10 best Android apps available right now
Android evolves more every year, but apps remain just as important as ever. Here are the best apps you can get right now.
Here it is, ladies and gentlemen. The crème de la crème.
These are the Android apps that stand alone at the top of an ever-growing
pantheon. These apps have become ubiquitous with Android, and if you’re looking
for the good stuff, it’s assumed that you’ve used some of these apps already.
There are a ton of amazing Android apps out there. However, there are a few
that stand out above the rest. These apps are useful to just about everyone, no
matter what their use case may be. Without further delay, here are the best
Android apps currently available.
Most people should be relatively familiar with most of these
apps. They are the best, after all, and people tend to gravitate toward the
best.
The best Android apps available right now:
1. 1Weather
2. Google Drive
3. Waze and Google Maps
4. Google Search / Assistant / Feed
5. LastPass
6. Microsoft Swiftkey
7. Nova Launcher
8. Podcast Addict
9. Poweramp
10. Solid Explorer
1Weather
Price: Free / $1.99
1Weather is arguably the best weather app out there. It
features a simple, paginated design that shows you the current weather,
forecast for up to 12 weeks, a radar, and other fun stats. Along with that,
you’ll get a fairly decent set of lightly customizable widgets and the standard
stuff like severe weather notifications and a radar so you can see the storms
approaching. There is also a video element with two or three-minute weather
updates for your region. The UI is logical and reasonably easy to navigate as
well. The radar occasionally hangs while loading, but it’s usually not too big
of a deal.
The free version has every feature with some mild, inoffensive advertising. The single $1.99 in-app purchase removes advertising. Most will also likely enjoy the range of weather fun facts as well when you open the app. We have a list of the best weather apps and widgets if you want more options.
Google Drive
Price: Free / $1.99-$299.99 per month
Google Drive is a cloud storage solution available on
Android where all new users get 15GB for free permanently upon signing up. You
can, of course, buy more if needed. What makes Google Drive so special is the
suite of Android apps that are attached to it. They include Google Docs, Google
Sheets, Google Slides, Google Photos, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Keep.
It just covers so many bases and it’s so cheap that it’s impossible not to
recommend it to just about anybody.
Some of the features of these apps include live
collaboration, deep sharing features, and compatibility with Microsoft Office
documents. It’s easy to use, you get 15GB of free storage for your documents,
and the cross-platform support is pretty good. You can find more cloud storage
apps here and more office apps here if you want something different.
Google Maps and Waze
Price: Free
Google Maps virtually owns the navigation apps scene and it
remains of the best Android apps ever. It gets frequent, almost weekly updates
that seem to only add to its incredibly generous list of existing features.
Aside from the very basics, Google Maps gives you access to places of interest,
traffic data, directions to things like rest stops or gas stations, and you can
download maps for offline use.
If you add to that the Waze experience, which includes tons of its own features, and you won’t need another navigation app. Ever. Google also owns and operates Waze so we list them together. Both navigation apps work on Android Auto and usually, they work better than car navigation systems. Of course, we have more GPS apps options as well here if you need them.
Google Search / Assistant / Feed
Price: Free
This is one seriously powerful app. It also works on most
Android devices. You simply download the app and then enable it. From there,
you can ask it whatever you want. It also supports a variety of commands. You
can control smart home products, ask it just about any question, and it can
even do simple math problems for you. It’s included with a variety of products
such as Google Home speakers.
There is also a second Google Assistant app for those who want a quick launch icon on the home screen. The hardware stuff costs money, but Google Assistant is free. There are other decent personal assistants like Amazon Alexa, and you can check them out here.
LASTPASS
Price: Free / $12 per year
LastPass is one of those must-have Android apps. It’s a
password manager that lets you save your login credentials in a safe, secure
way. On top of that, it can help generate nearly impossible passwords for you
to use on your accounts. It’s all controlled with a master password. It has
cross-platform support (premium version only) so you can use it on computers,
mobile devices, tablets, or whatever.
There are others, but LastPass seems to be one step ahead most of the time. Additionally, the premium version is reasonably inexpensive. You can also grab LastPass Authenticator to go along with it for added security. There are other options for great password managers here and some free LastPass alternatives if the new, more restricted free version isn’t doing it for you. LastPass also has an authenticator app for additional security.
Microsoft SwiftKey
Price: Free
Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard is one of the most powerful and
customizable third-party keyboards available. It hit the market several years
ago with a predictive engine unlike anything any other keyboard had and the app
has grown a lot over the years. It’s a free download with free themes so you
don’t have to pay a dime.
Other features include a dedicated number row, SwiftKey Flow which allows for gesture typing, multiple language support, cross-device syncing of your library, and much more. It’s about as good as it gets in the keyboard space. It’s true that Microsoft now owns SwiftKey, but so far they have managed not to mess it up. Gboard, Google’s keyboard app, is also exceptionally good and the only reason it’s not on the list is to avoid having three consecutive Google apps here. There are some other great Android keyboards here as well.
Nova Launcher
Price: Free / $4.99
Initially, we weren’t going to put any launchers on this
list. Nova Launcher seems to be extending beyond what normal launchers are.
It’s been around for years, it’s been consistently updated, and thus it’s
always been a great launcher replacement option. It comes with a host of
features, including the ability to backup and restore your home screen set-ups,
icon theming for all of your Android apps, tons of customization elements for
the home screen and app drawer, and more. It was purchased by an analytics
company, but so far no bad changes have been made.
You can even make it look like the Pixel Launcher if you want to. If you go premium, you can tack on gesture controls, unread count badges for apps, and icon swipe actions. Those looking for something simpler may want to try Lawnchair Launcher or Hyperion Launcher. Of course, we have a list of the best Android launchers with even more options as well. We also have a tutorial specifically for Nova Launcher if you want to learn more.
Podcast Addict
Price: Free / $2.99 / $0.99 per month / $9.99 per year
Podcast Addict is an excellent podcast app for podcast fans.
It features almost every podcast you can think of. In addition, it has a simple
and effective UI, plenty of organizational features, plenty of playback and
download features, and a single-cost premium version. You can browse podcasts
by category or search for them individually.
You can also set download rules, create playlists easily, and it supports both Chromecast and SONOS along with Android Auto and Wear OS. The UI and settings aren’t the most elegant things we’ve seen. However, the app makes up for it by hitting literally every other box we could think of. The subscription unlocks a few additional features, but you can get rid of ads for $2.99, and that’s pretty reasonable. Pocket Casts and CastBox are other excellent options in this space, and we have a list of even more great podcast apps here.
Poweramp
Price: Free trial / $4.99
Poweramp is one of the most popular and most functional
local music players on Android. It has basically all of the features, including
hi-res audio support, Android Auto, an equalizer, gapless smoothing, and
support for virtually any audio codec you can find. The UI has a tiny bit of a
learning curve, but it’s one of the better-looking music players as well with
optional themes in the Google Play Store.
There are other great music apps here, but the top slot arguably Poweramp’s title to lose. Poweramp also has an equalizer app (Google Play link) if you want a better equalizer app.
Solid Explorer
Price: Free trial / $2.99
File browsing is something everyone inevitably has (or
wants) to do, so you might as well do it with a capable, fantastic file
browser. Solid Explorer is pretty much as good as it gets in the file explorer
apps realm. It features Material Design, archiving support, support for the
most popular cloud services, and even some more power-user stuff like FTP,
SFPT, WebDav, and SMB/CIFS support.
It looks great, it’s incredibly stable, and it just works well. There is a 14-day free trial with a $2.99 price tag at the end of it. There are other file browsers with more features, but few blend together looks, ease of use, and features like Solid Explorer does. If this doesn’t work for you, here are some other outstanding file browsers.