[definitive] Best Android Apps


Recommended Posts

There's a thread dedicated to iPhone apps so I thought about making the same one for Android :)

Post your app list and give a little description of what it does and why you feel it is the best app!

The best apps:

  • TasKiller
  • System Monitor
  • ASTRO File Manager
  • B-Folders - uses AES-256 encryption to securely store personal info.
  • Scan2PDF
  • Music On Demand - free streaming music. Play over 10 million full length songs.
  • Shazam
  • AK Notepad
  • FoodShopper - grocery lists
  • ToDoList
  • Google Search by voice - really cool app!
  • Transport Maps - access a database of public transport maps for every Country/City in the world
  • Units Convert
  • Lockme Widget
  • Sound Manager
  • FTP Server - simple and free FTP server to transfer files on local wi-fi network.
  • Gmote - turns your phone into a remote (media) control for the PC!
  • Nav4All
  • Compass
  • RPN Scientific Calculator
  • News Reader - uses RSS feeds

Games

  • Blockx 3D - a cool 3D tetris game
  • 2 Player Reaction
  • Chess for Android
  • Bonsai Blast
  • RDC Casino Games
  • Doom for Android!
  • Wolfenstien 3D!
  • Labyrinth - a cool app that makes use of the G-sensor
  • Snake
  • Robo Defence

Useless or somewhat useful and fun

  • Google Sky Map
  • Call Faker - need to escape an unpleasant company/conversation? This app will fake a phone call.
  • Color Flashlight - lot's of options
  • Draw - draw anything you want with your finger on the screen and save a picture
  • CoinFlip
  • Spin the Bottle
  • Dildroid :rofl:
  • BioRhythms - app for making a personal forecast
  • Spark
  • NightClock
  • Ruler
  • DialDialer
  • Whistle
  • Piano
  • Talking Clock
  • Elements - Periodic Table of Elements
  • HitIt - if you like drums
  • LED Scroller - very customizable, it makes your text scroll like a banner.
  • Rock-Paper-Scissors
  • Ricky Bobby Soundboard :laugh:

  • Like 4
Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/817420-definitive-best-android-apps/
Share on other sites

Mute: Just stick a shortcut on your homescreen and it silences everything with a single press

Astro: Great file manager

Barcode Scanner: Useful little utility

Spare Parts: Some advanced tweaks that are pretty awesome

Screenshot (for rooted phones)

Light Racer: Simple but fun

Panda Firewall (think this may need root) awesome app that can block calls and SMS from blacklisted numbers

Shopsavvy: Useful shopping tool

FotMob: Great app for all footy fans

Terminal Emulator (for rooted phones): Fully featured unix terminal emulator. A must for advanced configuration and executing shell scripts

Ultimate Stopwatch: Pretty good timekeeping app

YouTube Downloader: Not available on the Android Market, have to download from a 3rd party website

WikiMobile: Great wikipedia app

Flashlight: Good for those dark spots

Also, if you use the Cyanogen Mod custom ROM series on your jailbroken phone, the Cyanogen Updater is also very good

Here are some of my most used apps:

ACV - Comic viewer

AndFTP - FTP Client

ConnectBot - SSH Client

handyCalc - Calculator

Locale - Automatically set phone options based on time and location, great for turning off your Ring Tone at work, or at least changing it from Get Low to something a little more work appropriate

Metal Detector - Not very useful but definitely fun to play around with

Phonalyzer - Compiles various stats about your calls into easy to read graphs

SwiFTP - FTP Server

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...

Free:

Newspapers

USA Today

Places directory

Movies by flixter

weatherbug

the schwartz unleashed (lightsaber)

Amazon.com app

Phonalyzer

Facebook app

Google talk ( it comes with it...but yeah...awesome)

Google Maps ^

GPS status

Backgrounds

Yellow book

Ringdroid

AK Notepad

Flashlight

Listen

My Account (tmobile)

Myspace app

NY Times

Oi shopping list

Pandora

pdf viewer

Phonebook

Shazam

meridian

ebay pocket auctions

paypal

stocks

Shop Savvy

Twitdroid

Visual Voicemail

Wapedia

Weather widgets (donate)

Spare parts

Gmote

Paid:

Ahome (paid)

Advanced Task Manager (paid)

Better Keyboard (paid)

Buka (paid)

Retro Defesne (paid)

screenshot (paid)

edit: thank god I have apps2sd :laugh:

TuneWiki.

Beats Pandora any day of the week.

Does Last.FM and several other things.

SO nice.. and it's free, the only advantage for paying 4.99 for it is it removes the ads from the play screen when things are playing.

Meebo IM.

AIM, Facebook, ICQ, MSN, Google Talk, and a whole lot more .. all in one.

Works beautifully.

Barcode scanner.

Scan bar codes, learn about the item.. (Like books and what not..)..

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Well this is what I use and consider must haves...you do need Root for some of them.

Android IRC,1.6.8

Bluetooth File Transfer,1.7 (and local/remote browser)

Here I Am,1.1.2 (good for emailing yourself the location you parked your car in a busy field at events etc)

aTrackDog,2.55 (updates apps, exports app lists etc)

Facebook,1.0.1

My Battery Status,2.0.4 (status bar meter)

2G-3G OnOff,1.0.0 widget

AdFree,0.3.1 (adblock for free apps)

Advanced Task Manager,3.6

aDyno,0.01 Beta9

AndFTP,1.0RC11

ASTRO,2.0.2 file manager

Barcode Scanner,3.0

Bedside,2.1.7

beebPlayer,0.5.5

Bluetooth OnOff,1.0.2

Bookmarker,1.0.2

Dizzler,1.0

Glympse,1.12

Google Sky Map,1.2.1

GPS OnOff,1.1.1

GPS Status,3.0.1

Keeper,9_20_09

Layar,2.2.1

Listen,1.0.3.1

Log Collector,1.0.0

LOLcats,1.2.44

Mother TED,1.2.0

Movies,2.0.1

My Tracks,1.0.6

MyBackup Pro,2.0.5

NASAImages,0.9

Pkt Auctions eBay,1.65

Places Directory,1.0.17

Rings Extended,1.1

Screenshot,1.1.0

SetCPU,1.4.1

Shazam,1.1

ShopSavvy,3.5.3

SMS Backup,1.1.0

Sticky Note,1.1.6

StreamFurious,1.0.3

tCalendarWidget,1.0.6

TextTalker,1.1

Ultimate Stopwatch,2.1.0

Wifi Analyzer,1.10

WiFi OnOff,1.2.0

WikiMobile,1.21

Wireless Tether for Root Users,1.60-pre3

  • 2 months later...

Some apps that I didn't see on the list:

Weather Widget - Donate (displays weather and time)

Swype (alternative keyboard that allows you swype letters instead of type them)

Dolphin Browser (alternative browser)

Google Goggles (get information about an item you take a picture of)

NESoid (NES emulator)

SNESoid (SNES emulator)

PdaNet (tether your phone with a computer)

Nubinews - RSS Reader

ConnectBot - SSH Client

Steel - Alternative Android browser (fast app!)

BeebPlayer - BBC iPlayer app (Unofficial)

K-9 Mail - Mail client with push support

Reddit Is Fun - Reddit reader

Telegraph - Nice news app from telegraph.co.uk

I don't use many apps.

  • 1 month later...

Does anyone know of a good PDF reader for htc hero which supports bookmarks?

Been looking around for one, but can't seem to find it unless i pay.

Just want to make sure there isn't a free one before i go for the pay app.

Hope anyone has some recommendations.

Best Regards

Jethro

  • 1 month later...

SweetDreams

The big winner in the second Android Developers Challenge (ADC2), SweetDreams, is now available for download. Designed to allow its users to go to bed without worrying about getting calls in the middle of the night, SweetDreams, packs a ton of options into a relatively small (2MB) app.

Tell SweetDreams what time you go to bed and when you typically wake up and the rest is downhill. Customization features include toggling WiFi, Bluetooth, turning off the screen, notifications, and more. Not only does this work based on your preset time, but location also plays into SweetDreams. Users can also set specific spots on the map for when they want the app to be activated. Another cool feature is the ability to adjust motion and sound settings. Want your phone to wake up as soon as you grab it off the night stand? Presto! Likewise, you can also have your phone woken up by the alarm clock or rooster outside.

post-72040-12718438652354.png

  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, this is a MUST have application.

CallTrack

CallTrack logs your phone activity to your Google Calendar. You can select the type of calls to log (incoming, outgoing, and missed) and the calendar to log them in.

You can also dump your current call log to your calendar.

post-72040-12730800664913.png

One note: before you should create another separate calendar just for the logs, otherwise it will become a mess.

I've pretty much stuck with the same apps.

I'll try things now and again, but these I must have each time I reload my phone.

Free Apps:

Entertainment:

Pandora

iHeartRadio

tv.COM

E! (Gotta love the gossip)

Games:

Frozen Bubble

Robo Defense (Both free and Paid)

Utilities:

Astro (File Manager, a must have)

Google Voice

Astrid (Task Management Software)

Wifi Tether (Requires Root)

Home++ (This is a beta product so it's free for now. It's rather decent something unlike the other home replacements)

Paid

Utilities:

GDE (Home replacement)

Games:

Robo Defense

  • 2 weeks later...

KeyRing - No more carrying around a wallet of membership cards. Use this app to scan your cards and have them all on your phone.

Also, to all who are using some sort of "Task Killer", stop. All it does is run in the background and kill your battery faster. The android system is not like windows, and killing programs just for "space" is not the smartest option, and can leave your android system not working properly. With 2.1 update, they included in settings now, at least on my HTC Hero, a option/program called Running Services, which lets you see which services are running, and to close them out if you would like. There are certain services though that rely on each other, and closing 1 service out could make multiple programs not work. Remember, Android is based off of Linux.

As for free games, I have just gotten into 2 which are great.

Project INF - free multiplayer online game. Create a character, tap the screen to move and shoot, build up levels and play capture the flag against up to 36 other players.

Super KO Boxing - like punch out for your phone.

For other apps, I use:

Wifi Buddy- finds wifi around and auto connects if it can.

apps organizer- create folders for all your apps easily, with nice icons to go on desktop.

Google Goggles - like barcode scanner, but instead of a barcode, you take a picture of said item.

Scanner Radio- Lets you listen to police and emergency scanners around your area or others.

Speed Test- Test the connection of your wireless signal.

If you have kids and sometimes let them be entertained by your phone

Toddler Lock- locks the screen but makes it draw and puts images when a button is pressed

Shark - Game - a game of chance, press the sharks tooth, which one will make him bite!?

Throw a Panda - good mini game that a kid will like.

I Wish these phones came with a IR sensor/transmitter, then we could control our TV's and such with ease.

  • 1 month later...

KeyRing - No more carrying around a wallet of membership cards. Use this app to scan your cards and have them all on your phone.

Also, to all who are using some sort of "Task Killer", stop. All it does is run in the background and kill your battery faster. The android system is not like windows, and killing programs just for "space" is not the smartest option, and can leave your android system not working properly. With 2.1 update, they included in settings now, at least on my HTC Hero, a option/program called Running Services, which lets you see which services are running, and to close them out if you would like. There are certain services though that rely on each other, and closing 1 service out could make multiple programs not work. Remember, Android is based off of Linux.

As for free games, I have just gotten into 2 which are great.

Project INF - free multiplayer online game. Create a character, tap the screen to move and shoot, build up levels and play capture the flag against up to 36 other players.

Super KO Boxing - like punch out for your phone.

For other apps, I use:

Wifi Buddy- finds wifi around and auto connects if it can.

apps organizer- create folders for all your apps easily, with nice icons to go on desktop.

Google Goggles - like barcode scanner, but instead of a barcode, you take a picture of said item.

Scanner Radio- Lets you listen to police and emergency scanners around your area or others.

Speed Test- Test the connection of your wireless signal.

J

If you have kids and sometimes let them be entertained by your phone

Toddler Lock- locks the screen but makes it draw and puts images when a button is pressed

Shark - Game - a game of chance, press the sharks tooth, which one will make him bite!?

Throw a Panda - good mini game that a kid will like.

I Wish these phones came with a IR sensor/transmitter, then we could control our TV's and such with ease.

The task killer kills itself too, I thought.

Anyway I've only had my Moment a week. Can somebody explain what it means to root your phone.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Flameshot 14.0 Final by Razvan Serea Flameshot is a free and open-source, cross-platform tool to take screenshots with many built-in features to save you time. Using Flameshot is as simple as launching, dragging the selection box to cover the area you want to capture, making annotations as needed in on-screen and saving the shot to your computer, all with a very simple and straightforward interface. Flameshot allows users to simply upload their screenshots directly to the cloud in order to easily share it with others. You can upload your image directly to Imgur with a single click and share the URL with others. In-app screenshot editing - You can choose to add an arrow mark, highlight text, blur a section (blur or pixelate an area), add a text, draw something, add a rectangular/circular shaped border, add an incrementing counter number, and add a solid color box with Flameshot's built-in editing tools. Command-line interface (CLI) - Flameshot has several commands you can use in the terminal without launching the GUI via a command line interface. The command line interface lets you script Flameshot and use it as the subject of key binds. Flameshot 14.0 release notes: This release brings major improvements to multi-monitor support, fractional scaling support, new capture workflows, and a long list of bug fixes across all platforms. Changelog: New Multi-Monitor Capture Workflow New monitor selection screen before capture for better multi-monitor and mixed-scaling support. Option to auto-capture the monitor under the cursor (X11 & Windows). Tray menu can directly select a monitor. Linux Improvements XDG Desktop Portal is now the primary screenshot method. Added legacy X11 fallback option for minimal window managers. New D-Bus capture API for scripting and automation. Windows Enhancements Global screenshot hotkeys now supported (not limited to Print Screen). New portable mode stores settings next to the executable. Clipboard now always uses PNG format for better compatibility. CLI & Platform Updates Redesigned flameshot screen command with per-monitor capture support. Added native Nix Flake support. More compact launcher UI and improved update notifications. Major Fixes Multiple Wayland stability fixes, including KDE Plasma crash fixes. Clipboard compatibility improvements for GNOME, Wayland, X11, Windows, and macOS. Fixed D-Bus hangs, capture crashes, and HiDPI region issues. Other Changes Dropped Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) support. Updated translations and build infrastructure. Intel macOS builds are no longer provided. [full release notes] Download: Flameshot 14.0 | 18.1 MB (Open Source) Download: Flameshot Portable | 53.0 MB Links: Flameshot Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 by Razvan Serea Helium is a private, fast, and honest Chromium-based web browser — built for people, with love. It offers the best privacy by default, unbiased ad-blocking, and a clean experience free from bloat and noise. Proudly based on Ungoogled-Chromium, Helium removes Google’s clutter while keeping a fast, efficient development pipeline. With thoughtful touches like native !bangs and split view, Helium is a people-first, fully open-source browser that puts control back in your hands. Privacy, security, and control come first. Ads, trackers, and third-party cookies are blocked automatically, HTTPS is enforced everywhere, and all Chromium extensions work seamlessly — while Google can’t track your activity. Helium’s 13,000+ offline-ready !bangs let you jump straight to sites or AI tools like ChatGPT instantly. Open-source, people-first, and unbiased, Helium delivers a browsing experience that’s fast, secure, and free from noise, ads, and compromises. Helium Browser key features: Performance Fast, efficient, and lightweight — built on Chromium’s optimized engine. Energy-saving and consistent — stays fast over time without slowing down. No bloat — stripped of unnecessary components for maximum speed. Minimalist interface — compact, clean, and distraction-free. Customizable toolbar — hide elements you don’t need. Smooth and stable — no flicker, lag, or animation glitches. Comfort-focused experience — intuitive and unobtrusive. Privacy & Security Best privacy by default — blocks ads, trackers, phishing, and third-party cookies. Unbiased ad-blocking — powered by community filters and uBlock Origin. No telemetry or analytics — zero background web requests on first launch. Strict HTTPS enforcement — warns for insecure sites. Passkeys supported — modern authentication made simple. No built-in password manager or cloud sync — your data stays yours. Extension Compatibility Full Chromium extension support — including MV2 extensions. Anonymized Chrome Web Store requests — Google can’t track extension installs. Extended MV2 support — maintained for as long as possible. Smart Features Native !bangs — browse faster using 13,000+ offline-ready shortcuts. AI integration — use !chatgpt and others directly from the address bar. Offline functionality — bangs work without an Internet connection. Philosophy People-first design — open source, transparent, and community-driven. No ads, no noise, no bias — privacy and honesty over profit. Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 changelog: 0a4f1149 revision: bump to 4 (#1969) 4848de1f helium/core: enable the chromium screenshot feature (#1968) e0dec3f5 onboarding: integrate strings to i18n system (#1948) 417fa5bc i18n: fix newline parsing for onboarding 7a339b39 i18n: add foraged translations for onboarding 4f090cff i18n/generate: add handling for onboarding strings bfe48d58 i18n_apply: manually override parent grd logic for onboarding strings ab214e3c onboarding: bump in deps, wire up grdp afa6a059 helium/core: disable pdf infobar feature (#1965) eba585e7 helium/ui/vertical: fix new tab button alignment and icon size (#1964) 6ecfc9e0 helium/ui/tabs: fix horizontal tab hover background color (#1963) 3db87dc0 helium/ui/tabs: fix new tab button hover/press colors (#1962) 6bbdcc3e helium/ui: improve tab group UI in all layouts (#1961) 53deb314 helium/ui/tabs: enable tab group hover cards e93aece7 helium/ui/vertical: fix tab group appearance, prevent line overlap 629f5495 helium/ui/tabs: restore solid group header colors, enable new colors 961c962e helium/ui/tabs: move horiz tab group underline to bottom, make it thick c96deab6 merge: update to chromium 149.0.7827.155 (#1959) 36db56b4 i18n: update source.gen.json 5ce006ae patches: refresh for chromium 149.0.7827.155 b4c1ea62 merge: update ungoogled-chromium to 149.0.7827.155 4e5e8671 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.155 08a3e7da helium/ui/layout: disable mute on collapsed vertical tabs (#1778) a0a5bbaf helium/core: simplify context menu and prevent huge widths (#1951) c4732aac devutils/i18n: add forage command (#1944) 11d16986 devutils/i18n: add an option to translate using local CLI tools (#1942) d820c3a2 i18n/prompt: tighten translation rules to prevent common errors (#1940) cf827007 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.114 6e3d5164 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.102 Download: Helium 64-bit | Portable 64-bit |~100.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Helium ARM64 | Portable ARM64 Links: Helium Home Page | macOS | Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Glow 26.10 by Razvan Serea Glow provides detailed reporting on every hardware component in your computer, saving you valuable time typically spent searching for CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics card, and other stats. With Glow, all the information is conveniently presented in one clean interface, allowing you to easily access and review the comprehensive hardware details of your system. Glow provides detailed information on various system aspects, including OS, motherboard, processor, memory, graphics card, storage, network, battery, drivers, and services. The well-organized format ensures easy access to the required information. You can export all the gathered data to a plain text file, facilitating sharing with others for troubleshooting purposes. No installation needed. Just decompress the archive, launch the executable, and access computer-related information. Glow runs on Windows 11 and Windows 10 64-bit versions. Glow 26.10 changelog: New Features The bootstrapping algorithm has been completely redesigned. The software can now launch directly without requiring TS Preloader. As part of this change, the startup splash screen displayed during initialization has been removed. In addition, spikes in CPU usage have been eliminated, resulting in a more stable architecture with significantly lower memory consumption. The Microsoft Office detection infrastructure within the Operating System section has been enhanced. Additional detection support has been added for Office C2R (Click-to-Run) installations. Furthermore, the license status evaluation system has been improved, and the priority order has been revised as follows: Licensed > Grace Period > Other (NOTIFICATIONS, EVALUATION, etc.). Glow now includes preliminary support for Wi-Fi 8 technology, allowing more detailed information to be displayed for Wi-Fi 8-compatible network adapters. Glow now provides full support for Bluetooth 6.2. Adapters supporting Bluetooth 6.2 can be analyzed in greater detail and with improved accuracy. The disk distribution view in the Disk section has been modernized, replacing the traditional table layout with a new 2×2 card-based design. The TS Custom Controls module has been updated to v26.7. Thanks to the new custom controls, all Türkaysoft applications now offer a more modern and consistent user interface aligned with Windows 11 design standards. Bug Fixes Potential line-ending handling issues in the Office detection code within the Operating System section have been resolved. Additionally, the output format has been standardized to UTF-8 to prevent character encoding issues and ensure consistent data processing. Several stability and file management issues within the Debugging infrastructure have been addressed. Problems that prevented new log files from being created after Debugging was disabled, as well as issues causing debug records to be lost, have been fixed. File deletion and reaccess issues that occurred after file locks were released have also been resolved. In addition, a bug that caused newly recreated log files to remain locked after deletion has been eliminated. Unnecessary blank lines within debug logs and the extra empty line that could appear at the end of log files have also been corrected. A shortcut key conflict caused by assigning identical hotkeys to both the DNS Test Tool and the Donation page has been fixed. The DNS Test Tool can now be accessed using CTRL + Shift + D, while the Donation page is available via CTRL + Alt + D. Changes The service responsible for providing the Public IP Address and Internet Service Provider information in the Network section has been updated to use the ipinfo.io infrastructure. This change improves the accuracy and consistency of the displayed data. (No external requests are made while Hiding Mode is enabled.) Some terms in the Dutch and Korean language files have been updated to make them clearer and more user-friendly. [TS Updater] Before the update process begins, users are now prompted to choose whether they would like to view the release notes. Note: Always unzip the program before using it. Otherwise you may get an error. Download: Glow 26.10 | 1.8 MB (Open Source) Links: Glow Homepage | Screenshot | Github Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Classifyskilleducation earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      eurospharma62 earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      582
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      183
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      75
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      73
    5. 5
      neufuse
      64
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!