Tech Roundup: Google EU Cookie Consent, Twitter Toolbox & More

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

• Google plans to effectively block third-party call recording apps from the Play Store starting May 11, 2022, after placing further restrictions to its Accessibility API .
• U.K.-based OnlyFans temporarily halts services for Russian creators, joining the long list of western companies to suspend its offerings in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
• Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay have a combined 80% share of India's mobile payments market, while Meta-owned WhatsApp has a 0.02% share, as UPI transactions cross US$ 1 trillion in value in the financial year that ended in March.
• Retail giant Amazon reportedly acquires social commerce startup GlowRoad as the tech company makes a bigger push into one of its key overseas markets.
• Twitter to start highlighting apps from its recently launched "Twitter Toolbox" hub, which offers ready-to-use services on top of the platform. to promote their tools and services directly to users, as the company looks to build an app marketplace of its own.
• Snapchat reports an 18% jump in daily active users to 332 million for the first quarter of 2022.
• India's smartphone shipments hit 38 million in Q1 2022, growing just 2% YoY; top vendor Xiaomi falls 24% to eight million, Samsung drops 2% to 6.9 million, while Realme grows 40% to six million.
• Google rolls out new option to reject all cookies when European users visit its websites following a €150 million fine from French regulators over concerns that the cookie consent popups made it more difficult for users to control how they were tracked online, and actually constituted a dark pattern scheme to encourage users to permit cookies.
• Warner Bros. Discovery to shut down CNN+ on April 30, after its March 29 debut, making it the most short-lived platform to date; comes as HBO Max and HBO touch total global subscribers of 76.8 million, up 12.8 million year-over-year, and up three million from the prior quarter.
• Spotify lets all creators in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand upload video podcasts via Anchor, which Spotify acquired in February 2019, as it takes on YouTube.
• French music streaming service Deezer, which has 9.6 million subscribers, announces plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a €1.05 billion valuation.