Hello there fellow Android enthusiasts and new Android users (future enthusiasts?) alike. I've been using Android for a very long time and have such used many different devices, ROMs and many apps from all kinds of different sources. Even though I consider myself to have a very broad knowledge of apps that are available - I will always stop and read peoples lists. "Apps I Can't Live Without", "Best Apps for n Activity", "Best Alternatives to n". - these lists usually contain apps I know and have tried at some point but more often than not - there are a few apps in there that I have never seen - and immediately want to try. I've discovered some amazing apps this way and recently I read another list on this very sub in which a user broke down his app recommendations. This inspired me to do a list of my own with my recommendations and currently used apps, for old and new users alike.
I've broke them down into sections and below the apps I recommend I will also add some "honourable mentions", these are alternative apps that I've used and would also recommend. You may have a different preference to me and Android is all about choice so have a looksi at these.
Launcher
The launcher is the most important app on your device. You will us this more than any other app and it will be constantly running. I use different launchers based on my needs so I'll list them with a few alternatives.
Action Launcher is my preferred launcher. It is very close to the pixel aesthetic which I like but has many other premium features that set it aside from other launchers. It can theme all elements of the launcher to match your wallpaper colours, you can open a widget by simply swiping on the app icon, you can hide folders in covers which also open with a swipe on the icon. You can modify the quick bar and add your own shortcuts in there as well as the popup settings menu on the main screen. An all round awesome launcher that I've found to be very reliable. The only nitpick I have with it is it's compatibility with Kustom Live Wallpaper. The developer claims to have added support but I don't think he did it right because it still doesn't quite work correctly. Which leads me on to my next recommendation...
Nova Launcher is probably the most well known custom launcher. It's missing a couple of the features that make Action Launcher unique - but it it is still one of the most robust and feature rich launchers out there. Hugely popular and well maintained for many many years now. It plays very well with KLWP so when I'm using a full Kustom setup - I use Nova as my launcher of choice.
Hon. Mentions: Lawnchair, CPL, Ruthless Pixel Launcher, Flick Launcher, Evie Launcher
The Basics:
Here I'm just going to list the basic apps everybody uses (Phone, SMS, Browser etc.), but obviously the ones I choose to use and why.
Pulse SMS is my SMS client of choice. Pulse is well designed with the extra functionality that you need nowadays in your SMS clients. It is very up to date with material guidelines and includes custom theming options as well as light, dark and black modes - which can also be toggled automatically at night, scheduled messages, fine-tune notification control and much more. Note: I don't use the web messaging feature.
Hon. mentions: QKSMS, Textra, Signal, Android Messages
Kiwi Browser is probably my favourite browser of all. It is a chromium based offering built by a senior XDA member and has some excellent features baked in. It has a dark mode, built in ad blocking/cryptocurrency mining protection, it can bypass AMP pages completely and my favourite feature of all - you can place the address bar along the bottom of the screen. You can swipe between open tabs by swiping left or right on the address bar as well as gestures for moving back and forward between visited pages. Phones are huge these days, we need more bottom navigation. In my opinion and this browser handles it perfectly.
Hon. Mentions: Brave Browser, Cake Browser, Habit Browser
Lynket is my default link handler. It's lightning fast and allows me fine control over my custom tabs. You can also choose your custom tabs provider from whichever browsers you have installed currently, so I use Kiwi Browser as my provider. It inherits the bottom address bar from Kiwi, which is absolutely perfect for me. There's even an option to have the links stack up on the side of your screen in chat-head-like fashion for you to open at your leisure.
Hon. Mentions: Flynx
Memoria Photo Gallery is a stunning photo gallery app and my favourite by far. It was only recently released so features are still being added but it already has everything I need. Give it a go, it's beautiful.
Hon. Mentions: Focus Go, Camera Roll, LeafPic, Simple Gallery (Pro)
Gboard is the keyboard I use these days. I used Swype for so many years but once they slowed down on development and Google picked up speed on theirs - I made the switch and I do love it to be honest. The swiping is very accurate for me where as other keyboards have been a bit hit and miss. The swipe across space-bar to move your cursor is just awesome, I dig that. I do still miss Swype though :(
Hon. Mentions: Chrooma Keyboard, SwiftKey
Boost is by far the best Reddit client I have come across. It has a wonderful design, theming and other quality of life improvements such as auto playing GIFs and videos without ever having to leave the app, advanced threading options and bottom navigation options. I also really love inverting the drawer because I'm right handed and having all of my subs there in such ease of access swiping from the right of the screen - is dynamite.
Hon. Mention: Sync, Joey, Relay
Telegram X is something I use to communicate with a few specific people but I really hated the default Telegram app. This one is fantastic. Just give it a go...
Privacy and Security
Apps that help safe-guard me and my data.
Adaway (ROOT REQUIRED) is an open source ad blocker that will compile an up to date hosts file and apply it to your device. It blocks ads globally in browsers, apps, games etc. I much prefer this method to how most other ad block solutions work. If you would prefer to replace the hosts file yourself though, check out this repository on GitHub - for it is mighty.
Hon. Mentions: Blokada (Blokada does not require a rooted device)
App Ops (ROOT REQUIRED) is a great tool for managing system level permissions. You can also set up templates to be applied to any newly installed apps. If you're rooted, you will be able to install and use immediately. If you are not rooted, but you are on Android 6 or above - you can use ADB to allow the required access.
Bouncer a beautifully designed temporary permission manager. It will allow you to grant access to certain permissions upon opening an app and automatically revoke the permissions again after the app is closed. Excellent, still in beta but works pretty well at the moment and the developer is actively adding to it.
Enpass is my go to password manager app. It has everything I need and allows me choose my cloud solution. It also had the option of a lifetime license and I much prefer that to the monthly subscription model that most password manager apps adopt.
Hon. Mentions: LastPass, 1Password
ExpressVPN I have on my Android because why not. I use ExpressVPN on my home computer to access Netflix's regional content and they allow me multiple devices so I have it on my phone just in case.
Hon. Mentions: NordVPN
Firefox Focus is a privacy oriented browser that stores no data and erases all history data with one click when you're done. It can remain in the background hidden from recent apps and require authentication to continue any existing session.
Hon. Mentions: Orbot, Dolphin Zero
Media
The apps I use for all my media needs...
Moon+ Reader Pro is the app I use to read my ebooks. I originally found it because I had an obscure ebook which just couldn't seem to be read on any other ereader apps I tried. It worked in Moon+ and after using it I realised how incredibly feature rich it is. It literally has everything I could think of and I've yet to find an ebook it hasn't been able to read. So I'm really happy with that. They have a free version you can try as well.
Photoshop Express is my image modification tool of choice. I'm a long time desktop Photoshop user so it made sense to use this when I had an image on my phone I quickly needed to modify. It has served my purpose so far and is very feature packed for a free app.
Pocket Casts is my favourite podcast app by far. I used podcast Addict for a long time after being introduced to my first podcast by my wife - she used podcast Addict so I just naturally downloaded that one to listen to podcasts of my own. After encountering a few strange navigation issues I went looking for better option and I absolutely fell in love with Pocket Casts. It's beautifully designed feature packed. My needs are very basic so it far exceeds them and I've never had to look at another podcast app since.
Shazam Lite I rarely need to use but when I do - I need it to be quick. I want to open it and identify a song, then close it. The Shazam app has become so bloated over the years that it's no longer simple or fast. I was excited when they released a "Lite" version because it meant I could use it for what I actually want to use it for. I'm not checking Shazam for the music charts lol. To my dismay - the lite app was locked to specific regions! Bizarre. Fortunately, somebody from XDA had the same gripes as me and decided to create a modded APK which bypasses the region lock. What a legend.
TimberX is a delightfully simple music player that works across all form factors. It's not bloated, has playlist control, embedded lyrics, folder browsing, fetching artist images from LastFM and dark mode. It's a relatively new app but I'm excited to see where it goes. For now, I'm in love. The developer seems very active so I'm hoping for big things from this one.
Hon. Mentions: Shuttle, Pulsar
VLC is my go to video player. VLC has been with me for as long as I can remember across many devices across many years. When it finally came to Android I had found my replacement to the ever reliable MX Player who have been bought by some company that wants to use their software for some kind of streaming platform? I don't know... But I just need a local player for my device, so I steered away from them before any of the changes came and picked up VLC full time.
YouTube Vanced for the background playback and ad blocking. The way YouTube should be.
TV Time is an app I use to track my TV shows. I watch a lot of TV shows and this allows me to keep track of where I'm up to, as well as see when upcoming episodes of my favourite shows are airing. Also has a huge community where people can discuss individual episodes and series as a whole and it's rather satisfying after watching something huge happen and going to share in other peoples reactions to what the hell just happened. Memes galore and lots of laughs. It also doesn't require any payment or monthly fees. Awesome.
Hon. Mentions: Series Guide
Personalisation and Customisation
I'm huge into customising my phone, I love to design and build new layouts or generally make my phone work better for me. Here's a few of my highly recommended customisation apps...
Adapticons is an app I use to create uniform icons on device for the apps that my icon packs don't cover. Excellent tool.
Kustom Widget Creator (KWGT) is an insanely powerful WYSIWYG widget creator. The developer is incredibly talented, very active in the community and always willing to help out. He is also constantly adding new features and responding to bug reports. A truly incredible app.
Kustom Live Wallpaper (KLWP) is another app from the same developer as KWGT - it's essentially the same powerful WYSIWYG layout - except instead of a widget you can create a fully interactive live wallpaper complete with animations, switches and all kinds of other goodies. You would be truly amazed with what people have made using this app and words can't quite describe how in depth it actually it is.
Pixolor is a colour picker tool which layers a live eye dropper like tool on top of your screen - just drag it to the colour you need and it will extract the relevent info for you. The easiest method I've seen by far.
Muzei is another live wallpaper app that will automatically switch your wallpaper to a random piece of art every day. You can change the blur and dim of the picture for both desktop and lock screen and there are numerous plugins available which allow you to pull images in from different sources.
Chrooma Live Wallpaper creates really colorful wallpapers made from shapes in a material like design with paralex animations and auto changing at desired points with new shapes and colour palletes. I used it for a while and really liked it. Sometimes I still go back.
Tapet is an amazing on-device wallpaper generator and switcher. It generates beautiful, random wallpapers that are unique to each creation. Nothing is downloaded and there are so many customisation options - great app.
Custom Quick Settings lets you create your own custom Quick setting tiles. Very handy as it integrates with Tasker which I use religiously and already comes with an array of quick settings ready to use. Root is not required but ADB access will be.
Some of my favourite icon packs: Alexis, Sagon Circle, Alos, Potum, Amons, Black Magic, Unicorn, Minimal O, Simplicon, OneUI Circles
Tools and Essentials
Tools and other apps I consider to be great or generally just useful to me.
Tasker is the grandaddy of all Android apps. I consider this the best money I ever spent on an app followed closely by the Kustom suite. Allows you to automate pretty much anything and has recently been taken over by João of AutoApps fame - who is again, a very talented and active developer. The recent updates have been absolutely fantastic and he's constantly adding improvement after improvement. Absolutely amazing.
Hon. Mentions: Automagic
Caffeinate is a quick setting tile that will simply toggle the display time out on and off. Sometimes I just need my screen to stay on and it's nice to have a quick tile to achieve this swiftly.
Hon. Mentions: Tiles
FK Kernel Manager (ROOT REQUIRED) is an app that can be used to tweak kernel settings on a custom kernel. It also has a battery monitor built in which is rather cool and a flashing tool - which will let you flash pretty much anything except entire ROMs without the need for booting into a custom recovery. Excellent at what it does and always uses the very latest material design guidelines. It is developed by Francisco Franco who is another great developer and I assume needs no introduction. He seems to specialise in applications that alter your device on a system level and is creator of one of the most popular custom Android kernels of all time - Franco kernel.
Hon. Mentions: EX Kernel Manager, Kernel Adiutor
Servicely (ROOT REQUIRED) is another of Franco's apps, this one allows you to kill troublesome services for good (even those pesky ones that restart themselves) and place apps in standby when the screen is off, now I'm still testing this as I've been a Greenify user for a long time. If anybody has any opinions on these two apps please do discuss, I'm interested to know what other people think. I've asked Franco himself but he doesn't know how Greenify hibernates its apps so he can't say whether or not they use the same method or one is more effective than the other - but being able to block services directly and reliably makes this app a keeper anyway.
Naptime (ROOT REQUIRED) is another Franco app that aims to help save you precious battery by utilizing Android's "Doze" power saving features more efficiently. Root is preferred but it can also be used in rootless mode. Rootless mode will require ADB access for initial setup.
Simple Reboot (ROOT REQUIRED) is yet another app by Francisco Franco. It lets you reboot to your desired location (recovery, fastboot etc.) rather than having to open a terminal and use the command line.
Calendar Widget (Home Agenda) may as well go here since we're on a Franco hype. This is just a really nice widget that displays all of your upcoming events. You can customise the hell out of it with a cool layout that shows the changes to the widget as you make them.
Mixplorer is my file manager of choice. I've been using it for a very long time and it is always my first installed app when I migrate to a new ROM. It has all the cloud integration built in so you don't need loads of different apps and it has root add-ons as well. I'm a huge fan of Mixplorer but it doesn't get the attention other file managers seem to get. Note: the developer releases this app for free as well on XDA Developers.
Hon. Mention: Solid Explorer
SD Maid is an excellent tool. It will find and clean unused app data, duplicate data, old data that isn't used anymore but is just kinda hanging around, as well as optimizing your database tables. It can run manually or on a schedule, it has app control options as well including freezing and even removing system apps. Root preferred for extra features.
Unit Converter Ultimate is always around on my phone just in case. I rarely have need for unit conversion, but this is a nice open source app that I found suits my needs.
Hon. Mention: S Converter
Stocard is a useful app for me. You scan all of your loyalty cards with the camera on your device and it will store them in the app for you. You can just open the app, select your card and the code will popup full brightness ready to be scanned. Saves me wallet space and that is brilliant. Also syncs with my Google account and automatically backs everything up, that's handy.
Stats and System Monitoring
Stuff that helps you keep track of everything that's happening on your device.
Action Dash is a version of Google's Digital Wellbeing app but it has a few more stats recorded and a couple of customisation options such as not showing certain apps, dark mode etc. It basically breaks down the time you spend on your device into lovely little charts. It was created by Chris Lacy, the developer of Action Launcher.
Side Note: It is possible to get Google's Digital Wellbeing app running on most devices running Android Pie. See here.
AccuBattery is an app that can save your batteries health. It records the wear on your battery for each charge cycle and can recommend how long to charge your device with minimum wear to your actual battery. It works on the notion that "Scientific research shows that battery lifespan can be extended up to 200%, when you charge your device to only 80%". It also offers up a different take on the recoreed battery statistics calculating them in a different way to other battery monitors and I would highly recommend giving it a go. It's well designed, very informative (I learned so much about batteries through this app lol) and helps your battery live for much longer. I only wish I had discovered it sooner so please give it a go.
Hon. Mentions: GSam Battery Monitor, BetterBatteryStats (XDA Edition is free because the developer is an awesome guy)
DevCheck is probably my favourite app for checking the statistics on absolutely everything hardware related that resides on my device. It's nicely designed and I've yet to require something that this app couldn't provide me. Plus it's made by flar2 of EX Kernel fame, he does good work.
Hon. Mentions: Aida64, DroidInfo
Sorry for the long post but hopefully my recommendations can help someone or even set them on the path to finding something they like even more.
Please feel free to offer suggestions yourself and debate my choices as well. Together we can find the perfect app for the job and learn along the way.

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