Welcome to the 509th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Once again we bring you the latest news and apps from the previous week. Let’s start with some of the biggest headlines from last week:
A recent code dive suggests Google is working on a new Profiles feature for Messenger that would allow users to set their own profile name and photo. It’s possible this could be an RCS feature, or it could be a Google Messages feature similar to how Apple manages iMessage and Contact Posters used in it.
Gmail for Android is testing a new feature that will help us respond to our emails faster. The new method will let you quickly begin typing a response to an email as you read it.
Ads may soon be heading to WhatsApp, as confirmed by the platform’s head Will Cathcart. The ads will only be displayed in areas like the Status page and Channels. Whatsapp promises it won’t put ads in the main inbox, thankfully.
Google is rallying big European telecom companies together to take on Apple’s iMessage in Europe. In a little to the European Commission, Google and its allies argue iMessage should be considered a gatekeeper service, which would force Apple to make it interoperable with other messaging apps.
Previously if you wanted to read Instagram messages without letting anyone know you had to use a workaround involving Airplane mode and logging out of the app. Thankfully Meta has officially solved this problem, letting users turn off read receipts.
Google has announced it’s testing new generative AI experiments for YouTube. This includes using AI to summarize the broad topic of the comments in videos and the ability to use an AI chatbot to answer questions about the video being watched without interrupting playback.
Looking for some new Android apps and Android games to keep you occupied? Below we take a look at some of our favorite suggestions for the week. This week we have three games and two app suggestions.
