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

• Google is holding its first Android Dev Summit in three years. The event includes fireside chats, in-depth technical sessions, a keynote speech, and a lot more information for Android app developers. It runs from November 7th to November 8th. We imagine topics to include things like the Android Studio, SDK tools, programming languages, and stuff like that. Most of the consumer-friendly stuff aired at Google I/O earlier this year. Still, it’s nice to see Google sitting down with the developers again to help the industry move forward.
• PUBG Mobile got into some trouble this week. They featured a new mask design that offended people in Korea. The mask referenced some pretty brutal stuff back in World War II. It’s kind of weird, though. It’s a war game where people hunt each other down and kill each other. However, the developers acquiesced to the request to remove the items from the game. They are no longer available and PUBG Mobile devs promise a more sensitive approach in the future.
• Kingdom Rush is one of the most popular tower defense franchises on mobile. The fourth one is coming soon. Ironhide published a trailer this week for the fourth game. It doesn’t show a whole lot of content. You see some landscapes and then an evil looking creature with a cape. We’re guessing that’s a final boss of some sort for the upcoming game. Kingdom Rush: Vengeance has no release date right now. However, it should be among the best tower defense releases of the year when does launch.
• YouTube Music is steadily improving. YouTube Music’s support forums held clues to future developments of the app. Some of the alleged features include better audio quality (up to 256kbps HE-ACC, which still isn’t great), Sonos support, Android Auto support, SD card support, and better controls for shuffle and playlists. Of course, these won’t make YouTube Music better than competitors. However, it will help bring them current with them. The audio quality improvement should be good, but there are better codecs available. However, any progress is positive progress.
• The EU hit Google with a $5 billion fine this week. The fine is very similar to the one Microsoft had years ago. The EU accuses Google of stifling competition by forcing OEMs to pre-load tons of Google apps. This allegedly prevents competitors from doing well in the space. The argument goes both ways. Google does have ridiculously high market share on most things. Pre-loading all those services just to get access to the Google Play Store definitely helped those numbers. However, it is Google’s property and OEMs don’t have to use it. Google plans to appeal the fine. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

If we missed any big Android apps or games news, updates, or releases, tell us about them in the comments!