The Android platform has revolutionized computing, making smartphones cheaper, more powerful, and accessible to billions of people. However, an Android device is only as good as the apps on it.
Google’s Play Store is filled with a magnitude of Android apps that will do nearly anything you can think of, and these include free and paid offers in all categories and qualities.
This post focuses on the best of these apps for business and personal use, to help boost your productivity and user experience with your Android device.
Best Android Apps & Software
| S/N | Name | Highlights | Pricing | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Google Drive | Cloud storage & sharing | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 2. | 1Password | Password manager, vault | $2.99 | play.google.com |
| 3. | Spotify | Music & podcast streaming | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 4. | Google Maps | Navigation | Free | play.google.com |
| 5. | Microsoft Swiftkey | AI-powered keyboard | Free | play.google.com |
| 6. | Communication | Free | play.google.com | |
| 7. | Trello | Project & team management | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 8. | Nova Launcher | Customizable start screen | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 9. | Google Keep | Take notes & to-do lists | Free | play.google.com |
| 10. | Tasker | Automation | $3.49 | play.google.com |
| 11. | ProtonVPN | Secure browsing | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 12. | DuckDuckGo | Private browser & search | Free | play.google.com |
| 13. | Adobe Lightroom | Photo & video editor | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 14. | Netflix | TV shows & movies | $6.99 / mo | play.google.com |
| 15. | VLC Player | Media player | Free | play.google.com |
| 16. | Slack | Team collaboration | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 17. | Duolingo | Learn languages | Free | play.google.com |
| 18. | MyFitnessPal | Dieting & fitness | Freemium | play.google.com |
| 19. | 1Weather | Local weather app | Free | play.google.com |
| 20. | Facebook Messenger | Communication | Free | play.google.com |
1. Google Drive
Used For: Cloud storage & sharing
Google Drive is a file storage and sharing platform hosted on the cloud and accessible from the web, mobile, tablet, and desktop computers. It comes with free 15 GB of storage and lets you collaborate seamlessly with your team. Google Drive is also backed by the company’s robust infrastructure to guarantee the security of your data and countless integrations with other tools and services make it a top productivity asset. The premium plans start from $2 per month with 100 GB for Google One personal accounts and $6 per month with 30 GB for Google Workspace business users.
Features:
- Store & access your content from any device
- Features shared folders for teams
- Intelligent search helps you find files fast
- Collaborate and comment on the files with your team
- Includes native support for all Office file formats
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, TV, Chromebook
Price: Freemium
Play Store Rating: 4.3
2. 1Password
Used For: Password manager & digital vault
The 1Password app makes it easy to save your logins, passwords, and authentication codes for all websites, and to easily recall them when you need to sign in again. It is available on other platforms as well, so you have access to your data across devices. 1Password further includes a cloud-based digital vault that lets you store important documents securely. Plans start from $2.99 per month for individuals and $4.99 for families.
Features:
- Password manager with instant sign-ins
- 1 GB digital vault to protect your important documents
- Simple and secure sharing functionality
- Available for private & business use
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Chromebook
Price: From $2.99 per month
Free Trial: 14 days
Play Store Rating: 3.5
3. Spotify
Used For: Music & podcast streaming
Spotify lets you explore and stream millions of music titles and podcasts for free. It is a freemium offer that imposes limitations on the free plan, such as ads and limited track skipping. But you can remove all that with a $9.99 per month premium plan.
Features:
- Listen to millions of songs & podcasts for free
- Discover albums, playlists, and singles
- Filter titles by genre, mood, etc
- Go premium to listen without ads
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Tv, Chromebook
Price: Freemium
Free Trial: 30 days
Play Store Rating: 4.4
4. Google Maps
Used For: Navigation
Google Maps is an interactive digital map that captures most of the world’s territories. Everything from roads to hiking trails, local shops, restaurants, and traffic is represented. Google Maps can also work with GPS location to find your location or to guide you to wherever you desire in real-time and with audio directions.
Features:
- Discover the world with Google Maps
- Works with real-time GPS navigation for traffic and explorations
- Over 220 countries and territories mapped
- Know where to eat or get a drink in each neighborhood
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Car, TV, Chromebook
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.0
5. Microsoft Swiftkey
Used For: Faster typing
Swiftkey lets you save time and increase your productivity by including many helpful features, such as customization, accurate auto-complete, a cloud-based clipboard, swipe typing, and it supports 5 languages without switching settings.
Features:
- Customizable keyboard powered by AI
- Includes a highly accurate auto-complete
- Learns from you to get better
- Lets you type easily in up to 5 languages
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Tv, Chromebook
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.0
6. Whatsapp
Used For: Communication
From chatting to voice and video calls, WhatsApp is a highly popular communication app that bridges the gap between family, friends, and colleagues. You can chat with anyone from anywhere, and make voice and video calls to any country, all for free. There is also WhatsApp for business users.
Features:
- Stay connected to friends and colleagues
- Chat, voice call, and make video calls
- Collaborate with your team in groups
- Disappearing messages, GIFs, and many more
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.3
7. Trello
Used For: Project & team management
From managing a simple to-do list to handling a large and complex project with a large team, Trello is a flexible platform that lets you do it all with ease. Create projects, tasks, and meetings with your team. Update those tasks, share, and collaborate. Trello works everywhere, including the web, iOS, and other platforms.
Features:
- Practical & easy to use project management platform
- Uses Kanban-style boards for process flow
- Works with teams of all sizes
- Also includes calendar, timeline, and map views
- Offers unlimited storage of your files
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook
Price: Freemium
Play Store Rating: 4.4
8. Nova Launcher
Used For: Customized start screen
Nova Launcher is a great tool for those that love to give their device a personal touch. It is customizable, user-friendly, and powerful, giving you the freedom to enhance your home screen as you desire.
Features:
- Control your start screen layout, apps, and features
- Customize the icons on your device
- Backup and restore your custom setups
- Also available with premium features
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: Freemium
Play Store Rating: 4.4
9. Google Keep
Used For: Note-taking & to-do lists
Google Keep is a productivity tool that helps you to stay organized. From taking notes to making sketches, voice notes, clipping images, and web addresses, everything is supported. You can further share your notes, set timed and location-based reminders, and nest your list items to create deeply meaningful notes and to-do lists.
Features:
- Easily capture ideas
- Works with pictures, colored notes, audio
- Set time and location-based reminders
- Create to-do lists and collaborate with friends
- Automatically transcribe voice notes
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.1
10. Tasker
Used For: Automation
If you find yourself doing the same stuff over and again on your Android device, then Tasker could be the app to help you automate the process. Tasker works on everything from files to messages, apps, settings, input devices, and the display. You can automate everything with Tasker.
Features:
- Automate repetitive tasks with ease
- Change phone settings & send SMS automatically
- Lock sensitive apps with a passcode
- Also works on the display, audio, location, images, etc
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook
Price: $3.49
Free Trial: 7 days
Play Store Rating: 4.6
11. ProtonVPN
Used For: Secure browsing & networking
From the makers of the popular encrypted email service, Proton Mail, ProtonVPN is an easy-to-use VPN app with lots of great features. There is a kill switch, an ad blocker, no logging, split tunneling, and P2P support. ProtonVPN is also Swiss-based and offers a free plan that is entirely free from ads.
Features:
- Secure and reliable VPN provider
- Offers a free plan with fast servers and unlimited bandwidth
- Get even faster speeds and server locations with a paid plan
- Supports up to 10 devices at once
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Chromebook, TV
Price: Freemium
Play Store Rating: 4.4
12. DuckDuckGo
Used For: Search, email, & browsing privacy
Those worried about being tracked by companies like Google and Facebook that profit from turning customer data into profits can check out the DuckDuckGo app. Used by millions of users the world over, this app combines the free and privacy-focused DuckDuckGo search engine with email and browsing protection to give you the most comprehensive online privacy protection.
Features:
- Offers a search engine without trackers
- Blocks trackers from following your browsing
- Strips tracking code from your emails
- Lets you clear all your information with one tap
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.7
13. Adobe Lightroom
Used For: Photo & video editor
Adobe Lightroom is a powerful image and video editing app that lets you retouch your images and videos with impressive preset filters and effects for quick results. It also lets you create folders to organize your photos and sync them with other devices. The app is free for 30 days, then you will need an Adobe plan to continue.
Features:
- Easy-to-use photo and video editor
- Create effects, boost colors, & change perspectives
- Retouch photos and remove elements easily
- Comes loaded with powerful presets
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Chromebook, TV
Price: Freemium
Free Trial: 30 days
Play Store Rating: 4.5
14. Netflix
Used For: Watching movies & TV shows
Netflix is for lovers of series, movies, documentaries, and more. The platform is packed with lots of great titles, including many award-winning ones. A Standard plan with ads starts at $6.99 per month but you can also get a Basic plan for $9.99. Netflix has stopped offering free trials
Features:
- Watch unlimited movies and TV shows
- Award-winning series, movies, and documentaries
- Download to watch offline
- Create profiles for kids
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: From $6.99
Free Trial: N/A
Play Store Rating: 4.3
15. VLC Player
Used For: Playing audio and video files
VLC Player is a free and open-source application that can play nearly every media data type. From CD to DVD, MPEG, and MP3 to Ogg files, network streams, and beyond, VLC plays them all. The app has over 100 million downloads and a 4.1 Store rating.
Features:
- Plays all video and audio data or media
- Play CDs and DVDs
- Plays network streams
- Free and open-source software
- Fully customizable
Available For:
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.1
16. Slack
Used For: Team collaboration
Slack makes it easy for teams to chat, voice, and video-call with each other. It comes with unlimited messaging, recording, 1:1 communication, automation, and integration with other productivity tools. Slack makes it easy to manage projects and get more work done.
Features:
- Communicate, collaborate, and work together
- Brings all the team’s information together
- Includes chats, voice, and video calls
- Boosts team productivity and profits
Available For: Phone, Tablet, TV, Chromebook
Price: Freemium
Free Trial: Freemium
Play Store Rating: 3.6
17. Duolingo
Used For: Learning languages
You can easily learn 37+ languages from Spanish to German, French, and Portuguese using Duolingo. This app offers small lessons with about 4 minutes in average duration. The lessons are interactive like a game and include blended and asynchronous learning, plus you get course tracking and an activity dashboard to keep you going.
Features:
- Learn a language for free
- Personalized learning system
- Receive immediate grading through interactive exercises
- Offers 37+ languages
Available For: Phone, Tablet, TV, Watch, Chromebook
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.5
18. MyFitnessPal
Used For: Dieting & Fitness
MyFitnessPal helps you to a healthier life by counting your calories and monitoring your fitness goals. It comes with a large database of foods that makes it easy to track what you eat. It also helps you track your fasting, plan meals, and more.
Features:
- Track your meals and calories
- Monitor your exercise and water intake
- Large database of food and meal ideas
- A premium plan is available with more plans
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: Freemium
Play Store Rating: 4.1
19. 1Weather
Used For: Local weather forecasts
The 1Weather app offers hyper-local weather forecasts for millions of locations across the world. It can update as you change location, and comes with the latest weather news, real-time alerts, and different display widgets for your home screen.
Features:
- Real-time local weather forecasts
- Millions of locations worldwide are available
- Includes configurable widgets for the home screen
- Animated displays & sharing buttons
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.5
20. Facebook Messenger
Used For: Communication
Facebook Messenger makes it easy to stay in touch with friends, family, and business clients. It is an instant messaging application with voice and video calls, fun themes, group polls, group video chat, and more. The Facebook Messenger app has over 5 billion downloads on the Play Store.
Features:
- Connect with friends and hang out easily
- Chat, voice, and video call
- Includes group video calls and other activities
- Also works for business use
Available For: Phone, Tablet, Watch, Chromebook, TV
Price: Free
Play Store Rating: 4.0
Conclusion
These 20 Android apps above provide some of the best features and services that you will find. From music listening to image editing and project management, they are the very best in their respective categories. It’s left for you, however, to choose the ones that will best serve your needs.
