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.

Hangouts Chat Out of Beta and Available to G Suite Users

Almost a year ago today, Google announced its new vision for Hangouts. It would break Hangouts apart into two apps – Meet and Chat – while adding advanced features to them. Meet was available pretty quickly to most, but Hangouts Chat has only been in beta or as a part of an Early Access Program. Today, Hangouts Chat leaves that EAP and will be available to all G Suite users as a core application.

What’s different about Hangouts Chat? While we have yet to use it (don’t worry, we will use it soon), you’ll see a fair amount of people compare it to Slack. Hangouts Chat is Google’s take on the modern project management, group messaging application. You can chat with everyone in your organization, make groups, and that sort of thing, of course, but the app includes integrations from other apps too. You’ll be able to work with Drive applications easily within chats, there are bots in chats to help you set meetings and find files, and companies like Kayak, Vonage, Uberconference, Freshdesk, and others have all setup shop within Chat.

In order to get Hangouts Chat, you’ll need your G Suite admin to turn it on for everyone. Once that happens, you can hit up the link below to install Android, iOS, and desktop apps.

Google says that it should be available to everyone over the next 7 days.

Hangouts Chat Link

// Google | G Suite Blog

February 28, 2018
Essential Camera Gets Another Update, So Let’s Compare Some Shots to the Pixel 2 XL
The Essential Phone’s camera grabbed another update this week, one that introduces some fun new modes for Essential owners with a 360 Camera mod (Tiny Planet). It also added a selfie flash and some stability fixes. You can view the full list below if any of that sounds interesting.
WHAT’S NEW (Google Play Link)
- Introducing a new mode: Tiny Planet (Beta)
- View all your 360 photos and videos as Tiny Planets with just a tap
- Edit, save and share your 360 photos and videos as Tiny Planet right from in the Essential Camera app
- Capture still images from your Tiny Planet videos
- Selfie flash: Screen illuminates when taking a picture with the front camera in low light
- Stability fixes
But since we’ve had numerous Essential camera updates over the months (like this huge one), and because I happened to be curious today, I ran a little photo shootout around my house with the Essential Phone and the Pixel 2 XL. There isn’t anything scientific to what I did here, because I thought it would be more authentic to just point and shoot at objects in the same manner and see how they turn out. After all, isn’t that how we shoot photos each day? What I’m saying is that this is not the definitive camera shootout between the Pixel 2 XL and Essential Phone like we would normally do. This is just a quick update on how the camera is currently performing.

Pixel 2 XL (left), Essential Phone (right)

Alright, so you’ve seen these results. Let’s talk about what I’m seeing and then you can all weigh-in down there in the comments.

For one, the Essential Phone’s camera is no longer 20 steps lower than the Pixel 2 XL. It’s certainly not as versatile as Google’s camera, but it’s no longer embarrassing itself when taking pictures next the king in smartphone cameras.

For most of the these shots, I’d take what Google’s Pixel 2 XL has given me. However, I actually think I prefer the toy train picture and possibly even the pine needle picture from Essential. The colors are more accurate in both, even if the focus in pine needle picture isn’t quite right from the Essential Phone.

And that’s kind of what I saw in most, actually, was that the Essential Phone’s autofocus was pretty hit or miss. I think that led to some of these pictures not turning out all that great because of incorrectly judged lighting (berry picture) from a poor focus pull. That’s not all of the story, though. You can tell immediately in the rose picture that the Essential Phone’s dynamic range is no match for the Pixel 2 XL’s. All of that background light gave the Essential Phone nightmares in the detail department. In low light in general, we are seeing improvement from Essential, but Google is just doing some magic here.

That last shot is each phone’s portrait mode. Both look pretty rough around the edges and I don’t know that either is something I’d take home to my mother.

Overall, I think Essential should be pretty proud of how far they’ve brought this camera. It used to be awful. Now, it’s pretty solid. The Essential Camera app is quick enough, now has features we want (like Auto HDR, grid, portrait mode, etc.), and hasn’t crashed on me in a while. We’re getting somewhere!
February 27, 2018
Google’s Pixel Visual Core Just got an Update Through Google Play

Google’s Pixel Visual Core just got an update today through Google Play to v1.0.185741828.

There isn’t a changelog for the update, so we don’t know what Google tweaked here. However, this app (or service) “updates image processing and machine learning algorithms on Pixel 2 phones,” so I’d assume any update means Google has done some tweaking.

Just this month, Google turned on the Pixel Visual Core for all 3rd party apps that want to take advantage of its processing power and HDR+ skills. It could be that this update improves that experience for other camera apps.

The update should be live on your Pixel 2 phone right now.

Google Play Link

Cheers Kevin!

February 26, 2018
Google’s ARCore Brings Advanced AR Apps to 13 Phones, Google Lens to All
Man, we’re not even to MWC 2018 yet and Google is dropping news bomb after news bomb. After telling us about all of their Google Assistant plans, we now know what’s coming with their ARCore platform and Google Lens. To put it simply, a big ol’ group of people can now access both.

For ARCore, an update to v1.0 dropped this week to take it out of beta and it enables advanced AR capabilities on 13 devices. It also opens up the option for developers to publish their AR apps on Google Play, so that you can start having fun with augmented reality. We’ll be on the lookout for the first sets of these AR apps, like this Ghostbusters World bunch of awesomeness.

Google ARCore supported phones:
- Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL
- Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, Note 8, S7, S7 Edge
- LG V30, V30+
- ASUS Zenfone AR
- OnePlus 5
For Google Lens, Google has brought Lens to almost everyone’s phone through Google Photos. Now, when you take pictures and open them in Photos, you’ll be able to tap the Lens button to learn more. That could mean selecting text in an image, using one to create a contact, and recognizing places, animals, plants, etc. An update to enable this for everyone will arrive in the “coming weeks.”

In addition to Lens through Photos, Google says that they will also soon bring camera-based Lens support to Google Assistant for others. They didn’t provide a list of those devices, but they’ll be flagship-level, like the Galaxy S9 or LG V30.

Google Play Links: ARCore

// Google
February 23, 2018
Google Wallet Becomes Google Pay Send Until Google Pay Gets Send/Request Money Feature

While Google begins making the shift of Android Pay to Google Pay today, you may be curious what the future holds for Google Wallet. For the next few months, it’ll still live on, but it’s being rebranded as well. Google Wallet will become Google Pay Send until Google can bake send/request money features into Google Pay.

The announcement for Google Wallet was attached to the bottom of today’s Google Pay news. Google said to expect not only a name change, but “a fresh coat of paint to go with the Google Pay brand” as well. And again, this is happening because Google Pay will get the ability to send and request money “within the next few months.” At that point, Google Pay Send will likely be retired.

Google hasn’t quite flipped the switch on Wallet on Google Play just yet. I’d bet that’ll happen within the next few hours. Again, be on the lookout for an update!

Google Play Link

// Google

February 20, 2018
Android Pay App Makes the Switch to Google Pay, Gets Spicy New UI (Updated)

The next time you see an update to your Android Pay app, it will no longer be called Android Pay. Instead, Google will flip the switch over to the Google Pay branding it told us to expect back in January.

The change happened on Google Play over night and not only shows a change in name, but a refreshed UI as well. While I have yet to receive the update that changes the name, the new listing shows the branding and screenshots of what we can expect. Take a look.

This new, heavily white UI, is no longer filled from edge to edge with a stack of your cards. Instead, Google has made everything smaller, added more info to the front page (like recent activity), and tossed in a slideout menu to house settings. It’s clean!

UPDATE: Google has now announced that today is the day for Google Pay to arrive.

In this new UI, the home tab not only shows your current active card an recent purchases, it’ll be there to help you find nearby stores, access rewards, and even offer up tips. A new cards tab has arrived too, as well as a new fast way to pay for transit in select cities (Kiev, London, and Portland), where “all you need at the turnstile is the device that’s already in your hand.”

Finally, Google says to expect the ability to send and request money within the next few months in the US and UK.

Here’s another look at the new UI:

Be on the lookout for it!

Google Play Link

February 20, 2018
RIP, Swype. (Updated)

Swype, one of the original apps we ever covered on this site, has apparently been put to rest by its owners. Nuance, the company that bought Swype in 2011 for $100M, told a redditor today that they are no longer developing for the Swype keyboard and that they have decided to exit the “direct-to-consumer keyboard business.”

We reached out to Nuance and have yet to hear back, but XDA claims to have confirmed with the company that Swype is indeed dead. We know for sure that the iOS version was discontinued at the beginning of this month. The odd thing here is the fact that a new Android version was supposed to have been released on the day they announced iOS’ demise.

Either way, if you look through any of the recent reviews for Swype, it appears as if the app is struggling. Most acknowledge that the app is no longer what it once was. That’s too bad.

If we hear back from Nuance, we’ll be sure to update this post.

UPDATE 2/21: Here is the official statement that Nuance delivered to us.

After years of leadership in the third-party keyboard and alternative text input space, Nuance made the difficult decision to discontinue our support of the Swype keyboard application as we continue to focus our efforts on AI-powered solutions for our core vertical markets. This means that the app is no longer available for new downloads from the iPhone or Android App Stores and that we are no longer maintaining or making updates to the app. However, current users still have the ability to access and use the app as normal and will be able to contact Nuance for tech support as needed for the next several months.

The core technology behind Swype will continue to be utilized and improved upon across other Nuance offerings – and integrated into our broader AI-powered solutions – most notably in Android-based keyboard solutions for our automotive customers.

We thank Swype’s loyal user base for its support.

Anyone have fond memories of Swype?

Google Play Link

// reddit | XDA

February 19, 2018
Google is Adding Features to the Screenshot Tool, But Only in the Google App for Now

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Google to build screenshot scrolling into Android, since almost every other phone maker on the planet has done so except them. Over the weekend, they actually began rolling out a screenshot-related update, it’s just that it’s only available in the Google App and it isn’t scrolling capture. It is pretty cool, though.

Some users (as you can see above) are being prompted to turn the feature on when in the Google App. As the teaser suggests, the new screenshot feature is a set of tools that help you edit and share all of the screenshots you take. How is that different from what we already have, you ask? I’ll tell you.

When you turn this feature on (Google App>Settings>Accounts & privacy>Edit and share screenshots), which was first spotted by 9to5Google, shortly after you take a screenshot, you’ll get a prompt at the bottom of your screen with options to “Edit” or “Share.” Instead of the screenshot and its options hiding in a notification, you get prompted on-screen.

If you tap on “Edit,” you’ll get three new buttons: crop, done, and draw.” The crop button lets you quickly crop the size of your screenshot, the done button lets you finish and share, and the draw button lets you…draw (in different colors). So no scrolling capture, but you do get quick resizing and drawing without needing to open anything else, like Google Photos.

And again, this only works within the Google App, so if you are in Chrome, you won’t see these tools. But if you do searches from within the Google App, then load up Chrome pages from there, it’ll work (as you can see above). Maybe there could be plans to implement this in Chrome or other apps or Google Assistant, now that’d be nice.

The option is there for me in v7.21.19.21 of the Google App.

Google Play Link

Cheers @pauljonessb!

February 19, 2018

Category: Apps

Pixel 2 XL (left), Essential Phone (right)

Google ARCore supported phones: