Broadcom's mega $61 billion VMware acquisition has closed following considerable scrutiny by regulators, the company announced in a press release. With China recently granting approval for the acquisition with added restrictions, the network chip manufacturer had secured all the required approvals. 

"Broadcom has received legal merger clearance in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions," the company said. "We are excited to welcome VMware to Broadcom and bring together our engineering-first, innovation-centric teams."

The Broadcom/VMware deal lacked the glamour of tech's other mega acquisition involving Microsoft and Activision. However, San Jose-based Broadcom's products form the structure of much of the internet, as they're widely used for data centers, cloud providers and network infrastructure. VMware, meanwhile, makes virtualization and cloud computing software that allows corporations to safely link local networks with public cloud access. 

That made VMware a logical target for Broadcom, but it also placed the acquisition in the crosshairs of regulators in multiple regions. The European Commission, for one, was concerned that Broadcom could harm competition by limiting interoperability between rival hardware and VMware's server virtualization software. It also worried the company could either prevent or degrade access to VMware's software, or bundle VMware with its own hardware products.

Broadcom gained EU approval for the deal in the summer though, mainly by providing IP access and source code for key network fiber optic components to its main rival, Marvell. The EU also concluded that fears of VMware bundling were unfounded and that Broadcom would still face competition in the storage adapter and NIC markets. 

There were also concerns that tensions between China and the US could scuttle the deal, after the Biden administration announced new rules in October making it harder to export high-end chips to China. However, approval in that market was announced yesterday, with conditions imposed by China on how Broadcom sells products locally. Namely, it had to ensure that VMware's server software was interoperable with rival hardware, China's regulator said in a statement. 

Android 14, the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system, arrived on October 4. Since then, it has slowly started rolling out to some newer phones, tablets and foldables. Android 14’s user-facing enhancements broadly fall into four categories: accessibility, customization, privacy and security. Below, is a list of all of the update’s biggest features, along with instructions on how to access and enable them.

To compile this how-to, I used a Pixel 8, so what follows reflects how things are done on stock Android. On some phones and tablets, certain options may be located in other parts of the operating system or require a slightly different process to turn on. Even if that’s the case, the instructions here should help you find your way around.

And if you want to find out when (or if) Android 14 will arrive on your device, check out our dedicated guide. In short, many manufacturers, including OnePlus and Nothing, are still finalizing their first stable Android 14 builds, and they may need more time to complete bug and quality assurance testing.

At the bottom of this how-to, you will also find information about Google’s ongoing QPR betas, which include bug fixes and enhancements the company is testing ahead of its first Android 14 Pixel Feature Drop.

Accessibility

Flash notifications

Screenshots by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

New to Android 14 are flash notifications, a feature that allows the OS to trigger your phone’s camera flash or brighten the screen when notifications arrive or an alarm goes off. This is particularly helpful to people who may be hard of hearing. Previously, support for flash notifications was spotty on Android, with some manufacturers – most notably Samsung – offering it while others did not.

Users can enable flash notifications from their device’s Settings menu. Swipe down from the top of your phone’s screen to access the Notification Shade, then swipe down again to expand the Quick Settings. Tap the cog icon on the bottom of right of the screen to access the main Settings menu. From there, tap “Notifications,” then “Flash notifications.”

Two toggles allow you to enable camera and screen flashes independently of one another, and, if you tap “Screen flash,” you can also tweak the color of the flash, with Pixel phones offering 12 different options.

Improved support for hearing aids

Screenshots by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

Flash notifications aren’t the only new Android 14 feature for those who may be hard of hearing. In Android 13 and prior, Google grouped hearing aids in with other Bluetooth devices. Now, the former have their own dedicated page within Android 14’s settings.

To access the page, open the Settings app, scroll down and tap “Accessibility,” then scroll down and tap “Hearing devices.” Here you will find an option for pairing new hearing aids with your phone, and a toggle that allows you to add dedicated shortcuts for said device. On Pixel devices, users can both add an accessibility button that lives on the side of their phone’s screen, and configure the volume buttons so that when you hold down both, your phone will take you directly to the hearing devices menu. There’s also a toggle that Google notes should improve compatibility with telecoils and reduce unwanted noise.

Larger fonts

Screenshots by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

For visually impaired users, Google has added support for larger fonts and smarter scaling. On Pixel devices, Android can now make text up to 200 percent larger where before the maximum was 130 percent. The new system is built around non-linear scaling, so text that is already big – such as titles and headings – won’t increase in size as much as other, smaller elements.

To increase the size of text and interface elements on your phone, open the Settings menu, then tap “Display,” followed by “Display size and text.” In addition to two sliding scales that allow you to change the size of fonts and everything on screen, this page features two toggles that you can turn on to bold all text and enable high contrast fonts.

The first time you tweak your phone’s font size settings, Android 14 will automatically add a font size settings option to the final page of the quick settings menu. You can access this menu by swiping down from the top of your phone’s screen to bring down the notification shade. Swipe down again to see the full quick settings menu. To edit the order in which menu items appear, tap the pencil icon that appears when the full quick settings menu is on screen, and then hold and drag the tiles you wish to move.

Better pinch to zoom functionality

Screenshots by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

In addition to more robust font scaling, Android 14 features a redesigned magnifier tool that allows users to quickly customize how much of the screen they’d like to see enlarged. The panel offers four different magnifier sizes and the option to enable diagonal scrolling. It also includes a scale you can use to increase or decrease the zoom level. To enable the panel, open the Settings menu, tap “Accessibility” followed by “Magnification. As with flash notifications, you can bind the magnifier tool to an on screen accessibility button or both volume buttons.

Customization

More wallpaper and lock screen customization

Screenshots by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

Although technically not new to Android 14, it’s more than likely that the two wallpaper features Google previewed at I/O 2023 will arrive on most non-Pixel handsets alongside Android 14. The new features allow users to create custom wallpapers with up to 14 of their favorite emoji or with the help of a built-in AI image generator.

The new customization settings are accessible directly from the homescreen. Long press the home screen and tap the top option, “Wallpaper & style” to open the relevant menu. From there, you can find the new AI and Emoji wallpaper options by tapping “More wallpapers.” Both options are situated at the top of the interface.

The AI option has a few limitations worth keeping in mind. To start, you must select a theme. As of this article, there are 12 on offer. Additionally, Google doesn’t currently allow you to write a prompt from scratch. Instead, each theme comes with a few parameters that the user can define, and here again the options are limited to the ones Google gives you.

The new lock screen customization options are accessible from the top of the “Wallpaper & style” screen. Tap “Lock screen,” and then drag your finger or thumb either left or right to scroll through the different options. To tweak the color and size of the clock, tap “Clock color & size.” For additional tweaks, including the new option to add up to two shortcuts to your phone’s lock screen, scroll down the interface.

Regional preferences

If you’re an American who lives abroad (or a foreigner who finds themselves frequently visiting the US), Android 14 allows users to set system-wide preferences for whether apps should display temperatures in Celsius or Fahrenheit or treat Sunday or Monday as the start of the week. Additionally, once you set those preferences, Android 14 knows to carry them over between backups. Separately, the OS offers more robust support for gendered languages like French and German.

To set your regional preferences, open the Settings menu, tap “System,” then “Languages,” followed by “Regional preferences.” When I sat down to write this story, searching for “Regional preferences” using the Settings app’s built-in search feature did not point me in the right direction. If you run into a similar issue, follow the menu flow described above.

Privacy and security

Data protection

Android 14 makes it easier to see how advertisers and other third parties are using your data – and thereby decide if you want to restrict your app permissions – with a new monthly notification that details any data sharing changes the apps on your phone may have made in the past 30 days. You don’t need to enroll in these to start seeing them, though a footnote on Google’s website notes this feature is only available for certain apps.

End of support for older apps

Android 14 doesn’t allow users to install apps that make use of application programming interfaces (APIs) that date back to and before Android 5.1. Google’s reasoning for this is that a lot of malware programs target vulnerabilities found in older and outdated APIs. In practice, this is mostly likely to affect older games that haven’t been updated in more than a few years. That said, if you have a Lollipop era app or game installed on your phone when you go to download Android 14, it will continue to work even after your phone starts running the new OS.

More nuanced photo and video sharing

Screenshots by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

Borrowing a page from iOS, Android 14 adds more nuanced sharing options for photos and videos. Now, when an app requests access to your media files, you can choose to give it access to all, none or only some of your photos and videos. Previously, this was an all or nothing proposition. You should see a new prompt reflecting the redesigned permissions the first time an app asks for access to your photos and videos.

If at any point you change your mind, you can review all of your app permissions from the Settings app. After opening the menu, tap “Apps,” then tap the name of the program you want to review (you may need to tap “See all apps” to find the specific one you’re looking for), followed by “Permissions” and then “Photos and videos.” If you plan to change the permissions for more than one app, there’s a helpful “See all apps with this permission” option that will appear toward the bottom.

Separately, Google has also tweaked Android’s Share Sheet. With Android 14, developers can add custom share targets to the interface, and the OS can pull in more app data to better inform the priority of actions. In theory, this should make the Share Sheet more consistently useful.

PIN enhancements

With Android 14, the humble pin has received a pair of enhancements. First, there’s a new option that allows you to disable the animation that plays on the lock screen when you input your PIN. In theory, this should make it harder for onlookers to spy your code. Second, there’s a new auto-confirm option that makes it so you don’t need to tap “Ok” after tying out your PIN, thereby reducing the time it takes to open your phone. For security reasons, this is only available with six-digit PINs.

Both options are found in the “Enhanced PIN privacy” section of the “Security” settings menu. The auto-confirm unlock is enabled by default when you set a six-digit PIN.

Everything else

Battery life

Android 14 doesn’t include any tentpole battery-related features like Marshmallow did with Doze. Nonetheless, Google claims the OS should be less of a power hog, thanks to refinements the company made to how the software handles background tasks, downloads and uploads.

Health Connect integration

Google

In late 2022, Google released Health Connect, a platform it jointly developed with Samsung to enable health and fitness apps to more easily share data between one another without compromising on user privacy. With Android 14, Health Connect is integrated directly within the operating system’s Settings. It’s accessible from the “Privacy” page of the dashboard.

Ultra HDR

Lastly, Android 14 includes built-in support for Google’s new Ultra HDR picture format. The format embeds a high dynamic range tone map directly within the metadata of an image. On devices with HDR-compatible displays, Google says Ultra HDR will produce images with more vibrant colors and contrast. The nifty thing about the format is that it’s fully backward compatible with most devices. thanks to the fact it makes use of the .jpg extension. On devices with SDR displays, the viewer will see a regular SDR image.

What about the next two Pixel Feature Drops?

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

As mentioned above, Google is currently conducting two quarterly platform release (QPR) betas. For the uninitiated, these see the company testing tweaks that will eventually arrive as part of future Pixel Feature Drops. Google is expected to release the first one before the end of the year and the one after that in March. You can take part in the QPR1 and QPR2 betas by enrolling in the Android Beta for Pixel program.

Once the first Android 14 Pixel Feature Drop arrives, I’ll update this article to detail what’s new – since the release timing of specific features can change. In the meantime, what follows is a non-exhaustive list of the changes Google has been testing. Credit for spotting many of these goes to former XDA Developers reporter Mishaal Rahman.

QPR1

The highlight of the first beta is a redesigned “Software updates” page that is easier to find and brings together system, app and Play Store updates in one place. Considering the amount of taps it currently takes to manually check for updates, this is a welcome change.

Another notable enhancement sees Google tweaking the Pixel’s built-in Clock app to add weather information to the world clock page. This change is carried over to the app’s optional widgets.

QPR2

As for the second beta, the highlight here is a per-app screen recording option. This is a change Google has been teasing for a while, and it looks like it’s finally on its way early next year. Elsewhere, QPR2 adds an outline to the volume slider, making it easier to see just how loud your phone is at any given moment. Some people have also reported that QPR2 reduces the amount of time it takes to install software updates anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes.

Meta announced that it is rolling out new tools that will give eligible researchers access to data from its social media apps Facebook and Instagram in an effort to “support public interest research.” The Meta Content Library and Content Library API tools, which were previously made available for beta testing, will share real-time information about the user-generated content including metrics like the number of times a Reel on Instagram is viewed or the amount of posts that are made on a Facebook page.

The Meta Content Library will exist on the web through a controlled-access "clean room" that prohibits the export of data. All analysis and review of the real-time content from Facebook and Instagram will be done through an API that has search capabilities. The company's data search tools will only be available for “eligible researchers and professionals” who will need to be pre-approved. Research groups or individuals seeking to gain access to Meta’s data will need to fill out an application through a form and provide a detailed explanation about the mission of the research project in question and who is involved. Final approval is subject to an independent review by the ICPSR. Once granted access to the API, Meta says there are no fees associated with access to the Content Library.

The new tools, while they may be forging a pathway for data access, are similar to — and in some ways more limited than — what Meta has previously provided to researchers hoping to understand how content circulates on its apps. There's also every reason to be skeptical. Meta’s Open Research and Transparency team, which similarly developed a researcher API and platform, was the subject of criticism when in 2021 it was caught allegedly sending incomplete and inaccurate data to researchers. That same group of researchers at N.Y.U.’s Center for Cybersecurity later had their API access completely revoked by the company.

The new Content Library and API probably won't do much to stave off public pressure after years of backlash over how it regulates misinformation and harmful content. Meta has also been under fire for how it moderates content related to the war in Gaza and for how it plans to prevent the proliferation fake content related to the upcoming US presidential election. To top things off, Meta is currently facing a lawsuit filed by 41 states over how it allegedly harms younger users. A highly gatekept API may not be the show of goodwill the company needs to convince regulators it has the public's best interest at heart.

The Sunbird messaging app for Android has flown the solar coop. The app has completely shut down following massive privacy concerns, as reported by 9to5Google. This comes after the app received increased scrutiny when it partnered with Nothing to act as the basis of the smartphone manufacturer’s Nothing Chats app. Nothing’s app was only available for less than one day before the aforementioned privacy concerns came to light and it was pulled.

The app’s gone from Google’s Play Store, though the parent company says this shutdown is temporary, according to an announcement posted on Reddit. Long story short? Sunbird was a niche product that didn’t quite work and the Nothing collaboration turned the spotlight to that fact. It promised full end-to-end encryption but many users could exploit vulnerabilities to access private user messages. 9to5Google, for instance, found over 630,000 files using this vulnerability. Call me crazy, but that doesn’t seem too secure.

The writing was on the wall for Sunbird to anyone paying attention, which wasn’t that many people until Nothing got involved. The company missed several deadlines for launch, all while making lofty promises regarding secure iMessage and Android chat interoperability. During the company’s first announcement presser back in 2022, Sunbird refused to take questions regarding the underlying technology of the app and related privacy concerns, closing the Zoom chat when things got too hot, as reported by ArsTechnica. This led reporters to suggest that Sunbird simply wasn’t a “serious company.”

There’s also the giant Apple-sized elephant in the room. The tech giant recently announced it would offer support for RCS text messaging in 2024, completely eliminating the need for workarounds like Sunbird in the first place. In other words, the green bubble-blue bubble divide is coming to an end.

Despite erasing itself from the Play Store, Sunbird’s official website makes no mention of the shutdown, still boasting about the app’s peerless end-to-end encryption. The company’s also yet to make a public statement on the matter.

We've already seen DJI's Osmo Action 4 and GoPro's Hero 12 representing the rugged action cams of 2023, and now, it's Insta360's turn to unveil its take on this category — one that focuses more on video quality than, say, its Go series' versatility. In a nutshell, Insta360's brand new Ace Pro can be described as a GoPro on steroids, thanks to its handy 2.4-inch flip touchscreen, 1/1.3-inch sensor, Leica tuning and, most notably, 5nm AI neural processor. You'll also get the usual "FlowState Stabilization," IPX8 waterproof rating (down to 33ft or 10m) and swappable battery (up to 100 minutes in 4K@30fps Active HDR; fast charging at up to 80 percent in 22 minutes, or to 100 percent in 46 minutes).

Insta360 claims that combining its AI denoising feature with its new image sensor, the Ace Pro produces clearer and more stable low-light results for both videos (up to 4K@30fps in "PureVideo" mode) and stills (up to 48 megapixels). There's also an "Active HDR Video" mode which turns on automatically when lighting conditions are met, with the company emphasizing on improved color accuracy here — we'll take a closer look at this in our review later. The camera is also capable of recording at up to 4K@60fps, 4K@120fps (slow motion) or even 8K@24fps, but none of these can take advantage of the AI enhancement nor Active HDR.

The dedicated AI chip isn't just for enhancing image quality. Over the years, Insta360 has been finding ways to make video editing easier and quicker, and this time, it's doing so by letting the camera itself do some auto-editing first. Dubbed "AI Highlights Assistant," this feature analyzes your video while picking out the best bits in real time, then you can review the AI edit on the camera first (and also delete the bits you don't need to save space). When you next connect your Insta360 mobile app to your Ace Pro, the new AI-generated clip will be automatically pushed to your phone. 

Aside from having to test out this feature myself, Insta360 also warned that "AI Highlights Assistant" does require extra power (the company promises to continue optimizing power consumption here), so be mindful of your camera's battery life when using this feature.

Another fun new feature for making editing easier — though not necessarily limited to the Ace Pro — is "AI Warp," which can be found in the "Shot Lab" template section in the mobile app. It's basically Insta360's first take on generative AI: you can pick a template or type in your own prompt, in order to get the app to transform either the entire video or just the highlighted subject into your desired style — be it cyberpunk, anime, space, superhero costumes or more. The company added that you can look out for even more AI-related effects in its mobile app in 2024.

Insta360

The Insta360 Ace Pro is already available for ordering, with the $450 standard bundle including a standard mount and a flexible adhesive mount. There's also a slightly more affordable Ace priced at $380, and while it comes with the same accessories, it has to make do with a smaller 1/2-inch sensor, a max video resolution of just 6K@30fps, no fast charging and no love from Leica. The rest of the feature list is the same, otherwise. 

Optional accessories include a dive case (for down to 197ft or 60m), a quick release mount, a multi mount, a GPS preview remote, a "Vertical-Horizontal Mount" and a mic adapter plus cold shoe module (for use with the quick release mount).

Spotify struck a special deal with Google that lets it pay no commission to Google when people sign up for subscriptions using the music streaming service’s own payment system on Android, according to new testimony in the ongoing Epic v. Google trial first reported by The Verge. As part of the same deal, Spotify paid Google just four percent commission if users signed up for the service through Google, far less than most other apps which typically pay 15 percent for subscriptions through the Google Play Store.

“Listening to music is one of [the phone’s] core purposes… if we don’t have Spotify working properly across Play services and core services, people will not buy Android phones”, Google’s partnerships head Don Harrison reportedly said in court. Both Google and Spotify also agreed to put $50 million each in a “success fund” as part of the deal.

The remarks were made as part of a lawsuit first filed against Google by Epic Games, the maker of the wildly popular Fortnite, in 2020. Epic claimed that Google’s Play Store on Android was an illegal monopoly that forced app makers to part with huge sums of cash in exchange for offering users in-app purchases through the Play Store. Epic filed a similar lawsuit against Apple in 2021, which it lost.

Spotify initially supported Epic in its fight against Google and Apple. But in 2022, the company started using a Google program called User Choice Billing that let Android apps use their own payment systems in exchange for giving a reduced cut to Google. The special deal revealed in court showed that Google was willing to carve out even more exceptions for popular apps like Spotify.

Google has had some pretty big business secrets spilled in the last few days. Last week, an economics professor testifying on behalf of the company in a separate antitrust trial that has since wrapped up, revealed that Google pays Apple 36 percent of all ad revenue it generates through Apple’s Safari browser, a figure which Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai later confirmed while he was testifying in the Epic v. Google trial.

The Verge also reported earlier this month that Google offered Netflix, another popular streaming service, a custom deal. It offered a reduced commission of 10 percent, which Netflix turned down – instead choosing to not offer users a way to sign up for Netflix directly within its Android app.

Instagram is rolling out an app update that is surprisingly robust, bringing a whole bunch of new features to content creators. First and foremost, there’s finally some new camera filters, which should shake things up for a while. These filters range from “subtle color edits” to more expressive and stylized options.

There are some other minor Camera Roll improvements to make it easier to find what you need as you edit. These include updated previews, a refined search function and even the ability to zoom.

As for video editing, there’s a new undo/redo tool that lets you, surprise, undo actions and redo them with the press of a button. Instagram also says it's testing the ability to scale, crop and rotate individual clips as part of the editing process. The audio tools are also getting some love, as you can pull audio clips from a dedicated media hub to accompany a Reel. Followers can remix this content as they see it. If this sounds a lot like TikTok, well, that’s because it is.

To that end, there are 10 new English text-to-speech voices to choose from, though they are only available in select countries for now. Additionally, there are six new text fonts and styles available to caption up your Reels or Stories, in addition to bolded outlines that should really make your copy pop. Hopefully.

Instagram

If you really want to make something weird, Instagram now allows you to pull any part of a photo or video and turn it into a custom sticker. This also works the other way around, so users can pull eligible content from a favorite creator and turn it into a sticker. This particular tool was aided in development by Meta’s custom Segment Anything AI.

Finally, there are some updated tools for creators to keep track of their slow and steady rise to viral fame. The Retention Chart will offer a moment-by-moment insight into how many people are watching your content, though it’s not rolling out for a couple of months. The rest of these tools are available today.

Unity just announced that its Muse AI platform is officially available as an early access build for general use. Originally unveiled back in July, Muse is a package of AI-powered tools intended to streamline the game development process, particularly for those who lack the time or patience for intensive coding. It costs $30 per month.

Unity Muse is described as an “ever-expanding suite of AI-powered features” made for developers of all skill levels. The platform lets you source usable code by interacting with a chatbot. This bot will also answer any questions you may have about what to do next, as it has complete access to the platform’s resource library. These types of bots are becoming a key tool in the game designer’s arsenal.

There’s also a tool designed specifically to streamline the creation of 2D sprites, which is perfect for all of you budding Metroidvania designers out there. It’ll automatically generate sprites that match predetermined parameters and will give you several variations, allowing you to pick the best match.

Muse offers a similar process to generate textures appropriate for use in both 2D and 3D projects. The sprite and texture tools have been trained entirely on data and images that Unity owns or has licensed. This ensures the platform won’t accidentally run afoul of any copyright law. Unity says Muse results will never contain any “people, logos or recognizable artistic styles.”

The company says that the sprite and texture tools are just the beginning. In the coming months, Muse will boast AI mechanisms for animating characters and for setting NPC behaviors, among other tasks. You won’t need to code to do any of it, which is becoming something of a trend in the industry. Muse subscribers also get access to a rapid-prototyping and collaboration platform called Sketch.

The availability of Muse wasn’t the only announcement at today’s Unity Unite conference. The company also provided more details on Sentis, a forthcoming AI-powered neural engine that goes well beyond sprites and textures, as it can solve complicated coding problems and even create new in-game features from scratch. Sentis is currently in open beta and will launch to the public sometime next year.

The company also announced a set of cloud-connected tools to further assist with collaborations and it offered up some availability details on the long-awaited Unity 6. It’s coming next year.

Amazon has begun notifying Comixology users that they’ll no longer be able to read comics on the app come December 4. Comixology is merging with the Kindle app, and users’ libraries will soon only be accessible via the latter. The move caps off the ruination of Comixology that began nearly two years ago, when Amazon started chipping away at the platform’s native features and general usability in order to force a fit with its own ecosystem.

The Comixology app will officially be dead as of December 4, according to Amazon. From that point on, all of the comics, manga and graphic novels a user has purchased or borrowed on Comixology will live exclusively in the Kindle app. While Amazon says things like reading progress will be synced, you’ll have to redownload everything in the Kindle app if you want to pick up where you left off, even on the same device. There are filters to see “Comics & Manga” or “Books” only, for anyone not thrilled about having it all jumbled together.

The writing was on the wall for Comixology for some time, and while the termination of the app may not entirely come as a surprise for longtime users, it’s surely a bummer. Amazon has owned Comixology since 2014, but only in recent years has it really started to impose its influence on the product in a noticeable way.

The browser version of Comixology shut down in early 2022, and the alternative — using the Kindle app or Amazon’s own browser-based reader — made a lot of comics more or less unreadable. Integration with the Amazon store made for a clunky search experience when looking for specific titles, especially at first. And at the start of 2023, Amazon laid off thousands of employees, including Comixology staff, signaling doom for the service’s future.

Moving forward, the process of purchasing comics through Amazon’s Comixology storefront will be the same. Comixology Unlimited subscriptions will also remain intact, according to Amazon.

Meta has called for legislation that would require app stores to get parental approval before their teens download any app. That would effectively put more onus on parents, as well as Google and Apple, to protect younger users from apps that have the potential to cause harm.

"Parents should approve their teen’s app downloads, and we support federal legislation that requires app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps," Antigone Davis, Meta's global head of safety, wrote. The company is proposing a plan that would see app stores notifying parents when their teen wants to download an app, in a similar way to how they are alerted when a kid wants to make an in-app purchase. The parent would then approve or deny the request.

Meta says its approach would let parents verify their teen's age when they set up a phone, rather than requiring everyone to verify their age multiple times across various apps. The company suggests legislation is needed to make sure all apps that teens use are held to the same standard. 

It notes that states are enacting "a patchwork of different laws," some requiring teens to get parental approval for different apps and others mandating age verification. However, "teens move interchangeably between many websites and apps, and social media laws that hold different platforms to different standards in different states will mean teens are inconsistently protected," Davis wrote.

Under current proposals, Meta argues that parents would need to navigate different signup methods and provide "potentially sensitive identification information" for themselves and their teens "to apps with inconsistent security and privacy practices." Indeed, experts say that such age verification practices threaten the privacy of all users.

Utah is enacting legislation that will require social media apps to obtain parental content before a teen can use them. That state and Arkansas both passed social media age verification laws. Following a lawsuit from tech companies, a federal judge struck down the Arkansas legislation a day before it was set to take effect in September. The Utah laws are scheduled to come into force in March.

In its call for federal legislation, this could be seen as a case of Meta trying to pass the buck to parents and app stores. A judge this week rejected attempts by Meta, YouTube parent Google and TikTok owner ByteDance to dismiss lawsuits blaming them for teens' social media addiction. In October, 41 states and the District of Columbia sued Meta for allegedly releasing "harmful features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children and teens to their mental and physical detriment," among other things.