Welcome to Issue 479 of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the top headlines from the past week:
- Nearby Share is now available for Android and Windows, albeit in beta. It allows you to send files from your Android phone to your Windows PC. It is easy to use. You download and install the Windows app and then follow the instructions. Click on the link to learn more.
- Google Drive put a file limit on users. It was given five million files, but some users were caught off guard and told to remove files from the service in order to exceed the new limit. Google has since removed this limit and stated that it is working to improve in various ways.
- Microsoft is moving along with its push for artificial intelligence. This week saw the addition of Bing Chat to SwiftKey Keyboard. This is an AI chatbot functionality basically similar to Bing Chat, along with another feature that helps you craft more polite or professional correspondence. The feature is in SwiftKey beta now, available on the Google Play Store.
- Meanwhile, Google is putting the pedal to the metal with its AI efforts. Google is restructuring the virtual assistant team to focus more on Bard development. This is obviously to integrate the Bard with Google Assistant and other products, so we’ll keep an eye on that. Google also confirmed this week that an AI chatbot is coming to Google Search, but we don’t know exactly when. Search got a new feature to help save money on flights and hotels, however, it still works pretty well.
- Some Google Play policy changes came down the pipe this week. The first is a policy that will prevent personal loan apps from accessing sensitive user data, starting May 31, 2023. The others require app developers to give users a way to permanently delete their account data from any app. Click on the links to learn more about each change.
Chaos overlord
price: Free to play
Overlord of Chaos is a strategy game with kingdom building elements. You recruit heroes throughout history, build cities, and advance through the game. You even get rewards when you are offline. It relies heavily on gacha items as well, as there are multiple ways to earn cash-outs for more heroes. The combat is also very simple. You form small armies and fight other armies. It’s relatively new, so it’s hard to tell how well it will work in the long run, but it has some potential as long as you don’t mind all the elements.
Mood Journal is another diary-style app where you can keep track of your mood. This clip was promoted by our April Google Play Editor’s Pick section. They seem to be big fans of mood journals. This is very nice. It has a good and elegant user interface, and the usability is very good. You can track your mood over a long period with some fun graphs to see how it fluctuates over time. You have to watch some ads to unlock some features, but other than that, it works just fine.
Another dungeon
price: Free to play
Another Dungeon is an idle MMORPG that uses pixel art instead of realistic graphics. It plays like most MMORPGs. You follow the story, do side quests, fight bosses, dive into dungeons, and more. Of course, the passive part is that the game does a lot of things on its own, but you can still make decisions every now and then. There is also a PvP mode if you want to fight others. This game, like most new Android games, has some potential, but only if you are an idle game fan. MMORPG fans will likely want something a little more traditional.
voidpet
price: Free / $3.99 per month / $39.99 per year
Voidpet is a combination of a mood journal (yes, another one) and a game. This one makes you collect pets and grow animals. You can then confide your real-life feelings with those animals to track your moods over time. Some people only play it for the game part, but other people seem to like using it as a magazine of sorts. The goal of the app is to help players think more positively and deal better with their negative emotions. It also lets you set goals, and there are some meditation bits in there as well. It’s a great way to track your mood.
Hegan: Irothel
price: Free to play
Higan: Eruthyll is an action RPG with anime-inspired graphics. You can acquire and level up a variety of characters and use them to defeat the bad guys. The developers say the combat is action-oriented, but more flashy than anything else. There is a power system that allows you to unload cool attacks. At the end of the day, though, tap-to-attack is like most gacha. It’s not bad, it’s not quite what the marketing team says it is. Anyway, this is a good looking gacha RPG, and hopefully it’s just as good in the late game as it is in the early game.
If we missed any great Android apps or games releases, let us know about it in the comments.