5 awesome new Android apps you should check out

5 awesome new Android apps you should check out

New apps and games stream into the Play Store non-stop, which is both good and bad. There’s plenty of content, but it can be hard to find things that are worth your time. You could through the glut of mediocre free-to-play games and keyboard skins all day and never find the really great stuff. Luckily, we’re here to find the coolest apps and games so you’ll know what’s worth your time and money. So, here are the best new apps and games on Android right now. Make sure to hit the gallery above for images of each pick.

Chromer

Android has supported a feature called webview for a long time, allowing developers to load webpages in their apps without booting you to a full browser. It gets the job done, but the experience is extremely slimmed down. Google recently deployed a new way to render content outside of the browser called Chrome custom tabs. These are faster and more powerful than webview, but you have to wait for developers to adopt them… unless you use Chromer.

This app basically replaces your standard browser for all URLs. When you tap a link, it’ll open in a Chrome custom tab courtesy of Chromer instead of going to the full Chrome browser. So, why would you want to do this? A custom tab doesn’t load up all the features and resources a full browser needs, so it’s incredibly fast. Because it’s using the standard Chrome Blink engine, the rendering is also very accurate. Chrome custom tabs also have the added bonus of supporting form fills and login info from the full Chrome browser.

Chromer itself doesn’t have many settings. Just a few animation and UI options. It’s simply a shortcut to getting Chrome custom tabs everywhere. There’s a menu in the Chrome tab that lets you open a link in the main Chrome browser if that’s something you decide to do.

Crimsonland

Dual-stick shooters are nothing new — you’ve probably played dozens of them on Android. However, Crimsonland is one of the best I’ve played on any platform. There are two different game modes, but the campaign is where you want to go first. Battling through level after level of top-down action will unlock powers and weapons that can be employed in the endless survival modes.

You begin most levels in Crimsonland with a wussy pistol. Better weapons (once unlocked) will be dropped by monsters as you take them out. The weapons are highly varied and run the gamut between fairly mundane shotguns and sci-fi plasma cannons. There are also powerups that can slow time, super-charge your weapon, and more. Unlike a lot of games, the survival mode is really worth playing. The way perks stack up as your character levels up can fundamentally change the gameplay.

Crimsonland doesn’t have especially flashy graphics, but it’s clean and very responsive. It’s a little expensive at $10, but there tr no in-app purchases and I think you’ll get your money’s worth.

Custom Quick Settings

Android 6.0 Marshmallow added a lot of cool user-facing features, but one of the coolest is only accessible if you know the trick to enable it. Long-pressing on the settings shortcut will unlock the system UI tuner, which allows you to change icons in the status bad and quick settings.Custom Quick Settings lets you take advantage of that to create new items in the quick settings, rather than just rearrange the ones that are already there.

It takes a few steps to add a new tile via this app, but keep in mind this is an experimental feature. it’s not likely to be easy, but the app does walk you through the whole process. Just create a new “broadcast tile” and give it the indicated name. From there, you can use Custom Quick Settings to add a link to a website, app, or even a Tasker action.

The basic functionality is free, but if you want to remove the ads and gain access to the tasker stuff (which really massively increases what you can do), you’ll have to pay about $1.50 via na in-app purchase. Remember, this is only for Android 6.0, but you can also use it on Android 5.x with root.

Adobe Premiere Clip

Google once had its own video editing app for Android, which was released first on Android 3.0 Honeycomb devices. it was pretty bad, though, and was quickly abandoned. A few third-party editing apps have popped up in the intervening years, but Adobe is the first big name to give it a shot with the release of Premiere Clip.

Adobe Premiere Clip lets you do basic editing like trimming and merging clips, but it can also apply effects, music, and transitions. It can also insert static images into videos with panning animations. Should you decided to take a more hands-off approach, Premiere Clip can also automatically generate video montages for you. The final product can be shared directly to social networks/YouTube, or saved locally to the device.

This app is completely free, and doesn’t even require a Creative Cloud account. Of course, you can sync video more easily if you log in with one. Owners of the full version of Premiere can also take video projects from Premiere Clip and work on them more with the full program.

Horizon Chase

Racing games have gotten pretty advanced these days with realistic textures, full 3D environments, and so on. Gamers of a certain age will remember the flat arcade-style racers of from the NES and SNES with fondness. Horizon Chase is a modern take on that style of racing, and it really pulls it off.

The races in Horizon Chase take a few minutes at most, and the tracks only have a few turns. Your controls consist of an accelerator and left/right turn buttons. Nitro boosts are available as well. That won’t save you if you’ve got slow reactions, though. Success is all about track position in Horizon Chase. The game does a little steering for you, but you’ve got to keep the car clear of obstacles like tight turns and other vehicles. You earn points by finishing first with fuel to spare. New cars can be unlocked by winning bonus races made available after you’ve hit certain score thresholds.

This is a retro-themed game, but the graphics aren’t lifted straight out of the old days. It has a really cool low-poly look with electronic music and highly varied environments. It all hangs together very nicely. This game is free to try with a $2.99 in-app purchase after a few races to unlock the whole thing.