TechCredo.com has fine-combed the Market and the interwebs in an attempt to find the top freeware Android software, and this is the result. All the Android apps have been tested and carefully selected, and the list is regularly updated with new software. Like many of the best things in life, these applications are free – Android definitely offers a lot of excellent apps without having to spend a dime.
Since it’s easy to just search and browse the Market to get hold of great software, a list like this might seem redundant. However, the Market’s abundance of titles can sometimes be a bit overwhelming and make it hard to know what to download – and even know what to look for in the first place. Hopefully this list will provide a good overview, especially for those new to Android: a place to start when you are about to fill up your device with some free and awesome Android apps.
- Please note that a few of these applications are currently only available in the US, and some of them require Android 1.6 or higher.
- The QR Code links will bring up an image that you can scan with Barcode Scanner using your phone’s camera, and will take you directly to the Market.
- Some of the apps have a Video link as well, and it will show a demo/review video for that title.
- Applications with a tiny green Android next to them, are the editor’s personal favorites.
- Please feel free to share cool Android apps and other feedback in the comment section!
- Location-Aware / Augmented Reality
- Multimedia
- Utilities / Shopping
- System Tools
- Communication / News
- Reference
- Work-out Software
- Games / Emulation
- Entertainment
- Widgets
- Live Wallpapers
- Leave a Comment
Location-Aware / Augmented Reality
Layar Reality Browser. Augmented Reality (AR) is probably my favorite application category, and one of the (many) things that attracted me to Android in the first place. Most AR software show what is around you by displaying real-time information on top of what you see through the camera of your device. For example, if you simply hold your phone towards a monument that interests you, you can get information about that monument, depending on which layer you currently have selected. Layar Reality Browser is one of these AR apps, based on layers, and probably the most prominent of them all.
Google Sky Map is one of the must-have apps with a big wow-factor. From Google’s website: “With Google Sky Map for your Android phone you can discover and browse the night sky just by pointing your phone to space. By using your Android phone’s orientation sensors, we can show you a star map for your location. Explore planets, stars, constellations, and more! Learn the name and location of space objects and impress your friends”.
Locale is a program for automatically changing various phone settings depending on where you are located. For example, you could tell Locale to automatically set the phone to silent mode when you enter your place of work. It can also do things like reminding you to charge your battery (which ironically, Locale will drain quicker). Some people find this application indispensable, though I have limited use for it myself. Update: This app is no longer free.
WikiTude World Browser – another excellent augmented reality application for Android. “WikiTude World Browser presents the user with data about their surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the real-time camera view of a smart-phone.”
Celeste Lite will allow you to locate planets simply by aiming your phone’s camera towards the sky, day or night. It will also show various facts, like where the sun will rise or set, or if the moon is full and when it will appear over the horizon. Celeste tracks our solar system with 3D visuals, and is definitely a welcome addition to augmented reality on Android.
Google Goggles lets you take a picture of something that you’re curious about, and it will tell you more about it. For example, take a photo of a famous painting, a landmark or a bottle of wine, and Google Goggles will make a Google search for that object. The software is still under development and it may not work for some things. Perhaps this isn’t an augmented reality or GPS app per se, but I still think it belongs in this category. Is currently only available in the US.
WHERE is a location-aware application for Android phones that helps you find and discover the places and people around you. WHERE can even use your location to find coupons to nearby stores. From the developers: “Whether you’re looking for the closest gas station, a local restaurant or a nearby movie theater, the WHERE application on the Android has it. Be sure to check out the WHERE Wall where you can chat with other WHERE users and WHERE Reviews where you can rate and review local restaurants and businesses right from your phone”.
Places Directory is an application by Google for looking up nearby points of interest (POI).
Qype Radar. Just like Google’s Places Directory, Qype helps you find the best places near you, wherever you might be, and the location-based app puts thousands of reviews right in your pocket. Some users report that both WHERE and Places Directory are better applications for this purpose, but Qype can still prove to be a valuable tool.
Urbanspoon is another app that helps you find nearby places of interest, but it’s solely focused on restaurants. You set a simple filter, shake your device and Urbanspoon provides suggestions on where you should dine. Urbanspoon currently is available in the US, Canada, and most major cities in the UK and Australia.
Yelp. From the developers: “Looking for a burrito joint open now? An Irish pub nearby? A gas station you can drive to before your tank hits empty? Yelp for Android is here to help. Use us to search for places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play then read reviews from an active community of locals in the know.”
Sherpa “discovers information about your surroundings. Learning your likes and dislikes, the app automatically displays surrounding restaurants, retailers and attractions that reflect your taste. Drill-down for location details, reviews and contacts.”
World Surfer by GeoVector brings more AR to Android. “Using GeoVector’s directional search, you can point your phone at a place that interests you in order to learn more about it or aim your phone down a street to search for things which are in that direction.”
Waze is a “social mobile app that enables drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation for an optimal commute. 100% powered by users, the more you drive the better it gets”. I guess the usefulness of this app depends on where you live and how much community-generated content is available.
Foursquare is a location-based social networking service that has gained in popularity recently. It “gives you and your friends new ways of exploring your city”. You can earn points and unlock badges for discovering new things. If this sounds like your cup of tea, give it a try.
Multimedia
Shazam. I knew of Shazam before I got a chance to try it myself, but I was still quite in awe by how well it worked. For those of you not yet familiar with this application: it lets you identify music tracks and buy them; plus you can learn more about the artist in question, load up their MySpace page and even watch the corresponding music videos on YouTube. In other words: let Shazam listen to a track you hear on the radio and it will not only tell you the name of it, but within a minute you can also watch the video for it and own the track. Pretty high WOW-factor.
TuneWiki will not only function as an excellent music player, but it will also display perfect lyrics for the songs you play – synchronized, karaoke-style. Another application that is quite rad when you’re not used to it.
Spotify. The steady rising Swedish stream-on-demand music service Spotify has an excellent client for Android. However, Spotify is currently only for premium (£9.99/month) members. One of the top features is that you can download songs and play them even when you’re offline. You can now walk around with four million songs in your pocket!
Last.fm is the official Android client for the popular Internet radio site for music. Using a music recommendation system called Audioscrobbler, Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user’s musical taste, and it allows the station to make great recommendations that lets you discover new music.
mSpot lets you load music into the mSpot cloud, and then listen to those tracks from your Android phone or your PC/Mac – anywhere and anytime. It sounds good, and I’m sure this can be a great service for many people, but since streaming apps are real battery drainers, I’ll personally stick with playing songs from my SD card for now. And if I were to use an app that streams music to my device, I would go for one that gives me access to ~4 million songs, like Spotify.
mVideoPlayer is a video player that offers one main advantage over the native Android video app: it supports subtitles. mVideoPlayer also has superior controls for seeking back and forward, among else.
Act 1 Video Player is one of the most fully-featured video players available for Android. The trial version is free and the full paid version costs 99 cents. A nice alternative to Android’s native video player.
MixZing is one of the most popular and fully-featured music players for Android. I haven’t felt the need to use any other music player than the one that comes with the HTC Hero (besides TuneWiki every now and then, of course), but MixZing is actually quite good. Some of its highlights are:* Mood Player: play a song and MixZing plays more like it
* Home-screen widgets with album art
* Automatically download missing album art
* Get recommendations for new music
* Get artist info, videos, photos
* Genre and video browsing
* Specify music folders
3 (Cubed) is a pretty awesome open-source music player for Android, with a fresh and appealing 3-D album-art cube interface. My initial reaction to this app was very positive, and I think that impression will last. I suggest you give it a try.
i Music. I’m not exactly sure about the mechanics behind this piece of software, but it lets you download an unlimited amount of MP3 songs from various networks.
Music Online Lite. Like i Music above, this app lets you search for songs and play or download them.
GigBox will help you find events based on your location and your musical taste, and bookmark your favorite events and artists. During live events you can chat, rate and publish pictures directly from your phone.
gStrings is a chromatic tuner application measuring sound pitch and intensity, and it lets you tune any musical instrument.
Listen brings podcasts and web audio to your Android-powered device, courtesy of Google Labs.
PicSay is basically an image editor that lets you add various objects to your photos and play around with them. It’s a great and entertaining way to spice up your multimedia messages!
Photoshop.com for Android is Adobe’s Android client for their online photo editing service Photoshop.com.
Floating Image will make the images on your device float in 3D across the screen, and you can also set Flickr as the source for the picture stream. When you tap on an image, it will be displayed in full screen.This video at YouTube shows what the application looks like.
MagicMarker by Jaytronix is a program for writing and drawing with neon colors on a black background. You can share your artwork via Gmail or save it to the gallery. It’s actually more fun than it sounds.
FxCamera is a fun program for taking pictures with various digital effects and filters applied to them.
Camera Illusion “is a camera application that lets you process photos in real-time, previewing and taking amazing pictures with filters, effects and masks”. An app that can be quite fun to play around with. Here’s a little review of Camera Illusion at Phandroid.com.
Vignette is yet another camera app for Android that lets you add interesting and artistic effects to your photos. It’s perhaps the most powerful of the three recommended here, and Vignette has 62 built-in camera and film effects and 20 frame styles. The demo version is fully featured, but it has a 0.05-megapixel limit for your pictures.
Zedge is a client for the Norwegian Zedge.net website, which is a very popular place for cellphone wallpapers, themes and ringtones. I’m almost embarrassed to admit I’ve visited their site from time to time for years, mainly to get themes for my Nokia devices. Their Android app has a slick interface and is actually quite good. My favorite of the wallpaper applications, and it most likely has the largest collection to download from.
Backgrounds provides a convenient way to get new desktop wallpapers straight from your device.
Androlib Wallpapers is another popular way of acquiring homescreen wallpapers.
Utilities / Shopping
Barcode Scanner scans barcodes on products, then looks up prices and reviews online. You can also scan QR Codes and lots more.
ShopSavvy allows you to use your phone’s camera to scan barcodes to find the best prices for online and local items. It probably has limited usage outside of the US so far, but it’s still a nice app to have even for non-Americans.
SnapTell. Like ShopSavvy above, SnapTell lets you get information about a product. “Snap a picture of the cover of any book, DVD, CD, or video game and within seconds get links to Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, IMDb, eBay, Barnes & Noble and more. Use this app while shopping in a store to quickly find more information, compare prices, buy the product, or to remember to look at the product later.”
Google Shopper. In February 2010, Google released their own shopping app: Shopper. I like Google’s simple and descriptive approach to naming their services. Shopper very much works like the other shopping tools, and you can make searches by taking pictures of products, scan barcodes or say the name of products out loud. You can also share products with friends and save your history and favorites.
CNET Scan & Shop is said by many to be the shopping application that is able to return results for the greatest number of barcodes. CNET Scan & Shop is “presented by Sony”, and is very similar in its layout to ShopSavvy. Which one of these three is the best shopping application for Android? I can’t say for sure, but they’re all good. Perhaps you prefer the simplicity of the Barcode Scanner, or got a sixth option?
Grocery iQ is an app for managing and creating shopping lists. You can swiftly build new shopping lists by saying the item name, scanning the barcode, or using predictive search. The app also lets you sync & share your shopping lists with other Grocery iQ users. The New York Times apparently named Grocery iQ “the best of several grocery-list apps”.
eBay. The official eBay app for Android. From the developers: “With the eBay application for Android, you can search, buy, pay, and check status of your eBay activity no matter where you are. The app will alert you about your auctions, so you never miss the opportunity to get that hard-to-find item! The app also features convenient voice-enabled search, status updates for sellers, and the ability to leave feedback.” It’s only available in selected countries as of now.
Microsoft Tag Reader. This may not be a typical essential Android application, but if you want to scan Microsoft tags on your phone, it’s a must.
Dropbox offers you storage space in the cloud, and consequently gives you access to your files regardless of which platform you’re currently working on. This is the official Dropbox app for Android, and it lets you view all your Dropbox contents. You can even stream music and movies in your Dropbox straight to your phone, and upload photos from your device and email its public link to a friend in no time. Check out the video for more info about the mechanics of Dropbox.
Cooking Capsules is a clever recipe application with full cooking instructions in three steps: watch a video tutorial, shop ingredients and cook the meal. However, the number of recipes is currently limited and a larger collection would certainly increase the application’s usefulness. Do you know of more good cooking software for Android? Leave a comment and I’ll check it out.
Recordoid Lite is a great dictaphone for your Android device with a beautiful, retro cassette deck interface that’s easy to use. You can add notes to your recordings, send them via e-mail, save and view recording locations on the map and assign recordings as ringtones. I really dig this app.
AK Notepad. I was surprised when I found out that Android does not have a native application for taking notes. I had hoped there would be a Notes app that would sync with Google Notebook (I later realized Google had stopped developing Notebook altogether in favour of Google Docs). There are however software on the Market that handle notes very well, and AK Notepad is one of the better among them, with lots of features and settings
3banana by Snaptic (who also develops AK Notepad) is perhaps even better than its sibling above. If I’d have to choose one application for taking notes on Android, this one would be it.
Note Everything is another powerful piece of software for handling notes and reminders. There’s a Pro version available as well with even more features.
Evernote. Yep, you guessed it: yet another notes application. This one stores your notes online and you can access them from your browser as well. If you’re unsure which one of these apps to go for, I’d suggest 3banana.
Springpad. There are perhaps too many notes apps in this guide, but I couldn’t resist adding Springpad, which seems to be taking a slightly different approach to the task than its competitors. For me personally, to be able to sync my content with an online account that I can easily access from my desktop computer is a requirement, and Springpad does that commendably. It lets you save notes, tasks or lists, scan product barcodes, take photos and geolocate nearby businesses. I haven’t used the app enough yet to decide whether or not I like it more than 3banana, but I think Springpad at least is worth giving a try.
Astrid is an esteemed and very popular to-do list manager. From the developers: “Astrid is a todo list / task tracking system for Google’s Android platform that is built with your productivity in mind. Astrid’s goal is not to be the most feature-complete task organizer, but to be the most simple solution that helps you stay productive.”
ConvertDroid is an excellent utility for all sorts of conversion.
Compass is exactly what it sounds like: a traditional compass for your Android phone.
FlashLight from flash-the-brain.com will allow you to use the screen of your phone as a flashlight.
Currency is an excellent application for converting currencys. Since it connects to the Internet, you will always get the current rates. One of the many wonderful Android apps that keeps it simple and just work the way they should.
Currency Converter is another solid currency converter for Android that deserves to be mentioned.
Finance Apps / Expense Trackers. 
A while I go I was in the need of an application that could track my expenses. I wanted a way to quickly see how much was left on one of my accounts, and get an overview of what I spend my money on. I ended up using Money Manager, and it’s great for that purpose. It might be a bit too basic, but that’s also a strength and I love the homescreen widget showing my account balance. Other popular finance apps are DailyCash and EasyMoney.
A while I go I was in the need of an application that could track my expenses. I wanted a way to quickly see how much was left on one of my accounts, and get an overview of what I spend my money on. I ended up using Money Manager, and it’s great for that purpose. It might be a bit too basic, but that’s also a strength and I love the homescreen widget showing my account balance. Other popular finance apps are DailyCash and EasyMoney.
Countdown Alarm and Ultimate Stopwatch & Timer. I wasn’t impressed with the native timer application on my HTC Hero, and these two apps were the best replacements I could find. They are both very basic, but do the trick.
Gmote. From the developer’s website: “Gmote turns Android into a remote control for a computer, allowing users to run movies and music at a distance. It supports all of the standard remote control features such as play, pause, rewind, volume controls etc. It also has a built-in file browser that lets you select what to play.”
Documents To Go will allow you to view Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files on your device. The pro version supports editing as well.
aCar. I am a big city commuter myself and I haven’t owned a car in 10 years (right after I got my driver’s license), but for those who drive a lot, this app will probably be useful. It helps you track the maintenance, fuel mileage and expenses of your car, and can provide you with statistics, charts and reports.
System Tools
LauncherPro. I was disappointed when I realized that I couldn’t disable HTC Sense in favor of vanilla Android on my HTC Desire – it was really easy to do on the Hero. I think Sense is great, but I like having the freedom to choose, and one thing I don’t like about the Sense homescreen is the bar at the bottom: it’s too big and intrusive in my opinion, and it lacks transparency. I tried the HelixLauncher, which basically is a variation of the standard Android launcher, but I soon switched back to Sense. About a week ago (mid May -10), though, I discovered LauncherPro and I’m still using it. Check out the video link below to see what it looks like, although quite a few improvements have been made to the launcher since the review.
ADW Launcher is a at the time of writing brand new open-source home replacement app. I have only tried it briefly so far, but my first impressions are very positive and I think I just might start using ADW Launcher instead of LauncherPro mentioned above. ADW is similar to the launcher on Android 2.2 Froyo, only with lots of options and more flexibility. It features homescreen previews (like on HTC Sense) and a customizable application drawer (with a Samsung Galaxy S option). What I like most about the app, though, is its ability to hide icon labels (it makes the screen look less cluttered) and the configurable drag & drop action buttons. You can also flick up the dock bar to unveil another bar where you can place six shortcuts to folders and apps. Very convenient! All in all, ADW Launcher appears to be a splendid application. I hope that impression will last.
HelixLauncher is another homescreen replacement for your Android phone, and it was created with the goal of extending the features of the native launcher while still keeping it intuitive to use. There is a HelixLauncher 2 available as well.
AppMonster allows you to manage your installed applications with the following key features: backup apps to SD card, install apps from SD card, uninstall apps, locate apps at market, launch apps.
Astro File Manager allows you to manage files on your phone without the need for a computer. Perhaps most useful for people with rooted devices, but still a valuable tool – especially since Android doesn’t come with a file manager.
AndroZip File Manager. For a long time, I was content with using Astro and I never looked elsewhere for my file managing needs. But there are plenty of other fish in the sea, and AndroZip is a strong challenger. Besides basic file management, it can also compress/uncompress ZIP and RAR archives, and it may also serve as an app manager.
EStrongs File Explorer is one of my favorite Android file managers. One of the application’s main benefits is that it can browse local area networks (LAN) and FTP servers in addition to your phone storage.
Linda File Manager is another well-regarded file manager for Android. One benefit with this app is its small size: it doesn’t waste any space on your internal storage.
Task Manager There’s generally no way to close applications manually on Android: the system handles it for you. That took some getting used to for me, coming from Symbian and Windows Mobile. Generally I trust Android to make task decisions for me, but sometimes you want to kill off processes yourself and then Task Manager is an excellent choice.
TasKiller is another way to kill idle applications that run in the background. This program does the trick, but TasKiller’s main downside is its rather unpolished interface.
EStrongs Task Manager. There are plenty of good Android task managers out there that do what they’re supposed to, and selecting which one to use is mainly a matter of preference. This is a popular and acclaimed choice, and it’s the task manager I use at the moment.
Dialer One is a replacement for the stock Android dialer, and it has proved to be very popular. The app has intuitive T9 support, speed dial, is customizable and allows you to swipe between screens. I personally prefer the Sense dialer that is on my HTC Desire, but I can see why people like it, and it’s probably an improvement for those running vanilla Android.
Bar Control. Ever wanted to put links to your favorite apps in the notification bar, so you can access them quicker? With Bar Control, you can.
Spare Parts will let you access the settings that aren’t available among the default settings. It’s very handy if you want additional control over your system.
Any Cut allows you to make a shortcut on your homescreen to pretty much anything. I couldn’t find an official homepage for this utility, but just search the Market and you’ll find it. There’s a more advanced commercial version available as well called Better Cut.
Live Bookmarks is a little tool that I can’t do without: it will simply display a list of your bookmarks in the sort order of your choice, so you can access them directly from your desktop.
Bookmark Backup & Restore. The native Android browser lets you sort your bookmarks by date, by how frequently they are used, and by their initial letter. However, on my HTC Desire, the Mostly used option isn’t saved from session to session (bug), and in any case, there’s no way to manually sort your bookmarks in the exact order you want them. This handy little app fills that gap.
Toggle Settings is a very useful tool that allows you to quickly access the most common settings (Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, Silent Mode etc) right from your homescreen. The application’s main downside is its surprisingly long load time, at least on my HTC Hero, which will delay that “quick” access. It’s also a bit too bloated for my needs.
Quick Settings. This is an application by Sergey Shafarenka with the same purpose as Toggle Settings above, that is my personal choice since its much faster and I can access it directly from the notification bar.
MySettings is the same type of app as Quick Settings and Toggle Settings, since it gives you quick access to the most common phone options from one single screen. What I like most about the app is its large, stylish buttons. It’s quick, too.
Ringdroid is an application for editing and creating your own ringtones, alarms, and notification sounds.
aTrackDog keeps track of all your installed applications and tells you which of them can be updated to a newer version. This application now has limited usage, since the Market has the same feature (under My downloads), but I still think aTrackDog deserves to be on this list. A nice feature of the aTrackdog website is that you can browse the top 100 most popular applications in various categories.
3G Watchdog is great for people that don’t have an unlimited data plan, since the app monitors your mobile internet (3G/Edge/GPRS) traffic usage, and shows a status icon in the notification bar and a detailed report page.
FlyScreen is by many considered to be an essential application: the first they install on a new device and the first they recommend. FlyScreen basically puts your favorite web services on your phone’s sleep screen, for quick and easy access to the content you use most often. I don’t have it installed actually, mainly because I can get most of what it offers simply by going to my regular homescreen. But I can see how FlyScreen can be very useful for some people.
WaveSecure is a security tool that first gained recognition on Symbian devices. It enables users to remotely lock down and track down lost phones, get a copy of their data securely backed up, and remotely wipe data of the phone to protect user privacy. If you download the application from the Market before the 31 January 2010, you’ll get a free lifetime subscription. It feels safe to have WaveSecure installed, just in case.
G-backup will backup your SMS, MMS, call log, pictures and videos straight to your Gmail account. There’s a free trial version on the Market, and if you like the app you can purchase it.
Please Note: This is the end of part one of The Ever-Growing List of Awesome Android Applications. Click here for the second and final part.
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