- 15 best Android apps available right now
- The best Android apps available right now:
- 1Weather
- Google Drive
- Google Maps and Waze
- Google Search / Assistant / Feed
- LastPass
- Microsoft SwiftKey
- Nova Launcher
- Podcast Addict
- Poweramp
- Solid Explorer
- Tasker and IFTTT
- Package visibility in Android 11
- The best app stores for Android
15 best Android apps available right now
Here it is ladies and gentlemen. The crème de la crème. The Android apps that stand alone at the top of the pantheon. These apps have become ubiquitous with Android and if you’re looking for good stuff it’s assumed that you have some of this stuff 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, and the best things are rarely anonymous. It’s difficult to get into the hall of fame, but we do have the best lists attached to each selection in case you want to see more options.
The best Android apps available right now:
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. The Ui is logical and reasonably easy to navigate as well.
The free version has all of the features with advertising. The $1.99 charge removes advertising. Otherwise, the two versions work the same way. 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
Some of the features of these apps include live collaboration, deep sharing features, and compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. You can find more cloud storage apps here and more office apps here if you want something different.
Google Maps and Waze
Price: Free
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. It’s unique and fun in ways that Google Maps isn’t and we also highly recommend it. Of course, we have more GPS apps options as well here if you need them.
Google Search / Assistant / Feed
Price: Free
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 always feels like it’s one step ahead. Additionally, the premium version is cheap. 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.
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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 of over the years. It’s a free download and you can purchase themes for it if you want to.
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 we honestly could’ve listed either one. There are some other great Android keyboards here as well.
Nova Launcher
Price: Free / $4.99
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, Hyperion Launcher, and Rootless Launcher. Of course, we have a list of the best Android launchers with even more options as well.
Podcast Addict
Price: Free / $3.99
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. 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
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.
Check out some excellent hardware as well:
Tasker and IFTTT
Price: $2.99 and Free, respectively
Tasker is a glorious application if you have the patience to learn how to use the app. What it does is allow users to create custom made commands and then use them in various places. There are many apps out there that have Tasker support and you can even use Tasker to create very complex commands for NFC tags. It’s difficult to truly explain what this app can do because it can do so many things. Between the apps supported, plugins you can add, and the sheer volume of stuff that you can do, there aren’t many apps out there as useful as this one.
IFTTT is another excellent automation app. In some cases, it may even be better than Tasker thanks to its simplicity and wide range of uses. Tasker is also available free as part of the Google Play Pass. There are some other great Android tools and utility apps, but none of them can step up to Tasker and IFTTT.
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Package visibility in Android 11
On Android 10 and earlier, apps could query the full list of installed apps on the system using methods like queryIntentActivities() . In most cases, this is far broader access than is necessary for an app to implement its functionality. With our ongoing focus on privacy, we’re introducing changes on how apps can query and interact with other installed apps on the same device on Android 11. In particular, we’re bringing better scoped access to the list of apps installed on a given device.
To provide better accountability for access to installed apps on a device, apps targeting Android 11 (API level 30) will see a filtered list of installed apps by default. In order to access a broader list of installed apps, an app can specify information about apps they need to query and interact with directly. This can be done by adding a element in the Android manifest.
For most common scenarios, including any implicit intents started with startActivity() , you won’t have to change anything! For other scenarios, like opening a specific third party application directly from your UI, developers will have to explicitly list the application package names or intent filter signatures like this:
If you use Custom Tabs to open URLs, you might be calling resolveActivity() and queryIntentActivities() in order to launch a non-browser app if one is available for the URL. In Android 11 there’s a better way to do this, which avoids the need to query other apps: the FLAG_ACTIVITY_REQUIRE_NON_BROWSER intent flag. When you call startActivity() with this flag, an ActivityNotFoundException will be thrown if a browser would have been launched. When this happens, you can open the URL in a Custom Tab instead.
In rare cases, your app might need to query or interact with all installed apps on a device, independent of the components they contain. To allow your app to see all other installed apps, Android 11 introduces the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission. In an upcoming Google Play policy update, look for guidelines for apps that need the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission.
When targeting API level 30 and adding a element to your app, use the latest available release of the Android Gradle plugin. Soon we’ll be releasing updates to older Android Gradle plugin versions to add support for this element. You can find more information and use cases about Package Visibility in the developer documentation.
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The best app stores for Android
There’s life beyond Google Play. With this list of app stores you can make use of the best alternative marketplaces to download the APKs of your favorite games or apps, especially those applications not available in the official store
Another alternative app store to Google Play
The best alternative to Google Play
An alternative to Google Play
The best alternative to Google Play in its Lite version
Android’s store for applications and other digital contents
Alternative Android application store
The Russian version of the 9Apps online store
Download apps for Android Auto to your mobile
An alternative app store
Application store focused on MODs
Xiaomi’s app store
Alternative Android application store to Google Play
App store with a basic design
Thousands of patched apps and games
Chinese app store
Take a look at the iPhone App Store
Download applications and game MODs for free
A store full of patched and modded games
The app store by Oppo
A great alternative to the Google Play Store
Aptoide’s app store for Android TV
An apps store alternative to Play Store
Download apps for Android from a range of alternative stores
Alternative to Google Play to download apps
An alternative to Google Play to download apps and games
Irani app store
Turn your Android into an iPhone
Download applications for Android
Tencent’s apps store
An alternative to Google Play to download apps
Install apps directly through APKs
The application store for manga and anime fans
Get hold of paid apps for free
Alternative Android game store to Google Play
Find modified versions of the applications that you use
The app store for cyber hunters
4399 is a store from which we can download thousands of games for Android
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