September 2019 | Android Match

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uTorrent updated with dark mode and bottom-tab navigation

One month after BitTorrent's update with a dark theme and bottom navigation, uTorrent is getting the same treatment on Android. The changes are live as part of version 6.1.4, which began rolling out a few days ago.

You'll notice a new uTorrent interface which introduces four bottoms tabs: Torrents, Video, Music, and Connection. The first one will likely remain the most used, but you now have quick access to downloaded videos and music in the next two tabs.

uTorrent updated with dark mode and bottom-tab navigation was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:44 PM No comments

Xfinity Remote DVR is back after two-year legal dispute

Comcast subscribers lost the option to set DVR recordings remotely after the company's failed legal battle against TiVo back in 2017, leaving customers without a convenient way to schedule and monitor their recordings away from their TV. More than two years later, the entertainment conglomerate has finally managed to add back DVR functionality to the Xfinity app and web service.

Some customers probably already noticed the return of DVR control when they opened the Xfinity Stream app for the first time after the latest update, which started rolling out on the Play Store on September 24.

Xfinity Remote DVR is back after two-year legal dispute was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 10:09 PM No comments

[Update: Out now] League of Wonderland is a new strategy battle game from Sega, and it's available for pre-registration

League of Wonderland is a strategy game themed around fairy tales, historical figures, and popular myths to create an ensemble cast where players use hero cards to defeat their opponent's tower within a 2-minute timespan, much like Clash Royale.

[Update: Out now] League of Wonderland is a new strategy battle game from Sega, and it's available for pre-registration was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 10:04 PM No comments

Dragon Quest of the Stars is coming to the West, and you can pre-register for the closed beta today

Square Enix just announced that its free-to-play role-playing game Dragon Quest of the Stars will come to the West in early 2020. On top of this announcement, the developer has stated that starting today mobile gamers in select regions can register to participate in a closed beta test for the Android version of the game. Supposedly this is a "critically acclaimed" title in Japan that's racked up over 20-million installs, though, from the looks of it, the game is a casual RPG with a popular brand slapped on top.

Dragon Quest of the Stars is coming to the West, and you can pre-register for the closed beta today was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 9:39 PM No comments

[Update: Global release October 15] Monolisk is a new dungeon crawler available for pre-registration, and it looks great

Update 1: 2019/09/30 6:10am PDT
Monolisk will be released globally on October 15th

Monolisk recently arrived on the Play Store as a pre-registration release, and I couldn't help but notice how good it looks, which is why I'm writing this very article. The game is described as a fantasy mobile ARPG, CCG, and dungeon builder, all wrapped up in a single package, which sounds interesting enough, but clearly, the art design takes center stage here.

[Update: Global release October 15] Monolisk is a new dungeon crawler available for pre-registration, and it looks great was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:19 PM No comments

Pixel 4 live wallpapers ported to other phones [APK Download]

Just like the Pixel 3 last year, the Pixel 4 has already been leaked into oblivion, so we have a clear picture of the device's hardware and software more than two weeks prior to the official unveiling. And just like the Pixel 3, the Pixel 4 comes with a collection of live wallpapers that are unfortunately only functional on the new phone itself. XDA Developers forum member Pranav Pandey took it upon himself to port these backdrops so you can install them on any ARM 64 device running Android 7 Oreo or higher.

Pixel 4 live wallpapers ported to other phones [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 6:04 PM No comments

Dropbox becomes collaborative work tool with new 'Spaces' feature

Despite competition from tech giants like Google and Microsoft, Dropbox has remained one of the best cloud storage options because it just syncs files. However, the desktop app was recently overhauled to become a hub for all your work, and now Dropbox is introducing a new feature for people collaborating on a project.

Dropbox now allows you to turn any folder into a 'Space' by adding a description. Once you do that, you can pin files and folders and create lists/to-dos.

Dropbox becomes collaborative work tool with new 'Spaces' feature was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 1:49 AM No comments

19 best new Android games from the week of September 23, 2019: Mario Kart Tour, Lock's Quest, and Vestigium

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have Nintendo's free-to-play mobile racer Mario Kart Tour, a port of a premium tower defense game, and a delightful card-based puzzler. So without further ado, here are the most notable Android games released the week of September 23, 2019.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

19 best new Android games from the week of September 23, 2019: Mario Kart Tour, Lock's Quest, and Vestigium was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:21 PM No comments

[Update: Early access starting in October] Minecraft Earth now available on the Play Store for pre-registration, new beta wave coming next week

In July the first closed beta for Minecraft Earth was released to select residents in London, Seattle, Stockholm, and Tokyo. Today Mojang's augmented reality version of Minecraft has finally arrived on the Play Store as a pre-registration listing, and it would appear that another beta wave is going to take place next week.

[Update: Early access starting in October] Minecraft Earth now available on the Play Store for pre-registration, new beta wave coming next week was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 7:59 PM No comments

Google Play adds one-tap options for leaving all beta programs, clearing wishlist, and more

Google Play now has quite a few opt-in features for apps. You can join a beta program, add apps to your wishlist, register to get notifications when apps/games are released, and so on. If you want to wipe all of these settings at once, now you can.

A new 'Google Play preferences' section in the Play settings is now visible for some users (it seems to be a server-side rollout). Inside, you'll find one-tap options to clear your wishlist, leave all beta programs, unregister for all upcoming events, and remove all app/game pre-registrations.

Google Play adds one-tap options for leaving all beta programs, clearing wishlist, and more was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 2:24 AM No comments

Twitch app gets new coat of paint in v8 beta release

I can't think of any complaint I've ever had with the Twitch Android app, but Twitch isn't resting on its laurels. A beta for the 8.0 update is now available on Google Play with a refreshed design and other minor changes.

The design has been refreshed to match other modern Android apps, with copious amounts of white and larger fonts (don't worry, there's still a dark mode). The actual stream viewing experience isn't much different.

Twitch app gets new coat of paint in v8 beta release was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 2:04 AM No comments

20 of the best Google Play Pass apps and games currently available

Google Play Pass arrived this week as an answer to Apple Arcade. Google boasts that over 350 apps and games are included with the monthly subscription service, though so far we've only been able to catalog around 250 or so. Google being Google, many of these titles are rather lackluster, which makes it difficult to know if the subscription is worth it. So in order to help everyone out, I've gone through the entire list of available titles to pick out a few of the standouts to create this roundup.

20 of the best Google Play Pass apps and games currently available was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 9:04 PM No comments

Pixel 4 theming, wallpaper, and voice recording apps leak online [APK Download]

One of Android's advantages over the competition has always been customization. From third party launchers to manufacturer skins and even complete freedom over the homescreen layout, no two Android devices are certain to look the same. Thanks to yet another Pixel 4 leak, we now know that Google is taking Android's customization prowess one step further with the help of several new apps.

The Pixel 4 has been leaked to the point that we know more about the handset than we don't know.

Pixel 4 theming, wallpaper, and voice recording apps leak online [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 5:14 AM No comments

Xiaomi users allege they are being banned from Pokémon Go

Banning problematic users from online games and services is nothing new. Accounts are often banned for violating terms of service, community guidelines, or outright cheating. A group of Pokémon Go players believe that they have been banned for a less conventional reason—using a Xiaomi phone.

A recent thread on the subreddit r/TheSilphRoad claims Niantic is mistakenly banning users with Xiaomi devices who have done nothing wrong. Many players speculate that anti-cheating measures built into Pokémon Go are misidentifying an app or system process that is unique to these phones.

Xiaomi users allege they are being banned from Pokémon Go was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 4:14 AM No comments

10 temporarily free and 26 on-sale apps and games for the weekend

We're in the final days of September and autumn is here. It's also the weekend, or close enough, so that means I'm back for one more round of app sales. Today's list, like Wednesday's, is quite small, so it shouldn't take anyone too long to sort through. There's not much of note here, but as always, some one out there may find something to enjoy.

Free

Apps

CookAid - Recipes & Nutrition $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 3 days
English Tenses Trainer $1.49 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days
Text Analyzer Pro $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days
LiquidPlayer Pro - music,equalizer,mp3,radio,3D $3.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 days

Games

Perplexed - Math Puzzle Game $2.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 3 days
Dungeon999 $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days
Mathematiqa - Brain Game, Puzzles, Math Game $2.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 5 days
Tower of Farming - idle RPG (Magic Event) $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 7 days

Icon packs & customization

Fallies Icon pack - Chocolat $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 1 day
Rigoletto - Squircle Icon Pack $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 days

Sale

Apps

Droid Automation - Pro Edition $3.49 -> $1.49; Sale ends in 2 days
Fuel Prices UK $3.99 -> $1.99; Sale ends in 2 days
Diseases & Disorders $2.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 3 days
Speccy - Complete Sinclair ZX Spectrum Emulator $4.99 -> $2.99; Sale ends in 3 days
WiFi Mouse Pro $3.99 -> $1.99; Sale ends in 4 days
Baggage - Packing list PRO (without ADS) $1.49 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 6 days
Forever Floating Notes Pro - Save and keep ideas $2.49 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 6 days
Learn French from scratch full $3.49 -> $1.49; Sale ends in 7 days
Learn German from scratch full $3.49 -> $1.49; Sale ends in 7 days
Learn Spanish from scratch full $3.49 -> $1.49; Sale ends in 7 days

Games

MechZ VR - Multiplayer robot mech war shooter game $2.99 -> $1.49; Sale ends in 1 day
[Premium] RPG Heirs of the Kings $7.99 -> $3.99; Sale ends in 3 days
[Premium] RPG Seek Hearts $7.99 -> $3.99; Sale ends in 3 days
RPG Alvastia Chronicles $7.99 -> $3.99; Sale ends in 3 days
RPG Dimension Cross $8.99 -> $4.99; Sale ends in 3 days
RPG Grinsia $7.99 -> $3.99; Sale ends in 3 days
Bleentoro Pro $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 5 days
IMAGEine Premium $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 5 days
Castle Of Awa - Relaxing challenges $2.99 -> $1.49; Sale ends in 7 days
Knight of Heaven: Finding Light RPG $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 7 days
ReactionLab 2 - Particle Sandbox $2.77 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 7 days
Star Traders RPG Elite $2.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 7 days

Icon packs & customization

Comb S10 Icon Pack $1.49 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 4 days
X Launcher $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 5 days
Perfect Icon Pack $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 6 days
Emperial - Circle Retro Icons $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 7 days

10 temporarily free and 26 on-sale apps and games for the weekend was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 3:54 AM No comments

[Update: New games and a removal] ASUS shares list of 120fps games ahead of ROG Phone II launch

Update 1: 2019/09/27 1:10pm PDT
New games and a removal

ASUS announced the ROG Phone II earlier this year, and it is truly a beast of a smartphone, featuring up to 1TB of storage, a Snapdragon 855 Plus, 12GB of RAM, and a 120Hz display. With the September launch date inching closer, the company is sharing which games will support the high-refresh-rate screen, plus a couple more that barely surpass 60fps.

[Update: New games and a removal] ASUS shares list of 120fps games ahead of ROG Phone II launch was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 3:14 AM No comments

Is Google Play Pass worth it? Depends on who you are

I have 500 words to tell you whether or not I think you should get Google Play Pass for $5 a month or if you're better off with an alternative solution. Frankly speaking, if you're the type that constantly uses a wide array of apps and games and are always curious enough to try just one more every so often, you should pull the trigger. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, here.

Is Google Play Pass worth it? Depends on who you are was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 2:04 AM No comments

YouTube Music will replace Play Music as a pre-installed app in Android 10

It has been more than a year since Google revamped its music and video offerings with the YouTube brand front and center. The company signaled that YouTube Music would eventually replace Play Music, and it's moving one step closer to making that a reality. Devices that ship with Android 10 will no longer have the Play Music app pre-installed. Instead, they'll have YouTube Music.

You can, of course, go to the Play Store and install the YouTube Music app right now.

YouTube Music will replace Play Music as a pre-installed app in Android 10 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:39 PM No comments

[Update: 23 more] Here are 251 apps and games available on Google Play Pass right now (Updated continuously)

People have been wondering about the full roster of launch titles featured in Google Play Pass — supposedly, we've got over 350 of them to go through. Here's the thing: Google doesn't make it easy to suss out all of the apps participating in the program, whether through the Play Store or external documentation on associated Google sites. Great. Well, guess what? We're gonna give it a try and list as many apps on Play Pass as possible.

[Update: 23 more] Here are 251 apps and games available on Google Play Pass right now (Updated continuously) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:34 PM No comments

Firefox Preview 2.0 adds search widget and playback control notifications [APK Download]

As you may know by now, Mozilla has halted development of the stable Firefox release on Android, only adding security patches at the moment. The company is instead focussing on its next-generation browser, Firefox Preview, slated to replace its aging counterpart before the end of this year. A big update to version 2.0 adds a number of features to the new browser, like a search widget, a notification with audio/video playback controls, and various usability enhancements.

Firefox Preview 2.0 adds search widget and playback control notifications [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 9:19 PM No comments

Facebook experiments with hiding like counts to tackle social envy

Facebook used to be a place where you could freely share moments from your life with your peers, but once the network grew into the behemoth we know it as today, users soon began competing against each other to see who could get the highest like count on their posts. To combat this potential spiral of negative feelings (and possible subsequent user exodus), Facebook has decided to test obscuring like counts on some posts, starting today with Australia.

Facebook experiments with hiding like counts to tackle social envy was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:49 PM No comments

DoorDash suffered a data breach in May affecting 4.9 million users

DoorDash helps you get food from your favorite restaurants without ever stepping outside your home. To do that, the service naturally needs some of your data, including your address and payment details, which makes it a good target for hackers. Unfortunately, the company experienced a breach back in May. The compromised data includes personal information, encrypted passwords, and incomplete payment data, so at least customers have been spared the worst.

Around 4.9 million customers, workers, and merchants have had their data accessed by an unauthorized third-party service, which is significant enough.

DoorDash suffered a data breach in May affecting 4.9 million users was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:14 PM No comments

[Update: Fix coming] Google broke the Play Store's Updates tab

Update 1: 2019/09/26 5:19pm PDT
A Googler with whom big boss Artem had been talking with on Twitter has informed us that a rollback of the defective Play Store software is incoming, so you should

Google wouldn't be Google if it didn't break stuff from time to time. If you've been wondering why your Updates tab in the Play Store app is blank, rest assured knowing that you're not alone; it's an issue affecting pretty much everyone.

[Update: Fix coming] Google broke the Play Store's Updates tab was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 7:24 AM No comments

Google's hyperlocal news app 'Bulletin' is shutting down

Google launched a new hyperlocal news service in early 2018 called Bulletin. It's understandable if you don't remember—Bulletin still hasn't moved out of the pilot phase, and it never will. Google has just alerted Bulletin users that it's shutting down the platform in November.

The idea behind bulletin was that users could post news from their neighborhood, allowing others in the same area to hear stories that would otherwise be lost in the shuffle.

Google's hyperlocal news app 'Bulletin' is shutting down was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:09 PM No comments

ROME: Total War - Alexander is coming to Android on October 4, and you can pre-reg right now

It would appear that Feral Interactive has been quite busy with its mobile ports for the ROME: Total War series. Back in December of 2018 ROME: Total War was released on the Play Store, and then in June 2019 the standalone expansion ROME: Total War – Barbarian Invasion arrived. As of this morning, the second standalone expansion ROME: Total War - Alexander made its way to the Play Store as a pre-registration listing, and thanks to a recent press release, we know that the game will be officially available for purchase on October 4th for $4.99.

ROME: Total War - Alexander is coming to Android on October 4, and you can pre-reg right now was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 10:24 PM No comments

[Update: Rolling out for all] Spotify picks up two new custom playlists: On Repeat and Repeat Rewind

Update 1: 2019/09/26 7:27am PDT
Spotify officially announced these two playlists and has rolled them out globally to all users. As we surmised, On Repeat is for the songs you've played the most over

Usually Spotify's custom playlists are all about music discovery, but two new additions we spotted over the weekend are for the exact opposite. Named "On Repeat" and "Repeat Rewind," the two new custom playlists don't seem to appear for everyone, and they're both populated by songs you've played frequently.

[Update: Rolling out for all] Spotify picks up two new custom playlists: On Repeat and Repeat Rewind was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 9:29 PM No comments

[Update: Pre-reg now available] Pearl Abyss will launch Black Desert Mobile globally on Android this year

Black Desert Mobile is an MMORPG that's already available on Android, though you can only download it off the Play Store if you live in Korea or Japan.

[Update: Pre-reg now available] Pearl Abyss will launch Black Desert Mobile globally on Android this year was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:44 PM No comments

13 temporarily free and 20 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday

Welcome to another round of app sales. We're halfway through September's final week. It's a small list today, so be sure to pop by Monday's roundup (where there was a lot more to be had) if you're hungry for more. I'll see you on Friday.

Free

Apps

Digital Dashboard GPS Pro $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 days
Digits $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 days
0Quotes $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days
Bandacam 🔥The professional Black & White Camera $3.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days
Poke Me - Water Drink Reminder $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days

Games

Undead Tower Crusade $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 1 day
Stay Alive VIP $2.49 -> Free; Sale ends in 2 days
Sonny The Mad Man $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 3 days
Assassin Lord : Idle RPG (BUFF) $1.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days
Game School $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 days
Final Castle Defence : Idle RPG $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 days
[Super]Coin Princess : Tap Tap Retro RPG Quest $4.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 days

Icon packs & customization

Freezies - clean icon pack $0.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 6 days

Sale

Apps

iEatWell Premium:Food Diary&Journal Healthy Eating $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 2 days
Tropical Fish Guide Pocket Edition $2.99 -> $1.99; Sale ends in 2 days
Differential Dx $3.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 3 days
Face Generator E-1337 $2.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 3 days
Contact Manager $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 4 days
Names and Meanings $2.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 5 days

Games

Defense Zone 3 Ultra HD $2.99 -> Free; Sale ends in 4 hours
Space Trading Profiteer $1.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 2 days
The Three Little Pigs $2.99 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 2 days
Forest 2 Premium $2.49 -> $0.99; Sale ends in 3 days
Who Are You, Mr.

13 temporarily free and 20 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 3:06 AM No comments

Lock's Quest is the latest tower defense game on the Play Store, and it's a premium release

Lock's Quest was originally a Nintendo DS tower defense game released in 2008, and it eventually made its way to consoles and PC in 2017. This means the game was originally a premium release with an upfront price, and a mobile port just arrived on the Play Store for $7.99 without any in-app purchases or advertisements in tow, retaining the title's fair monetization. While reviews are currently mixed on the Steam listing, it's still nice to see a new premium port arrive on Android.

Lock's Quest is the latest tower defense game on the Play Store, and it's a premium release was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:26 PM No comments

Cloudflare's WARP VPN is now available to everyone

Cloudflare has long focused on internet security and content delivery, but it has been leaning into the consumer space lately. It started with the 1.1.1.1 DNS app and then announced the WARP VPN service earlier this year. However, the waitlist has just been growing ever since. Cloudflare says WARP is finally available to everyone starting today.

A VPN is essentially an encrypted channel for all of your web traffic. That keeps your online activity private, assuming you trust the VPN provider.

Cloudflare's WARP VPN is now available to everyone was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 11:11 PM No comments

More improvements for Android on entry-level phones

In many places in the world, entry-level smartphones are often the first and only way people get access to the internet. As we build Android for everyone, making sure that these devices are affordable and high quality is a top priority. That’s why we launched Android (Go edition) in 2018—a platform tailored for smartphones with 1.5GB of memory or less. As we release Android 10 (Go edition), here's a look at how we're making experiences for entry-level device owners better, across the platform and apps.

Android 10 (Go edition)

With Android 10 (Go edition), we've made Android faster and more secure.

First, this new release helps you switch between apps faster and in a memory-efficient way. Speed and reliability are also enhanced—apps now launch 10 percent faster than they did on Android 9 (Go edition).

Encryption underpins our digital security, as it protects your data even if your device falls into the wrong hands. That’s why Android 10 (Go edition) includes a new form of encryption, built by Google for entry-level smartphones, called Adiantum. Up until now, not all entry-level smartphones were able to encrypt data without affecting device performance.

Adiantum is built to run efficiently without specialized hardware, meaning all Go edition users will have the same level of data security as any Android device, without compromising performance. This will make the next generation of devices more secure than their predecessors, and allow the next billion people coming online for the first time to do so safely.

Keep an eye out for the new phones with Android 10 (Go edition) launching later this fall.

New app experiences

Apps designed for Go edition phones are also improving to better serve the needs of first-time smartphone owners.

For example, we’ve introduced a number of updates to Google Go. With the AI-powered read-out-loud feature that makes consuming long-form text as easy as listening to the radio, people feel more comfortable using the web in their daily lives. Lens in Google Go helps people who struggle to read things in real life by reading out and translating the text that you point with your camera. Since the launch, people have told us that it helps them read and understand important things like bus schedules and bank forms.

YouTube Go, which helps people watch videos on low-speed connections, is also receiving positive responses. People tell us they encounter less buffering while streaming videos, and are now saving on their data consumption.

The new Gallery Go by Google Photos makes it easier to find photos on your entry-level phone. Just 10MB in size and powered by on-device machine learning, it automatically organizes your photos by the people and things you take photos of—and it works offline, too.

Google Go

Caption: Google Go's read-out-aloud feature
Lens in Go

Caption: Lens in Google Go
Gallery Go

Caption: Gallery Go by Google Photos

Across the ecosystem, more Android developers are now enhancing their apps to work well on Android (Go edition) devices. In the past year, popular apps like Uber, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Spotify have been redesigned to be Go-ready. If you’re a developer, visit our developer site to learn how to build for the next billion.

Go for everyone

In the last 18 months, over 500 manufacturers have launched more than 1,600 Android (Go edition) device models to 180+ countries including India, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States. These devices, including the Samsung A2, Xiaomi Redmi Go, Tecno Spark 2, and Mobicel Astro, make up over 80 percent of entry-level Android phones activating today.

In some countries, devices are now available for as low as $27. Whether it comes with a high-definition or regular display, 4GB or 16GB of storage, or 3G or 4G support, there’s a Go edition device for everyone.

Go phones for everyone

With the new platform release and more app choices, Android (Go edition) brings a broader range of options and better performing phones to more people coming online for the first time.

Android 11:08 PM No comments

Viber introduces Shorts, a new way to read stories in the form of text messages

Books, movies, and series are common ways to widely share a story, but it's far more common to tell personal adventures orally or over text messages. However, Viber came up with a new feature that mixes things up, letting you read short stories on your phone, which take the shape of fictitious text messages.

If you've run out of people to talk to, Viber's got you covered: With Shorts, you get access to a catalog of over 50 original stories that are revealed line by line.

Viber introduces Shorts, a new way to read stories in the form of text messages was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 10:41 PM No comments

Madfinger is offering a beta sign up for Shadowgun War Games, an upcoming 5v5 battle game

It would appear that the pre-registration for Shadowgun War Games was announced last year, though the title has been missing in action since that announcement. Thanks to a recent press release, it would appear that Madfinger Games hasn't given up on the title, and is now offering a beta sign-up on its website, and while registration is open to anyone, only so many slots in the beta will be available, so make sure to sign up soon, or else you may miss out.

Madfinger is offering a beta sign up for Shadowgun War Games, an upcoming 5v5 battle game was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 10:31 PM No comments

Runtastic becomes Adidas Running four years after acquisition

There are many fitness tracking apps around to monitor your runs, rides, and other workouts. Over the past few years, several of them have been acquired by athletic apparel and footwear manufacturers, which usually made them part of their overall fitness offering. For instance, Under Amour integrated Map My Fitness and Edomondo into its portfolio, and Asics did the same with Runkeeper. Adidas also went shopping back in 2015, when it bought Runtastic.

Runtastic becomes Adidas Running four years after acquisition was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:51 PM No comments

Mario Kart Tour finally arrives on Android, and it’s easily the worst game in the series

At the tail end of August we learned that Mario Kart Tour would land on Android on September 25th, and early this morning, the racer was officially released on the Play Store. Now, the thing to remember is that this is a game that has been delayed more than a few times, with announced dates coming and going, and now that I've played the end product, it's clear why. At its core, Mario Kart Tour is yet another bland gacha game with a famous brand slapped on top, but things get much worse than this, so strap in, because this ride's about to get very bumpy.

Mario Kart Tour finally arrives on Android, and it’s easily the worst game in the series was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 8:16 PM No comments

Microsoft game streaming service xCloud launches as public preview in US, UK, and Korea

Google hasn't announced Stadia in a vacuum; game streaming services have been in the works for years, with varying degrees of success. The technology to provide virtually lag-free, high-end graphics over miles of cables and Wi-Fi networks has only recently become robust enough. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft on Tuesday announced the public preview of its own remote gaming service xCloud, available starting next month.

The service has been in the works at Microsoft for some time – the company gave attendees of GDC and Gamescom an early preview of what it was working on and announced it a year ago already.

Microsoft game streaming service xCloud launches as public preview in US, UK, and Korea was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 7:06 PM No comments

[Update: Now in stable] Apple Music beta adds Chromecast support and 100,000 radio stations

Update 1: 2019/09/25 1:35am PDT
All of these new features, including the dark mode and live lyrics are now available in the stable version of Apple Music, and rolling out to users.

Earlier this month, Apple Music received a beta update that added a new dark mode and synchronized lyrics with the music. While that did cross off two of the most wanted features in the app, there was still one request that Apple hadn't yet answered: Chromecast support.

[Update: Now in stable] Apple Music beta adds Chromecast support and 100,000 radio stations was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 3:46 PM No comments

[Update: Fixed] Chrome 77 broke printing for Google Calendar, but there's a workaround

Update 1: 2019/09/24 3:41pm PDT
Printing from Calendar in Chrome 77 should be working just fine now, no print-to-PDF hack needed.

Chrome 77 started rolling out a few days ago, and it has plenty of improvements — a feature for sending links to other devices, a contact picker for web apps, a faster Lite Mode, and more. However, it also introduced one (admittedly minor) bug: printing might not work from Google Calendar.

[Update: Fixed] Chrome 77 broke printing for Google Calendar, but there's a workaround was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Apps , Apps/Games – Android Police – Android News , Games , Phones , reviews , Tablets 5:56 AM No comments

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