Caller identity platform Truecaller recently launched a new feature that lets one person become an admin of a family group, get alerts about fraud calls received by other members, and even end a call on their behalf if they suspect a family member might get scammed.

The company, which has over 450 million users, first launched the feature in December in a handful of countries like Sweden, Chile, Malaysia, and Kenya. Truecaller said that after seeing promising results, it decided to roll it out worldwide, including in India, the company’s biggest market. The feature is free, and users can create groups even if they are not on a paid Truecaller plan.

With this feature, the tech-savvy member of a family or friends group can become the admin of an up to five-member group. Once the other members join the group, the admin can get alerts about potentially fraudulent calls those members receive. If the admin believes that the call could harm the member, they can remotely end the call as well. While the admin can get alerts for fraud calls when a member is using iOS or Android, they can only end calls for members on Android.

On Android, members can also grant permission to the admin to detect real-time activity such as walking or driving, battery level, and phone sound settings (to check if the phone is in silent mode). Truecaller said this is helpful for admins to keep tabs on elderly members and to only call them when they are not walking or driving.

The admin can also block certain numbers and international calling codes and share a blocklist with group members.

Truecaller noted that the admin can’t see the non-spam call history or SMS history of group members.

“I think, unfortunately, all of us know somebody or another in our families or friends who have been impacted by fraud,” Kunal Dua, chief product officer at Truecaller, told TechCrunch over a call. “In that sense, it’s a fundamental shift for Truecaller in terms of what we’ve been focusing on as a problem,” he added.

Last year, Truecaller introduced a voicemail feature for Indian users featuring an AI assistant that listens for calls when a user is unavailable and provides a summary of the transcript. The company is exploring a similar AI approach for family protection to potentially alert the admin about what kind of fraud call a group member is receiving.

The company is also exploring using AI to screen calls and automatically disconnect them when certain words associated with scams are detected, such as “digital arrest” — a tactic in which perpetrators impersonate law enforcement officers to extract information or money from call recipients.

In India, scam calls have risen over time and caused financial losses across the country. Truecaller said that it identified over 7.7 billion fraud calls last year. Indian authorities have launched multiple initiatives, including a controversial policy called SIM binding that could hamper the working of apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Truecaller is facing headwinds. Its stock has dwindled by over 80% in the last 12 months. During its Q4 2025 report, the company said that its EBITDA — a measure of operating profitability — dipped 49% year-on-year, with ad revenue declining 31%. The company is also facing challenges from India’s Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) system, which displays the name of the caller as registered with their phone carrier. Truecaller has maintained that just displaying a caller’s name won’t reduce spam calls, arguing that its platform goes further by offering community-based reports.

“In India, there has been much talk about the imminent rollout of CNAP,” Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala said during the Q4 2025 earnings call. “CNAP is partially rolled out, and so far, the impact on our user growth is limited. As we have said in the past, we expect that CNAP might have some impact on user growth, but that remains to be seen as CNAP reaches a full rollout.”

Continued Jhunjhunwala, “Our focus continues to be on delivering a superior product, and as you are aware, the consumer can choose to have CNAP and Truecaller in parallel, where we provide a lot more information and a lot more context and various other solutions, for the consumer.”

Uber has added another company’s autonomous vehicles to its growing robotaxi network. Hyundai-owned Motional’s self-driving version of the Ioniq 5 is now available to be hailed for rides to and from five areas around the city — with a safety monitor in the car, for now.

Starting Friday, the vehicles will do pickup and drop-offs in the rideshare zones at Resorts World and Encore hotel casinos on the Strip, along with the Westgate, which is next to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Motional AVs will also handle rides to and from the Town Square shopping center near the city’s airport, and curbside in Downtown Las Vegas.

Uber and Motional said Friday that they plan to expand the operating area in the future, but did not offer specifics. As in other cities, there is no way to specifically request a robotaxi ride. Customers will increase the chance of getting matched with one by enabling autonomous vehicle pickup within the Uber app.

The companies said they expect to be able to run a fully driverless service in Las Vegas by the end of this year.

The launch in Las Vegas is a milestone for Motional, which found itself in real trouble two years ago. Created as a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, the company was behind on its goal of launching a robotaxi service with Uber rival Lyft. Aptiv pulled out of funding the joint venture, leaving Hyundai to decide whether to pick up the financial slack, or cut bait.

Peacock is making a clear bet on two things: AI and mobile-first entertainment.

Based on what the streamer previewed at a press event yesterday, Peacock’s mobile app is about to look a whole lot more like a mix of TikTok, a casual gaming hub, and a streaming service.

From an AI-powered “Bravoverse” vertical video experience narrated by a digital avatar of TV host Andy Cohen to vertical live NBA broadcasts and mobile games, Peacock is rolling out several new features designed to keep viewers entertained on their phones even longer.

The biggest reveal was a new feature called “Your Bravoverse,” aimed at viewers deeply immersed in Bravo fandom, home to addictive reality franchises like “The Real Housewives” and “Vanderpump Rules.”

The feature pulls short-form clips from more than 5,000 hours of Bravo footage and stitches them into personalized playlists. The best part (arguably) is that your guide will be a generative AI avatar of Andy Cohen, the famous reunion host for “The Real Housewives” franchise.

Users will start the experience by selecting their favorite Bravo shows and iconic moments. From there, the AI builds a personalized stream of clips. Then Cohen’s avatar acts as the narrator, introducing moments, connecting storylines, and even surfacing new shows viewers might not have watched yet.

Behind the scenes, Peacock says the system uses computer vision to identify key storylines and moments across its library. AI agents trained on Bravo fan behavior help determine what viewers care about most, while the platform stitches clips together across seasons and franchises. The result, according to Peacock, is more than 600 billion possible viewing variations.

If Peacock wanted a passionate fanbase to test AI storytelling on, Bravo viewers may be the perfect audience. Fans of the franchise are famously devoted, and reality TV creates the perfect bite-sized clips to start with. According to the company, the average Bravo viewer watches about 24 hours of Bravo content per month, while some of the most dedicated fans watch up to 75 episodes monthly.

“Your Bravoverse” launches on mobile this summer, with living room devices expected later.

Additionally, Peacock is experimenting with new ways to watch live sports on mobile. The company announced that fans will soon be able to stream live games in a vertical format, powered by AI-driven real-time cropping optimized for phone screens.

The feature will debut in beta during NBA games this spring. Users will find the vertical broadcasts inside Courtside Live, a mobile viewing feature Peacock introduced during the 2026 NBA All-Star Game. Courtside Live allows viewers to switch between multiple camera angles alongside the main broadcast, creating a more immersive way to follow the action.

This builds upon its short-form video feature launched last year. The feed surfaces clips from across Peacock’s catalog, including TV shows, movies, sports, and news. This summer, the company plans to expand the feature by giving vertical video its own dedicated section in the app, a move clearly inspired by TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, as streaming platforms increasingly compete with social media for viewers’ attention.

Peacock isn’t alone in exploring short-form video. Disney+ launched its own mobile short-form feed for U.S. users on Thursday, which features scenes and moments from its shows and films. Netflix has also said it plans to expand its short-form video features to promote new original video podcasts.

This also isn’t Peacock’s first experiment with AI. During the 2024 Summer Olympics, the platform introduced a generative AI recap that created personalized 10-minute summaries of the previous day’s events, narrated by an AI voice modeled after sports announcer Al Michaels.

The company is also expanding its mobile gaming lineup after introducing mini-games in the app last year.

The streamer is launching two new mystery games, Law & Order: Clue Hunter and Public Eye, which both come from AI gaming startup Wolf Games, co-founded by Elliot Wolf, the son of “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf. NBCUniversal announced a partnership with Wolf Games in October to build immersive games, which involve gathering clues and using an AI assistant to help solve crimes.  

Plus, Peacock is adding a daily trivia experience based on the iconic game show Jeopardy!. The title joins existing games on the app, such as Wheel of Fortune and Daily Swap. 

All these updates hint at a bigger strategy for Peacock. Instead of competing purely as a traditional streaming service, the platform is trying to reshape its app into something much more interactive. The shift comes as the service looks for new ways to drive engagement and growth. 

While Peacock recently added subscribers, the platform is still operating at a loss. Peacock has grown to 44 million subscribers, up from a plateau of 41 million subscribers that lasted for three consecutive quarters last year. However, the streamer reported a $552 million loss in Q4 2025.