Top 5 Android & iOS Apps of the Week: Vive le Roi, AR Ruler, and the Olympics!

The Paris 2024 Olympics are upon us, and this worldwide sporting celebration is here to keep us entertained for the next few weeks. Who will garner the most gold medals? Why not download the app and follow your favorite athletes and countries? AR Ruler makes it a snap to obtain rather decent guess-timates of a room or items.

Groovy makes sure your favorite music tracks can be played without any issue, while Vaux is a useful video and photo editor you can use while you're on the go. Vive le Roi is a puzzle platformer that sees you play the role of saving the King during the Revolution. 

If you're on the lookout for unbeatable app deals, you're in luck! Our carefully curated collection of free apps for the week is your ultimate destination. Every week, we meticulously select a variety of apps that are typically paid but are now available for free through an exclusive promotion.

But hold on because our Top 5 Apps of the Week are in a league of their own. Without further ado, let's dive right into the crème de la crème of this week—the top 5 apps that reign supreme in the realm of mobile games and applications!

Vive le Roi (Android & iOS)

Do you like stealth adventure games like Thief and Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun? Well, Vive le Roi is not that complicated nor in-depth, but it still offers a way for 2D stealth adventure games forward. Your mission? Prevent the King's execution and change France's destiny—for the better or for worse. 

• Price: Free (Android)/$4.99 (iOS) / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: None / Account required: Yes

With 30 levels to go through, each level requires you to solve the puzzle so that you may proceed. While it is rather linear in its gameplay, there is some room for creativity in how you avoid guards and sneak your way around. There are different ways to move around unnoticed, including tricking guards (who aren't too bright by the way) into opening gates, shifting objects around, and more. 

This is reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid on the PSOne, where moving around in a cardboard box is hilarious. The faster you complete each puzzle based on the least number of moves, the higher your score. Timing is of the essence here, and for those who are not used to such timing-based games, you might find it more frustrating than fun.

• Download Vive le Roi from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

AR Ruler (Android & iOS)

Have there ever been moments in your life when you needed to measure something, but did not carry your tape measure with you? Well, the AR Ruler app is one handy 'tool' to have in your repertoire of apps, where it relies on the strength of Augmented Reality technology to measure objects in the real world based on the smartphone camera. Some early calibration needs to be done before you continue.

• Price: Free / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: Yes ($5.00-$20.00) / Account required: No

You will be able to measure in a myriad ways, including a line (with different measuring units such as cm, m, ft, yd, inch, etc.), and the distance meter lets you figure out the distance from the device's camera to a fixed point. 

Need to fix a shelf and want to ensure the angle is correct? This app provides you with the angle, too, in addition to area, perimeter, volume, and height. While it is not 100% accurate like a ruler or an actual tape measure, it does come pretty close. 

• Download AR Ruler from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Paris 2024 Olympics (Android & iOS)

The Paris 2024 Olympics are upon us, and with so many sports to watch and indulge yourself in, it is all too easy for the sporting enthusiast to get lost in the larger scheme of things. Thankfully, you no longer need to find out which TV station has rights to the Olympics, as the official app lets you know which event is happening where and when, offering a wide array of information to the sports fan. 

There is also a section for press releases so that you can keep abreast with the latest happenings through the written word, while highlights of different sports are also available via video. For those who are attending live, you can also manage your tickets through the app for easier and more convenient access. 

• Price: Free / Advertising: Yes / In-app purchases: None / Account required: Yes

Folks who love following the Torch Relay will be pleased to note that there is a dedicated section just for the Torch Relay, where you can keep track of the relay route throughout France and overseas. In fact, I would say that this app is far better than a live telecast because the scores of a particular sport will pop up a few seconds before the live broadcast. This is thanks to the power and speed of the Internet.

It would be nice to be able to follow more than just a single favorite team, since some of us do live in multinational households where each person is rooting for their preferred nation. Ah well, that is just nitpicking on a whole new level. 

• Download Paris 2024 Olympics from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Vaux (Android & iOS)

Video editing is something that most Gen Z are pretty well-versed with, considering how much content they consume as well as create on social media. Gone are the days when the smartphone was a lumbering machine that was limited to just basic messaging apps, making phone calls, and viewing videos while listening to music.

Modern chipsets have the processing muscle to handle more complicated tasks like image and video editing. It is always handy to have an app like Vaux just in case you need to come up with an impromptu stitched video.

• Price: Free / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: Yes ($3.99-$52.00) / Account required: No

With Vaux, the essentials are well-covered. You can add music to an existing video, trim the bits that you do not want, speed up the slow parts, and even merge two different videos with a transition effect to boot. If a file is too large, you can also compress it, while video file compatibility issues are well taken care of by the video conversion ability. Want to add some pizzazz to your shot? Why not reverse the video instead? 

For those who love stickers in their instant messengers, you can also use Vaux to create a GIF. Influencers would definitely benefit from the inclusion of a watermark. If you see a video you like but just want the audio, how about using Vaux to extract the audio from the video and proceed to edit the audio from the app itself?  

Yes, Vaux does support audio editing as well. You can trim, reverse, merge, convert, cut, speed up/slow down, or reduce noise in the app. While basic, it gets the job done.

• Download Vaux from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Groovy - Music Player (Android)

To put it in a nutshell, Groovy is nothing more than a regular music player on Android, albeit with a slight twist. Groovy sports a more modern user interface so that you can truly focus on what you enjoy—your musical experience. It takes after the Material 3 design guidelines for a modern and intuitive user interface.

Accessing your MP3 and digital song collection on your smartphone is a snap with Groovy. You can choose to organize them based on your preferred categories, with numerous management methods including sorting by songs, artists, albums, folders, and more. 

• Price: Free / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: None / Account required: No

Playback is more than just pressing the 'Play' button. You can opt to control playback from the media notification and player screen. As any decent music player app should have, you will have basic playback controls including play, pause, skip, and seek here.

Thankfully, they are found on both the media notification and player screens that make the entire experience more seamless. Feel that you want to enjoy the song in a different way? Why not adjust the playback speed?

• Download Groovy - Music Player from the Google Play Store.

As the Summer Olympics have kicked off in Paris, you might still want to have some fun with these apps in between sports. Do inform us know if there is something we missed out on that you would like everyone to know about by leaving a comment.