11 Best Android Apps in 2020.
Another year has come to an end, so what better way to look back and remember some of the best Android apps you should be using?
We selected Android apps that exceeded expectations in a number of categories. From the best mobile game to the best productivity app, you’ll find all the very best Android has to offer as of January 2020 in this list.
- Best Mobile Game – Call of Duty Mobile
- Best Photo & Gallery App – 1Gallery
- Best Video Streaming App – Netflix
- Top News Flipboard App
- Best App Notes – Google Keep
- Best Productivity App – Any.do
- Best VPN App – Private Internet Access
- Best Cloud Storage App – Google Disk.
- Best shopping app – Microsoft Edge (with honey).
- The best team chat app is Slack
- Best Fitness App – Google Fit
Best Android Apps – Overview
Best Mobile Game Overall – Call of Duty Mobile
Call of Duty: Mobile broke records with 100 million downloads in its first week. No wonder you take it apart. Call of Duty: Mobile is the first real smartphone remake of Call of Duty, the world’s most popular first-person shooter.
There have been many Call of Duty mobile games before, but nothing comes close to replicating what the console versions do. Enjoy classic maps, traditional game modes like team death and search and destroy, and other hits like zombies and battle royale.
Call of Duty: Mobile has impressive 3D graphics and touch controls that are intuitive for everyone. It’s easy to get up to speed with the game and get started right away.
But the variety of game modes and progression system will keep players coming back, perhaps even more than PUBG Mobile.
Best Photo & Gallery App – 1Gallery
1Gallery is a great new gallery app released for Android in 2019 that you can use to edit photos, videos, view past memories, and keep your media safe. The special feature of 1Gallery is that you can hide photos and folders and lock them with PIN, password or fingerprint ID.
All hidden content in 1Gallery is encrypted, so your files must be protected from viewing by strangers until you enable any cloud backup services.
1Gallery has several basic photo editing tools that let you crop, rotate, or add filters to your photos. You can also crop video to cut content. Many other features are available in 1Gallery, such as light and dark theme, as well as support for RAW files, SVG files and more.
Best Video Streaming App – Netflix
There are a few big names in streaming TV and movies, but Netflix, the predecessor to the niche, continues to lead the way. Netflix has reinvested its huge profits to sell headlines of exclusive content.
Sure, Amazon Prime, HBO, and even Disney + are doing the same thing, but Netflix has been doing it for longer and they’ve created a great selection of shows.
Netflix also invests in regional content, so whether from the US, UK, South Korea, or elsewhere, you can expect to find content for yourself from both third-party sources and exclusive Netflix content.
The Netflix app is well-designed too, and it’s easy to search, add to favorites, and even download your favorite content.
Best News App – Flipboard
When Flipboard first hit, it was a revolutionary app. Flipboard may be showing its age now after launching 10 years ago, but it still has one of the best systems for preparing your own news.
With Flipboard, you can select areas of interest, and the app will deliver both carefully curated content from editors and automatically suggested content using Flipboard‘s algorithms.
The more you use Flipboard, the more time you’ll have to turn the app into your personal news space. You can create personal journals to include your favorite sources on specific topics. For example, you might create a magazine for esports and another for, say, golf.
Best Note-Taking App – Google Keep
There are many powerful note-taking apps on Android, but Google Keep stands out for its convenience. Note taking is about being able to jot down thoughts and plans as quickly as possible, but note taking apps should improve on this by making your notes really legible in the future and easy to find through search.
That’s why Google Keep is ranked number one in our 2019 Android app roundup. Just open the app, hit the plus button and your new note will be created. From here, you have the controls to quickly add images, text, photos, voice memos or checkboxes.
Because Google Keep has the power of Google, these simple features are expanded. For example, your voice recordings will be transcribed and you will receive a full text version to be appended to it. This makes it easier to find specific voice memos.
You can organize your notes into different categories, share them with others, and even decrypt text from photos. And since it’s linked to your Google account, all notes sync across any device you use Google Keep on.
Best Productivity App – Any.do
If you need more than just a note-taking app, Any.do is perfect. It starts by creating a quick note of what you need to do. For example, buying a birthday present. From there, you can start adding more tasks, setting due dates, and syncing all tasks to your calendar.
Any.do also integrates well with other apps. You can use Alexa or Google Assistant to schedule tasks hands-free. You can also create tasks and set reminders on WhatsApp.
You can sign in to your Google profile and sync everything with all the devices you use, making it easier for you to be organized and productive all day, every day.
Best VPN App – Private Internet Access
There are many free VPNs out there, but we decided to go with a VPN with a paid subscription. In particular, a VPN application that you can trust. When you connect to a VPN, you are sending all of your data through a third party server, which means you must trust that third party.
Many free VPN apps, and even some paid ones, will log your data and often state in their terms that they “can†send this data to third-party providers. This is more of a threat to your privacy than no VPN at all.
Private Internet Access keeps no logs about you, and using a VPN for new Netflix content works wonders unlike many others. With PIA, you can switch between locations in up to 33 countries and set VPN exceptions or inclusions for each app. Private Internet access also has unlimited bandwidth for users at a reasonable price of $ 9.99 per month or $ 74.99 per year.
Best Cloud Storage App – Google Drive
With an Android phone, it will be difficult for you not to use your Google account, especially when it comes to syncing. So it comes as no surprise that we offer Google Drive as the best cloud storage for Android.
All accounts get 15GB of storage for free, and you get built-in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. You can store anything in Google Drive, from important documents to movies and memorable photos. However, we recommend downloading Google Photos so that the latter can take advantage of unlimited photo storage.
Google Drive‘s powerful search features come in handy in Google Drive for finding specific files. In terms of backups, everything is synced through your Google account, so you can set up automatic backups of files and photos.
Best Shopping App – Microsoft Edge (with Honey)
We chose Microsoft Edge as the best shopping app of 2019 because it now has built-in Honey integration Honey is an app that can automatically apply coupon codes when you checkout on hundreds of different websites. This way, you can buy what you like online and hopefully find a better deal.
Honey doesn’t have a separate Android app yet, but we love it. Apple’s standalone app is a little messy. It forces you to go through the app to shop for items and you have to deal with Honey directly when it comes to orders.
In contrast, the integration of Honey into Microsoft Edge reflects the extension of the Honey desktop. To enable it, go to Microsoft Edge settings, tap coupons and select Honey Activation.
Best Group Chat App – Slack
Microsoft Teams comes second, but for us Slack is still the best choice for collaborating with others, managing chats between large groups of users, and keeping track of everything that matters.
One of the main problems with chat apps is that not everyone will be online to see every message, so the chat app needs to have a powerful search function so users can catch up when they’re online again.
Slack‘s search engine is very powerful. You can search by time constraints, such as messages between very specific time periods or dates. You can search for posts containing specific words, search specific channels for specific phrases, or, well, learn more about Slack‘s search tools here.
Slack also has great app integration support, making it easy to manage tasks with third-party platforms like Trello, Google Drive, and Zendesk. You can send messages or call members of your Slack team, or send messages notifying them in chat, also using @commands.
Best Fitness App – Google Fit
One of the reasons Google apps get such high ratings is because Google isn’t trying to sell additional features in their apps – they just want to improve the user experience on their standard Android operating system. This means that Google Fit, like many other Google apps, has completely free features.
Google Fit has all the typical things you’d expect, including a step counter, exercise tracker for running and cycling, and further exercise tracking when using your Android smartwatch.
But Google Fit has also redesigned it to stay mobile. You are given a record of your minutes of movement, which is tracked as you do simple things, such as walking downstairs or getting out of the office for coffee.
You also get heart rate points, which are tracked every time you do moderate activity for a minute. With these features, you can focus on being more active when you can’t fit in with your workout, and also get motivated to exercise when you have more free time.
Summary
This brings us to the end of our roundup of the best Android apps. This list serves to showcase the best that Android has to offer in several different categories, but if you feel like we’re missing something, don’t hesitate to contact us.
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