Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Welcome to the 435th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- WhatsApp may add yet another feature soon. The new feature is editing messages. A screenshot of the new feature started making rounds this week and it’s a fairly straightforward thing. You can clearly see an edit button in it. Hit the link to see the screenshot and learn more.
- Google is combining Google Meet and Google Duo. This is actually a pretty good decision. Both apps do more or less the same thing and they’ll grow faster with a dedicated team working on just one product. This is much different than old Google where they would’ve split these two services into four services for some reason. Luckily, that old Google is gone now.
- The official YouTube app received a big update this week. It lets you cast to your TV while also still remaining mostly usable. The new direction lets the phone be the companion and the TV still displays the content. It’s actually a pretty good change since you can do things like reading comments and stuff much easier with the new UI.
- Google Play Points are about to get more useful. Google Play is changing things up where you can use Google Play Points at checkout for in-app purchases. It’ll work as a method of payment. It’s similar to how Samsung used to do points in the Samsung Theme Store. You can select points and pay with them. Hit the link to learn more.
- RCS is having some problems in Google Messages. One of our writers enabled it and immediately started getting spam. He wrote the article about it and got a response from Google. Later, Google temporarily disabled RCS in India, having found that Indian businesses were abusing RCS to send promotional messages. You can hit the links to learn more.
Lost Shadow: Dark Knight
Price: Free to play
Lost Shadow: Dark Knight is an action RPG with a fairly typical story. You play as a knight who embodies the last ray of hope in a world plunged into darkness by war. It’s a 2D game and it’s a little weird at first. You get used to it pretty quickly. The world is full of bad guys and you hack and slash them to death. Meanwhile, you get more powerful, fight bosses, and progress through the game. There is a card system that serves as your abilities as well as your restorative items. There is also an idle game element where your hero gets stronger even when you’re not playing. Some may like, others may not, but it’s not bad if you like this type of game.
MonkeyWerx
Price: Free
MonkeyWerx is an online shop that sells a bunch of things. It’s mostly hand-crafted stuff like you’d find on Etsy, but it’s kind of cool that this is its own thing. The app works pretty well. You can surf through the store’s inventory, buy stuff, and also listen to the podcast. There is a blog section as well. The podcast is military and political commentary so you may or may not enjoy it depending on your tastes. The stuff you can buy, though, looks pretty good. I’ve personally never shopped with MonkeyWerx before, but I can’t see someone not enjoying a good beard balm on occasion.
Rotaeno
Price: $2.99
Rotaeno is a new Japanese-themed rhythm game. The mechanics are pretty standard. You can swipe, tap, and slide your fingers around the phone to hit the notes to the tune of the beat. This one also adds gyroscope support for a little extra zazz. There are plentiful tracks from a number of rhythm game composers across a few different genres. The developers also promise more songs in future updates. The gyroscope feature works really well and it’s always nice to see a fresh rhythm game on mobile.
Pokedexus
Price: Free
Pokedexus is an unofficial, fan-made Pokedex app for Android. It contains all 898 Pokemon along with all of their variations. It also has some little extras like a quiz game, leaderboards, and some other mini-games to keep things interesting. We’re honestly not sure if this is a game or an app, but it functions first and foremost as a Pokedex which makes it a companion app. It’s completely free with no in-app purchases or ads to muck things up. It also has an item dex, an ability dex, a type dex, and a nature dex so you can use it for more than just Pokemon.
Diablo Immortal
Price: Free to play
Diablo Immortal is the second massive mobile game release in the last month. The other was Apex Legends Mobile. This is the same genre as all the other Diablo games. It’s an action RPG with MMORPG-style interactions where you pick a hero, unlock abilities, and explore the world while collecting loot. You can interact with other players in a variety of ways and this is a true MMORPG in that respect. Otherwise, it’s a mobile Diablo game with some of the usual mobile game pitfalls.
Yes, this game gets a second paragraph because the launch was not amazing. Apparently, there is an issue with the game on Samsung devices with Exynos chipsets. Blizzard is looking into that as we speak. Otherwise, people seem to generally be enjoying the game. It’s likely going to compete for best of the year honors when December rolls around.
If we missed any big Android apps or games releases, tell us about it in the comments.
Thank you for reading. Check these out next:
