5 must-have Android apps this week – Android Apps Weekly

Welcome to the 492nd edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from last week:

• Google Play has officially relaxed its rules around NFT sales in apps and games. The new policy has some rules that developers must follow. For example, NFT app developers need to be even more transparent than is normally required of an app developer. You can read more about it at the link.
• Google TV received over 80,000 free movies and TV shows this week via The Roku Channel. It is available to Google TV and Android TV device owners as of this writing. Installing The Roku Channel grants you access to the aforementioned movies and TV shows along with Roku-exclusive content. This is a big deal for people who are running out of things to watch.
• We did two APK teardowns this week. The first showed that Samsung may start using ChatGPT in its internal browser. It may be part of the Labs part of the settings. That means it would be an experimental feature. Also, a Reddit APK teardown showed that Reddit may be willing to give people real money for their accumulated Reddit gold and karma. This probably isn’t the best news after all the controversy so far this summer, but we’ll see how that plays out.
• Instagram threads have taken off like a lightning rod since its initial release. We covered it when it surpassed 30 million subscribers, but that number ballooned to 100 million within a week. It was such a big deal that Twitter threatened legal action. This is the beginning of a much longer story, but for now, it’s pretty basic stuff. Threads are exploding and Twitter is angry about it.
• The US approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard this week. It seemed that was all it took to get the deal done. However, the FTC terminated the settlement with an appeal. The appeal was filed on July 12, so we’ll know more as it happens. However, the court has already ruled against the FTC, so it’s quite likely it will do it again. That said, anything can happen, so stay tuned.

Kemono Friends: Kingdom

Price: Free to play

Kemono Friends: Kingdom is a story-driven game with combat that is somewhat similar, believe it or not, to Angry Birds. It has gacha elements, so you’ll be picking up a variety of characters like most mobile JRPGs these days. Your characters then launch themselves against the monsters you find during your adventure. I didn’t expect to write an Angry Birds anime with a story, but here we are. If it sounds interesting to you, you might enjoy the game.

AI PDF

Price: Free / $10.99 per month

PDF AI is a clever use of an AI chatbot. This allows you to import a PDF file. You can then talk to the AI ​​chatbot about its contents. This includes asking it to search for various things, telling you more about it, and interacting with it in other ways. This is obviously a niche app that most people won’t find very useful. However, people who use PDFs very frequently might find it useful, especially if the PDFs are very long. It comes with a pretty steep subscription like most AI apps, so it’s not something the developer is okay with. However, we think some people may find this useful, and it worked well in our tests.

Observer of the Realms

Price: Free to play

Watcher of Realms is a new mobile RPG with over 2.5 million pre-registrations. That’s pretty impressive for a new IP. It uses many of the same mechanics as other mobile RPGs. There’s a large cast of characters to collect, various upgrades to make you stronger, and a story to experience. Combat is a pseudo-tower defense style where you set up your characters and the bad guys run at you. The goal is not to give up. It performed well on our test devices, but also has some graphics settings for lower-end phones. It seems to have a lot to offer, but it’s still in its infancy.

Dice simulator for Wear OS

Price: Free

Dice Simulator for Wear OS is a simple app with simple features. Emulate the various dice you would normally need for tabletop RPG. You have to select the dice you need to roll and then the app rolls the dice right there on your Wear OS device. It’s a fun little use case, although we think most players will prefer their own dice. It works in a pinch. We have tested it and it seems to work fine. However, we haven’t tested it enough to know how random the numbers actually are. Luckily, it’s free and comes with an option of D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, and D100 dice.

Takt Op Symphony

Price: Free to play

Takt Op Symphony is a different kind of mobile RPG. It carries the same kind of elements you normally see like summoning characters, upgrades, and a story to take on. Where this differs is in its gameplay. You can roam the various environments, solve puzzles and progress through the story. Combat is your typical turn-based style with simple attacks and special ability checks. This one has some pretty decent presentations. It’s all about music and art, so we’re happy that the game sounds and looks pretty decent. It worked fine on our test device, but we agree with player reviews that the game could use some optimizations.

If we missed any great releases of Android apps or games, tell us about them in the comments.