Welcome to the 496th version of Android Apps Weekly. Listed here are the large headlines from the final week:
- Google is disabling all hyperlinks in YouTube Shorts. The reason being to do away with hyperlink spam. YouTube is including a brand new technique so as to add hyperlinks in September of 2023, so that is extra of a short lived factor quite than a everlasting ban on hyperlinks. You’ll see be capable to see hyperlinks in feedback, movies, and descriptions, however you gained’t be capable to click on on them.
- Gboard might allow you to use generative AI for proofreading and emojis quickly. The newest beta features a few generative AI options. Probably the most prevalent of which is proofreading. Primarily, Google will retailer the textual content you write on Google servers for 60 days so as to present proofreading ideas. That’s a bit a lot, but when that’s one thing you need, it could come to the common model of Gboard quickly.
- Android 14 is including some new safety features that introduce two new modifications. The primary is stopping the cellphone from dropping to a 2G connection. The opposite is defending voice and SMS visitors if the service doesn’t encrypt them routinely. It advantages finish customers as a result of 2G networks specifically are pretty frequent for stealing data, and most carriers have deserted 2G anyway. You possibly can learn extra on the hyperlink.
- Google Messages now encrypts all RCS chats routinely and by default. That features group RCS chats. That is excellent news as a result of one of many advantages of utilizing RCS is its capability to be end-to-end encrypted, and now everybody will get it while not having to dig into the settings. General, although, it’s a minor change that many individuals might not discover.
- WhatsApp is rolling out its screen-sharing function to extra customers this week. The rollout is affecting Android, iOS, and Home windows customers who’ve the most recent secure launch of WhatsApp. That is a part of WhatsApp’s push to be extra helpful for work environments, just like Google Meet and Microsoft Groups. Hit the hyperlink to be taught extra.
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Dawnlands
Worth: Free to play
Dawnlands is an open-world survival and crafting sport. It performs equally to different video games within the style. You wander round an open world the place you acquire sources, craft gadgets, and survive in opposition to unhealthy guys. This one additionally comes with multiplayer with as much as 4 gamers in addition to quite a lot of different issues to do within the sport world. It focuses rather a lot much less on pure survival than another survival video games however makes up for it in different methods. It’s harking back to Genshin Affect and different, related video games with regards to mechanics as properly. The sport had a little bit of a tough launch, however with some optimizations, this one may very well be fairly good sooner or later.
Winlater is an open-source app that allows you to play PC apps and video games in your Android cellphone. It’s solely out there on GitHub for proper now, and it does require a few further steps out of your typical APK set up, so we suggest you learn the set up information on the GitHub web page for those who resolve to attempt it out. It’s a really spectacular proof-of-concept app, nevertheless it does have its pitfalls. For instance, you possibly can play PC video games, however they normally run at pretty low FPS, and utilizing mouse controls is a little bit of a wrestle. Nonetheless, we like the place that is going, and we hope it will get higher over time.
Beginner Life
Worth: Free to play
Beginner Life is a brand new idle RPG from Com2uS, builders of Summoners Conflict, and a number of other different common titles. The sport is fairly simple to play. You assemble a staff of summoned characters and ship them out into battle. Fight takes place roughly routinely. You primarily equip your staff, degree them up, ship them out, and watch them go. That’s the gameplay loop. The sport additionally options a number of totally different sport modes, a rating system, and a lightweight story for gamers to observe. It’s properly executed so far as idle RPGs go however the sport suffered from connection points at launch, therefore its decrease Google Play score.
Contact the Notch
Worth: Free / $0.99
Contact the Notch is a brand new app that allows you to map shortcuts to your cellphone’s notch or pinhole digital camera. You’d merely faucet the digital camera and the prescribed command will get issued. You possibly can have it do any variety of issues, together with opening the digital camera, taking a screenshot, turning on the flashlight, and much more. You may also entry these shortcuts in a number of alternative ways so you are able to do multiple shortcut if you wish to. It has a number of bugs, as most new apps do, nevertheless it’s a neat concept. It’s like a simplified model of the Dynamic Island function that lots of builders delivered to Android in app kind final yr.
Omniheroes
Worth: Free to play
Omniheroes is a reasonably typical cell RPG with gacha components. You already know the place that is going. The sport enables you to summon quite a lot of heroes. You improve them after which use them to progress via the sport’s story. Fight is computerized, which brings an idle part to the sport as properly. In contrast to many video games on this style, the themes are extra adult-oriented so put together your self for that mentally whenever you obtain the sport. You possibly can see what we imply within the character designs. General, it’s not unhealthy when it comes to mechanics. The remainder relies on your preferences.
If we missed any Android apps or video games information or releases, inform us about them within the feedback.
