Welcome to the 217th Android Apps Weekly! Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- Google has big plans for AR in 2018. The ARCore project is making great strides to that effect. The goal is to bring AR to hundreds of millions of Android devices in the next 12 months. Some apps, like Yelp, Pokemon Go, and IKEA have AR already. The goal is to give developers more incentive and tools for better AR apps. It should be a pretty epic year if they pull it off.
- Telltale Games had a pretty bad week. It laid off 25% of its employees. The company is restructuring after a rather lackluster 2017. This despite many decent games, including titles for Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Minecraft: Story Mode Season 2. It also announced two new games and a change in game engines. It should be a good 2018 for them.
- Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition is close to release. Square Enix put the game on Google Play for pre-registration this week. The game should be most of the actual console version of the game. It tells the story across ten chapters. It won’t look as good as the console version. Obviously, the graphics are more mobile friendly. For instance, the characters have a chibi design instead of the design from the console version of the game. It’s a premium game, not a freemium game. Thus, the price tag should be rather large.
- Snapchat for Android is changing soon. CEO Evan Speigel announced a complete re-design. The app has long lagged behind its iOS counterpart. Speigel acknowledged that it was probably the reason people don’t want to use it on Android. There is no word on when the redesign is coming. However, it should be a welcome change because the current app kind of sucks.
- Niantic announced a new game this week. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is Niantic’s follow up to the popular Pokemon Go. In Niantic fashion, the game should be AR. There aren’t a ton of details. Players learn spells and explore the world. There are beasts to fight and other such things. We’ll know more in 2018 when the game launches.
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Words With Friends 2 is the latest iteration of the popular multiplayer Scrabble game. Technically, it's also the third game in the franchise. It plays very much like the previous games. You get into a game with someone. You both take turns putting words on the board. The winner is the one with the most points at the end. This one includes a solo mode, challenges, a couple new game modes, and more. It's a freemium game, but you can pretty much ignore all of that.
Notification History Log is a potentially handle tool. It shows you a record of your notifications. This is something available to many phones. However, this app adds a quick way to see it. It's helpful for those who frequently clear out notifications and then forget about them. It's also not the kind of app one would use every day. There is a scaled back free version as well as a pro version. The pro version ads unlimited log sizes and blacklisting.
South Park: Phone Destroyer is the latest South Park freemium game. It boasts strategy mechanics as well as gacha mechanics. You collect various versions of various characters. Then you duel them. The features 80 characters to collect, online multiplayer PvP mode, teams, character customizations, and more. It's a money grab for sure. However, it's at least funny and entertaining for a while.
Files Go is a new app from Google. It's a cleaner app. Unlike most cleaner apps, this one sticks to the basics. It looks for duplicate files, downloads, and other stuff that you don't need. The app helps you delete all of those files to clear up space on your phone. It's very simple and seems to work relatively well despite its beta status. The app also sends notifications when your storage is low and includes a small, simple file browser. It's not half bad, actually.
Monument Valley 2 is one of the biggest mobile game releases of 2017. It follows in the footsteps of its predecessor. That means there are clever, geometric puzzles, a fun, minimal story line, and beautiful graphics. The game is still a little short, but there are more levels than the first game had when it came out. The game also features Google Play Games support, two characters, and a standalone story. That means you don't have to play the first one to get the second one. It's a single $4.99 purchase to get the whole game.
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If we missed any big Android apps or games news, tell us about it in the comments! Check back next week for more!