Welcome to the 440th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the past week:
- Diablo Immortal is gaining popularity. If you’re interested in trying out the game, check out our beginner’s tips and tricks guide. It’s designed to help you get through the first few hours and familiarize you with some of the game’s languages.
- Author Dhruv Bhutani is an avid Plex user and is unhappy about the service’s feature dips. According to Dhruv, the service moves away from its roots and has many extras that die-hard old-school Plex fans just don’t want. We asked our audience and many of them use or are interested in Plex. About 50% of our readership is happy with Plex as it is now, but that’s a little less than what we expected for the service. Click on the different links to try them out.
- Netflix is in a strange environment. It’s received a lot of vitriol lately, but it still remains the world’s number one streaming service. We suspect this is because it’s the legacy option and people are just comfortable with it. Also, some shows like Stranger Things are actually pretty good. Still, it’s an oddity when other streaming services like Disney+ and Hulu exist and people seem a lot less dissatisfied with them.
- WhatsApp may add a new feature soon. The new feature allows you to show (or hide) your online status. Other services have this feature and they have had it for a very long time. WhatsApp would catch up. Nevertheless, we found some screenshots of the function. There is something similar at the moment, but the screenshot shows a second part that you can use to show your online status to specific people. Click the link to learn more.
- Google’s Pixel Pass shows promise. You get an upgrade path for your phone every two years, 200 GB of Google One storage, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium and Google Play Pass. It’s honestly not a bad deal. Unfortunately, signing up for it is not good. People with existing accounts must close them before logging in. Also, those with family accounts don’t have an option to share their accounts with their families. Click the link to learn more, but we hope Google Pixel Pass will update over time.
Woice
Price: Free
Woice is an interesting messaging app. With it you can send voice messages to your friends or colleagues. It’s asynchronous, meaning it sends the message and they see when they check the app. Not only does it keep track of your conversations, but it also provides transcripts of your messages. This means they can both read and listen to your messages. We don’t know if this idea has enough to become a big deal and it seems mostly geared towards professional use. Overall it’s a nice idea though.
Heroes of the Crown
Price: Play for free
Heroes of Crown is an idle mobile RPG with some gacha elements. That’s quite a mouthful, but it basically means the game is able to play itself and all you really have to do is make choices. The game pits you against monsters, bosses and other villains. You can use it to grind as an idle game in the background, so you can get the previous things done without spending too much time grinding manually. The game also features a PvP mode, although it’s probably not the funnest in the game. The idle elements make you feel like you should watch the game more than play it, but it’s a decent casual experience for those who don’t want to push themselves too hard.
Capsll
Price: Free / $7.99 per month / $79.99 per year
Capsll is a different type of app. It wants you to save memories of your life, but instead of sharing them publicly with everyone, everything is private until you decide to share them. The video that starts when you open the app is a nice touch. The user interface is pretty decent and straightforward. You upload stuff, organize it into memories and can later share those memories. It’s a vault of sorts with the intent of sharing content with your kids or grandkids rather than your random friends. The free version gives you 1GB of storage and a few other things. Subscribing allows you to choose next of kin to have your belongings transferred to them after your death. It’s a bit pricey, but the idea is cool.
Stories Noir
Price: Play for free
Tales Noir is another new gacha game with over 100 collectible characters for you to get. It is an open world game where players explore the game world and discover different things. Combat is a fairly simple hack and slash RPG. There is also a fantasy story to play through. There are other things to do in the game as well. The different princesses you summon have different abilities, so for the most part you can customize your party as you need to. The voice acting is a bit dry and there are some early bugs, but that’s pretty typical for a newer game. It has a lot of potential.
Volume is a news and discovery app. It takes a bunch of themes and makes them bite-sized for you to consume quickly. Additionally, the whole experience revolves around listening rather than reading. The app has curated content based on an algorithm and editors so you see what the app wants you to see. Time will tell if that’s a good idea or not. You can browse different categories to learn new things, join communities, and view stats about your consumption so you can see why the algorithm chose what it chose. There’s really nothing wrong with that, so let’s hope the developers keep up the good work.
If we missed any important Android app or game news, update or release, let us know in the comments or contact me on Twitter @ThatJoeHindy.
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