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Welcome to the 458th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- WhatsApp announced a new Communities feature earlier this year. This week, the company announced a global rollout for it. The rollout is slow, so it’ll be a few months before everyone gets it. That said, the process is in motion, and everything is nice and official. Hit the link to learn more.
- The new Google Home app is getting a massive overhaul. You can now sign up for the public preview if you want to check it out. It’s available to both Android and iOS users. The overhaul contains a number of UI changes and new features.
- Disney Plus announced a price hike officially this week. The basic plan without ads is $11 per month or $110 annually, which isn’t too bad. There is also a new ad-supported plan. It goes live on December 8th, and it’ll cost $8 per month or $80 per year.
- Google Stadia is officially rolling out refunds. People are getting refunds for most things. However, refunds don’t appear to be coming for the Power Support Claw and Stadia Pro subscriptions. Some games are also letting Stadia players port save data to other platforms. Hit the link to read more.
- Twitter apparently rolled out two different checkmarks. One is the official tag, and that’s for folks who had the legitimate blue checkmark before the change. The other is the regular blue checkmark that you get for paying for it. Twitter undid the change a few hours later, though, so it’s not currently live. The drama continues at Twitter.
28
Price: Free
28 is an exercise app designed for women. It has a dual purpose. The first is a menstrual cycle tracker that helps you pinpoint when your cycles are going to happen. The second is an exercise app that helps you plan fitness workouts around your cycle. It uses helpful facts, like your cycle has four stages, to help keep an eye on the various changes your body undergoes over the course of an average month. With that knowledge, you can formulate workouts that actually work for you.
Now, for obvious reasons, I couldn’t test every feature in this app. What I can tell you is that the UI is clean and colorful. The features seem to work well, the exercise videos load without drama, and the cross-platform support seems like it’s in order. We didn’t see any price tags in the app, so it’s even free, at least for the time being.
Charlotte’s Table
Price: Free to play
Charlotte’s Table is a match-three mixed with a restaurant simulator. The core gameplay is pretty simple. You play through match-three levels. Doing so earns you rewards that you then use to decorate your little restaurant. The game also includes power-ups and other things to help you along the way. There is also a story to play through that isn’t terribly deep, but it is cutesy and fun. We only tried out a few levels, so we’re sure there’s a point where the game will get much harder, but at least on the onset, it’s not bad for a match-three game.
Noteit Widget
Price: Free
Noteit Widget is an app for couples and friends. It’s a simple little widget. You put it on your home screen and then connect with your friend or significant other. Once done, anything you write in the widget shows up in their widget and vice versa. It obviously won’t replace traditional messaging or even things like Snapchat, but it could be a fun way to communicate with your other half. It’s free, and it worked fine in our testing.
Summoners War: Chronicles
Price: Free to play
Summoners War: Chronicles is the latest game in the Summoners War series. This one is an action RPG where you roam the world, defeat bad guys, and do other things. By other things, we mean stuff like fishing, playing PvP, playing co-op, and more. It retains the gacha nature of the series, with over 350 monsters to summon. They fight alongside you while you do your thing. The game worked fine when we played it, but there are likely some bugs hiding here and there. It’s a good experience for the most part, but we’re unsure how bad the microtransactions get in late-game content.
Daily Diary
Price: Free / $2.99
Daily Diary technically launched way earlier this year, and we’re just catching up to it. It’s a clean diary app with colorful graphics and good functionality. It works as you would expect for a diary app. You can log your feelings and experiences every day. Each log can have an emotion attached to it, so you know if you were happy or sad. We also like the lack of ads, password protection, and integration with Google Drive to backup your diary. It’s also free, at least it is for right now. There isn’t much to complain about with this one.
If we missed any big Android apps or games news, tell us about it in the comments.
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