Most useful apps for Android devices!

Useful apps – which of the currently available Android apps enjoy the greatest popularity?

Have you ever wondered which of the currently available apps have gained the biggest popularity among Android users? You can easily find that out browsing through the top lists in Google Play Store. It turns out that among the most popular free apps include plenty of different types of apps and not just the obvious ones like TikTok, Facebook, or WhatsApp, which can become an indispensable hack you haven’t thought of before! For example, Zenly is a social map app that lets you share your location with your friends and family so you can easily meet with them in real life. Other apps worth your interest that everyone will find useful are Telegram, Google Maps, or Netflix. Language enthusiasts will enjoy Duolingo, while music lovers will find Spotify or Shazam most suitable. Those dabbling in video content creation should put their hands on CapCut – a simple and easy to use video editor. Of course, those are just a few among the numerous apps worth trying out, which include all types of tools, from shopping assistants, to games and entertainment, to apps dedicated to learning and studying. Scroll down to read about the coolest, most useful Android apps that are a must in 2023.

Most useful apps for Android phones – what types of apps are there?

Nowadays, mobile apps can prove instrumental in virtually all areas of our day-to-day lives. Quite often, just when we think we’ve already got all the help we could possibly ever need, a new app appears on the market to even further facilitate completing daily tasks, save time, or provide more entertainment. Let’s have a look at the coolest apps for:

• organisation, planning, and task management
• practical use
• listening to music
• communication and messaging
• entertainment
• health and fitness
• learning

Best apps for organisation, planning, and task management

Efficient task planning and time organisation can be a real challenge. Thankfully, you don’t have to manage it all alone! There are plenty of useful Android apps that will come to your rescue whenever you need it! Here are just a few of the most essential ones:

• Calendar: Meeting & Scheduling – this useful tool will synchronise all of your meetings and events scheduled in the Google, Apple, and Outlook calendars you’re using, and display it clearly in the form of a list or a timeline. It also lets you create new events, delete, reschedule, or edit them directly in the app.
• Toggl Track: Time tracking and working hours monitoring – this Android app will prove crucial in efficient time organisation. It will be especially appreciated by those who are self-employed, work remotely, or have a project-based job. The app will communicate the time assigned for a given piece of work, help you keep the deadlines and manage multiple strands of work, and generate visual progress reports. 
• Todoist – a super handy app dedicated to planning, organising, and monitoring group projects. It lets you allocate specific tasks and assign priorities to particular tasks, it also sends deadline reminders. You will be able to quickly share the progress of your work, exchange information, and share exciting ideas with your teammates! Todoist is a huge help in efficiently managing and executing teamwork. 

Best apps for practical use

App developers often come up with tools that we usually take for granted and don’t always think of when looking for apps, but that might prove indispensable when least expected. Having these apps on your phone can really help you get out of a practical problem.

• Google Maps – hands down the most popular and most accurate mobile app with car navigation on the market, but not just that! Lost in an unfamiliar neighbourhood? Out in town looking for the coolest bar with good reviews? On holiday abroad, wanting to try traditional food in a restaurant loved by the locals? Google Maps shows you all the best spots with reviews, opening hours, pictures, and directions. Most smartphones have this app installed by default, but double check that and download it from Play Store in case you don’t have it.
• mPay – extremely handy financial application that enables you to make immediate online payments 24/7 wherever you are. Imagine you need to hop on the public transport or a train and don’t have a ticket nor change on you. No problem – with mPay you will be able to effortlessly purchase the ticket you need online. Moreover, you can use it to pay for on-street parking or a motorway.
• CamScanner – need to send a scanned document but don’t have a scanner at home? Nothing to worry about. This handy app will brush up a picture taken with your phone and turn it into a real scan! You will be able to send the scan in a PDF format directly from the app to an email address, or save it on your phone. 
• Uber / Bolt – great transport (and not only) apps that prove useful at any time of the day (and night). A convenien and affordable alternative for traditional taxis, they will get you to your chosen destination for a smaller price with just a few clicks in the app. The apps, previously criticised for lack of security, have been taking significant steps to communicate the significant steps they have been taking to improve that part of the service and make sure you feel fully safe and protected during your rides. There is even an option to book a female driver for those women who would feel safer in such a setting. As of today, the apps also offer other services such as food delivery or even delivering forgotten keys or other items to someone. The only downside is that the applications tend to work only in larger cities and suburban areas.

Related: Where is Clipboard on Android? Quick ways to find and access Clipboard on Android

Best music apps for Android

Are you a music lover? Let’s take a look at some of the most useful apps for listening to music on Android!

• Tidal – one of the most popular applications for music lovers, Tidal lets you stream and listen to music for free, save your favourite tracks in the device memory, create playlists, watch videos, etc. There is a paid ad-free version which will add a few extra features, for example listening to music offline.
• Spotify – Spotify needs no introduction as the leading online streaming app. It gives you free access to enormous and diverse musical content, and lets you compile your own playlists as well as take advantage of the plenty of themed playlists already available in the app. Unfortunately, just like with Tidal, unless you purchase a premium account, you’ll have to do with the ads. The price of the Spotify Premium account is 9.99€ per month for one account, 12.99€ per month for two accounts, and 15.99€ per month for up to 6 accounts. All of these options have a free 1-month trial period where you can cancel it anytime.
• Shazam – the perfect app for those who enjoy discovering new music on the go. If you, like many others, keep your ears open and it has happened to you to hear an unknown song you like on the radio, in a store, or in a café, then spending hours trying to remember the lyrics and find it online, well – look no further. With Shazam, you will be able to find out the artist and the title of the song on the spot just by running the app and clicking ‘listen’. It will listen to the music and find out the info in just a few seconds. Using Shazam you can also immediately purchase the track you found from a legal source, and carry on listening to it on repeat for the rest of the day!
• Pi Music Player – a beautifully crafted, classy, and aesthetically pleasant MP3 player with plenty of useful features: built-in 5-band bass equaliser with bass boost, 3D Reverb Effects, Virtualiser, and 10 amazing presets. You can use it to even create a ringtone from your favourite track. Pi Music Player helps you easily find particular songs and tracks and create your own playlists. Safe to say that most music enthusiasts will confirm it is an all-round, complete tool.

Best messaging apps for Android

The list of the best apps for Android couldn’t be complete without messaging apps. Though the obvious choices are still Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, many people seek other, more secure alternatives. Thankfully, there are a handful of those: here are the most popular ones!

• Signal – extremely simple and easy to use, Signal offers advanced end-to-end encryption. While using the app you can safely and securely send and receive messages, make audio and video calls. Although it doesn’t let you use emojis, which some may find a downside, Signal works super fast and smoothly, and guarantees excellent quality of audio and video.
• Telegram – another great alternative for WhatsApp which, like Signal, provides end-to-end encryption. Attention: for audio calls, this function is a default setting, but for text messages you will need to activate it manually. This messaging app automatically syncs on all of the devices you are using it on. 
• Threema (paid at 4.99€) – this Swiss-made app designed with absolute privacy in mind promises to guarantee maximum security. Here, you don’t even have to enter your phone number. Creating and managing groups all happen on the phone and not in the app, so no information is ever transferred to the servers. After a message is delivered to its recipient, it gets permanently deleted immediately. The focus on security and privacy protection is also reflected in the implementation of numerous particular features – head to their website for more details on some of their methods. Though paid, we think it’s absolutely worth it as, with user privacy at the core of its focus, Threema is a truly secure messaging app. 
• Wire – another trustworthy app offering full end-to-end encryption without compromising on usability. It has all the important features you’d look for in a messaging app, such as individual and group chats, audio and video calls, picture and file sharing, or specifying how long the message should be visible to the recipients. 

Best entertainment apps for Android

It goes without saying that the best Android apps must include those that will guarantee top-notch entertainment. Here are some of the essential choices in this category.

• Netflix – the video-on-demand platform that has earned a nearly cult status today as one of the most popular services for streaming films, series, and documentaries. The Netflix library is constantly growing and new positions are being added, so there is no chance you will ever get bored. Although downloading and installing the Netflix app itself is free, you will need to create a paid account in order to get access to the streaming content. With the monthly subscription you can create up to five streaming profiles within a single account, as well as download films or episodes for offline streaming.
• Reface – entertainment has many faces… literally! Apart from streaming films and TV shows, many people relax while inventing funny memes and creatively editing selfies. The Reface app has been created with those people in mind! What is Reface? In short, it allows you to cut out your face from a picture and use it to replace the face of characters in films, music videos, famous photographs, or art paintings. The result? Hilarious GIFs, memes, and videos with you in the leading role! 
• TikTok – enjoying a huge popularity among teenagers (and not only), this app has been created for recording and watching short videos, mostly funny and engaging. Having gained a huge popularity with dance tutorial videos, nowadays there is more and more content that makes its way to TikTok, such as beauty, fashion, cooking recommendations, and plenty of other ideas in a short, accessible form. The TikTok content is so vast that there is no way you will ever find it boring. It’s great for killing time, though there is a risk of falling into the rabbit hole of neverending videos and suggestions! 
• Bandsintown Concerts – music concerts enthusiasts should definitely download this Android app. With Bandsintown Concerts, you will always be up to date with dates and locations of your favourite bands’ shows and tours. You get access to a complete list of all music gigs in every big city, and are able to check availability and book tickets through various ticketing services.

Play Store offers plenty of useful fitness and wellbeing apps too! Training and workout plans, calorie counting, exercise timer, or tips and guided exercises for achieving a given goal, such as doing a split or a specific yoga pose – fitness apps will help you achieve your fitness goals in a fun, enjoyable way, while being a great active alternative for sedentary entertainment. Check out Strava – a great app especially for cycling, running, and swimming with tips, routes, and tracking tools; My Fitness Pal, offering nutrition planning, workouts, and tips; or others such as Nike Run Club, Home Workout, or 7 Minute Workout. For better sleep, mental health and wellbeing, check out Calm, Headspace, or Sleep as Android.

Best study apps for Android

Studying and learning is crucial not only for children. As humans, we should constantly strive to learn new things, develop and expand our knowledge throughout our lives. So, to close off this list of the best and most useful apps, here are some excellent, handy applications that will stimulate your brain! 

• Duolingo – the key selling point of this super popular language learning app is its accessibility and the way it focuses on regularity, encouraging you to do a little bit of practice every single day. Duolingo teaches you new vocabulary, expressions, and grammar points of a new language, and lets you practice spelling, listening, and speaking in simple and digestible chunks, without having to dedicate a huge amount of time. No wonder it’s so popular – over 11 million downloads definitely speaks for itself.
• LinkedIn Learning – this suggestion will be appreciated by those who seek to develop their professional skills and competences with the help of video courses led by specialists. With the wide range of themes and areas the courses focus on developing specific skills needed for your job, career change or enhancement. With LinkedIn Learning you can rest assured you will find something relevant for yourself and your career path. The courses are available in a free version, as well as on paid subscription.
• NeuroNation – this brilliant app helps strengthen your brain, take its activity to the top, and fulfill your cognitive potential! The personalised brain training, with over 34 exercises and 300 levels, offered by NeuroNation has won the AOK Leonardo Award for Digital Prevention funded by the German Ministry of Health, alongside several accolades by Google and Apple as one of the best apps available. Only 15 minutes daily can be enough to noticeably improve your memory and concentration skills, and increase thinking processes speed. Why not give it a try? 

Related: Bike tracker – which one to choose? Best free applications for cycling fans

These useful applications for Android will make your life easier, more organised, and more interesting. Thanks to those, you will learn new things, nail a team project at work, make the most of your free time, find new cool places and events, stay in touch with the people you love, binge TV shows, cook, and anything you can think of in just a few clicks! These applications are only a few of the numerous interesting and useful tools you have within the reach of your hand. If you like our selection, head to Play Store and make sure to try them out this year!