The Week in iOS Apps: Blockbuster games

Two of the biggest games around—Badlands and Candy Crush Saga—both get updates this week. Plus, a very, very, silly game makes its debut.

This $4 game for iOS was an immediate hit on its introduction to the App Store in 2013, with challenging gameplay and beautiful design that appealed to young and old players alike. This week’s update adds 40 new two-player levels, 120 new missions overall, and six new achievements to unlock.

This freemium iOS game isn’t just a hit on the iPhone—it’s a pop culture sensation. (Case in point, last season’s “Kwazy Kupcakes” parody episode of Fox’s police comedy, Brooklyn Nine Nine.) In the latest update, Tiffi needs your help to find a missing wafer—which means it’s time to crush some candy.

There are several changes available in this week’s update to Facebook Messenger: First, it’s available as an iPad-compatible app. Second, videos you shoot in Messenger are now available to be saved to your phone’s camera role. Third, a number of older bugs have been fixed to make the app more reliable.

This free meditation app for iPhone already provided users with guidance and techniques to take a moment or two of quiet. Version 2.0 contains hundreds of hours of brand new content, including “meditation packs” designed to guide you through particular challenges—including those in the areas of health, performance, and relationships. The end result? Developers say you’ll “stress less, sleep more, and focus better than ever.”

Version 2.0 of iTunes U is geared toward creating more interaction between students and teachers of these digital course: Students can now pose questions on any assignment; other students can join that discussion to ask more questions or provide answers; and both teachers and students can receive push notifications to help them track the discussion as it progresses.

We’re not actually sure what the point of this $1 iOS game is supposed to be. All we know is that it’s based on one of the best Monty Python sketches ever—and that the app features voice acting from Monty Python legend John Cleese. So it should be a good time!

It’s a simple addition, but one that might make Vine and its short-short videos even more addictive: The app this week updated to include a view counter, tracking each time that your Vine video loops, both in the app and on the Web.

Day One, the journaling app, is now free … Spotify now gives iPhone users more control over their Play Queue … and Skype has restored a feature that let users send and receive private messages.