Welcome to the 426th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- WhatsApp had some news this week. First, WhatsApp improved its voice messaging. The playback is slightly different and you have new options like fast forward mode. Hit the link to learn more. In addition, WhatsApp is experimenting with larger file sizes when it comes to sharing. The service wants to improve that up to 2GB. That’s good news for users.
- Sony announced a new PlayStation Plus this week and it competes better with Xbox’s Game Pass. It essentially adds a new tier to the existing PlayStation Plus that lets you do things like download and play games without paying for them and it includes cloud play. It won’t be available in all markets at launch, but it is coming nonetheless.
- Microsoft fixed one of the most annoying issues with Windows 11. As of this week, the stable version now lets users switch their browsers with one click. Previously, it took many clicks. There isn’t much else to this piece of news. It was highly annoying before and now it’s fixed.
- Xiaomi is joining Samsung in the throttling doghouse. Geekbench co-founder John Poole discovered that Xiaomi throttled Geekbench when it was disguised as a game, but not when it was showing as a benchmark. This is the same kind of behavior Samsung exhibited that got Samsung in hot water a few weeks ago. Here’s hoping Xiaomi fixes the problem like Samsung did.
- A lot of services are removing their footprint from Russia in the wake of the Russia and Ukraine war. Sanctions are currently preventing Russian developers from getting paid, so they’re working on their own version of the Play Store. The new app store is apparently launching on May 9th of this year so the work is proceeding quickly.
Tamashi: Rise of Yokai
Price: Free to play
