Unpacking is a lovely, relaxing puzzle game made by a small team. It's beautifully designed and manages to tell a compelling story with very little text. Unfortunately, its core mechanic — unpacking boxes and placing items in a new home — isn't exactly difficult to copy. One clone quickly found an audience on iOS and Android before it was removed.

Unpacking Master, which was published by a company called SayGames, was said to be a near-identical copy of Witch Beam Games' title. It adopted a freemium model (users could pay a one-time fee to remove ads) and it briefly topped App Store charts less than a week after it was released. As Game Developer notes, Unpacking Master is no longer available on Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store.

Earlier this month, a spate of Wordle clones barged onto the App Store with copycat developers looking to cash in on the success of the viral hit word game. Those apps were removed as well. These incidents highlight a long-running problem that studios behind popular games (particularly indies) have grappled with.

Knockoff games have plagued mobile app stores for years. For instance, the developers of 2048 made some minor changes to the formula of puzzle game Threes and became a hit. In 2018, publisher Voodoo adopted the central idea of the quirky Donut County (players move around a hole in the ground and swallow up objects) with Hole.io, which soared to the top of App Store and Google Play charts.

In the case of Unpacking, Witch Beam suggested SayGames' clone used almost identical items and very similar level layouts. It said that while other clones failed to find much success, Unpacking Master took off in the wake of an ad campaign on TikTok and Instagram.

"It's demoralizing for a small team like ours to see content we spent literally years planning, refining and handcrafting be hastily reproduced in an opportunistic ad-riddled app a mere 3 months after our launch," the team wrote on Twitter. "We're a tiny indie team and even with the success we have achieved, we still don't have the resources to pursue companies trying to use our game's distinct look and feel to make a quick buck. We have to rely on storefronts like the App Store to better curate their content."

At least for now, the original Unpacking isn't available via mobile app stores, though you can pick it up on PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch and Xbox. It's on Game Pass as well, so you can play over the cloud if you're eager to check it out on a phone or tablet.

You won't have to run an unpolished beta to try Android apps on Windows 11. Microsoft's Panos Panay has teased the release of a Windows 11 public preview in February that will bring Android apps to the Microsoft Store. The company didn't say how many apps would be available in this test, but they'll be titles you would find in the Amazon Appstore.

The preview should still be helpful if you're content to stick to Windows apps. You can expect taskbar upgrades that include call mute controls, simpler window sharing and weather. Microsoft has redesigned the Media Player and Notepad apps, too.

You may want to hurry if you're still uncertain about upgrading to the new OS, though. Microsoft has warned the free Windows 11 upgrade rollout is "entering its final phase" sooner than the originally planned mid-2022 target. While that hints uptake has been strong, it also suggests you might have to pay for the upgrade if you don't decide relatively soon.

Android app support was one of the headlining features for Windows 11 at its reveal event, but is only reaching mainstream users several months after the new Windows version's launch. Nonetheless, it might be an important addition for both Microsoft and users. This will help if you'd like to use common Android apps on your PC, of course, but it could also spark interest in both touchscreen Windows 11 PCs and the Microsoft Store.

Software glitches in Meta's free internet service are leading to unwanted charges for users, according to documents obtained by whistleblower Francis Haugen and shared with The Wall Street Journal. Paid features, like videos, have been appearing in the service's free mode, even though clips are either supposed to stay hidden or warn users of data charges. When users tap the content, they face carrier bills that can be especially difficult to pay for the service's target audience of users in developing countries.

The slip-up appears to have been lucrative for carriers. Meta estimated carriers were charging free users about $7.8 million per month as of last summer. The issue was particularly serious in Pakistan, where users have reportedly been charged a total $1.9 million per month.

A Meta spokesperson said it had received reports about the problem and had "continued work" on fixing the software flaws. New versions of the free mode explicitly label it as "text only" rather than implying it will never cost any money. The representative said the document estimating $7.8 million per month in charges wasn't based on carrier billing information, and that the overcharges were closer to $3 million per month.

Meta, like Google, has a strong interest in pushing free internet access. Most of its recent growth comes from developing countries where many people are hopping online for the first time. While the free service doesn't limit users to only visiting Facebook and other services it owns, it increases the chances internet newcomers will sign up and spur Meta's growth.

There are other concerns about Meta's free offerings beyond surprise billing. The company has been criticized for making it too easy to pay for data through in-app systems (instead of direct purchases from carriers) and after-the-fact "loans" in some countries. It has also been accused of pushing users of its Discover product towards content on its own services, while not doing enough to make external content easily accessible. While the company has claimed it will treat all internet traffic —whether to its own products or elsewhere — equally, the leaked document itself states that Discover “is not functioning consistent with our commitments.” 

Being part of TikTok’s creator fund is apparently a lot less lucrative than it may seem, even for some of the app’s biggest stars. Over the last few days, some high-profile TikTokkers have taken the unusual step of publicizing how much — or in this case, how little — they are making from the fund.

TikTok is still relatively early in its monetization features for creators. Instead of a revenue sharing arrangement like YouTube’s Partner Program, TikTok pays its top stars out of a creator fund. Launched in 2020, the fund started out with $200 million, and TikTok said last year it was increasing the fund to $1 billion over the next three years in the U.S. But the company hasn’t provided details on how much it has distributed or how much participants can expect to earn.

But according to one prominent streamer, most creators are earning very little. Last week, Hank Green, who has more than 6 million followers on TikTok, shared a YouTube video titled “So… TikTok sucks.” In the 24-minute video, he details his experience in TikTok’s creator fund, and estimates that he currently makes about 2.5 cents per 1,000 views on the platform — a fraction of what he earns on YouTube and about half of what he had previously earned on TikTok.

The problem, as he explains it, is that TikTok offers a steadily growing number of creators a portion of a “static pool of money,” that isn’t tied to TikTok’s revenue or its skyrocketing popularity. The result is that each creator makes less and less, even as TikTok becomes more successful. “Because of the way that TikTok shares a lot of audience among a lot of creators, that ends up being less than a dollar a day for most of the people in the creator fund,” he said.

Green, whose participation in the creator fund was previously touted by TikTok in a corporate blog post, said that creator funds aren’t bad on their own, but that TikTok’s current arrangement is preventing creators from being able to adequately support themselves.

His comments prompted others to share their frustrations with TikTok. Safwan AhmedMia, who goes by SuperSaf on TikTok, shared Green’s video along with a screenshot of his TikTok earnings: £112.04 (about $151). “This is how much I've made from the TikTok Creator Fund since April 2021 with over 25 million views in that time,” he wrote.

Then, Jimmy Donaldson, the streamer known as Mr. Beast, shared his TikTok earnings. According to the screenshot, he’s earned just under $15,000 from the app, with daily earnings between $18 and $32 in January. As The Informationpoints out, that works out to less than $10,000 a year from TikTok, despite his estimate that he’s gotten “over a billion views” on the app. That number is particularly low considering Donaldson is YouTube’s top earner, and made $54 million on the platform in 2021.

It's not clear how much Green, AhmedMia and Donaldson's experience reflects that of other creators in the the fund. But TikTok hasn’t offered an alternative explanation about why its creators are making so little. “The Creator Fund is one of many ways that creators can make money on TikTok,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement, pointing to the company’s creator marketplace, which helps match creators with potential sponsors. “We continue to listen to and seek feedback from our creator community and evolve our features to improve the experience for those in the program.”

It's true that the creator fund isn't the only way TikTok stars make money from the app. The app has a tipping feature, though it's not available to everyone yet. Creators also regularly partner with brands and those deals can be worth millions for the app's most influential users. But inking a deal with a major brand requires time and effort, and that option may not be available to lesser known creators. And since TikTok doesn't have a revenue sharing feature, the fund is right now the only way creators can be paid directly by the company. 

Elsewhere, the app is testing other monetization features for creators. It's experimenting with subscription features, which would allow creators to effectively move some of their content behind a paywall. The features appears to be in an early stage, and the company hasn’t said when, or even if, the feature may be available more widely.

Are you in TikTok's creator fund or have a tip to share about how it distributes funds? Email me at karissa.bell [at] engadget.com.

Even if you've never heard of a company called Plaid, they may owe you part of a multi-million dollar lawsuit settlement, Fast Company has reported. Plaid, which connects consumer bank accounts to services like Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase and other apps, was accused of collecting excessive financial data from consumers. While denying any wrongdoing, it agreed to pay $58 million to all consumers with a linked bank account to any of its approximately 5,000 client apps.

The lawsuit accused Plaid of collecting "more financial data than was needed from users." It also claimed that the company obtained users' bank login information via its own "Plaid Link" interface, "which had the look and feel of the user’s own bank account login screen," according to the settlement website. On top of the $58 million payout, the company was forced to change some of its business practices. 

Millions of people use apps linked to Plaid, so any payout might be pretty slim. Still, if you're a US resident who had a bank account connected to the app between January 1st, 2013 and November 19th, 2021, you may qualify to receive a claim. For more, see the settlement site's FAQ. 

You may have already received an email about the lawsuit, or you can check the settlement's search section to see if you've used an app that qualifies. In any case, you have until April 28th, 2022 to submit your claim.

Back in September, Robinhood announced plans to test a cryptocurrency wallet within its app. At the time, the company said it would open the beta to a small number of people before expanding availability ahead of a full-scale release. If you joined the waiting list Robinhood create, you can now test the wallet for yourself – provided you were one of the first 1,000 people to sign up for the beta.

In a blog post the company published today, Robinhood said it would invite 10,000 individuals to the beta by March, with more to follow later. In addition to storing cryptocurrencies, the company’s wallet allows you to move them off the app to other external wallets. During the testing period, the company will limit daily withdrawals to a total of $2,999. It will also limit users to 10 transactions per day, and, to take part in the beta, you’ll need to enable two-factor authentication. With today's rollout, the wallet supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. 

As it works to polish the wallet, Robinhood says it will add “delightful” QR scanning experiences and an improved transaction history interface, among other features. When Robinhood first announced the wallet beta, it told The Verge it planned to make the feature available to everyone sometime in 2022.

Before Microsoft announced the Surface Duo in 2019, the company spent several years working on an operating system codenamed Andromeda. It was envisioned as a reboot of Windows Phone with an emphasis on inking. The company worked on the software until it eventually decided to instead include Android on the Surface Duo. Until now, we’ve only seen glimpses of Andromeda in things like patent filing. But Windows Central recently obtained an internal build of the operating system and installed it on a Lumia 950.

Outside of a rare look at an unfinished project, what’s interesting about seeing Andromeda after all these years is how many of the ideas Microsoft was working on then either made their way to the Surface Duo or apps the company has released since. On the lock screen, for instance, you can see an early version of the Surface Duo’s peek functionality. Meanwhile, a lot of the features you see on the “Journal” home screen eventually made their way to the company’s Whiteboard app, and that’s something you can download from the Microsoft Store.

At the same time, it’s an interesting look at what could have been. Even in the software’s unfinished state, there’s a lot we see in the video that’s genuinely different from anything Android and iOS offer, even to this day. The fact Andromeda allowed you to jot down notes directly on the lock screen, and that they would still be there the next time you unlocked the phone, is something that looks genuinely useful.

Of course, there are probably many good reasons Microsoft ultimately decided not to pursue Andromeda. Launching a device that does something different, let alone a completely new operating system, is no easy task in a mature marketplace. Unless a device does nearly everything right, it’s difficult to overcome the fact most people tend to stick with products they know and are comfortable with.

Instagram is taking new steps to make “potentially harmful” content less visible in its app. The company says that the algorithm powering the way posts are ordered in users’ feeds and in Stories will now de-prioritize content that “may contain bullying, hate speech or may incite violence.”

While Instagram’s rules already prohibit much of this type of content, the change could affect borderline posts, or content that hasn’t yet reached the app’s moderators. “To understand if something may break our rules, we'll look at things like if a caption is similar to a caption that previously broke our rules,” the company explains in an update.

Up until now, Instagram has tried to hide potentially objectionable content from public-facing parts of the app, like Explore, but hasn’t changed how it appears to users who follow the accounts posting this type of content. The latest change means that posts deemed “similar” to those that have been previously removed will be much less visible even to followers. A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that “potentially harmful” posts could still be eventually removed if the post breaks its community guidelines.

The update follows a similar change in 2020, when Instagram began down-ranking accounts that shared misinformation that was debunked by fact checkers. Unlike that change, however, Instagram says that the latest policy will only affect individual posts and “not accounts overall.”

Additionally, Instagram says it will now factor in each individual user’s reporting history into how it orders their feeds. “If our systems predict you’re likely to report a post based on your history of reporting content, we will show the post lower in your Feed,” Instagram says.

Twitter Communities, a topic-based groups feature that landed on iOS and the web last year, has arrived on Android. In the latest version of Twitter's Android app, you'll be able to find groups related to your interests and chat with like-minded people.

There are communities for interests as varied as plants, skincare, space, design, fashion, Xbox and R&B. There's even one where you can share your Wordle scores if you want to be part of that conversation without annoying your followers.

Although users can't set up their own community as easily as they might with say, a Facebook Group or subreddit, they can suggest a new one that they'd like to create and moderate. Twitter says it will keep them in mind as it adds more communities.

Twitter has laid out some of its other plans for Communities in 2022. For one thing, it's looking into a third type of membership beyond invite-only and open-to-all formats, in which users could request to join. Admins and mods would be able to let them in or deny the request. Also in the pipeline are a ranked timeline (though the chronological timeline will still be available), Q&As and ways for mods to highlight some of a community's best content.

Over the years, Google’s productivity suite has had many names. What started as Google Apps became G Suite and is now known as Workspace. Over that same timeframe, the company has offered just as many ways to access that software, announcing new subscription plans while doing away with older ones. It now plans to sunset a tier that had survived the suite’s most recent rebranding.

In an email spotted by 9to5Google, the company told Workspace administrators it won’t offer G Suite legacy free edition as of July 1st, 2022. The company plans to transition those users to paid accounts starting on May 1st. Google says it will automatically select a subscription plan for users who don’t pick one on their own by the start of May, noting it will look at their current usage when making the decision. Any individual or organization the company migrates to a paid subscription plan automatically won’t be billed for at least two months. However, the company says it will suspend the accounts of individuals and organizations that don’t input their billing information by July 1st.

Business and enterprise Workspace accounts start at a monthly cost of $6 per user. The company will offer "deep" discounts to those affected by the decision. To be clear, if you're using Gmail, Docs, Sheets and other apps through a free Google account, you won't be affected by the move. What's more, Google will continue to offer free Workspace plans to nonprofits and schools that qualify for its Fundamentals tier. That’s not changing with today’s announcement, nor do organizations with legacy G Suite Basic, Business, Education or Nonprofit subscriptions have to worry about a potential surprise bill.