Welcome to the 419th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- Twitter had an outage this week. It wasn’t a huge deal and it was over in a little while. Still, it disrupted enough that it was noticeable to some folks. Most of the issues were on the west coast, but people all over the place felt some disruption.
- Google TV is apparently getting a restricted mode at some point. An APK teardown revealed some code that alluded to the changes. The restricted mode is mostly for kids so parents can sign them in and then the kids can watch whatever they want. Google TV Channels also seems like it’s coming soon. Hit the link to learn more.
- Signal Private Messenger launched a new feature this week. You can now switch your Signal phone number, but still keep your chats. There is a process to port your data to your new number and an alert in the chats that will tell your friends that you’ve switched numbers.
- Google may make the Android 12 dynamic theme support mandatory across all devices. It’s not at this point and some OEMs don’t include it. However, this may change. Google may go so far as to hold out support for Google Play Services until OEMs support it.
- Google officially announced the first developer preview of Android 13 this week. Some of the changes include changes to dynamic theming to include app icon theming, a native QR code scanner, Bluetooth LE support, and a tap-to-transfer system. We’ll be covering it more in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
Image to PDF Converter
Price: $0.99
Image to PDF Converter is a simple app that does what it says. You input an image and the app converts it to PDF. You can upload multiple images at once, use the built-in file manager to find them, and you can compress the file as well. There is a resize option if you need it. The app runs for $0.99 and, oddly, has ads even in the pro version. That’s about the only part we don’t like.
Hextech Mayhem Netflix Edition
Price: Free (for Netflix subscribers)
Hextech Mayhem is a rhythm runner game with some platformer elements. It’s a neat little game to play. You make your way through levels and avoid obstacles by tapping the screen with a rhythm. The game is developed in such a way that tapping at the prescribed times helps you avoid enemy attacks and stuff like that.
The game also features a freestyle mode where you can play differently. It has a lot of promise but also needs a lot of polish. There are an excessive number of loading screens and the controls could use a touch-up. This one is only available for Netflix subscribers, though, so we think that’ll limit its popularity more than its lack of polish.
Magic Photo Editor
Price: Free
Magic Photo Editor is a basic photo editor with some social media-friendly features. You can do basic stuff like crop, rotate, and adjust the tone of the image. There is also a brush function, photo frames, and various filters to pretty up your photos. The most interesting feature is an AI-driven tool to repair old photos that work to varying degrees.
Like most new apps, this one also needs quite a bit of work and it doesn’t really have too much that you can’t find in other apps already. Plus, we think this app also needs a rather thick coat of polish because it is tedious to navigate sometimes.
My Hero Ultra Impact
Price: Free to play
My Hero Ultra Impact is yet another mobile RPG with gacha elements. You can create a team of both heroes and villains to duel it out with other people. It also retells the story of My Hero Academia up through where it is in the anime. The graphics and controls are average for this genre, but it’s definitely something for My Hero fans to play. Most of the complaints center around early release polish issues as you would expect from a new game.
Wake on LAN is a simple app. The app lets you control your devices that are set to wake up on LAN connections. The UI is very basic, but also functional. There is also a Wear OS companion to control the devices from your wrist. Finally, you can add quick settings tiles to control things without opening the app. It’s simple, it’s free, and it’s also quite niche so we don’t think this one is going to be very popular.
If we missed any big Android apps or games news or releases, tell us about it in the comments.
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