Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Welcome to the 448th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- We rounded up the best new apps and games from the last month. You can check out the best new Android apps from August here and the best new games from August here. Enjoy!
- The first Android 14 beta may come as soon as April 2023. Google talked about its Quarterly Platform Releases (QPRs) and mentioned that Android 13’s final one is in March 2023. That seems to indicate that Android 14 betas could start popping up as early as April. Hit the link to learn more.
- The new ad-supported plan from Netflix may cost less than half of the current plan. Bloomberg released a report that says Netflix could charge between $7 and $9 for the plan. The current plan costs $15.49 at the time of this writing. Netflix is also working on using fewer targeted ads and smaller ad deals so audiences don’t get too upset.
- BeReal has been taking off. The social platform only gives people a chance in a random, two-minute window every day. That makes it very hard for people to fake their lives like they usually do on Instagram. Hit the link to learn more about it. Snapchat is also copying one of BeReal’s features, and you can read more about that here.
- Twitter Circles is also rolling out soon. Twitter Circles work a little bit like Google+ Circles did back in the day. Basically, you can post a tweet to a Circle, and only folks in that Circle can see your tweet. Hit the link to learn more about them.
Masha and the Bear: Farm Games
Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $19.99 per year
Masha and the Bear: Farm Games is a kids’ game based on the popular Russian kids’ cartoon show. It’s aimed at Kindergarten-aged kids with plenty of little mini-games you can play. That includes gardening, playing with animals, catching fish, and more. There is also voice acting along with decent music. The graphics are pretty decent, and the mechanics are easy enough for kids to use. There is a subscription, but it’s not too intrusive. There is a free trial in case you want to see what it’s like.
Sleep Reset aims to help people with sleeping issues. It asks the user a bunch of questions to try and get to the root of the sleeping problem. From there, it offers a variety of therapeutic techniques to try and correct it. They promise some decent results, including over an hour of extra sleep per night and fewer middle-of-the-night wake-ups. It keeps track of a sleep score so you can see your progress over time. Obviously, this is something that needs longer testing to see if the methods are good. However, the app works fine so you can at least access all of the functions.
Ys Online: The Ark of Napishtim
Price: Free to play
Ys Online: The Ark of Naphishtim is a mobile MMORPG with gacha elements that is based on the Ys universe. It contains a bunch of nostalgic elements, like cameos from characters in previous games, music tracks, and other elements from previous Ys games. Players can choose between four classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. After that, it’s pretty typical MMORPG stuff. You go on quests, solve puzzles, delve in dungeons, and defeat bosses. There is a story, and it’s decent.
Skilldock helps people create offline mini-courses. Essentially, you open the app, create a course, and share it with other people. They can take your little course and learn whatever you want them to learn. It’s set up like many of the online options where you have chapters. You can customize each chapter to your liking. This is kind of a neat premise because it works well as a study aid, a training tool, or any other number of things. It’s free as of the time of this writing.
The Walking Dead: All-Stars
Price: Free to play
The Walking Dead: All-Stars is an idle RPG game with gacha elements. It is loosely based on The Walking Dead comic series. The gameplay is pretty standard for the genre. You collect a variety of classic and iconic Walking Dead characters and use them to defend yourself against enemies. It separates itself by having deep lore as provided by the actual Walking Dead series, so the developers didn’t have to invent a lot of stuff to make the game deep story-wise. It’s okay as far as idle games go, but it has the usual pitfalls like long grinds, microtransactions, and more.
If we missed any big Android apps or games news or releases, tell us about it in the comments.
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