Droid Life

Category: Apps

The latest selection of Android apps, both free and paid, are found right here. If you were looking for that fresh list of trending Android apps, we have you covered on a daily basis. Want to know the newest Android application releases first? Want to know which Android applications are free for a limited time?

Whether it’s Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, or lesser known apps like Nova Launcher, Trello, Sling TV, and Philips Hue, you will know the best Android apps at all times.

Got a suggestion for a new app you think we should check out? We are all ears and regularly accept user-submitted applications, so that you won’t pay until you know if we approve.

  • Google Phone App Gets Beta Program on Play Store

    Google Phone App Gets Beta Program on Play Store

    Want to get into another beta version of a Google app? The Google Phone app now has a beta program and you can sign-up this minute.

    All you have to do is hit that Google Play link below on your phone and scroll to the bottom of the app listing to find the “Become a beta tester” box. Then tap the “I’m in” button to join up. It’s that simple.

    You’ll then likely receive an update to the app to get you on the beta version track.

    What’s new in the first update? It doesn’t appear that there is anything just yet (maybe the bottom bar?). However, these beta tracks of Google apps are the best way to get the latest in app features. I’d imagine we’ll get another update soon with fancy new Phone stuff. We like stuff.

    Google Play Link

    // Android Police

  • Instagram Launches Focus Effect for All That Sweet Artificial Bokeh

    Instagram Launches Focus Effect for All That Sweet Artificial Bokeh

    Instagram announced a new effect for those who take pictures and videos directly inside of the IG app, one that brings all of that amazing artificial bokeh right to your device. Titled Focus, you’ll find it right next to the Superzoom and Rewind effects inside of Instagram.

    The concept is pretty straightforward. Whenever you’re inside Focus, the subject of your shot will remain in focus, while the background will become blurry. Think of it like a portrait mode, but instead of the blur being an effect of your camera’s aperture, it’s all being done digitally. I’ve tested it out just a little bit and it seems to do the job just fine, though, those who wear glasses or hats may find the bokeh effect to be rather odd around hard corners.

    As mentioned by Instagram, why stop there? When you’re done snapping your photo or video using Focus, you can add more tools like filters and stickers, as well as text to your photo or video.

    This change is rolling out right now to select Android devices, as well as all iPhone models.

    Google Play Link

    // Instagram

  • Twitter is Close to Rendering All 3rd-Party Apps Useless (Update)

    Twitter is Close to Rendering All 3rd-Party Apps Useless (Update)

    Until this morning, we had no idea things were so dire for 3rd-party Twitter applications.

    According to Apps of a Feather, which appears to be a possible consortium of 3rd-party Twitter app developers, once June 19 of this year comes, something called “streaming services” at Twitter will be removed. In short, this means two things for 3rd-party Twitter apps like Talon, Tweetbot, and others: Push notifications will no longer arrive and timelines will not refresh automatically.

    Obviously, if you’re a user of a 3rd-party app, this is an issue in terms of usability. If you’re a developer, it means your app is about to become useless to users and probably means you’ll have to shut it down.

    If Twitter was in the business of helping these 3rd-party developers, they would likely reach out and talk about ways the developers could go about recreating this soon to be lost functionality. According to Apps of a Feather, that has yet to happen and developers have not been provided access to the new Account Activity API that is currently in testing.

    For a more detailed explanation of what’s happening on the backend, I’ll let the professionals fill you in.

    Third-party apps open a network connection to Twitter and receive a continuous stream of updates (hence the name). For push notifications, this connection is done on the developer’s server and used to generate messages that are sent to your devices. For timeline updates, the stream is opened directly on your mobile device or desktop computer.

    This streaming connection is being replaced by an Account Activity API. This new infrastructure is based on “webhooks” that Twitter uses to contact your server when there’s activity for an account. But there are problems for app developers…

    Now, even if 3rd-party developers were provided access and they worked out a way to implement push notifications again, another issue is Twitter’s limit on how many accounts can be run through a “standard level” of the API. The current limit is 35 Twitter accounts. When we’re talking about multiple 3rd-party apps that have been around for quite some time, that amounts to potentially hundreds of thousands of accounts, meaning there is no way to make it work unless developers opt to pay for an Enterprise level of service with unlimited accounts. As you might expect, an Enterprise level will not be cheap, creating yet another issue for 3rd-party developers to face.

    For some time, Twitter has specifically stated that they do not want 3rd-party apps to simply mimic the official Twitter client, regardless of whether a given platform has a native client or not. In creating these apps, the developers have gone against Twitter’s wishes, which could be why Twitter really doesn’t care how their actions affect others. As end users, though, all we want is the best Twitter experience possible and whether people get that from Twitter’s native app or a 3rd-party app shouldn’t really matter so long as people are using the service. Given Twitter is now a publicly traded company, ads and the idea that these 3rd-party apps are essentially taking money away from Twitter could be playing a big role in this whole debacle, but that is a another story for different time.

    As users, there could be something you can do about all of this. Let Twitter know how you feel. Whether or not they listen, who knows, but at least you can try. Feel free to reach out to @TwitterDev on Twitter using the hashtag #BreakingMyTwitter and share your thoughts.

    Good luck, 3rd-party Twitter apps.

    Update: Twitter has announced it is delaying its June 19 deprecation date, but isn’t providing much else. Developers looking to get beta access to the Activity API can apply here. Keep up the pressure, folks.

    // Apps of a Feather

  • Flamingo Twitter Client Unpublished Because of Twitter’s Stupid Token Limit

    Flamingo Twitter Client Unpublished Because of Twitter’s Stupid Token Limit

    We wrote up the launch of Flamingo in mid-2016, which at the time, was simply another Twitter client of the already solid number of 3rd-party apps for the tweet-sharing service.

    This week, I’m sad to report that Flamingo is near to reaching its allotment of tokens from Twitter, which has forced the developer to remove it from Google Play. You see, Twitter provides a certain amount of tokens to 3rd-party apps. Each token represents a user, essentially placing a user cap on clients. Once those those tokens are exhausted, the 3rd-party services can no longer add users, thereby losing any way to make money, unless they change to a subscription model to get current users paying for the service. This isn’t the first drama we’ve seen involving Twitter’s tokens and it surely won’t be the last.

    Back in April of 2016, Fenix was having a similar issue, but apparently worked something out with Twitter that granted him the resources to keep Fenix up and running. We’re not entirely sure if Flamingo can do the same thing, but there is always a possibility.

    On the bright side for those who already installed and used Flamingo, it’s still listed in your Library of apps. That means you can keep using it. Unfortunately, if you never downloaded Flamingo, your opportunity to do so has now vanished.

    According to a tweet the developer behind Flamingo sent out on April 4, he has no plans for a sequel at this time.

    RIP, Flamingo!

  • Chrooma Keyboard Launches Hydrogen Build With Redesign, Removal of Ads

    Chrooma Keyboard Launches Hydrogen Build With Redesign, Removal of Ads

    Chrooma Keyboard picked up a sizable update today that introduces their new Hydrogen version. Chrooma tells us that this is a “complete redesign” that includes features like a proofreading service, quick toolbar, and typing stats. It also ditches the ads on the free version after listening to user feedback.

    The Chrooma team is sure that this Hydrogen build will bring a “new path for the development” of the once incredibly popular keyboard that we haven’t written about in well over a year. Let’s talk about the new stuff to see if you should give Chrooma another shot.

    New features

    • Proofreader service: Within the app, you can ask the proofreader tool to check your text for errors. I’d tell you whether it’s good or not, but it’s a premium feature that requires a subscription to Chrooma.
    • Typing statistics: Chrooma will now tell you about your typing skills while helping you get “better and faster.” It shows you typing speed, the apps you type in the most, different words you use, you accuracy, etc.
    • QuickToolbar: This toolbar gives you quick access to GIFs, images, the clipboard, additional settings, and the stats I mentioned above.
    • Neural network prediction engine: Chrooma first brought the neural network to their keyboard back in December of 2016 and has now rewritten it to “increase its speed and accuracy.”
    • Asynchronous suggestions: The upgrade suggestions system reduces writing latency and should provide an overall smoother typing experience.
    • App redesign: The actual Chrooma app where you setup your settings and features has been redesigned to make it easier to tune your keyboard.
    • New themes, gestures: You’ll find new ways to style Chrooma now, improvements to older themes, and suggestion word inserting with a swipe gesture on the spacebar.

    And again, Chrooma is now free to use without ads. If you want some of the premium features I just talked about, you’ll need to subscribe. Chrooma costs $5.99 per year, but they are running a Hydrogen launch promo that drops the subscription price to $3.49 per year.

    Google Play Link

    chrooma hydrogen chrooma hydrogen

  • Google Voice is Getting WiFi Calling and You Can Test It

    Google Voice is Getting WiFi Calling and You Can Test It

    Google Voice is adding WiFi Calling after all these years and Google is letting users test it right now. The feature and beta program were announced this morning, so you should still have a chance to get in and start testing.

    With Google Voice WiFi Calling, Google says that it’ll allow you to reduce roaming charges, make calls even when you don’t have good cell service (because the calls are over WiFi), and place calls from almost any device, not just phones. Right now, if you try and place a Google Voice call from the web, it asks you which phone you’d like to call from before initiating it through that phone. Going forward, you’ll be able to make WiFi Calls in Google Voice within Chrome.

    If you decide you want to beta test, you’ll be able to test on Android and the web for now, with iOS support not far behind.

    To get started, hit up the link below for full instructions and also fill out this form.

    // Google Voice Help Forum

  • You can Download and Use the Pixel 3’s Double Bubble Launcher Right Now

    You can Download and Use the Pixel 3’s Double Bubble Launcher Right Now

    Yesterday, the folks at XDA discovered what they believed to be a new Pixel Launcher search bar style that was being built for the upcoming Pixel 3 or Pixel 2018. It featured a double bubble layout, with the microphone for Google Assistant sitting on its own next to the manual search bar. Thanks to the Rootless Pixel Launcher that anyone can install to get the Pixel experience, we can now have that supposed Pixel 3 setup.

    The new version is a modded version of Rootless Pixel Launcher that drops in as v5.2.0. Once installed, you will have to long-press on your home screen and choose Home Settings>Customizations>New search bar style, in order to switch to this new style.

    If you run into issues, that could be because you have an older version of Rootless Pixel Launcher installed. You may need to uninstall, then re-install this new version. Also, you will need to be running at least Android 7.0.

    You can download the Rootless Pixel 2 .apk right here.

    // XDA

  • MyFitnessPal Informs Users of Data Breach, Usernames and Passwords Compromised

    MyFitnessPal Informs Users of Data Breach, Usernames and Passwords Compromised

    Yesterday, MyFitnessPal announced a data breach, one that affects its database of usernames, email addresses, and passwords associated with those accounts (the majority with the hashing function called bcrypt used to secure passwords).

    While MyFitnessPal investigates the breach, it is recommending that all users change up their account passwords immediately. And, if your account’s username and password is the same for multiple accounts, you better go and change those other account passwords, too.

    Here is MyFitnessPal’s post in its entirety.

    To the MyFitnessPal Community:

    We are writing to notify you about an issue that may involve your MyFitnessPal account information. We understand that you value your privacy and we take the protection of your information seriously.

    What Happened?

    On March 25, 2018, we became aware that during February of this year an unauthorized party acquired data associated with MyFitnessPal user accounts.

    What Information Was Involved?

    The affected information included usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords – the majority with the hashing function called bcrypt used to secure passwords.

    What We Are Doing

    Once we became aware, we quickly took steps to determine the nature and scope of the issue. We are working with leading data security firms to assist in our investigation. We have also notified and are coordinating with law enforcement authorities.

    We are taking steps to protect our community, including the following:

    • We are notifying MyFitnessPal users to provide information on how they can protect their data.
    • We will be requiring MyFitnessPal users to change their passwords and urge users to do so immediately.
    • We continue to monitor for suspicious activity and to coordinate with law enforcement authorities.
    • We continue to make enhancements to our systems to detect and prevent unauthorized access to user information.

    What You Can Do

    We take our obligation to safeguard your personal data very seriously and are alerting you about this issue so you can take steps to help protect your information. We recommend you:

    • Change your password for any other account on which you used the same or similar information used for your MyFitnessPal account.
    • Review your accounts for suspicious activity.
    • Be cautious of any unsolicited communications that ask for your personal data or refer you to a web page asking for personal data.
    • Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails.

    For More Information

    For more information, please go to https://content.myfitnesspal.com/security-information/FAQ.html.

    Sincerely,

    Paul Fipps
    Chief Digital Officer

    // MyFitnessPal