Giphy is looking to improve accessibility and help more people understand what the platform's GIFs are depicting with the help of alt text descriptions. It has teamed up with a content accessibility solutions provider called Scribely to add descriptive text to the platform's content. Screen readers will be able to read the alt text aloud, which will help visually impaired folks to know what's happening in a GIF.

The alt text won't be automatically generated. Giphy says Scribely's writers "are well-versed in accessibility guidelines and write effective and engaging descriptions that take the message and the meaning in mind." Giphy's most popular content, based on the top search terms, now includes alt text. The company plans to add alt text to more of its GIFs.

Screen readers can now read aloud alt text from GIFs on Giphy's web and mobile apps. The company is also making alt text available through its APIs. So third-party companies with Giphy integration can let their users access the alt text on other platforms.

In 2020, Twitter enabled users to add alt text to GIFs. However, if the company, which has a partnership with Giphy, employs the latest feature of the latter's APIs, Twitter users would be able to access professionally written alt text in GIFs.

“GIFs are an important part of our daily lives, thanks to their unique ability to convey ideas, emotions, and humor in ways that static images often can’t. These looping videos move us to moments of joy and happiness," Scribely founder and CEO Caroline Desrosiers said. "But without alt text, the moment is lost and excludes millions. That’s why this project with Giphy is so monumental and necessary.”

CD Projekt Red is shutting down The Witcher: Monster Slayer, its Pokémon Go-style mobile title released last year. The game will start winding down at the end of January before going offline for good at the end of June.

Unfortunately, that will also mean layoffs. As detailed in a FAQ (spotted by IGN), some developers at Spokko (the publisher’s mobile-gaming studio launched in 2018) who worked on the game won’t be staying. The publisher says it’s rolling Spokko into CD Projekt Red with only some staff making that transition.

The publisher will remove The Witcher: Monster Slayer from the App Store and Google Play on January 31st, 2023. It will also turn off in-game purchases and stop adding new content that day. Servers will remain up for existing players until June 30th.

Announced several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the mobile monster-slaying game seemed like a fair bet. With gamers antsy from a seemingly endless quarantine, a geocaching-inspired adventure requiring Witcher fans to go out into the real world (while still praciticing social distancing) could have captured the mood of the moment. But that never fully transpired as the title didn’t launch until the following summer when vaccination rates were rising, and life began regaining a semblance of normality. Whether you can trace the game’s shutdown to pandemic-related timing or not, CD Projekt Red admits it “did not reach our business expectations.”

CD Project Red recently announced a long-term roadmap, including a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel and several new Witcher games — none requiring you to leave your couch.

Since Amazon first announced its Luna cloud gaming service in 2020, Ubisoft has been one of the company’s closest partners. The publisher embraced the service early and came out of the gate with a dedicated channel. Now the two companies are deepening their partnership with an expansion of what you can do with Luna.

Starting today, it’s possible to stream Ubisoft games you already own on PC through Luna. You'll need an active Prime or Luna+ subscription to do so, as well as a set of linked Amazon Luna and Ubisoft Connect accounts. Once you have those in place, you can play your existing purchases wherever Luna is available, including on Fire TV devices, Chromebooks and phones.

The list of compatible titles features some of Ubisoft’s best-known games, including Watch Dogs: Legion, Riders Republic and nearly every Assassin’s Creed game you could ever want to play. There are also a few older gems on the list, such as Beyond Good and Evil and Child of Light. A Ubisoft spokesperson told Engadget the offer extends to games the publisher allowed Stadia users to transfer to PC after Google announced the service was shutting down. 

At first glance, Ubisoft letting PC players use Luna without paying for its channel may not make much business sense, but there’s an element of smart marketing to the plan. The best way for a company to attract new customers to a service is to give them the opportunity to use it and see the value in it themselves. After using Luna to play games you previously purchased, you may come out of the experience more inclined to subscribe to the Ubisoft channel. That would be a win for the publisher.

YouTube is rolling out Twitch-style custom global emotes for comments and live chats. Threeindependentillustrators created the first batch of emotes, which are focused on gaming, though it appears that they work on any type of channel. YouTube plans to develop emotes for other types of communities in the future.

To use the emotes, click on the smiling face icon in comments or a live chat. If you have a membership to a channel that offers its own custom emoji, you'll see YouTube's global emotes below those. As with Twitch's emotes, you can start typing the name of a YouTube emote (such as :cat-orange-whistling: or :text-green-game-over:) in the chat and the autocomplete function will show the emote and emoji options. The first emotes also include a buffering icon and text reading "GG" (i.e. "good game").

Twitch has long offered global emotes in chats. It might take a while before YouTube has emotes with the same level of cultural cachet as PogChamp, Kappa or ResidentSleeper, but it's off to a decent start.

Meta thrives on ad targeting, but it may have to tone down its use of the technology in Europe. The Wall Street Journalsources claim the EU's European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has ruled that Meta can't require users to accept personalized ads. You could opt out of targeted ads on Facebook or Instagram if you'd rather not have the social networks track your activity. You can already decline customized ads using data from third-party apps and sites.

The board's decision wouldn't directly force Meta to change. Rather, it would ask Ireland's Data Protection Commission to apply matching orders. As Meta's European operations are officially based in Ireland, the company would have to comply.

Both data boards acknowledged that there had been decisions, but didn't comment on what they entailed. We've asked Meta for comment. A spokesperson for the social media giant said it was "too early to speculate," and that the EU might still offer legal backing for targeted ads. The company argued that it had "fully" engaged with the Data Protection Commission's inquiries.

If the EU does restrict Meta's personalization, it could have a significant impact on the company's bottom line. With fewer users willing to accept targeted ads, there may be fewer people clicking those ads and encouraging advertisers to spend more on campaigns. Meta was already worried about Apple's App Tracking Transparency, and warned that it might cost $10 billion in sales when it launched in 2021. The reported European measure could also prove costly, especially as it would affect Android and the web.

The EU might not be very sympathetic, as its officials have penalized Meta more than once for purported privacy violations. It faced a $402 million fine in September over allegedly illegal child privacy settings on Instagram, and just last month received a $277 million fine for supposedly inadequate safeguards against data scraping. That's on top of an investigation into possible collusion with Google on display ads. Simply speaking, the Union is determined to prevent Meta's data from trading hands without consent.

Snapchat is testing out a new way for its augmented reality lens creators to make money from their creations. The company is experimenting with a new feature that will allow creators to sell paid upgrades to lenses with Snapchat’s in-app currency .

Creators have flexibility in terms of the “digital goods” they can build into their existing lens. It could be a new effect within the lens, new editing tools or some other kind of “power up” that enhances the effect, according to Snap’s Sophia Dominguez, who leads the company’s AR partnerships with creators.

For its initial rollout, Snap has opted to work with creators behind some of the app’s most popular effects, like the “potato lens” (pictured in the top image). With the unlockable upgrades, fans will now be able to use tokens to change up the effect with different features like a magic wand or a police officer costume. For now, only a handful of creators have access to the feature, which will only be available in Australia and New Zealand to start.

Snapchat’s augmented reality effects have long been one of the biggest draws of the app, which has benefitted from numerous viral lenses over the years. But until now, users have been able to access all of these effects for free. And augmented reality creators hoping to monetize their work have primarily relied on partnerships with brands, which hire them to create custom lenses.

Dominguez says upgradable lenses could be an important way for more AR creators to make a living from their work. It could also prove lucrative for Snap, which has increasingly been experimenting with non-advertising sources of revenue. The company for now isn’t disclosing details about its arrangements with creators on sales of within lenses, but the company already makes money from Snap Tokens, which can also be used for game upgrades or to tip creators in the app.

Of course, all this depends on Snapchat users being willing to spend money to get exclusive new augmented reality effects, which is far from a given. “We actually have no idea how this is going to go,” Dominguez tells Engadget. “We can't guarantee anything, but we really do hope that because this is largely coming from our AR developers and this is also revenue that goes to them, their subscribers will support them.”

Amazon has rolled out another round of discounts on Samsung storage devices, dropping various microSD cards and SSDs we recommend to their lowest prices to date. Among the highlights, the 1TB version of Samsung's 980 Pro SSD is down to $100, which is about $25 off its average street price over the last few months and beats its Black Friday pricing by $10. (Amazon mistakenly lists this as the standard 980 SSD, but it's the upgraded model.) This deal is also available at B&H. 

Samsung launched an updated 990 Pro SSD earlier this year, and in general, not everyone needs the faster speeds of a PCIe 4.0 drive like this. At less than $100, though, the 980 Pro is still a fine value for those looking to build out a more performant PC for gaming. This SSD also meets Sony's requirements for expanding the PlayStation 5's storage, though you'll need to add a heatsink for that to work properly. If you're buying for a PS5 specifically, it's likely worth paying a little bit extra for the model with an integrated heatsink, which, at $112, is also down to its lowest price to date. 

If you want to save some cash on a less intense build, meanwhile, the 1TB 970 Evo Plus is worth noting at $90. Outside of a brief drop to $84 in April, that's the lowest price we've seen for that recommended PCIe 3.0 drive.

Beyond those, the 128GB Evo Select microSD card is on sale for $14, which is within 50 cents of its all-time low and a couple bucks lower than what we saw over Black Friday. This price is also available at Samsung's online store. Again, this isn't the absolute fastest choice, but its U3-rated speeds are more than enough if you just want to add space to a device like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck. If you need a little extra speed for shooting 4K video, the 256GB Pro Plus card is a better buy at $25. That also matches the best price we've seen. The T7 Shield, meanwhile, is a portable SSD we recommend to those looking for a more rugged design; at $90 for 1TB, it's $9 above its all-time low but still $10 below its Black Friday price. You can see the full sale at the link below.

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You don't need Spotify or a dedicated app to try karaoke at home. Apple Music has introduced a Sing feature that lets you take over the vocals. You can not only adjust the voice levels, but use multiple lyric views depending on what you want to belt out — you can perform a duet or even handle background duties. Apple also notes that the lyric views are now cued to the beat and light up slowly, so it's easier to know when you should draw out a verse.

The feature will be available worldwide for "tens of millions" of tracks later in December on the new Apple TV 4K as well as recent iPhones (iPhone 11 and later) and iPads (such as last year's 9th-generation model). Android supports real-time lyrics, but won't let you adjust vocal levels. Accordingly, Apple Music plans to share more than 50 playlists devoted to songs "optimized" for the Sing feature. Don't be surprised if karaoke staples from Queen and other artists make the cut.

Spotify rolled out a karaoke feature in June, but with a very different focus. While Apple Music Sing is clearly aimed at parties, its Spotify counterpart is more of a gaming experience that records your voice and rates your performance. Apple tells Engadget its feature doesn't use microphones at all, so you won't have to worry if your version of "Islands in the Stream" needs some polish.

There's no mystery behind the addition. Sing gives you another reason to use Apple Music in group settings — it's not just for soundtracking your latest soirée. It could also serve as a selling point for the Apple TV, where music has rarely been a major priority. While this probably won't replace the karaoke machine at your favorite bar, it might offer a good-enough experience for those times when you'd rather stay home.

Many Elden Ring fans are hoping to hear news of an expansion for the blockbuster title at The Game Awards this week. Publisher Bandai Namco has jumped the gun a bit by announcing a free multiplayer-focused update, which will go live on Wednesday.

The Colosseum update will open up the titular arenas in Limgrave, Leyndell and Caelid, where players can battle it out in "duels, free-for-alls and team fights," according to a YouTube video description. The colosseums have been in the game since launch, but were inaccessible unless players used mods or other workarounds.

Although Bandai Namco hasn't revealed a ton of details about the update, having dedicated arenas for player-versus-player (PvP) battles should freshen things up for those who like to duke it out against other humans in Elden Ring. The trailer showed off some three vs. three combat as well. The video also includes text stating that players can "join forces to fight for the Elden Ring." That suggests there will be more robust co-op options too, though we'll need to wait until tomorrow for more info.

PvP is one of the main reasons players keep coming back to FromSoftware's games long after they've finished the single-player story, so this update will likely come as welcome news for fans. Still, this announcement doesn't stop From and Bandai Namco from revealing a more substantial expansion at The Game Awards. Elden Ring is nominated for seven awards at Thursday's ceremony, including Game of the Year.

The main thing that has put me off of playing more Valorant over the last couple of years is the length of matches. Riot Games is looking to do something about that with a more compact casual mode that it's starting to test in the game's public build.

Matches in the core competitive and unrated (or unranked) modes typically last around 30-50 minutes. Each round can last up to two minutes or so. As such, it can take a while for one team to win 13 rounds and become the victor. Competitive matches can last even longer if the score reaches 12-12, since teams need to win by at least two rounds in overtime if they vote to keep playing.

The new Swiftplay mode has a similar ruleset to Unrated. However, the first team to win five rounds will emerge triumphant. Attackers and defenders will swap sides after four rounds and there's a sudden-death overtime. Riot says Swiftplay matches should run for around 15 minutes.

There are some tweaks to the economy and how players earn ultimate points to make sure they can still access all the fun stuff in the shorter format. For instance, at the start of each half of a Swiftplay match, you'll get two ultimate points for free. As such, you might be able to use the game's most powerful abilities a bit more often.

Although Valorant has other casual modes that don't last as long as competitive or unrated matches (such as Spike Rush and Deathmatch), Swiftplay brings the ruleset of the core modes into a more condensed format. Riot says it's a frequently requested mode that should make it easier for folks who don't have a ton of free time to play more Valorant. It should help other players to get more reps in too.

The Swiftstep beta is going live with today's 5.12 patch, which also brings in a host of balance changes and tweaks how various abilities interact with each other. Swiftstep will be available on all maps used for the unrated mode and the beta will run until January 10th.