Android

19050 readers
176 users here now

The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!

Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.

🔗Universal Link: !android@lemdro.id


💡Content Philosophy:

Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.


Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id

For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id

💬Matrix Chat

💬Telegram channels / chats

📰Our communities below


Rules

  1. Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.

  2. No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.

  3. Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.

  4. No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.

  5. No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.

  6. No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.

  7. No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.

  8. No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.

  9. No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!

  10. No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.

Quick Links

Our Communities

Lemmy App List

Chat and More


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
1
 
 

Latest entries - 3 May 2025:

Other recent entries

Introduction

I recently realized there are still, to this day, some actual "hidden gems" in the Play Store. Not the fake ones everyone talks about which, in a way or another, often have a catch or aren't very "hidden". I mean free games with no ads or IAPs of any kind that are fun to play.

So I was thinking maybe it's time to compile a list of them. Please suggest the ones you've found and enjoyed!

Edit: I'm now including free games (no piracy) from other sources beside the Play Store (which will be specified within brackets), such as GitHub or F-droid. If they're also FOSS, like all F-droid games, they'll have this green checkmark ✅️. For the games that have both F-droid and Play Store versions, the green checkmark is for the F-droid version.

I won't try them all as I did with my premium games list, because you could simply download and try them for yourself without spending a dime. I'll simply list them.

‼️Also, please do checkout MiniReview - Game Reviews for more free games that match the following criteria (use the "Browse" tab and select the correct filters). The same app for iOS - App Store - is here.‼️

I've saved this post so to keep it updated over time, for my own reference and for your benefit. So feel free to save it and check out new entries every so often.

Entry Criteria

  1. FREE
  2. NO ADS
  3. STRICTLY NO IAPs (except donation buttons, but I'll have to check first)
  4. NO PIRACY
  5. it has to be a legit, full game you've played and liked. No demos, no emulators (everyone knows RetroArch anyways)
  6. no entire repositories. You can recommend them in the comments if you really want, but this list is for games you'd like to recommend
  7. if it's a Play Store game, it should be compatible with the latest Android version at the time of entry
  8. must include a link to the game, especially if from sources outside the Play Store. Not direct-download links, just links to the page
  9. sketchy sources won't be considered. Play Store, GitHub, and F-droid are welcome

[If you want to recommend paid games, without ads or predatory microtransactions, here is the list for you.]

THE LIST

 

Legend

✅️ - FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software). Listed on top in their respective categories

☕️ - includes option to donate, with or without minimal cosmetics only

~~[Game title]~~ - delisted

 

Shooter

 

Stealth

 

Platformer

 

Rhythm

 

Arcade

 

RPG

 

Roguelike dungeon crawler

 

Deck builder

 

Adventure

 

Puzzle

 

Tower defense

 

Strategy

 

Management

 

Racing

 

Simulation

 

Casual

 

Visual novel

 

Educational

 

Delisted or outdated

 

Happy gaming ;)

ps: please let me know if there's any wrong information about the games included in this list (especially regarding the ones with free donations) so that I'll fix the post, if necessary.

2
 
 

Start your journey into the Fediverse by subscribing to our starter communities. We're actively working with subreddit communities and moderators on their transition over.

Our Mission

Lemdro.id strives to be a fully open source instance with incredible transparency. Visit our GitHub for the nuts and bolts that go into making this instance soar and our Matrix Space to chat with our team and access the read-only backroom admin chat.

Interfaces

Our Communities

Other Neat Communities

Seeking Experienced Mods

Are you interested in exploring options to migrate your tech subreddit to the Fediverse in a way that supports decentralization or are you an experienced moderator who is interested in joining one of our mod teams? Get in touch!

A Fediverse home for developers

Are you developing a Lemmy app and looking for a home community for your project? Get in touch!

3
4
5
6
7
 
 

Play Store 3D Pinball Space Cadet Download

From the article:

If you grew up in the Windows XP era, than you probably spent hours playing its iconic free game, “3D Pinball Space Cadet.” Now, “Space Cadet” pinball has been ported to Android, and it’s completely free.

One of the many things that Windows XP will be remembered for is the pinball game that essentially everyone who ever used the operating system played at some point or another. The game has been immortalized many times, and now it’s available on Android.

Developer Kyle Sylvertre used a decompiled version of Space Cadet Pinball from k4zmu2a on GitHub to bring the game to the Google Play Store for Android users. The game is optimized for touchscreens with the left and right sides of the display acting as the triggers, and you can also tap the far right side to use the ball launcher. The game runs in portrait mode, supports 18 languages, integrates with Google Play Games for a leaderboard, and is less than 5MB in size.

And it’s all completely free too.

There are no ads or in-app purchases here, as the developer “just wanted to see it on Android with a Google Play leaderboard.” On that note, cheats are disabled to keep the integrity of that leaderboard, but the developer hints that cheats might come back with an option to turn off the leaderboard.

In any case, it’s a nice hit of nostalgia. Drop your high score in the comments below.

8
9
10
11
12
13
 
 

In late April 2025, the developer behind Winlator, BrunoSX, announced a sudden pause in development. There was no mention of when the dev would be back, but now, the official GitHub page has been updated, hinting at the return of BrunoSX.

Winlator is among the most popular Windows game emulators for Android. With a large community behind it, the emulator has reached to a state where it can run many old AAA games.

14
15
 
 

cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/27143216

upcoming OnePlus device, rumored to have a massive 7800mAh battery (per Wccftech).
and it would absolutely smoke the 5,000 and 4,685mAH batteries in the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Instead, Apple and Samsung seem to be prioritizing thinness at all costs, for reasons that aren't entirely clear beyond aesthetics and bragging rights. It's been years since I've heard anyone complain about how thick a phone is, if not a decade or more. Complaints have trended in the opposite direction, I'd say -- without a case, some phones can be so thin and slippery that they're hard to grip securely. Even my wife's OnePlus 9 5G has that issue. A few foldables, like Google's Pixel 9 Pro Fold , are so thin when open that they feel like they might bend or snap.

16
 
 

Gboard is getting visibly worse almost on a daily basis, especially autocorrecting perfectly legitimate words, presumably based on dubious analysis of other people's writing. So what's worth trying? The ability to swipe type is a big plus

17
18
19
 
 
20
21
22
23
24
25
 
 

I was a heavy voice user of the old Google Assistant, as well as Google Home/Nest speakers, and have really grown to hate its Gemini based replacement on my phone. So often it screws up with basic commands that were intuitive and reliable on the old Assistant. It's also slower and feels like a waste of resources to query an LLM for simple device and smart home commands

view more: next ›