The Google Android Play Store is a diverse app store and with over 3 million apps and games, it is undoubtedly the biggest mobile app store in the world.
So how do you find a decent app among all the store offers? You could spend hours trawling through, waste time trying freebies and spend money on paid apps that turn out to be a waste of your hard-earned cash. That’s why we opted to find some apps for you, 10 of the very best that you should take a look at and consider using on your Android device.
Top Ten Must-Have Android Apps:
It wasn’t easy to find the top 10 apps; not because there aren’t that many decent ones but because there are so many good ones that narrowing it down was tough. We managed it and these are the ten apps we think you should pay attention to.
- Microsoft SwiftKey – Free, In-App Purchases Available
Now owned by Microsoft, SwiftKey is, incredibly, one of the few apps that the Redmond giants haven’t managed to mess up, like they usually do. It is one of the most powerful third-party keyboards in the world, offering a superb predictive text engine that knocks all the others out of the running. The app is constantly being updated, bringing new features all the time. You can choose from a series of themes to purchase, you get a dedicated number row, SwiftKey Flow which supports gesture typing, multiple language support, the ability to sync across devices and so much more. It is free but there are in-app purchases available if you feel you need them.
- Google Drive – Free, In-App purchases
Another big name, Google has many services under its belt but Google Drive is by far one of the best. It is also the best of the Android cloud storage solutions, offering 15GB of free storage space right off the bat. For as long as your account remains active, that 15GB will always be yours but you do have the option of purchasing more. You can pay a little as $1.99 per month for 100GB all the way up to $99.99 per month if you really need an extra 10TB of space. What really pushes Google Drive to the top is all the extra apps that you get with it – Google Sheets, Docs, Slides, Calendar, Photos, Gmail and much more. Plus you get all the office apps, including a popular note-taking app called Keep Notes. Pretty much, there is something for just about anything you need to do it be it business-related or personal and it is one of the very best productivity app suites available right now.
- 1Weather – (Free, Subscription available)
There are tons of weather apps in the app store and most are inaccurate. 1Weather is not one of those. Incredibly accurate, the app is free although you can pay $1.99 to purchase it – all that does is removes the ads; it doesn’t offer any extra features so it’s down to you whether you can put up with the ads or not. With 1Weather, you get the current daily weather, a radar map, plenty of cool stats and a forecast covering the next 12 weeks. The design is minimal, making it very simple to see what you need to see and you can even customize widgets to give you severe weather notifications and much more.
- MyFitnessPal – (Free)
More and more people are turning to fitness apps to help them lose weight and get in shape and MyFitnessPal offers everything you need to do just that. It has an exercise tracker, a calorie counter, one of the largest food libraries of any app and you can add your meals very easily. Track the calories form food and then track what you burn off from exercise. A barcode scanner helps you add foods from the grocery store easily, helping you track what you eat when you are our and about. Although it doesn’t give you an in-depth fitness plan, it does let you easily track your meals and exercise and it can make you more aware of any bad habits you may want to change.
- Crunchyroll – (Free, subscription available)
Crunchyroll is the number one app for fans of Japanese anime. Here, you can stream your favorite anime movies and shows and choose from a huge library of series. If you pay for the premium version, you can stream brand-new episodes within an hour of their release in Japan. The free version is somewhat limited and is ad-supported but there is a 14-day free trial of the premium version and, after that, it will cost you $8 a month.
- Spotify – Free, Subscription available
Everyone has heard of Spotify, the number one music streaming app in the world. And it’s free to use, although there are subscription options available. Spotify offers millions of songs, from the obscure to the most popular tunes of yesteryear and today. The free version is limited but still offers plenty for people to listen to. Buy a subscription and you can get rid of the apps, get unlimited track skips, stream whatever you want and more. It costs $10 a month but, right now, you can get a three-month free trial. Students can get a 50% discount and there are also household plans to choose from too.
- Textra – Free, Premium version available
Mention messaging apps and most people think of Messenger, WhatsApp and Snapchat. Have you tried Textra? Its something very different, offering Android users visual customizations that other similar apps just don’t offer. You can change your text bubble styles, notification icons, contact colors and more. And there are some cool features, such as a blacklist for contacts, text scheduling, dark and light modes, renaming your group conversations, and so much more. The free version offers plenty but if you want even more, it costs just $3.99 for the premium app.
- Netflix – Subscription required
Netflix is the top app for streaming movies and TV shows, offering a huge range of TV series and movies. You can watch classics and you can watch the very latest and there is a good range of Netflix originals too. The recommendation engine learns what you like and provides viewing suggestions and you can even have five separate profiles on one account. There is a 30-day free trial for new users and after that, prices start at $9 a month, with 4K content available for a higher price.
- LastPass Password Manager – ( Free, Subscription available )
Passwords are a pain but we all need them to keep ourselves and our information safe online. The recommendation is not to use the same password for every service but how do you remember that many passwords? Simple – you download LastPass Password Manager. Not only will it save all your passwords securely, saving you having to write them down or remember them, but it will also even generate impossible-to-guess passwords too. The only thing you need to remember is the password for LastPass itself. It works everywhere, on all platforms and is a user-friendly app. It also has a companion app called LastPass Authenticator to add even more security. The password manager is free to use or you can pay $12 a year for the premium version.
- IronVest – $0.99
Last but by no means least is a cool security app that offers something different. With IronVest, you call allow certain apps temporary permissions. For example, if you were checking in somewhere on Facebook, you could allow FB permission to see your location but only until you log out of Facebook – then the permission is automatically revoked. With IronVest, you can get more out of your social and other apps without the hassle of having to keep enabling permissions, remembering to disable them afterward or having to give some apps permanent access to your data and location. And given how social media sites are commonly used for identity theft these days, that’s the last thing you want to be doing. It costs just $0.99 to download IronVest and it supports all the major apps.
Well, there you have it – ten of what we think are the coolest apps for Android devices. We think that you will get great value from these apps and some of the subscription apps are very generous in their free trials.
Try them; you never know, you might just find your new favorite app right here.