The Best Android Apps

Finding stellar Android apps isn’t the easiest task, but that certainly doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Here’s the cream of the crop.

UPDATED MAY 7, 2012.

Social

Twitter: The official Twitter app is good enough for almost everyone. Along with giving you a clean, easy way to keep track of your timeline and updating your status, Twitter for Android also has a snazzy swipe down to refresh feature. Free.

Facebook: Facebook is finally decent on Android and now actually brings some unique features, namely the front page side-scroll of friend’s recent photos and a pull up notification window. Free.

Imo.im: With its new tabbed interface, imo.im is an IM app that’s light, pretty and easy to use. It supports AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook chat and others and is free. Free.

Tango: Tango is the best (and clearest!) way to video chat with your buddies, Android or iPhone, over 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. Free.

Handcent SMS: Handcent puts SMS on steroids. It’s fully customisable (in look and theme) and gives options for popups and to even tweak individual contact settings. If you’ve never thought the stock messaging app on Android sucked, we won’t blame you. But after using Handcent, you will. Free.

Google+: It’s Google’s big soiree into social “sharing”. The app has it all: a stream that shows what your friends are talking about (like Facebook), Huddle which is an easy to set up group chats (like GroupMe) and will even automatically upload the pictures you take on your phone to the cloud (like iCloud). Once you get a Google+ invite, one of those features will pull you in.

Tumblr: Tumblr has been graced with a brand new interface that makes it brainless to use. Everything about 2.0 is smoother, simpler, and all around better. Writing an entry is easy — be it a photo post or just a reblog — and switching between multiple blogs is handled gracefully.

8tracks: 8tracks has always been a great way to combine your favourite songs into a custom playlist and share it with your friends. It’s now on Android. The service allows you to create a social playlist of songs with eight or more songs, pulled and organised from their huge database of tracks. Music reviewers like Pitchfork, Spin and Rolling Stone contribute playlists, and the service promises a social music discovery experience that lets you discover music that real people think works together.

Instagram: After a long wait, Android users finally got Instagram. The free social snapshot app includes all of the same features included in its iOS counterpart, from more than a dozen photo filters, to instant sharing on Facebook and Twitter. It’s already been updated a couple of times to iron out a few kinks in the first release. Free.

Entertainment

AnimGIF Live Wallpaper 2: A wallpaper “app” that lets you use any GIF you find on the world wide web as your phone’s wallpaper. I put app in quotes because its actually more like a settings option, the app is only visible as another option when you want to change wallpapers. It gives your phone depth with a brand new moving personality.

Pops: Pops makes notifications ridiculous. You can flip your email, SMS, Twitter and Facebook notifications into VIDEO or ANIMATED notifications. Nyan Cat, Android Robot, anything. Think of it as the next evolution of ringtones. Free.

Vignette: With Vignette you get those wonderful artsy effects your friends love and a ton of straight shooting options that’ll make you leave your Point and Shoot at home. Not kidding, there’s over 68 different effects, 56 unique frames and a ton o’ shooting options like fixed focus, fast shot, steady shot, self timer, etc. $4.05.

Rdio: A “social” music subscription service, as in you can leach off your friend’s good music taste to listen to exactly what they are. Plus, you can sync songs to listen offline. Free.

Rockplayer: Rockplayer can play nearly any video file you throw at it, meaning those DVD rips, Windows files, decidedly non-standard clips and those videos you “obtained” from the Internet will all be good to roll. Free.

SoundHound: Shazam gets all the pub but SoundHound is just as good at identifying music and better for Android because there’s no limit on how many songs you tag per month. Soundhound also throws in lyrics and links to videos too. Free.

IMDb: Who’s that guy? Where’s he from? Should I even watch this movie? Solve all your movie questions with Android’s official IMDB app. It’s basically IMDB’s website optimised for your phone – which in this case, is a good thing. Free.

FX Camera: It’s a fairly basic lomo FX/hipstamatic style camera but it’s REALLY easy to use and processes the pictures REALLY fast. There’s not too many effects available (ToyCam, Polaroid, Fisheye, SymmetriCam and Andy Warholizer), but all of them are stellar. Free.

Kindle: Just because you don’t own a Kindle doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be buying Kindle ebooks – especially when Amazon has an Android app that’s dead simple to use. The ebook wars aren’t quite over, but no one will judge you for siding with Amazon. Free.

Listen: For podcast fiends, Google’s Listen is easily the easiest app to use. Find your podcasts by searching Google’s database and stay up to date with automatic downloads (set to your preferences).

Backgrounds: Ain’t nothing like pretending your old phone is brand new than switching up the wallpaper. Backgrounds has a ridiculous, ridiculous amount of options to choose from (over 10k!). Free.

Lightbox: Lightbox is a stylish camera app that’s good enough to replace the stock camera app. Though it doesn’t have basic features like zoom or autofocus, it does give you the ability to add 10 trendy filters after your shot. Your artsy photos can be shared via Twitter and Facebook and is automagically beamed down to your Honeycomb tablets and Lightbox’s web interface. Like Instagram and iCloud but for Android. Free.

VLC: It’s only in super pre-alpha type stage but VLC for Android is VLC, our favoritest video player in the world. Play all the movies, tv shows and videos you’ve accumulated in your Internet career on your Android phone. Free.

Darth Maul Me: Take a photo of yourself. Make a few adjustments and you’ll see what you would look like as a Dathomirian Zabrak. Seriously, I had to look up what species Darth Maul was.

Cartoon Camera: This app is like Hipstamatic except instead of being tailored to aloof artsy people, it’s created for people with a sense of humour — or at least people who like the funny papers. The app does an admirably good job of turning your photos into sketch-like cartoons — especially for a free app. Free.

Games

Mega Mall Story: It’s like Tiny Tower which was like SimTower but instead of building a skyscraper you’re outfitting a mall. And just like those games, it’s as crack-addicting as ever with the added benefit of pretending to re-live your mall hanging out days.

: It’s the world’s most popular smartphone game, and with good reason! There’s something about launching these different sorts of aviary ammunition into the precarious pig pens that just never gets old. There are always new birds and new stages coming out the pipeline to keep things fresh, too. Free.

Need for Speed: Shift: The best racing game on Android because of its impressively rich graphics and buttery smooth gameplay. You’ll pop your eyeballs out when you realise that this kind of game can work that well on your phone. $5.14.

Fruit Ninja: I don’t know what it is about chopping fruits that pop up on the screen, but slicing a sick multiple fruit combo with juicy visuals never felt so good. Simple gameplay that’s ridiculously addictive. $1.19.

Robo Defense: Robo defence is a tower defence game at its best: excitingly chaotic, stressfully fun and strategically simple. Time disappears when you’re trying to hit the upgrades and achievements in this game. $3.08 for Pro.

Alchemy: Alchemy is fun because it’s so damn clever. The premise is simple, to combine elements to create things like beer, life, skyscrapers, vampires and more. One thing: you’ll have to use your noodle to complete the game. Free.

Words with Friends: Finally available on Android, Words with Friends lets you dominate your Android and iPhone-wielding friends (cross-platform gaming!) with your vocabulary skills and astute tile placement. Free.

Nesoid: It’s BYO ROMs, but this $3.08 NES emulator single-handedly solves Android’s gaming problem by letting you play any NES game you can get your hands on. Bonus: The smug sense of satisfaction that this would never fly in the App Store. $3.08.

Meganoid: A really hilarious and super fun 8-bit game that proudly takes inspiration from Megaman and Metroid. Hilarious because the 8-bit graphics and sound effects are a nod to the simpler days and super fun because it reminds you of being a kid again. Free.

PewPew: It looks a whole lot like Geometry Wars, which is one of the highest compliments we can give a game. PewPew for Android features four game modes of laser-blasting enjoyment, and best of all? It’s totally free.

Cut the Rope: An iOS game mainstay, it’s finally available on Android. And it’s Free at GetJar! The premise of the game, if you’ve been living under a rock, is to feed Om Nom his candy by cutting ropes in strategic fashion and also gathering as many stars as you can. Trust me, it’s not as boring as it sounds. You’ll be addicted in no time. Free.

Eternity Warriors: Made by the people behind Gun Bros, you play as a warrior armed with swords to chop up the bad guys. It’s sorta action RPG-ish, loads of fun and you can play with friends too.

Samurai II: Vengeance: Absolutely stunning anime/comicbook-style graphics plus controls that actually make sense plus a ton of ways to slice dudes in half plus samurais plus swords equals a ridiculously engaging Android game. There’s a HD game for dual-core phones too.

Guns’n'Glory WW2: A tower defence game that takes place in cartoony World War II. You can play as the US or even Axis Germany and fight through 12 different levels with all the strategy of placing key units along the lines. Tanks, soldiers, everything is here to lose yourself for hours and hours.

Tiny Tower: IA free 8-bit style game that lets you channel your inner landlord. You build floors on a tower to attract “bitizens” to live in it and then control their lives (manage, hire, give a job, evict). It’s like SimCity but actually fun.

MineCraft Sweeper: Marry two addictive titles into one app and you’re sure to create a sort of new super game addict. The app is cross between Minesweeper and MineCraft. Good luck getting anything done after downloading this.

Osmos HD: Kotaku considers Osmos HD a “masterpiece”. It’s a puzzle game where you control a single-celled organism in space and try to absorb other smaller organisms and navigate through the dangers of space. Of course, you can be absorbed too so you have to stay alert.

Draw Something: If you’re not an artist and no longer a child, I have a question for you: How often do you draw? With Draw Something, you and a friend can hone your drawing skills in a silly fun game. Think Words with Friends crossed with Pictionary plus oodles of fun. Free.

Angry Birds Space: Even if you’re totally over the Angry Birds phenomenon, whatever, get over your overness cause it ain’t dying. The latest Angry Birds is the same idea as the classic ones but also the biggest departure from all that came before. You’re in space! Free.

Temple Run: The uber popular Temple Run is now on Android. Which means you can try to reach millions and millions of points by running, jumping, sliding, using powerups, escaping monkeys and more. It’s an incredibly addicting endless running game that’s more fun than endlessly running in real life can ever be.

Productivity

Light Flow: It doesn’t work for every phone but you can take control of the notification light on your Android light. You can change colours, cycle through ‘em all, program apps to work with it and a whole ton of other customisation. It’s a small tweak but one that makes your phone, yours.

: Launchers are wonderful things! In a nutshell, they’re homescreen replacements, but really, they can magically tranform an entire phone-especially if your phone has been saddled with crappy manufacturer skin. You get faster performance, new animations, more homescreens and a cleaner interface all around with Launcher Pro. Free.

Google Reader: Finally! After years of only having a web app (that’s admittedly decent!), Google just released a full fledged app for Google Reader. If you’re familiar with using Google Reader, it’s exactly what you’d expect, only translated for the smaller screen (and faster than the web app). One super cool feature: using the volume keys to navigate through feeds. Free.

PDAnet: PdaNet is the ridiculously easy (and free!) way to tether your laptop to your phone, over USB or Bluetooth, without rooting it. If you don’t wanna cough up $US30 for the full version it’ll still connect to non-https:// addresses just fine (basically the regular stuff). Free.

SwiftKey Keyboard: The star feature of Swiftkey is its predictive text, it literally learns the way you type. We’re not kidding, Swiftkey will scan your SMS messages to see what words you’re most likely to use. You’ll feel like it can read your mind. Plus, it looks better than the stock Android keyboard. $2.05.

Beautiful Widgets: If you don’t have a HTC Sense phone but still want some gorgeous looking widgets, Beautiful Widgets is all you need. Like the name, the visuals and animations are to die for. $2.05.

AK Notepad: There’s plenty of note apps that throw in snazzier features but the beauty of AK Notepad is in its simplicity: it’s a basic yellow pad that let’s you jot down what you need. Free.

Evernote: If you need more features in a “note taker”, Evernote is simply a powerhouse of a note taking app. Not only can you jot down notes but you can take pictures, record voice notes and upload files to remember all on their cloud. Free.

Read It Later: Read It Later is a similar service to Instapaper, which means it’s an offline news caching reader. Save articles through their browsers and read them offline on your phone. Looks great while reading too. $1.19.

Feedly: A magazine overlay for your Google Reader, it has the perfect balance between good looks and easy readability. It syncs with your Google Reader account for feeds and plays well with Twitter and Read it later. Free.

HandyCalc: HandyCalc is by far the best calculator on the market. It’s so smart it gives suggestions on what you’re trying to do and can even convert units and currency. Free.

Dropbox: It really doesn’t get easier than Dropbox. With its Android app, you can view and edit all your Dropbox files in a sweet and simple interface and even stream music and videos you’ve uploaded to Dropbox in its media player (or save for offline viewing). Free.

Barcode Scanner: It’s a straight scanner. Barcode Scanner handles both UPC codes (which does a quick product search) and QR codes (which will give you options to add contact, show on map, download, etc) with ease and throws in a few extra features (like searching within the book you scanned) as a bonus. Free.

Tasker: Here’s what Tasker does: it performs a set of actions given certain rules and context, like if X happens, then Y will follow kind of deal. So if you’re in your car and turn on Car Home on your Android phone, Tasker will know to also shut off Wi-Fi, turn on GPS, flip on the radio and crank the volume. Completely customisable, Tasker makes your smartphone even smarter. $6.49.

Astrid Task/To Do List: No other app gives as much detail to to do lists as Astrid. Its “advanced” options lets you set priority levels, integrate with Google Calendar, sync with Google tasks, and set up tags, alerts and periodic reminders. Astrid keeps it easy, for the most part, but also offers deeper settings if you’re the obsessive, customize-everything exactly-how-you-want-it type. Free.

Astro File Manager: Astro File Manager makes it pretty easy to dig up files hiding around in your phone. It also can act as a backup, application manager, and task manager (if you’re into that kind of thing). Free.

Voice Recorder: If you need a voice recorder app, this is the one to get. Send the recording via Gmail, record by widget and more, it does all a voice recorder needs to do.

Gmote 2.0: Using your phone as a remote control for your computer is practically a God-given right, and Gmote’s the best Android remote for playing and controlling movies and music on your computer. Free.

Exchange by Touchdown: TouchDown syncs with your Exchange Server to let you send and receive email, manage contacts, view and edit appointments and filter through tasks. It all sounds so simple but TouchDown really is the best way to work with Exchange on your Android phone. $20.58.

3G Watchdog: With a lot of the carriers moving towards monthly data caps, 3G Watchdog smartly protects you from going over your limit. It shows your data usage in either the notification window, through the app itself, or widget. Free.

Connection Checker: A simple but incredibly useful app that disconnects you from terrible Wi-Fi and 3G signals. Basically, if you have a crappy Wi-Fi connection it’ll flip you over to 3G and turn off Wi-Fi. If you have a bad 3G connection, it’ll put you on Airplane Mode until it gets better.

Prox: A genuinely clever app, Prox can control your Android phone without ever touching the touchscreen. The way it works is that the accelerometer determines how you hold the phone (left, right, toward, away) and can associate an action for the grip. You trigger that action by waving your hand over the proximity sensor. So you can load apps, change ringer mode, open notifications, turn off the screen, etc, with a simple wave of the hand. It could prove useful in cold weather situations or if you want to pretend you have wizard powers.

Classic Notes + App Box: Classic Notes+ App Box is a note-taking app that looks a lot like AK Notepad, but with a lot more features hidden inside. Seriously, there’s nutty features like conversion options, tip calculator, weather, time, Wikipedia search, and a ton more bat-shit crazy options (seriously) that don’t really belong in a note-taking app but are nice (?) to have as a backup.

Jeannie: A voice control app for Android that can actually hold a Siri-esque conversation with you. You can send emails, play music, search the web, set alarms, hear jokes, find news and more with Jeannie. There’s a ton of features here, like controlling apps, playing music and videos, translating text or words, controlling volume, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

SwipePad: SwipePad is a better app switcher for your Android phone. Instead of holding down the home button to launch your recent apps, SwipePad uses hotspots-corners and edges of your phone’s screen-to trigger a new ‘pad’. Just drag your finger from a hotspot to the middle of the screen and the app switcher will pop up. Like adding another layer to your phone. Free.

Mobo Task Killer: If you want to have control over your Android phone, Mobo Task Killer does everything you’d want without being too overwhelming. There’s an auto-optimise feature that optimises your phone’s memory, one-click optimization to free up memory, a memory meter to show where your phone’s memory is currently at, a task killer and a lot more. It kills tasks. And it’s actually pretty to look at too.

Plex: Plex offers a dead simple media streaming and conversion utility for Android (and other platforms, including iOS and-coming soon-WP7) that requires little to no setup. Install the Plex media server on your home computer, install Plex for Android on your handset, create a myPlex account and log in to it, and you’re pretty much finished.

MoneyWise: The app that lets you manage your budget and transactions on your phone without being a gateway to a web app or desktop client.

Tape-a-Talk Voice Recorder: The app will record audio at variable bitrates. It’ll even record in the background and share those recordings via email and DropBox.

Aldiko: Lifehacker found the best eReader for Android. I can’t imagine how many books they had to read to come to this conclusion. I’m guessing hundreds. The reader can open, ePUB, PDF and DRM-locked Adobe books. To appease the demands of your eyes, you can customise the interface.

Syncly: The app keeps an eye on your Android device’s SD card and automatically uploads any photos added to that card to your DropBox account. After an initial setup, the app just does its job in the background. Upload images over Wi-Fi or your device’s 3G/4G connection. Free.

Chrome: Chrome for Android features a host of improvements over the old Android browser, but the biggest highlight has got to be automatic tab and bookmark syncing between your desktop and phone. So you’ve got a few tabs open at home, and have to run out the door? Not a problem, you’ve got those same tabs open on your phone with a quick tap.

Cloud Magic: Think of CloudMagic as a search engine that only searches you. It indexes your Google and Twitter data and then cuts down search speed significantly because it doesn’t get bogged down by any network or server delays. It’s like if Spotlight (or Quicksilver) for the Mac was available on your Android phone. You can search through your Twitter, Gmail, Google Apps, Docs, Calendar and Contacts through CloudMagic.

Clik: Clik allows you to control any web-enabled screen from your phone. You point your web browser to ClikThis.com and then open the Clik app on your smartphone. Scan the QR code on ClikThis.com and that web browser now becomes a big screen to watch videos on (with the Clik app being your snazzy remote).

Dialer One: The best speed dialler for Android. Why? Well you can speed dial by holding down a number on the keypad, instant searches a contact from typing in a number or name and looks great too. Free.

Zite: It’s a personal magazine app that customises its content just for you. It learns what you like from your Google Reader and Twitter account and displays stories you’d probably ejoy reading. The app gets bette the more you use it, as it becomes more familiar with your tendencies. Free.

Google Drive: Last month, Google launched Google Drive, its long-awaited Dropbox competitor, and along with it came an Android app. It lets you create, save, sync and share your files from anywhere. If you’re a heavy Google Docs user, you’ll definitely want to add this app to your repertoire. Free.

Lifestyle

Flash Player 10.1: I really don’t care if Flash is good for the web or not, I just want to see as much web content as I can on my Android phone. Downloading Flash Player 10.1 gets me one step closer to that. Free.

The Weather Channel: The Weather Channel app on Android isn’t the most feature packed, but its the easiest to use. We love it because we can hit all the important features, like the “What It Feels Like” temperature, the 10-day forecast and hourly temperature, faster than any other app. Free.

Live Scores: I’m not exactly smitten with the app’s design but there’s no other app that offers as much details and stats about sports games as Live Scores. You could set scoring alerts for your favourite teams too. Free.

MLB at Bat 2011: Hands down, the best sports application on any device. You’ll be able to keep up with your favourite team in a snazzy new customizable homescreen and stream live games (if you have a MLB.tv package). For any self respecting baseball fan, it’s an absolute must have. $15.43.

USA Today: A great app to find the latest headlines, sports scores and weather reports because everything is laid out right smack in front of you. USA Today’s app is much like USA Today itself, all the relevant news whittled down and easy to understand. Free.

Wapedia: Wapedia is perfect: it gives you all of Wikipedia, in a quick and easy-to-understand format, and offers more reference options to search through like wikiquotes, wiktionary and even more specialised wikis (Call of Duty, Mad Men, etc) for the most specific information you can glean from in an app. Free.

Google Earth: It’s, like, the entire world… on your Android phone. Google Earth is cooler than ever when you’re using your fingers to manipulate it, seamlessly zooming around the globe and diving into various places to take a closer look. Free.

Google Goggles: Hey, what’s that building over there? Is this a famous painting? Those are all questions that can be answered by Google Goggles, which is really searching by taking a picture. The image recognition can be insanely good. Free.

TripIt: TripIt is just an absolute godsend when you’re travelling. It’s like having your own travel assistant, all you have to do is forward your travel confirmation emails to TripIt and they’ll automatically organise it for you in their tidy app. You’ll always have your itinerary right on your phone. Free.

Layar: Quite simply, the king of augmented reality apps, able to layer pretty much whatever kind of data you want on top of your boring, HUD-less reality. Free.

Chomp: Chomp makes finding Android apps so much easier. Think of Chomp as a replacement for Android Market’s search function. You can search by app category and it even has a special section for apps on sale. Free.

BBC News: It’s the inimitable news network, available on your phone. Which is great because you can still catch up on the latest breaking news, personalise the homescreen to your interests, share a story via email, SMS or social networks has been included also, and watch the news too. Free.

Crackle: Sony has released Crackle, an app that streams full-feature movies and popular TV shows to Android for free. For free. For free! We’re talking popular TV shows like Seinfeld or big times movies like The Da Vinci Code and all completely free! The app is the same ad-supported streaming service as the Crackle.com website (and iOS apps) and has a decent catalog from Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics and other studios. It’s obviously not as comprehensive as Netflix or Hulu but you’re not paying a damn thing.

Flickr: Sure you may use Picasa but Flickr is like Instagram for Android. Not only can you scan Flickr photostreams, upload pictures, share photos to other social networks, you can also take filterised pictures and look so hip with it. Free.

BeWeather: BeWeather is a drop dead gorgeous weather app that gets its data from Weather Underground. There’s detailed forecasts, 11 different widgets in six different sizes, temperature notification in the status bar, radar and satellite maps and a TON TON TON of customisation options where you can change the icons, fonts and colours of the look of the app.

Winamp: Ah, Winamp. The good ol’ days of music playing awesomesauce. Now, Winamp for Android (which has been available for some time) is updated to wirelessly sync their music and videos with the Mac. There’s also an MP3 of the day and a premium version with even more features.

WidgetLocker Lockscreen: WidgetLocker Lockscreen makes it dead easy to customise your lock screen to do whatever you want. Add widgets, app shortcuts, slick slider shortcuts (slide to take a picture, etc) and more are added to your lockscreen so you can quickly do whatever you want without unlocking your phone. If you use Android, this must be on your phone.

PowerAMP Music Player: It’s easily the most powerful music player for Android. PowerAMP plays every file from here to the sun, you can EQ music, crossfade, tweak bass and treble and so much more. Four slick widgets, lockscreen support and all the themes you’d want. So if you listen to music, get PowerAMP.

iOnRoad for Android: It’s an app that uses your phone’s native camera and sensors to tell you if you’re driving a safe distance from the cars in front of you, and alerts you visually and audibly if you’re approaching a car or object in front of you that pose a danger for collisions.

360 Panorama: Take a photo while spinning around to create 360 panoramic photos on your Android phone. Just be careful not to fall over.

Lapse It: It’s a time-lapse camera that makes it dead easy to capture time lapse videos with your Android phone. What’s cool, if it’s your cup of tea, is that you can add camera effects to your time-lapse videos too. Other than that, you basically set what sort of interval you want to take pictures at and Lapse It will export the video in all its amazingness.

Mixologist Drink Recipes: You like booze? Yeah, you like booze. Mixologist was voted one of the best drink app for Android in a recent Lifehacker poll. Just because New Year’s is over doesn’t mean the party has to stop.

Fitness Buddy: 1700 different workout exercises. 1000 workout videos. 4000 exercise photos. And sweat-searing instructions for all of them. Fitness Buddy is an absolutely amazing tool to track your workouts, learn new workouts, build a workout routine and see your body’s progress. $0.99.

TED: TED talks are some of the best content the internet has to offer, bar none. And though you might want to watch them in deep concentration and free from distraction, peeping it on your Android phone is as convenient as you can get. Free.

500px: A huge sampling of gorgeous photos are found on this photo-aggregation app. It culls beautiful images from all over the web, lets you find new ones and share them on Facebook or Twitter from your Android tablet. Free.