making me wonder: why does this exist? After spending a couple of days with it, I’m still not sure.
The Portal hardware is essentially what you’d get after sticking an eight-inch LCD between two halves of a standard DualSense controller. The laminated screen has a resolution of 1080p and maximum refresh of 60Hz — perfectly adequate for a display of this size. It supports Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), has a 4,370mAh nonremovable battery that charges via USB-C, top-firing stereo speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and it connects with Sony’s new PlayStation Link-enabled headphones for lossless audio. (The Portal does not offer Bluetooth connectivity.) These specs aren’t anything particularly special, but you have to remember it’s the PS5 doing all the heavy lifting here.
Games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 are right on the edge of playability with the Portal’s latency, but it works fine.
As far as its build, if you’ve ever held a DualSense controller before, you’ll have a sense of what holding the Portal is like. It feels the way it looks: a DualSense split in half and stretched out to accommodate a 16:9 touchscreen in the middle. It even maintains the DualSense’s nifty haptics and adaptive triggers. Though, being a standard DualSense also means its analog sticks may eventually drift after months or years of heavy / extended use (something even the equally pricey DualSense Edge runs the risk of but can remedy via replaceable stick modules).
The Portal may look a little awkward and clunky, but it isn’t too hefty. It weighs about 530 grams, which is over 100 grams heavier than a Nintendo Switch OLED but more than 100 grams lighter than the somewhat chonky Steam Deck. Compared to a Switch with standard Joy-Con controllers, the tradeoff in weight is made up for by its large grips that are comfier to use for extended play sessions.
I’ve initially played a handful of hours with various PS5 games (Resident Evil 4, Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon, and Astro’s Playroom, to name a few) in my limited time with the PlayStation Portal so far. One thing I can certainly say right off the bat is that it feels familiar. At various points in the last two years, I’ve tinkered with using Remote Play to stream games from my PlayStation 5 to my PS4, my PC, various Android devices, an iPhone, an iPad Pro, and even a Steam Deck using open-source software Chiaki. The PlayStation Portal offers mostly the same experience as what I’ve seen with those other solutions, except being purpose-built streamlines the process.
The games that lend themselves best to game streaming — primarily single-player experiences that don’t require twitch-y reactions with frame-perfect timing — still seem to be the best fit on the Portal. And just like when you’re streaming on an iPad or other device, there will be times when it looks near flawless as well as times when you notice some prominent artifacting by looking slightly closer. And of course, there can still be times when shit just goes haywire or the Portal doesn’t immediately connect to the PS5 — because Wi-Fi, am I right?
I need to continue using the PlayStation Portal to see if more differences appear between using it and something like a Backbone One controller. My first impression is that this device is primarily for PlayStation diehards who want a simple, dedicated tool for streaming games around their homes. It may be for when the main TV is in use or to take games to other rooms like the bedroom or the bathroom (if you’re okay with flagged devices), but $200 is a little pricey for such a single-use accessory to a $400–$500 game console — especially when there are many other options available that you may already own.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
Laser Fusion Start-Ups Ignite the Quest for Boundless Energy Companies are looking to commercialize advances made by federally supported research labs in the quest for boundless energy.
The right-to-repair movement is just getting started
Illustration by Nico H. Brausch for The Verge
Apple stunned the world when it came out in support of California’s right-to-repair law. But software locks and other obstacles seem to signal that the fight is far from over.
Several months back, Apple refurbisher John Bumstead received a batch of about 20 MacBooks from an e-waste recycler. Bumstead, who routinely refurbishes MacBooks that are more than 10 years old, shouldn’t have had a problem salvaging these computers, the oldest of which were from 2018. But only half of them were fully restorable.
Five of the MacBooks were “activation locked,” meaning the prior owner had forgotten to wipe the device and nobody else could reactivate it. Another five had broken screens that would lose True Tone unless Bumstead replaced them with expensive new screens from Apple, something he couldn’t afford to do.
Bumstead’s experience was far from unique. Today, people who repair and refurbish Apple devices are encountering a growing number of software barriers that prevent them from repairing those devices, even if the hardware is in good condition. That’s why this community of fixers, and the broader public, was so stunned when, in August, Apple came out in support of a right-to-repair bill in its home state of California.
Signed into law last month by Governor Gavin Newsom, the Right to Repair Act guarantees everyone access to parts, tools, and manuals needed to fix their electronic devices — something industry-backed research shows can reduce both waste and carbon emissions but which Apple, the world’s most valuable company, has aggressively lobbied against for years. At a recent White House event, Apple even pledged to honor California’s new law nationwide.
But if independent repair professionals were hopeful that Apple’s dramatic about-face would signal a change in how it designs its products, that hope was short-lived. In September, Apple rolled out a new iPhone that appears impossible to fully repair without the manufacturer’s blessing — and without paying Apple money.
As device detectives at repair guide site iFixit.com soon discovered, the iPhone 15 is riddled with software locks that cause warning messages to pop up or functionality to be lost if parts are replaced with new ones that weren’t purchased directly from Apple.
The stark contrast between what Apple now professes to believe — that repairing devices is good for consumers’ pocketbooks and the planet — and its decision to discourage unsanctioned fixes by pairing specific parts to specific devices, highlights a sobering reality right-to-repair activists are now confronting: despite a recent stringofhard-wonvictories, the fight for affordable, accessible, and universal access to repair is far from over. Following years of pressure from consumers, shareholders, activists, and regulators, tech companies are finally cracking open the door to repair. But unless these corporations are forced to do more, our devices will continue to die early deaths because they are difficult to disassemble, the manufacturer stops offering software support, or the only way to make them work again is to purchase pricey replacement parts from the original device maker.
As long as repair is costly and complicated, it “will remain something only some people that are motivated by environmental reasons will choose,” Ugo Vallauri, a co-director of The Restart Project, a UK-based community repair organization, and founding member of Right to Repair Europe, said. Many others will choose to replace their broken devices with new ones, resulting in more destructive mining, more planet-heating carbon pollution emitted during manufacturing and shipping, and more electronic waste piling up in landfills. The European Union estimates that prematurely discarded products cause 35 million metric tons of waste and 261 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year within its borders alone.
Despite the environmental benefits of increased repair access, some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla, have spent millions convincing lawmakers not to support it. Manufacturers cite a range of reasons for their opposition: right to repair will infringe on their intellectual property rights; consumers will injure themselves fixing their stuff; independent repair will lead to more hacking; and shoddy repairs will damage companies’ reputations. John Deere has even claimed that greater repair access will allow farmers to tamper with the emissions controls on their tractors in violation of the Clean Air Act — a notion the Environmental Protection Agency recently refuted.
Repair advocates contend that these arguments are baseless and that the real reason manufacturers oppose repair access is because it hurts their bottom line. Lawmakers and regulators are beginning to agree. In May 2021, the Federal Trade Commission published a report that found “scant evidence” to back up manufacturers’ anti-repair claims. Several months later, President Biden directed the FTC to explore new regulations that would limit manufacturers’ ability to restrict independent repair for profit. Repair bills started gaining more traction in statehouses around the country.
Shortly thereafter, device makers startedchanging their tune on the issue, announcing a slew of new initiatives aimed at promoting independent repair. In the spring of 2022, Apple launched its first self-repair program, Samsung and Google announced partnerships with iFixit aimed at promoting repair, and Microsoft, at the behest of its shareholders, released a study concluding that repair has significant environmental benefits. Advocates believe that tech giants realized they were on the losing side of the repair fight and that, by making some concessions, they could keep a seat at the negotiating table in order to shape future regulations.
California’s new right-to-repair law, along with similar laws enacted by Minnesota and New York earlier this year, are the most prominent result of the shift in public and corporate attitudes toward repair. The laws aim to start chipping away at the environmental toll of our throwaway culture by ensuring it’s at least theoretically possible to fix many devices.
These laws require that manufacturers make spare parts, tools, and repair information available to independent shops and the public for a set period of time after a device is no longer sold on the market. California’s bill, considered the strongest yet, mandates three years of spare parts and information for devices that cost between $50 and $99 and seven years of support for devices costing $100 or more.
The passage of three electronics right-to-repair laws in a single year — in addition to new state laws covering farm equipment and wheelchairs — is “huge,” Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the repair advocacy organization Repair.org, said. “We’ve been waiting for the dam to burst, and the dam burst,” she said.
That said, these laws have some key limitations.
Due to industry pressure, Gordon-Byrne said, the laws in California and Minnesota only apply to products sold from mid-2021 onward, while New York’s law applies to products sold starting in mid-2023. This means the laws won’t help consumers fix older devices, which are more likely to need repairs sooner. Each bill also excludes various categories of devices, including gaming consoles, medical devices, business computers, and e-bikes, depending on the state.
Finally, the aim of these laws is not to remove all barriers to independent repair but to level the playing field between manufacturers, their authorized repair partners, and everyone else. Manufacturers must make the spare parts they use in their own repair networks available on “fair and reasonable terms,” but the laws don’t dictate that parts must be affordable for the average consumer. (The out-of-warranty cost of recent iPhone screen replacements at the Apple Store is very similar to Apple’s self-repair store and higher than many aftermarket parts.) And if a manufacturer doesn’t offer any repair service at all, they are under no obligation to start. “We’re going to have to tackle that” loophole in future legislation, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said. “You shouldn’t be able to sell a product without selling service parts and writing a repair manual.”
Photo by Adam Amengual for The Verge
iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens demonstrates the process of taking apart an iPhone 15 at iFixit’s headquarters on October 31st, 2023. The company is known for its teardown and repair videos of consumer tech.
Photo by Adam Amengual for The Verge
Meanwhile, there are a host of repair roadblocks that rules focused on fostering market competition aren’t built to address. These include design choices that make products physically hard to open up, take apart, and put back together.
For instance, since 2016, Apple has welded most of the solid-state drives in its MacBooks directly to the logic board, meaning they can’t be removed and replaced without some serious soldering chops. Beyond hampering consumers’ efforts to recover their data or replace a dead drive, the design choice is “absolutely devastating” for refurbishers, said Bumstead, the Apple refurbisher. E-waste recyclers, Bumstead said, used to be able to pull the drive off the board in order to securely destroy the data before selling the device to refurbishers. Now, in order to comply with the data destruction requirements set by private certifiers, recyclers will often shred the entire board, a much costlier and more resource-intensive component.
“I’ve been offered thousands of three-year-old M1 Macs, they’ll tell me they’re perfectly good machines [but] they just need a board,” Bumstead said.
Apple has come under fire for other repair-hostile design choices. Over the years, many of its devices used “pentalobe”-shaped screws, which were once very hard to find screwdrivers for and featured glued-in batteries that are difficult, if not impossible, to replace.
And it’s hardly the only gadget maker whose tech is hard to take apart: a repair report card released last year by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) gave Samsung and Google Pixel smartphones failing grades for ease of disassembly, while Lenovo, Microsoft, and HP laptops received poor to middling marks. By contrast, Dell laptops, which often set the industry standard for repairability, received an “A” for ease of disassembly. US PIRG’s scores drew on France’s repairability index, which considers the number of steps required to take devices apart, the types of tools needed, and whether fasteners are removable and reusable.
Another major barrier to maintaining older devices is software support. Once a manufacturer stops offering software updates, issuing security patches, or powering the servers our gadgets rely on, our products can become obsolete. Smart home devices, whose functionality is tied to remote servers beyond the customer’s control, are particularly vulnerable in this regard. Wiens pointed to Nest’s decision to disable the Revolv smart home hub in 2016 and the demise of the company that made the SmartDry laundry sensor last year as examples of how manufacturers can turn expensive pieces of hardware into useless bricks by dropping software support.
Poor designs and lack of software updates make repairing and maintaining our devices more difficult. But committed fixers will often find ways to take apart the most repair-challenged gadgets or upgrade old machines with third-party software patches. By contrast, many in the DIY repair world fear that the software locks companies are now using to pair replacement components with specific devices could spell “game over” for independent repair. “This is the existential threat,” Wiens said.
Parts pairing refers to how manufacturers tie device functionality to the purchase and use of their in-house parts, tools, and service. Ten to 15 years ago, when a component broke down, it could almost always be replaced with any compatible replacement part. But paired parts have built-in microcontrollers that are programmed to communicate with the main board to authenticate the replacement. If that software handshake doesn’t occur — say, because the repairer used an aftermarket part or didn’t have access to proprietary pairing software — the device might throw up a warning message, or it might cease to function altogether.
Parts pairing flies in the face of how refurbishers do business: by harvesting working components from dead devices and using them to restore other devices to good-as-new condition. “It’s a very big threat on refurbishment, and the cost of repair in refurbishment, that we need to address,” Marie Castelli, head of public affairs at the online refurbished device store Back Market, said.
Photo by Adam Amengual for The Verge
Wiens poses for a portrait at iFixit’s headquarters in San Luis Obispo, California.
For several years, iFixit has tracked Apple’s use of parts pairing by swapping parts between new devices of the same model to see what works and what doesn’t. The problem is clearly getting worse, Wiens said, noting that the iPhone 15 appears to be Apple’s most software-locked phone yet. Tests on a 15 Pro Max revealed that swapping the screen without using Apple’s System Configuration tool causes Face ID, True Tone, and auto brightness to stop working, while swapping the battery causes a non-genuine part warning message to appear, and the phone stops displaying battery health data. All of these software locks appeared in earlier iPhones, too. But the 15 Pro Max’s rear lidar assembly, essential for using augmented reality apps, also doesn’t function when transplanted into a new phone, iFixit found.
Apple didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from The Verge.
iFixit has documented similar examples of parts pairing in MacBooks and iPads. And once again, Apple is hardly the only offender here: Wiens pointed out that Husqvarna chainsaws require a dealer to authenticate the firmware on new parts; Xbox and PlayStation disc drives are paired with the motherboard; and replacement car parts are increasingly “VIN locked,” or paired to a specific car’s serial number. Printers are another poster child for software locks, with some companies tying a printer’s ability to print to the purchase and use of proprietary ink cartridges. A recent report by US PIRG found that Americans could save 4 million single-use grocery bags’ worth of plastic a year by using ink cartridges that were recycled and refilled — if only manufacturers would allow it.
Photo by Adam Amengual for The Verge
An old iMac with its screen missing demonstrates the kind of work done at the headquarters of iFixit.
While today’s high-tech barriers to repair are daunting, advocates are hard at work pressing lawmakers and regulators to tear them down. In both the US and Europe, a suite of new rules could start to unwind manufacturers’ stranglehold over what repairs are possible and with whose parts.
In August, the EU rolled out a first-of-its-kind “ecodesign” regulation for smartphones and tablets. By June 2025, manufacturers of these devices will be required to meet strict durability and repairability requirements, including furnishing spare parts and repair information for at least seven years. Parts should be easily replaceable, and device makers must provide software updates for at least five years after their devices are last sold in the EU. Vallauri, of The Restart Project, noted that shortly after the new rules went into effect, Google announced it would be providing an industry-leading seven years of software updates for its latest Pixel smartphones, demonstrating that this level of support “was possible” all along.
Google spokesperson Matthew Flegal declined to say whether the company’s decision to extend software support as well as hardware support and replacement parts for its newest phones was influenced by this regulation but said that the main reason “is because it’s important to our customers.”
The EU also just passed a new battery regulation that covers many aspects of lithium-ion battery sustainability, including repair. Per the new rules, nearly all portable electronic batteries will have to be user-replaceable starting in 2027. While key details of the regulation are still being hammered out, including which devices will be exempt because they are routinely in contact with water, Vallauri expects the regulation will have “a big impact” on product design, making many devices “easier to disassemble.”
Still, advocates say that the new EU rules ignore key challenges, like the high cost of repair and the impact of parts pairing. (The new ecodesign rules for smartphones and tablets explicitly allow manufacturers to pair parts as long as they provide independent repairers “non-discriminatory access” to software and firmware tools, a proposition advocates are deeply skeptical of.) With the European Parliament currently weighing another new regulation aimed at making repair more attractive to consumers, advocates are pressing EU lawmakers to take a more aggressive stance on these issues, including calling for a full ban on parts pairing.
Photo by Lauren Petracca for The Verge
iPad Rehab, a repair shop in Honeoye, New York, repairs devices using methods and techniques developed by owner Jessa Jones, who also teaches these techniques through YouTube tutorials and on-site trainings.
Photo by Lauren Petracca for The Verge
Jones demonstrates repair techniques at iPad Rehab.
Photo by Lauren Petracca for The Verge
A pile of logic boards used for training sits in the iPad Rehab microsoldering shop.
In the US, repair advocates are also setting their sights on more ambitious rules and regulations following their recent legislative victories. Gordon-Byrne says she expects to see other states follow in California’s footsteps and pass their own right-to-repair bills in the years to come. “We’re trying to make sure every ‘me too’ includes something that pushes the envelope,” Gordon-Byrne said.
That could mean coverage for devices that were exempted from the recent laws, expanded software support over the long term, or restrictions on parts pairing. (Minnesota’s law includes language that should ban the practice, but with California’s law overshadowing it, it remains to be seen whether corporations will comply, Gordon-Byrne said.) Nathan Proctor, who directs the right-to-repair campaign at US PIRG, said that his organization is “talking to repair techs to find out what they need and then working to make sure our legislative solutions address these needs.”
As more states pass their own laws, support for a national right to repair is growing. At a White House right-to-repair event in October, the Biden administration called on Congress to pass a right-to-repair law. So did Apple vice president Brian Naumann, who told audience members that the company believes “consumers and businesses would benefit from a national law” modeled after the California bill.
While EU-style design mandates may be a harder sell in the US, forcing manufacturers to disclose the repairability of their products could encourage them to adopt better designs, an approach France pioneered when it launched its repairability index in 2021. Lucas Gutterman, who directs the “Designed to Last” campaign at US PIRG, described repairability scores as a way to foster “transparency and market competition.”
“If we just have transparency in the marketplace… we’ll have a race to the top where manufacturers are just designing products to be more and more repairable,” Gutterman said. US PIRG is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to develop voluntary repair score criteria that states or companies can use, similar to the federal Energy Star labeling program that encourages manufacturers to improve device efficiency.
Clearly, the right-to-repair movement has its work cut out in the years to come. But while pushing the world’s most powerful companies to change their business practices is never easy, right to repair has one advantage over other environmental causes, which often feel a step removed from daily life: it promises to help eliminate the needless repair ordeals that are a joyless fact of modern existence.
Jessa Jones, the founder of iPad Rehab, an independent repair and data recovery business based near Rochester, New York, recalled a recent experience one of her employees had replacing four short-circuited data storage chips on the logic board of a MacBook that had experienced water damage. He had to go on an “Easter egg hunt,” Jones said, to find four replacement chips that matched those in the specific MacBook he was working on, unsolder the old chips and solder the new ones on, then buy a third-party Chinese program to program the chips so the device could communicate with them.
“That MacBook is currently back in service,” Jones said. “But that is the insane level of effort now required to do something every teen with a screwdriver has been able to do in their basement.”
Google fights scammers using Bard hype to spread malware
Illustration: The Verge
Google is suing scammers who are trying to use the hype around generative AI to trick people into downloading malware, the company has announced. In a lawsuit filed today in California, the company says individuals believed to be based in Vietnam are setting up social media pages and running ads encouraging users to “download” its generative AI service Bard. The download actually delivers malware to the victims, which steals social media credentials for the scammers to use.
“Defendants are three individuals whose identities are unknown who claim to provide, among other things, “the latest version” of Google Bard for download,” the lawsuit reads. “Defendants are not affiliated with Google in any way, though they pretend to be. They have used Google trademarks, including Google, Google AI, and Bard to lure unsuspecting victims into downloading malware onto their computers.” The lawsuit notes that scammers have specifically used promoted Facebook posts in an attempt to distribute malware.
Image: Google
A screenshot from Google’s filing showing one of the scams.
Similar to crypto scams, the lawsuit highlights how interest in an emerging technology can be weaponized against people who may not fully understanding how it operates. For example, the scammers in this case imply that Bard is a paid service or app that users need to download, when it’s actually available free of charge at bard.google.com.
Google’s blog post notes that it’s already submitted around 300 takedown requests in relation to these scammers, but wants them to be prevented from setting up future malicious domains, and wants them to be disabled with US domain registrars. “Lawsuits are an effective tool for establishing a legal precedent, disrupting the tools used by scammers, and raising the consequences for bad actors,” Google’s general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado writes in the company’s blog post.
An OLED iPad Pro is the upgrade I’ve been waiting for
Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge
Apple started using OLED screens in the iPhone X back in 2017, and before that, in the first Apple Watch. And the Touch Bar, of course (RIP). But it’s been slow to move away from LCD elsewhere, like its iMacs, MacBooks, standalone displays, and iPads. I want OLED on all those things, but if the iPad Pro gets it first, as rumor has it, then that’s fine by me.
There’s no product where the use of an LCD panel bothers me more than my 11-inch iPad Pro. It’s got a nice-looking screen so long as I’m looking directly at it. Go a little off-axis, though, and the screen gets way dimmer. That’s true of my laptop, too, but I’m always sitting directly in front of that screen, and almost always looking at a browser window with text in it.
Contrast isn’t an LCD’s strong suit either, and the gray-black of the letterboxing and shadows when I’m watching movies and shows bothers me more than it probably should. That doesn’t matter if I’m just reading, but if I’m playing a game — especially something like Resident Evil Village, which I’m sure will run on the next iPad Pro — or watching a movie, the added deep blacks of OLED would look nicer. And in a dark horror game, it’d be easier to spot things with the extra contrast.
OLED would mean other things, like an always-on iPad screen. That could open up a version of iPhone’s StandBy mode that turns the iPad into a true blue smart display (something that’s been rumored before), actually unlocking a niche for the iPad that it really could use.
Assuming an OLED upgrade means more than just a nice screen for the next Pro model, I’d sell my M1 iPad Pro in a heartbeat to buy it.
It sounds like I might have my wish soon. This morning, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reiterated in the subscriber Q&A section of Power Onsomething he’s said in the past: that Apple has a new OLED iPad Pro coming next year. And in that last update, he called it the “first major overhaul in half a decade,” in the form of an 11-inch model and a 13-inch one, and I hope that’s true because it needs it.
Ming-Chi Kuo echoed that later in the day in a Medium post that Apple will mass-produce two OLED iPads using the same LTPO tech that gives both Apple Watches and newer iPhones their 1Hz to 120Hz variable refresh rate. Kuo added they’ll outperform the Mini LED iPad Pro in “display performance and power consumption.”
Threads users can keep their posts off Instagram and Facebook now
Illustration: The Verge
Many Threads users are now saying they have the ability to opt out of having their posts shown on Instagram and Facebook. To keep Threads posts from showing up Meta’s other platforms, tap the two lines in the top right of the Threads app > Privacy > Suggesting posts on other apps — two switches let users turn off suggestions on Instagram or Facebook. Meta tends to roll out Threads features slowly, so if you don’t see the new toggles yet, give it time.
Instagram and Facebook each got a “For you on Threads” carousel in the last few months. Responding to user grumpiness, Threads said in October it was “listening to feedback” shortly before testing the opt-out switch that’s rolling out now.
The feature was clearly intended to drive engagement on Threads, as the platform seemed to be foundering after its impressive initial launch. But things are looking a lot better now. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call last month that Threads now has almost 100 million monthly users. That’s still short of the “over half a billion monthly users” that Elon Musk recently claimed that X has, but it’s a good sign for Threads, just over four months into its life.
There may be other, bigger changes coming to the app soon. Alessandro Paluzzi, a software engineer who’s found a lot of features on Threads before they’re out (including the new cross-platform post-suggesting switches), posted a screenshot that suggests Meta could be preparing to open the platform up to EU users. Meta has held off on launching Threads in Europe because of how the region’s Digital Markets Act governs the handling of cross-platform data.
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