5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly

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Welcome to the 484th edition of Android Apps Weekly. This one is also a bit longer than most, thanks to Google I/O 2023. Here are the big headlines from the last week:

• Skyline, the Nintendo Switch emulator, was shut down this week. The developers received a DMCA takedown request from Nintendo. It’s not for the emulator itself but rather the method the developers use to dump security keys. You can read more about it at the link.
• Google Play Store ads are apparently getting worse. The Play Store is now offering ads and limited-time events when you search for something. It only shows up after clicking on the search bar, but they are easy enough to ignore. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but you’ll definitely notice it.
• Samsung and Google are working together to make background apps more reliable. In fact, Samsung promises that One UI 6.0 (built on Android 14) won’t kill your background tasks as frequently as it does right now. This is a big deal since Samsung’s penchant for shutting down background tasks is legendary.
• Android’s Find My Device network will soon use Bluetooth proximity to help track your Android phone. It’ll also work with Tile, Chipolo, Pebblebee, and more trackers over time. In short, this brings Android’s Find My Device network in line with Apple’s by using every Android phone in the world to help find yours. That’s great news. Read more about it at the link.
• Android 14 Beta 2 arrived for Pixel phones this week. The new update includes support for 10-bit HDR, lossless USB audio, and out-of-the-box support for Health Connect. Hit the link to learn more details, but we knew most of this stuff was coming already.
• Google I/O 2023 had a number of app-related announcements. We’ll list them all briefly with links so you can learn about everything that happened. Google announced Magic Editor as part of Google Photos. It’s quite powerful, and it’s worth checking out. Google Bard got a host of updates, including AI art generation and an upgrade to Google’s PaLM 2. Google also opened Bard up to 180 countries in English, Korean, and Japanese.
• Google announced that RCS is used by 800 million people, and none of them are Apple users. Google also added more AI experiences to Gmail via the Help Me Write feature, Google Maps via Immersive View for Routes, and Google Search. There was even an AI-driven notebook for students that is in active development. Hit all of the above links to learn more about each product.

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