Welcome to the 520th edition of Android Apps Weekly, where we discuss the latest in mobile news and take a closer look at some of the most interesting new apps and games. Let’s jump right in and take a look at some of the biggest highlights from the last week:
Google Assistant with Bard has now appeared as a demo within the Pixel Tips app. This demo version gives us a closer look at how the feature will work and suggests it could be coming to newer Tensor-powered Pixels in a near-future Pixel Feature Drop.
Samsung announced the Circle to Search feature developed in partnership with Google will stay exclusive to Google and Samsung phones through most of 2024 but could make its way to more phones outside of these brands after October 5, 2024.
Google Maps is getting a feature that helps you discover new places using Google’s LLM technology. Apparently, Maps will analyze information on over 250 million places and combine this with insights from the community to provide you with destination suggestions. This would not only help you discover places you’ve never been but also give you suggestions for activities on rainy days or during bleak winter weather.
An APK teardown has revealed Google Photos may be getting a new social feature of sorts, called My Week. This basically lets you share highlights of the week through pictures. Users will be able to specify which photos are included in the highlights and will even have the ability to shut the feature off if it feels like something you wouldn’t use.
Samsung has released an update to its Quick Share app on Galaxy devices that adds support for Google’s Nearby Share. We previously reported these two similar standards were somewhat merging, and now that’s starting to finally happen. Unfortunately sharing with Nearby Share-enabled devices using the Quick Share app doesn’t work yet, but it should in the future. That’s not the only change from Samsung though, as the company has also updated its Quick Share for Windows app.
Looking for some new Android apps and Android games to keep you occupied? Unfortunately, we have no new apps to highlight this week, though there are five new games worth taking a closer look at.
