Welcome to the 440th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- Diablo Immortal is gaining popularity. If you’re interested in trying the game, check out our tips and tricks guide for beginners. It should help you get through the first few hours and familiarizes you with some of the game lingo.
- Writer Dhruv Bhutani is an avid Plex user and is unhappy about the feature creep of the service. According to Dhruv, the service is getting away from its roots and has a lot of extras that hardcore, old-school Plex fans simply don’t want. We asked our audience and many of them use Plex or have an interest in doing so. Roughly 50% of our readership are happy with Plex as it is now, but that’s a little bit lower than we expected for the service. Hit the various links to check them out.
- Netflix is in a weird space. It has received a lot of vitriol lately, but it still remains the world’s number one streaming service. We suspect it’s because it’s the legacy option and people are just comfortable with it. Plus, some shows like Stranger Things are actually pretty good. Still, it’s a curiosity when other streaming services like Disney+ and Hulu exist and people seem to be much less unhappy with them.
- WhatsApp may add a new feature sometime soon. The new feature lets you reveal (or hide) your online status. Other services have this feature and they’ve had it for a very long time. WhatsApp would be playing catch up. Still, we found some screenshots of the feature. There is something similar at the moment, but the screenshot shows a second portion that specifically lets you show your online status to specific people. Hit the link to learn more.
- Google’s Pixel Pass has a lot of promise. It gives you an upgrade path for your phone every two years, 200GB of Google One storage, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium, and Google Play Pass. It’s honestly not a bad deal. Unfortunately, it’s not great to sign up for it. People with existing accounts have to shut them down before signing up. Plus, those with family accounts don’t have an option to share their accounts with their families. Hit the link to learn more, but we hope Google upgrades Pixel Pass over time.
Woice is an interesting messaging app. It lets you send voice messages to your friends or coworkers. It’s asynchronous, which means it’ll send the message and they’ll see it when they check the app. Not only does it keep track of your conversations but it also provides transcriptions of your messages. That means they’ll be able to read your messages as well as listen to them. We don’t know if this idea has enough to become a big thing and it seems mostly geared toward professional use. However, it’s a neat idea overall.
Heroes of Crown
Price: Free to play
Heroes of Crown is an idle mobile RPG with some gacha elements. That’s quite a mouthful, but it basically means that the game is capable of playing itself and all you have to really do is make decisions. The game has you squaring off against monsters, bosses, and other bad guys. It lets you grind in the background as an idle game so you can do the previous stuff without needing to spend too much time grinding manually. The game also boasts a PvP mode, although it’s probably not the most fun thing in the game. The idle elements make you feel like you should be watching the game more than playing it, but it’s a decent casual experience for those who don’t want to try too hard.
Capsll
Price: Free / $7.99 per month / $79.99 per year
Capsll is a different kind of app. It wants you to store memories of your life, but instead of sharing them with everybody publicly, everything is private until you decide to share them. The video that starts when you open the app is a nice touch. The UI is pretty decent and straightforward. You upload stuff, organize them into memories, and then you can share those memories later. It’s meant a vault of sorts with the intent of sharing content with your children or grandchildren and not your random friends. The free version gives you 1GB of storage and some other stuff. Subscribing lets you select next of kin so your stuff can be transferred to them upon your passing. It’s a bit expensive, but the idea is cool.
Tales Noir
Price: Free to play
Tales Noir is another new gacha game with over 100 collectible characters for you to get. It’s an open-world game where players explore the game world and uncover various things. The combat is a pretty basic 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 various princesses you summon have different abilities so you can spec your party how you need to for the most part. The voiceovers are a little 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 topics and makes them bite-sized so you can consume them quickly. Additionally, the whole experience revolves around listening rather than reading. The app boasts curated content based on an algorithm and editors so you’re going to see what the app wants you to see. Time will tell if that’s a good idea or not. You can check out various categories to learn new stuff, join communities, and see stats about what you consume so you can see why the algorithm chose what it chose. There isn’t anything really wrong with it, so we hope the developers keep up the good work with this one.
If we missed any big Android apps or games news, updates, or releases, tell us about it in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @ThatJoeHindy.
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