The Google Play app store has exploded in recent years, with a proliferation of apps that can cater to your every need. The problem is: there are just too many of them.
Even with Editor's Picks, Featured and Best Selling, Top Paid and Top Free categories there to help you out with your downloading decision it's still a difficult task finding the best apps around.
And that's why we made this list. Like you we want the best apps for our Android phones. The apps that are going to revolutionise functionality or, at the very least, offer something so great that it becomes one of the must-have apps that has to be downloaded whenever you get a new handset.
The following apps are a mixture of paid and free ones and have been chosen by our Android experts. So, even if you do dip into actual cash for one of these apps, you are safe in the knowledge that it is a worthwhile purchase.
1. BBC Weather
Free from the BBC, which arrived late to the weather app party in 2013 and delivered a completely stonking, triple-A meteorological experience. A variety of stylish widgets, long-range forecasts, location-aware settings and support for multiple locations make finding out how much it's raining everywhere a joy.
2. Kabbee
Winning fans all over London is this, with the
Kabbee app aggregating local minicab firms and attempting to match your late night drunken ferry needs to the cheapest available nearby operator. The idea is to create competition among operators, with the result being some substantial savings over the usual black cab rates.
3. Easyjet
This isn't just some corporate effort full of cross-selling and adverts,
it really works. You can book your flight through the simple interface, pay, check-in, then have the app generate a QR code boarding pass to wave at the ticket desk. Paper is entirely eliminated, therefore dealing with printers is entirely eliminated, making life substantially better. Just don't run out of battery power on the big day, else you're stuffed. If EasyJet doesn't fly to your destination then
Kayak is a great alternative for global globe trotters.
4. Barclays Mobile Banking
The first wave of mobile banking apps were rubbish, mostly composed of skins that pointed you to some terrible mobile web site. But not in 2014. Go through the fuss of verifying yourself with this one and the
Barclays app is extremely useful, listing and managing all your accounts, and even able to function as a replacement for the physical PINsentry card reader that's required to access the full desktop banking site.
5. Sky NOW TV
Sky's ramped up its Android app selection in spectacular fashion over the last year or two, with all manner of streaming, on-demand and specialist services available.
Sky NOW TV is the best and most useful of the bunch, letting users buy access to its sports channels on a PAYG basis. Dead handy for cherry-picking the occasional big event without needing a full subscription.
6. BT Wi-Fi
If you're a BT Internet user, this is a
must install. Feed the app your BT account master password (this will be the one you thought up on a whim eight years ago and won't be able to remember), and it'll automatically log you in whenever you're in range of a BT hotspot. Given that there are trillions of them in the UK, it means automated access to properly useful Wi-Fi connections when out and about, avoiding the spam £6-an-hour merchants.
7. Vine
The
movie-making sensation took a little while to appear on Android, then took a while for the numerous bugs to disappear - but now it's all good. It's a simple recording/stop-motion/animation tool, letting you shoot live video on your phone and share it via social networks. The app is also the best way of browsing Vines from others, as the categories and pages mean you can leaf through it like telly, favouriting users.
8. Dropbox
Pretty much essential for anyone juggling a work PC, home PC, laptop, tablet, phone and internet fridge,
Dropbox's key power lies in letting you access any files anywhere. It can also automatically upload photos taken on your phone to your account, meaning that, after a bit of uploading and downloading, all your shots are *right there* on your desktop without any tedious cable connecting.
9. Speedtest
Get angry about how slow your internet is. Get smug about how fast your internet is. Spy on the network speeds of your friends and neighbours. If one of your frequent conversations with your mates is how fast your internet currently is,
you need this. You can do unlimited broadband up/down speed tests on any boring weekday evening.
10. eBay
The
app itself isn't what you'd call attractive, but it lets you browse, watch items and buy stuff, integrating a Paypal sign-in for quick getting of things. Better still, now Android phones all have immense cameras on them, it's a doddle to sell items straight through the app - take a photo, upload it, have most of the listing data pre-filled for you. The app is better as a selling tool than the desktop site, in fact.
11. Feedly
If you felt a bit lost and disconnected from the News Borg when Google shut down its Reader RSS aggregator,
Feedly will help. It's a more glamorous and swishy-slidy way of getting data from RSS feeds, with numerous ways of displaying site snippets and navigating through your unread pile of possibly interesting things.
12. BBC iPlayer
Took some time for the BBC to gradually
power this up to full parity with the iOS release, but it's just about there now for the vast majority of popular Android models. A piecemeal approach to introducing offline download support has annoyed some users, but it remains a superb way of using your phone as a modern portable telly for the bedroom, as long as your broadband's up to the task.
13. Carbon
The official Twitter app is a rather weird, ever-changing affair, that often introduces more annoyances and quirks with each new redesign. So best avoid it and enjoy the thrills of third-party tweet app
Carbon, which, with its recent 2.0 update, enhanced an already posh experience with new gesture input, more hardcore shortcuts and a handy widget.
14. Tweedle
Or, if Carbon's hardcore skills are a bit too much to handle, try
Tweedle. It's a vastly simpler Twitter app that covers the basics. You get three columns for the timeline, your mentions and direct messages, plus it's super-fast to load with only the occasional advert on the image preview pages to tell you that the developer wouldn't mind getting paid a bit for his work.
15. WhatsApp
The
instant messaging behemoth is an essential Android install, especially if you can convince the people you message most frequently to use it too. The concept is simple - it takes over text messaging on your mobile, routing messages through any Wi-Fi connection instead. Which means no more SMS allowances, no size restrictions, plus images are sent at a decent resolution.
16. DealPad
Another unofficial app we prefer to the official option,
DealPad takes the feed from bargains portal Hot UK Deals and presents it in a much simpler, less fussy (and less iOS) style. If you like to while away the evenings thinking about prices of various solid-state hard drives and planning your bulk biscuit purchases for tomorrow, get it on your phone.
7. Amazon Appstore
It's a bit of a fuss to
get this on your phone as Google's not too keen on rival app stores popping up on Google Play, but it's worth doing. Mainly for the freeloading aspect, as Amazon sticks up a paid-for app for free every day. Most are a bit rubbish, but some properly decent paid apps do occasionally pop up. Add it to your daily trawl, just in case.
18. Google Keep
Google's so proud of its
cross-platform note-taking tool that it's recently started pre-loading it as part of the core Android feature set. It comes with a stylish widget, integrates voice dictation for those Alan Partridge moments of creative inspiration, plus if you use Keep on a Chromebook it seamlessly syncs with mobile notes saved there. A great way of coordinating mobile and laptop lives.
19. Spotify
No, wait. it is free. Sort of.
Spotify now comes with a stipped-down playlist-cum-radio combo for users who don't pay for the service but still want to use it on mobile, accompanied by a swish new tablet interface that has much more in common with the free desktop browser player. So yes, it's free. hobbled a bit, but free.
20. BT Sport
Sky's footie competitor arrived in the UK in 2013, with a day-one
Android app letting BT subscribers stream Premier League matches and more to phones and tablets. The app also doubles as an EPG to let you know what's coming up, although you will need to be using a BT Internet account login in order for it to be of any use.
21. Airbnb
A posh B&B listings service designed specifically around mobile app use, the selling point of
Airbnb is that it personalises the hosts, so if you really want to stay in Glasgow with a cheery looking alternative lifestyle man called Dave snoring in the next room, it's ideal.
22. DashClock Widget
This is a
stonking addition to any Android phone running version 4.2 of Google's code or higher, as it adds new active plugins to the lock screen. This means your lock screen can have a torch button, the weather, unread text messages and more, plus there's a development community out there building new extra features all the time.
23. Instagram
One of those services you might as well start using because everyone's using it. The
Instagram Android app took a while to appear, but is now live, looking good and offers a simple way of taking and editing your square photographs of lunch, sunsets, cats etc. Plus it now has fashionable effect tilt shift for making things look small. Not that that's ever something we've wanted. Quite the opposite, usually.
24. Kindle
Amazon's
Kindle app connects seamlessly with its online book shop services, letting account holders send books to the app, sync existing libraries via the cloud, and access books across the many Android phones and tablets people have kicking about the place these days. Of course there's also a shop in it, as flogging you books is the reason Amazon is offering this comprehensive cloud reader for free.
25. Strava Cycling
Tries to "gamify" the
sports tracker experience, by breaking down routes and making them into publicly shareable challenges. This means some cyclists end up racing strangers for virtual trophies, with the times of other app users appearing for you to try and beat. It's quite an addictive experience having some random rider to beat around a local loop. Better hope they weren't doing it on a moped, or you might die trying.
26. Endomodo PRO
£1.99 ($4.99, $AU3.68)
The popular sports tracker covers every sport you can think of apart from curling, managing to track your runs, rides, kayaking journeys, hill walks and other excursions with ease. The paid
PRO version unlocks more stats and a handy terrain chart, letting you see how steep the hard parts were - and providing a useful excuse for poor performance.
27. SwiftKey Keyboard
£2.99 ($3.99, $AU5.53)
This one pioneered the concept of the alternative keyboard, with
SwiftKey the first to offer to 'learn' your writing style and attempt to predict your next word. The hope being that, with practice, it'll know what phrases you commonly use and might save you quite a bit of fuss in typing a simple message to a friend.
28. FlightRadar24 Pro
£1.99 ($2.99, $AU3.68)
One for the flight nerds, this pulls in open data from air traffic control departments of the world, letting you see exactly what flights are up there generating that attractive vapour trail. As well as listing all local flights, the app can also use Android's positioning tools to work out what you're looking at, making it dead simple to point your phone at the sky and get flight details pinged straight back.
29. Swype Keyboard
£2.42 ($3.99, $AU4.48)
As rival SwiftKey invented the concept of word prediction, so
Swype did the same for gesture input. The concept is simple - you write "hello" by pressing the H, then swiping a line through E, L and O. Hopefully, if you were accurate enough, the software guesses this right and you've just written a word easy-style. A similar system has been adopted within newer versions of Android, but if you have an older phone this gets you into the line-writing fun, too.
30. Plex
£2.98 ($4.99, $AU5.50)
The idea behind
Plex is that it assimilates your existing media collection and serves it up, through one standard interface, via the cloud. It's a bit of a struggle to get going as you need a free account on Plex's servers to access your stuff, but once it's all up and running it offers streaming and transcoding of files, meaning everything ought to play everywhere. Supports Chromecast too, if you've bought into Google's own media-managing dream.
31. Camera Zoom FX
£1.79 ($2.99, $AU3.25)
A complete replacement
camera app for your phone or tablet, layering on the extra options and adding features like burst mode, custom shutter buttons, overlays and a horizon level to phones that ship with more basic camera apps. It's worth the price alone for the sound activated shooting mode, an infinitely better option than running around and hoping you get your smile right in time for the self timer. And once you're done, it has heaps of filters to apply.
32. Apex Launcher Pro
£2.49 ($3.99, $AU4.50)
The thing a lot of enthusiasts love about Android is the ability to switch to a new launcher. In layman's terms, this means you can whack an entire new frontend on your phone, replacing the user interface with an entirely custom skin.
Apex Launcher's one of the oldest and most highly thought of, using the default Android look as a base for numerous tweaks and additions. It's free to try, with the separate Apex Launcher Pro key unlocking the full version.
33. Paper Camera
£1.19 ($1.99, $AU2.20)
One of the first decent image manipulation tools to hit Android,
Paper Camera does a couple of cool things. It replaces your phone's standard camera app with a hand-drawn alternative, also adding in plenty of live filters that give photos a line drawn or painted appearance. It's a novelty, sure, but a very clever one.
34. Runtastic PRO
£4.99 ($4.99, $AU9.25)
A hefty price, but what cost you not dying of obesity at age 52? That fitness promise is what you pay for here, with the
GPS sports tracker able to map you, track you, automatically cheer you on, generate live feedback and more, also covering interval training and letting users create their own regular routes to attack again and again. Serious stuff for competitive people.
35. Tasker
£2.99 ($2.99, $AU5.53)
Tasker is one of the first, and best, task managers for Android. It does it all. Turns stuff on or off depending on location, manages multiple schedules for changing phone state depending on the time of day, even letting users have their phone automatically reply to text messages if it's set to a quiet state. It's complex, vast, and you'll wonder how you lived without it.
36. Photoshop Touch for Phone
£2.99 ($4.99, $AU5.53)
Adobe's official Android
imaging app is streets ahead of the competition in terms of features, letting arty types manage layered PSD documents on the go, import fill textures live from the camera, with cloud support for saving images on your phone - then continuing the editing process on desktop. Or on your tablet. Or on your other phone.
37. Sixaxis Controller
£1.65 ($2.53, $AU3.00)
Been eying up one of those Bluetooth controllers to make the playing of your favourite games a little easier? If you have an old PS3 Sixaxis or DualShock 3 lying about, it might be an idea to
try this first. It allows a decent number of Android phones to connect to a Sony controller via Bluetooth - plus there's a free compatibility checker app on Google Play too. Your phone or tablet must be rooted to use it, though, so it's a hardcore option only.
38. TuneIn Radio Pro
£2.40 ($3.99, $AU4.40)
Forget the physical side of radios, the best way to listen to random tunes and the occasional bit of travel news is online.
TuneIn Radio is the most comprehensive internet radio player by far, offering masses of stations, favourite lists, and, in this paid upgrade, the ability to record direct off the radio.
39. Pocket Casts
£2.70 ($3.99, $AU5.00)
The podcast is another option when it comes to being entertained through your ears, with the stylish
Pocket Casts one of the newest listening apps to hit Android. It comes with simple cloud syncing of your favourite subscriptions, variable speed playback for skipping the boring bits, themes auto downloads and... everything.
40. SoundHound
£3.99 ($4.99, $AU7.39)
SoundHound is best described as a companion app for music, letting users ID tracks by recording a clip and also attempting to guess the names of songs you sing and hum to it. It can also stream in lyrics, sell you stuff and bring in news feeds covering artists you like, making it a really swish hub for people who are 'into' music.
41. Jamie's 20 Minute Meals
£4.99, ($7.69, $AU9.25)
Bosh
this beauty on your phone, right, yeah? It's a fiver, but there are 65 recipes, photographs so you don't get the aubergines and cucumbers mixed up, plus a guarantee that you can have something a bit fancier than cheese on toast for dinner in 20 minutes. As long as you've got more things than cheese in your fridge to start with.
42. Press
£1.93 ($2.99, $AU3.50)
Press is a super-stylish RSS reader, one that comes with support for several of the services that sprang up to replace the sadly departed Google Reader. Import your stuff from Feedly, Feedbin and others, to see it presented in a huge variety of layout options. Offline support, background syncing and the ability to save articles to Instapaper and Pocket make it a superb hub for serious news fans.
43. gReader Pro
£3.19 ($4.69, $AU5.95)
A more traditional method of scouring web site RSS feeds,
gReader successfully updates the simplistic style of Google's Reader, compete with a custom layout for reading on tablets, offline reading, gesture actions, a widget and much more. It's properly jam-packed with ways to stare at endlessly updating lists of words.
44. CrossDJ
£3.29 ($4.99, $AU5.80)
Describes itself as a 'pro' DJ app for people who enjoy nodding along and pumping their fists in the air while someone else's record plays.
The app comes with specialist features such as BPM tracking, pitch shifting and a split audio output for previewing tracks before they're mixed in, with filter effects in here too for adding a bit more oomph to whatever party you're ruining with your rubbish music.
45. UK Bus Checker
£2.99
The
sensational sequel to London Bus Checker, this one switches the action to the public transport system of the entire UK. It has one huge boast to it, claiming to show bus times and route maps for every single bus stop in the country, which it combines with the bus network's GPS data to show exactly when your bus might show.
46. Reddit Sync Pro
£1.69 ($2.00, $AU3.00)
That internet site you may have heard about, the one that does good things, interesting things and bad things, doesn't have an official app. But it does have heaps of unofficial ones, including
this simple, pretty option that has the killer ability to sync threads for offline access. Never miss a celebrity pandering to the masses to promote a film or book again.
47. Biophilia
£8.99 ($12.99, $AU16.66)
The odd
arty album project from Bjork brings you some music accompanied by videos and quite a few interactive elements that are part games and part modern art. It's like the future of music or something, especially if you like weird ambient tunes.
48. Electrum Drum Machine
£2.49 ($3.99, $AU4.50)
A simple yet relatively powerful rhythm sequencer for Android,
Electrum lets users load up to 16 samples (including your own ones in WAV format), then bounce the results together in whatever musical genre you wish. It even supports USB MIDI controllers, for sticking your phone or tablet at the heart of a DIY budget mobile studio.
49. Camera 2
£1.79 ($2.19, $AU3.30)
The rather bold name is quite appropriate for this
impressive app, which manages to adds loads of effects in real-time to your camera's viewfinder - including a live depth of field effect for tilt-shift action. It can even add effects to video clips, plus its filters can be retroactively applied to your existing image roll.
50. DSLR Controller
£5.94 ($7.99, $AU11.09)
Got a posh camera to go with your posh phone? Get a load of you. If so, you may as well blow a further bit of cash
on this, a beta but still fully functional method of controlling a Canon EOS camera from an Android device. It allows masses of options to be configured remotely, altering the focus and accessing image previews, plus control of the aperture, ISO and pretty much everything Canon sticks in its high-end cameras.
