The Best Android apps that stands alone at the top of the pantheon.
As a matter of fact, the Google Play Store holds close to 3 million apps, according to recent stats, which means finding the best apps for Android is like finding a needle in a haystack. There are a ton of amazing Android apps out there. However, their usefulness is usually limited to the habits of the people using them. These apps shouldn’t have those problems. Everybody can use these.
Rather than trying all of them and losing your mind amid the process. For instance, you can take the easy way out. There are some paid Android apps too that will worth your money.
These are also some of the essential Android apps that you should have on your Android device in 2021. In addition, we have made this list considering user ratings, app features, and popularity. Above all, feel free to choose any other alternative app that suits your needs.
Best Android Launchers
1. Nova Launcher
Highlighted Key Features
- Hidden folders.
- Swipe actions on apps.
- Swipe actions on the home screen.
- Double tap to lock.
- Smooth scrolling.
- Add app drawer tabs.
- Use emoji to label your app drawer tabs.
- Change scrolling orientation
As a matter of fact, Nova Launcher has stood as one of the best Android launchers on the Play Store for many years. In addition, the launcher is smooth, fast, lightweight, and comes with tons of customization. There are numerous icon packs available in the Google Play Store that can help you change its looks.
Above all, Nova Launcher supports app-drawer customization, has a scroll able dock, notification badges, folder and icon customization, and packs around a dozen gestures for easy navigation. The launcher app is free to download, but its prime version unlocks a lot of other features, including some locked gestures.
App Installs: Over 50 million
Google Play Store rating: 4.5
2. SMS Organizer
Highlighted Key Features
- Smart Reminders
- Organize your SMS.
- Customize your Inbox.
- Offline
If you tend to get too many messages, especially those unwanted promotional offers, then this is a must-have Android app. SMS Organizer by Microsoft is a great help when it comes to efficiently managing loads of unwanted texts that people receive all day.
In conclusion, The brilliant Android app offers a tabular interface, dark theme, intelligent sorting, and reminders about bookings, PNR status, and much more.
In addition, it also features an SMS backup & restores option, which helps in transferring your messages while setting up a new device. All in all, the SMS Organizer is one of the best free Android apps that deserves some space on our devices.
App Installs: Over 1 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.3
Best Android Keyboards
3. Microsoft Swiftkey
Highlighted Key Features
- Stunning word predictions;
- Sync across multiple devices;
- Built-in clipboard, to retain the copied text for up to an hour;
- Customizable keyboard layout and size;
- Unlock the keyboard to make it flow all over the screen
Moreover, SwiftKey’s keyboard from Microsoft is trusted by over 250 million users worldwide. In addition, it uses artificial intelligence that enables it to learn and satisfactorily predict what the user intends to type.
Swiftkey features auto correct and gesture typing for faster input. Moreover, there is an inbuilt GIF search engine and a wide range of themes. It is also an excellent keyboard for bilingual folks.
Swiftkey does not store information from password fields or sensitive information such as credit card numbers. Overall, Swiftkey will enhance your typing experience and no doubt it is one of the essential free Android apps available on the Play Store
App Installs: Over 500 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.3
Best Android Note- taking app
4. Evernote
Highlighted Key Features
- Organize your things to get them done on time
- Allows you to create much more detailed and creative notes;
- Pin web pages, articles, or other relevant online stuff for additional info;
- Scan any type of document;
- The app can read out your texts and notes
As a matter of fact, a common name among the most useful apps; Evernote is one tool you need to keep yourself organized in today’s hectic life. Evernote is a cross-platform note-taking utility for 2020 to take notes in a variety of formats, including text, photos, audio, video, sketches, and more.
For instance, it syncs across all your devices to facilitate workflow. Evernote also has home-screen widgets for quick access to your notes. I’d say that it is one of the essential Android apps for every user.
Evernote’s aesthetically pleasing interface and a large number of functions make it one of the best apps for Android. That being said, you should also check out Notion, which has become quite popular in productivity apps and for the right reasons.
App Installs: Over 100 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.2
Best Android Alarm app
5. Alarm Clock Alarmy
Highlighted Key Features
- New mission is introduced for ALL users!: “Memory” Enjoy.
- Premium settings menu is removed and split. Check out the new locations of the features in.
For a instance, if you have a habit of skipping the morning alarm, this is one of the must-have Android apps for your device.
Alarmy has a unique way to break your morning laziness by laying out puzzles and challenges before you can snooze the alarm. Furthermore, you can set the difficulty level of these challenges as per your preference.
The useful app also features a photo mode where you can turn off the alarm by taking a picture of a registered location. Dubbed “the most annoying app,” it is certainly one of the essential apps for your Android device
App Installs: Over 10 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.6
Best Android office apps
6. WPS Office
Highlighted Key Features
- Pivot tables, table formatting, built-in charts, and advanced spreadsheets;
- Collaboration tools and extended desktop support;
- View multiple documents with advanced animation and modeling;
- Password protection and data recovery;
- Complete the PDF suite and converter with a world-class text edito
As a matter of fact, WPS is a free Office Suite application with all-in-one features. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and integrates PDF, presentations, spreadsheets, memos, Google docs, etc.
The app also comes with a free PDF converter and reader, supports multi-window mode, data encryption, etc. along with file-sharing abilities.
It is intuitive and easy to use, and you can also connect it to the Cloud Drive to automatically save your documents on the cloud. Overall, it is one of the best Android office apps.
App Installs: Over 100 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.6
7. MiXplorer
Moreover MiXplorer is one of the most underrated Android apps that should be on every Android device. It comes with a plethora of features while keeping a simple and intuitive interface.
In addition, the file manager app enables users to encrypt or decrypt files using Aescrypt file format. It has a built-in media player, an image viewer, and can open ebooks and PDF files. You can open tabs of different locations on a single screen, which really helps when moving files. On top of that, you can queue tasks such as copy, paste, delete, rename, etc.
Other than that, you can extract zip files, upload them to the cloud or share them using the FTP/HTTP server build-in. It also supports theming options, and you can disable or enable menu options.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are hundreds of more features to discover. The only con is that the app is not available on the Google Play Store, but on the bright side, there are no ads in the app.
App Installs: Over 100 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.6
Best messaging app for Android
8. WhatsApp Messenger
Highlighted Key Features
- Free, only pay for internet service
- Send and receive multimedia files
- Supports group chats
- No user names or pins
WhatsApp is a free, instant messaging Android app where users can communicate with one another using the phone’s internet service. Above all, it is one of the top Android apps in India.
In addition, it provides you the ability to send text messages and voice messages, share links, images, and location, make video calls, etc. to any user worldwide. It offers end-to-end encryption and also has a desktop app. It’s one of the most downloaded apps from the Google Play Store.
App Installs: Over 5 billion
Google Play Store Rating: 4.3
ALSO READ: Whatsapp Privacy Policy
Best file sharing apps
9. Send Anywhere
Highlighted Key Features
- Real Time File Transfer
- Share files with link
- Device to device. Also, You can send files to a specific device.
- Share files with link
Send Anywhere is one of the essential Android apps. It saves you from the hassle of carrying your USB data cable around to exchange files with PC, and it also has a web version.
You can share all kinds of files using SendAnywhere as long as the two devices are running the same network. That being said, you can also use the Wi-Fi direct to transfer files.
You can either send the file directly, where the recipient will need to enter a 6-key passcode to receive the file or create a download link. In the SendAnywhere Plus version, users can send up to 50GB of files in one go.
App Installs: Over 10 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.7
Best Media player
10. MX Player
Highlighted Key Features
- Multi-core decoding
- Zoom and pan options
- File sharing
- Kids lock
Speaking of the essential apps for Android, this video player supports almost all the primary video and audio file formats. It packs a lot of features, including editing of subtitle timeframes, fast-forwarding and volume control gestures, gestures for zooming in and out of a video, on-screen kid lock, and many more.
MX Player is available for free with ads. It also comes with a hardware acceleration and additional plugins for extra functionalities. It is still one of the top Android apps for those who prefer watching movies on their smartphone
App Installs: Over 500 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.3
Best VPN services
11. Express VPN
VPN apps are great if you want to surf the internet anonymously, spoof your location, hide your IP address, or even stream Netflix originals that are blocked in your country.
Express VPN is another must-have app for Android users that does all of the above things. It offers AES 256-bit encryption for safe browsing. While VPNs usually throttle the network speed, Express VPN relatively offers faster Internet speed than its competitors.
A good VPN never comes free of cost, but there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can start using Express VPN for $12.95/per month.
App Installs: Over 10 million
Google Play Store Rating: 3.9
Best Android Photo editor
12. PicsArt
PicsArt is one of our favorite photo editing apps for Android. You will be overwhelmed by the number of options you have for customizing your photos.
It has a social network for sharing photos within the app. Its features include making a collage, drawing on photos, adding frames, stickers, free cropping, clone tool, tilt-shift, perspective changer tool, and a lot more. The app is available for free with some in-app purchases and display ads.
App Installs: Over 500 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.2
Best Apps to control PC from Android
13. Unified Remote
Highlighted Key Features
- Essential remotes available in the free version of the app
- Easily connect using WiFi or Bluetooth using automatic server detection.
- Password protection and encryption for added security and privacy.
- Wake up a sleeping computer with WOL using the Power remote.
Unified Remote is one of the go-to apps for controlling your PC from an Android device. It uses Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to remotely control your PC and comes preloaded with support for more than 90 popular programs. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac, and requires a server program to be installed.
Using Unified Remote, you can remotely wake up your computer from sleep using its “Wake on LAN” feature. It has features like screen mirroring, keyboard, and mouse, media player controls, etc. and can easily be called one of the top apps of 2020.
You can even use it to control a Raspberry Pi or Arduino Yun. The paid versions unlock a multitude of useful features, including custom remotes and functions for Android wear. If you own the notorious Peel Remote app, try shifting to Unified Remote for a change.
App Installs: Over 10 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.4
Best Android Password manager
14. LastPass
Highlighted Key Features
- Two-factor authentication, mobile app pin unlock, and fingerprint login;
- Auto form filler and random password generator;
- Secure digital wallet and user vault;
- One-to-One One-to-Many sharing;
- Save and fill in passwords and encrypted file storage.
LastPass is a feature-rich password manager and private vault that can keep your passwords and personal information secure. It has the ability to autofill logins in browsers and apps and can generate new and secure passwords instantly.
You can log in with one password instead of remembering a dozen. You can also sync your passwords and data across all of your devices. It is intuitive and fast across numerous platforms.
App Installs: Over 5 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.3
15. Automate
Highlighted Key Features
- Accessibility button.
- Account (auto) sync.
- ADB client.
- Airplane mode.
- Alarm; await, set.
- App; start, kill, list, foreground, clear cache, usage.
- App notifications; toggle, priority, visibility
As the name suggests, Automate allows you to automate various tasks using simple flowcharts. You can automate system Settings to perform tasks like changing volume, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.
It even allows you to trigger tasks based on location, time of the day, battery level, and many other events. With this excellent app, you can automate almost anything on your Android device. It even supports plug-in for the popular automation apps like Tasker. Automate is definitely one of the best apps for Android.
App Installs: Over 1 million
Google Play Store Rating: 4.2
The bottom line
We have accumulated these best free Android apps all time for you, among the best, that you need to have to make good use of your smartphone. But the list of best free Android apps ever doesn’t end here, multiple other apps couldn’t make it to our list but it doesn’t mean they are not worth trying. You can find an app on the android app store for any of your needs.