Droid Life

Category: Apps

The latest selection of Android apps, both free and paid, are found right here. If you were looking for that fresh list of trending Android apps, we have you covered on a daily basis. Want to know the newest Android application releases first? Want to know which Android applications are free for a limited time?

Whether it’s Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, or lesser known apps like Nova Launcher, Trello, Sling TV, and Philips Hue, you will know the best Android apps at all times.

Got a suggestion for a new app you think we should check out? We are all ears and regularly accept user-submitted applications, so that you won’t pay until you know if we approve.

  • Sling TV Raises Orange Tier Price, Launches New Experience

    Sling TV Raises Orange Tier Price, Launches New Experience

    Sling dropped a whole bunch of news today surrounding its Sling TV streaming service. For one, the price of the Orange tier is increasing, but we should also see a revamped experience in the near future, as well as more à la carte channels to choose from.

    On the topic of the price hike, the Orange bundle is increasing from $20 to $25/mo. Sling states the obvious in their announcement for this change, that programming fees have increased and this is what they have to do. Of course, this Orange was once only 15 channels and is now 30, so there is still quite a bit of value there.

    The new price is already live for new customers. If you are a current Sling TV customer with an Orange plan, your price will increase to the $25 mark on your August bill. The Blue plan is still $25.

    In other Sling news, they are pushing out a new experience on Roku that includes a bunch of free content that you can watch without re-upping your subscription. The new experience also includes more à la carte channels that you can buy without the need for an Orange or Blue subscription. Some of the options are NBA League Pass ($28.99/mo), Stingray Karaoke ($7/mo),l and Showtime ($10/mo). Sling will offer more pay-per-view options too, which won’t need a subscription either.

    The new experience is here for select Roku users right away, but should arrive on other devices in the “future.”

    // Sling [2]

  • You Can Now Add a Soundtrack to Instagram Stories, Not a Bad Music Selection Either

    You Can Now Add a Soundtrack to Instagram Stories, Not a Bad Music Selection Either

    Instagram is rolling out the ability to add a soundtrack to your Stories and we’re not talking about some corny music from Apple’s GarageBand assortment of Rock or Hip Hop loops. These are actual songs that you’ve probably heard on the radio, such as work from Bruno Mars, Demi Lovato, Maroon 5, and The Weeknd. No word if Cannibal Corpse or Decapitated is available, but I’ll let you know.

    The way you’ll add music is pretty simple, but if you’re on iOS, it’s even more simple. For Android, you’ll record your Story, then upload it. After that, you’ll tap to add a Sticker. In that section, you’ll see a new Music option, and it’s from there that you can add whatever music you want.

    Whenever someone watches a Story with a new Music sticker, they’ll see the album artwork and track information of the music that’s playing. On iOS, you can select the music before recording your Story and Instagram says that feature is coming later for Android.

    Instagram says they’re adding new music to the service daily, so like I said, I’ll keep you posted on the Death Metal selection.

    // Instagram

  • Google Calendar Picks Up Out of Office Event Option, Work Hour Restrictions

    Google Calendar Picks Up Out of Office Event Option, Work Hour Restrictions

    Google Calendar for web is picking up two important new features over the next week. One of them will let you inform others that you are “out of office,” and the other lets you customize stricter working hours, so that others will leave you the hell alone.

    With the new “out of office” option, you’ll be able to create calendar events that have a “different look” that normal calendar events, letting others know that you aren’t available at that time. Should someone try and invite you to an event then, Google Calendar will automatically decline it. And yep, you can customize the decline message.

    Additionally, Calendar will try to “intelligently detect” if you are creating an “out of office” event, based on the past.

    google calendar, out of office

    For the new working hours restriction, you now get to customize working hours for each day. Previously, you could only set these as a blanket time for all days. When this new feature shows up, Google may prompt you to set it all up.

    These new features should rollout over the next two weeks.

    // G Suite

  • YouTube Picture-in-Picture on Android Working Without a Premium Account

    YouTube Picture-in-Picture on Android Working Without a Premium Account

    Over the past month or so, a number of readers have suggested to us that YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode (PiP) was working for them even though they didn’t have a Premium (or RED) account. Since that feature was supposed to be exclusive to YouTube Premium, we assumed it was some sort of a bug. As it turns out, they may have just been on the early end of a ridiculously slow rollout.

    A number of reddit users discovered the same yesterday, which we’ve now verified in one of our own non-Premium accounts – YouTube picture-in-picture is working.

    Google hasn’t announced the switch to my knowledge, but they do seem to acknowledge the openness at YouTube support. The picture-in-picture page now says that anyone with Android Oreo and up should have access. The only limits are PiP mode for videos “that contain music content,” as that’s an exclusive to YouTube Premium members.

    To access YouTube PiP, head into your YouTube app, then Settings>General and toggle on Picture-in-picture if it’s not already on. From there, watch a video and tap your phone’s home button. With a video playing, tapping home should drop the video into a mini floating video over the top of other apps.

    Google Play Link

  • Google Maps New Explore Tab, “For You” Section are Available to Everyone

    Google Maps New Explore Tab, “For You” Section are Available to Everyone

    Should you open Google Maps this afternoon during your commute home and the UI looks a little weird, that’s intentional! Google is rolling out a big UI tweak that includes new Explore and For You tabs. They first mentioned this update back in May at Google I/O and are just now getting around to the global push.

    The new Explore tab wants to help you find nearby events or restaurants that you might want to visit. The UI is very picture-forward, shows trending lists from local experts, lets you filter the results, and will try to show you a numeric rating for spots that it thinks you’ll enjoy. The closer to 100, the more of a match it should be.

    new google maps old google maps

    New vs. Old

    The For You section is a bit more fine-tuned to specific areas you care about. You can select your city or town, plus other places you might regularly visit. This tab will then show you hot new restaurants, make recommendations in those areas, and any related news.

    Again, the new UI is rolling out to all in the US today. Hit that link below to grab the latest update.

    Google Play Link

    // Google

  • You Should Have Android Messages for Web at This Point

    You Should Have Android Messages for Web at This Point

    Android Messages picked up a web client last week, but Google rolled it out in the trolliest of slow fashions. It took a while, which led to a number of you asking if the version of your Android Messages app mattered or if Google was messing with you by skipping updates that you thought were the one you needed, that sort of thing. We tried to assure you that all was well and that Google doesn’t actually conspire to make your life suck.

    Either way, according to Google’s Justin Uberti, full deployment has happened. In other words, you should be able to get to the Android Messages for web client if you couldn’t previously.

    How do you do that? Open Android Messages, tap on the top-right menu button and then choose “Messages for web” to open up a QR scanner. Then, from your computer, open up messages.android.com and scan the QR code that you see. That should do it.

    If for some reason you aren’t seeing the option, hit that Google Play link below and make sure you are up-to-date. Version 3.3.044 should be the one you want.

    From there, you get the whole Android Messages experience, only from a desktop browser. You can send and receive text messages, see previews, pick stickers or emoji or images, and even switch to a dark mode.

    Google Play Link

  • Google’s Measure Tool Now Usable in Google Earth for Chrome and Android

    Google’s Measure Tool Now Usable in Google Earth for Chrome and Android

    Measure, Google’s software tool for measuring things, is now available inside of Google Earth for Chrome users. The feature will come to Android users this week, too.

    With Measure, you can measure basically anything that’s on Google Earth. For example, you can get the distance of your house to the North Pole or you can measure the area of your block. Like I said, you can measure whatever you want, so long as it’s on Google Earth.

    As Google mentions, this feature is live right now for Earth users on Chrome and will be available inside of the Android app this week. If you’re on iOS, you’ll need to wait a bit longer before you have access to Measure.

    Go check it out for yourself!

    Google Earth Link

    // Google

  • Millennials Rejoice, Venmo Now Has a Debit Card

    Millennials Rejoice, Venmo Now Has a Debit Card

    Venmo, the money transfer service used by millennials the world over, introduced its very own debit card this week, allowing you to take your Venmo balance wherever you go.

    While many Venmo users may receive money in their account and then instantly transfer the balance to their actual bank, the Venmo card lets you keep that money in your account and then spend it basically anywhere you want. Because it’s a Mastercard, you can use it anywhere Mastercard is accepted, but it doubles as a debit card so it’s completely ATM friendly should you need cold hard cash.

    The card comes with all of the security and usability features you’d expect in 2018. It has a chip for added protection, a feature to disable it instantly from within the Venmo app, and it also has the contactless payment tech built in. Venmo doesn’t specify if it’ll work with services like Apple Pay or Google Pay yet, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t later down the road.

    Oh, and they have pretty colors to choose from.

    To get your very own Venmo card, update your Venmo app from Google Play (there’s a new update this morning that enables this card), then reserve your spot in line to receive one. Currently, Venmo is slowly rolling out these cards, so we can’t say for sure when you’ll receive one. Fingers crossed it’s soon because I use Venmo religiously and this would be pretty clutch to have in my wallet.

    // Venmo