Apps
10 free-to-play mobile games for Android and iOS

A good mobile game could save you from getting bored out of your wits. Mobile games land their charm in the portability your consoles and PCs don’t have and the availability of games your handhelds don’t own. Granted that some of these games end up incentivising in-app purchasing or dump a crap-ton of ads, they are still fun to play.
With that, here are my top ten picks:
Magic Tiles 3
If you were playing Tap Tap Revenge when it was released around the early 2000s, Magic Tiles 3 isn’t a far cry. Magic Tiles 3 is a popular piano game that has you tap on black tiles before they reach the bottom of the screen. The game will seem simple at first but, once you get into the groove, it’ll get addictively difficult. Magic Tiles 3 has various quests that let you unlock more songs to try out and play. It even has a battle mode to compete against your friends and other players.
Vainglory
It’s one of everyone’s favorite mobile multiplayer online battle arena games. Having quickly built a community after its initial release late 2014, Vainglory manages to integrate the MOBA playing style and compact it into a snug mobile game. You can play the game on casual, quick-play, or ranked.
It makes use of touch controls, so I don’t recommend playing the game on a tiny phone, especially when you have stubby fingers. A tablet would be best for this one but, if you think your handset is big enough or has a good stylus, this is a must-install.
Hearthstone
Hearthstone is an online collectible card dueling game where you unlock cards, build decks, and duel other players. Hearthstone extends the already existing lore of the Warcraft series by using the same elements, characters, and relics.
This is one of my favorites on this list. I’ve been playing since around a year ago, and if there’s anything you should know about any card game, it’s to believe in the heart of the cards. If you want to test your deck out, you can go against bots. As for testing your skill with building decks on the fly, you might want to try out the Arena. Though Blizzard Entertainment sometimes trips out on silly tavern brawls and new card releases, the game is a whole lot of fun. Sign into your Blizzard account to play it on PC, tablet, or your phone without losing progress!
Super Mario Run
A game that simplifies the nostalgic platformer. Super Mario Run lends itself like the generic mobile platformer with taps and holds for jumping and leaping, just with a charming plumber with a red hat. You can time your taps to pull off mid-air spins, jumps, and wall jumps. You can gather coins and reach the goal just like the original Super Mario. Even if it can get frustrating because Mario is locked on running forward (you read that right: there’s no turning back in this one), it’s still a fun casual game.
Mmm Fingers
Need something to play while waiting? Don’t have mobile data? Mmm Fingers is a simple game that threatens your fingers from getting chomped on by hungry monsters. It’s a game from the creators of Small Fry and Flappy Golf. Mechanics are easy: touch and hold your finger against the screen as long as you can. Stay away from anything with teeth, and whatever you do, don’t lift your fingers. You can show off your score and compete against your friends. It’s that easy!
Eternium
Eternium is an action role-playing game resembling the awesome classics: Diablo and Torchlight. With touch and swipe cast controls, this game sticks out. Even if the game seems to be exclusively playable online, you can actually play it offline when the content download completes. The best part? In-app purchasing for this game is generally frowned upon, so playing more gets you farther than paying for it. Be careful: I’ve seen our producer get sucked into playing it non-stop. It’s a familiar game with lots of perks — definitely something you should install.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel
If you grew up playing the trading card game, Yu-Gi-Oh!, you’re going to lose your stuff with this mobile game. Konami stepped into mobile games with voices straight out of the anime, intuitive controls, and 3D animations on signature monsters.
Before I stop speaking coherently because of how much I love this game, let me tell you why this is something I am absolutely floored to play. During the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card days, it was tough to find original cards. There were too many fakes lying around; not to mention, maintaining the quality and simply not losing them were difficult. Now, a mobile game that allows you to play just like in the anime series including fancy animations? This game is god-sent.
Hungry Shark World
Hungry Shark World is perfect for when you feel like rampaging around and seeing your shark grow. In this game, you play as a shark and basically feast on everything and anything in the ocean with the probable exception of naval mines. You can upgrade your shark and customize items to give you an upper-hand on your next feasting. This is one of those games I find myself laughing maniacally to — I can’t help it. Sticking a rocket on your shark’s tail to give it a reliable boost out the water to munch on birds is a sight I’ll cherish from now on.
Last Day on Earth: Survival
Last Day on Earth is a massively multiplayer online zombie shooter survival and strategy game, where all survivors are driven by a single task: staying alive. You spawn with just your underwear and have to survive as long as you can in a zombie apocalypse. The game is simple and competitive. With lots of items you can pick up and use as weapons, it can get pretty silly really fast. If you’re up to beat up the undead, you should give this a go.
Titanfall: Assault
Titanfall is a mobile real-time strategy game where you deploy Titans, Pilots, Sim Ninjas, Boomers, and a ton more to siege the Frontier. If you think this strategy game is a walk in the park, think again. Titanfall: Assault takes the game to a whole different level because you’ll be playing against someone else in real time. You can collect and upgrade cards along the way, and have fun uniting with your guild and conquering the Front with your friends!
SEE ALSO: Best Video Games of 2017 (Q2 Edition)
[irp posts=”15643″ name=”Best Video Games of 2017 (Q2 Edition)”]


Apple has announced the winners of the 2023 App Store Awards. It recognized 14 apps and games that empowered users to unleash their creativity and discovery a new world of adventures throughout the year.
The winners were chosen by the App Store’s Editorial team from a list of nearly 40 finalists based on technical innovation, user experience, and design.
2023 App Store Award winners — Apps
AllTrails, a fitness and travel app designed for outdoor recreational activities, bagged the iPhone App of the Year citation.
Prêt-à-Makeup took home the iPad App of the Year award with its offering of a true-to-life makeup sketchpad on iPad for both professionals and casual users.
Photomator and its machine learning-powered tools that make editing tasks seamless earned it the Mac App of the Year.
Meanwhile, MUBI, an app highlighting exceptional indie films and international documentaries, shone as the Apple TV App of the Year.
Rounding out the list for apps is SmartGym, an app that offers users a comprehensive list of exercises, routines, and fitness reports, as the Apple Watch App of the Year.
2023 App Store Award winners — Games
In the gaming category, miHoYo’s hit role-playing game Honkai: Star Rail has officially won iPhone Game of the Year.
On the other hand, Lost in Play, a point-and-click adventure game launched in 2022 that features unique puzzles and mini-games, took home the iPad Game of the Year plum.
For PC, Lies of P won the Mac Game of the Year award. The single-player action-RPG puts a darker spin on the classic tale Pinocchio. The game is challenging and is considered a “S0uls-like” comparing its difficulty level to FromSoftware games.
Lastly, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is the Apple Arcade Game of the Year, thanks to its quirky gameplay that sees players embark on an adventure to restore an abandoned island to its former glory.
Cultural Impact Winners
In addition to the best apps and games, the App Store selected five Cultural Impact winners. These were recognized for their ability to drive positive change through apps and games:
- Pok Pok (Pok Pok)
- Proloquo (AssistiveWare)
- Too Good To Go (Too Good To Go)
- Unpacking (Humble Bundle)
- Finding Hannah (Fein Games GmbH)
Apps
WhatsApp will let you hide all your secret chats with a password
Passwords can even have an emoji

Secret chats is a boon to the online community. However, while the feature can protect your conversations from online snoopers, nothing can stop anyone who grabs your phone and goes through all your apps. Now, WhatsApp is finally adding an extra layer of protections for those who use secret chats on the platform — a secret code.
For anyone engaged in secret conversations, a password seems like a no-brainer. While the feature has been a long time coming, its launch is still welcome today. With the new version, users can hide all their secret chats with a passcode.
Plus, the passcodes are more unique than most. Rather than just a short PIN or a traditional password, users can use emojis too. Allowing emojis can add an even more secure lock to those private conversations.
Once secured, the locked chats will no longer pop up by default on WhatsApp’s main feed. While users can still toggle their visibility on and off, users will have to input their secret passcodes into the app’s search bar to see their list of secret chats.
While the feature is still rolling out now, users already have existing options to lock individual chats away from prying eyes. These measures include fingerprint scanning, face recognition, and good ol’ passwords. The new feature is more meant to hide all of them at the same time, especially when a shoulder snooper can just spot locked chats right from the list.
SEE ALSO: WhatsApp might soon let you chat with Telegram, other apps

It’s been a great month for RCS. Recently, Apple, the messaging standard’s longstanding rival, finally announced support for RCS coming in 2024. Now, it has reached another huge milestone: 1 billion active users, according to Google. To celebrate, Google has announced new features coming to Messages.
RCS has been the standard for Google’s Messages for a while now. However, despite reaching a significant number of users over the years, Messages has often trailed Apple’s iMessage in terms of features. Today, Messages is finally getting a healthy infusion of the latter’s newer developments.
For one, the new Photomoji feature can turn your photos into message reactions. Using the onboard AI, Google can automatically turn the subject of any photo for use in the app. Messages will also save these for future use. Now, while this might sound familiar for iOS users, Google will not require users to turn photos into stickers before using them in iMessage.
Users can also change the color of their bubbles, digging at the ongoing green versus blue debate between iOS and Android.
Additionally, Voice Moods will allow users to add an emoji to sent voice messages. Even before playing them, recipients will already have an idea what the tone of the message will be. And speaking of the format, Google also improved the audio quality for voice messages.
Finally, Messages will have Screen Effects going forward. Like other messaging platforms (like Messenger and Viber), typing certain phrases such as “I love you” will cause the screen to react appropriately. In Viber, for example, typing “happy birthday” will cause balloons to fly up from the bottom.
These updates are slowly rolling out through a beta version coming to select countries and devices.
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