[Updated] Google Play Store is showing apps rank and available comparable apps to some users.

Today I noticed a few changes in app listings in the Play Store on my OnePlus 5T, changes that are not available yet on my other devices and my wife's Samsung S7 Edge. As can be seen in the screenshot above, the details for the Facebook Messenger is now showing more information below the 'Uninstall' and 'Update' buttons.

Right underneath the buttons, the store is listing comparable apps available, which in this case is Facebook Messenger Lite. In addition, the app size is also displayed and obviously, tapping on that portion of the screen takes you to the download page of the 'comparable' app.

The Play Store is also showing the app ranking. While this may sound minor, it is very useful if you're not sure how popular the app is and this is in addition to the number of downloads to help you decide on whether to download or purchase the app.

Again, these changes do not yet appear on all my devices, so just be patient as it seems to be a server-side change that Google is randomly pushing to devices out there.

Update: After taking another look at this, it appears Google is actually recommending lite and Go apps to users so they know these apps exist. These apps are great for low-end  Android devices or for users living in areas with a poor internet connection.

Apple Music for Android fixes an issue that may prevent listening to downloaded music while offline.

Tomorrow most of the world will be celebrating music day and Apple has issued an update for its Apple Music app on Android, surely unintentionally, to fix an issue that prevented listeners from listening to downloaded music while offline. The update also includes the usual “minor app and performance improvements”.

Apple Music on Android brings over 40 million songs for users to listen online or offline and the app has been downloaded over 10 million times. Which is not bad considering how antagonistic Apple and Android fans are. And the reviews in Google Play Store are quite positive. I cannot compare how Google Music fares against Apple offerings since the former is not available in Mauritius. However, Google Movies is open. Go figure.

If you’re a hardcore Android fan, or not, and would like to give Apple Music a try, go to Google Play Store to download the app and you can sign up for a free three months trial. An Apple ID account is required.
  

Apps update: Dropbox supports CSV file previews; Inbox by Gmail gets undo action inside notification.

A few apps in Google Play Store got minor updates, so I’m gathering the story for each update under one post. 

First in the list is popular Cloud storage service provider Dropbox. This is more of a fix in that the app can now handle CSV files preview within the app itself. This is all there is to this update, at least according to the change log. Get it in Google Play Store.

Inbox by Gmail also received what sounds like a nice feature. The change log states that “You can now undo an action taken inside a notification”. I have yet to give this a try. But basically, if you selected to delete an email in the notification tray and want to get it back to your inbox, an undo button will let you do that. Get Inbox by Gmail in Google Play Store.

Happy update.

App updates: Google Translate, Google+, Maps, Avast, CNN, Box.

This is a list of updated apps I have installed on my Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.3. Checkout those apps if you do not have them on your Android. 

Google Translate
What's New:

• Handwriting input is now available for Hindi and Thai.
• Camera input is now available for Afrikaans, Greek, Hebrew, and Serbian.

Google+

What's New:

• View, edit and share photos stored in Google Drive
• Pull to refresh content in the stream and notifications
• Locations improvements: share your city-level location, control who is displayed on the map
• Easier switching between different accounts and pages
• Google Apps for Business support: restrict posts to the domain, domain icons to identify members
• Hangouts app replaces Messenger for messaging and video calls. Visit Google Takeout to download your Messenger data.

Maps

What's New:

• Scale bar lets you see distances on a map 
• Bug fixes

Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus

What's New:

• New App Locking Feature (Premium)
• New Ad detector feature in privacy advisor (Premium)
• Dashboard redesign, plus additional interface changes to improve user experience
• New features inside Anti-Theft (e.g Geo-fencing, picture taking)
• New Backup functionality
• Bulgarian language added

CNN

What's New:

• Crash and bug fixes to resolve video player issue experienced after updating devices to Android 4.3

Box

What's New:

v2.2.1: Bug fixes including those for uploads on Android 4.3 and Nexus 7 layouts

New left-swipe navigation drawer

Revamped updates feed with document preview and new filtering options

New resizable home screen widget with scrolling

Ability to sort a folder by name, date, or size

Grid (icon) view for files

Ability to switch between multiple Box accounts from inside the app

Real-time updates to offline files while inside the app

Localized file and folder sizes

Finnish language support

Happy download :-)

Today's Apps update: WhatsApp Messenger, Google Maps & Flash Player.

Three apps have been updated on Android Market. The most significant update of the three is Flash Player which addresses compatibility issues with some content using cross-domain policy files.


WhatsApp update fixes an issue with Dutch localization of "Message from" in notification to include contact name.


Finally Google Maps update fixes some bugs.


If you have any of these apps installed on your Android, download them from Marketplace.