Apps
Grab moves beyond the ride to become a companion for the life in between
Now updated as an everyday guide with 13 AI-powered experiences to navigate life in Southeast Asia!
Navigating life in Southeast Asia requires a different mental load.
You decide what to eat while rushing to a meeting; you deal with the anxiety of landing in a foreign airport and wondering how to pay for coffee and your cab. We often look to our phones for answers, but sometimes, we just find more tasks to manage with the information we’re overloaded with.
At GrabX 2026 held in Jakarta, Indonesia, Grab as a Superapp transforms into an intelligent companion that understands our routines. It has just launched 13 AI-powered experiences, designed to act as an everyday guide.
Moving through the city together
Traveling within a busy city requires a delicate balance of time and budget. We want to get to our destinations efficiently, but we also want to share that journey with others.
The new Group Ride feature understands this balance. It allows up to four people to share a single vehicle. The system intelligently sequences pickups and splits payments automatically.
You can save up to 40 percent on your fare when you travel with friends on similar routes. Soon, a Waiting Room feature will let everyone see who is ready in real time. It turns a simple commute into a shared moment of connection.
After a busy day, the “what’s for dinner” dilemma usually begins. Grab More solves the frustration of wanting different things from different places. You can now add another nearby merchant to your order without paying extra delivery fees or meeting a minimum spend. The AI ensures both orders arrive in sync.
For the bigger plans, the Grab AI Assistant acts as a personal concierge. If you’re organizing a team celebration, you can simply tell the assistant your group size and dietary preferences. It handles the restaurant recommendations and the booking in a single conversation. If you are stocking up for the week, the Grab Shopping Agent lets you send a photo or a voice note of your list. It builds a cart across multiple merchants and even suggests smart substitutions for out-of-stock items.
Finding confidence
Navigating a city is about more than just a blue dot on a screen. GrabMaps for Consumers now helps you decide when to leave and what to do when you arrive.
The Journey Planner connects to your calendar and predicts your destination based on your history. You can compare the price of a ride versus the toll fees of driving yourself.
Once you arrive at a massive mall, which are plenty in Southeast Asia, indoor navigation guides you to the exact shop entrance.
You can even use the Custom Voice feature to clone a voice you love for your turn-by-turn directions. *cue Rufa Mae Quinto’s tone* It makes the journey feel personal.
For those moments when unexpected expenses arise, Cash Loan provides a bridge. It offers accessible credit to millions of people who may not have a traditional financial history. The AI uses Grab data to provide a loan decision in seconds. You can customize a repayment plan that fits your budget directly in the app. It’s a safety net built into the platform you already use.
A travel companion
Travel is often beautiful but logistically exhausting. The Personalised Travel Experience turns the app into a travel partner. It consolidates your passport reminders, check-in counter details, and gate updates in one place. When you land, it guides you step-by-step to the correct baggage belt and pickup point.
Finding a place to stay is now just as integrated. GrabStays, built with the AI-first ecosystem Nuitee, is designed for the traveler who needs a last-minute booking. You get competitive same-day rates and earn GrabCoin rewards. Because your payment info is already saved, booking a hotel feels as easy as booking a ride.
Once you are settled, Discover by Grab helps you find where the locals eat. It surfaces authentic food content and uses AI to learn what you personally enjoy.
You can see a review, book a table, and get a ride there all in one flow. When the bill comes, GrabPay for Travel removes the stress of currency exchange.
You can scan national QR codes and pay with the cards already saved in your Grab account. There are no leftover foreign balances to worry about.
Empowering the people behind the business
Grab’s intelligence layer also extends to the entrepreneurs and drivers who keep our cities moving.
For shop owners, the Virtual Store Manager uses computer vision to monitor hygiene and foot traffic remotely. It sends alerts if staffing levels are low or if queues are getting too long. The Cloud Printer automates the workflow between the front counter and the kitchen. Orders print instantly, and the printer even pauses the store if no activity is detected. This prevents customers from ordering when a shop is closed.
Starting a business is also getting simpler. Tap to Pay turns any smartphone into a payment terminal. Merchants can accept cards and QR payments in minutes without any extra hardware.
For the drivers on the road, the Driver AI Assistant provides a hands-free companion. Drivers can ask for advice on policies or get help sending a message to a passenger.
A more human way to grow
All of these features are shaped by the people who use them. The Early Access Programme has grown to 200,000 users who have contributed thousands of improvements. A new “shake and share” feature now lets anyone submit feedback instantly by simply shaking their phone.
Because of these updates, we’re understanding how it feels to have a little more breathing room in our day. Grab is no longer just a way to get from point A to point B. It’s now a companion for the life that happens in between.
WhatsApp is about to get an extra later of protection. After thriving on number-based chatting, the platform will soon add usernames, eliminating the need to share your number with strangers.
Usernames are the standard way of maintaining your anonymity online. Though most platforms today require users to log their email addresses or phone numbers, establishing a username can prevent other users from seeing this information way too easily.
Today, Meta has started rolling out reservations for WhatsApp usernames. The feature itself isn’t available yet, but early adopters can grab theirs as soon as the setting becomes available on their app.
To access the reservation, users can go to Settings > Account > Username. Of note, this isn’t available for everyone yet. But if you want to take dibs on a specific name, be on the lookout for the setting.
As for the username itself, users can reserve anything as long as it’s unique. Business owners and creators can also use their Facebook or Instagram handles as their WhatsApp usernames.
The feature, once it launches, will stop users from accessing your phone number when messaging. Similarly, other users will now need your exact username to start a conversation. Users can also set a separate code to protect conversations further.
SEE ALSO: Meta adds subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp
Apps
HONOR, Xiaomi are working on their own Privacy Displays
Samsung’s Privacy Display is apparently very popular
Normally, a smartphone brand’s blatant copying of another brand’s feature is not a good practice. Today, however, there is a new feature that we wish other brands would copy: Samsung’s Privacy Display. Thankfully, some brands, like HONOR, have finally gotten the message and are working on version of the feature.
As reported by Digital Chat Station on Weibo, HONOR is reportedly working on a privacy screen for its smartphones. Likewise, Xiaomi is working on the same thing, potentially launching the feature for the Xiaomi 18 Pro.
For the uninitiated, the Samsung Privacy Display is a built-in feature that blocks visibility of the screen at certain angles. If you’re not looking at the screen from the front, all you’ll see is a black void. It’s a built-in version of those protective screens that you can buy separately. Besides adding a nice layer of protection against scratches, it’s also meant to prevent snooping from your shoulder.
Samsung’s take was widely acclaimed for being insanely useful. When it arrives, this feature will be a godsend to more brands. Even better, users will no longer need to rely on third-party screen just to enjoy the privacy.
That said, there’s still no indication as to when these features will arrive on either HONOR or Xiaomi.
SEE ALSO: LE SSERAFIM Chaewon flexes Galaxy S26 Ultra Privacy Display
Meta does not have the most stellar of reputations. Despite offering the world’s most popular social media platforms, the company, through its various experiments throughout the years, continuously proves that it has other priorities than just providing the best for its users. Today, another reported experiment wants to take Meta to a new market that its users might fall into: the prediction market.
If you haven’t heard of the prediction market, consider yourself lucky. These apps, such as Kalshi, are basically just gambling platforms without the glitz of playing cards or the rigor of the stock market. Users gamble on mundane circumstances like the weather and more serious ones like war.
Today, as reported by The New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly asking Meta to develop a prediction app of its own. Interestingly, the experimental app, supposedly called Arena, will use virtual points, rather than real money. However, Meta has not ruled out real money — and hence, real gambling — in the future.
Meta is entering the industry at an extremely volatile time. The world is starting to crack down on prediction markets. Some users, for example, have been accused of using insider information to get easy wins on these platforms. Some markets have also accused these platforms of subverting anti-gambling laws.
SEE ALSO: Meta adds subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp
-
Cameras2 weeks agoDJI Osmo Pocket 4P launches with dual lenses and a 1-inch sensor
-
News2 weeks agoLenovo says RAM prices are not coming back down again
-
News16 hours agoNew York becomes first state to ban smart glasses
-
Laptops1 week agoThe ASUS ExpertBook Ultra wins you over
-
Gaming1 week agoPlayStation goes all-digital in 2028
-
Gaming1 week agoXbox might get rid of physical discs too
-
Laptops1 week agoASUS launches the ExpertBook Ultra
-
Enterprise1 week agoGoogle ordered to pay EUR 4.1 billion in fines




