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

• Google News is sucking up a lot of data and no one is sure why. The complaints started as early as June 2018 and hit its stride this last week. One user had a $240 data overages bill with dozens of GB of over-use because of Google News. The only way around the issue is to uninstall Google News or turn off background data usage in the device settings. It’s usually not a big deal when an app goes rogue. However, Google has been investigating the issue for months to no avail. Additionally, it’s a news app so it only really loads text and images. It’s kind of weird that it can chew through Netflix levels of data in the background on its own.
• App developers have a new trick to bug you. Companies now know when you uninstall an app. They can then take out ads in other apps to convince you to re-install the app you originally uninstalled. Basically, the process uses silent notifications to send data to home servers. When that stops, developers know you specifically uninstalled their app. Some believe this is against both Google and Apple’s terms of service for each app store. However, neither company has done anything yet to shut them down.
• October 22nd was Google Play’s birthday and it celebrated its ten year anniversary this year. The Android Market originally launched with just 13 apps. It has since become one of the biggest app stores in the world. It’s also obviously not the Android Market anymore. There isn’t much else with this news aside from us wishing Google Play a happy birthday. Hit the link to read up on a bunch of fun facts about the venerable app store!
• There is a fraud scheme happening in Google Play. Here’s how it works. A group of developers purchased an app with a good reputation. It then uses actual user interaction with the app to generate bots. Those bots click ads and generate tons of revenue. It’s kind of a big deal for advertisers because, well, it’s literally stolen money. Google and advertisers are now working on correcting the issue.
• The EU sued Google a while back over forcing OEMs to use every Google app in order to get Google Play Services. Google has to allow OEMs to use it without all of the added bloat. In response, Google decided to charge up to $40 per device to run Google services. The price varies for phones versus tablets as well as for screen resolution. Thus, OEMs would be punished for including higher end specs in their devices with higher prices. That isn’t great, and it could result in even higher hardware costs in Europe.

If we missed any big Android apps or games news, tell us about it in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android Authority podcast!