Android is a great and powerful mobile operating system that has ever been built for smartphones. Since Android is an open source platform, it allows you to easily change your smartphone UI and customise the App by installing Android Custom ROMS. It not only offers millions of apps available in the market for free but also allows you to easily access multiple hidden features.
So there are many android phones and tablets in the market, like Samsung Galaxy S8/S8 edge, Galaxy S7/S7 edge, Galaxy S6/S5/S4/S3/S2, Galaxy Note 8/7/6/5/4/3/2, Galaxy Tab series, LG G6/G5/G4/G3/G2, LG V20/V10, LG OPTIMUS 4X HD, MOTOROLA MOTO X PURE EDITION, MOTOROLA MOTO X, MOTOROLA MOTO G, MOTOROLA MOTO E, MOTOROLA DROID RAZR HD, HTC One M9/M8, HTC 10, HTC U ULTRA, HTC ONE, HTC DROID DNA, HTC ONE X AT&T, HTC ONE S, SONY XPERIA XZ PREMIUM, SONY XPERIA XZ, SONY XPERIA X PERFORMANCE,SONY XPERIA Z5 PREMIUM,SONY XPERIA Z5,SONY XPERIA Z3+,SONY XPERIA Z2, HUAWEI P10, HUAWEI MATE9, GOOGLE PIXEL XL, GOOGLE NEXUS 6P,GOOGLE NEXUS 5X,GOOGLE NEXUS 6,GOOGLE NEXUS 5,GOOGLE NEXUS 4, etc. When get an android phone or tablet, the important thing you want to do is to install some best and most useful apps.
Here’s our pick of the best Android apps – the best apps if you’ve just bought a new Android phone or tablet.
Best Android apps: Chat
Two of our all-time favourites are WhatsApp Messenger and Skype. WhatsApp is now free for all users, and lets you send and receive free messages, pictures, videos and voice messages over the web. If you have a tablet, laptop or PC you should also check out WhatsApp Web for synching messages between the two.
Best Android apps: Google Drive
Free, with additional costs for increased storage. Google Drive isn’t just a cloud storage service. In addition to syncing and storing your files, Google Drive includes a powerful mobile office suite, so you can create and edit files from your phone. Drive can even store your files locally, for offline viewing and editing. It might not replace your desktop office utilities, but it comes surprisingly close.
Best Android apps: Social media
Many Android phones and tablets come with social-media apps built-in, but if yours doesn’t then top of your list will be Facebook and Twitter.
If you’re downloading Facebook don’t forget Facebook Messenger for private messaging with friends (no, it’s not evil), and if you’re a poster rather than a lurker then Timehop offers a fascinating look back at what was on your mind on this day in previous years.
Snapchat is the latest trending social app, and face-swapping is all the rage (beginners should check out our guide on How to use Snapchat), while LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest are just a handful of other social apps that are available. You can also find all manner of social aggregators that combine all your social feeds into a single feed.
Best Android apps: Netflix
Free, plans begin at $7.99 a month. Then it comes to mobile video streaming, Netflix is hard to beat. It boasts a massive (if unstable) library of TV shows and movies, putting a world of entertainment in your hand. Netflix is also leading the way among streaming services by producing critically-acclaimed original programming like Luke Cage, Narcos, The OA, and Stranger Things, to name but a few. It even offers a decent selection of streaming anime titles. It’s an app that’s no longer just about killing time. It’s also about keeping up with the conversation about the latest hit shows. The fact that it now lets you download (some) shows for offline viewing is a huge recent advance for the service.
Best Android apps: NordVPN
Free, $8 per month subscription. Google and mobile antivirus companies have done a great job of keeping Android (mostly) free of dangerous malware. But when you connect to a public Wi-Fi network, it’s possible that nefarious individuals could be intercepting all of your information. That’s why virtual private networks are so important, and NordVPN is among the best. Other fun tricks you can do with a VPN? Hiding your IP address from advertisers and accessing region-locked content.
Best Android apps: Music
If you have an Android phone or tablet, you can access your entire audio collection by uploading it to Google Play Music, which is more than likely preinstalled on your device. But what about new stuff?
In the past if you wanted to listen to new music and you didn’t want to pay for it you would listen to the radio. Many Android phones and tablets have a built-in FM radio, and you simply plug in a pair of headphones to act as the aerial. There are also online radio services – one of our favourites is BBC iPlayer Radio.
Best Android apps: Clean Master
Nobody likes having a slow device, and Android somehow manages to grab digital detritus like a magnet in a junkyard. Clean Master is the mop and bucket you need to scrub your phone or tablet clean.
Clean Master’s Junk File Cleaning feature scans your Android device and chucks out any unwanted cache and residual files.
Best Android apps: Opera Max
Unless you’re lucky enough to have unlimited data on your phone, or a bottomless wallet, you’ll want to get the most out of your data package.
This is where Opera Max comes in. It crunches down the size of images and videos, speeds up website load times, and typically saves you from around a third to almost half of your general data use. You can restrict some apps to only ever connect via Wi-Fi, and temporarily turn off connections if you want to save some data for the end of the month.
Best Android apps: Reading
We’ll start with magazines since we are, after all, a publishing company. One of our favourite new services is Readly, which is a subscription-based magazine service that lets you read as many mags as you want for a one-off fee. PC Advisor and its sister titles Tech Advisor, Macworld, iPad & iPhone User and Android Advisor are all available on Readly, and there’s loads more good stuff too. Check it out with a free trial.
Best Android apps: Shopping
Now with apps dedicated to online shopping, you’ll wonder why you ever bothered getting out of bed to buy a loaf of bread.
As well as apps for all the large supermarkets (see Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons, ASDA, Lidl and ALDI), some of our favourites include Amazon, which sells just about everything, eBay, the online auction site that again sells just about everything, and PayPal, which is used not only to pay for goods on eBay but at multiple online retailers.
