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Best free Android apps of 2017: 100 you must download

You've got an Android device, either because you didn't want, or couldn't afford, an iPhone - and in years past that meant you had to live with substandard apps. Thankfully, those days are well and truly over, with reams of great little programs standing toe to toe with the best Apple's App Store has to offer.

• What's the best phone of 2017?

Admittedly, the huge quantity of apps doesn't mean they're all quality - far from it in fact, and finding the good ones can be tough. 

There are tools and techniques to help, with various lists in the Play Store providing you with Editor's Picks across a range of categories, new releases and even apps that are specifically recommended for you based on your previous installs.

You can also hunt out apps that are similar to your favorites by searching for an app you have and seeing what else comes up.

And checking out user reviews and ratings can save you from downloading a dud of an app.

But even with all that, the sheer number of apps on Google Play means many of the best can often get lost, while weaker ones sometimes rise to the top.

So to make sure you never install a duff app here's our selection of the best you should install right now - each one carefully chosen to ensure you'll have a whole suite of fun, engaging and, dammit, useful apps on your phone or tablet.

Want to know how busy a local restaurant is without calling or leaving the house? Or how about something further afield, like the view at Machu Picchu?

With Looxie you can request a current photo from any location on earth, and if there’s another user at that location they’ll be prompted to send you one.

Whether out of simple curiosity or actually wanting to know the situation somewhere before you head out, there are any number of reasons you might want to do this.

In some ways it reminds us a bit of Periscope, where you could peep in on the activity of strangers on the other side of the world, but here it’s pictures rather than video, and you make a request rather than hunting for broadcasts.

If there’s a downside to the app, it’s simply that it’s not yet well known, so there’s every chance you’ll send a request and there won’t be any users nearby, but hopefully that will change with time - so help out by downloading.

There are loads of great games on Android, but unearthing them isn’t always easy, with Google Play’s selection of filters and categories helping, but sometimes seeming overwhelming.

If you want more of a curated approach then there’s every chance you’ll love Core, which regularly highlights mobile games with reviews, previews and guides.

And these are in video form, not text, which is also probably for the best, because no amount of words can give you as much sense for a game as simply seeing it in action.

The app also supports Chromecast, so you’re not limited to watching content on a small screen, and as well as videos created for the app it also highlights a number of streams from YouTube, Twitch and Mobcrush, which you can watch without leaving the app.

Basic fitness trackers don’t cost much, but if you already have an Android phone you can get much of the same functionality with just an app, and Pacer Pedometer is among the best of the bunch.

The app is primarily a pedometer, and one which works quite accurately – or rather, if the initial readings aren’t accurate you can adjust the sensitivity until they are.

Like a dedicated fitness tracker it runs permanently, quietly counting your steps, distance travelled and active minutes as you work towards a target of your own creation.

And there are several different modes you can put it in, depending on whether you favor accuracy or conserving battery life more. This is arguably one area where a dedicated tracker has an advantage, as the heavy lifting is done by a device other than your phone, but if you have it permanently paired to your phone and syncing with an app, the drain won’t necessarily be much less than Pacer’s.

As well as daily step targets, Pacer also lets you work towards specific weight or BMI goals, and if you shell out on a $3.99/£3.99 monthly subscription you can get extra tools to help with that, such as an AI coach and access to groups, but the basic option is still impressively full-featured.

Ever wished you could recreate the look of a retro video game? Well, with Dotpict you can, and you don’t even need a huge amount of artistic talent to do it.

The app presents you with a grid, of anywhere from 16 x 16 to 96 x 96, and you just tap a dot to fill it with a color, or tap a pen below the grid to change the color you’re currently using.

You can select from a range of color palettes or create your own, zoom in or out, fill the background with a color, and undo your last action with a tap, but that’s about where the controls and options end.

This keeps things simple, as pixel art should be, and makes it easy for beginners to dive in and experiment, but there’s enough here to keep proficient pixel artists busy too. And once you’re done you can export or share your creation, so the whole world (or at least your whole social circle) can see it.

Sitting somewhere between the free-for-all of Wattpad (a platform that basically lets anyone write anything) and the generally professional quality of publications on Kindle, there’s Inkitt.

The app contains a large number of novels, across a range of genres, and they’re all completely free to read.

You can even download them to absorb when you don’t have an internet connection, and the app makes suggestions based on the type of content you like, so you’ll always have new things to delve into.

The novels on offer are mostly by upcoming and indie authors – generally unpublished in the traditional sense, but polished and aiming for publication, so you’re not traipsing through too much dross.

In fact, Inkitt even helps writers get published if their books prove popular on the service, but the app doesn’t contain any tools for uploading your manuscript – that needs to be done from the website, whereas the app is all about reading and getting lost in a book. 

Most apps increase our smartphone use, but Forest is a rarity in that it pushes you to use your phone less, by having virtual trees grow when you leave your phone alone, and die if you start using it again before a certain amount of time has passed.

As a result you can end up with lush virtual forests if you stay phone-free, or withered husks if you don’t. That may not be much of a motivation to stay off your phone, but with competition against friends and the world, unlockable achievements, plus coins which can be earned too and used to purchase new tree designs, Forest does a good job of turning the avoidance of distraction into a game.

And avoiding distraction, rather than weaning you off your smartphone entirely, is the point of the app, so you can set a tree growing when you want to get some work done or watch a film.

You can also choose to whitelist certain apps, so important things that you need to be able to access won’t kill your tree, and if you spend $0.99/72p on an in-app purchase you even unlock the ability to use the coins you earn on planting real trees around the world.

Love the idea of an app drawer but wish yours was smarter or gave you more control? Then you might like Smart Drawer.

This is an app drawer replacement which automatically sorts all your apps into categories, so rather than swiping through hundreds to get to what you need, you just tap a category (for example, media or games) and then have far fewer to sift through.

It’s also a handy option if you’re on that (increasingly less rare) Android handset that doesn’t have an app drawer, as this adds one without making you completely change your launcher.

You can sort the apps within each category by name, install time or when they were last used, and you can tweak the look of Smart Drawer, as well as optionally hiding apps or even locking them behind a PIN, so it’s fairly full featured.

One obvious missing feature is the ability to manually create categories, but the app is notably still in beta, and the developer claims it’s working on adding that exact feature.

Think streaming video and you probably think Netflix or Amazon, but there are a number of smaller services catering to specific niches that the big players don’t.

Viki is one such service, offering streamed TV shows and movies from all over the world, subtitled in dozens of languages.

For English speakers, the catalog is Asia-focused, giving you a large amount of content from Japan, South Korea and elsewhere that you won’t find on other services.

The app works over mobile data as well as Wi-Fi, has Chromecast support, and it’s free to use, though if you decide you want to binge the latest K-drama you might want to shell out for a $4.99/£4.22 (roughly AU$6.50) monthly subscription, as this ups the video quality and gets rid of adverts.

Toontastic 3D gives you or your child all the tools you need to create your own cartoons. And we’re not talking some sort of flip-book style animation, but rather fully animated 3D characters in 3D environments, with dialogue and music.

There is a sizeable selection of colorful characters and settings to choose from, or you can create your own using basic drawing tools and watch as they’re turned into a 3D model.

Once you’ve picked your cast you can create an animation by dragging them around, tapping on objects and speaking in ridiculous voices. Then add music and move on to the next scene.

Animations are all at least three scenes long, so you can give them a beginning, middle and end, but the whole process needn’t take more than a few minutes and is easy for a child to learn.

And once you’re done you can save your clip for later viewing, or export it to your gallery to share with friends. Toontastic is fun, but more importantly it has the potential to teach basic art and storytelling skills to kids.

Changing your phone’s volume is as simple as hitting the volume key...except when it isn’t. Doing that will usually just change the volume for what you’re currently using (media if watching Netflix for example, or the ringtone if you’re just on your home screen).

Changing the volume of a specific task that you’re not currently using tends to require a tap on the cog icon that pops up, and even then (depending on your phone) you won’t always be presented with a full list.

Volume Notification makes tweaking the levels of specific things easier, be it media playback, voice calls, notifications, ringtone, system sounds or alarms.

The app places a bar on the notification shade and optionally also the lock screen, with icons for as many of these as you want, so you can just tap them to instantly bring up their volume controls.

And that’s all there really is to it. It’s an attractive widget with a customizable look, and it fits with the overall appearance of Android, so it won’t look out of place. But more importantly, the next time you want to adjust the volume of something or mute your movie on a quiet train as your headphones have fallen out, Volume Notification will save you valuable seconds and frustrating taps. 

Launchers are one of the best things about Android. These apps replace whatever overlay your phone’s manufacturer has put on your device with something new, and often something better.

In the case of ADW Launcher 2 you get more control over the look and feel of your phone than with almost any other launcher.

That means customizable gesture controls, an abundance of themes, the ability to change the color of – or hide – the status bar, a choice of home screen transition effects and app drawer layouts, customizable folder styles and plenty more besides.

All these features are tucked away in menus, so if you want to keep things look clean and simple you can - but really ADW Launcher 2 is aimed at those who love to tinker and make Android their own.

We all need to-do lists from time to time, and while any number of note taking apps can do the job, they’re often a bit fiddly or basic.

That’s why, even if you never use it for more than your weekly shopping, a dedicated to-do list app is worth having.

Of these, Wunderlist is among the best. Beyond the attractive interface there are lots of little things that make it a firm favorite, such as the fact that once you tick something off it disappears, rather than your list simply getting clogged up with ticked items.

But by contrast, the ease with which you can view and restore previously checked off items when you need to do/buy/make/eat them again is a treat.

Wunderlist also lets you set reminders for deadlines, sort your lists alphabetically, put them into folders and sub lists to keep everything organized, and gives you access to your lists from the cloud on your phone, computer or tablet (perfect so you don’t lose your lists when you drop your phone in the bath).

For most users, that’s probably plenty, but Wunderlist goes even further, allowing you to easily share your lists with colleagues and friends, so you can build lists together or split the work. If needed, you can even attach photos and other files to your lists.

But the best thing about Wunderlist is that all these extra features stay tucked away, leaving you with a clean, clutter-free interface that makes it easy to create and complete lists - which is really the most important thing.

Ever tried hanging 4-6 medium sized bowling balls off your head? Well, the way you use your phone might be having a similar effect, as according to a study looking down at your phone at a 60-degree angle puts 60lbs of pressure on the neck and spine.

Reduce the angle and you reduce the pressure, but you’ll want to significantly reduce it if you’re going to avoid lasting negative effects.

Getting into the habit of doing that might not be easy, but Posture is here to help. It’s a simple app that just pops an alert up on your screen if it detects bad posture – which it judges based on the angle of your phone, using its gyroscope.

You can choose the style and position of the alert, as well as choosing how often the app checks your posture and how strict you want it to be, and that’s it.

Posture is an app that you can just set and forget – unless your own posture is bad, in which case it will constantly be reminding you.

While SwiftKey is arguably the speediest Android keyboard, Google’s own Gboard comes close, and has some key features that rivals lack.

Chief among them is its integration with Google search, allowing you to search the web directly from the keyboard, which is ideal if you want to look something up while engaged in a text conversation.

Gboard also has an emoji and GIF search, plus voice typing and ‘Glide typing’ (where you swipe across letters rather than tapping them).

Like all the best keyboards Gboard also learns as you type, so it will start to suggest the words you use more regularly.

With a choice of themes, a one-handed mode, and the ability to sync your personal dictionary between devices, it’s easy to see why Gboard is worth having as a keyboard.

TED isn’t a new app, but it is an enduring and regularly updated favorite. Home to over 2,000 TED Talk videos and episodes of the TED Radio Hour podcast, it has interesting content from inspiring speakers on numerous different subjects, with talks covering everything from “the emotional impact of architecture” to “what a driverless world could look like.”

The talks are usually short – taking no more than 18 minutes, so you can fit one into a coffee break, and they can be streamed, downloaded or sent to a TV via Chromecast, depending on how you like to consume them.

Alternatively they can just be favorited to watch/listen to later, so whether you’re out and about or sat in your living room they’re always accessible.

The whole app is simply laid out with a polished look and lots of images, along with tools to help you find new talks. You can check out one of the curated playlists, search by suggested themes, or just type a term of your own into the search box.

And did we mention all of this is completely free? If only school had been this interesting, we might know as much about science and history as we do about phones.

Your phone probably came with a calculator app, but we can almost guarantee that All-in-One Calculator is better. Not only does it have a basic calculator (which changes to a scientific one when you hold your phone in landscape orientation or swipe in from the right edge), it also has over 50 specialist calculators and unit converters.

These cover everything from solving equations, to converting weights and lengths, to working out percentages, averages, density and more. There’s even a currency converter, which updates to offer the current exchange rates, and a BMI calculator.

Most of these you’ll probably never need to use, but next time you need to calculate or convert anything All-in-One Calculator will ensure the answer is never more than a few taps away.

Trusted Contacts is a free app from Google, designed to help you stay safe and let those who care about you know you’re OK.

You start by adding close friends and family members of your choice as ‘Trusted Contacts’, and they can then request your location.

Your privacy isn’t at risk, as you can deny the request, but if you’re unable to respond within 5 minutes then the app will automatically share your location, and it works even if your phone is out of battery or offline, by sharing the last known location data.

This means that if those who care about you have reason to worry (for example, they know you’re walking home alone late at night) they can request your location. But you don’t have to wait for a request either – in an emergency or if you simply feel unsafe you can send out your location without being prompted.

Photomath, as the name suggests, can do maths from images. Just point your camera at a written out problem (which can be typed or hand-written) and the app will provide you with a solution.

It also has a built-in calculator, so you can type problems into the app if you’d prefer, and whatever method you choose you’ll be given a step-by-step guide to reaching the same conclusion as Photomath, so if you have no idea why X equals 4, the app will teach you.

That takes it beyond just being a clever calculator, and actually makes Photomath a great educational tool as well. The core features are all free, but there’s a $0.99/89p monthly subscription to unlock more in depth explanations and learning tools.

Cortana never quite managed to rival Google Now or Siri, thanks in part to being tied to Windows – an operating system that has proved unpopular on mobile.

But Cortana is a decent voice-based assistant, and you can find it not just on Windows handsets but also Windows computers, iOS and, of course, Android.

If you want just one AI assistant across all your devices that gives Cortana an edge, especially as by having Cortana on multiple devices you can do things like get missed call alerts on your PC, or ask it to send an SMS from your PC, giving you control over phone functions even when you don’t have your phone to hand.

It’s fairly accomplished too. You can start talking to it just by tapping the ‘Cortana Mic’ app icon on your home screen, and it can do many of the same things rival apps can, like make calls, send emails, answer questions and look up information online.

It’s not quite as deeply integrated into Android as Google Now, so you can’t launch it with a voice command for example.

As a Microsoft service it also insists on using Bing rather than Google. But its answers are normally relevant and useful, and its voice is arguably less robotic than Google Now’s, so it’s a strong alternative.

Quartz is a new way of reading the news, formatting it like a text message conversation, with the app giving you a headline, and then giving you the option to hear more or move on to the next story.

All of the stories are condensed into bite-sized chunks, broken up with emoji and GIFs, which add to the conversational feel.

Each ‘conversation’ with Quartz only lasts a few minutes, so you can easily fit in a news update during even short breaks, and it’s an engaging way to take in the news.

Quartz isn’t perfect, it doesn’t let you pick the types of stories you want to see, and while it injects a certain amount of personality into the news your responses are generally limited to some variation of ‘tell me more’, or ‘next’.

But it’s an interesting approach to gathering news, and we’re hopeful many of these features will be fixed if a greater swell of users appears.

Planning trips can be a messy business, with information and bookings often strewn across multiple websites and services, but Google Trips aims to put everything in one place.

Simply search for a location and the app will provide information on attractions, restaurants and more, which you can save to your trip.

Any bookings you make – be it for flights, accommodation or whatever else – can be added from Gmail, and if you're struggling to fill a day you can make use of pre-constructed day plans, which factor in the average time spent in locations and how long it takes to get between them.

Best of all, everything is available offline, so you won't have to rack up roaming charges every time you check your itinerary. 

Arguably the world doesn't need any more feed readers, but for sheer simplicity Microsoft News Pro could find a niche.

The app has an attractive design and speedily loads articles – two things which are near vital for any app which asks you to spend time reading. But where it stands out is in delivering content you never knew you wanted.

When we got our news from ‘papers and TV headlines we had no control over what we were seeing, but in the age of feed readers and the internet we can filter out anything we don't want to read. That's handy, but risks us missing important or interesting things too.

Microsoft News Pro addresses that by giving you more limited control over what news is pumped into your face. You can add topics, and let it know if you want to see more or less of certain types of stories, but News Pro never puts all the power in your hands.

As a result you'll see some stories you have no interest in, but you'll also see great content you might have otherwise missed.

AccuBattery isn’t designed to extend your phone’s between-charge lifespan, so much as it’s aimed at lengthening the overall life of your battery – so that two years from now it’s still staying charged for a longer time.

It does this not by meddling with things behind the scenes, but simply giving you the information you need to make more informed decisions about when and how much to charge your phone.

Regularly charging your battery to 100% can shorten its lifespan, and AccuBattery gives estimates of the effect of charging to different percentages, with recommendations that you generally don’t charge beyond 80%.

To help you manage that it also has a built-in charge alarm, which goes off when the battery reaches the level you want it at, plus a scary battery health figure, which tells us our 8-month-old S7 Edge’s battery is already down to 83% health, with 600mAh gone from its original capacity.

That may not be entirely accurate, but it’s certainly the kind of number that will spur you into action.

And even if you’re already careful about how you charge your phone, AccuBattery could be worth having, as it provides more detailed information on how power-hungry your apps are, and how long your battery will last between charges, than Android itself does.

If Planet Earth 2 isn’t enough Attenborough for you you’re in luck, as the BBC has launched Attenborough’s Story of Life – a slick app that features a collection of over 1000 highlights from his nature documentaries.

These can be streamed over Wi-Fi or mobile data, giving you an almost endless (and very mobile) supply of animal and plant footage, complete with a handful of new clips recorded by Attenborough for the app.

You can search for specific content, filter by category, or simply browse the full selection. You’ll also find ‘featured collections’ which paste together a selection of related clips into a single longer video.

And if you’re feeling creative you can even create your own collection, which you can then name and share on social media.

If you're on the hunt for a new messaging app you could do worse than Google Allo, which has most of the basics plus a few features that you won't get elsewhere.

Smart Reply, one of the standout features of Allo, suggests responses to messages and photos, learning how you talk over time, so you can send authentic responses without having to type - though it does seem a little impersonal.

The other big feature is Google Assistant, which works a bit like a text version of OK Google, but one which you can insert into any conversation, asking it questions or getting it to pull up information from the web.

Allo also has an incognito mode, with end-to-end encryption and expiring messages, for anyone who's particularly security conscious.

As with any new messaging app the big problem with Allo will be convincing your friends to use it, but it's worth the effort.

There are plenty of podcast apps to choose from, but few that are as full-featured and easy to navigate as Podcast Player, and fewer still that are also free.

Podcast Player helps you discover new shows by having you follow topics, which can be as broad as 'tech' or as niche and specific as 'beekeeping'.

The app is also packed full of other handy features, like auto-downloading the latest episodes of shows you're subscribed to whenever you're on Wi-Fi, and the ability to sync across devices, all wrapped up in an attractive, simple interface with absolutely no adverts. Podcast Player is so good you'll wonder why it's free.

Widgets can be a handy way to quickly access key functions of an app or view information without opening an app, but they can also take up a lot of space, quickly forcing you into using extra home screens if you want more than a couple of widgets.

Snap Swipe Drawer solves that problem, by putting widgets on a separate screen that you can access by swiping down, much like you would to view your notifications.

It's separate from the notifications shade too, so that doesn't become too cluttered. Instead you can set the left, right or middle of the top edge to display your widgets when pulled on, while the rest will still take you to your notifications.

It's potentially a bit slower than having your widgets on your home screen, since it requires an extra swipe, but Snap Swipe Drawer is available from anywhere, even while you're in apps, so in that sense it can be faster and more convenient, and it certainly leaves your screens less cluttered.

It’s similar to Apple’s widgets, which are accessed with a swipe right from the notifications shade, but with one fewer finger flick.

If you can't go five minutes without checking Twitter, Facebook or Instagram then Flow Home could be the launcher for you.

The app replaces your standard home screen with a combined feed for those three services, plus Tumblr and Feedly (or as many of them as you want to include), so they're always the first thing you'll see when you turn your phone's screen on.

Your actual apps, which would usually take center stage, are instead relegated to a second screen, though favorites can be accessed by tapping an icon in the bottom right corner, and for anything you want really fast access to you can add a widget above the main feed.

Flow Home definitely isn't for everyone, but it's stylish, different and worth a look if you glanced at your Twitter timeline while reading this.

KinScreen is a great example of the power Android offers, as the app adds new functionality to your phone, allowing you to turn your screen on just by waving your hand over the proximity sensor, picking your phone up, or holding it at a certain angle.

KinScreen also includes toggles to keep your screen on under certain circumstances, such as when on a call, although you’ll need to make sure your face doesn’t press a million buttons at the same time.

It's not the only app to offer these tools, but it works well and while there is an IAP to unlock certain options, much of it (including the wave-to-wake feature) is free.

Got an expensive app habit? Then it's time you discovered Google Opinion Rewards, an app which gives you Google Play credit for filling out quick surveys.

Most of the questions are multiple choice and there are rarely more than a few questions in each survey, so the app won't waste your time.

You'll usually get around one survey a week, so it's not going to make you rich, but you can earn enough to buy an app or rent a movie every month or two, all for just a few minutes of work.

There are any number of apps for translating foreign text, but MenuSnap homes in on menus specifically and goes beyond mere translation.

Simply take a picture of a foreign menu and the app will let you tap on any of the different dishes, bringing up images, translations and other information about them from the internet, so you won't just know what the name means but even what the dish looks like.

One potential flaw with this is that the app requires data to do its work, which can be expensive when abroad, but images are compressed and the app only uses around 700KB of data per menu.

And MenuSnap isn't limited to English translations, with the ability to translate to and from over 50 languages.

Prisma will transform your photos into works of art, and now Artisto has arrived to do the same for videos.

Simply select any clip that's saved to your phone (or shoot a new one straight from the app), and then choose from a number of filters, some of which are inspired by actual art styles, such as art nouveau, and the app will quickly apply the filter to your footage.

Depending on the clip and style you choose the result can range from beautiful to an incomprehensible mess, but it's fun to play with and, if used with care, can lead to great-looking videos.

Once you've applied a filter you can share your creation straight to Instagram, Facebook, or any other compatible app on your phone, or just save it to your handset.

If you’re anything like us you’d probably sooner forget those embarrassing outfits you were wearing in all your old printed photos.

The good news is you can easily hide them away in a box, in a cupboard or at the bottom of the ocean. The bad news is PhotoScan by Google brings them into the digital world, where they’ll never be more than a click away - so please think about your future self when digitizing your images.

Follow some simple instructions, which basically involve moving your phone over an image, so the camera lens can clearly see all the different parts of it, and it will be immortalized in digital form and ready for sharing on social media.

PhotoScan has some clever tricks up its sleeve too, allowing it to enhance images, avoid glare, and crop and straighten shots, so that the finished product really is like a digital photo, rather than just a snapshot of a snapshot.

It’s all very quick and easy, which sadly means there’s no forgetting those baggy jeans and nineties haircuts if you’re hell-bent on documenting your entire drawer of old photos.

Ever wondered how strong the network's signal is in your area and whether a rival provider would be better? Or wanted to know where your nearest cell tower is? OpenSignal can tell you all that and a whole lot more, with data taken from your handset and those of over 10 million other users.

You can use the app to test your download and upload speeds or latency, see detailed coverage maps split by network and signal type, charts highlighting the best and worst networks in a given area and statistics on your signal quality.

Data can be saved and shared, the app will build up a history of your network usage while it's on your phone, and all of this comes free of charge and adverts - so it’s perfect if you’re thinking about changing networks and want to get the best coverage with your new phone.

Distractions are the enemy of productivity and when writing on mobile even a busy interface can prove distracting, with options and icons taking up valuable space on the screen.

iA Writer was seemingly created with that in mind, giving you essentially just a white screen to write on, while all other options are a tap or swipe away.

It can go even further than that, with a Focus Mode causing the text you've already written to fade into the background, so you can stay focused on the current sentence.

These features all make it ideal when you need to write a lot, pen prose quickly or put some thought into what you're actually putting down on the digital paper.

But there's more here when you need it, including a night mode with reversed colors if you're working late, real-time syncing to Dropbox and Google Drive so you never lose your work, instant publishing to WordPress or Medium and a word count too, so you'll know how far you've got left to go if you’re being that regimented.

Aside from Google Assistant, one of the best features of the Pixel and Pixel XL is the fingerprint scanner as it goes beyond just securing your phone to also give you a shortcut to the notification screen, accessed by swiping down on the scanner.

While not unique, fingerprint gestures are a bit of rarity, with many popular phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 not supporting them.

But Fingerprint Gestures can add that feature to your handset, and it’s not limited to just bringing up the notifications screen. You can also set up swipes and taps to launch apps, toggle the torch, change the ringer mode and more.

There are three different gestures you can use, for any combination of these you want, with a swipe, a single tap and a double tap all supported, and while certain actions like putting your phone to sleep require root access, most work on unrooted devices.

SoloLearn is for coding what Duolingo is for languages. Like Duolingo it has a wide-range of courses, covering C++, HTML, Java, Python 3, JavaScript, SQL, PHP, CSS, C#, Swift and Ruby.

Lessons are built into simple, bite-sized chunks, ideal for mobile, and SoloLearn starts at the very beginning, so it’s not intimidating to complete beginners.

Also like Duolingo there’s a large community around SoloLearn, with users able to comment on each lesson, or engage in larger question and answer discussions.

SoloLearn also lets you put your coding skills to the test, with a built-in code editor. If there’s a downside to the app it’s the fairly plain appearance, which doesn’t make it particularly inviting – that’s one area where it could stand to learn from Duolingo. But it’s completely free, with no IAP and no adverts, and perfect for those that feel they should learn to code but haven’t got round to it.

Like Chrome but don’t like adverts? Then you might like Brave Browser. It’s a browser based on Chromium – so it looks a lot like Chrome, and it’s built by one of the co-founders of Mozilla, who should have a better idea of how to build a browser than most.

As you’ve probably guessed, Brave has a built-in ad-blocker, and it’s simple to use and configure for individual sites – just tap the lion icon at the top of a page to enable or disable ads, trackers and third-party cookies for the site you’re on (although TechRadar would just love it if you chose to whitelist us to help us keep the lights on…).

Brave is still in beta though, and this is just the beginning, as it has ambitions to work with websites and advertisers, rather than simply blocking ads.

The desktop version of the browser already lets you choose to show unobtrusive ads, or pay publishers of the sites that you block ads on, and in future the company even plans to launch a revenue share model, where users who don’t block adverts get a small cut of the income – which they can either keep or distribute to the sites and bloggers they want to support.

You won’t find these features on mobile yet, but they’re likely planned for future updates, so this is one browser that’s sure to get a lot more interesting over time. 

Anchor describes itself as ‘radio by the people’ and that’s not far from the truth. The app lets you record up to two minutes of audio at the push of a button and then send it out into the world, ready to be listened to by other Anchor users.

They can then reply to your recording with audio posts of their own, starting a group conversation with potentially dozens of strangers, all using their voices rather than text.

Of course, if you’re not much of a broadcaster you can just listen to other people’s recordings – which cover everything from news and opinions, to short stories and humor.

Much like Twitter and other social media platforms you can also follow users, so you’re never short of new content to hear.

The internet has made life hard for bricks and mortar stores, and Amazon Prime Now could be the thing that finally kills them.

The app gives Amazon Prime subscribers free same day delivery within a two-hour window on thousands of products, or one-hour delivery for an additional charge.

You can get everything from smartphones, to video games, to clothes, toys and even food sent to you.

Well... at least you can if you live somewhere with access to Prime Now, so its rather limited availability means physical stores might not be doomed quite yet.

Still, Prime Now’s availability is growing, and for those who can access it there’s one less reason to ever leave the house again.

Kitchen Stories is based around the idea that anyone can cook, and so the app is as accessible to the culinarily curious as it is to seasoned chefs.

That starts with finding a recipe, allowing you to filter not just based on the course or main ingredient, but also by how long it takes to cook or how many calories it has (among other things).

Then, once you find something you like the look of, you can add it to a personal recipe book with a tap, or add the ingredients to your shopping list.

When it comes time to actually cook you’re in safe hands, with fully illustrated and clearly laid out instructions for each recipe, along with video guides for many of the skills you’ll need.

The app also has a built-in timer and a measurements converter, plus new recipes and videos are added every single week.

Most wallpaper apps aren’t very exciting, but then most wallpaper apps aren’t made by Google. Simply named ‘Wallpaper’, this is an app you’ll find pre-installed on the Pixel and Pixel XL, but it’s compatible with other Android devices too.

The app lets you pick from a range of wallpapers across several categories, including Earth, landscapes, cityscapes, life and textures, with the option to have it automatically change the wallpaper each day.

The app also lets you have a separate wallpaper on your lock screen and home screen, but what really makes it stand out is simply the quality of the offerings. Images are sourced from Google Earth, Google+ and elsewhere, and while the selection isn’t as wide as some wallpaper apps the quality is universally high.

If you’re a fan of Facebook Messenger’s chat bubbles then you’ll probably love Flychat. It’s a similar concept – putting a small bubble with a contact’s image to the side of whatever screen you’re on when they send you a message.

You can move the bubble if it’s in the way, and tap it to read or reply to the message, at which point a larger screen will appear over whatever you were looking at, but won’t take you away from the app or page you were on.

It’s designed to both be unobtrusive and mean you won’t have to leave the app or game you’re in to respond to messages.

Where it beats Facebook Messenger is in being able to grab messages from WhatsApp, Telegram, Hangouts, Line, Skype, Twitter, Threema, Textra, Facebook Messenger and Plus Messenger, and that list is likely to grow over time.

So wherever you’re getting contacted from there’s a good chance you’ll be able to respond through Flychat.

Ever felt betrayed by the weather forecast? Then you might want to check out Climendo, as rather than relying on a single forecast it pulls data from up to nine providers depending on where you are.

The app then creates a combined forecast using data from the most accurate providers in your region and tells you how certain it is of the forecast’s accuracy, so you’ll know exactly what to expect and never again find yourself wearing shorts in a storm.

Hourly and daily forecasts are available, and you can look up to ten days ahead, though of course the accuracy drops off the further forward you look.

If you want a second opinion you can also see what each individual forecast provider reckons the weather is going to be doing.

Climendo isn’t as feature packed as some weather apps. It doesn’t offer widgets and nor can you see details like humidity and pressure, but it’s likely to get the basics of how wet you’ll get right, and that’s surely the most important thing.

Smartphone cameras have come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, but they still tend to struggle in low-light, turning out dull, noisy images.

Light EQ is a simple, free tool which aims to help with that, allowing you to use a slider to increase the exposure of underexposed photos.

It can also improve the contrast and vibrancy of an image and correct uneven lighting, and it does it all with a single slider, working out on its own what needs fixing.

Light EQ works surprisingly well, bringing out details which can hardly be seen in dark originals and generally creating a much more useable image.

It’s not a miracle worker, it can’t add details which were completely absent, and photos which started noisy will generally still be noisy once you’re finished with them, but if you just want to add some light to a shot, this is a slick, simple solution.

Google Duo is essentially the search giant's answer to FaceTime, except unlike Apple's video calling service Duo works on both Android and iOS, so you won't have to ignore your iPhone-toting friends.

High-quality free one-to-one video calls over Wi-Fi or mobile data are at the core of Google Duo, but it's got some standout features as well, most notably 'Knock Knock', which lets you see a video preview of the caller before you decide whether to answer or not.

There's strong security too thanks to end-to-end encryption, and as there's no need to sign up for an account, you just need to input your phone number to get started.

We've all been there. You've decided you want to watch a very specific show or film and now need to hunt through all six billion different streaming sites to see if or where it's available.

But what if there was another way? What if you could just search once and get back a list of locations where your content can be found?

That's what JustWatch does, you simply tell it what country you're in and which sites and services you're interested in when you first download the app, after which it will bring back every relevant search result from then on.

That's reason enough for stream fiends to grab it, especially as it's free, but there's more here, including lists of the latest releases on all of your subscribed services, so you'll never miss a new Netflix series again.

Your phone app probably has smart dialing. There's a good chance it has a blacklist too and support for favorites and groups. It's less likely to have caller ID, a selection of themes and customizable gesture controls.

But PixelPhone does, in fact you can tweak and customize almost every aspect of it, from the default action when you tap on a contact to the size of the dial pad.

There's very little that you could reasonably expect from a phone app that PixelPhone can't do, though to unlock the call recording feature you'll have to pay for the pro version (£2.69/US$2.99).

But you get a whole lot for free and it really embodies the spirit of Android, by allowing you to tweak the look and feel of the app until you're happy.

Ever wanted to bring all your old Warhammer pieces or children's toys to life? Well with Motion you can, or at least to some kind of stop motion life.

The app couldn't be simpler: you just point your phone at whatever you want to animate, press the big yellow button on the screen, then slightly move anything that you want to show in motion. From that, press the button again and continue like that until you've created your masterpiece.

Once all the footage is in place you can play it back, adjust the frame rate if needed and remove any pictures that you forgot to get your hands out of.

You can always go back and add more frames to a project at any point, so you don't need to set aside a whole afternoon to get an intricate animation done in one go. Once you finally are finished you can save it to your phone and send it to your friends/your kids/anyone else who'll still talk to you after seeing your shonky stop motion.

The YouTube app does a good job of bringing convenient access to millions of videos but there's one glaring limitation: You can't multitask with it. If you go back to your home screen or jump across to another app the video stops playing.

Flytube fixes this by opening the video in a small window, which sits over the top of whatever screen you're on, but can be moved to wherever is least in the way.

This will happen automatically if you launch the video from the Flytube app (which itself is a fairly slick take on YouTube), but if you want to stick to the official app you can get the same effect by sharing the video with Flytube.

While viewing a video in a small window isn't ideal, it works well for songs that you're listening to (rather than watching), or for quickly checking something before returning to full screen footage.

You might never be the next Picasso, but with Prisma you can make your photos look convincingly like an artistic masterpiece.

The app sports dozens of filters, largely based around specific painters or art styles and with a single tap (and a bit if a wait - plus you need to be online) you can apply any of these to any of your photos.

There's no shortage of photo filter apps but these are a bit more inventive than most and actually look convincingly like the art styles they're imitating.

Once you've applied your filter of choice you can lessen the effect with a swipe if it's veered too far from the source image for your liking, then you can save and share your creations with another few taps.

Evernote was once the digital notebook of choice and in many ways it still is, but price hikes coupled with stricter limits on the free version mean it's no longer ideal for everyone - so if money is an object then Notebook is a strong alternative.

One of the joys of a physical notebook is often the design of the cover and, while that can never be fully replicated on mobile, Notebook by Zoho takes a good stab at it, by letting you choose from a selection of covers for each of your virtual notebooks, or create your own.

This, coupled with being able to change the color of each note's background, makes for a very colorful app, which feels fun and playful as much as functional.

Notes can be sorted and sifted with pinches and swipes, you can add checklists, audio and images, search for specific content, share your notes with others and upload to the cloud to access them across devices.

For now it lacks some of Evernote's features, such as the ability to collaborate on documents, but it's also a lot newer, so these things may be added over time and it's a remarkably rich offering for something that's completely free.

Ereaders are great for books, but if you want a digital library of magazines a tablet, or even a smartphone, is a better bet and Zinio makes building that library easy.

It's both a storefront and reader, offering over 5,000 different magazines from across the world, though not all in English.

Both major titles and more niche offerings are covered and navigating them on a touchscreen is easy, with swipes to turn pages and pinches or double taps to zoom, or you can just select the 'Text' option to read articles without the images and formatted for your screen.

Your whole library is stored online, so you can access it from other devices, but you can also download your magazines if you want to read them on a plane or elsewhere with no internet connection.

Replying to a message isn't usually hard, but if you're walking, have your hands full or are just swamped with texts a one-tap reply can be useful and Fluenty makes that a possibility.

The app uses AI to generate a series of possible replies to any message you get through SMS, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger or KakaoTalk, then you just have to tap one of them to send it.

The responses aren't always perfect and may not sound like things you'd say, but they generally relate to whatever message you got and you can save your own commonly used replies if its voice doesn't match yours.

And Fluenty works on both smartphones and smartwatches. It's especially useful on the latter, where typing out a message really is a pain, but you might be surprised how often a one-tap response comes in handy on your phone too.

ASAP Launcher at once feels minimalist and powerful, thanks to a wealth of features all tucked away into an intuitive, uncluttered interface.

It only really gives you one true home screen, so if you like having all your apps visible, rather than leaving them in folders or the app drawer, ASAP Launcher might not be for you, but by limiting you it forces you to keep your home screen tidy.

And your apps are never far away. A swipe up from the dock will display your most commonly used apps, while a swipe in from the left edge will bring up the app drawer, which you can quickly swipe through or search.

Most other things are no more than a swipe or two away as well. Swiping the right edge brings up a scrollable bar full of shortcuts and toggles, while swiping left or right from the center of the screen will display your contacts, calendar, the weather and even a to-do list.

And if you don't like the look of ASAP Launcher you can change the theme and highlight colors, or even switch up the icons with custom icon packs.

There are plenty of wallpaper apps for Android, but Walli is a bit different, as all of its wallpapers are made by artists, many of whom are users of the app.

That makes them a bit more unique and the standards seem exceedingly high, yet they're still free to download. If you're feeling creative you can even add your own wallpaper designs and Walli promises that everyone who contributes to the app will get a share of the revenue.

The app is attractively laid out and while there are only a few different ways to filter images it's enjoyable to browse and easy to find something that could help liven up your tired home screens.

A high-quality, feature-packed, easy to use music player with a stylish aesthetic and no cost. That might sound too good to be true, but somehow Pi Music Player delivers on all fronts.

For one thing it looks great (not that you'll probably spend too long looking at it once you've queued some tracks up), but with album artwork and a classy interface you won't mind the time you do spend in front of it.

It also has features you won't find in all players, like a sleep timer which will turn the music off after a set period and a ringtone cutter, allowing you to select the exact point in a song that you want as a ringtone.

But Pi Music Player has the basics covered well too, with an equalizer, several different ways to sort and view your music, multiple themes and easy-to-build playlists.

You're not likely to compose a masterpiece with Music Maker Jam, but if you want to get started in music creation it's a simple, approachable tool and even if you're already an expert it's fun to fiddle around with.

There's less to it than something like Caustic 3, but that means you can learn the basics and start making music that actually sounds good in a matter of minutes, by combining up to eight samples and looping and tweaking them until you're happy.

There are only a few screens you need to worry about and everything is laid out intuitively in a manner that doesn't feel cluttered on a smartphone screen, plus there's a short tutorial to get you started.

A bunch of samples are included for free, but you can buy extras or even record your own if you're really feeling creative.

If you prefer to use emojis and GIFs than words, then Dango could be your saviour. Dubbed an 'emoji assistant' it's essentially a cute little icon which pops up whenever you're using a messaging app. Tap it and it will display relevant emojis, GIFs and stickers to whatever you're typing, so you can quickly add them to your message.

But it can also analyze the text in messages you receive, so you can send a relevant emoji response with a tap, and Dango is smart enough only to display GIFs as an option in apps which fully support them.

Emoji keyboards already exist, but with Dango you can keep using your keyboard of choice and still have speedy access, while the icon is small enough that it's not intrusive when you're happy just with words.

You might understandably be concerned about privacy with the app analyzing your messages, but it promises that data never leaves your device, so the only thing to worry about is an emoji addiction.

Bored of tapping and swiping? Then Gravity Gestures could be for you, as it allows you to launch four apps or functions of your choice with gestures, which for the most part take the form of a couple of quick rotations of your phone.

They're fast and intuitive to do and in many cases can be a lot quicker than hunting out an icon on your home screens. That's especially ideal if you map one of the gestures to something like your camera, where wasted time can mean a missed shot.

The app itself has adverts, but once you've set your gestures up you never need to set foot in it again, so they're not remotely intrusive.

If you've ever wanted to be a patron of the arts now's your chance, as Patreon is designed to help artists find backers and you don't have to be rich to get involved.

Nor do you have to do it purely out of the kindness of your own heart, as just like on Kickstarter you can net rewards for backing projects.

But rather than a one off pledge (and a one off reward), on Patreon you donate an amount every month, and get ongoing rewards, such as monthly concept art and behind the scenes access.

The app is easy to navigate and gives you the ability to browse projects, follow creators and read your messages, so you can invest in creativity wherever you are.

Letting a child loose on your phone or tablet is asking for trouble. If they don't find something inappropriate, fire off a gibberish email to your boss or accidentally delete all your photos you've got off lucky, but with Kids Place - Parental Control you can create a safe environment for them, where they can't access anything you don't want them to.

The app lets you choose exactly which other apps you want to allow them to use and then they can launch them from within Kids Place itself and won't be able to exit to the main home screen without a PIN.

In app purchases can also be blocked, screen time controls can be added if you don't want them glued to the tablet all day and you can even set Kids Place to automatically launch when your device is turned on.

The look of the app feels slightly lacking in polish, but it's easy for children to navigate, with big icons to launch other whitelisted apps.

Playing music out of smartphone speakers is never ideal, but with AmpMe you can at least pump up the volume, if not the quality, to impressive levels.

The app lets you start playing a song through SoundCloud, YouTube or your own music collection and then any nearby friends with the app can join the party, with the music syncing up and playing out of everyone's phones.

It works over both Wi-Fi and mobile data, so if you're in a field with no proper speakers AmpMe could get the party started. But it can also connect to tablets, iOS devices and Bluetooth speakers, so you're not limited to just Android or just tinny phone sound.

It's a shame there aren't more supported music sources and the app does have adverts, but it's free and it works at the push of a button.

If you only have one movie information app on your phone it should probably be IMDB, but if you have two then Cinematics makes for a strong second choice.

It's an incredibly fast way of finding out what the consensus on a film is, with IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings shown at the top of each listing.

From there you're just a tap away from trailers, reviews, cast lists and similar films, or if you just want to know what's popular, what's currently in cinemas or what's coming soon you can see all that from tabs on the home page.

It lacks the trivia, community and more in depth details found on IMDB, but for the basics it's a lot faster to navigate.

Google seems to be taking a strength in numbers approach to messaging apps, so joining Hangouts, Messenger and the soon to be launched Allo and Duo we have Spaces.

Essentially Spaces is for group conversations, but it's as much about sharing as talking, because you can easily drop links, pictures and videos too, using Chrome and YouTube, both of which are built into the app.

With that in mind each of your spaces is likely to have a specific theme or purpose, rather than just be used for general chatter. Whether you're planning a group holiday or just dedicating a space to sharing the latest funny memes, Spaces is a good way to do it.

Each post can be commented on by members of the space, which means conversations are split up into mini discussions around each post, so it's easy to skim through if you're looking for something or have no interest in a specific post. With built in search tools you can easily find long lost posts too.

After a lengthy stint in the US, Android Pay is now available in the UK too and by working on all contactless payment machines with any NFC-enabled Android 4.4 or above device it's open to a huge amount of people.

Paying with your phone is fast, convenient and secure, as it's contactless and your card number isn't shared during the transaction.

You can store all of your credit and debit cards on it, along with gift cards, so you almost won't need a wallet any more.

There are a handful of banks that don't yet support Android Pay, but assuming yours isn't one of them there's little reason not to at least give it a try.

With Call Recorder – ACR the days of having a pen and paper to hand to write down important information mid-call are over.

The app will record your calls for you, as you can probably guess from the name, and it records both sides of the conversation, so you won't just be listening to the soothing tones of your own voice.

If you regularly find yourself scrambling for a pen you can set it to start recording every call automatically, but if you want to be a bit pickier that's easy to do too, with various filters or the option to just start recording manually.

Add in a range of different recording formats, support for cloud storage and a simple system for playing back recordings, which allows you to pause and jump around to different points in them, and Call Recorder – ACR is a full-featured solution. Just remember to tell people you're recording to stay legal and all that.

Periscope, Twitter's live video streaming app, has made its way to Android and it's an essential download for anyone who likes the immediacy of Twitter but craves something more visual.

You can easily create your own live streams or watch other people's, send comments and hearts in real time and if you miss the action there's a 24 hour window with which to replay streams.

There are a few other tools, like being able to cherry-pick who can see your broadcast or just send it out to the world at large. But in short it's simple enough to dive straight into but has enough to it that you'll keep coming back, whether you're more creator or viewer.

WhatsApp is one of the most essential apps you can install on your Android device, especially if you have friends and family across the world.

Rather than using up your SMS allowance by sending text messages, WhatsApp lets you send messages over any Wi-Fi or mobile data connection instead. You can also send and receive photos with no size restrictions, send videos, make calls and have group chats. Best of all, if you're using Wi-Fi (or you have unlimited mobile data) none of this will cost you anything.

Similar to Netflix, Spotify has been pretty quick to establish itself as the top music streaming service, and the Spotify Music app brings some great features to your Android device, turning it in to a pocket jukebox that delivers your favourite tunes no matter where you are.

There are over 30 million songs to choose from, so you'll never be lacking something to listen to and with various playlists, including an ever changing one tailored to your own tastes, it's easy to discover new music too.

Even better you can now listen to Spotify music for free on Android, although if you want to download songs for offline listening and without any ads, then a Spotify Premium account is worth investing in.

Evernote is an excellent app for your Android device that lets you stash and sync all your text notes, voice memos and files on your phone and access them through a desktop computer.

It's a brilliant productivity tool that lets you organise and search your notes so you always have exactly what you need at your fingertips.

The paid premium version unlocks offline access and passcode protection, but for free you still get a vast, feature-packed digitial notebook that's easy to navigate.

Boost your productivity with Pushbullet, which lets you view your Android phone's notifications and messages directly on your desktop PC. It means if you get a text message you can read it there and then without having to take your phone out of your pocket or bag.

You can also quickly send files from your computer to your phone with only a few clicks, and if you regularly find that you email links to yourself just to open them on your smartphone, then you'll never have to do that again thanks to Pushbullet's link sharing features.

Snapseed is Google's own photo editor that's been designed from the ground up to make tweaking your snaps as easy and fun as possible on a touchscreen Android device.

Although the interface is simple enough to use with just your fingers, there's also a lot of depth to this app as well. You use tools to tweak and enhance your photographs to make them look the best they ever have, as well as playing around with fun filters that can transform the photos you've taken on your smartphone or tablet.

Instagram is the go-to app for quickly taking photos, adding quirky filters to them and sharing them with the world. Over 300 million people use Instagram and thanks to the social aspects and effortless interface it's easy to see why it's such a hit.

You're not limited to sharing your snaps on Instagram either, as you can easily add your photos to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more with just a few taps.

Or if you're not much of a photographer just follow other people and keep up to date with their lives and adventures, one picture at a time.

There are probably hundreds of photo apps around, but Google Photos stands out as it gives you unlimited storage for photos and videos, all for free.

That's reason enough to jump on board, especially as it works not just on Android but on iOS and computers too.

But with basic editing tools and the ability to make collages and albums this is more than just photo and video storage, it aims to be your first and last stop after taking a picture. To achieve that it will need a few more features, but it's well on its way.

If you're serious about running or cycling then you should be serious about Strava. As smartphone fitness tools go it's one of the best, allowing you to track your performance, set goals and see daily progress updates.

There are leaderboards and challenges to give it a competitive edge and if you're ever not sure where to run or cycle you can find user created routes on the app, or share your own. All of that comes free of charge, while a premium version adds even more tools.

Even in 2015 there are still times and places where we can't get an internet connection, but this doesn't have to mean you can't read websites, however, thanks to the excellent Pocket app. It allows you to save articles, news stories, blog posts, videos and much more, letting you read and watch them offline.

You can also synchronise your saved articles across every device you've installed Pocket on, allowing you to pick up where you left off and continue reading. With unlimited storage you can build up a whole library of content and the app even makes recommendations of new things it thinks you might like.

Uber is transforming the way we travel. You can quickly and easily request a taxi using the app and get picked up within minutes. You can also compare rates and get quotes, as well as paying with Google Wallet, PayPal or by adding your credit card to a secure Uber account.

The Uber service is available in over 50 countries, and it's rapidly growing. Give it a try and you'll never want to hail a taxi the old fashioned way again. It's fast, convenient and a whole lot more high-tech than taxis have ever been before.

Arriving in a brand new city is always exciting but it can also be a little daunting, especially if you need to get around using public transport. Citymapper - Bus, Tube, Rail is a brilliant app that brings you real-time information on public transport for cities around the world.

You can easily plan your route using all kinds of transport, from buses to ferries, and you can be kept up to date with real-time data, including any disruptions or cancellations. An essential app for any city-bound traveller.

Google Maps is probably already on your phone, but as the best free mapping option around it's well worth highlighting.

Transit directions, live traffic updates, voice-guided GPS navigation, Street View and more are all included, making this more feature-packed than even most paid options. Importantly it's detailed and accurate too, with information on millions of places, so you'll never be late or get lost again.

Whether you're trying to find your way around or just want to find somewhere new to eat, Google Maps has you covered.

It might not be quite as glamorous as other media players, but if you want a no-nonsense app that can play pretty much any media file under the sun, then VLC for Android is the app for you.

It spent a long time in beta, but it now delivers a stable, full-featured experience, complete with support for subtitles, multi-track audio, DVD ISOs and network streams.

That's all packaged in an easy to use player, with widgets and gesture controls. So you don't need to worry about getting your media to work, you just need to launch VLC and press play. The app will do the rest.

Dropbox is probably the best known tool for syncing and sharing your files, photos and videos across all your devices, and its popularity is well earned. Any files that you save to your Dropbox folder on any of your PCs or devices will appear in the Dropbox app.

It took a while for Dropbox to come to Android, and after a shaky start this app is now essential with a number of helpful new features that let you save photos and videos from your device straight to Dropbox. As well as quickly editing your documents from within the app and easily sharing them with other people, or just keeping them safely backed up.

IF was formerly known as IFTTT, which stands for "if this then that" and handily sums up what this app does. It's a simple ethos that gives you a huge amount of options for making your Android device even smarter.

You can create simple statements such as "if any photo is taken then add them to Dropbox", or "if my location is home, send a text message to my partner saying "I'm home!"" which can also be shared with other IF users. You'll be amazed how much you can do with such a simple premise.

One of the best things about Android is how customisable it is, and there are loads of apps out there that can help you change the way Android displays and launches apps to suit your preferences.

Out of these Nova Launcher is arguably the best, giving you complete control over your home screen. You can change the icons, themes, colours and layout, completely hide apps that you don't use, set up gesture controls and add funky affects when navigating your phone.

It might sound bloated but you can use as many or as few of these features as you want, so if you want to keep your Android experience slick and minimalist Nova Launcher can do that too.

There's a good chance that you've heard of Skype, the excellent voice and video service (with instant messaging thrown in for good measure as well). The Android app integrates brilliantly with your device, making it easy to make and receive calls.

Calls to other Skype users over Wi-Fi are free, but you can also make calls to mobiles and landlines as well. You'll need Skype credit for this, but you could find yourself saving a small fortune, especially if you're ringing people in other countries.

Google Fit is an excellent app for keeping track of your activity and you don't need any additional fitness trackers; you can just carry your Android phone around with you. If you do have Android Wear-compatible fitness trackers and wearables, then Google Fit gets even better, as it can gather data from them, displaying it all in one place.

Fitness goals for dailys step counts, calories burned, or time or distance of exercise can also be set to help you reach the level of fitness you desire, as well as keeping you motivated.

Map My Fitness Workout Trainer is another great app for keeping tabs on your workout regime. As the name suggests it uses the GPS positioning features of your Android smartphone to log your runs, letting you get an accurate look at your workout regime.

Voice feedback will keep you in the loop even when you're in the process of working out, giving you information on your pace, the route you're taking, calories burned and plenty more.

Get friends involved too and you can view each other's activity, helping you keep each other motivated and take part in a little friendly competition.

If you fancy learning a foreign language then make sure you download Duolingo: Learn Languages Free, as it's one of those rare apps that manages to be both educational and fun, ensuring that you'll keep coming back for more to brush up on your language skills, with bite-sized, genuinely useful lessons and tests.

Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, and English can all be learned, it's completely free with no ads or hidden fees and it's one of the best ways you can learn a new language with your Android device.

If you need to quickly and easily find out what something means in another language, then there's no better way than with Google Translate. You can translate between 90 languages and even converse naturally with speakers of other languages and let Google do the translation.

One of the best features lets you use the camera of your Android device to translate real-world objects such as signposts and posters. Just point, shoot and translate! Couple this with Google Maps and you've got all you need to travel the world.

If you want to keep your various accounts and logins secure then it makes sense to have a strong, unique and regularly changed password for each. But unless you have a photographic memory that also means you'll be hitting the password reset button roughly 6000 times a day.

That's not ideal and it's where password managers, such as 1Password, come in. This gives you an online database of all your passwords and automatically fills in login fields, so the only password you need to remember is the one for 1Password itself.

Except now you don't even need to do that, as the app has added fingerprint support for devices running Android Marshmallow.

1Password is securely encrypted, so your logins are safe and it works across Android, iOS, PC and Mac. The core app is free but to unlock all the features you will need to make a one time in-app purchase.

PayPal prides itself on being an easy, secure way to send and receive money and that's never been more true than in its app.

The Android app has been overhauled to make it as fast and intuitive to use as possible. The main page puts icons for sending and receiving money front and centre and to do so you just tap on one and select one of your contacts, or enter their email or phone number. From there it's just a few more taps to have it sent or requested.

There are other tools if you need them, including the ability to change your account details, change your currency and even pay for things in store using the app and they're all easy to navigate as well.

It's all wrapped up in an incredibly stylish interface and secured with a password or fingerprint, so if someone gets access to your phone they don't automatically get access to your PayPal account.

Counting your calories is a sure fire way to lose weight, but it's a bit of a faff isn't it? The Calorie Counter – MyFitnessPal app makes watching what you eat easier than ever. A huge database of food is at hand to help you log your meals, and an excellent barcode scanner makes it simple to log your food throughout the day.

Along with calories, the nutritional information of various food and snacks is recorded and you can set goals to help you keep you on track, making it a whole lot easier to choose a clementine over a chocolate bar.

Endomondo - Running & Walking bills itself as the only personal trainer you'll ever need, and it's a pretty darn accurate claim. No matter what sports or fitness activity you perform, this app will track your progress and give you information on speed, distance, calories burnt and more.

You can keep a training diary to view your progress and set workout goals and challenges to help keep you motivated. Plus social features allow you to share and compete with your friends.

While Endomondo works well on its own it can also be linked up to other apps and wearables, so you can get a complete picture of your progress.

Finding time in our lives to exercise can be tough, but the Johnson & Johnson 7 Minute Workout can help you fit exercises into even the most hectic of schedules.

The official app of the scientifically proven body-weight workout is designed for all fitness levels and contains over 30 minutes of special videos to help you get fit with a seven minute routine that only needs a wall, chair and a bit of floor space. So not only do you need very little time, but also very little space or equipment. Secretly we hate this app, as it's killed most of our excuses for being lazy.

Compare millions of flights from airlines around the world with the Skyscanner app and grab yourself a real bargain.

In only a few seconds you'll be able search and compare flights to find the cheapest ones available, or look for the best deals on specific airlines or cabin classes.

You can book your chosen flight directly from the app while you're on the go. You can also search for random destinations to give you inspiration for your next holiday.

If you're a sports fanatic and need to keep up with the results no matter what sport or team you support, then theScore is an essential app that you'll want to make sure is installed on your Android device.

Covering all the major sports including football (both real and American), basketball, hockey, golf and much more, you'll get the latest news and alerts to keep you up to date with any game. Player Card Profiles is a particularly great feature that gives you in-depth stats and analysis of players.

TuneIn Radio turns your Android device into a global radio, allowing you to stream over 100,000 radio stations from around the world. No matter what type of music you're in to, it's almost guaranteed that there's a radio station somewhere in the world that's dedicated to that genre. It's not just music though, there are also podcasts, sports and talk radio.

Forget messing about with knobs, TuneIn Radio's interface is clear and easy to use on a touchscreen, and you can tune in with just a tap. You can also save your favourites, so it's easy to get back to that Vietnamese comedy broadcast you discovered at 3AM.

Sometimes locking your phone isn't enough. Say you want to lend it to a friend or colleague but don't want to risk them digging up those ill-advised photos you took in Ibiza or that Harry Potter fanfic you've got planned out in your notes app.

With App Lock there's no danger of anyone getting into anything you don't want them to, as you can use it to lock individual apps with a PIN, pattern or fingerprint.

The app itself is mostly just a long list of your other apps, with toggles for whether you want to lock them or not, so there's not much to it, but it does what it sets out to without any bloat.

The lockscreens it presents you with look good too, with colours to match the apps they're locking. But if you're using a fingerprint scanner you won't waste too much time looking at them anyway, as you'll be swiftly in.

With millions of child-friendly videos, YouTube has the potential to be a digital playground for kids, the problem is there's also a lot of unsuitable content. That's where YouTube Kids comes in, automatically filtering unsuitable content and providing a simple, colourful interface which your child can easily navigate.

It's slick and polished, which is no surprise coming Google. It's not all just entertainment either, as there's a 'Learning' category too, and there are parental controls, allowing you to add a timer or block certain content.

Being automated there's a chance some unsuitable stuff will still slip through, but if you switch the search option off your child will be limited to the app's recommendations. This still gives them a lot to watch, while completely cutting them off from the wider world of YouTube.

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.

Rivals have sprung up but SwiftKey is still the king, with accurate predictions and a massive number of customisation options.

You used to have to pay for the app, but now you don't have to spend a penny to give your keyboard a big boost.

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It’s World Backup Day: a reminder to be careful with your precious data

Today is World Backup Day, which serves as a handy reminder to us all that backing up your files is an absolute necessity, because you never know when disaster can strike – and the ensuing loss of data can be very painful if you’re not prepared.

The official slogan of the campaign – which is an independent initiative that started out on Reddit – is: “Don’t be an April fool. Be prepared. Back up your files on March 31.”

The website for the initiative highlights some key backup-related statistics, including the fact that 30% of people have never backed up, and one in 10 PCs are infected with a virus every month (potentially causing data loss).

Storage vendor Verbatim has some of its own statistics, and found that in a survey which questioned folks about how often they back up their home PC, 18% had never done so – and 7% said they didn’t know how to. The largest majority, 39%, said they backed up ‘whenever I remember’, which probably isn’t very often.

Only 18% performed monthly backups, 9% did weekly backups, and 4% backed up daily.

As for the most prevalent reason people fail to duplicate their data – 25% admitted that they were simply ‘too lazy’ to perform regular backups.

Hardware hazards

Verbatim’s statistics also explored the reasons why data loss happens, with the most popular cause being hardware failure at 52% of all incidents. 13% of data loss incidents were caused by software corruption, 7% by accidental damage, and 3% by malware.

As Verbatim notes, it’s a sensible idea to create at least two backup copies of your original data, one of which can be stored locally (say on an external drive), but the other should be stored off-site (for example in the cloud) just in case of a really terrible disaster like a fire which hits your home or office.

Of course, here at TechRadar, we’ve also got plenty of advice on keeping on top of backups – such as our roundup of 10 essential tools for backing up and protecting your PC.

Don’t want to pay to back up your PC? Then check out our feature on the best free backup software of 2017. And if you’re heading cloud-wards, here’s our piece on the 10 best online backup services.

PCs aside, we also discuss how to back up your iPhone and iPad, and we have the same advice for Android devices.

However you back up, just make sure you do it – and on a regular schedule, not just as and when you feel like it.

• It’s also a good idea to run with the best antivirus software

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Facebook now lets you hold fundraisers with your friends

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but a well-knit community can also come in a pinch for financial emergencies, such as an unexpected medical expense, disaster relief, or college tuition.

To help enable more peer-to-peer giving, Facebook is expanding its charitable giving tools to allow users to set up GoFundMe-style fundraisers for themselves, a nonprofit organization, or another individual.

The feature currently lets a user set up a page to help address one of six specified monetary needs: education, medicine, pet medicine, crisis relief, personal emergencies, and funerals.

From there, the fundraiser undergoes a 24-hour-long review process before going live for your Facebook friends to share, comment on, and donate to. You can also track which of your friends contributed to your cause, or invite others to join in.

For existing nonprofit pages, Facebook is also adding donation buttons that go up alongside Facebook Live broadcasts — perfect for chipping in a little without interrupting your digital-era telethon or charity livestream.

Facebook's fundraiser feature rolls out in beta starting this week for users in the US. As a side note, the social media giant has also made it clear that you must be 18 or older to set up a crowdfunding page.

• How to master Facebook Live

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Twitter makes a change to replies that could get users talking more

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Get 50GB free VPN bandwidth every month for life

Samsung turned the Note 7 disaster into an S8 feature

 The greatest trick Samsung ever pulled was spinning its biggest misfire into a feature. And it happened right under our noses. In fact, not only did the company complete the transformation in plain sight, it used its highest profile platform to do it. Yesterday’s big Galaxy S8 event marked the finishing touches. Buried deep in the pomp and circumstance of the press conference was the… Read More

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Crunch Report | New Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8+ Phones

Samsung releases its new phones the S8 and S8+, pet-sitting companies Rover and DogVacay merge, Lyft launches Lyft Shuttle, a new feature that works like a bus route, and five reasons why BuzzFeed is going public. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

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Live from Samsung’s Galaxy S8 press conference

 It’s been well over a year since the company unveiled its last flagship and, well, a lot has happened to the company in the interim. After several months of recalls and some bizarre executive scandals, this is the moment where the company needs to dust itself off and show the world what helped make it such a smartphone powerhouse in the first place. Read More

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Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ are exactly what leaks suggested, and that’s a good thing

 Pretty much everything you’ve already read about the Samsung Galaxy S8 is true. And that’s a good thing. Whether by accident or design, the company did a truly abysmal job keeping its new flagship under wraps. Read More

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Samsung’s Bixby lays the groundwork for the company’s smart home play

 The Galaxy S8’s main selling point still isn’t fully formed. Announced the week leading up to today’s main event, Bixby is as much a key building block for the company moving forward as is the shiny new piece of a flagship phone. The company is finally ready to make its play for the smart home, and the new messenger is going to be a key component. Read More

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Samsung adds a controller to the Gear VR, will bundle both with Galaxy S8 pre-orders

 Samsung wasn’t going to get out of today’s Unpacked event without an update on the VR front. The company has long had the best low-cost VR headset (courtesy of a partnership with Oculus), and the package is getting a bit better with the addition of a controller to the mix. And as a show of goodwill (in case anyone was wary of jumping back in with the company after last… Read More

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Samsung’s DeX proves the dream of shoving a small computer into a larger one isn’t dead

 Since the dawn of machines, mankind has dreamed of shoving one small computer into a larger one. The vision resurfaced last week in the form of a strange Apple patent for a laptop-style device that slotted in an iPhone in place of the trackpad. Of course, Apple patents all sorts of crazy stuff. That’s just a thing that Apple does. The actual possibilities of such a device coming to… Read More

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It’s official: Windows 10 Creators Update will be out on April 11

Microsoft has announced that the Creators Update for Windows 10 will indeed go live on the date which had previously been rumored, namely April 11.

Of course, that’s the initial date for when the rollout starts. Just as with the previous Anniversary Update, Microsoft is deploying the upgrade in stages, so only some folks will get it in that first week.

As we discussed last week, the Anniversary Update arrived at a pretty measured pace, with only 35% of Windows 10 PCs receiving it in the first two months. Microsoft may well have learned lessons in this process though, so the Creators Update could be deployed at a faster rate. Fingers crossed…

As well as revealing the official launch date, Microsoft recapped some of the fresh features coming with the Creators Update, including the new Paint 3D app which allows you to easily create three-dimensional objects from scratch (or turn a 2D image into a 3D one).

Beaming with pride

Then there’s also Beam, which brings built-in game broadcasting to Windows 10, with no extra software or hardware required. You’ll be able to stream gaming sessions with a minimum of fuss – simply bring up the Game Bar (by pressing Windows + G), and click broadcast – plus Beam offers a whole host of extras to facilitate interacting and chatting with your viewing audience.

Don't forget Game Mode, too, which can intelligently dedicate more resources to your PC games to ensure smoother running.

And following the embarrassment of Windows 10’s browser coming in last place at the Pwn2Own hacking event recently, Microsoft underlined security improvements to Edge, claiming that it blocks 9% more phishing sites and 13% more malware than Chrome (according to an NSS Labs report – note that Google’s Chrome won the Pwn2Own contest).

The software giant also observed that the Creators Update brings a number of new features to Edge, including advanced tab management to help you better organise all your open tabs, and the ability to read e-books (purchased from Books in Windows Store) in the browser across all your Windows 10 hardware.

Are you excited for the Creators Update? In actual fact, it is possible to download it right now via a leaked Microsoft utility, although it might not be wise to do so, and that’s certainly an action you take at your own risk – as we discussed yesterday.

• These are the best laptop deals this month

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