5 Android apps you shouldn't miss this week! - Android Apps Weekly

• Google Play will now punish poorly made apps. Android apps that have frequent problems will have less screen time on the Play Store. Some of the metrics Google will measure will include when apps don’t respond, crash rates, slow rendering, frozen frames, wake locks, and more. The bottom 25% of apps will show up less often in search results and on recommendations. That’s great news.
• The latest Humble Bundle is out! Included in this bundle is Never Alone: Ki Edition, Limbo, A Tale of Two Sons, and many, many more. You can grab a few games by paying $1. Beating the average will reward you with most games. Paying $5 or more will get you every game on the bundle. There are 12 total games up for grabs. It’s a great way to get some classics for cheap and also give to charity!
• The Google Play Store received probably its worst update ever this week. The Play Store can now prevent root users from downloading certain apps. Netflix was among the first to use the feature. Root users noticed that they could no longer download the app. Now any app developers can do that as well. Google’s SafetyNet API tells the Play Store if a phone is running custom firmware or root.
• Angry Birds Evolution now has a set launch date. It’ll be in June 2017. The game will take the franchise back to its roots. You’ll be flinging birds at structures to defeat the pigs. Except this time it’ll be in a 3D space instead of the classic 2D. Pre-registration is open now. Those who pre-register will have free stuff added to their accounts once the game launches.
• Google announced the winners of the Google Play Awards 2017 late last week. There were a dozen categories in total, including best AR and VR experience, best app, best game, best multiplayer game, and more. Some of the winners include Memrise, Hearthstone, IFTTT, Mushroom 11, and Runtastic. You can follow the above link to check out the entire list of winners.

For even more Android apps and games news, updates, and releases, check out this week’s newsletter by clicking here! There we have tons of info that we didn’t have space for here. That includes Uber’s new Freight app, some big changes to Facebook and Pokemon Go, and some big Android Pay news! You can fill out the form below to get the newsletter every Sunday. The Android Authority app is also a great option for faster, more frequent news updates!

If we missed any big Android apps or games news, tell us about it in the comments! Thank you for reading! Check back next week for the next Android Apps Weekly.