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Welcome to the 452nd edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- We wished Firefox a happy birthday this week. The famous browser turned 20 years old on September 23rd. Hit the link to check out what we had to say about it.
- We also rounded up the best new Android apps and games from the last month. Loyal subscribers and readers already know about all of these since we covered them, but you can hit the links to check those out as well.
- Google Search is adding a new Forums & Discussions feature in the near future. The new function will troll sites like Reddit or official product forums for answers to questions you search for. Google announced the change after it learned that a lot of people just tack on the word “Reddit” to Google Searches to avoid websites and go straight to forums instead.
- Intel is working on a new app for Android and Windows PCs. The app would work similarly to Microsoft’s Your Phone app, where you can connect your Android and Windows devices together. It’s expected to launch with the 12th Gen Intel systems in 2023.
- Google quietly expanded Game Dashboard to more devices this week. It’s only for a few extra Pixel devices, but it is a step forward. We believe the Game Dashboard is coming to non-Google devices sometime in the future, but for now, it’s nice to see it rolling out to more phones.
- Google Wallet was throwing some errors this last week. The app told folks that their phone was running uncertified software. That’s usually nomenclature for when an app thinks your phone is rooted. It’s almost certainly Google’s safety systems overreacting, and the issue should be fixed soon if it hasn’t been already.
Shop Heroes Legends
Price: Free to play
Shop Heroes Legends bills itself as an idle simulation tycoon RPG. It’s quite a mouthful, and it’s also not quite as exciting as it sounds. The core gameplay loop is a classic idle game, where you build resources over time, even when you’re not playing. You then decide how to spend the resources. The game boasts over 500 blueprints for you to craft, various workers to hire to make things go faster, and skills to improve things even more. The game is not bad for an idle game when it works. Unfortunately, the developer shipped it with some bugs that prevent some game functions. We obviously expect the developers to fix it up over time, so keep this on your radar if you like idle games.
Railway
Price: Free
Railway is a new crypto wallet that uses the Railgun privacy protocol. It lets you carry out Defi activities on the Ethereum blockchain while also hiding it from Etherscan and other such tools. Privacy features aside; the app acts like a normal crypto wallet. You can send and receive tokens, use apps within the main app, and more. To be honest, I don’t have Ethereum so I wasn’t able to test every feature. In any case, it’s free, open source, and it’s definitely a neat idea.
Bubble Shooter Kingdom
Price: Free to play
Bubble Shooter Kingdom is a new bubble shooter. It uses the same old mechanics where you shoot bubbles and try to match colors to clear them off of the board. As you progress, you unlock various things that you use to decorate your in-game home, which is a castle. The game also offers pets, multiple areas to decorate, special events, and it plays offline. It plays pretty well for a bubble shooter, and there aren’t too many in-app purchases or ads to get in the way of things. It’s a pretty chill experience overall.
NBA official app
Price: Free / $99.99-$129.99 per year
The NBA re-released its official app, and it boasts a brand new experience. The UI takes a social media-style approach where you view things in an infinite scroll, similar to Instagram. It still has the usual stuff, like highlights, scores, stats, news, recaps, and standings. It’s really just the way it’s presented in the app that has changed. It’s also still the home of NBA TV, the yearly subscription service that lets you watch basketball games live. We think it’s more optimized than the outgoing app, and it should work better overall once it’s had some time to mature.
Desta: The Memories Between and Oxenfree
Price: Free to play
Desta: The Memories Between (linked at the button below) and Oxenfree (Google Play) were both launched this week as part of the Netflix Games platform. We usually don’t cover such releases, but these are actually two excellent games. Desta: The Memories Between is a roguelike that blends sports with combat and a storyline that takes place in a dream world. Oxenfree is a thriller game where you explore a haunted island looking for clues about its origins. Both games are usually premium titles, but you can play them for free with a Netflix subscription. Netflix subscribers should actually look into these. They’re pretty good.
If we missed any big Android apps or games news or releases, tell us about it in the comments.
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