Welcome to Android Apps Weekly’s 465th and final edition of 2022. Happy New Year, and here are the big headlines from last week:
- We asked our readers how successful Google was this year. You’ve all told us that you think Google has done pretty well this year, both in terms of hardware and software. In terms of statistics, 48% of you said Google had a good year, while only about 5% thought the year was a complete failure. Click the link to see more detailed statistics.
- We also asked our readers when they last downloaded an app on Android. Over 40% of our readers have sideloaded an app in the last month, and only about 15% have never sideloaded an app at all. We found this interesting because the common narrative is that sideloading is rare. We obviously have some rare readers.
- Our own Adam Birney tried using Google Translate on the trip with some mixed results. For example, some traveler-friendly features don’t work offline. Adam outlined his experiences with various working and non-working features, which you can read at the link above.
- Google cares about Search. The number of AI tools and their growing popularity has the company somewhat on edge. At Google, the situation is said to be red. The concern is that the AI responses give such accurate answers that people no longer click on ad links, which would cause Google to lose a lot of money. Hit the link to continue reading and we’ll keep up with what’s going on.
- As usual, we’ve rounded up the best new Android apps, the best new Android games, and the most controversial apps and games from the past year. Click any link to view our selections. Overall, there are 50 apps and games to scroll through, along with another ten controversial apps and games. It’s been quite an exciting year with some interesting launches.
Alliance Alive HD Remastered
Price: $11.99
Alliance Alive HD Remastered is a remake of the Nintendo 3DS game of the same name. It is also available on Steam, Nintendo Switch and iOS. The game is an RPG set in a fantasy world. Players ultimately end up with nine characters, with each one’s story intertwining with the other. The combat is turn-based and quite reminiscent of JRPGs of its era. The game includes the entire story of the original, along with updated graphics, new features and of course mobile controls. It’s a bit pricey at $11.99, but there are no ads or in-app purchases to tarnish the experience.
A simple launcher
Price: free
Mere Launcher is a minimalistic launcher with larger icons. The home screen displays your favorite apps with a simple shortcut to the app drawer where you can find them all. The app includes dark and light themes, a background tint feature for improved contrast, and you can even target the launcher landscape if needed. There aren’t many extra features, but that’s normal for a minimalist app. It’s not half bad and performed well in our testing.
A frozen city
Price: Free game
Frozen City is a city building simulator. The action is set in a world surrounded by snow and ice, which affects the survival aspects of the game. Slowly build your town, assign tasks to newly arrived survivors, explore the wilderness and survive the cold. It is a fairly simple game without many twists and turns to distract the player. There are microtransactions, but they’re not terrible. Other than some glitches in the early game, everything works pretty well.
My Connection Manager
Price: free
My Link Manager is an application for organizing and managing web browser bookmarks. This is an especially great app if you’re using a web browser that doesn’t support bookmarks or a browser that doesn’t allow you to sync with your new device. Overall, this is a fairly simple app. Place your links in it, organize them and retrieve them if necessary. There is an import and export feature so you can back them up. It also does not require internet access, making it completely offline. There’s really not much wrong with it, and it worked well in our testing.
Ever Legion
Price: Free game
Ever Legion is an idle RPG. The game sends the player on an adventure to save his family from being turned into undead monsters. You collect heroes, let them fight to level up and progress through the game. As the genre suggests, the game itself plays in the background, so you can grind while you sleep. The graphics are decent. We liked the world design more than the character design, but the experience is very similar to Diablo, with dark color palettes. It competes with games like AFK Arena, and as long as the developer doesn’t mess up, it might actually succeed at it.
If we’ve missed any major news or releases about Android apps or games, let us know in the comments.
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