Above: BlueMail used on Android.
BitDepth#1437 (December 18, 2023)
There are three types of apps that can be installed on your smartphone. System apps come with your device and cannot be removed, with some exceptions.
Unfortunately, this also includes cheap games on low-cost devices that are included through contractual arrangements.
Then there are the apps that provide the service.
Do you need to attend virtual meetings? If so, the requirement is Zoom or Teams, depending on your company’s preference. Are you a fan of Spotify? You’ll need the app.
Finally, there are optional apps that can help give your device some personality.
Here are some that have worked for me.
In general, I avoid home screen and UI hacks. Most of them, like Nova Launcher, are cute, but the way you interact with the interface doesn’t change much. The Niagara Launcher is an exception and well worth the money.
Rather than seeing a barrage of app icons, Niagara replaces that virtual metaphor with a list you can configure with the apps you access most often.
Including media players and date and time, the list can contain 9 to 10 apps. There are handy alphabet keys on the right that you can use to jump to software that isn’t on the main list.
If you can’t think of nine apps to put on your list, Niagara will track the apps you access most often and add them to your list. If you agree, you can pin it there.
try out. I would be confused if this wasn’t running on my phone, but this is a clear indicator that the interface has been improved.
Finding a good word processor on the Play Store is difficult. You’ll find quite a few apps, but the files they generate won’t open properly in your desktop word processor.
If you use Office365, there is a version for Android that you can install.
As someone who bounces between operating systems, I prefer apps that work on multiple platforms. Evernote has a capable, if unoriginal, word processor that provides clean, easy-to-use text wherever you open the app.
When your phone is online, each save copies your data to the cloud and then to every instance of the app you have installed.
The free Evernote plan syncs two devices. If that’s enough, you’re ready to go.
I’m on the tier 1 Personal plan, and given the hassle of subscription licensing for software, I feel like Evernote had to check a lot of value boxes before I paid for it. It will be.
While it’s possible to create a simple to-do list using Evernote, why not take advantage of all the great sorting and organizing features of Microsoft’s free to-do app?
When you create a list with this app, it instantly appears on all other devices you have installed it on. I can’t tell you how much stress this has saved me at the grocery store, hardware store, and pharmacy.
It also helps me plan my workday, and I still use pieces of paper for that purpose (the resonance of writing and displaying tasks suits me better).
I’m very concerned about the number of email addresses I have to keep track of, so I prefer to view my emails in one comprehensive app.
For Android, this is BlueMail (if you don’t have access to Outlook). It’s a well-designed, full-featured email client for Android (and all other platforms) that connects to many email servers, including the standard Android email client. suffocate.
Business users can get additional business tools for $12 per user per month, while personal users can get a great email client.
Entertainment media on smartphones should be seamless. If you need to access files downloaded to your device (many services have their own dedicated apps), VLC is your go-to app for video files, and just like on your computer’s desktop, it provides file encoding that you can download. Read.
When it comes to music and audio files, I can no longer recommend my former favorite Rocket Player. As an early adopter, I own a paid key to the app that avoids the new subscription fee, but the app isn’t as smooth, bug-free, and has a ton of bad reviews on the Play Store.
Consider AIMP and Player Pro. These are the stars of today’s wider field of audio players for Android. Both have free versions that support audiophile digital formats such as FLAC.
Player Pro has the benefit of an Internet radio feature that automatically adds TT radio stations, but some streams were not playable. It costs $5 to get the ad-free Pro version.
An e-pub digital book reader is an essential item for reading those books that you don’t often have time to read. Moon Reader matches the Kindle app experience (easy to set up and disappears during use) and, like Player Pro, has an ad-free pro version for $9, but that price changes over the years It is known to.
The reason most people pay more for a premium smartphone is to get a high-quality camera system.
Third-party options for alternative capture app controls on Android are severely limited. While you can often download Google’s genuine Android camera capture app onto premium brand smartphones, we haven’t found any benefit to doing so.
Samsung offers a professional app called Expert Raw for smartphones starting with S21, but it must be downloaded from the Samsung App Store (signup required).
ProShot ($6.99) doesn’t add any features to my Huawei P30 Pro that aren’t in the standard phone app, but you can download the “evaluation” app to unlock features hidden in the standard app. It can be used to check whether
However, there are some apps for Android that you can consider to do some serious image editing on your device.
My previous favorite for Android image editing, DevMacGuyver’s A Photo Editor (there are several apps with the same name in the Play Store), is showing its age. Editing in other apps is at least as good, and often better and faster.
The best option for most people is Snapseed. Snapseed looks identical to the version Google acquired from Nik Software nearly a decade ago, but it has been quietly improved under the hood. Snapseed also supports editing RAW captures directly from your phone.
For something better than Snapseed, you can try Lightroom Mobile, which offers some useful features for free, but requires an Adobe subscription to access all the tools.
The new replacement, On1 Photo Raw Mobile, is an entirely new product that has not gone through the long development period that honed Snapseed and Lightroom.