AAW A3 Still Alive screenshot

Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority


Welcome to the 355th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
  • Google Fit received an update this week. The new update adds sleep tracking features, a more comprehensive look at your health on the home screen, and more social share features. Additionally, there are new Wear OS tiles for a better experience along with improvements to some tiles like the weather tile. Hit the link to see all of the new features.
  • Hulu is raising its prices on its live TV plans. The new price is $64.99 effective December 18th, 2020. That’s a $10 per month price hike over the previous price. The package without ads is $70.99 per month, up $10 from the $60.99 price tag. It’s a fairly aggressive price hike, but it’s kind of the flavor of the year. Netflix and YouTube TV also raised prices earlier this year and Spotify is up as well. Hit the link to read all the details.
  • Google Pay had a redesign this week. The new design focuses a lot more on your favorite people and places than anything else. It includes things like a little chat function, a warning in case you’re about to send money to a stranger, and integration with places you shop at frequently. There are also talks of a bank account function eventually. The redesign is quite good and should be a positive move forward for Google Play.
  • Samsung is working on a file sharing app with blockchain technology. It lets you share files to other people with an expiration date. The file self destructs at the appointed time and date. It’s a similar premise to Snapchat or Signal. Additionally, the app may prevent sharing of the file and the file may not be viewable on other file explorers. The app could debut on the next iteration on the Galaxy S series devices early next year.
  • Google Photos is adding new features soon. The first is the ability to search for original quality photos you uploaded to the service. It’s all a part of a quota management tool for the service. The move to a premium subscription service bothered a lot of folks and most of our readers don’t want to pay for it. There are alternatives if you want to bail out as well.

Hellopet House

Price: Free to play

Hellopet House is a cooking simulator with a home builder element. The player inherits a rundown mansion and is tasked with rebuilding it. Players can adopt a wide range of dogs and cats, decorate how they want, and do some other stuff as well. The core gameplay look is a cooking game, though. You serve up a bunch of food and complete the level to progress through the game. The in-app purchase strategy is to sell the player boosters to help finish levels. It’s a cutesy little game without too much complexity and it’s a decent little time waster.

Socreates

Price: Free

Socreates is a wellbeing app for folks looking for ways to improve their mental wellbeing. The app asks you various questions and gives you content based on your answers. There really isn’t anything in here you can’t find on blogs or a Google Search, but it’s a neat way to get into that kind of content if you’re fairly new at it. The app’s design is quite nice and there are some interactive activities to help facilitate things. It’s not going to be a popular app by any stretch but some folks may find it useful.

Fruit Ninja 2

Price: Free to play

Fruit Ninja 2 launched a couple of weeks ago. It’s the successor to the wildly popular arcade game where you swipe to slice open fruit as it floats around on the screen. This version includes several game modes, including an endless mode, an arcade mode, and a classic mode. There are also some real-time multiplayer modes along with customization elements. The game had a rough first few weeks and the developers have fixed most of the outstanding issues. It’ll be a few more weeks before everything is mostly fixed, but it’s a decent play now too.

Olauncher

Price: Free

Olauncher is a new, open source launcher app. It tries to minimize distractions with a clean UI free from obtrusive graphics. The home screen is basically a list of apps. You can tap anywhere in the line to open the app you. It’s customizable by long pressing the home screen to change the app list or you can swipe up to see all apps. There isn’t support for custom icons because the launcher doesn’t use icons at all. In fact, there isn’t a lot of customization at all and it’s mostly on purpose. It’s a clean launcher with almost no clutter that fits a niche better than most in its category. It’s also entirely free with no ads.

Olauncher screenshot

Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority

A3: Still Alive

Price: Free to play

A3: Still Alive is an open world multiplayer RPG. It has the usual array of MMORPG elements, including tons of quests, a few different classes to play with, and relatively decent graphics. Additionally, the game boasts massive 100 vs 100 battles along with a 30-player battle royale mode. The game received some initially negative reviews due to its auto battle system and first week lag issues, but the lag issues are more or less resolved for most players. This one should end up being pretty popular over time.

Thank you for reading! Check these out as well:

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