May 2014 was a great month for Android. We saw some awesome smartphones and some big announcements. Google I/O is now just around the corner. There were also a ton of great Android apps and games that got released. In this list, we check out the best Android apps of May 2014. If you’d rather watch than read, click the video above.
addappt: up-to-date contacts
[Price: Free]
First up this month is a nifty application called addappt. This app is what I always envisioned the future of managing contacts to be. Here’s how it works. You add someone on addappt and whenever they update their contact information, their information is automatically updated on your contacts list. The only problem is getting everyone you know to use it but it is free on iOS and Android so that may help.
AllCast Receiver
[Price: Free]
AllCast Receiver is an application that allows people to use AllCast to stream their Android devices to other Android devices. Previously AllCast could only stream to things like Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast. All you do is install this app on the phone or tablet you wish to stream to and it will begin appearing on the AllCast list of supported devices. It’s free to use so if you use AllCast you should also use this.
Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition
[Price: $9.99]
Baldur’s Gate is a mammoth RPG with dozens of hours of game play. It was originally released in 1998 and some say this helped pave the way for the RPG genre on PCs. It’s a little expensive at $10 and there are add ons that you can pay more to get, but this is one of the biggest, longest games available on Android today. To see more, check out our review linked below.
Circix
[Price: Free]
Our next app is a fun little brain teaser with over 200 free levels, colorful graphics, and tablet support. You essentially connect the blocks to one another but you can only connect each block so many times as denoted by the number. It starts out easy and gets progressively harder and there are additional levels available for purchase if you really like it. The core game is free to play in the Google Play Store.
FacesIn
[Price: Free]
FacesIn is a new social network aggregator that uses your GPS location and the GPS check ins of your friends to alert you when a friend is nearby. If you use Facebook, Foursquare, or other check-in services, you should definitely give FacesIn a shot. It’s free to use and supports a number of popular social networks with more to come in future updates and it has a really nice design.
Frequency
[Price: Free]
Frequency can only be described as an RSS feed for videos. Using this app you can subscribe to a number of video channels from a number of sites. This includes proprietary video feeds that don’t show up on places like YouTube or Vimeo. It has a nice, if somewhat cluttered design, it’s free, and if you like internet videos, you should check it out.
Lens Blur Live Wallpaper
[Price: Free]
Next up is actually an application that works with Google Camera. It’s called Lens Blur Live Wallpaper and what it does is take blur pictures you took with Google Camera and turn them into a sort of pseudo parallax live wallpaper for your home screen. It’s suffering from a pretty bad bug right now but we expect it to be fixed soon and it is free to use so if you have Google Camera, you should check this out.
Monument Valley
[Price: $3.99]
Monument Valley is a puzzle game with some astounding design and game play. You play as a princess who must find her way through levels that are all based heavily on optical illusions. You can bend, move, twist, or otherwise manipulate levels to get through them and it is quite impressive. It’s $3.99 which is a tad expensive for only 10 levels, but it rocks a 4.7 rating in the Play Store which is also impressive.
Peek
[Price: $4.09]
Peek used to be a feature that was baked into ParanoidAndroid but is now a standalone application that anyone can download and it doesn’t need root. What it does is allow you to view notifications without pressing any buttons. It’s the closest you can get to the Moto X lock screen without actually buying a Moto X so if that’s what you’re looking for, you should give Peek a try.
QuickClick
[Price: Free]
QuickClick is a nifty application that allows you to program your hardware buttons to perform actions. For instance, you can tap your volume button twice and have it turn on your LED flash to use as a flashlight. It’s free to use and comes with a number of functions so if you’ve always wanted more out of your hardware buttons, give this one a look.
Sunrise Calendar
[Price: Free]
Sunrise Calendar is a brand new application with a gorgeous design. In terms of functionality it does pretty much everything you’d expect a calendar app to do and it adds some other fun things like the ability to invite people. It isn’t compatible with Exchange or tablets yet but it will soon. It’s free to use and worth a look if you want something different out of your calendar.
Whistle Camera
[Price: Free]
Whistle Camera came out this last month and it’s a camera application which means it does camera app things. The key feature is that it uses the microphone to listen for your whistle. When you whistle, the app counts down and takes a picture. This is a great little tool to use when your hands are otherwise engaged or if you don’t want to move for selfies. Oh and it’s also free.
XCOM
[Price: $9.99]
Last and certainly not least this month is XCOM. This award winning PC game was originally released in 2012 and it’s now available for Android. It comes with a $10 price tag but it’s as good of a game as I’ve ever seen on Android. You command a team of troops as you strategically move and fire on alien enemies bent on your destruction and also includes an in depth upgrade feature. This is as good as it gets folks, check it out.
Wrap up
If we happened to miss any awesome applications that were released in May 2014, please feel free to leave us a comment and let us know!
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