Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Welcome to the 481st version of Android Apps Weekly. Listed here are the massive headlines from the final week:
- Fb settled a courtroom case relating to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal this week. The reward is $725 million. Of us who had been on Fb in the course of the scandal could also be entitled to compensation. You’ll be able to comply with the hyperlink for directions on the way to declare any winnings it’s possible you’ll be entitled to.
- Netflix plans to cost of us for password sharing as of this summer time. We knew this was occurring months in the past, however Netflix dragged its heels on truly doing so. The corporate introduced it might roll out the characteristic by June of this yr in a shareholder letter. Netflix says it’s anticipating a lack of subscribers at first however that long-term income ought to go up. It’s going to make lots of people mad, and we predict the anger is justified.
- Google is increasing the Google Play Factors characteristic. It’s now usable for DoorDash and Instacart reductions. You may as well use it to acquire Google merchandise. The merchandise is simply okay. There are some sun shades, socks, and shirts, together with a water bottle up for grabs. It’s not a lot, however Google Play Factors are sort of a distinct segment characteristic proper now, so it’s good to see extra causes to make use of them.
- Samsung is speaking about changing Google with Bing as its default search engine on Galaxy telephones. It may possibly’t as a result of agreements with Google prohibit such habits, but it surely was sufficient to get folks speaking. It was additionally sufficient so as to add to the varied motivators Google has to get AI moving into its well-liked Search. There are numerous plans in motion, together with producing photographs primarily based on Google picture searches. Hit each hyperlinks to study extra.
- Google’s messaging apps are at it once more. Google started encouraging of us to uninstall the previous Google Meet so they might set up and begin utilizing the brand new Google Meet. Yeah, it’s complicated, as Google’s messaging ecosystem appears to all the time be. Briefly, they need you to uninstall the Google Hangouts Meet app so you need to use the brand new Google Meet app that was previously Google Duo.
Dragon Cliff
Value: Free to play
Dragon Cliff is a cellular RPG. You kind a celebration of heroes, degree them up, and tackle varied bosses and dungeons. The sport options an open map you can discover, easy fight mechanics, and loads of methods to customise your occasion. It has an old-school feel and appear, with a decently massive emphasis on conventional RPG components like min-maxing stats. There’s additionally an idle aspect the place you get rewards even when you’re not on-line. The sport does really feel repetitive after a bit, and it’s not as social as some others. Some of us could respect the older really feel, however others could not.
PlainApp is a free and open-source app that allows you to handle your cellphone by your PC’s net browser. It has some good options, corresponding to AES 256-bit encryption for safety functions. By way of usability, it’s truly fairly simple to arrange. Every thing takes place in your cellphone, so all you want is an online browser to entry every little thing. There are some gimmicky options, like Chat GPT help, however every little thing comes with Chat GPT help nowadays. There are additionally built-in stuff like a note-taking characteristic, an RSS reader, and extra. It does plenty of stuff, however the core performance is there and it labored nicely in our testing.
The Story of Meals
Value: Free to play
The Story of Meals is a cellular gacha recreation with restaurant sim components. You acquire characters named after meals, which fulfills the gacha aspect. There’s additionally a restaurant to handle and a home to furnish as nicely, which satisfies the restaurant sim portion of it. This recreation is in a subgenre often called husbando video games, which is a rarity exterior of East Asia. The overall thought is that it’s a comfortable recreation the place you acquire male characters. The other, waifu video games (corresponding to Azur Lane), are fairly plentiful, so it’s good to see some illustration from the opposite aspect of the fence. In any case, this can be a pretty chill recreation with a good characters and world tales. Followers of the style ought to take pleasure in it.
SoundCrowd Music Participant
Value: Free
SoundCrowd Music Participant is an alternate music participant for SoundCloud. It options extra fluid controls, a contemporary Materials Design, and extra. The builders say it’s made for listening to longer tracks, like DJ mixes, dwell units, and audiobooks. It’s made largely for SoundCloud but additionally consists of plugins for YouTube, Spotify, and Beatport as nicely. It’s a younger app, and a few customers have had some points with the UI and a number of the stuff. Nevertheless, it labored tremendous in our testing, so we predict the Google Play ranking will enhance over time.
Worms WMD: Mobilize
Value: $5.99
Worms WMD: Mobilize is the most recent cellular recreation within the Worms franchise. For the uninitiated, Worms is a bit like a aggressive model of Offended Birds. You and an opponent sq. off to see who can blow up one another’s worms faster. There are numerous weapons to make use of with completely different methods relying on the terrain. The sport consists of 10 coaching missions, 20 marketing campaign missions, and a neighborhood or on-line multiplayer mode the place you may face actual folks. We like this one as a result of it’s a single $5.99 buy, so there isn’t any strategy to pay to win this recreation. Our solely criticism is the overall lack of polish. We hope the builders clear up the expertise a bit bit, but it surely’s nonetheless undoubtedly playable.
If we missed any huge Android apps or video games information or releases, inform us about it within the feedback.
