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We’ve covered the best new Android apps and games for years, but we’ve only occasionally talked about our personal favorites. It is high time that we make a summary of the main applications of the Android Police staff, don’t you think?
For this roundup, some of the top Android Police writers have selected their favorite Android apps. We have excluded apps and services that are incredibly popular, like Gmail or Spotify, in favor of software that might be new to some people.
Zachary KD
I started using Subscriptions About a year ago, and it has quickly become one of my favorite apps. These days we have subscriptions for everything from our music to our television. Keeping track of all of this can be a nightmare, so having it all stored in one convenient place is invaluable to me. Plus, you can create custom posts, as well as choose from popular options like Spotify or Netflix. I even have my rental listed here!
I love to customize Android, especially my home screen. I often share my home screen creations on Twitter, as well as across various Telegram communities, and when I do, I like to frame each screenshot with the device I’m using. Snapmod It is incredibly easy to use and is constantly updated with the latest device models.
Another application that I use when I personalize my phone is Stokie. There are many wallpaper apps, but this one does things a little differently. All the wallpapers found on Stokie are, as the name suggests, wallpapers from a large number of devices. I see a lot of phones come and go working here on AP, and now when someone on the team is checking something, and I like the wallpaper, I don’t need to disturb them to extract it. Instead, I simply navigate to that device in Stokie and download it myself. There is also a free version, but I don’t like ads and I like to support developers.
Overdrop is a simple app that offers very detailed weather forecast and looks beautiful doing it. I’ve been using Overdrop since it came out in 2018, and it’s by far my favorite weather app. The animations and themes are smooth and clean, and the widgets are downright beautiful. Anyone looking for a new weather app in case Apple buys DarkSky should definitely see this.
I love the widget at a glance from Google and have been since its release on the Pixel 2. Google may have made it available to all Android devices since then, but it’s limited. If you’re using a launcher other than Google’s, the widget won’t change color to stay visible on bright wallpapers, and you can’t resize text. Another widget Fix all of these issues and add many other features to the experience. Another Widget has become one of the first applications that I download on a new device.
Cody
Filmic Pro: The native camera app on your phone is probably pretty decent for capturing video, but if you want full control over settings like frame rate, color profile, and ISO, Filmic Pro is the upgrade for you. The number of settings can be overwhelming for some, and there is a steep learning curve if you’re not familiar with all facets of video capture yet, but this is the camera app you should be using if you’re trying to produce the highest quality. video from your phone.
CalcNote: You may have hated school, but your teachers were not wrong when they said that you will use math for the rest of your life. In the real world, classic calculators are terrible because you have to follow an order of operations. A Mac application called Soulver introduced me to notepad-style calculators, and I finally found CalcNote when I searched for an Android counterpart. This is how calculators on smartphones should be, it’s perfect for math on the back of the napkin.
Corbin
An app that I started using about a year ago, and which has subsequently made me feel much less overwhelmed, is Feedly. Twitter makes any news that isn’t republished impossible to follow multiple times, and the endless stream of content recommended on Google News has the side effect of making me feel like I’m always missing something if I only read at five-minute intervals. With Feedly, all the news that interests me is collected until I have time to read it. I also pay for Feedly’s professional subscription, because the filter option is great for websites that don’t have separate RSS feeds for different categories.
Plex It is also a fantastic application. I’m sure a lot of you already know this, but while writing a guide to recording your own movies, I remembered how perfect hosting your own media collection is compared to the competition. Even though I have many of my own movies on Plex, I use it more for music functionality these days; Unlike Google Play Music, I don’t come across stupid device authorization limits.
This job involves taking a lot of screenshots, to the point that opening Google Photos several times a day to copy batches of images to my Dropbox actually takes a long time. I started using Dropsync last year to automatically copy screenshots from my phone to my PC via Dropbox, and it works great. The same developer has similar apps available for OneDrive, MEGA, and other services.
Okay, this is a bit of shameless self-promotion, but I really use Photostack at least several times a week. It is a batch photo editor that I originally created because Adobe has not yet added watermark support to the new Lightroom CC. PhotoStack can resize, convert, and add watermarks to many images at once. It is a progressive web application with full offline support, available at photostack.app or Play Store (the latter is essentially a web container).
My final choice is probably Tusky, a client of Mastodon, a federated social network that is very similar to Twitter. I really enjoy Mastodon as a platform (contrary to popular belief, there is are people on it), and Tusky is a full-featured app with push notifications, multi-account support, and even the ability to send scheduled posts. I am @[email protected] in Mastodon, if you want to follow me there.
Matthew
For some reason, I’ve never been happy with radar features within weather apps like AccuWeather, so I’ve always opted for a standalone radar app for its simplicity and overall appearance. For a while, I used Storm Radar, but since then I’ve switched to MyRadar Weather Radar because it looks great on the screen of my OP7 Pro. Of course, seeing as I’ve almost always lived in one of the rainiest cities in the country, you better believe that MyRadar Weather Radar uses me a lot for its fabulous visuals of my local weather.
I read comics, and yes, I take my comic reading apps seriously. I have never liked the likes of Comixology and its many ramifications, thanks to the lack of customization of the application. So I choose to use CDisplayEx. It’s my comic book reader of choice on Windows, and it’s my comic book reader of choice on Android. Not only does it offer a wealth of personalization options for reading, but it also supports cloud storage so you can easily access your collection on the go. Without a doubt, CDisplayEx is the best comic reader on Android, but since the application does not contain a store, you will have to bring your own library.
Synchronization for Reddit it is my most used application on Android; nothing else comes close. Every morning I search for my phone, and the first application I open is Sync for Reddit. The same treatment before bedtime, and really throughout the day if I have any downtime. While I know that Reddit apps can be a very personal choice, after using many over the years, I always go back to Sync for Reddit for its simplicity, stability, and looks.
Since Google absolutely refuses to maintain consistency between its Android icons, I am forced to use an icon pack to ensure a harmonious appearance on my interface. My choice for icons is Minimal O – Icon Pack. First of all, all its icons are round, which is a style that I have always enjoyed since it looks very clean. On top of that, the selection in this icon pack can’t be beat. Rarely do I come across an icon that this app doesn’t contain, and even in these rare cases, I’ve managed to find a similar icon that works as a sensory replacement.
Since Sync for reddit is my most used Android app, that would mean the Kodi Media Center is my second most used app. I’ve equipped both my living room and bedroom with Nvidia Shield transmission cases, and I’ve equipped those cases with large external hard drives so that I can store all my extracted media in as few places as possible. Sure, I could put all of my content in the cloud with a media app like Plex, but I’m old school, so I’d rather keep things simple with Kodi, an open source media center that works wonderfully on Android. Of course, this means that I am running dual libraries for my two Kodi installations, but I think it is a good practice as I will have an accessible backup in case one of my drives fails. This means that I mainly use Kodi for movies and TV shows, but if you like games or retro music, Kodi can handle those libraries as easily as the rest.
Loft
I read a lot of books, and I followed what I had read and when I read it it was something I never thought to do until Goodreads he turned around. Setting reading goals, sharing with your friends, and joining like-minded people in online book groups is great fun and a total balm for filing OCD.
In our Lord 2020’s year, having used only a Windows PC and an Android phone / tablet, I still use iTunes to organize and store my music. It was a huge experience to listen to my music remotely until I found iSyncr. Synchronize your playlists, songs, albums, listening counts and any other iTunes metrics directly to your Android system, and vice versa. It was a send from God.
Letterboxd it’s basically Goodreads but for movies. You record when and what you saw, share reviews, collaborate with friends, and keep a journal of your movie habits. It’s great fun comparing what you rate on a movie to what your friends and movie critics think.
Instead of regular selfies or artistic photographs, I basically use Instagram to send memes to my friends and family. Since my interactions are almost exclusively based on chat, Instagram Themes It was perfect for me. You select your Instagram friends that you talk to the most and they appear in a simple chat list. You can share locations, stories, photos, or status updates with. It is light and intuitive and super convenient.
I am a great nerd in astronomy and ever since I left a large population, I have been enjoying heaven much more. At least once a week there is something that I can’t identify, so I’m pulling Stellarium And pointing it towards the light, it turns out that Venus is incredibly fun and convenient. You can explore and learn about the constellations of various cultures, change their location to see the view of a different country, and even connect with digital telescopes. I have the premium version and it was worth the cost.
Manuel
In addition to the usual suspects like Google apps and known third-party apps, there are a few gems I’d like to share, so let’s start with the calorie counter YAZIO. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been absolutely overweight (not according to BMI, that is), but for a long time, I hadn’t been exactly slim either. The subscription-supported app helped me understand how many calories I eat by offering a selection of great recipes. A Google Fit integration also helped me control how many calories I burn as well. These days, I still sometimes install the app to see how well I maintain my weight and balance my intake. You can also use MyFitnessPal, which offers a larger set of free features, but I no longer trust it after a user data breach in 2018.
KptnCook is an extraordinary kitchen application that allows you to discover three new recipes a day; you really need to revisit it every day to create a collection. It has an integrated shopping list that shows prices and product recommendations for some stores, this is how the app makes money, a fair compromise and often useful if you ask me. The recipes are also pretty easy and don’t use dark ingredients, all while being healthy.
Everyone talks about how important it is to use a password manager, but I don’t see many people mentioning Bitwarden. The free open source tool syncs your sensitive data across all your devices running the usual operating systems. There’s an optional $ 10 a year subscription for advanced things like encrypted file storage and YubiKey support, but you really don’t need it to get access to all the relevant password management features. Bitwarden may not look as bright as some of the others we’ve mentioned, but it works fine for me.
I live in Berlin, so having a car does not make much sense to me, I mainly go by bicycle or by public transport. That’s where Citymapper comes. The navigation app specializes in shared transportation and cooperates with car, motorcycle and bike sharing platforms, but most of all I love it for its public transportation capabilities and bike routes. It tells you which section of a train you should board and shows you the correct exit from the station. During the trip, it notifies you when to leave. The app cooperates with some transportation agencies like the New York MTA, while relying on publicly sourced data for delays. The only caveat: it only supports a small selection of cities and regions, mainly in the USA. USA And Europe.
Synchronization for Reddit is my Reddit client. I love its clean and simple interface, and so it handles the links in Chrome custom tabs out of the box, which many other third-party Reddit clients don’t. Development has stalled a bit since the developer has taken a break, but is now working hard to release a redesigned version of the app. Sync comes with ads, which you can remove for a small fee.
Karan
SMS spam is still one thing, and it won’t go away anytime soon. But you can at least use a good SMS app to navigate all that junk. That’s exactly where Microsoft SMS Organizer enters to scene. To say the least, the app has made my life a little easier by keeping my inbox clean and organizing messages into their designated categories. Also, the app keeps track of my bill payments, upcoming trips, and bank accounts / digital wallets, which Microsoft says are handled offline. What I use it for the most is to quickly copy one-time passwords (OTP), which are widely used for user checks in this part of the world. OnePlus also started to follow the example of the SMS organizer, but the Microsoft app feels more complete with its tons of features and the option to backup conversations on Google Drive. It was only last year that the app made its debut outside India.
There are times when concentrating on work just isn’t possible (my editors can’t tell), and the only thing that can get me to the area is some soft music. But playing those kinds of playlists on Spotify ruins my custom recommendations, and fixing that is a task in itself. A couple of years ago, I discovered Tide and I quickly changed it. Back then, it was a fairly basic app with some music options, including some sounds from nature, and a focus mode based on the Pomodoro technique. Since then, the app has improved quite a bit with more automation and granular controls. While there are a couple of alternatives to Tide, I think I’ll stick with it.
My choice of password manager is Enpass. When I was walking away from LastPass, I considered open source Bitwarden, but Enpass’s more offline approach appealed to me. The password manager does not send the encrypted password file to its own servers; instead, it allows the user to choose their preferred cloud storage to allow synchronization between devices. You can skip the online backup process entirely if you are going to use it only on one device. When I switched to Enpass, I chose its premium level with a one-time purchase, but the service adopted the subscription model. My account was automatically upgraded to your unlimited lifetime plan without paying an extra penny.
The final application that I use frequently is Bully – A small tool to help me grant and manage temporary app permissions. Costing just a dollar, Sam Ruston’s app is tremendously useful for keeping some of your very permission-intensive apps under control. As one of my banking apps needs microphone access for a function that I have never touched, but without that permission, it refuses to open. With Bouncer, you can choose to remove the permission as soon as you press the start button (which is customizable) or with a manual click of a button. Android 10 already lets you do that for location permissions, but Bouncer covers the entire spectrum.
