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

Welcome to the 494th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:

• Android 14 beta 4.1 landed this week. It brought with it a long list of bug fixes and performance improvements. This is fairly typical for an Android update this late into the cycle as the stable version creeps closer. Among the changes was Android 14’s work profile and how it suspends apps once you switch out of the profile. As Android 14 progresses, we bemoan the end of Android 4.4 KitKat, which is officially losing support in Google Play Services.
• Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are teaming up to take on Google Maps and Apple Maps. The two mainstays in the navigation space have ruled the roost for a long time. With this alliance of huge tech companies, there may be a third option here before too long. Click the link to read more about it.
• Elon Musk is at it again at Twitter this week. Or rather, we should say that Elon Musk is at it at X this week. The eccentric owner changed Twitter’s branding to X, including removing the Twitter logo for an X logo. Hit the link to learn more. The company is also considering charging folks for more than 500 DMs a day to help control bot spam.
• Bing Chat has begun pushing Bing Chat to Safari and Chrome this week. This lets folks not on Edge chat with Bing’s ChatGPT. People on those browsers have usage and character limits, so you predictably don’t get the full experience unless you use Microsoft Edge. The update is rolling out so you’ll see it eventually.
• Google announced a new Play Store specifically for foldables and tablets this week. The new Play Store lets you only search for apps that are optimized for larger or foldable screens. This is a good idea, since you can turn on recommendations for non-optimized apps if you want to. Google has spent the last couple of years trying to get developers to optimize apps for larger displays. Now, those developers have to if they want to be involved with this new Play Store.

 

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