You’ve got an Android device, either because you didn’t want, or couldn’t afford, an iPhone – and in years past that meant you had to live with substandard apps. Thankfully, those days are well and truly over, with reams of great little programs standing toe to toe with the best Apple’s App Store has to offer.
What's the best phone of 2017?
Admittedly, the huge quantity of apps doesn’t mean they’re all quality – far from it in fact. To make sure you never install a duff app here’s our selection of the best you should install right now – each one carefully chosen to ensure you’ll have a whole suite of fun, engaging and, dammit, useful apps on your phone or tablet.
If you're on the hunt for a new messaging app you could do worse than
Google Allo
, which has most of the basics plus a few features that you won't get elsewhere.
Smart Reply, one of the standout features of Allo, suggests responses to messages and photos, learning how you talk over time, so you can send authentic responses without having to type – though it does seem a little impersonal.
The other big feature is Google Assistant, which works a bit like a text version of OK Google, but one which you can insert into any conversation, asking it questions or getting it to pull up information from the web.
Allo also has an incognito mode, with end-to-end encryption and expiring messages, for anyone who's particularly security conscious.
As with any new messaging app the big problem with Allo will be convincing your friends to use it, but it's worth the effort.
There are plenty of podcast apps to choose from, but few that are as full-featured and easy to navigate as
Podcast Player
, and fewer still that are also free.
Podcast Player helps you discover new shows by having you follow topics, which can be as broad as 'tech' or as niche and specific as 'beekeeping'.
The app is also packed full of other handy features, like auto-downloading the latest episodes of shows you're subscribed to whenever you're on Wi-Fi, and the ability to sync across devices, all wrapped up in an attractive, simple interface with absolutely no adverts. Podcast Player is so good you'll wonder why it's free.
Widgets can be a handy way to quickly access key functions of an app or view information without opening an app, but they can also take up a lot of space, quickly forcing you into using extra home screens if you want more than a couple of widgets.
Snap Swipe Drawer
solves that problem, by putting widgets on a separate screen that you can access by swiping down, much like you would to view your notifications.
It's separate from the notifications shade too, so that doesn't become too cluttered. Instead you can set the left, right or middle of the top edge to display your widgets when pulled on, while the rest will still take you to your notifications.
It's potentially a bit slower than having your widgets on your home screen, since it requires an extra swipe, but Snap Swipe Drawer is available from anywhere, even while you're in apps, so in that sense it can be faster and more convenient, and it certainly leaves your screens less cluttered.
It
" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s similar to Apple" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s widgets, which are accessed with a swipe right from the notifications shade, but with one fewer finger flick.
If you can't go five minutes without checking Twitter, Facebook or Instagram then
Flow Home
could be the launcher for you.
The app replaces your standard home screen with a combined feed for those three services, plus Tumblr and Feedly (or as many of them as you want to include), so they're always the first thing you'll see when you turn your phone's screen on.
Your actual apps, which would usually take center stage, are instead relegated to a second screen, though favorites can be accessed by tapping an icon in the bottom right corner, and for anything you want really fast access to you can add a widget above the main feed.
Flow Home definitely isn't for everyone, but it's stylish, different and worth a look if you glanced at your Twitter timeline while reading this.
KinScreen
is a great example of the power Android offers, as the app adds new functionality to your phone, allowing you to turn your screen on just by waving your hand over the proximity sensor, picking your phone up, or holding it at a certain angle.
KinScreen also includes toggles to keep your screen on under certain circumstances, such as when on a call, although you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />ll need to make sure your face doesn" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />t press a million buttons at the same time.
It's not the only app to offer these tools, but it works well and while there is an IAP to unlock certain options, much of it (including the wave-to-wake feature) is free.
Got an expensive app habit? Then it's time you discovered
Google Opinion Rewards
, an app which gives you Google Play credit for filling out quick surveys.
Most of the questions are multiple choice and there are rarely more than a few questions in each survey, so the app won't waste your time.
You'll usually get around one survey a week, so it's not going to make you rich, but you can earn enough to buy an app or rent a movie every month or two, all for just a few minutes of work.
There are any number of apps for translating foreign text, but
MenuSnap
homes in on menus specifically and goes beyond mere translation.
Simply take a picture of a foreign menu and the app will let you tap on any of the different dishes, bringing up images, translations and other information about them from the internet, so you won't just know what the name means but even what the dish looks like.
One potential flaw with this is that the app requires data to do its work, which can be expensive when abroad, but images are compressed and the app only uses around 700KB of data per menu.
And MenuSnap isn't limited to English translations, with the ability to translate to and from over 50 languages.
Prisma will transform your photos into works of art, and now
Artisto
has arrived to do the same for videos.
Simply select any clip that's saved to your phone (or shoot a new one straight from the app), and then choose from a number of filters, some of which are inspired by actual art styles, such as art nouveau, and the app will quickly apply the filter to your footage.
Depending on the clip and style you choose the result can range from beautiful to an incomprehensible mess, but it's fun to play with and, if used with care, can lead to great-looking videos.
Once you've applied a filter you can share your creation straight to Instagram, Facebook, or any other compatible app on your phone, or just save it to your handset.
If you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />re anything like us you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />d probably sooner forget those embarrassing outfits you were wearing in all your old printed photos.
The good news is you can easily hide them away in a box, in a cupboard or at the bottom of the ocean. The bad news is
PhotoScan
by Google brings them into the digital world, where theyll never be more than a click away – so please think about your future self when digitizing your images.
Follow some simple instructions, which basically involve moving your phone over an image, so the camera lens can clearly see all the different parts of it, and it will be immortalized in digital form and ready for sharing on social media.
PhotoScan has some clever tricks up its sleeve too, allowing it to enhance images, avoid glare, and crop and straighten shots, so that the finished product really is like a digital photo, rather than just a snapshot of a snapshot.
It" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s all very quick and easy, which sadly means there" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s no forgetting those baggy jeans and nineties haircuts if you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />re hell-bent on documenting your entire drawer of old photos.
You probably look at your phone" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s wallpaper more than almost any other image, so you want it to look good, and choosing the perfect image is sometimes only half the battle, because sometimes the perfect image isn" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />t quite perfect yet.
Maybe the contrast, brightness, or saturation is slightly off, and if so,
Wallpaper Modder
is a quick, easy way to adjust it.
The app provides sliders to adjust all that, plus the hue and level of blur, on your current wallpaper. There" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s also a toggle to invert the colors, and when you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />re happy with your edits you can apply your new and improved wallpaper, or save it to your gallery though saving it requires a $0.99/79p in app purchase (which also removes the adverts).
You can, of course, do many of the same things from a photo editor, but that tends to be overkill if you just want to make small tweaks. Wallpaper Modder keeps things simple, with all the controls on a single screen and your current wallpaper preloaded and ready for editing.
Ever wondered how strong the network's signal is in your area and whether a rival provider would be better? Or wanted to know where your nearest cell tower is?
OpenSignal
can tell you all that and a whole lot more, with data taken from your handset and those of over 10 million other users.
You can use the app to test your download and upload speeds or latency, see detailed coverage maps split by network and signal type, charts highlighting the best and worst networks in a given area and statistics on your signal quality.
Data can be saved and shared, the app will build up a history of your network usage while it's on your phone, and all of this comes free of charge and adverts – so it" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s perfect if you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />re thinking about changing networks and want to get the best coverage with your new phone.
Distractions are the enemy of productivity and when writing on mobile even a busy interface can prove distracting, with options and icons taking up valuable space on the screen.
iA Writer
was seemingly created with that in mind, giving you essentially just a white screen to write on, while all other options are a tap or swipe away.
It can go even further than that, with a Focus Mode causing the text you've already written to fade into the background, so you can stay focused on the current sentence.
These features all make it ideal when you need to write a lot, pen prose quickly or put some thought into what you're actually putting down on the digital paper.
But there's more here when you need it, including a night mode with reversed colors if you're working late, real-time syncing to Dropbox and Google Drive so you never lose your work, instant publishing to WordPress or Medium and a word count too, so you'll know how far you've got left to go if youre being that regimented.
Aside from Google Assistant, one of the best features of the
Pixel
and
Pixel XL
is the fingerprint scanner as it goes beyond just securing your phone to also give you a shortcut to the notification screen, accessed by swiping down on the scanner.
While not unique, fingerprint gestures are a bit of rarity, with many popular phones like the
Samsung Galaxy S7
not supporting them.
But
Fingerprint Gestures
can add that feature to your handset, and its not limited to just bringing up the notifications screen. You can also set up swipes and taps to launch apps, toggle the torch, change the ringer mode and more.
There are three different gestures you can use, for any combination of these you want, with a swipe, a single tap and a double tap all supported, and while certain actions like putting your phone to sleep require root access, most work on unrooted devices.
Everyone loves a good deal, and the
Groupon
app makes it easy to find and access offers wherever you are.
Chances are you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />ve come across Groupon before, but if not, all you need to know is it" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s packed full of deals and offers, across various categories like entertainment, fashion, restaurants and holidays.
Using the app you can filter through any of the categories, as well as seeing what" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s nearby. If you find a deal you want you can buy it and redeem it from the app and access to any deals and vouchers you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />ve previously bought.
Grabbing vouchers from the app saves you having to print them off, and means you can take advantage of deals with no notice if youre out shopping and decide to get some lunch, you can just check the app for nearby offers to up the savings.
With up to 90% off you can save a lot of money though the temptation to spend on things just because theyre good value can actually make Groupon quite expensive. Sadly, willpower not included.
SoloLearn
is for coding what Duolingo is for languages. Like Duolingo it has a wide-range of courses, covering C++, HTML, Java, Python 3, JavaScript, SQL, PHP, CSS, C#, Swift and Ruby.
Lessons are built into simple, bite-sized chunks, ideal for mobile, and SoloLearn starts at the very beginning, so its not intimidating to complete beginners.
Also like Duolingo theres a large community around SoloLearn, with users able to comment on each lesson, or engage in larger question and answer discussions.
SoloLearn also lets you put your coding skills to the test, with a built-in code editor. If there" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s a downside to the app it" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s the fairly plain appearance, which doesn" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />t make it particularly inviting that" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s one area where it could stand to learn from Duolingo. But it" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s completely free, with no IAP and no adverts, and perfect for those that feel they should learn to code but havent got round to it.
Like Chrome but dont like adverts? Then you might like
Brave Browser
. It" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s a browser based on Chromium so it looks a lot like Chrome, and it" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s built by one of the co-founders of Mozilla, who should have a better idea of how to build a browser than most.
As you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />ve probably guessed, Brave has a built-in ad-blocker, and it" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s simple to use and configure for individual sites just tap the lion icon at the top of a page to enable or disable ads, trackers and third-party cookies for the site you" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />re on (although TechRadar would just love it if you chose to whitelist us to help us keep the lights on).
Brave is still in beta though, and this is just the beginning, as it has ambitions to work with websites and advertisers, rather than simply blocking ads.
The desktop version of the browser already lets you choose to show unobtrusive ads, or pay publishers of the sites that you block ads on, and in future the company even plans to launch a revenue share model, where users who dont block adverts get a small cut of the income which they can either keep or distribute to the sites and bloggers they want to support.
You won" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />t find these features on mobile yet, but they" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />re likely planned for future updates, so this is one browser that" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s sure to get a lot more interesting over time.
Anchor
describes itself as ‘radio by the people’ and that’s not far from the truth. The app lets you record up to two minutes of audio at the push of a button and then send it out into the world, ready to be listened to by other Anchor users.
They can then reply to your recording with audio posts of their own, starting a group conversation with potentially dozens of strangers, all using their voices rather than text.
Of course, if you’re not much of a broadcaster you can just listen to other people’s recordings – which cover everything from news and opinions, to short stories and humor.
Much like Twitter and other social media platforms you can also follow users, so you’re never short of new content to hear.
The internet has made life hard for bricks and mortar stores, and
Amazon Prime Now
could be the thing that finally kills them.
The app gives Amazon Prime subscribers free same day delivery within a two-hour window on thousands of products, or one-hour delivery for an additional charge.
You can get everything from smartphones, to video games, to clothes, toys and even food sent to you.
Well… at least you can if you live somewhere with access to Prime Now, so its rather limited availability means physical stores might not be doomed quite yet.
Still, Prime Now’s availability is growing, and for those who can access it there’s one less reason to ever leave the house again.
Kitchen Stories
is based around the idea that anyone can cook, and so the app is as accessible to the culinarily curious as it is to seasoned chefs.
That starts with finding a recipe, allowing you to filter not just based on the course or main ingredient, but also by how long it takes to cook or how many calories it has (among other things).
Then, once you find something you like the look of, you can add it to a personal recipe book with a tap, or add the ingredients to your shopping list.
When it comes time to actually cook you’re in safe hands, with fully illustrated and clearly laid out instructions for each recipe, along with video guides for many of the skills you’ll need.
The app also has a built-in timer and a measurements converter, plus new recipes and videos are added every single week.
Most wallpaper apps aren’t very exciting, but then most wallpaper apps aren’t made by Google. Simply named ‘
Wallpaper
’, this is an app you’ll find pre-installed on the
Pixel
and
Pixel XL
, but it’s compatible with other Android devices too.
The app lets you pick from a range of wallpapers across several categories, including Earth, landscapes, cityscapes, life and textures, with the option to have it automatically change the wallpaper each day.
The app also lets you have a separate wallpaper on your lock screen and home screen, but what really makes it stand out is simply the quality of the offerings. Images are sourced from Google Earth, Google+ and elsewhere, and while the selection isn’t as wide as some wallpaper apps the quality is universally high.
Gideon Smart Home
could be the last smart home app you’ll ever need, as it can be used to control dozens of devices from loads of different companies, including but not limited to
Philips Hue
,
Sonos Play
,
Nest Thermostat
and Netatmo Weather Station.
It does a good job of controlling them too, in many cases giving you as much functionality as their official apps, along with extra tools, like being able to set up scenarios which will cause devices to adjust their behavior based on the time or whether you’re in the house, for example.
And you can also share access to the app with other people, on a temporary or permanent basis – ideal whether you live with others or simply have guests over.
It’s all wrapped up in an attractive interface. All Gideon’s really missing is a wider choice of widgets – you can create ones that activate certain scenarios with a press, but can’t get full control over smart home functions without launching the app.
If you’re a fan of Facebook Messenger’s chat bubbles then you’ll probably love
Flychat
. It’s a similar concept – putting a small bubble with a contact’s image to the side of whatever screen you’re on when they send you a message.
You can move the bubble if it’s in the way, and tap it to read or reply to the message, at which point a larger screen will appear over whatever you were looking at, but won’t take you away from the app or page you were on.
It’s designed to both be unobtrusive and mean you won’t have to leave the app or game you’re in to respond to messages.
Where it beats Facebook Messenger is in being able to grab messages from WhatsApp, Telegram, Hangouts, Line, Skype, Twitter, Threema, Textra, Facebook Messenger and Plus Messenger, and that list is likely to grow over time.
So wherever you’re getting contacted from there’s a good chance you’ll be able to respond through Flychat.
Ever felt betrayed by the weather forecast? Then you might want to check out
Climendo
, as rather than relying on a single forecast it pulls data from up to nine providers depending on where you are.
The app then creates a combined forecast using data from the most accurate providers in your region and tells you how certain it is of the forecast’s accuracy, so you’ll know exactly what to expect and never again find yourself wearing shorts in a storm.
Hourly and daily forecasts are available, and you can look up to ten days ahead, though of course the accuracy drops off the further forward you look.
If you want a second opinion you can also see what each individual forecast provider reckons the weather is going to be doing.
Climendo isn’t as feature packed as some weather apps. It doesn’t offer widgets and nor can you see details like humidity and pressure, but it’s likely to get the basics of how wet you’ll get right, and that’s surely the most important thing.
Smartphone cameras have come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, but they still tend to struggle in low-light, turning out dull, noisy images.
Light EQ
is a simple, free tool which aims to help with that, allowing you to use a slider to increase the exposure of underexposed photos.
It can also improve the contrast and vibrancy of an image and correct uneven lighting, and it does it all with a single slider, working out on its own what needs fixing.
Light EQ works surprisingly well, bringing out details which can hardly be seen in dark originals and generally creating a much more useable image.
It’s not a miracle worker, it can’t add details which were completely absent, and photos which started noisy will generally still be noisy once you’re finished with them, but if you just want to add some light to a shot, this is a slick, simple solution.
Google Duo is essentially the search giant’s answer to FaceTime, except unlike Apple’s video calling service Duo works on both Android and iOS, so you won’t have to ignore your iPhone-toting friends.
High-quality free one-to-one video calls over Wi-Fi or mobile data are at the core of Google Duo, but it’s got some standout features as well, most notably ‘Knock Knock’, which lets you see a video preview of the caller before you decide whether to answer or not.
There’s strong security too thanks to end-to-end encryption, and as there’s no need to sign up for an account, you just need to input your phone number to get started.
Whatever you’re into, Candid probably has a group for it. From happenings in your town to musings on philosophy, the app gives you a platform to follow and discuss the things that matter to you.
You can join or create groups, post questions or information in them and get involved in discussions, or just lurk and read the things other people are posting.
It’s not a totally original idea but the sheer number and variety of groups is impressive and growing all the time, and with a pseudonym assigned for each post it’s kept completely anonymous.
You can still link the app to your Facebook friends list and see their posts, you just won’t know which friend made each post… although guessing is half the fun.
Fast Speed Test isn’t just referring to the speed of your network in its name, but also the fact that it’s superfast at testing it, getting to work the instant you launch the app.
This Netflix creation estimates your download speed by performing a series of downloads from the company’s servers, giving you a quick estimate of how speedy your internet is.
It doesn’t test your upload speeds, ping or latency as it’s designed to keep things as simple as possible and there are plenty of other services for them if you need more details, but if you just want a speedy snapshot of the internet performance on your phone Fast Speed Test is hard to beat.
We’ve all been there. You’ve decided you want to watch a very specific show or film and now need to hunt through all six billion different streaming sites to see if or where it’s available.
But what if there was another way? What if you could just search once and get back a list of locations where your content can be found?
That’s what JustWatch does, you simply tell it what country you’re in and which sites and services you’re interested in when you first download the app, after which it will bring back every relevant search result from then on.
That’s reason enough for stream fiends to grab it, especially as it’s free, but there’s more here, including lists of the latest releases on all of your subscribed services, so you’ll never miss a new Netflix series again.
If you work on a lot of collaborative projects, then a service built from the ground up for collaboration can be a better choice than established software like Microsoft Office.
Cloud services like Google Docs are doing a good job in the space and now you can add Dropbox Paper to the list of quality options.
It’s an accomplished app for creating documents, allowing you to add images, videos, tables and even code. But it also allows you to share, edit and collaborate on documents with a variety of tools.
You can invite people to collaborate using a link or email, add comments and edits, change the document in real time and give feedback to specific people or everyone on the project.
Dropbox Paper works in the web, so you can access it from almost any device, but the app is a slick way to use it from a smartphone.
Every day hundreds of interesting new articles are posted online, many on our very own site, but finding time to read even a fraction of them can be a challenge. Listening though… that’s easier. Whether you’re walking, driving, or working out you can put a podcast on in the background and Narro lets you turn written articles into podcasts.
Once the app’s installed you just share any article with it from your browser and then you can have it read out to you.
But there are two features that make Narro particularly appealing. The first is that you can plug it into your podcast player of choice as a new feed, so you don’t have to use the Narro app itself to listen and can instead use whatever interface you’re a fan of.
The second is the option to choose between loads of different voices and adjust the reading speed. It’s always going to sound a little bit like a robot, but take the time to find a voice and speed you like and it’s actually a pretty enjoyable listening experience.
Your phone app probably has smart dialing. There’s a good chance it has a blacklist too and support for favorites and groups. It’s less likely to have caller ID, a selection of themes and customizable gesture controls.
But PixelPhone does, in fact you can tweak and customize almost every aspect of it, from the default action when you tap on a contact to the size of the dial pad.
There’s very little that you could reasonably expect from a phone app that PixelPhone can’t do, though to unlock the call recording feature you’ll have to pay for the pro version (£2.69/US$2.99).
But you get a whole lot for free and it really embodies the spirit of Android, by allowing you to tweak the look and feel of the app until you’re happy.
Ever wanted to bring all your old Warhammer pieces or children’s toys to life? Well with Motion you can, or at least to some kind of stop motion life.
The app couldn’t be simpler: you just point your phone at whatever you want to animate, press the big yellow button on the screen, then slightly move anything that you want to show in motion. From that, press the button again and continue like that until you’ve created your masterpiece.
Once all the footage is in place you can play it back, adjust the frame rate if needed and remove any pictures that you forgot to get your hands out of.
You can always go back and add more frames to a project at any point, so you don’t need to set aside a whole afternoon to get an intricate animation done in one go. Once you finally are finished you can save it to your phone and send it to your friends/your kids/anyone else who’ll still talk to you after seeing your shonky stop motion.
The YouTube app does a good job of bringing convenient access to millions of videos but there’s one glaring limitation: You can’t multitask with it. If you go back to your home screen or jump across to another app the video stops playing.
Flytube fixes this by opening the video in a small window, which sits over the top of whatever screen you’re on, but can be moved to wherever is least in the way.
This will happen automatically if you launch the video from the Flytube app (which itself is a fairly slick take on YouTube), but if you want to stick to the official app you can get the same effect by sharing the video with Flytube.
While viewing a video in a small window isn’t ideal, it works well for songs that you’re listening to (rather than watching), or for quickly checking something before returning to full screen footage.
You might never be the next Picasso, but with Prisma you can make your photos look convincingly like an artistic masterpiece.
The app sports dozens of filters, largely based around specific painters or art styles and with a single tap (and a bit if a wait – plus you need to be online) you can apply any of these to any of your photos.
There’s no shortage of photo filter apps but these are a bit more inventive than most and actually look convincingly like the art styles they’re imitating.
Once you’ve applied your filter of choice you can lessen the effect with a swipe if it’s veered too far from the source image for your liking, then you can save and share your creations with another few taps.
Evernote was once the digital notebook of choice and in many ways it still is, but price hikes coupled with stricter limits on the free version mean it’s no longer ideal for everyone – so if money is an object then Notebook is a strong alternative.
One of the joys of a physical notebook is often the design of the cover and, while that can never be fully replicated on mobile, Notebook by Zoho takes a good stab at it, by letting you choose from a selection of covers for each of your virtual notebooks, or create your own.
This, coupled with being able to change the color of each note’s background, makes for a very colorful app, which feels fun and playful as much as functional.
Notes can be sorted and sifted with pinches and swipes, you can add checklists, audio and images, search for specific content, share your notes with others and upload to the cloud to access them across devices.
For now it lacks some of Evernote’s features, such as the ability to collaborate on documents, but it’s also a lot newer, so these things may be added over time and it’s a remarkably rich offering for something that’s completely free.
Ereaders are great for books, but if you want a digital library of magazines a tablet, or even a smartphone, is a better bet and Zinio makes building that library easy.
It’s both a storefront and reader, offering over 5,000 different magazines from across the world, though not all in English.
Both major titles and more niche offerings are covered and navigating them on a touchscreen is easy, with swipes to turn pages and pinches or double taps to zoom, or you can just select the ‘Text’ option to read articles without the images and formatted for your screen.
Your whole library is stored online, so you can access it from other devices, but you can also download your magazines if you want to read them on a plane or elsewhere with no internet connection.
Replying to a message isn’t usually hard, but if you’re walking, have your hands full or are just swamped with texts a one-tap reply can be useful and Fluenty makes that a possibility.
The app uses AI to generate a series of possible replies to any message you get through SMS, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger or KakaoTalk, then you just have to tap one of them to send it.
The responses aren’t always perfect and may not sound like things you’d say, but they generally relate to whatever message you got and you can save your own commonly used replies if its voice doesn’t match yours.
And Fluenty works on both smartphones and smartwatches. It’s especially useful on the latter, where typing out a message really is a pain, but you might be surprised how often a one-tap response comes in handy on your phone too.
ASAP Launcher at once feels minimalist and powerful, thanks to a wealth of features all tucked away into an intuitive, uncluttered interface.
It only really gives you one true home screen, so if you like having all your apps visible, rather than leaving them in folders or the app drawer, ASAP Launcher might not be for you, but by limiting you it forces you to keep your home screen tidy.
And your apps are never far away. A swipe up from the dock will display your most commonly used apps, while a swipe in from the left edge will bring up the app drawer, which you can quickly swipe through or search.
Most other things are no more than a swipe or two away as well. Swiping the right edge brings up a scrollable bar full of shortcuts and toggles, while swiping left or right from the center of the screen will display your contacts, calendar, the weather and even a to-do list.
And if you don’t like the look of ASAP Launcher you can change the theme and highlight colors, or even switch up the icons with custom icon packs.
Given the company behind it you might expect BitTorrent Now to be some sort of illegal file sharing service, but in fact while it does give you access to music and video it’s completely legal – and even shares advertising revenue with the creators who choose to upload their work to it.
Mostly it offers a mix of music from underground or up and coming bands, alongside short films and documentaries, many of which are free to stream.
It’s a strange mix of content and the quality is variable, but you’ll find music and video that you’re unlikely to come across elsewhere and you can follow specific creators if you find ones you like.
It feels like a bit of a wild west at the moment, with everything from surreal comedy, to religious documentaries and music you’d expect to hear at 4am in a club once everyone’s too drunk to care.
But there’s something refreshing about it, especially if you’re open to finding something new and different.
It’s also hopefully going to grow as word gets out, so even if you don’t find much of interest right yet BitTorrent Now is one to watch.
There are plenty of wallpaper apps for Android, but Walli is a bit different, as all of its wallpapers are made by artists, many of whom are users of the app.
That makes them a bit more unique and the standards seem exceedingly high, yet they’re still free to download. If you’re feeling creative you can even add your own wallpaper designs and Walli promises that everyone who contributes to the app will get a share of the revenue.
The app is attractively laid out and while there are only a few different ways to filter images it’s enjoyable to browse and easy to find something that could help liven up your tired home screens.
A high-quality, feature-packed, easy to use music player with a stylish aesthetic and no cost. That might sound too good to be true, but somehow Pi Music Player delivers on all fronts.
For one thing it looks great (not that you’ll probably spend too long looking at it once you’ve queued some tracks up), but with album artwork and a classy interface you won’t mind the time you do spend in front of it.
It also has features you won’t find in all players, like a sleep timer which will turn the music off after a set period and a ringtone cutter, allowing you to select the exact point in a song that you want as a ringtone.
But Pi Music Player has the basics covered well too, with an equalizer, several different ways to sort and view your music, multiple themes and easy-to-build playlists.
You’re not likely to compose a masterpiece with Music Maker Jam, but if you want to get started in music creation it’s a simple, approachable tool and even if you’re already an expert it’s fun to fiddle around with.
There’s less to it than something like Caustic 3, but that means you can learn the basics and start making music that actually sounds good in a matter of minutes, by combining up to eight samples and looping and tweaking them until you’re happy.
There are only a few screens you need to worry about and everything is laid out intuitively in a manner that doesn’t feel cluttered on a smartphone screen, plus there’s a short tutorial to get you started.
A bunch of samples are included for free, but you can buy extras or even record your own if you’re really feeling creative.
If you prefer to use emojis and GIFs than words, then Dango could be your saviour. Dubbed an ’emoji assistant’ it’s essentially a cute little icon which pops up whenever you’re using a messaging app. Tap it and it will display relevant emojis, GIFs and stickers to whatever you’re typing, so you can quickly add them to your message.
But it can also analyze the text in messages you receive, so you can send a relevant emoji response with a tap, and Dango is smart enough only to display GIFs as an option in apps which fully support them.
Emoji keyboards already exist, but with Dango you can keep using your keyboard of choice and still have speedy access, while the icon is small enough that it’s not intrusive when you’re happy just with words.
You might understandably be concerned about privacy with the app analyzing your messages, but it promises that data never leaves your device, so the only thing to worry about is an emoji addiction.
Bored of tapping and swiping? Then Gravity Gestures could be for you, as it allows you to launch four apps or functions of your choice with gestures, which for the most part take the form of a couple of quick rotations of your phone.
They’re fast and intuitive to do and in many cases can be a lot quicker than hunting out an icon on your home screens. That’s especially ideal if you map one of the gestures to something like your camera, where wasted time can mean a missed shot.
The app itself has adverts, but once you’ve set your gestures up you never need to set foot in it again, so they’re not remotely intrusive.
If you’ve ever wanted to be a patron of the arts now’s your chance, as Patreon is designed to help artists find backers and you don’t have to be rich to get involved.
Nor do you have to do it purely out of the kindness of your own heart, as just like on Kickstarter you can net rewards for backing projects.
But rather than a one off pledge (and a one off reward), on Patreon you donate an amount every month, and get ongoing rewards, such as monthly concept art and behind the scenes access.
The app is easy to navigate and gives you the ability to browse projects, follow creators and read your messages, so you can invest in creativity wherever you are.
Letting a child loose on your phone or tablet is asking for trouble. If they don’t find something inappropriate, fire off a gibberish email to your boss or accidentally delete all your photos you’ve got off lucky, but with Kids Place – Parental Control you can create a safe environment for them, where they can’t access anything you don’t want them to.
The app lets you choose exactly which other apps you want to allow them to use and then they can launch them from within Kids Place itself and won’t be able to exit to the main home screen without a PIN.
In app purchases can also be blocked, screen time controls can be added if you don’t want them glued to the tablet all day and you can even set Kids Place to automatically launch when your device is turned on.
The look of the app feels slightly lacking in polish, but it’s easy for children to navigate, with big icons to launch other whitelisted apps.
Playing music out of smartphone speakers is never ideal, but with AmpMe you can at least pump up the volume, if not the quality, to impressive levels.
The app lets you start playing a song through SoundCloud, YouTube or your own music collection and then any nearby friends with the app can join the party, with the music syncing up and playing out of everyone’s phones.
It works over both Wi-Fi and mobile data, so if you’re in a field with no proper speakers AmpMe could get the party started. But it can also connect to tablets, iOS devices and Bluetooth speakers, so you’re not limited to just Android or just tinny phone sound.
It’s a shame there aren’t more supported music sources and the app does have adverts, but it’s free and it works at the push of a button.
If you only have one movie information app on your phone it should probably be IMDB, but if you have two then Cinematics makes for a strong second choice.
It’s an incredibly fast way of finding out what the consensus on a film is, with IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings shown at the top of each listing.
From there you’re just a tap away from trailers, reviews, cast lists and similar films, or if you just want to know what’s popular, what’s currently in cinemas or what’s coming soon you can see all that from tabs on the home page.
It lacks the trivia, community and more in depth details found on IMDB, but for the basics it’s a lot faster to navigate.
Google seems to be taking a strength in numbers approach to messaging apps, so joining Hangouts, Messenger and the soon to be launched Allo and Duo we have Spaces.
Essentially Spaces is for group conversations, but it’s as much about sharing as talking, because you can easily drop links, pictures and videos too, using Chrome and YouTube, both of which are built into the app.
With that in mind each of your spaces is likely to have a specific theme or purpose, rather than just be used for general chatter. Whether you’re planning a group holiday or just dedicating a space to sharing the latest funny memes, Spaces is a good way to do it.
Each post can be commented on by members of the space, which means conversations are split up into mini discussions around each post, so it’s easy to skim through if you’re looking for something or have no interest in a specific post. With built in search tools you can easily find long lost posts too.
After a lengthy stint in the US, Android Pay is now available in the UK too and by working on all contactless payment machines with any NFC-enabled Android 4.4 or above device it’s open to a huge amount of people.
Paying with your phone is fast, convenient and secure, as it’s contactless and your card number isn’t shared during the transaction.
You can store all of your credit and debit cards on it, along with gift cards, so you almost won’t need a wallet any more.
There are a handful of banks that don’t yet support Android Pay, but assuming yours isn’t one of them there’s little reason not to at least give it a try.
Ever wanted to feel like a hotshot Wall Street trader but not been sure where to start? Well, Bux might be just what you’ve been looking for.
It distils the whole process of playing with stocks, currencies, commodities and indices into a handful of simple screens, with easily digestible information.
And playing is the key word, because you don’t have to risk any of your actual money. Instead, you can use ‘FunBux’ to make investments and trades. Not only is this good for learning the ropes but it’s surprisingly fun in its own right, though when you make a big profit you’ll be kicking yourself for not investing real money.
When you feel ready though you can do exactly that, and with alerts for when stocks rise or fall a certain amount you don’t have to watch the market all day. It’s quite possibly the most entertaining take on the stock market since 1987’s Wall Street and far lower stakes than getting tangled up with a real life Gordon Gekko.
As part of Facebook’s ongoing attempt to bleed into every part of our lives it’s launched an app called Moments, which is designed to make it easier to share photos with friends, especially those that you snapped of them.
It does this by automatically grouping them together into ‘Moments’, based on when they were taken and who was in them and then in a few taps you can share them with a group of friends.
Anyone you’ve shared a Moment with can add their own photos to it, so you can build albums as a group and make sure you have every shot from that night out, to hopefully piece together what happened between leaving the house and waking up in Spain.
Your photos can of course be shared on Facebook, but it also works with Instagram and shots from other people can be saved onto your phone’s camera roll, so it’s not totally reliant on the all-encompassing social network.
With Sesame Lock Screen you might never need to venture into the app drawer again, as it has all the same features and more stuck to your lock screen.
As with the app drawer you can scroll through or search for specific apps, but it also adds contacts into the mix as well as connecting to the likes of YouTube and Spotify, so you can search for specific songs and playlists.
It even features a kind of ‘live widget’ functionality, where you can hook it up to apps like Uber or Lyft and see live car availability without having to launch their apps.
But Sesame is smart as well, learning what apps you use the most and putting them at the top of the list, so the longer you have it for the less searching is likely to be required and it’s never far away.
You can stick Sesame Lock Screen either on your lock screen (while leaving any security settings intact), or get to it with a long press of the home button from anywhere on your phone to add a little extra sauce to your Android experience.
The Google Play store is full of powerful video editors, but Quik isn’t one of them. That’s not to say it isn’t worth your time though, just that it won’t take up very much of it.
You simply pick out clips or images from your gallery and Quik will automatically add music and transitions.
It can automatically detect faces and colours, so it usually does a good job of framing photos on its own and it cycles through your images and clips in time to the music, so with a few taps you can come away with a competent creation.
But if you want to take more control you can. You can choose from 24 different video styles and dozens of tracks, or add your own music. You can add titles and text overlays, re-order the clips, choose at what point the music should start, change the pace and set the orientation.
That’s all handled through a simple, colourful interface with just a handful of screens and menus, making it as quick as the name suggests.
Cover Lock Screen makes your lock screen more than just a fancy clock, by populating the left or right edge with apps, so you can launch them without first heading to the home screen.
These aren’t just random apps though, as they’re context sensitive. That means, based on whether you’re at home, at work, out or in the car, Cover Lock Screen will learn what you use where, so they’re usually the apps you’ll want to see.
CLS is one of the better thought-out lock screen apps, with useful features like the ability to hide any apps that you don’t want displayed on your phone and have different wallpapers for different locations.
It also stands out by looking good and uncluttered, as the apps only lie at one side of the screen, so there’s still plenty of room for the clock and wallpaper to shine through.
There’s no shortage of apps that promise to speed up your smartphone or clear up space on it, but Boost+ stands out in a few ways.
For one thing it comes from HTC, so it’s got the backing of a big brand. As such it’s also suitably polished, with a clean, colourful interface that’s easy to navigate and shows you the state of your phone’s storage and memory at a glance.
Head beyond the main screen and there are options to clear out any temporary files to claw space back on your device and find the apps you never use, so you can delete them and get even more MBs.
Boost+ can also be used to free up memory in order to speed your phone up and save battery life, which you can do either as and when you feel like it or set the app to run clean-up duty automatically.
Finally, for some reason, it also lets you lock other apps. That in itself is a useful feature, but feels somewhat unrelated to its core functionality – but hey, privacy is privacy, right?
There are numerous apps to help you learn foreign languages, but Vocabulary Builder aims to strengthen your English skills.
It does this by testing you on the meaning of 1200 words, with definitions, example sentences and audio pronunciations provided for each.
You can work your way through different sections, unlocking new words to learn as you go and the word choices are tricky enough that you’re sure to come across a number of new ones, especially in the advanced sections.
To make things a bit more interesting there’s also a competitive element, allowing you to face off against another user to see which of you knows the most definitions in a twenty question test.
If you’ve ever made or used a flip book then you’ll be right at home with Animatic, because that’s what is is, but in digital form.
You use a basic selection of pens, pencils and other drawing tools to create an image, then vary it slightly across multiple frames. For example, changing the position of someone’s legs in each picture, so that once you flip through it you get a basic animation with a sense of movement.
Since this is an app and not a book the flipping is handled by the software, you just pick the speed