Best of TechCrunch — October 2025

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    Google launches its AI vibe-coding app Opal in 15 more countries

    Google expanded Opal, an AI-powered no-code app builder, to 15 new countries including Canada, India, Japan, and Brazil. The tool lets users create web apps through text prompts and visual workflows without writing code. Recent improvements include faster app creation (down from 5+ seconds), step-by-step debugging in a visual editor, and parallel execution for complex workflows. Opal competes with similar offerings from Canva, Figma, and Replit in the growing no-code development space.

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    YouTube announces ‘voluntary exit program’ for US staff

    YouTube is offering a voluntary exit program with severance for US-based employees while reorganizing its product teams into three divisions: Subscription Products (YouTube Music, Premium, OTT), Viewer Products (main app, Kids, Learning, Trust & Safety), and Creator & Community Products. The restructuring involves no forced role eliminations and comes as YouTube reported $10.26 billion in Q3 advertising revenue, a 15% year-over-year increase.

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    Hollywood is not taking kindly to the AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood

    Xicoia created Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress with 40,000 Instagram followers, sparking backlash from Hollywood. Actress Emily Blunt expressed concern about losing human connection, while SAG-AFTRA condemned the synthetic performer as trained on actors' work without permission or compensation. The union emphasized that using such AI-generated characters violates contractual obligations and threatens performer livelihoods. The controversy highlights growing tensions around AI's role in creative industries, particularly following OpenAI's Sora 2 release.

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    Duolingo says it will ‘never’ open a San Francisco office

    Duolingo publicly commits to never opening a San Francisco office, maintaining its Pittsburgh headquarters instead. The language learning company argues that meaningful work doesn't require chasing Silicon Valley trends or high rent prices, and that staying outside the Bay Area helps preserve their desired company culture. Duolingo operates other U.S. offices in Detroit, New York City, and Seattle, demonstrating that successful tech companies can thrive beyond traditional startup hubs.

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    Oura launches redesigned app and ‘Cumulative Stress’ feature

    Oura released a redesigned app with three main tabs for personalized health insights and introduced a Cumulative Stress feature that measures chronic stress through five physiological factors including sleep continuity and heart stress-response. The company is also pursuing FDA clearance for blood pressure monitoring capabilities that assess hypertension likelihood by combining ring data with user questionnaires, with a study launching in Oura Labs later this year.

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    Automattic CEO calls Tumblr his ‘biggest failure’ so far

    Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg acknowledged Tumblr as his biggest failure, citing the platform's unprofitability despite hosting over 500 million blogs. Plans to migrate Tumblr to WordPress infrastructure remain on hold due to high costs and the platform's inability to generate sufficient revenue. The company has attempted cost-cutting through layoffs and resource reallocation, but Tumblr continues to be sustained by profits from other Automattic products. Mullenweg also discussed ongoing projects including WordPress Playground, Beeper messaging app expansion, and the ongoing legal dispute with WP Engine over open source contributions.

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