With over 3.5 million apps in the Google Play Store, it wasn’t easy to curate a list of the 10 best apps for Android. The app caters to a wide range of tastes, interests, and skills. It also acts as a gateway to everything from streaming services to app subscriptions and more. All of these apps are worth downloading and trying out.
So how did we choose the best apps (and some alternatives) for your Android phone? We narrowed down our choices by reviewing apps in 10 categories. Some selections require a separate service subscription (or work with your existing subscription). However, streaming entertainment services are not included as they are targeted to specific interests. After all, if you are a Star Wars enthusiast and are determined to see Grogu’s adventures; the mandalorianyou’ll be signing up for Disney Plus rather than Netflix or Paramount Plus (home of all things Star Trek).
Consider our list of the 10 best apps for the best Android smartphones, Android App Starter Kit. Read our picks across 10 categories.
Perfect for photo editing
Do not confuse it with Adobe Express (a separate cloud service). Adobe Photoshop Express brings Photoshop’s legendary editing capabilities into a lightweight, mobile container. It offers convenient editing through a clean and easy-to-navigate interface. Access a set of tools (heals, lights, filters, colors, effects, etc.) with a rich set of free options. If you want advanced features like additional editing presets, pet eye correction, lens correction, RAW editing, watermarking, noise reduction, etc., try the premium version ($4.99/month, 4 minutes of the cost of Adobe Photography including PS) 1). Express Premium, Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Firefly).
Google Snapseed is also a free option. Its editing controls lack the sophistication of Photoshop Express, with only tone and no exposure adjustment. However, you can edit RAW files without needing a separate account or signup.
download:
Photoshop Express
snap seeds
Best for video editing: CyberLink PowerDirector
One of the best desktop video editing apps is also one of the best video editing apps on mobile. This app provides traditional timeline-based video editing for vertical and horizontal videos. The controls are intuitive and it can handle UHD and Full HD video. The free version requires no sign up or account and allows you to back up your projects to Google Drive. The paid version ($6.99 per month or $27.99 for the first year) provides UHD 4K export, removes watermarks, and enables a host of AI-powered features such as captions, colors, and audio.
Adobe Creative Cloud users get full access to Rush with a CC subscription, so try Adobe Premier Rush first. For animation, check out Stop Motion Studio Pro ($5.99).
download:
power director
Best for drawing: Infinite Painter
Infinite Painter provides drawing tools to create original art on your phone. Customize your workspace and start creating. You can sketch and paint on-screen using a variety of brushes, and you can also import reference images to help you create your designs. However, there are no tools suitable for animations such as text bubbles. The company also has Infinite Design for creating vector art. Free with ads or pay a one-time fee of $9.99 to ignore ads and unlock all features including patterns, gradients, and perspective grids.
download:
infinite painter
Perfect for design: Canva
Canva allows anyone to create graphic designs intuitively. The Android app’s interface closely matches the web interface, except that it remains vertically oriented. This is perfect for creating flyers, templates, and other printable pages and graphic designs.
Once you log in, you’ll have access to all the designs in your account and all of Canva’s design tools, including the AI-powered Magic Studio. The app is free, but for additional AI credits and useful tools like background removal, upgrade to the Pro version for $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year.
download:
Kamba
Best Health App: Google Fit
For basic, no-frills fitness stats, Google Fit is a free app that tracks walking, running, and cycling in the background and calculates steps, distance, calories, and other data for these activities. You can also connect to sleep trackers like Google Pixel Watch 2.
If you don’t want to go all-in on Google, take a look at MyFitnessPal. Once focused on tracking activities like nutrition, hydration, and steps, the free app now includes workout routines and can also connect to sleep and blood sugar trackers. To set macro goals and track intermittent fasting, upgrade to the Premium plan ($79.99/year).
download:
Google fit
my fitness pal
Great for music: Pandora
With so many paid music services out there, longtime Internet radio provider Pandora can get lost in the shuffle. With a free account, you can choose the artists and songs you want to play, and let Pandora create personalized “stations” to feature songs based on specific artists. The free service includes ads, but upgrading to Plus or Premium removes ads, improves sound quality, and provides more customization. Get the lowest rates starting at $4.99 per month when you upgrade from Pandora’s website.
download:
pandora
Perfect for kids: Khan Academy Kids: Learning!
Khan Academy Kids: Let’s Learn! is a collection of various educational tools packaged together in a free Android app. Children ages 2 to 8 can participate in Khan Academy’s wide range of educational activities to learn reading, language, math, and communication skills. The app includes games, books, songs, and other activities.
download:
Khan Academy Kids: Let’s learn!
Best for writing: Microsoft Word
If you’re already using the Microsoft ecosystem, using apps on Android is easy. If not, you can still experience what it’s like to work in Word and Excel for free with a Microsoft account. Word has a more visual and easy-to-use interface than Google Docs and integrates better with cloud services, allowing you to seamlessly open documents in Google Drive
However, Google Docs is a natural go-to for Android users due to its seamless integration with Gmail and Google Drive. Improve daily office productivity with a streamlined interface. Google has a separate app to access the free Sheets spreadsheet and slides presentation builder.
download:
microsoft word
Google Docs
Best for productivity: Evernote
Evernote remains our pick for the best note-taking app on Android. This app allows you to easily create typed or handwritten notes and associate those notes with multimedia and other file types such as PDFs and web clippings. You can also create to-do lists, scan documents, and more. However, the free version has limited functionality. Upgrade to the $129.99 annual Personal plan for more storage, syncing, search, reminders, due dates, task management, and more customization.
We also love Microsoft OneNote, our pick for the best overall note-taking app. This app provides effective note-taking and organization for free, both by typing and with a stylus. OneNote also supports voice dictation, text extraction from images and document scans, and is integrated with Office 365.
Other apps (Notion, AirTable, Trello) provide great support for specific productivity needs. To interact with AI, download OpenAI’s ChatGPT app.
download:
evernote
concept
Trell
air table
Chat GPT
Perfect for Travel: Wonderlog
Wanderlog is packed with features, but its multifaceted approach to trip planning feels more efficient than cramped. The homepage offers popular destinations as well as nearby travel suggestions. Create travel guides to share with other travelers and plan your trip. It’s this latter feature that Wanderlog integrates with, allowing you to add free-form notes about your trip, note places you want to visit, and create customized sections of things to do in a single view. Masu. You can assign locations to dates, see your overall trip plan, and ask the app to optimize your route to reach all your entries in one day.
Speaking of routes, if you’re traveling to a big city or traveling on your own, Citymapper does a great job of showing you options for your trip. It also helps you navigate to the best train or subway exit (though the step-free directions weren’t very helpful, as stations with ramps weren’t shown).
download:
wonder log
city mapper