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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.
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.
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.
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 customizable (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.
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.Entertainment
Netflix: All the joys of Netflix in your pocket, all the time-including the power to battle that always growing Watch Instantly queue. Streaming's silky smooth over Wi-Fi, less so over 3G, but the app itself is indispensable. Free.
Spotify: Released to much fanfare, Spotify is as close to a great streaming service we can get. The Android app lets you listen to all of Spotify's 13 million track library and with an offline mode, can even do it without a data connection because you can wirelessly sync your local files to your phone, create and sync playlists and more.
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
Pandora: Pandora. You know the one. The internet radio app that has uplifted a million work hours and scored a million make-outs. It's simply the best out there, streaming music at home or on the go over Wi-Fi or 3G. Free.
Rdio: A "social" music subscription service, as in you can leech 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 optimized for your phone—which in this case, is a good thing. Free.
Movies: Pretty simple: you like knowing the movies that are playing in theaters around you, right? Flixster's got local listings and showtimes, along with trailers and reviews from Rotten Tomatoes. Plus, you can manage your Netflix queue! 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 e-book 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
Snaptastic: An excellent photo editing app that's currently in beta, Snaptastic allows you to quickly tweak your pictures anyway you want. There's 15 presets already built in, custom presets you can set yourself and controls for brightness, contrast, temperature, tint, vignetting, etc. Make your pictures look better and share them immediately to all your favorite social networks.
Sketchbook Pro: For Honeycomb tablets, it's a canvas for you to draw and paint on, with virtual tools and brush styles that can be really used to create art. You can save up to six layers per file and export files to photoshop for further working. Great for professionals who want to use their tablets for ideas and amateurs like me who can only hope to draw a straight line. $5
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.Games
Plants vs Zombies: The insanely addicting tower defense game where you battle zombies with various plants, flowers and rocks is finally on Android. It's still the same heart-racing, finger-mashing, zombie-killing fun as it ever was. $3
Angry Birds: 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 realize that this kind of game can work that well on your phone. $5.
Fieldrunners: The endlessly popular tower defense Fieldrunners is finally on Android. There's over 400 levels across 4 battlefields, 7 different weapons to guard your territory with and hours upon hours of fun. I've lost myself in this game when it was on iOS and plan to lose myself for the rest of the weekend now that it's finally on Android.
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.
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.
Robo Defense: Robo Defense is a tower defense 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 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 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.
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.
Roboto: A beautiful looking action game where you play the role of a teen robot in love with a pretty robot and have to shoot a bunch of bad guys to win her. Silly, yes. But the graphics are awesome and though it's ostensibly a classic side-scrolling game, the world occasionally flips upside down to keep you on your toes. $3Productivity
Launcher Pro: 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.
Google Voice: Google Voice simply changes the way you use your phone, and the app's seamless integration is a killer feature for Android as a whole. Free.
Google Docs: The native Google Docs app acts more like a documents manager to search, find and share all your documents than a text editor (as you'll be routed to the online web editor to make changes) but is still plenty good. Also: the OCR function to turn images into Google Docs is great. 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 $30 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.
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.
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.
Epistle: A super simple and great looking text editor that syncs with Dropbox. Your notes are saved in a plain text file, the titles are searchable and the syncing is super fast. Great for those who don't need all the bells and whistles. 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.
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 Pandora, and crank the volume. Completely customizable, Tasker makes your smartphone even smarter. $6.
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.
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.
Amazon Free App Reminder: Amazon has its own Android app store and one of the perks is that they offer a free app everyday. This will send you a daily notification about the free app on that particular day and link you straight to the Amazon app store. $1
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.Lifestyle
Flash Player 10.2: 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 10.2 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 favorite 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 favorite 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
WatchESPN: If you have the right cable provider, you can stream ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU straight to your phone. Works over 3G or Wi-Fi and lets you watch all the biggest sports moments on the go. A must have for any sports fan. Free.
Yelp: Everyone's a critic when it comes to bars and restaurants; Yelp puts that impulse to work for you. Search for food, drink, or whatever else by location, price, style and then read up on what people have to say about it. Free.
MenuPages: If you happen to live in New York, LA, San Francisco, Philly, Boston, Chicago, DC, or South Florida and you like going out for food, Menu Pages has to be on your phone. It has full menus for an impressive roster of restaurants, so you'll be able to know what you want before you even get there. Free.
CNN: You get to watch live video, receive breaking news notifications, tune into CNN radio, use a customizable widget and more. Pretty much a must have for news junkies. Free.
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.
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, personalize the homescreen to your interests, share a story via email, SMS or social networks has been included also, and watch the news too. 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 specialized 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 Shopper: If Google Goggles and a barcode scanner hooked up, we'd get Shopper: a barcode scanning, voice and image searching, product finding, makes-you-a-smarter-shopper shopping assistant. It's a damn good app, and ties nicely with Google because well, it's made by Google. 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 organize 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.
NFL Mobile: It's only available for Verizon customers but NFL Mobile gives you live game video, live game audio, news, highlights and more. Heck, you get to stream the NFL Network 24/7. Free.
HBO Go: If you're smart enough to order HBO with your cable, HBO Go will let you watch every episode of every season of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rome, and any other awesome show HBO has ever made. Oh, and you can stream movies too. Free.
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