5 Android apps you shouldn't miss this week! - Android Apps Weekly

Welcome to the 287th edition of Android Apps Weekly! Here are the big headlines from the last week:

• Google Play Pass is out, but far from perfect. We took a dive into the app to discover some of its flaws. Most of them are fairly minor and indicative to a new service. We found there were more than half a dozen voice recorder apps and Sudoku games. We posit that Google needs to bring more high end apps and games into the service to properly compete with the likes of Apple Arcade. Hit the link for more details.
• It’s possible to play Call of Duty: Mobile on your PC. Gameloop, a re-branded Android emulator for PC, boasts support for the game for the low, low price of free. Gameloop was Tencent Gaming Buddy in a previous life, but now stands as its own product. You can still download it for other emulators like Bluestacks. However, Gameloop has Tencent’s blessing as the official Call of Duty: Mobile emulator. It’s a neat experience overall.
• Google’s Halloween decorations are macabre and hilarious this year. The company put up a little garden with the gravestones of a bunch of canceled Google products. You can find the image at the link, but there are gravestones for Orkut, Google+, Google Reader, Google Buzz, and a few others. It’s great for, well, people like us, but it has to be weird for Google employees hitting the campus and seeing a reminder of a half a dozen of their failures.
• Microsoft launched a large update for its Your Phone app this week. The new update lets you field phone calls from your computer. You can initiate, accept, or deny phone calls straight from the desktop with Windows 10’s native notification center. The only caveat is both devices need Bluetooth support in order for everything to work.
• The Google Play Store may get some new features in its next update. The features include better device security and an incognito mode for private app downloads. Some of the device security features include reminders to revoke sideloading permissions from other apps and other such things. Google wants more privacy in its Play Store and this is a good first step to getting there.

Perfect World Mobile

Price: Free to play

Perfect World Mobile is a free to play mobile game. It launched in September but we wanted to cover it anyway. The original game was an MMORPG from about 12 years ago. This version isn’t nearly the same, but it has many of the common elements. It plays like an MMORPG on mobile. You create a character, explore a huge open world, and fight off various bad guys in a variety of quests. The game also features multiplayer dungeons and some other game perks. There is quite a grind at higher levels, but that’s a problem with most mobile MMORPGs.

Threads from Instagram

Price: Free

Threads from Instagram is a neat concept. It’s like regular Instagram except Threads is only for your and your close friends. The app lets you make super tight knit groups and you all share things with one another. It almost feels like a massive MMS group chat but with Instagram’s UI. The goal is for more personal updates rather than the public facing style people project when they have an audience. The app has its issues, but it’s also quite new so we expect the issues to filter out over time.

Grobo

Price: $3.99

Grobo is a puzzle game with platformer elements. You play as a robot in an abandoned world with a variety of puzzles. Players finish each level to complete the story. The game features one or two handed controls, 48 levels, and plenty of obstacles to overcome. It’s a fun little game for its genre and it’s fairly easy to play. There are likely some bugs here and there, but it seems stable enough to us. The game goes for $3.99 with no in-app purchases or ads.

Shudder

Price: Free / $5.99 per month

Shudder is a video streaming service from AMC. It specializes in horror movies. The service couldn’t have picked a better month for its debut. There are a bunch of movies and TV shows on Shudder, including a bunch of old classics such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are even curated lists from folks like Rob Zombie. The streaming quality is fine, but nothing special. You won’t find any 4k HDR streams here. It’s not a bad service to try out during Halloween season. You can try a free trial for a week. The service runs $5.99 per month after that.

DIGIMON ReArise

Price: Free to play

DIGIMON ReArise is the latest Digimon title from Bandai Namco. The game features an entirely original story apart from all of the other properties. Otherwise, it plays like your classic gacha card dueling game. There are single and multiplayer modes, including PvP up to five versus five. The gacha elements are a little restrictive compared to many gacha games and that has many early adopters complaining about the game. However, other than that, the game seems to excel in its other elements.

If we missed any big Android apps or games news or releases, tell us about it in the comments!