Kill Shot 1.0.1 APK

Hothead Games released a new first-person shooter game for Android called Kill Shot bring player to play in dangerous military attacks and silent assassin missions. You can now download this game from the Google Play Store.

Kill Shot is a sniper game where you travel deep into enemy territory to locate and eliminate hidden targets. There is a variety of weapons you can use, stare down your rifle scope, zoom in to find and identify the target. Take a breath...and pull the trigger to make the Kill Shot.

Kill Shot is a really good shooter game with great play. It's very similar to the Cabela's Hunting game app thing, but making it a military game is better for fans. Yes, this is exactly like Cabela's big game hunter except instead of shooting animals are actually shooting people. The game has same on rale mechanic, same region unlock system and weapon upgrade system. That being said it all still makes for an awesome game. If you're tired of hunting animals, this game is for you. Although, the gameplay lets you hooked better than shooting game and animals, and its very engaging.

The game has a ton of rewards for playing makes it easy to upgrade weapons or buy new ones. You can upgradable your weapons, special tools such as slow mo, the thermal scope, armor piercing bullets and seekers to make enemies visible. Not only variety of weapon, there is also you can enjoy the variety of missions, it has lots of missions, so you never get bored.

The graphics of the game are good, and you will like when they slow down the bullet on the last shot and reminds you of all the other hothead games. Overall, Kill Shot is a great game whether you want to play for a while or you just want to play for a few minutes. Recommend it if you like shooting targets.

Requires Android: 4.0+
Download File: 47MB (Kill Shot APK)

Kritika 2.5.4 APK

GAMEVIL, the popular game developer for mobile devices released an update to its android app Kritika with few new features and some improvements. Gamevil has fixed lag issues and fixed issue with stages not being cleared in the latest version. You can now download Kritika 2.5.4 from the Google Play Store.

Kritika is an action RPG style game that lets you experience a game system like no other game out there. This is a great game to waste you time, what a game should be with playability and interaction. It makes you insane to get play every time with easy controls and a nice crafting system.

Gamevil has improved upon perfection. If you play for free and this is your type of game, this is a game for you. Many games are already released, but this game stands out and is fresh! It starts out fun and easy enough to obtain higher levels then progressively becomes more and more difficult like any good game should.

The game is pretty cool to play with, because it has all uniqueness of an MMORPG game. It very similar to the PC version except you can only equip a handful of skills at time, and there is no multiplayer function feature yet. Some fans said it beat diablo III (Blizzard Entertainment) and dungeon hunter 4 (Glu) by a long shot. Nevertheless the game itself is fun and will runs smooth on Android 2.3.3 and up.

Kritika is available for Android and iOS Platform. Its free to play and Offers in-app purchases to help you through the level. As usual, you can download the APK file of Kritika using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download Kritika APK and enjoy action Role Playing Game with your finger on your tablet.

Requires Android: 2.3.3+
Download File: 33MB (Kritika APK)

ICE 1.1.5 APK

ICE is a new addictive game which is available for Android users. The developer brings you fun little strategy game to keep you busy but not frustrated with a lot more challenging and time-consuming than most mobile games out there.

This is a fantastic game just to sit down and play when you're bored. Its a wonderful experience as far as the real-time strategy genre goes on mobile. It makes you come up with different strategy and tactics lots of fun by challenges your intellect highly, but it's so simple yet elegant.

In ICE, you control your army of ant-like ships. You win when you control everything, you lose when you lose everything. It's not that hard to get the hang of and its really fun puts your mind into effect cause one minute you could be taking over a base and then the next one of yours get attacked. So, you have to figure out which order you need to attack in and once.

This game makes you think outside the box. Lots of strategies involved and very addicting. When you first got it, you will not understand, but it's super easy to learn. It's great to pass the time or play on long car rides since it takes time to beat but not in a boring way. If you want a fun game that takes a little strategy to play, this is for you.

ICE is available for free and offers in-app purchases that allows you to play on larger worlds and removes advertisements. And as usual you can download the APK file of ICE right now using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download ICE APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 4.0.3+
Download File: 25MB (ICE APK)

Tactics Maiden 1.8.5 APK

Mangobile has recently updated its android app Tactics Maiden with version 1.8.5 bring some improvement and bug fixes. Tactics Maiden is another great game in the series, its a tactics game in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. Just like another turn-based strategy RPG, the game lets you to conquer enemy outposts scattered throughout the battlefield.

This is one of the best tactical games on the Google Play Store, if you are looking for a true tactical RPG, instead of all of the grinding P2W games on the Play Store, give this game a try. As good as the Kingturn RPG, the game has same basic style of the Kingturn series. It has a tremendous number of character variations, a quick-paced play, easy-to-use controls, multiple difficulty levels, improved vector graphics and more. If you enjoyed Kingturn and friends, this one is a must.

They are the right amount of tactical depth and ease of play for a small mobile screen. The free part gives a nice intro to the game and the only in-app purchase is to get the full game. Free-to-play is normally a deal breaker for or all turn based RPG fans. The scenarios take about 20 - 30 minutes to play which is just the right amount of time. It's not too long or too short. You can enjoy the turn-based pace much better than the 'real time'. The only in-app purchase is for the full game. So you can try it, and if you like it you can buy the full version.

Here is some improvement in Tactics Maiden v1.8.5:
- Fixed a glitch with rapidly healing the same unit
- Scene 145: Difficulty reduced
- Fixed a crash issue with switching to Stats in story-only scenarios (6,15,85)
- Scene 28: Fixed: Irvine shared his starting position with an enemy on 'Rook' difficulty

Requires Android: 2.3+
Download File: 24MB (Tactics Maiden APK)

SWAT 2 1.0.3 APK

SWAT 2 is a new realistic anti-terrorist FPS game from FT Games, the maker of the popular game Zombie Frontier and Zombie Evil. The developer challenges you to against international terrorism with intense battle scenes and challenging missions. You can now download SWAT 2 version 1.0.3 from the Google Play Store.

SWAT 2 is a great shooter game, there is a huge array of weapons and equipment to use on the battlefield with an advanced weapon upgrade system that lets you maximize your firepower. It has the different soldier with realistic weather effects add new challenges to your missions. You can upgrade your skills in the Lab to increase your combat effectiveness and fight in night battle mode that lets you use night vision to fight the enemy in the shadows.

A simple interface, but the gameplay quickly gets challenging, you pick your own game character and shoot the terrorist. If you are a very busy and tight schedule of field as well as office, this game will make you feel little relax to come out from frustration, Pressure of work and roughness of boss. May be such games recharge you so that you can again prepare to struggle in the field and be able to do our best in our duty.

The game is available for free and offers in-app purchases. And as usual you can download the APK file of SWAT 2 using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download the SWAT 2 APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 2.3+
Download File: 33MB (SWAT 2 APK)

AVAST Mobile Security and Antivirus 3.0.7863 APK

AVAST Software is rolling out an update to their Mobile Security and Antivirus app for android with version 3.0.7863. The new update brings some improvement and comes with new user interface. You can now download the latest version from the Google Play Store.

Avast Mobile Security is one of the best anti-theft solutions on the market, it's easy to use, recommended by many reviewers, catches more than other programs and trustworthy protection. It's the other highest-tier product in Avast's security line.

For years Avast has been one of the best PC based security suites and now they are living up to that reputation on Android devices. Just like antivirus on the PC, this app will help you to secure your phone and tablet against unwanted malware, spyware, phishing and malicious viruses such as trojans and even against loss or theft. It helps you to find whether the downloading app is safe or not and also scans all the installation and configuration file for various types of viruses and then every time there is an upgrade to the app.

The newest version comes with completely re-imagined the user interface, better than previous version, it much simpler and cleaner. Not only new UI, the developer also brought other improvements like stability through various bug fixes and file shield now enabled by default for increased security.

Avast Mobile Security and Antivirus is available for free,  but does include in-app purchases where you can buy upgrades some features. And as usual you can download the APK file of Avast Mobile right now using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download Avast Mobile APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 2.3.3+
Download File: 20.2MB (AVAST APK)

Asphalt Overdrive 1.0.0k APK

Asphalt Overdrive, the new racing game from Spider-Man Unlimited and Despicable Me creator is now available in the Google Play for Android user and App Store for iOS user.

Asphalt Overdrive challenge you to outrun the cops in an exciting game set in a “new '80s” version of California. Challenge yourself in 7 different mission types: Escape the cops, defeat bosses, avoid obstacles, and perform impressive stunts while you race. You will drive fast across the gorgeous highways of Southern California and enjoy a subtly retro “new '80s” atmosphere like Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari Testarossa with stunning visuals in real-time lighting and particle effects.

In Asphalt Overdrive, you can also join other players and play time-delayed tournaments by connecting it to social websites including Facebook and Google+. You can play limited-time, weekly challenge, gang, and league events and track their progress on the leaderboards.

Gameloft's latest entry is very fun to play and less frustrating than in Asphalt 8. A game that pushes a genre of running type into new and interesting directions. Sometimes you just want a simple app that's fun and stress-free. This is it, and it's all played in portrait mode with one hand. Perfect to kill a little time or just have fun.

This new racing game is available for free, but does include in-app purchases where you can buy upgrades for your cars along with other extras using in-game cash earned by completing missions or bought with real money. As usual, if you can't download Asphalt Overdrive from the Google Play Store you can download the APK File of it using the link given below. Download Asphalt Overdrive APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 4.0+
Download File: 27MB (Asphalt Overdrive APK)

Allthecooks on Android Wear

By Hoi Lam, Developer Advocate, Android Wear

The best cooking companion since the apron?

Android Wear is designed for serving up useful information at just the right time and in the right place. A neat example of this is Allthecooks Recipes. It gives you the right recipe, right when you need it.

This app is a great illustration of the four creative visions for Android Wear:

1. Launched automatically


2. Glanceable


3. Suggest and demand


4. Zero or low interaction

Allthecooks also shows what developers can do by combining both the power of the mobile device and the convenience of Android Wear.

Pick the best tool for the job

One particularly well-designed aspect of Allthecooks is their approach to the multi-device experience. Allthecooks lets the user search and browse the different recipes on their Android phone or tablet. When the user is ready, there is a clearly labelled blue action link to send the recipe to the watch.

The integration is natural. Using the on-screen keyboard and the larger screen real estate, Allthecooks is using the best screen to browse through the recipes. On the wearables side, the recipe is synchronised by using the DataApi and is launched automatically, fulfilling one of the key creative visions for Android Wear.

The end result? The mobile / Wear integration is seamless.

Thoughtful navigation

Once the recipe has been sent to the Android Wear device, Allthecooks splits the steps into easily glanceable pages. At the end of that list of steps, it allows the user to jump back to the beginning with a clearly marked button.

This means if you would like to browse through the steps before starting to cook, you can effortlessly get to the beginning again without swiping through all the pages. This is a great example of two other points in the vision: glanceable and zero or low interaction.

A great (cooking) assistant

One of the key ingredients of great cooking is timing, and Allthecooks is always on hand to do all the inputs for you when you are ready to start the clock. A simple tap on the blue “1” and Allthecooks will automatically set the timer to one hour. It is a gentle suggestion that Allthecooks can set the timer for you if you want.

Alternatively, if you want to use your egg timer, why not? It is a small detail but it really demonstrates the last and final element of Android Wear’s vision of suggest and demand. It is an ever ready assistant when the user wants it. At the same time, it is respectful and does not force the user to go down a route that the user does not want.

It’s about the details

Great design is about being user-centric and paying attention to details. Allthecooks could have just shrunk their mobile app for wear. Instead the Allthecooks team put a lot of thoughts into the design and leveraged all four points of the Android Wear creative vision. The end result is that the user can get the best experience out of both their Android mobile device and their Android Wear device. So developers, what will you be cooking next on Android Wear?

For more inspiring Android Wear user experiences, check out the Android Wear collection on Google Play!

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Parking Jam 1.0.4 APK

TerranDroid, the developer behind the successful Zombie Road Racing and Pool Billiards Pro, updated its android app Parking Jam with version 1.0.4. The new update brought some improvement and fixed some crash bugs of the game. You can now download the latest version from the Google Play Store.

Parking Jam is an interesting parking game that lets you driving and parking automotive journey. What an interesting game with strategy and mind using! The game is so fun with all the backgrounds and the easy-to-learn driving techniques, it teaches you how to park or drive a car. In the beginning it is easy but once you get to the 12th and 13th level it starts to get harder, it becomes difficult as the levels go on.

Parking Jam offers the most comprehensive parking simulation on mobile devices whether you are a curious novice or an accomplished driver. There is over 50 different cars and over 75 challenging you can play with stunning graphics and addictive gameplay. Just like you drive a car in real life, you will parking realistic car dynamics based on advanced physics model.  The turning on the cars is pretty accurate. If you ever play the first GTA game on PC it will remind you of it.

The game is available for free and offers in-app purchases. For those who can’t download from the Google Play Store, you can download the APK file of Parking Jam using the link given below. Download Parking Jam APK and install it on your Android phone or tablet.

Requires Android: 2.3.3+
Download File: 9.1MB (Parking Jam APK)

FIFA 15 Ultimate Team 1.1.0 APK

Electronic Arts, the popular developer behind the successful Plants vs. Zombies and Real Racing 3, announced that it's currently working on a new freemium sports games for the Android, Windows Phone and iOS platform called FIFA 15 Ultimate Team. The developer brings the game with more than 10,000 players from 500 teams, letting you build your dream team and see how they fair against your rivals. Now you can download FIFA 15 Ultimate Team 1.1.0 from the Google Play Store.

FIFA 15 Ultimate Team is an amazing mobile game that is for free and is like the console version. The game has been updated to the latest version. The overall graphics has improved, the controls are much smoother, the passing is so much better now, and it's easier for the player to shoot, pass or slide. Great improvements even the small improvements like the layout the customization.

Fifa 15 is much better than Fifa 14, you build your Ultimate Team and take on the world’s best with authentic football action. You play games, earn points and then use points to buy ‘packs’ that give you access to more players for your team. You can collect superstars like Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard to create your own fantasy team. Choose your play style, formation, kits, and more.

The game is available for free and offers in-app purchases. And as usual you can download the APK file of FIFA 15 Ultimate Team right now using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download FIFA 15 Ultimate Team APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 2.3.3+
Download File: 20.2MB (FIFA 15 Ultimate Team APK)
Update File: FIFA 15 Ultimate Team 1.1.2 APK

Star Wars: Commander 2.1.2 APK

Disney is rolling out an update to the Star Wars: Commander with version 2.1.2. The new update brings some improvement and its now available worldwide on Google Play! This is the same game of Clash of Clans but different because in SW: Commander you'll picking your own side and win or take over the galaxy or freedom.

Star Wars: Commander is a good strategy game based on the typical mechanics used for phones. It seems to have regular updates and new content. In the latest version, Disney updated for few issues and also updated artificial intelligence in battles and chapter 9 missions now unlocked for both factions.

In Star Wars: Commander you have to build and defend your base by Train unique troops specific to each faction, and fortify your base with heavy artillery, deflector shields, turrets and other defenses! You will travel to multiple planets and deploy the powerful armies, units, and vehicles against enemies and players around the galaxy. It's the perfect mash up of Clash of Clans gameplay with the Star Wars theme.

Yes, Star Wars: Commander is a perfect melding of Clash of Clans and the Star Wars universe. Graphics are beautifully rendered, gameplay is smooth on mostly Android devices, and it's even worked out a few glitches that weigh down COC. Best of all, you can compete aggressively without in-app purchases. If you have a bad feeling about this, let go of your fear and take your first step into a larger world.

If you play clash of clans and love star wars then this game is for you. For any die hard star wars fan this is well worth the time to play, very addictive and great game play. As always, the game from Disney is so much fun. The gameplay is challenging and will not get old for young or old players. It's available for free-to-play for iOS and Android platform with containing some optional in-app purchases to help you when you get stuck on a level. You can download the APK file of Star Wars: Commander right now using the link given below. Download Star Wars: Commander APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 2.3.3+
Download File: 30MB (Star Wars: Commander APK)

OneDrive 2.7.0 APK

OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is one of the best free online storage that lets you bring all your document, personal photos, docs, and videos anywhere. It works on the devices you use every day, from PCs to Macs, Android, iOS and Windows phones and tablets. OneDrive has been getting a lot better, it has become more reliable and easier to use through the recent updates. For the people having problems, make sure your phones firmware is the latest this should fix most problems.

Generally, everyone uses cloud service for storing their data online so that if by mistake they delete their data from PC then they can easily get it from cloud storage. The special one from OneDrive is  you can automatically back up your photos and videos on your Android device, without manual intervention, unlike Google Drive, where you have to choose the photos or videos and upload manually. It should be designed in such a way that uploading can be done by the software just like in the browser without synchronising so that fear of files being deleted can be removed.

There really isn’t much you can say about a cloud storage app, as they are all very similar. What sets OneDrive apart you may ask? It’s integration with Windows and Office. Office Mobile basically forces you to use OneDrive, in the same way your Android ‘forces’ you to use Google services. OneDrive works beatifically for syncing documents and editing them on the go, as you’d expect from a company who makes a large chunk of their money in Office suites.

Highly recommended app for everyone, you can even share a specific folder. Reliable, anywhere access, huge storage space, store anything and share with one or many. And as usual you can download the APK file of OneDrive right now using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download OneDrive APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 4.0+
Download File: 10.4MB (OneDrive APK)

Metal Slug Defense 1.7.0 APK

A couple of days ago, SNK Playmore began rolling out the latest version of its android app Metal Slug Defense to the massive audience of Android players around the world. It gets better with each update, and there's an update every couple weeks. The developer bring few new features in this update, its now compatible with 8 different languages with addition of French and Russian languages. SNK Playmore also added new "UNIT" characters, new SPECIAL MISSIONS and upper limit withdrawal for the "UNIT" characters to the  game. Now you can download Metal Slug Defense 1.7.0 from the Google Play Store.

Metal Slug Defense is 2D action-shooting in a tower-defense strategy game. It is a great little RTT (Real Time Tactics) title, entirely addictive. Your mission is you must send your units to the battlefield and take over enemy bases with a simple tap of your finger! Use the METAL SLUG Attack, along with other unique special attacks to turn the tide in the battle, and the goddess of victory will smile upon you! It is easy to play no need to pay to win well if you want to you can but its up to you.

This game will remind you about Metal Slug on PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2. Not bad at all, if you consider that this is a free mobile game. Metal Slug fans will discover many recycled characters and background sprites from the original games, but even then this spin-off is well-done. Gameplay gets somewhat challenging, but it's still perfectly doable without investing any real money into medals. Yes, its really a good challenging game that makes you have to stop and think before you go in a second time if you lose.

Metal Slug Defense is available for free-to-play on Android and iOS platform with containing some optional in-app purchases to help you when you get stuck on a level. And as usual you can download the APK file of Metal Slug Defense right now using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download Metal Slug Defense APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 2.3+
Download File: 34MB (Metal Slug Defense 1.7.0 APK)

Google Play services 6.1 APK

Google Play services updated to version 6.1 with few new features and bug fixes. Now the Google Play services app has new Street View API, new authorization techniques, contains Proximity Unlock, Device-2-Device Account Transfer and so much more. You can now download the latest version from the Google Play store.

Google Play services is the hub of all Google, it's used to update Google apps and apps from Google Play. It's the way Android build, without Google Play Services we can't do anything. Most of the Google apps needs this service actually to run. It may take up our phone resources but without it anything would be impossible. It's going to use network, space and battery of our phone. If you don't like something, you can go to Google Play service click installed and will delete the program that turn want to erase.

This update finally comes to android users around the world. The upside, is all our Google Services live in userspace and get updated because of this app. Google is storing new API's in this app now without forcing us to wait for an OS update that'll never come. Just makes our phone update without waiting on OEMS for certain updates. You now have Google Games too, and the Jellybean Malware scanner even on Gingerbread devices. Lets people that aren't on the latest version experience new updates from Google.

And as usual we have the APK file of Google Play services, you can download right now using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download Google Play services APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: Varies with device
Download file: 24.7MB (Google Play services 6.1 APK)

Beach Buggy Racing 1.0.1 APK

Vector Unit, the developer behind the successful Riptide GP2 and Beach Buggy Blitz, announced that it's currently working on a new action-packed off-road kart racing game for android called Beach Buggy Racing. You can now download Beach Buggy Racing 1.0.1 from the Google Play Store.

Beach Buggy Racing is the official sequel Beach Buggy Blitz, the free driving game with over 30 Million players worldwide. Fast, furious, fun and free, its a kart-racing island adventure for all ages. The gameplay is top notch, car handling makes it loads of fun and challenging enough to keep you coming back for more!

The objective of the game is you must race against a field of rival drivers with unique personalities and special abilities. You have to build a collection of crazy powerups, like Dodgeball Frenzy, Oil Slick and Fireball. You also unlock and upgrade a variety of cars, from dune buggies to monster trucks.

There is different game modes on 12 imaginative 3D race tracks which will test your skills against a pack of tropical-loving rivals with a serious case of road rage! Here is more Beach Buggy Racing game features:
- Exciting Kart-racing action
- Cool cars to customize
- Tons of amazing powerups
- 12 spectacular race track
- Collect a team of racers
- Split screen multiplayer
- Google play game services

Beach Buggy Racing is available for free-to-play for Android and iOS platform with containing some optional in-app purchases. And as usual you can download the APK file of Beach Buggy Racing right now using the link given below for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download Beach Buggy Racing APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 4.0.3+
Download File: 42.6MB (Beach Buggy Racing APK)

Messaging on Android Wear

By Timothy Jordan, Developer Advocate

Sending messages on Android Wear feels as easy as it was to pass notes back in school. Remember when your friends always felt nearby? That feeling is why I love staying in touch with friends and family using my wearable.

Your messaging app likely already works on Android Wear. With just a few more lines of code you can unlock simple but powerful features that let your users communicate even more effortlessly.

Message notifications for free

If your Android app uses notifications to let the user know about new messages, these will work automatically on their wearable. That is, when you build notifications with the NotificationCompat.Builder class, the system takes care of displaying them properly, whether they appear on a handheld or wearable. Also, an "Open on phone" action will be added so it's easy for the user to reply via the app on their handheld.

Google+ Hangouts message.

Reply like a champ

Messages on Wear get really exciting when you can reply directly from the watch with your voice. In addition to being super convenient, this always gives me a Dick Tracy thrill… but maybe that's just me. =]

To add this functionality, it's as simple as adding an action to the notification via WearableExtender that includes a RemoteInput to your notification. After the user replies, you'll just grab their voice input as a string from the RemoteInput included in the Intent. You can even include text responses the user can easily select from a list by passing an array of them to the setChoices method of the RemoteInput. More details and code can be found here.

WhatsApp message with the reply by voice action.

See who is texting

Messages are more meaningful when you are connected to the sender. That's why we recommend you include the photo of the sender as the background of the notification. As soon as the user taps into the message, they also see who it's from, which will make it matter more (or maybe that other thing, depending on who it is).

You should add a photo with a resolution of at least 400x400, but we recommend 640x400. With the larger size, the background will be given parallax scrolling. If the background is to be included in the apk, place it in the res/drawable-nodpi directory. Then call setBackground() on your WearableExtender and add it to your notification. More details and code can be found here.

Path Talk message with a clear picture of the sender.

Custom actions

Basic notifications with reply by voice and a good background image are the most important parts to get done right away. But why stop there? It's easy to extend the unique parts of your service to the wearable. A simple first step is adding in a custom action the way Omlet does. These are just actions defined with the WearableExtender that raise an intent on the handheld.

Omlet includes two extra actions with every message: Like and Check-In. Check-In sends along the user's current location.

Custom Layouts

Custom interaction on the wearable, like the following example from TextMe, is straightforward to implement. They have what appears to be a simple notification with an action that allows the user to select an emoticon. However, to show this emoticon picker, they are actually issuing a notification from the wearable. The round trip looks something like this:

1. The handheld gets a new message, issues a notification setLocalOnly(True), and sends a message to the wearable using the Data Layer API


2. The wearable receives that message using the WearableListenerService and issues a custom notification with a PendingIntent to launch an activity when the user views the notification


3. That activity has a custom layout defined with the Wearable UI Library


4. Once the user selects an emoticon, the wearable sends a message back to the handheld


5. The handheld receives that message and sends it along to the server

Custom layouts are documented in more depth here.

TextMe allows users to reply with a quick emoticon.

Next steps

Make your messaging service awesome by providing rich functionality on the user's wearable. It's easy to get started and easy to go further. It all starts at developer.android.com/wear.

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Pandora 5.5 APK

Pandora internet radio for android has been recently updated with some improvements and bug fixes to give the user the best listening experience. It gets a big flat redesign in the latest version with stripped of its blue gradients and solid whites and grays supplemented by blue text and borders. You can now download Pandora 5.5 from the Google Play Store.

Pandora is a wonderful source for music! This has all the songs, a plethora of great artists, their music; just a super collection of fantastic, wonderful tunes. The best for all my music listening pleasure, whether it's a smooth, soothing quiet of jazz or uplifting gospel!

Great app for music and to find new artists, select your genre or personalize and create your own station. It's easy to use, has many music options and the "thumbs up or down" is very intuitive for learning preference. Pandora knows what you want to listen to all the time, the ultimate answer for Music Lovers who desire what you want when you want it without commercials.

This is by far superior to Google's All Access radio. The quality of playback is consistent. The playlists on Pandora are so much better than Google's. If you want a variety of good music like The Beatles Zeppelin, Metallica for free, stay with Pandora. If you want to hear the same five thumb-downed songs played repeatedly along with other terrible music choices for 10$ a month, then go for Google's radio.

Pandora is available for free and as usual we have an APK file for download as well for those who can’t download from the Google Play Store. Download Pandora APK and install it on your Android phone and tablet.

Requires Android: 4.0+
Download File: 8.7MB (Pandora APK)

Google Play Services 6.1

Google Play services 6.1 is now rolled out to devices worldwide, bringing you the newest features from Google to help you optimize your apps. You can get started developing today by downloading the Google Play services SDK from the Android SDK Manager.

Google Play services 6.1 adds Enhanced Ecommerce analytics support from Google Tag Manager and offers new improvements to the Google Drive Android API. With the latest release, we’re also including a refresh of the Google Fit developer preview, so that you can test your fitness apps on any Android device.

Analytics

Launched in Google Play services 5.0, Enhanced Ecommerce is an analytics extension designed to provide richer insights into pre-purchase shopping behavior and into product performance. It’s a great way to gain visibility into the full customer journey, helping you understand how different user acquisition campaigns are performing at a granular level. By including support for Enhanced Ecommerce in Google Tag Manager with the latest release of Google Play services, we are supercharging your ability to regularly update and manage tags on mobile apps more easily, so that you can consistently measure product impressions, shopping funnel events, and more.

Drive

To make it easier to use Drive, we added enhancements to the Google Drive Android API. With the new Completion Events feature, you can see when actions are committed to the server and improve the response time to conflicts. Material design elements have been incorporated into the File Picker UI, along with the addition of Recent and Starred views. A new setParents() method enables you to organize files and folders, while the previous Contents class has been replaced with a simpler DriveContents class.

Learn more about how to use these new features in this DevBytes video.

Google Fit

Initially introduced in August, the Google Fit Developer Preview has been refreshed to enable you to test your new fitness apps on any Android device. We expect to make additional changes to the APIs, so please check back with us on new developments.

Get Started

To get started developing, download the latest Google Play services SDK from the Android SDK Manager. For details on the new APIs, take a look at the New Features documentation. For setup information, see Set Up Google Play Services SDK.

To learn more about Google Play services and the APIs available to you through it, visit the Google Services section on the Android Developers site.

We hope you enjoy this release of Google Play services!

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Android One: Bringing Your Apps to the Next Five Billion

Posted by Rich Hyndman, Developer Advocate

With the launch of Android One, more people across the world will have access to high-quality and affordable smartphones, packed with plenty of processing power and running the latest version of Android. These devices are available now in India and soon in Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Asia, so now is a good time to make sure your apps are ready for these new markets. This post highlights a few areas to consider.

These days, we often talk about smooth, 60fps transitions and keeping apps jank-free, and rightly so — performance is a critical metric for app quality. But in the user experience hierarchy of needs, an app should first and foremost do its job reliably and consistently.

If your app has search functionality, will user requests time out entirely? Do you think it is more important that a result is returned in a timely manner, or that the result is returned at all? If you're trying to build a robust app to reach the next five billion, it might be less about returning a result immediately, and more about returning a result at all. To address this challenge, why not include an option to users to “notify me with the results” when a search query is running on a slow network? Your app can then take as long as it needs to successfully retrieve the data in the background and show a notification when complete. The difference in user experience between an app that times out on a slower network and one that caters to user-specific needs will be very impactful for driving mobile app adoption.

There are also ways to test app performance without flying around the globe. The Android Emulator has network speed and network delay emulation settings, which can become an integral part of your testing strategy. If you’re testing on physical hardware, try turning off WiFi and switching the network to 2G only; how well does your app perform? Do search pages load? Does data refresh? These issues can often be fixed with relatively minor changes to your app logic or by leveraging a SyncAdapter. Check out our blog post on sync in the Google I/O app for more ideas.

Another key area for you to be aware of is app memory utilization. As part of the KitKat launch, we added new tools to the SDK for analyzing memory use and new APIs like isLowRamDevice(). We also just added a Memory Monitor to Android Studio 0.8.10 (currently in Canary). Much of this is documented in our Best Practices for Performance guide.

Moving forward, the Android L release has a strong focus on battery usage and analysis. Project Volta introduces new tools, such as Battery Historian and new APIs like JobScheduler, that can really help optimize battery use of your app.

By ensuring your app works well on slower networks, uses minimal memory, minimizes battery usage and doesn’t have a larger-than-necessary APK, you will help the next five billion discover, use and love your app.