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

Welcome to the 487th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:

• Google Password Manager now has a dedicated home in Chrome. The company also rolled out some other upgrades to the Password Manager service as well. Once it’s rolled out to you, you can go to chrome://password-manager/passwords to check it out yourself. Otherwise, hit the link to see what it looks like.
• Google Photos has a new, somewhat bizarre feature. It now attempts to face-tag people from behind. The bizarre part is that it gets it right most of the time. As you can imagine, a bad hair day and other variables can prevent it from being 100% accurate, at least right now. Still, it’s a neat party trick.
• WhatsApp introduced Channels this week. The new feature is similar to Telegram and Instagram where you can broadcast messages to your followers without needing to exchange phone numbers. Read the post at the link to learn more.
• There’s a chance that Google skips an Android version for Android TV and Wear OS. The company announced its retirement of Android TV 13 in favor of Android TV 14 while Wear OS 4 is moving straight from Android 11 to Android 13. We’re not entirely sure why this is going on, but it could be because skipping a version helps manufacturers out.
• Last week, we talked about Reddit killing off third-party apps by charging them for access. This week, Reddit released several statements in defense of its actions. Eventually, Reddit did relent and kept API access free for apps like Luna for Reddit and RedditForBlind, where accessibility is the goal. Still, the users are revolting, with a protest scheduled to happen on June 12 for 48 hours. Read the links to catch up on the latest.

The Era of Overman

Price: Free to play

The Era of Overman is a fairly typical idle RPG. The game lets you build your own team, level them up to do battle with bad guys, and then they continue to level up and bring in rewards in the background when the game is shut down. It’s nothing you haven’t seen in similar games before. It hits that sweet spot where you do tons of damage very quickly, so fans of big numbers will enjoy that. Other than running poorly on some mid-range and lower-tier phones, the game’s only pitfall is some of its free-to-play mechanics. It could be better, but it’s not terrible.

Interval Timer

Price: Free

Interval Timer by SimpleInnovation is a new interval timer that is getting a surprising number of downloads. It works like most interval timers where you can set the number of sets and how long for each set. It then gives you a colorful screen to watch your timer go down while you exercise. It is tuned for fitness, and it even has a tracker that lets you view your progress. It works pretty well and it seems to be free to use. That’s always a bonus for us.

QUIRK

Price: Free to play

QUIRK, short for Quick Ultimate Intense Random Karmic, is a tower defense game with some unique mechanics. You form a team using hunters, knights, and wizards. You then defend against waves of enemies. The strategy comes from placing your team in a way that best utilizes their various talents and abilities. It’s not the most intense game graphically speaking, but we had fun with it during our testing. It’s a decent little time killer with some slightly different mechanics from most tower defense games.

Natural Atlas

Price: Free / $39.99

Natural Atlas is an app with a lot of maps. You can download the maps for offline use, plan out hiking routes, and even print the maps for use without a smartphone. The app contains information about 11,000 campgrounds, over 300,000 miles of trails, and over 23,000 boat ramps. There is a bunch of other information as well. That makes it a great app to try if you’re the adventurous type, and it competes with other camping and hiking apps quite well. The pro version is quite expensive, but we think the people this is aimed for won’t mind paying it.

Blackpink The Game

Price: Free to play

Blackpink The Game is a business management simulator where you manage a girl band called Blackpink. The goal is to improve their talents, work out their schedules, and customize their outfits to achieve the greatest possible effect. There are also mini-games to play, puzzles to solve, and other things to keep the players busy while everything is happening. The game boasts quite a bit of customization, and we think that’s where the main draw lies here. People who like dress up games will likely enjoy something like this a lot more than sim fans. Either way, it’s not bad, but it is hard to get into if you’re not into these types of games.

If we missed any big Android apps or games news or releases, tell us about it in the comments.