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:

• We polled our readers twice this week. The first poll told us that most of our readers still use Google Assistant despite the influx of ChatGPT chatbots. Only about 7% of respondents don’t use Google Assistant anymore. The other poll we ran showed most of our readers use something other than a TV for YouTube. You can see both polls at the links.
• Speaking of Android TVs, Google released a PSA this week. The company essentially told prospective buyers to make sure that a TV manufacturer was on the Android TV homepage as a partner before buying an Android TV. The reason is due to an influx of malware on Android TVs that seems centered on third-party devices not officially partnered with Google.
• Google is integrating a Google Contacts change that may annoy some users. The change will remove contacts synced to your phone if you turn off contact syncing with Google. It’s rolling out to devices already, so make sure you plan for it accordingly.
• WhatsApp is experiencing a crash-loop bug on Android right now. The crash happens when someone sends you a link to “wa.me/settings”, which is just a link to the WhatsApp settings page. The only way to get rid of it is to delete the message. We’re sure WhatsApp will fix it quickly.
• Reddit is going the same route that Twitter did in terms of third-party app access. The company intends to charge developers a whole lot of money for API access. The going rates are insane, and they’re definitely going to drive a lot of third-party Reddit apps out of business. Hit the link to learn more, but we’re not happy about it either.

Korilakkuma Tower Defense

Price: Free to play

Korilakkuma Tower Defense is a cutesy little tower defense game. It plays like most tower defense games. You set towers in the form of cute animals along the path and try to prevent the bad guys from getting to the end. The presentation is utterly adorable. It’s not quite as deep as something like Bloons TD 6, but it’s not the shallowest game we’ve played either. It’s free to play, but it’s not aggressive about it.

Yuzu Emulator

Price: Free / $4.99

Yuzu Emulator is a popular emulator that has finally made its Android debut. It boasts compatibility with thousands of games, some extra options to enhance graphics, and it even lets you mod your games. Of course, you get the usual stuff as well like external controller support, local co-op support, and more. It’s from the developers of Citra, our favorite Nintendo 3DS emulator, so we have high hopes that this continues to get better. There’s a free version you can get along with an early access version that costs $4.99.

Magic Stone Knights

Price: Free to play

Magic Stone Knights is a match-three game mixed with an RPG. It follows the fairly typical mechanic of matching objects on the bottom half of the screen to deal damage to enemies on the top half of the screen. The amount of damage taken is correlated with your level and also how many shapes you match. It has some common RPG elements, like a story to progress through. You can also collect heroes to do better as you get into late game. It’s not amazing, but it’s solid for its genre.

Apple Music Classical

Price: Included with an Apple Music subscription

Apple Music Classical is the latest addition to Apple Music. You get this essentially for free if you already have an Apple Music subscription, which makes it quite the value proposition if you like classical. You can’t get it if you have the Apple Music Voice Plan, though. It streams music at up to 24-bit and 192 kHz, so the music sounds great provided you have the proper equipment to handle it. The app also boasts over five million tracks, composer biographies, and more. Those with Apple Music subscriptions should definitely pick this up since you get it for free anyway.

League of Angels: Pact

Price: Free to play

League of Angels: Pact is an idle mobile MMORPG. Let’s unpack what that means. It has many of the elements of an MMORPG, including an open world that you share with other players. However, most of the stuff that takes place there is automatic. You manage your character, but they do most of the work without you. They even level up while you’re offline so you can return and continue playing. The game has some good spots about it. However, the microtransaction strategy is quite stingy. If the developers ease up a little bit on things like pull rates and some in-game activities, this could be a fun way to relax and play for a bit.

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