You can get some really cool apps for free, believe it or not. The following are the best free Android apps.
The app ecosystem is Android’s greatest strength. There are a plethora of Android apps available. They’ve been downloaded billions of times. Some of them are expensive, while others are not. Typically, the best apps will cost you a few dollars. However, there are a plethora of fantastic free options available. These services are typically subsidised by advertising, sponsorship, or other means.
However, there are still some truly excellent apps available for free.
After all, good functionality should not always entail throwing large sums of money at a problem in order to solve it.
Android phones and tablets are fantastic handheld devices that can do so much more than take selfies and post status updates on social media. You can turn your Android device into a movie theatre, graphic design canvas, mobile workstation, or nearly anything else for work or play with the right app. The apps are simple to download; the challenge is in finding them. That’s why GazetteViews stepped in to lend a hand.
Whether you are a new convert to Android or a long-time fan, the Google Play Store’s catalogue of 3.5 million apps can be overwhelming. For anyone looking to start a collection, our list is a great place to start.
If your wallet is feeling a little light, rest assured that the entries on the list are completely free.
Each recommended app is exceptional in its own right. Taken as a whole, our collection represents a snapshot of the best apps available on the Google Play Store at the time of writing. Check them out and have fun.
The best free Android apps, ever:
1Weather
Price: Free / $1.99
1Weather is the most comprehensive weather app available. It includes a variety of features such as current conditions, forecasts, radar, predictions, fun meteorology facts, graphs, and even a sun and moon tracker. The design is also stunning, and the app includes some decent and somewhat customizable widgets. It is completely free to use, and the $1.99 fee is simply for the removal of advertising. You get all of the features in the free version as long as you don’t mind the occasional banner ad. If you want an alternative, you can look at our list of the best weather apps. We also like AccuWeather, especially since its redesign in mid-2020.
Bitwarden Password Manager
Price: Free
Bitwarden Password Manager is one of a few good free password manager programmes. It functions similarly to most password managers. You are given a vault containing all of your usernames and passwords. You can keep as many as you want and retrieve them as needed. Furthermore, the app uses 256-bit AES encryption and is completely open source. It checks all the boxes for a good free password manager. After LastPass reduced the features on its free tier, the app’s popularity skyrocketed. KeePassDroid is another excellent option in this category, but we prefer Bitwarden’s UI slightly more. For more options, see our list of the best password manager apps.
Cookmate
Price: Free / $20 per year
Cookmate is arguably the best mobile individual cookbook app. Because so many people have varying dietary desires and needs, the use of a personal cookbook app benefits a large number of people. This one is especially enjoyable to use. You can create your own recipes from scratch, complete with instructions and a list of ingredients. You can also import recipes from virtually any website. Even in the free version, the UI is clean and simple to use, and there is cloud backup. The premium version is a yearly subscription, but it only increases the number of recipes you can sync, or you can use Dropbox instead.
Credit Karma
Price: Free
Credit Karma is a lighthearted financial app. It allows you to check your credit score for free. Furthermore, the app will notify you when there are significant changes to your credit score. Other features of the app include potential credit cards that you may be eligible for based on your credit score. You are not required to accept those if you do not wish to. It’s a quick and easy way to check your credit and begin repairing it if necessary. It’s one of the lesser-known free Android apps. Credit Karma isn’t perfect, but it’ll give you a good idea of what’s going on. The notifications will also notify you if a new account has been opened in your name.
Blue Mail
Price: Free
Blue Mail is one of the best free email apps for Android. It has a simple design that allows you to keep your emails organised. It also supports a plethora of email providers, colour coding for organisation, app theming, Android Wear support, and widgets. There are also a number of smart features available, such as the ability to block notifications at specific times (per account) to help customise your experience. There aren’t many email apps that are as customizable as this one. It gets a lot of things right while getting very few things wrong. Without a price tag, this is about as good as it gets. There are some concerns about its privacy policy, which we recommend reading if these issues are of concern to you.
Snapseed
Price: Free
• Snapseed, which is owned by Google, straddles the line between a full-fledged image editor and an Instagram-style photo filter app, all in a sleek and appealing package. The best part is how much control you have over how filters and effects are applied to your images. It even allows you to make non-destructive changes to raw camera files and fine-tune exposure and detail levels. It’s an excellent choice for creative mobile photographers.
Gboard
Price: Free
Gboard is the official keyboard app from Google. It’s a straightforward keyboard with few frills. It has gesture typing (swiping), light theming, voice typing, emoji search, GIF support, and other features. Its most distinguishing feature is the built-in Google search, which allows you to search the web without leaving the keyboard or app you’re using. It can also sync between devices, allowing you to take your saved words with you. It’s efficient, easy to use, and completely free. If your phone’s keyboard is giving you fits, you should give this one a shot. It is without a doubt one of the best free Android apps. SwiftKey is also fantastic in a different way.
Google Drive
Price: Free / $1.99-$299.99 per month
The Google Drive suite is a collection of apps that are all directly integrated into Google Drive. Along with the Google Drive app, the apps include Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Google Photos, and Google Keep. These apps are primarily intended for office use, such as documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows, but they can also be used for note-taking, backing up your photos, and storing any file you can think of. The best part is that they’re all free, unless you need more than 15GB of Google Drive storage. The majority of people do not. All of these are excellent free Android apps.
Google Opinion Rewards
Price: Free
Google Opinion Rewards is without a doubt one of the best free Android apps available in the Google Play Store. To use this app, simply download and install it before opening it for the first time. Following that, the app will notify you on a regular basis to ask you some questions. Every time you complete a survey, you will receive credit for use in the Google Play Store. This credit can be used to purchase apps or games from Google Play. It’s a great way to add to your collection without having to spend real money. In the worst-case scenario, everyone should have this app installed. However, it is only available in certain regions, so our international readers may be unable to use it.
Comixology Comics
Price:Free
Getting to the few remaining comic book stores in America, as well as storing all of your bagged-and-boarded treasures, can be a chore. The Comixology Comics app functions as a storefront as well as a long box. You can scroll through seemingly endless lists of titles and then buy new books with a single tap. It’s ridiculously simple! It may even be a little too easy, depending on the state of your wallet. If you’re looking for a taster menu of digital comics, Comixology Unlimited offers all-you-can-read access for $5.99 per month.
Google Maps
Price: Free
Two navigation apps are Google Maps and Waze. Google Maps will provide you with turn-by-turn directions, allow you to view businesses (and their reviews), and much more. Another navigation app is Waze. It allows you to check the traffic along your route. Google Maps is without a doubt the more powerful of the two. Waze, on the other hand, is a little more entertaining to use. As a result, it’s a good choice if you’re looking for something straightforward. Both apps are constantly receiving new updates and features. Either way, you can’t go wrong.
Evernote
Price: Free
Evernote is a digital multi-tool that serves as a list keeper, note taker, voice recorder, to-do manager, webpage clipper, and all-around list keeper. It’s intimidating at first, but you’ll quickly discover a plethora of ways to put it to good use. Our favourite feature is optical character recognition (OCR), which makes text in photos searchable. Next time someone hands you a business card, just snap a picture, and Evernote will capture all the critical information and make it searchable from all of your devices and computers and accessible on the web.
Imgur and Giphy
Price: Free
Imgur and Giphy are two image repositories. They’re great places to find things like funny GIFs, fun images, interesting facts, and a variety of other forms of entertainment. The majority of the fantastic images you see on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms originate here. Imgur is also the most commonly used image upload service on Reddit. Giphy and Imgur are both free to download and use. They have your back whether you want to slack off for a few minutes or find the perfect reaction GIF for that Twitter or Google+ post. They are two free Android apps that you should have. Furthermore, you can upload your images to Imgur without restriction in order to share them with others.
Musicolet
Price: Free
Musicolet is an intriguing option for local music playback. It does all of the basics, including playlists, tag editing, organisational features, file browsing, and embedded lryics (LRC) support. You also get an equaliser, a sleep timer, widgets, lock screen controls, Android Auto support, and more. It covers basically all standard use cases and it still piles more on top. Furthermore, it is completely free, with no in-app purchases or advertising. We also like the simple, effective user interface.
Signal Private Messenger
Price: Free
Signal Private Messenger is a free and secure messaging service. Signal, in addition to text messages, supports voice and video calls, making it extremely versatile. Many popular messaging apps are owned by companies with a poor track record when it comes to user privacy, so using Signal is an excellent way to avoid these risks entirely. Signal is also simple to set up. Simply enter a phone number and select a user name, and you’re ready to enjoy more secure communication.
Resilio Sync
Price: Free / Varies
Resilio Sync is a cloud storage solution for those who are sceptical of cloud storage. It instals a cloud storage server on your computer. The app allows you to sync files, photos, videos, audio, and other media from your computer to your phone and vice versa. As a result, you can enjoy the benefits of cloud storage without having to entrust your data to a third party. The desktop and mobile apps are simple to set up, and the user interface is functional. There is a pro version with some additional features, but the free version is adequate for most purposes.
TickTick
Price: Free / $27.99 per year
TickTick is one of the best Android to-do list apps. Actually, it works very similarly to Wunderlist. You can create lists, share tasks with others, organise your tasks in a variety of ways, receive reminders, set recurring tasks, and much more. It’s also very modular. That aids in organisation. The widgets are also not bad. There is a pro version, but it includes calendar support and other extra features. The free version of this app far outperforms most other to-do list apps. It is also clean and simple to use, making it ideal for small groups or family use. Technically, it is not a free app. The free version, on the other hand, performs better than most free to-do list apps. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.
Zedge
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Zedge is essentially a one-stop shop for wallpapers, ringtones, notification tones, and alarms. All of those things are available in a wide range of genres, including fantasy, mainstream, funny, and pretty much anything else you can think of. The majority of the content on Zedge is created by the users themselves. As a result, there is a lot of variety. There is also a premium option for wallpapers, which are quite good. For wallpapers, Abstruct, Walli, and Tapet are better options, but Zedge’s premium content isn’t half bad, and Zedge is basically the only truly great app left for ringtones.
Zoom
Price: Free / Varies
Zoom was one of the year’s most important apps. When the pandemic struck and everyone began working from home, Zoom quickly became the go-to app for video conferencing. It has a decent free version. You can have an unlimited number of one-on-one video chats as well as 40-minute meetings with up to 100 people. That should suffice for the majority of applications. Many of those restrictions can be removed for a fee. The app allows you to screen share, use a whiteboard to jot down notes, and even includes end-to-end encryption. The app could be improved, and Zoom took its time adapting to its newfound popularity. It did, however, manage to persevere.
Microsoft SwiftKey
Price: Free
Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard is a powerful and customizable third-party keyboard. It first appeared on the market several years ago with a predictive engine unlike any other keyboard, and the app has grown significantly over the years. It’s a free download, but you can buy themes for it if you want. Other features include a dedicated number row, SwiftKey Flow, which enables gesture typing, multiple language support, cross-device library syncing, and much more. It’s about as good as it gets when it comes to keyboards. True, Microsoft now owns SwiftKey, but so far, they haven’t messed it up. Gboard, Google’s keyboard app, is also very good.
Solid Explorer
Price: Free trial / $2.99
File browsing is something that everyone has to (or wants to) do, so why not do it with a capable, fantastic file browser? Solid Explorer is about as good as it gets when it comes to file explorer apps. It includes Material Design, archiving support, support for the most popular cloud services, and even some more advanced features such as FTP, SFTP, WebDav, and SMB/CIFS support. It looks great, it’s very stable, and it just works. There is a 14-day free trial with a $2.99 fee at the end. Other file browsers have more features, but few combine looks, ease of use, and features as well as Solid Explorer.
Google Search / Assistant / Feed
Price: Free
This is a seriously potent app. It is also compatible with the majority of Android devices. You simply download and activate the app. You can then ask it whatever you want. It also supports a wide range of commands. You can use it to control lights, inquire about population control, and even solve simple math problems. Google, Bose QC II Bluetooth headphones, Home, and Chromecast are a few examples of products that extend the functionality even further. There is also a second Google Assistant app available for those who prefer a quick launch icon on their home screen. The hardware is expensive, but Google Assistant is free.
