Tech Roundup: Google Aloud, Pinterest Your Shop & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Google widely rolls out the ability to display iMessage emoji reactions in its Messages app for Android; calls on Apple to adopt RCS for a long-term solution to replace the insecure SMS standard, as it bakes YouTube previews and a Google Photos sharing link directly into the apps to offer users a way of sending photos and videos to non-RCS devices.
• Facebook's parent company Meta announces an upcoming update for the Oculus Quest 2, which will allow fitness data captured during VR workouts to be integrated with the Apple Health app.
• Apple and Google turn off purchases in iTunes, App Store, and Google Play Store for users in Russia; Google suspends payment-based services for YouTube users in the country, blaming "payment system disruption" related to Western sanctions on Russian banks.
• Search engine DuckDuckGo to begin down-ranking sites that spread Russian propaganda and disinformation (In a related development, the European Commission said it is requiring search engines to delist all search results that contain links to or even "short textual descriptions" of content from state-affiliated media like RT and Sputnik); Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM pause cloud sales in Russia, and Goldman Sachs winds down its operations, making it the first major Wall Street bank to leave in response to the nation's invasion of Ukraine.
• Google debuts a rapid Air Raid Alerts system for Android phones in Ukraine to allow citizens in the country to receive air strike alerts to get to safety.
• Niantic, the company best known for developing AR games like Ingress and Pokémon Go, acquires webAR platform 8th Wall, marking its biggest purchase to date.
• Google's in-house incubator, Area 120, debuts new service called Aloud that allows video content creators to automatically transcribe and dub their videos in other languages.
• Interest-based social platform Pinterest launches new e-commerce feature called Your Shop, a "personal shopping concierge" that lists brands and content from creators based on users' preferences and make purchases from within the service.
• Mozilla brings Firefox Relay, its email aliasing service, to Chrome browser in the form of an extension and increases the email attachment limit to 10MB.