One of the key deciding points, when people buy Android OS based devices is the vast variety of apps available for it. Google Play Store has accumulated over 50 billion app downloads, clearly showing us how much people like to customize their phones and tablets with various cool apps. But, the question still stands, which apps are worthy of being on your phones and tablets?
There are multiple sources for app downloads in Android, some of the popular ones are Google Play Store, Amazon App Store, MobileMarket, etc. They contain a huge variety of apps, ranging from categories like Games, Business, Language apps, Communication, Education, Entertainment, Lifestyle, News, Photography, Personalization, Tools, Sports, Weather and many more.
In this post, we go through the best android apps, discussing their features, device support, and price. All the apps listed here can be installed directly from the Google Play Store on your Android phone or tablet.
The List of Best Android Apps
Table of Contents
1. WhatsApp Messenger
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform instant messenger. It is available for multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Symbian, etc. WhatsApp uses your phone number for your account, instead of a dedicated account like most other services. It can work over 2G, 3G, LTE, WiFi, etc., and consumes very little data. You can also send audio clips, videos, images to your contacts too. There is also support for Group Messaging in WhatsApp Messenger.
WhatsApp Messenger is free for a lifetime. This gives you unlimited WhatsApp usage, so it’s a killer deal overall. WhatsApp Messenger supports a wide array of Android phones and tablets, right from Android 2.1 Éclair, to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and the forthcoming Android versions.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.1 Eclair and above
- Developer: WhatsApp Inc.
- Rating: 4.4/5
2. MX Player
MX Player is by far, the best video player available for Android phones and tablets. It truly lives up to its claim “The best way to enjoy your movies”. With MX Player, you get support for Hardware Video Decoding on a wide array of Android devices, multi-core decoding support for multi-core devices, Pinch zooming in videos, subtitle support and a nifty Kids Lock mode to prevent misuse of the device while your kids are enjoying a video. MX Player has support for a huge list of video and audio codecs, including x264, h265, divx, xvid, ac3, mpeg4 among many others.
MX Player is available for free on the Play Store, supported by ads, and it is compatible with a vast majority of Android devices, from Android 2.1 Eclair. There is a paid ad-free version available too.
- Price: Free (Paid version available for INR 370)
- Requires: Android 2.1 Eclair and above
- Developer: J2 Interactive
- Rating: 4.5/5
3. ES File Explorer File Manager
ES File Explorer is a fully free, fully featured file manager cum application manager for your Android phone or tablet. Most Android phones do not come with a file manager out of the box, so you always need a good one to manage your phone’s storage. ES File Explorer has a fully featured file browser, including system file access (for rooted users only), application manager, task killer, multi-threaded download manager, cloud storage client ( compatible with many services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, and Skydrive ), full FTP Client, LAN Samba Client. Another thing to note is that ES File Explorer supports over 30 languages, so no matter which country you are from, ES File Explorer has you covered.
ES File Explorer is available for free on Google Play Store and supports Android 2.1 Éclair and above. There is a depreciated legacy version available for Android 1.5 Cupcake and 1.6 Donut users too, but that version isn’t updated anymore, so unless you have a really old device, it’s not recommended to use that version.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.1 Éclair and above
- Developer: ES App Group
- Rating: 4.5/5
4. Facebook
Facebook for Android is pretty self-explanatory. Simply put, it’s the official Android app for the popular social network Facebook. The official Facebook for Android app allows you to stay in touch with your friends and family, share updates, photos, videos, get notifications when your friends try to contact you. You can also chat with your friends and play several social games with your friends. Facebook team has also created a separate Facebook Messenger app for those long chat sessions.
Facebook is available for free in the Google Play Store and supports a wide array of Android devices from Android 2.2 Froyo and above.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.2 Froyo and above
- Developer: Facebook
- Rating: 4.1/5
5. Airdroid
Airdroid allows you to manage your Android phones and tablets from any internet-connected computer in the world. With Airdroid, you can transfer files to and fro from your device, send and receive SMS remotely, install Apps from your PC directly, play music and videos from your device directly on your PC, manage your contacts, manage your photos, and even remotely click pictures from your device. All this in a unique, neat, stylish looking web interface. No PC side app installation is required to use Airdroid, just a web browser will suffice.
Airdroid is available for free on the Play Store, and it is compatible with a vast majority of Android devices, from Android 2.2 Froyo and above.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.2 Froyo and above
- Developer: SAND Studio
- Rating: 4.5/5
6.Polaris Office
Polaris Office is a no-nonsense app for creating and editing Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF documents, spreadsheets and presentations right on your Android phone.
Earlier, Polaris Office used to be a Samsung exclusive app, later it was announced and released for all Android devices and relaunched as a free app. This time around, it includes even more functionality and features than the older versions.
You can create and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents, open and view Adobe PDF Files, share your documents through Google Drive and other services, attach files directly to your email and much more. Overall, one of the best android apps.
Polaris Office is available for free on Google Play Store and is compatible with all Android devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above
- Developer: INFRAWARE. Inc
- Rating: 4.2/5
7. Google Keep – Notes and Lists
Google Keep is a simplistic application to take rich notes, along with snipping, photos, videos embedded within the note.
Google Keep has several options to keep you organized, including color-coded notes, list reminders, location aware reminders, rich notes with photos and videos, etc.
It integrates with your Google Account, and you can access your notes easily on any Android phone or tablet, any PC with an internet connection, any Chromebook, any iOS phone or tablet and lastly, any device with a web browser. This means that you can keep yourself reminded of a huge variety of devices. Definitely a must have if you ask us.
Google Keep is available for free on the Google Play Store. It supports a ton of Android phones and tablets, as long as they are running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and upwards.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above
- Developer: Google Inc.
- Rating: 4.4/5
8. Dropbox
Dropbox is a renounced, free cloud storage service, which lets you upload your photos, documents, videos, music on its servers, and in turn, access them and share them anywhere in the world. You can also use your synced files from multiple devices. Dropbox also has a feature, which allows you to save email attachments directly to Dropbox instead of downloading them on your device. It also has a built-in editor to do small edits to your documents without having to download anything to your device. Dropbox also has a camera upload feature, which uploads all your clicked pics to the cloud, and makes it accessible to all your devices, and to others too, in case you want to share an album or two.
Dropbox is available for free on the Google Play Store, and the relevant apps for Windows are available on their official website. Dropbox supports all Android phones and tablets running Android 2.3 Gingerbread up and above.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.3 Gingerbread and above
- Developer: Dropbox Inc.
- Rating: 4.4/5
9.Opera Mini
Opera Mini is easy to use, light on resources Android web browser application. Opera Mini uses its own cloud servers to compress the web pages and pictures before pushing it to your phone, which in turn, not only saves data up to 90% but also makes pages load faster, even on slow 2G connections. Opera Mini takes a simplistic, no-nonsense approach to its user interface, with a lucid, clean layout, big buttons, and auto hiding panels to emphasize the web page more than the app. Opera Mini also integrates your social network within itself, allowing you to check your social networks while you browse the internet.
Opera Mini is available for free on the Google Play Store and supports a wide array of Android phones and tablets, right from Android 1.5 Cupcake to the latest Android version. It works great on old, lower end hardware too, making it useful for people with lower end and/or older devices.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 1.5 Cupcake and above
- Developer: Opera Software ASA
- Rating: 4.4/5 by over 421,971 users
10. Pocket
Pocket is a cross-platform read it later app. It’s great for productivity, allowing you to save articles and pages for reading later. You can save any web page, any article, any video for reading/watching later, and Pocket even allow you to sync these content offline, and email links to yourself to catch up later. Pocket also adapts content to extract just the necessary information out of the web page saved, so that you can read the article in its entirety, without having to view the rest of the web page. Pocket also integrates into several apps, so you can store their content for reading later. Pocket has clients available for all major OS, and browsers, so you have your reading lists synced across devices always. A must have productivity app for smartphone and tablet users.
Pocket is available for free on the Google Play Store. Pocket runs on a wide list of Android phones and tablets, ranging from Android 2.3 Gingerbread up to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.3 Gingerbread and above
- Developer: Read It Later
- Rating: 4.6/5
11. Tapatalk
Tapatalk is a platform for navigating through online discussion forums on your mobile phone or tablet. Tapatalk allows you to reply on threads, create new threads, post photos, and upload files to various online discussion forums. It also supports the personal message feature in certain forums. Tapatalk supports over 50,000 online discussion forums and can aggregate subscribed threads from all in a single list. Tapatalk should have most forum browsers covered well.
Tapatalk is available for free on the Play Store, and it is compatible with a vast number of Android devices, from Android 2.3 Gingerbread, up and above.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.3 Gingerbread and above
- Developer: Tapatalk Inc.
- Rating: 4.1/5
12. SwiftKey Keyboard + Emoji
SwiftKey Keyboard is an intelligent, self-learning keyboard app for Android smartphones and tablets, making it faster and easier to type. SwiftKey Keyboard has support for over 60 languages, swipe text input, a wide array of themes to customize it to your viewing pleasure, a different layout for different screen sizes, full emoji support with over 800 different emoji’s to play with. SwiftKey Keyboard learns as you type, so it can save frequently used words, and give you better word predictions, which in the end, makes it much easier and faster to type. SwiftKey Keyboard can save these data to the cloud so that they are perfectly synced across your devices.
SwiftKey Keyboard is available for free on the Google Play Store, but some of its themes are available as in app purchases. SwiftKey supports all Android phones and tablets from Android 2.2 Froyo and above.
- Price: Free
- Requires: Android 2.2 Froyo and above
- Developer: SwiftKey
- Rating: 4.5/5
Worthy Mentions
Not all apps could be added to our must have list, but here go a few more, excellent apps that might or might not be relevant to all users, but in the end, these are great apps, catering to a different clientele.
- 1. Youtube for Android
- 2. Pushbullet
- 3. Light Flow
- 4. Zomato
- 5. Nokia Mix Radio
So, there goes the list of the best android apps to enhance your smartphone experience. Everyone might not need all these, but we are sure that everyone will find something they like, something which serves their purposes in this comprehensive list.
Jason
Thanks for the app list, I was looking for some good video player and I found that in your list.
Padma
This is such an interesting article. Of course, WhatsApp stands first in every Android mobile. The main thing is I got to know about various other apps like PushBullet, Light Flow, Zomato.
Thank you.
Daniel
It’s a great list, now WhatsApp, Facebook and Dropbox are on my device. I just install what I really need on my Android phone and it’s must have.
Tracy Collins
This is a well written article about Android. I love the WhatsApp and most of the Android and you wrote the best article about Android apps.
Caleb
Nice collection, those are truely favorite apps of many. If I’ll add mine to the list, then Picsart and Poweramp will probably be there.
Suraj
Nice article. These application makes your Android device fulfill.
Vicky
Great android apps and I’m gonna have to try them all as I haven’t been using much apps lately but will check out your recommendations.
Thanks
Sahil Chhabra
Thank you so much for this article. It gave me more knowledge about Andriod and helped me to solve more doubts in my mind thanks a lot. Really a good post.
Ankit Sharma
Hi Shaunak
I am using Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime and from this article found that ‘Pocket’ app will be useful for me and will install it. Thanks for this informative article.
Srikanth
Hello,
Did not know of Airdroid till now, would definitely give a try.
Thanks for an awesome list.
Mahesh Dabade
Very well explained. The ‘ratings’ for each app you mentioned gives an idea of how demanding these apps are. I will surely opt one of them. Thanks for sharing.
Simran K
You should also add Smart Tools to the list. It is very useful in day to day life as it provides tons of tools that can be useful as well as fun to play with.
James
Great article. These apps help you make the most of your Android device, I’ve used Polaris Office for a while and think its really good!
Azis Ur Rehman
You must have candy crush.It is the best thing to do, in spare time (for me). :)
Jagat Kumar
Great collection of android apps. Mostly user use these app. I am talking specially “ES File Explorer File Manager” wonderful file managing apps.
Angraj
Nice well-written article. Thanks for sharing.
Adeel
MX Player is definitely a must have app, it can play any format (seems except for AAC audio format). Airdroid is a great app too, it does the file transfers easily. Thanks for sharing the list here.
Alex
Great collection of android apps. Mostly user use these app. I am talking specially “Whatapps” wonderful file managing apps.
Sneha
Thanks for the wonderful apps list. I wasn’t much aware this great list. Nice to introduce a great no of a list in a quicker review made possible here. :) Have a great work ahead. :)
Maliha
Andriod plays a full support in everyone’s life. Really happy to read this article, and I also used some of these apps. Thanks for sharing.
Ahmed
Thank you, for sharing it, I already use Pocket app for Android and it awesome :D Thank you brother for the others. I will try also SwiftKey Keyboard + Emoji ;)
kksilvery
Hi Ahmed,
I’m using pocket for a while now, its very useful. Shaunak has mentioned many powerful apps.
Syahrul Hadi
Well, good article. But there’s one critical review about Facebook app. It’s used too much ram so it’s not recommended for low-end smartphones.
Sham
It’s the first I have heard of Android! Will definitely give it a go. Great article :)
Laibah Amjad
Very well written! its very informative and I will definitely try getting these apps in my android device! keep posting!
Harsh Sharma
I think you need to replace AirDroid with Xender because it has multiple functionalities. You can also use it like AirDroid and also data transfer is fast.
Muhammad Usman Rashid
Really loved your combination of apps and I learnt a lot. Thanks for sharing.
Mr Usman
I have all these apps in my smartphone. Thanks a lot for this kind information.
Sumit Kumar
I am using most of recommended app in my phone. like- Google Keep, Pocket , Airdroid, whatsapp ,ES file, Opera Mini. keep it up.
Punit
I want to add ‘Hootsuite’ too. It’s great app to manage your social media accounts and schedule your posts.
Mahesh Dabade
That’s a good suggestion Punit. Yes, Hootsuite is a good app to manage social media accounts.
Anshuman
Facebook is an awesome app and a must have one. Good list
Jaikee Jaiswal
I think that WS office is better than Polaris office. You should mention some system optimization apps like Greenify and Cleaner.
Mohammad Adnan
Hmm! Its quite appreciable that you have mentioned all the best and useful apps over here :)
Cornel M.
This is very useful. I never knew about Airdroid :D
Thanks
Kamlesh Sharma
Yes Rajesh,
This is really great list of android apps.
Thanks for sharing with your readers. :)
Alves
Like applications, mainly AirDroid.
Already have downloaded :)
Ramees Kaztro
Nice apps, I downloaded some of you mentioned. Thanks.
Himesh
Bro those who really love android should also install Xposed Framework. It has some features like fully customization, Xposed modules like gravity box, greenify pro features etc. Do something new with android. :)
Sonia Bray
I have Most of those applications mentioned above except few chat messengers like fring, ebuddy etc as having any 1 of those will solve our requirements.
Jeenifer
Thanks for this kind information.Really loved your combination of apps and I learnt a lot. I will definitely try getting these apps in my android device! keep posting!
Rahul Samant
Hi bro,
It is big and nice list. I downloaded most of them but SwiftKey keyboard is new for me. Its really amazing apps which make typing so easy and fast. Thanks for sharing.
Mani Teja
Hello Shaunak Guharay,
You are given great list of apps, but some of the apps are missing. It is better to update the list.
Hendra
Hi Shaunak,
These are great apps, thank you very much for sharing them.
Samantha
You have forgotten MyAudioStream audio application. A nice music player and audio streamer to playback or beam music that you have stored on PC, MAC any UPnP/DLNA server wirelessly and transfer to any wireless speakers, AV receivers or TVs.
Alok Krishali
Yes, these are some great apps, that must be on your smartphone. Most of them I have been using from long.
Aliza Khan
Yes they all are goods apps but you forget power amp is also best app for music.
Aashish
It was really a nice collection of Android apps. It would be better to include some junk file cleaner of memory booster app too. What says?
Mahesh Dabade
Thank you, Ashish, for you valuable suggestion, we will surely include one in the list asap. Also, you can check this article https://techlila.com/du-speed-booster-app-review/ for memory booster.
Abhishek Dharmik
Thanks for such a great list Shaunak . I have searched for long and finally found a list of some best android app which I think every android phone must have. I personally like “Google Keep” because being a blogger I have to manage my documents properly and this will be going to help me the most. Keep sharing such informative articles in future.:)
Fouad
Wow! Great list.
I haven’t heard of the Airdroid before now. I think I should check it out. I guess it’ll be useful since I’m mostly working on my PC.
Mahesh Dabade
It is very useful Fouad. You should give it a try.
Hardik Mangroliya
These are great apps, thank you very much for sharing them.
Mahesh Dabade
Hi Hardik. Thank you for reading the post. Hope you liked it. Any suggestions or improvements are always welcome.
Kundan Kumar
Hey Mahesh, I have an well deserving app for the post. It should be in the list.
Please check it out:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cv.copybubble.
Mahesh Dabade
I will surely try your app Kundan and will also make it on the list if time permits.
Alexya Azhakesan
It’s a great post. tThanks for sharing. But I think privacy apps are also must needed apps for any user. I think Leo privacy app should also be on the list. It’s one of the best security apps available on play store.
Mahesh Dabade
Hi Alexya, Thanks for your contribution in the list and suggestion as well. We will seriously think of adding a security app in the list.
Nilay Patel
Hello,
Indeed best Android application you shared here but among them MX player, Messenger and others are great. Although you explain very well and very helping for newbies and also others. Please keep updates and more information.
Jiiva
Really great Information. Which app is best to record screen without watermark free?
Shivani Thakur
Really a good information. I actually got the suitable site where I can see all the details regarding my query.
James
Really great information, thank you very much for sharing them.
Babji Shaik
Hi Shaunak Guharay bro! Really an awesome post of android apps which are crazy to have all the smart phone holders. I like this post very much.
Vishal
WhatsApp Messanger is my life. I can’t live without this awesome app.
Mahesh Dabade
Same here Vishal, that one app has taken over all of us.
Shyami Goyal
Nice list bro some of the apps I have already but found some for great apps for my device thanks for sharing these apps list.
Rohit Sharma
These are a great collection of Android apps. I will try to Use all of them. Some apps from the list I have used before but will try to use other apps as well. Thanks TechLila for sharing this with us.
Kaustav
Hi ShaunaK. Nice list man you are doing good. But try to add management apps like Gnote or Evernote on your list.
Kajal Sharma
Although this is an amazing post, still you forgot to mention “UC Browser” which everyone opens in their Android to use the Internet. Am I right?
Mahesh Dabade
Yes, Kajal, most people use UC Browser but we have curated a list keeping in mind what most people prefer.
Harsh Sharma
These android apps are really helpful for me like when I buy new smartphone and I install many apps and most of them are listed.
Manoj
There are several good alternatives to Google keep and Opera Mini. All in One is a simple, safe app to create tasks and lists. Wunderlist is another good choice.
Lucky
Thanks for app list. Downloaded all of the above !
Alexya Azhakesan
Its a great post. Thanks for sharing. But I think privacy apps are also must needed apps for any user. I think Leo privacy should also be on the list. It is one of the best security apps available on PlayStore.
Gowtham V
Hi ,
Polaris office seems to be a great alternative to excel for mobile. Thanks for the recommendation. Will try that out.
Shahul Hameed
I can get to know some unknown but useful apps which everyone should have on their android mobile. Thank you for sharing this.
Abhishek Choudhary
I must say those apps are very useful, downloaded few of them. Can you suggest a good antivirus app?
Mahesh Dabade
Bitdefender mobile security is one the good option to go for.
Abu Siddhik
Thank you very much for your valuable information. I hope this post will be helpful for maximum people around the globe.
Danz Bahamalah
Thank you very helpful information.
Ajay kumar
Hi,
I loved your article and thanks for posting this amazing article on your website. Today I was searching the top android apps for android and I found your result. I love airdroid app also it is new app for me.
Manasa
That’s really a great list of useful android apps :)
Also, it would be useful if we have App lock along with these as we can protect our data with password, pattern, fingerprint lock. With these, no one can access our stuff without our permission. Adding App lock to the list might help users :)
Mahesh Dabade
Thanks for the addition Manasa.
Jitender
Hi Shaunak Guharay,
I loved your article and thanks for posting this amazing article on your website. Today I was searching the top android apps for android and I found your result. I love airdroid app also it is a new app for me.
Lasith Waqas
Great list. But I think it varies for everyone. In my view, Uc Browser is the most essential.
Venkat Rama
I thought you have gathered most of the useful app in these days. But I feel some apps need to add in this list. UC Browser, GbWhatsApp instead of Whatsapp, Facebook messenger and Color Note instead of Google note.
Mahesh Dabade
Thanks for the suggestion Venkat. We will surely add the apps.
Clifton
And something to clean up junk like CCleaner.
Sumit
Your article is very useful to me but the best app for android is only one ES file explorer.
Chandra
Superb article. It’s very useful for me. I heard the first time about Pocket and airdroid. it’s amazing.
Ravi
Thanks for posting this amazing article, Shaunak. Consider adding some of the apps that are related to battery saving.
Sinchan Dey
I think for notes Evernote is more versatile and worthy to be more of professional note taking application.
Juned
Really great and useful list of apps but you forget about some free entertainment app, mine all in all best entertainment app is Vidmate and Tubemate.
Avinash Patel
Very nice list of apps and among all these apps, ES File Explorer is the app that all Android user must have. It could be a browser, media player, send a file with high speed like ShareIt.
Mahesh Dabade
Thanks Avinash :)
Roshan
I actually have most of the listed apps already installed. Exception is ES explorer! I mean, really? Is it really that good? I prefer using ASUS file manager instead & it doesn’t matter if you’ve asus phone or not. Its really easy & fast!
Mahesh Dabade
Hi Roshan, ES File Explorer is really easy to use. We haven’t tried ASUS file explorer as of now but when it comes to Android phones, ES File Explorer is one of the best options :)
Roshan
Yeah maybe! But, I think I have used it a while before & comparing it with Asus, I felt Asus way better. Its also not limited to Asus devices only.
Mahesh Dabade
Oh! Then we will surely try it out Roshan :)
Ramya
Most of the apps I have already installed and used it. but I didn’t know about MX Player and Tapatalk. Great informtion!
Udir
Hey man, nice information! Thank you so much for sharing these Android apps.
Sohail
Es File Explorer is my favorite app on this list. I really love other apps as well. Thanks for sharing.
Sarangan
Thanks for the apps suggestions.
Clement
Thanks for this article Shaunak!
I would also recommend NearMinder, which is the only app to send you reminders based on your proximity to your contacts and places! With this app, you can easily set reminders for things you have to do when meeting people and get notified when these people are nearby. It also works for location-based reminders.
Steve Waugh
Haven’t heard about Pocket & Airdroid, will be check soon And recently I found one more App, Puut Wallet which is familiar to over real wallet.
Jitendra Chaturvedi
Good collection Shaunak.
It really needs a good time to invest in writing such articles and focused research on the topic. Thanks.