Welcome to the 350th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- OnePlus decided to not include Facebook on its phones, starting with the OnePlus 8T. The company came under fire for even including it to begin with, something it did not do previously. The move generated praised from virtually everybody for obvious reasons. It was a short experiment and we’re glad it’s over.
- Disney+ has over 50 new shows and movies coming to the service in the near future. The list includes scripted and non-scripted TV shows, original movies, and some other content. The content includes a bunch of family friendly stuff, including several reboots of old classics like Chip ‘n Dale. Hit the link to see the full list.
- Google is testing a shopping function on YouTube right now. The app would let creators tag products a specific way so people could search for them. So, for instance, a creator could tag their Philips Hue light strip in the background and you could buy them straight from the video. Google would obviously earn a commission from it. It’s in the works but we don’t know when or if it’ll ever launch.
- Google’s Live Transcribe is getting better. A new feature, Sound Notifications, notifies the hard of hearing when the phone hears potentially alarming sounds. Some examples include running water, a dog barking, or a door knock. The phone would flash so the person could see that something is happening. Hit the link to learn more.
- Zoom is finally getting end-to-end encryption for all accounts. The feature rolled out this week to all users of the platform. It’s especially important now that schools use the platform to each kids every day. There are a few problems, though. You have to tick a box to opt-in to E2EE before each meeting or it won’t get encryption. It’s annoying, but not horrible. We’re just glad it’s getting the feature at all for both free and premium users.
Strikers 1945 Collection
Price: Free to play
Strikers 1945 Collection is an idle game with a top-down shooter theme. Players unlock various airplanes and set them off to destroy stuff in various levels. The game features 40 characters, various special skills, and actual levels to play through. However, you can only move the ships and they fire on their own. It’s a decent game for the right type of player, but bullet hell and top-down shooter fans may not enjoy the game as much as idle fans would. Still, it’s an entertaining mashup of the two genres for people who like both.
FitGrid
Price: Free
FitGrid is a fitness social network. It features a variety of fitness classes along with a social media element. The general premise is to get your friends to exercise with you by being friends on the service. Your can also use the network to talk to instructors, add stuff like injuries to your profile, and other customization and communication elements that you don’t generally find in other fitness apps. There are also live streams, various types of exercises, and more. It’s brand new so there aren’t a ton of people there, but it is free and there is some potential with it.
Final Order
Price: Free to play
Final Order is an MMO strategy game with city builder and Kaiju elements. Players build out their bases and defend them from each other with the help of giant monsters. It’s otherwise a fairly standard mobile strategy game. There are various structures to build that offer up various upgrades and the usual stuff. The big difference is the use of Kaiju to help you defeat enemies. It is a free to play game so it’ll eventually bog down in the daily grind, but the beginning is fairly entertaining for fans of the genre.
Roku Channel
Price: Free
Roku Channel is basically a Roku device in app form. The app offers up a ton of content, including over 1,000 TV shows and movies. Some of it is even free but you can pay to see premium content as well. It works basically like any other streaming app. You search for your content and stream it. The app doesn’t have a premium version of its own, but you can add premium subscriptions from other providers such as HBO, STARZ, and others to round out your streaming experience. The app is experiencing bugs on some devices and there isn’t Chromecast support for some baffling reason. We hope that is rectified sooner rather than later.
Infinity Mechs
Price: Free to play
Infinity Mechs is an idle game mixed with a gacha style RPG. You summon various mechs to slaughter the bad guys and level them up as you go. However, the idle-tap portion of the game takes care of most of the combat for you. You simply tap a bunch of times to clear dungeons and get rewards. The fun part is mixing and matching mechs with their various abilities to do so as quickly as possible. We know there has been an abundance of idle games this year, but this one is actually pretty decent and even the gacha elements are fairly F2P friendly. There is a story to play through along with some other modes as well to help keep things relatively fresh.
Thank you for reading! Check these out too:
If we missed any big Android app or game releases or news, tell us about it in the comments.
