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Threads adds new communities, tests badges for highly engaged members
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Threads adds new communities, tests badges for highly engaged members

Meta’s social network Threads is expanding the number of topics available through its newer communities feature, the company announced on Monday. This expansion might nudge people to use communities less on Reddit and X. The platform initially launched over 100 communities in October, including those dedicated to basketball, television, K-pop, books, and more, to better compete with other social networks. With today’s expansion, Threads now has more than 200 communities, with additions that include team-specific spaces like Lakers Threads, Knicks Threads, and Spurs Threads. The company is testing flairs within the community as well, which is also very common on Reddit. This feature lets you add a customizable label underneath your username. For instance, in the NBA community, you can show off what team you support using flair, or in the books community, you can indicate if you’re an author. Image Credits: ThreadsImage Credits:Meta Threads is also testing a “Champion” badge to reward members who are highly engaged in a community. The company said that it is giving badges to only a limited number of people who are highly followed in the community and who converse actively. Image Credits: ThreadsImage Credits:Meta The social platform, which competes with Elon Musk’s X and startups like Bluesky, crossed 400 million users in August, two years after its launch. The company also noted this fall that more than 150 million people now visit the site daily. To date, Threads has been focusing on engaging and retaining users with features like DMs, Group chats, and ephemeral posts, and other additions. Topics Apps, Meta, Social, social, social network, Threads Ivan Mehta Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web. You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing im@ivanmehta.com or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal. View Bio Dates TBD L

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Lidar-maker Luminar files for bankruptcy
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Lidar-maker Luminar files for bankruptcy

Lidar company Luminar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after months of layoffs, executive departures, and a legal fight with its largest customer, Volvo. The company aims to sell off its lidar business during the bankruptcy proceeding, and has already reached a deal to sell its semiconductor subsidiary. While the company will continue to operate during the bankruptcy process to “minimize disruptions” for its suppliers and customers, Luminar will eventually cease to exist once it’s completed. “After a comprehensive review of our alternatives, the board determined that a court-supervised sale process is the best path forward,” Paul Ricci, Luminar’s CEO said in a statement. “As we navigate this process, our top priority is to continue delivering the same quality, reliability and service our customers have come to expect from us.” The bankruptcy case, filed in the Southern District of Texas on Monday morning, comes at the end of a tumultuous year for a company that was valued at more than $3 billion when it went public in a reverse merger in 2020. Luminar founder Austin Russell abruptly resigned from the CEO role in May following a “code of business conduct and ethics inquiry,” though he remained on the company’s board. In October, he launched a new effort called Russell AI Labs and made a bid to buy Luminar outright. (It’s unclear if Russell plans to pursue the lidar assets in the bankruptcy case; representatives for the former CEO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.) The company, meanwhile, cut 25% of its workforce — its second layoff of the year. Luminar’s chief financial officer left the company, the company defaulted on a number of loans, and the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation. Luminar was also hit with an eviction lawsuit in October at one office and it exited a lease on another in November. Techcrunch event Join the Disrupt 2026 Waitlist Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when E

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Zoom brings its AI assistant to the web with access to free users
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Zoom brings its AI assistant to the web with access to free users

Zoom released its AI assistant to the web today as part of its AI Companion 3.0 release. The company is also allowing free users to access the assistant’s features, such as summarizing the meetings, listing action items, or getting insights from meetings with limits. The company said that basic plan users get to use the AI companion within three meetings every month, which will each include a meeting summary, in-meeting questions, and AI note-taking capabilities. Plus, they can ask 20 questions each through the side panel and the new web surface. They can also purchase a $10 add-on plan to access AI companion features. On the new web surface, the company is also adding conversation starter prompts to inform users about what the assistant can do. Zoom said that with this update, the assistant can also retrieve information from third-party services such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, along with all data stored within Zoom. The company said it will soon add support for Gmail and Microsoft Outlook as connectors. Image Credits: Zoom The AI Companion also generates a daily reflection report that summarizes meetings, tasks, and updates for the day. What’s more, the assistant can create follow-up tasks and draft email messages. Zoom is also adding more features related to document creation and management. Through the new companion update, users can draft and edit documents based on meeting details. The company said that users can start drafting documents within the companion surface and shift the project to Zoom Docs and collaborate with teammates. It supports the export documents to MD, PDF, Microsoft Word, and Zoom Docs. Image Credits: Zoom Lijuan Qin, head of AI product at Zoom, said that the company is an independent operator and has contextual meeting data puts it at an advantage compared to other competitors in the productivity space. The company said it uses a mix of its own models along with models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Techcrunch event Join the Disrup

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Netflix responds to concerns about WBD deal
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Netflix responds to concerns about WBD deal

In a move that has sent shockwaves through Hollywood, Netflix recently announced its plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for $82.7 billion. Responses from the industry have been generally negative, sparking concern about the acquisition’s implications for jobs, the future of theatrical releases, and the representation of diverse voices in film and TV.  Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos have sought to address fears surrounding the deal in a letter to employees, which was made public by Bloomberg on Monday.  The executives reassured staff of their commitment to maintaining theatrical releases for WBD films. They also asserted that there will be “no overlap or studio closures.”  The co-CEOs further stated that the “deal is about growth” and that the company is “strengthening one of Hollywood’s most iconic studios, supporting jobs, and ensuring a healthy future for film and TV production.” Despite these assurances, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has emerged as a vocal opponent of the acquisition, arguing that it violates antitrust laws designed to prevent monopolies.  Additionally, the deal has attracted the attention of lawmakers. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Richard Blumenthal submitted a letter to the Justice Department Antitrust Division expressing their concerns about the potential implications of a massive merger in the entertainment industry.  The senators argue that, in addition to raising ethical questions, the newly merged media giant would possess “more market power than the current companies to raise consumers’ television costs,” especially at a time when middle-class families are already facing rising prices. Notably, Netflix raised its subscription prices last January. Techcrunch event Join the Disrupt 2026 Waitlist Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when Early Bird tickets drop. Past Disrupts have brought Google Cloud, Netflix, Microsoft, Box, Phia, a16z, Eleven

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Facebook Messenger’s desktop app is no more
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Facebook Messenger’s desktop app is no more

RIP to Facebook Messenger’s desktop app. The native app for Mac and Windows is no longer available to users as of today, December 15, 2025, and existing users are being directed to the Facebook website to continue using the popular messaging service. Though originally launched at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Messenger’s desktop app couldn’t handle as many video call participants as business-focused rivals like Zoom, didn’t offer screensharing, or easy-to-share URLs. FB Messenger for Windows desktop deprecated as of 15 December 2025. pic.twitter.com/Yh1mLqJFUi— Allen Lorbes (@AllenLorbes) December 15, 2025 The writing was on the wall for the app’s declining importance to Meta, even before the company announced its shutdown plans this October. In 2023, Facebook began merging Messenger back into the Facebook app. More recently, the company shifted the technology underpinning the app’s desktop version. According to Meta’s help documentation, Messenger for Mac was built with Catalyst, which lets developers bring iPad apps to the Mac. That technology has received criticism for both developers and users — developers cited the extra work required, while users noticed apps’ lack of a native feel. Before its Catalyst version, the Mac app was an Electron app that later migrated to a React Native Desktop app, according to a former Meta software engineer. On Windows, the app transitioned to a progressive web app last year. The downgrades likely impacted user demand for a standalone Mac app, while the strategy of moving Messenger back to Facebook suggested Meta was attempting to shore up declining usage of its aging flagship social network. This fall, the company warned users that Messenger’s desktop app would be deprecated by year end, and encouraged users to set up a PIN to save their chat history before moving to the web. People who use Messenger without a Facebook account are being redirected to Messenger.com after the shutdown, where they’ll be able to log in without

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