Apps

Stray Cat Doors is a cute and calming puzzle mobile game

Sometimes, all it needs to be is cute!

Published

April 12, 2018

Leez

I’d been up all night, as per usual, and I’d stumbled upon a mobile game on my recommended list: Stray Cat Doors. At first glance, it’s undeniably adorable. The colors are appealing and warm; meanwhile, the graphics are just downright cute. When you’ve installed the game, the music is calming and I admittedly may never get tired of it.

But what is it?

Stray Cat Doors is a puzzle adventure game where you tap items and solve puzzles to unlock doors that reveal your character’s memories with her treasured cat. Seems simple enough? You’d be surprised. This game takes a little bit of thinking — I mean, it’s a puzzle game for a reason. When you open the game, it walks you through the basic mechanic: collect shards to form a complete cat by solving puzzles of varying kinds.

Since you have access to most things visible in a single stage, you essentially end up tapping everything on the screen to see if there are any clues that may connect to other elements in the environment.

If you like escape-the-room games…

You’ll discover quickly that if you don’t have the patience of clearing out the room to see which clues are related to each other, you will be bothered with this game. If you don’t know what escape-the-room games are, by the way, they’re a sub-genre of point-and-click adventure games where you make use of your environment to, well, escape the room.

It’s the type of game that requires players to think and take their time. With Stray Cat Doors, you’ll be surprised to know that there are quick cheats for the clueless.

A puzzle game on easy

Yes, boys and girls, this game has a wonderful cheat that saves you when you’re stuck: advertisements. You read that right: The game trades puzzle solving with advertisements. When you play and can’t figure out how to solve puzzles, you can click on the gear icon on the upper-right side of the game and take hints.

You’ll have to sit through watching an ad but at least you’re given clues on what to look for. If that doesn’t make it easier for players, there are no limits on how many hints you can take as long as you sit through an advertisement every time.

And there are more cheats…

Can’t figure out how to handle the puzzles even after you’ve read the hints? In Stray Cat Doors, you can get the answers to the hints by… you guessed it: watching another ad. This can be a bummer for some people who enjoy a challenge when playing a game but honestly, the game gets away with it because of how adorable and soothing it is.

Why you should give this mobile game a try

It’s a good game to pass the time. When I played it, the puzzles weren’t too tough to figure out. Many of them reminded me of an easier version of Professor Layton. It’s a nice way to keep you thinking or if not, furiously tapping every corner of your phone. Some might find the pitfalls of the title to be the lack of a precisely explained storyline, but there’s something nice from Stray Cat Doors’ ambiguity: It makes the game noncommittal — the good kind!

It’s a casual puzzle game that doesn’t ask for much. If you struggle, you have easy ways to get around puzzles. The game doesn’t dig deep into a storyline and leaves players space to speculate with what they go through while playing (which is admirable in its own way).

Stray Cat Doors has stunningly adorable graphics with aptly calming music. It’s hard not to fall in love with those two elements themselves. I mean, sometimes, all you need it to be is cute. If you do decide to give it a go, it’s available on iOS and Android for free.

Related Topics:Professor Layton Pulsmo Stray Cat Doors

Apps

Netflix expands its cheaper ad-supported tier to Southeast Asia

This also includes more countries in Europe and South America.

Published

May 15, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

If you don’t care about seeing a deluge of ads on your platforms, you’re an incredibly rare breed these days. That same skill will come in handy for those nicely priced subscription tiers that comes with ads. Netflix, for one, has one of those tiers, and it’s now coming out in more countries.

As is prevalent in other platforms today, an ad-supported subscription tier lowers the price you have to pay every month. The catch, however, is that there will be an occasional sprinkling of ads here and there.

Netflix offers this service, which allows subscribers to get the service for cheap at the expense of their time. Currently, it is limited to only a few major markets in the world. However, the platform is expanding the tier’s reach to more countries in Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia.

Starting in 2027, Netflix’s ad-supported tier will expand to 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Thailand.

Netflix says that the ad-supported tier is a popular option for subscribers. Currently, the tier has around 250 million subscribers worldwide. Since some of the new countries have a more budget-conscious attitude when it comes to purchasing services, this number will likely go up after the expansion in 2027.

Apps

Google might limit free storage to only 5GB

The change will affect new users.

Published

May 15, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Google One is a monthly subscription that gives you at least 200GB of cloud storage for your files and photos. For most people, a Google One subscription starts when Google inevitably tells them that their free storage space is running out and will soon stop backing up files. Starting today, new users might get that warning sooner rather than later as Google tests a lower limit to free storage.

Historically, Google offers users 15GB of free storage as a start. However, especially these days, 15GB can run out rapidly, prompting a Google One upgrade. Still, despite how “little” it is, Google’s free storage is generous compared to its contemporaries.

Now, Google is reportedly going to be more at par with the rest. As spotted on Reddit (via 9to5Google), new users will receive only 5GB of free storage. Based on Wayback Machine, the company changed its policy sometime between February to March.

Notably, 15GB is still available as an option, but users have to link their phone numbers to their accounts first.

According to Google, the policy change is meant to encourage users to upgrade their security. However, critics will point out that it just enables the company to collect more data about their users. Of note, the platform is already pushy about linking phone numbers before the change, but this adds another layer to entice people.

Also, Google confirms that the new policy is only a regional test for now. They have not announced when (or if) the change comes out for real.

Apps

Instagram takes on Snapchat yet again with new Instants feature

Posts disappear after they’re viewed once.

Published

May 14, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

The popularity of Snapchat’s competitors is as fleeting as their disappearing messages. However, despite how volatile the market is, Instagram wants to try again with a new feature (and app) called Instants.

Pardon me if you’ve heard this premise before. Instants is a feature that lets users share disappearing photos. However, unlike the 24 hours allotted for Stories, Instants will disappear right after a friend views them, but they can still react and reply to them.

The idea of Instants is to trim the excess fat from what Instagram is these days. Instagram’s Adam Mosseri admits as much when he said users want as easier way to shoot content.

As such, users won’t have access to Instagram’s editing tools. They also can’t upload pre-shot content from their camera roll. Like its contemporaries like BeReal, the new Instants feature is about living in the moment and sharing exactly what users see.

Despite disappearing after a single view, Instants will be automatically archived, so they can be reuploaded as normal Stories later on.

It isn’t the Wild West, though. Even if it pares down all the extra features, Instants will still use the safety features available to all of Instagram. Users, especially young ones, can mute and block others’ Instants. Likewise, parents will have control over when and how their young children interact with the feature.