Welcome to the 435th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from last week:
- WhatsApp may add another feature soon. The new feature is editing messages. Screenshots of the new feature started rolling out this week and it’s pretty easy stuff. You can clearly see the edit button in it. Hit the link to see screenshots and learn more.
- Google combines Google Meet and Google Duo. This is actually a pretty good decision. Both apps do more or less the same thing and they will grow faster with a dedicated team working on just one product. This is a lot different from the old Google where they would split these two services into four services for some reason. Fortunately, that old Google is no longer around.
- The official YouTube app received a major update this week. This lets you cast to your TV while still being mostly usable. The new directions allow the phone to be a companion and the TV to still show content. This is actually a pretty nice change because you can do things like read comments and more easily with the new UI.
- Google Play Points will become even more useful. Google Play changed things a lot where you can use Google Play Points at checkout for in-app purchases. This will work as a payment method. This is similar to how Samsung uses points in the Samsung Theme Store. You can select points and pay for them. Hit the link to learn more.
- RCS is having some issues with Google Messages. One of our authors enabled it and immediately started getting spam. He wrote an article about it and got a response from Google. Later, Google temporarily disabled RCS in India, after discovering that Indian businesses were abusing RCS to send promotional messages. You can hit the link to learn more.
Lost Shadows: The Dark Knight
Price: Free to play
Lost Shadow: Dark Knight is an action RPG with a fairly typical story. You play as a knight embodying the last ray of hope in a world plunged into darkness by war. It’s a 2D game and it’s a little weird at first. You get used to it pretty quickly. The world is full of bad guys and you hack and slash them to death. Meanwhile, you get stronger, fight bosses and progress through the game. There is a system of cards that act as your abilities as well as your recovery items. There’s also an idle game element where your heroes get stronger even when you’re not playing. Some may like it, others may not, but it’s not bad if you like this type of game.
MonkeyWerx is an online shop that sells a lot of stuff. These are mostly hand-crafted items like you’d find on Etsy, but it’s kinda cool that they’re things themselves. This app works quite well. You can browse store inventory, buy items, and also listen to podcasts. There is a blog section as well. The podcast is military and political commentary so you may or may not enjoy it depending on your taste. However, the things you can buy look pretty good. I’ve personally never shopped with MonkeyWerx before, but I can’t see anyone who doesn’t enjoy a good beard balm.
Rotaeno is a new Japanese themed rhythm game. The mechanics are pretty standard. You can swipe, tap, and slide your finger around the phone to press notes to the beat. This one also adds gyroscope support for that extra zazz. There are songs by a number of rhythm game composers across several different genres. Developers also promise more songs in future updates. The gyroscope feature works really well and it’s always great to see a new rhythm game on mobile.
Pokedexus is a fan made unofficial Pokedex app for Android. It contains all 898 Pokemon along with all their variations. It also has some little extras like a quiz game, leaderboards and a few other mini-games to keep things interesting. We’re honestly not sure if this is a game or an app but it functions first and foremost as a Pokedex which makes it a companion app. It’s completely free with no in-app purchases or ads to mess things up. It also has item dex, ability dex, type dex, and nature dex so you can use them for more than just Pokemon.
Immortal Diablo
Price: Free to play
Diablo Immortal is the second major mobile game release in the last month. The other one is Apex Legends Mobile. This is the same genre as all the other Diablo games. It’s an action RPG with MMORPG style interactions where you choose your hero, unlock abilities, and explore the world while collecting loot. You can interact with other players in a variety of ways and it’s a true MMORPG in that regard. Otherwise, it’s a mobile Diablo game with some of the usual mobile game pitfalls.
Yes, this game got a second paragraph because the launch wasn’t great. Apparently, there is a problem with the game on Samsung devices with Exynos chipsets. Blizzard is investigating as we speak. Otherwise, people seem to generally enjoy the game. It will likely be competing for the best of the year award when December rolls around.
If we missed a major Android app or game release, let us know in the comments.
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