Welcome to the 523rd edition of Android Apps Weekly, where we discuss the latest mobile news and take a closer look at some of the hottest new apps and games. Let’s jump right in and take a look at some of the biggest events from the past week:
- The biggest apps news this week happened at MWC, with Google announcing a slew of notable apps-related features and changes. Not only is Google Messages getting the Gemini approach, but Android Auto will also get AI text summaries. Additionally, Google Docs will soon let you add handwritten comments to documents using a pen or finger, among other updates.
- New apps and games are launched all the time, but how often do they really change the game? We can’t speak for all apps, but Whispp at least brings something new and truly useful. The app promises to give a voice to speech-impaired people by either amplifying the person’s current voice or recreating your original one. The app uses recordings of your voice from the past to do the latter.
- Whatsapp is adding a new way to search with its “search by date” feature, which will let you search by date for individual and group chats. The news comes from the words of Meta CEO Mark Zuckeberg, who first announced the news on the Whatsapp channel.
- The latest Google Play Services update includes a new password sharing feature that is not currently enabled TheSpAndroid was able to activate the feature with the feature tag. The feature could eventually allow accounts within a family group to easily share usernames and passwords with Password Manager.
- It’s not just Google Play that has hints of future features, as Google Contacts also contains code for a currently unavailable feature: a new UI for the header area of the Contacts screen that would let you quickly see your latest messages and more.
- Photomath is one of the most popular apps for solving math problems using artificial intelligence, and all it takes is a simple image to get started. Now Google has taken ownership of the app, officially adding it to the Google fold. Google has yet to reveal planned changes to the app experience, but it’s clear the company is interested in the app’s technology, which could potentially help Google improve similar features in Google Lens, Search and other products.
- Phone calls have certainly fallen out of favor in recent years, but for those who still prefer them over texting and other communication, Google may soon make those calls a little more fun with audiomojis. A beta version of the Google Phone recently arrived, and it appears to have code that mentions six sound reactions: drum, sadness, clap, fun, laugh, and poop. Reactions also have associated reaction animations.
Android Apps Weekly: New apps and games
Looking for new Android apps and Android games to keep you busy? This week we saw two new apps worth highlighting, as well as three great games.
Atelier Resleriana
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
Ateliera is a fairly well-known JPRG series, and now the experience is coming to mobile phones. The new game focuses on new characters and is very story driven. Unlike many other JRPGs, the actual missions are smaller in scope, more about achieving personal goals than big concepts like saving the world. As for how the game plays, I find the combat to be decent enough and the graphics to be second to none for a mobile title. Unfortunately, it’s also a pretty buggy game from my experience so far. I played for maybe an hour in total, and still crashed twice in that time, and ran into a few small bugs as well. As the game gets further updates, it will hopefully become a more polished experience, but even as it stands, it’s worth a try.
Ragnarok Origin: ROO
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
The sequel Ragnarok Origin has arrived, returning to the legendary world of Midgard. This time you must protect the world from destruction at the hands of Loki’s curse. The game is a worthy enough sequel on the surface, although the in-app purchases get in the way of an experience that I feel would be much better as a premium app. Unfortunately, this game, like the ones on the list before it, has a lot of bugs and crashes. I tried it on three different phones and found it kept crashing on all but my Pixel 7. Even then there were a few other bugs and glitches. As it works out, this could still be a pretty solid mobile experience, but just keep in mind that it’s currently lacking the necessary refinements.
Complete golf set
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
Ready Set Goal is a new mini-golf game with a lot to offer. While there are tons of games like this out there, this one still stands out thanks to its decent cartoon-style graphics, easy-to-learn controls, special moves that add charm to the game, and some pretty unique challenges and hazards as well. The game lets you play against friends or can even match you up with players of your level from around the world. The downside of this title is that it has tons of micro-transactions and can be quite aggressive with reminding you of it. On the bright side, I didn’t encounter any major bugs or gameplay issues.
Fun with eggs
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
Eggy Party is a mobile party game with quirky kid-friendly characters and charming graphics. It kind of reminds me of Nintendo Land from the Wii U because there’s a big game park that gives you access to a bunch of different unique gaming experiences. There are quite a few different modes: Hide and Seek, Rope Race, Specialized Assault (shooting game like Splatoon), Crazy Brawl (fighting), Playground Construction, Baking Contest and Who’s Rotten (where you have to vote who is the main bad guy, kind of like Among Us) . The game is fun to play and easy to pick up for people of all skill levels, although some gameplay experiences are more intuitive than others.
YouTube Create
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
YouTube Create was actually announced last year and had a soft launch in a few markets at the time, but now it’s finally making its way to more markets, including the US. YouTube Create lets you edit short videos and standard YouTube videos on your Android phone. You can record videos directly through the app or import existing files. There’s also a bunch of handy features like transitions that automatically match the background music, automatic subtitles and an audio cleaner to remove background noise. You’ll need a phone with at least 4GB of RAM for this, which means you’ll need a mid-range phone or better.