The regulator that oversees India’s popular UPI rail payments is considering relaxing a proposed market share cap for operators like Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm because it grapples with enforcing the restrictions, two people accustomed to the matter told TechCrunch.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which is regulated by the Indian central bank, is considering increasing the market share that UPI operators can hold to greater than 40%, said two of the people, requesting anonymity because the knowledge is confidential. The regulator had earlier proposed a 30% market share limit to encourage competition within the space.

UPI has change into the most well-liked option to send and receive money in India, with the mechanism processing over 12 billion transactions monthly. Walmart-backed PhonePe has about 48% market share by volume and 50% by value, while Google Pay has 37.3% share by volume.

Once an industry heavyweight, Paytm’s market share has fallen to 7.2% from 11% late last yr amid regulatory challenges.

According to several industry executives, the NPCI’s increase in market share limits is more likely to be a controversial move as many UPI providers were counting on regulatory motion to curb the dominance of PhonePe and Google Pay.

NPCI, which has previously declined to comment on market share, didn’t reply to a request for comment on Thursday.

The regulator originally planned to implement the market share caps in January 2021 but prolonged the deadline to January 1, 2025. The regulator has struggled to seek out a workable option to implement its proposed market share caps.

The stakes are high, especially for PhonePe, India’s Most worthy fintech startup, valued at $12 billion.

Sameer Nigam, co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, said last month that the startup cannot go public “if there is uncertainty on regulatory issues.”

“If you buy a share at Rs 100 and value it assuming we have 48-49% market share, there is uncertainty whether it will come down to 30% and when,” Nigam told a fintech conference last month. “We are reaching out to them (the regulator) whether they can find another way to at least address any concerns they have or tell us what the list of concerns is,” he added.

Social media startup Bluesky, which is constructing a decentralized alternative to X (formerly Twitter), provided an update Wednesday on the way it’s approaching various trust and security issues on its platform. The company is in various stages of developing and piloting a variety of initiatives focused on coping with bad actors, harassment, spam, fake accounts, video security and more.

To address malicious users or those that harass others, Bluesky says it’s developing recent tools that can have the option to detect when multiple recent accounts are created and managed by the identical person. This could help curb harassment when a foul actor creates several different personas to attack their victims.

Another recent experiment will help detect “rude” replies and forward them to server moderators. Like Mastodon, Bluesky will support a network where self-hosters and other developers can run their very own servers that connect to Bluesky’s server and others on the network. This federation capability is still in early access. But in the long term, server moderators will have the option to resolve how they need to take care of individuals who post rude responses. In the meantime, Bluesky will eventually reduce the visibility of those responses on its app. Repeated rude labels on content will even lead to account-level labels and suspensions, it says.

To curb using lists to harass others, Bluesky will remove individual users from the list in the event that they block the list creator. Similar functionality was recently introduced to Starter Packs, a sort of shared list that will help recent users find people to follow on the platform (check TechCrunch Starter Pack).

Bluesky will even scan lists with offensive names or descriptions to limit the potential of harassing others by adding them to a public list with a toxic or offensive name or description. Those who violate Bluesky’s Community Guidelines might be hidden from the app until the list owner makes changes that align with Bluesky’s policies. Users who proceed to create offensive lists will even face further motion, though the corporate didn’t provide details, adding that the lists are still an area of ​​energetic discussion and development.

In the approaching months, Bluesky also intends to move to handling moderation reports through its app, using notifications relatively than counting on email reports.

To combat spam and other fake accounts, Bluesky is launching a pilot that can attempt to routinely detect when an account is fake, scamming or sending spam to users. Combined with moderation, the goal is to have the option to take motion on accounts inside “seconds of receiving a report,” the corporate said.

One of the more interesting developments is how Bluesky will comply with local laws while still allowing free speech. It will use geotags that allow it to hide some content from users in a particular area to comply with the law.

“This allows Bluesky’s moderation service to maintain flexibility in creating spaces for free expression while also ensuring legal compliance so that Bluesky can continue to operate as a service in these geographic regions,” the corporate shared in a blog post. “This feature will be rolled out on a country-by-country basis, and we will endeavor to inform users of the source of legal requests when legally possible.”

To address potential trust and safety issues with videos which have recently been added, the team is adding features like the flexibility to disable autoplay, ensuring videos are labeled, and providing the flexibility to report videos. They are still evaluating what else might need to be added, which might be prioritized based on user feedback.

When it comes to abuse, the corporate says its general framework is “a question of how often something happens versus how harmful it is.” The company focuses on addressing high-impact, high-frequency issues, in addition to “tracking edge cases that could result in significant harm to a few users.” The latter, while only affecting a small number of individuals, causes enough “ongoing harm” that Bluesky will take motion to prevent abuse, it says.

User concerns will be reported via reports, emails and mentions @safety.bsky.app account.

Apple’s latest Airpods could help those with hearing impairments. The tech company’s software update has been approved by the FDA to be used as hearing aids.

The FDA approved Apple’s hearing aid feature on September 12. The free update, available on AirPods Pro 2, will amplify sounds for the hearing impaired. However, the feature is simply available to adults 18 and older with an iPhone or iPad compatible with iOS 18.

“Today’s approval of over-the-counter hearing aid software for a commonly used consumer audio product is another step that will increase the availability, affordability, and acceptability of hearing support for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss,” said Dr. Michelle Tarver, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in a press release. obtained by .

They confirmed the feature’s use after a clinical trial with 118 participants. The results showed that users “achieved similar perceived benefits to those who received a professional fit on the same device.” Apple also announced the brand new development just days before the agency’s approval.

“Hearing health is an essential part of our overall well-being, yet it is often overlooked — in fact, according to Apple’s Hearing Study, as many as 75 percent of people diagnosed with hearing loss go untreated,” said Sumbul Desai, MD, vice chairman of Health at Apple. press release“We’re excited to deliver breakthrough software features in AirPods Pro that put users’ hearing health first, offering new ways to test and get help for hearing loss.”

What’s more, Apple intends its recent AirPods to supply a “world-first” hearing health experience. Noting that 1.5 billion people suffer from hearing loss, the device also goals to forestall and detect hearing problems.

“Your AirPods Pro will transform into your own personalized hearing aid, amplifying the specific sounds you need in real time, such as parts of speech or elements of your environment,” Desai added in a video announcing the event.

The latest AirPods are a part of a growing variety of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. They usually are not only more accessible, but additionally significantly cheaper than prescription medical devices. While they’re designed for individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss, they’ll initially treat those with limited abilities.

AirPods Pro 2 is available now for $249.