Perplexity has rolled out an update for its iOS app, giving iPhone users access to its AI voice assistant that was initially released for Android users earlier this year. Its voice assistant can perform tasks for the user by browsing the web or accessing other apps for them. If they ask the assistant to find them a table for a specific restaurant, for instance, Perplexity can launch the OpenTable app with the number of people, the date and the time already filled out. The user still has to perform the final action and book a reservation, but it's already laid out for them — all they have to do is click the button. 

Users can also ask the assistant to draft emails for them for specific contacts, which they'll have to send themselves, and create reminders for them on the calendar. They can ask it to recommend them spots they could visit, such as restaurants serving food they want to eat, and Perplexity will mark locations on the map. Of course, they can ask the assistant to do web searches for them, such as finding specific videos that Perplexity can open on the YouTube app. 

As The Verge notes, Perplexity's voice assistant works on older iPhones, unlike Apple Intelligence that only works on the company's more recent models. The iOS assistant also doesn't have the capability to look at the world for the user and tell them what they're seeing yet, though the feature is already available on Android and could make its way to iPhones in the future. 

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Earlier this year, right as TikTok and other ByteDance apps were temporarily pulled from Apple and Google’s app stores, Meta announced that it was working on a new video editing app tailored to Instagram creators. That app, called Edits, is now finally rolling out as Meta continues to try to leverage the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future to draw more creators to its apps.

As previewed in its earlier app store listings, Edits promises much more advanced editing tools than what’s been available in Meta’s apps. The in-app camera allows creators to capture up to 10 minutes of video and publish to Instagram in “enhanced quality.” It also features popular editing effects like green screen and Instagram’s extensive music catalog.

In keeping with Meta’s current focus on AI, Edits comes with a couple AI-powered features as well. The “animate” feature allows users to create a video from a static image, while “cutouts” enables video makers to “isolate specific people or objects with precision tracking.” And unlike ByteDance’s popular editor CapCut, Edits doesn’t export videos with a watermark of any kind (Instagram downranks videos with visible watermarks).

While Edits is launching months after CapCut came back online in the US, Meta is adding some Instagram-specific features to lure Reels creators. This includes in-app post analytics, as well as the ability to import audio tracks they’ve previously saved in the app. And it sounds like Instagram creators can look forward to more specialized features in the future. In a blog post, the company notes that the current version of the app is merely “the first step” for Edits, and that it plans to collaborate with creators on more functionality going forward.

Edits is out now in the App Store and Google Play.

WhatsApp is launching a new “Advanced Chat Privacy” feature that aims to prevent people from taking conversations outside the app. When the setting is turned on, you can block others from exporting your chat history and automatically downloading photos and videos sent in the app.

The feature will prevent people from using messages for Meta AI as well, which you can currently use to ask questions within a chat and generate images.

By default, WhatsApp saves photos and videos in a chat to your phone’s local storage. It also lets you and your recipients export chats (with or without media) to your messages, email, or notes app. The Advanced Chat Privacy setting will prevent this in group and individual chats.

This feature still doesn’t stop people from taking screenshots of your messages or manually downloading media from chats, WhatsApp spokesperson Zade Alsawah confirmed to The Verge. However, WhatsApp says this is its “first version” of the feature, and that it plans to add more protections down the line.

“We think this feature is best used when talking with groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature,” WhatsApp says in its announcement. WABetaInfo first spotted this feature earlier this month, and now it’s rolling out to the latest version of the app. You can turn on the setting by tapping the name of your chat and selecting Advanced Chat Privacy.

Update, April 23rd: Added information from WhatsApp.

Discord co-founder and CEO Jason Citron is stepping down and will be replaced by former Activision Blizzard and King exec Humam Sakhnini, according to a press release. Sakhnini takes over on April 28th. Citron will stay on the board of directors and serve as an advisor to the CEO.

“As we enter our next phase, I’ve been reflecting on how I can best contribute to Discord’s long-term success,” Citron says in a message shared with employees and posted to Discord’s website. “The job of a CEO is constantly evolving, and over the years I have continuously ‘hired myself out of a job.’ Usually that means delegating work and then taking on different leadership challenges. However, as I look at what is needed of Discord’s CEO over the next few years, I realize that it’s time for me to literally ‘hire myself out of a job.’”

When we interviewed Citron on the Decoder podcast last year, he said the company had grown to about 870 employees and over 200 million monthly active users.

Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord’s other co-founder, will remain at the company as chief technology officer.

“I look forward to working with Stan and Discord’s talented team to scale our business while staying true to the company’s core mission and the special connection it has with player communities,” Sakhnini says in a statement. “We’re still at the beginning of gaming’s impact on entertainment and culture, and Discord is perfectly positioned to play a central role in that future.”

The leadership shift is happening as Discord is reportedly exploring an IPO. In an interview with GamesBeat, Citron said that Discord didn’t have plans to announce about potentially going public, but noted that “as you can imagine, hiring someone like Humam is a step in that direction.”

• Sitch, an AI matchmaking app, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding led by A16z Speedrun.
• The startup launched in New York City in November and has plans to expand to other US cities.
• It's also rolling out voice-based AI tools, a buzzy topic in the tech industry.

AI is fueling renewed interest in consumer tech, including online dating.

Sitch, a matchmaking app that uses AI to connect singles, raised a $2 million pre-seed investment, the startup revealed exclusively to Business Insider. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz's startup accelerator, A16z Speedrun, and includes the angel round Sitch raised in 2024 from investors like Jeremy Liew, who wrote Snapchat's first check.

Fresh out of Speedrun's most recent cohort, Sitch cofounders Nandini Mullaji and Chad DePue are hiring full-time engineering and growth staff, planning to expand to new cities, and introducing voice-based AI.

While many dating app users feel burned out by constant swiping and rampant ghosting, and dating industry giants like Tinder and Bumble face headwinds, new startups like Sitch are trying to shake up the dating app experience.

"We understand people have been burned in the past," Mullaji told BI. "We are coming in and saying, 'Hey, we have a business model shift and we have a total platform shift.'"

The platform shift? AI.

Sitch's AI matchmaker chatbot — built using OpenAI — is trained on the hundreds of real-life introductions Mullaji has made as a part-time matchmaker.

Mullaji sees AI as a way to "democratize" the matchmaking experience (which can cost individuals thousands of dollars) and bring it "to the masses."

When signing up for Sitch, users answer a slew of questions about their dating priorities, values, and backgrounds, which Sitch uses to create a profile and curate potential matches. It presents users with a maximum of five potential "setups" each week. Users have to pay up front to access the setup features. Sitch offers three tiers of packages: $90 (for three setups), $125 (for five), and $160 (for eight).

Once Sitch's AI matchmaker presents users with someone it deems may be a good fit, users can ask the chatbot questions about the other person, and the AI responds using information from their respective profiles. If both parties are interested in meeting, the AI introduces the two in a group chat. However, if an introduction occurs and you get ghosted, Mullaji said you'll be refunded.

Sitch manually reviews new user applications, which Mullaji said is the "one part of our process that's still completely human-driven," as a quality control and safety measure while the platform grows.

AI in dating is still nascent. Other early-stage startups, like Gigi or Amori, use AI to coach singles and help curate matches. Meanwhile, larger dating apps like Tinder and Grindr have introduced AI wingman features.

Can AI make dating feel more … human?

"This is not about building AI girlfriends or trying to replace human contact and connection with AI," Mullaji said. Instead, she thinks AI can be used to help better connect people.

To give Sitch users a more "human-like experience," it is introducing voice-based AI features, Mullaji said.

Starting this week, Sitch is rolling out a voice-based AI onboarding experience for new users as the app plans to expand into more US cities. Mullaji said San Francisco and Los Angeles will be added in May, and Chicago and Washington, D.C. will quickly follow. Users will otherwise be added to Sitch's waitlist, and if a particular US city reaches "critical mass," which Mullaji defined as between 2,000 and 4,000, Sitch will begin to admit users.

When new users call the number listed on Sitch's website or in its app, they chat with an AI version of Mullaji who walks them through onboarding questions.

It will also soon expand its voice AI tools to current app users. Instead of texting the AI matchmaking agent on the Sitch app, users will be able to talk to it on the phone with feedback about setups.

Voice AI tech has become a hot category among venture capitalists. In 2024, voice AI startups raised over $398 million from VCs, according to PitchBook data.

Sitch is using ElevenLabs, a voice cloning AI startup that announced a $180 million Series C round with a $3.3 billion valuation in January, to clone Mullaji's voice.

"We spent a lot of time recording and re-recording my voice to see how we could actually have it sound human," Mullaji said. "The one thing you do not want this to feel like is a customer support bot."