iWorld
JioSaavn bets big on design with Pro makeover
MUMBAI: JioSaavn is giving its 100 million monthly active users a visual overhaul, but the real treats are reserved for those willing to pay. The audio streaming platform today rolled out version 10.0, a comprehensive redesign that polishes the experience for everyone whilst dangling a premium aesthetic carrot exclusively for JioSaavn Pro subscribers.
The update, launched on 29 October, touches everything from buttons to typography to colour palettes. But Pro subscribers get an altogether posher experience: refined textures, subtle animations, dynamic visuals that adapt to album artwork, and a darker background that makes cover art pop. There’s even an animated leaf effect—a “signature Pro visual element”—fluttering across select pages.
The redesign isn’t mere cosmetic fiddling. JioSaavn has reengineered core interface elements—buttons, tab pills, pop-up flows—to follow a coherent design language that adapts seamlessly across themes. Iconography has been sharpened: Play, Skip, Home, Share, Edit and the ellipsis menu all sport a more contemporary aesthetic. Typography has been fine-tuned for improved legibility against updated background colours.
The Pro-exclusive theme introduces a distinguished app icon and reimagined animation that sets the tone before users even tap in. Pro badging appears consistently across profile and settings pages, reinforcing the premium tier at every turn. The player interface now dynamically shifts to match whatever track is playing—a neat trick that makes the experience feel alive.
Founded in 2007, JioSaavn has grown into India’s dominant audio streaming service, offering over 100 million tracks in 15-plus languages across podcasts and music. The platform spans Android, iOS, JioPhones and web, with interfaces available in twelve display languages.
JioSaavn Pro strips out ads entirely and throws in unlimited downloads, unlimited skips, endless autoplay and superior audio quality. Subscription options include individual, family, duo and student plans. Jio users get a bonus: they can set any of 2 million-plus songs as their JioTune caller tune.
The version 10.0 update is available now on Android and iOS. JioSaavn is sweetening the deal with festive offers to lure free-tier listeners into trying Pro.
The strategy is transparent: make the free experience better, but make the paid experience irresistible. By merging functionality with design excellence—and reserving the most elegant flourishes for subscribers—JioSaavn is betting that 100 million monthly listeners will notice the difference. And that at least some of them will open their wallets to close the gap between good and gorgeous.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
