so i've found a new app called "AppLike", where you install game apps and LET THEM RUN to earn points, which eventually turn into money. unlike apparently every other "install games!" app you don't get points for the actual installation itself, you have to actually "play" the game (in another window while AppLike is running - i made the mistake of playing for 30min and wondering when my points would come in the beginning, but nothing came because AppLike wasn't on). they claim the points you earn grows the longer you play but it's actually a lie - you start out getting around 100pts every 2 minutes, then it goes to 200 every 5 minutes, eventually you're at 500 every 25 minutes etc. for that same game. when you switch to a newly-installed game the whole thing restarts and you're back to getting the points fast. so you actually get less over time and it's trying to force you to constantly try new games to get the points faster.

in reality you can just download a game, leave it open and running (don't even have to finish the tutorial - or make it past the loading screen!) and it'll still earn you points. so for example, it had a game i actually wanted to play (King of Avalon, a city-building/battling game i've played before on a real computer, except the app version is actually better and easier to use) but playing games sucks up my time so when i actually need to concentrate on doing homework or something, i open up a different game i'm not going to play at all (slot machine shit) and just keep it open while i work, without touching the phone. also make sure to mute the sound and lower the quality settings on all the games so it doesn't kill your phone.

point breakdown: roughly 182,700pts is $20; 10,000 is $1. after playing all night when i couldn't sleep i had about 16,000 points, 10,000 of those were from the same one game and the rest was from level-up bonuses etc. assuming i can get 10,000 a day if i just leave my phone on a new game on idle each day, that's $20 in just 18 days!

250pts bonus + a copy of 25% of their point earnings if a friend registers from you (that's a really good deal). i don't actually know how to refer friends though. around 200 bonus points every time you "level up" in AppLike (but you have to collect these yourself at the time of levelling up or you'll miss them if you don't get them before you level up again - check your phone notifications to see when you have).

according to people online, you can put multiple phones on the same account and earn double the money. just put each phone on a different game and let them all run. some people have 20 phones that they do this stuff on and make a ton of money with it, apparently...

the game i'm playing, King of Avalon, can be switched to swedish, japanese, korean and a bunch of other languages so it's also language practice. mine's in swedish but i joined a japanese guild and i've been writing in japanese there - those guys don't know any english but some english-speakers have joined their guild anyway and i'm the only one who can translate between them at all l-lol. it was really unexpected. i can also switch my window and use a dictionary app if i can't understand what they're saying. the game has built-in translation tools for the chatbox and all the actual in-game event stuff (ex. "come do a group battle!") automatically get translated to whatever language your game is set to, and because typing on mobile is hard no one's talking that much, so it's not a huge problem.