Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

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Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

DashLinQ Car Driving Mode App

This week's roundup is brought to you by DashLinkQ Car Driving Mode from GROM Audio. This custom car dashboard app can show a variety of finger-friendly widgets and links for use without actively taking your eyes off the road with your phone in a car dock. Controls for local and streaming music are included, and the app can instantly activate Google Now for voice commands. The app can start automatically when connected to Bluetooth or to a GROM Audio system. DashLinQ is free for Android 4.1 or later, with a $5 pro upgrade for even more premium features and an ad-free experience.

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DashLinQ is a car friendly drive mode launcher that makes it easy and safe to use your Smartphone. DashLinQ offers safe way to use Smartphone in the car mode with voice control, large, simple icons with bright colors, and intuitive user interface. DashLinQ drive mode can be activated via Bluetooth or GROM Link automatically. Pressing Home button will return back to DashLinQ (option in Settings). DashLinQ drive mode app offers unique media plugins to integrate Local Music (stored on the phone), Google Music (purchased or uploaded via Music Manager), Web Radio (similar to TuneIn, iHeartRadio etc) and Spotify (streaming requires Premium account) to make music listening easy. You can see what is playing and control directly from DashLinQ.

Download DashLinQ Car Driving Mode on the Play Store

Apps

Spaces - Small group sharing

Android Police coverage: [Update: APK] Google Makes 'Spaces' Group Sharing App Official, Launching Today On Android, iOS, And Web

Google has an exciting, new, dynamic social app that's coming to a phone near you... no wait, come back! This time it's all about small groups sharing amongst themselves! It integrates with YouTube, Chrome, Google Search and Photos, and it has a commenting system, and... and... and it will definitely still be around in two years. Totally. For sure.

Create a space in one tap, and invite people any way you like with a quick link. With Google Search, Chrome, YouTube, and Google Photos built in, you can find and share articles, videos, and photos from within the app. And when you need to get back to something you recently saw in one of your spaces, use the search feature to find it in a snap. From study groups to house hunting to weekend trips and more, Spaces helps you get a group together quickly to share things about any topic.

Quik - Free Video Editor

Android Police coverage: GoPro's Quik Video Editor Comes Out Of Beta, Available For Everyone Now

Video editing on a mobile platform isn't exactly easy, but if anyone can make it so, GoPro can. The prodigious action cam manufacturer bought a successful iOS editor lock, stock, and barrel, and renamed it Quik. In contrast with some of the less serious editors available now, Quik focuses on timing rather than filters and effects, especially in its music-tuning tools. (It does have a "square" mode specifically for Instagram, though.)

Quik is the fastest, easiest way to create awesome videos — automatically. In just seconds, it analyzes your photos and video clips to find the best moments, adds beautiful transitions and effects, and syncs everything to the beat of the music. Customize your story with music, filters, graphics and more. It’s never been faster or more fun to create a video you’ll want to share with everyone.

Plughy - The GIF plugin

Android Police coverage: Plughy Is Android's Giphy GIF Plugin — Insert GIFs Anywhere Just Like On Slack

Plughy is an app that scours the Internet for that perfect animated GIF for any particular moment, assuming said moment is capable of being enshrined in a comment field. The implementation is a lot like Slack: enter the /giphy command and then a search term and you'll be able to quickly grab a relevant GIF. It's not always precise, but it's usually entertaining anyway.

Use Giphy's everywhere. Plughy will search Giphy for a nice GIF, just like on Slack.Just type "/giphy [search term(s)];" in ANY app you want, and let the magic begin. It even works mid-sentences. Don't forget the ";" at the end of your search. Example: "/giphy magic;" Plughy will of course never use your input for anything else. Plughy works with every app input field on your Android device, in every app. But for example it works with:

quickReply (public beta)

Android Police coverage: QuickReply Emulates N's Quick Reply Notifications, Available On Lollipop And Up

One of the cooler bits of Android N is the revised quick reply system. But as in years past, some users aren't content to wait months (or longer) for the next version of Android to land on their phones before rolling up their sleeves and doing it themselves. QuickReply is in a very fast public beta, though you'll need Lollipop or later to enjoy it. The quick reply windows are themable and work with most of the popular messaging apps on Android. It's free to try with a .29 unlocker app.

quickReply will show you separate notifications for every contact including reply action buttons, so you can easily write quick replies without opening the messaging app.

• Separate notifications for every contact

• QuickReply: Send quick replies

• DirectReply: Send your own predefined messages

• Heads-up quick replies

• Mark as read for WhatsApp and others.

• Chat heads notification to write messages at any time

QUICKREPLY SUPPORTED APPS:

• WhatsApp, Telegram, Threema, Skype, Line, WeChat, Kik, EvolveSms, YAATA, Textra, ChompSms, Hangouts, Handcent SMS...

MARK AS READ SUPPORTED APPS:

• WhatsApp, Telegram, Threema, Skype, WeChat, Kik, EvolveSms...

foobar2000

Android Police coverage: Foobar2000 Arrives On Android, Direct From The Year 2010 Apparently

Foobar2000 is something of a famous desktop audio player. It hasn't been especially relevant for a while (ever since operating systems more or less sorted out music file format issues), but hardcore users still like its customizable nature and impressive equalizer tools. The Android version is a bit late to the party, and it looks like it with a less-than-flattering UI, but most of the familiar tools are present and the app is free.

foobar2000 mobile is an advanced audio player for mobile devices.

  • Supported audio formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack.
  • Full ReplayGain support (playback and scanning).
  • Supports playback and downloading music from UPnP media servers.
foobar2000 Developer: Resolute
Price: Free
3.8
Download

Dark Sky - Hyperlocal Weather

Android Police coverage: Popular 'Hyperlocal' Dark Sky Weather App Comes To Android, But A Subscription Payment Model Rains On The Parade

Dark Sky is a popular "hyperlocal" iOS weather app. And its translation to Android would have gone more or less unnoticed except by fans of the iPhone version... if it weren't for a weirdly inconsistent pricing model. See, the iOS app is a flat four bucks, but on Android the app is "free to try." If you want access to the pinpoint weather reports or features like a homescreen widget, you'll have to pay three dollars... a year. Come on now Dark Sky, don't piss on my boots and tell me it's raining.

Dark Sky is the most accurate source of hyperlocal weather information. With down-to-the-minute forecasts, you’ll know exactly when the rain will start or stop, right where you're standing. (It's like magic.) The app is free to download and includes a full 24-hour forecast, a detailed 7-day forecast, current conditions, and beautiful weather maps. Sign up for a two-week free trial to explore all of the premium features below. If you love it as much as we think you will, it’s only $2.99 / year thereafter.

App Volume Control

Windows has a neat little volume tool that can independently adjust the volume level for individual programs. Android doesn't do that, aside from the very basic alarm/media/notification division. App Volume Control corrects that oversight, allowing users to specify volume on an app-by-app basis. It's a great idea, even if the implementation is a little on the technical side. It even has an option for different volumes with headphones or Bluetooth connected - nice touch.

App Volume Control is a smart volume manager, it can easily manage the volume of your applications. Once set, the application takes care of changing the volume of your applications as soon as they appear. No more volume settings at each change of application, App Volume Control does it for you. You can switch between applications / games to another and the volume will be adjusted automatically.

App Volume Control Developer: SpyCorp
Price: Free
2.6
Download

Roger - Talk More Often

Roger is a pretty standard messenger app, but it has a secret weapon: integration with Amazon's Alexa system. It has access to all the same voice tools that the Echo does, at least according to the description. The core of the app is focused more on voice communication, and at present there's no limit on how long users can talk to contacts. It doesn't use a WhatsApp-style phone number system, though, so you'll need to get your friends and family to tackle yet another chat app.

Roger is a free conversation app re-imagining the way we talk to each other. Like a walkie talkie but better, Roger makes it easy to talk to anyone in your phone, no matter where they are—down the street, down under, or across the pond.

• Stay in touch with family and friends abroad no matter the time.

• Easy day-to-day communication with your nearest and dearest.

• Keep connecting with friends and classmates after school.

Magic Cleaner for WhatsApp

Magic Cleaner purports to magically sift through the hundreds of photos you've received in WhatsApp and delete the ones that aren't important. Despite the somewhat lame shtick, it's impressive that it automatically finds junk like memes and glorified emoji so that users can focus on actual photos instead. At the moment it's only for WhatsApp.

Doctor Kleen loves cleanliness. Invite him into your phone and watch as he finds all those junk photos piling up and taking up space in your phone. He knows what’s important to you and what’s trash. He’ll smartly separate the two so you can simply remove all the junk in just one tap. It doesn't take more than a few seconds to analyze all your photos. So instead of spending hours and hours deleting this junk manually, you can now leave this job to Doctor Kleen, and go out and do something more interesting and meaningful in life :)

RasPi Card Imager

This little app will allow you to create bootable images for a tiny Raspberry Pi computer and write them to your MicroSD card directly from an Android phone or tablet. Why do this on your phone instead of your computer? I have no idea. But the app includes download links for some of the more popular bootable options, and users can also flash images to an SD card reader if their hardware supports it.

Prepare bootable SD cards for your Raspberry Pi direct on your phone

  • No PC required.
  • downloads and installs OS
  • images to SD card or USB (card reader)

Can install NOOBS, NOOBS Lite, PINN and BerryBoot. Supports SD card in phone (if rooted), or via USB card reader.

Pi SD Card Imager Developer: Mike Redrobe
Price: Free
3.3
Download

NVIDIA VR Viewer - Beta

NVIDIA is taking some hesitant steps towards full VR support. Not a full headset (as if we needed another one), but the latest graphics cards have built-in VR tools, and this little app for Android is meant to show off some of the software tech the company has been developing. It's a fairly standard tech demo, but the cool factor is how it allows users to take 360-degree "photos" inside games or CAD programs and then export them for viewing in Cardboard.

With the NVIDIA VR Viewer App, you can enjoy 360 stereo panoramic images on your smartphone based on two exciting NVIDIA technologies. NVIDIA Ansel® technology is a revolutionary new way to capture in-game screenshots. Compose your shots from any position, adjust with post-process filters, capture HDR images in high fidelity formats on your PC, and share your screenshots in 360 for playback on your smartphone.

Squarespace Start (Beta)

Squarespace is well known for its WYSIWIG website creation and hosting system, but sometimes you don't need anything quite so elaborate. Squarespace Start is all about creating a "micro site," a tiny little landing page that's primarily for imparting a small amount of information or directing someone somewhere else. It's simple enough that new sites can be created and connected to a new domain through this app alone.

For more than ten years, Squarespace has made it possible for anyone to create a beautiful website from their desktop device. Now we’re thinking smaller. Introducing the Start app. Finally, creating a bold, single page website is as simple as reaching into your pocket. Just select a layout, choose a background, and write your own captions. When your page is ready for the world, you can purchase a domain —all from the convenience of your phone or tablet.

Drone Companion

This app is designed to be a sort of pre-flight safety checklist for novice drone pilots (you DID register your shiny new flying machine with the FAA, right?). It includes a few other pointers for new comers as well, all wrapped up in an interesting interface that should appeal to hobbyists if no one else.

You just bought an expensive new Drone and are concerned you're not informed enough about the flight procedures and regulations? You're looking for a simple to use and intuitive application to help you remember the crucial preparation steps for getting your Drone ready? You want to enjoy flying your Drone and not worry about forgetting the important stuff? The "Drone Companion" application is the one and only application to help you prepare your Drone/Quadcopter/UAV for safe flying.

5217

5217 is an app that reminds you to take regular breaks from your work, like some kind of dirty communist. (Kidding.) The idea is to set up an ideal cycle of 52 minutes of work to 17 minutes of break, which is the best because some study somewhere said so. It's certainly a pretty app, and it achieves its goal well enough, recording the number of cycles you complete in your workday.

According to findings from The Muse, frequent breaks throughout the day can improve productivity. Specifically, a piece published in the summer of 2014 found that the most productive cycle is comprised of 52 minutes of work followed by a 17 minute break. 5217, as you might have guessed, is a tool to record that cycle. With beautiful but subtle transitions, encouraging messages, and playful alarm tones, 5217 gently guides you through your work, allowing you to share how many cycles you were able to complete in a day when you're done.

Notifly

Notifly is another alternate notification system. This time it takes the floating "bubble" approach, so that the translated notifications are available from any app (including those that hide the notification bar) without diving into the notification area proper. A few messaging apps have APIs that allow users to reply directly without opening the app. The "plus" version of the app opens up new colors and removes the advertising.

Notifly offers a new way to read notifications and also reply to notifications. Just from anywhere you want. Sometimes you did not want to quit your current app but also need to quick reply to a message. At this point Notifly will help you. By receiving a notification Notifly will open it's content in a small bubble. By clicking this a bounded popup with the content will appear. You can read it but also directly reply to it without quiting the current application. Currently Notifly supports WhatsApp, Telegram and Messenger.

Notifly Developer: Flyperinc
Price: Free
3.6
Download

Slash Keyboard

Slash is a keyboard with a search engine built in. The idea isn't completely new: Google's own learning system includes at least some of this stuff, but Slash can do a full web search and insert relevant results from most of the popular social and sharing sites without switching to a new app. It's an interesting approach to be sure - if you often communicate in the universal language of YouTube, it might be worth a shot.

Messages are about more than just words, so we think your keyboard should be about more than just letters. Slash gives you quick access to the things you share every day like photos, places, music, GIFs, stickers, emoji and more. Just tap “/” to unlock the magic. Our goal is to boost your productivity and make your conversations more fun. Slash works in your favorite messaging apps and social networks, including Messages, Email, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.

Stream: free music for YouTube

This app is basically a free version of YouTube Music/Red, without the bells and whistles. It uses YouTube's embedded nature to create a custom app specifically tailored to music videos, organized by genre. The app allows users to like songs in their custom "stream" and create manual playlists. Sadly there's no download or background function - you'll have to go official for that.

You've been waiting for it...now it's here: THE free YouTube smart music player. Stream gives you access to all of YouTube music videos and lets you play them in a handy floating popup for a background and multitasking music listening. Search your favorite artists, create your own playlists, discover new music genres and browse the daily Top Charts of your country. Finally a free YouTube player that lets you check your newsfeed or answer your messages while watching your favorite music videos.

Zum

Zum is essentially Uber for picking up and dropping off your kids. If that sounds terrifying, then congratulations, you're just as paranoid and distrustful as I am (though since we're talking about kids, it's not unjustified). Zum says it vets its drivers by only hiring those with a childcare background. The description doesn't say whether it's limited to certain areas at the moment.

Zum Android App is part of Zum Services Inc's technology platform, where parents can reserve rides and childcare services. Through this app a highly vetted driver with childcare background is assigned to the ride, and parents can check on the ride progress and connect via phone to an assigned 'family assistant' for questions. Safe, fast, and easy to use - it is a complete time saver for busy families.

Zum - Student Transportation Developer: Zum
Price: Free
4.8
Download

PixelMaker

If you're obsessed with the "pixel art" aesthetic that's still clinging to the mobile and indie gaming cultures like some kind of annoying toddler on your leg, you'd probably like some way to make pixel art on your phone. Well here it is: a basic image editor that focuses on drawing and painting laboriously, pixel by tiny, perfectly square pixel. Have fun. The app supports exporting as PNG via Android's standard share API.

PixelMaker is a drawing program designed specifically for making pixel art. Using easy to use tools on your device, you can design images as simple or as complex as you like. Experiment, and create characters and scenes based on your favorite classic video games, or draw something straight out of your own imagination.

PixelMaker Developer: Nostatic Software
Price: 2.99
Download

li.st

Li.st is... lists. That's it, just lists. Little bitty lists that are shared like tweets or Reddit posts. Do we really need this? Do we really need an Android app for this? Apparently so.

li.st lets you explore engaging lists on everything from passionate opinions to travel recommendations. Share your own experiences, opinions, musings, and knowledge in a positive, vibrant, fun community.

  • Discover an ever-widening spectrum of engaging, unique lists. Humor, recommendations, opinions, life musings, and more.
  • Connect with fascinating people expressing their lives through the medium of lists.
  • Share your own experiences, thoughts, and opinions through richly formatted lists with text, photos, GIFs, and locations.
  • Search the topics that matter most to you and save lists for quick access.
  • Stay informed and up-to-date with news summaries, film and music reviews, TV highlights and more from top publications.

Vivv Free effects and filters

It just wouldn't be an app roundup without another Instagram clone. This one will handle both photos and videos, with a specific eye for isolating single colors in an oh-so-artistic way. The tools allow you to take new videos and photos or edit the ones already on your phone, and if the single color-on-black and white doesn't suit your fancy, there are more conventional filters as well.

Vivv is your tool to create amazing, artistic and fun videos and pics for free. Make your videos and images come alive by selecting one or multiple colors to isolate, while having black and white backgrounds. Vivv is the only camera and video application that lets you highlight colors or add filters while you are filming or snapping pictures. With Vivv you can:

• Make black and white videos and images with splashes of color to create an artistic feel simply by tapping on the colors you want to show.

• Edit existing images by isolating colors and making them unique and artistic.

• Add one of our many filters to enhance your creation.

• Share your artistic and vivid creations easily with your friends.

Manufacturer And Tie-In Apps

HTC Ice View

Android Police coverage: HTC Releases An App For Its 'Ice View' See-Through Case For The HTC 10

I see HTC is still trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to swanky phone cases. Their latest effort for the new HTC 10 is called the "Ice View" case, and it's a big piece of transparent plastic. There's no particular reason why you need a special accessory to access this swanky neon interaction screen... aside from the fact that the app doesn't work with anything else.

Access your phone instantly without even opening the case. With HTC Ice View, you can answer calls, read notifications, control music playback, capture photos and more. Improve the way you use your phone with the dual-purpose case that combines protection and convenience.

  • View the time, date and weather
  • Check the battery level by tapping on clock
  • Receive or reject calls
  • Redial recent calls with a swipe up
  • Review notifications by swiping left or right
  • Open the camera using the Motion Launch gesture of swiping down twice when the screen is off
  • Snooze or dismiss alarms by swiping up or down
  • Skip songs or pause playback

Yahoo CM Weather Provider

This app adds Yahoo's weather data to CyanogenMod's built-in selection tool. If you use CM it might be handy (assuming the default provider is less than accurate in your area).

This application is a plugin for CyanogenMod's weather api's, providing real time weather data for any listeners from Yahoo. It requires at least API level 5 or higher in the CyanogenMod build you're running.

Live Wallpapers

Fallout® 4 Live Wallpaper

Android Police coverage: NVIDIA And Bethesda Teamed Up To Make A Neat Fallout 4 Live Wallpaper

Do you like Fallout... or at least Fallout's alternative-1950s post-apocalyptic art aesthetic? Then download this freebie live wallpaper from Bethesda and NVIDIA. (Don't worry, it works on non-NVIDIA hardware.) It stars the Vault-Tec skill bobbleheads in a random, rotating parade.

Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Fallout® 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, welcome you to the world of Fallout® 4 – their most ambitious game ever, and the next generation of open-world gaming. As the sole survivor of Vault 111, you enter a world destroyed by nuclear war. Every second is a fight for survival, and every choice is yours. Only you can rebuild and determine the fate of the Wasteland. Welcome home.

WTF App(s) Of The Week

Bad Translator

This app takes input text and translates it into another language using automated tools. And then it translates the text into another language the same way. Then another, and another, before finally re-translating it into the original language. It's like a game of Telephone, only everyone playing is a computer, and all the computers speak different languages.

BadTranslator is an app which takes your phrase, and translates it many times through different languages, and back to English again. During this process, you can get all sorts of crazy results, and you're guaranteed to have plenty of fun. We require no permissions other than internet access, as it uses our servers to translate your phrase. Give it a try, and if you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to contact us.

Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know!

If you have an application in mind for the next issue of the roundup, feel free to send us an email and let us know.

Important: there are 2 requirements in order for the app to be considered, listed below.

  • the app's launch date has to be no longer than 2 weeks ago
  • it has to be original, ground-breaking, well-reviewed, interesting, fun, etc - the cream of the crop

Now, if and only if the above requirements have been satisfied, fire up an email to this address: oh.no.its.the@androidpolice.com.

1 sponsored placement per week is available (your app would be featured at the top and marked as sponsored) - please contact us for details.