The Best Android Apps

Social

Twitter: The official Twitter app is good enough for almost everyone. Along with giving you a clean, easy way to keep track of your timeline and updating your status, Twitter for Android also has a snazzy swipe down to refresh feature. Free.

Facebook: Facebook is finally decent on Android and now actually brings some unique features, namely the front page side-scroll of friend's recent photos and a pull up notification window. Free.

Google+: It's Google's big soiree into social "sharing". The app has it all: a stream that shows what your friends are talking about (like Facebook), Huddle which is an easy to set up group chats (like GroupMe) and will even automatically upload the pictures you take on your phone to the cloud (like iCloud). Once you get a Google+ invite, one of those features will pull you in.

Tango: Tango is the best (and clearest!) way to video chat with your buddies, Android or iPhone, over 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. Free.

Handcent SMS: Handcent puts SMS on steroids. It's fully customizable (in look and theme) and gives options for popups and to even tweak individual contact settings. If you've never thought the stock messaging app on Android sucked, we won't blame you. But after using Handcent, you will. Free.

Imo.im: With its new tabbed interface, imo.im is an IM app that's light, pretty and easy to use. It supports AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook chat and others and is free. Free.

Facebook Messenger: Think of it as a cross platform messaging service that enables you to easily talk to people on any platform—Android, iPhone, Facebook, SMS and everything in between. It's not dissimilar to Kik or WhatsApp in this aspect. If your friends are on Facebook, they'll get your message in the Messages (or on their Android or iPhone). If they're not on Facebook, it'll be re-directed as a SMS message.

Tumblr: Tumblr has been graced with a brand new interface that makes it brainless to use. Everything about 2.0 is smoother, simpler, and all around better. Writing an entry is easy—be it a photo post or just a reblog—and switching between multiple blogs is handled gracefully.

Flickr: Sure you may use Picasa but Flickr is like Instagram for Android. Not only can you scan Flickr photostreams, upload pictures, share photos to other social networks, you can also take filterized pictures and look so hip with it. Free

8tracks: 8tracks has always been a great way to combine your favorite songs into a custom playlist and share it with your friends. It's now on Android. The service allows you to create a social playlist of songs with 8 or more songs, pulled and organized from their huge database of tracks. Music reviewers like Pitchfork, Spin, and Rolling Stone contribute playlists, and the service promises a social music discovery experience that lets you discover music that real people think works together.

Entertainment

Netflix: All the joys of Netflix in your pocket, all the time-including the power to battle that always growing Watch Instantly queue. Streaming's silky smooth over Wi-Fi, less so over 3G, but the app itself is indispensable. Free.

Spotify: Released to much fanfare, Spotify is as close to a great streaming service we can get. The Android app lets you listen to all of Spotify's 13 million track library and with an offline mode, can even do it without a data connection because you can wirelessly sync your local files to your phone, create and sync playlists and more.

Vignette: With Vignette you get those wonderful artsy effects your friends love and a ton of straight shooting options that'll make you leave your Point and Shoot at home. Not kidding, there's over 68 different effects, 56 unique frames and a ton o' shooting options like fixed focus, fast shot, steady shot, self timer, etc. $4

Pano: A panoramic picture taking app for your Android phone. Basically, you snap a series of side-by-side individual shots together and Pano automagically stitches them together to create one super long seamless photo. You can even merge together 16 pictures into one humungo 360 degree photo if you wanted!

Pandora: Pandora. You know the one. The internet radio app that has uplifted a million work hours and scored a million make-outs. It's simply the best out there, streaming music at home or on the go over Wi-Fi or 3G. Free.

Rdio: A "social" music subscription service, as in you can leech off your friend's good music taste to listen to exactly what they are. Plus, you can sync songs to listen offline. Free.

VLC: It's only in super pre-alpha type stage but VLC for Android is VLC, our favoritest video player in the world. Play all the movies, tv shows and videos you've accumulated in your Internet career on your Android phone. Free

Rockplayer: Rockplayer can play nearly any video file you throw at it, meaning those DVD rips, Windows files, decidedly non-standard clips and those videos you "obtained" from the Internet will all be good to roll. Free.

Videos: You can use Google's official Video app to watch videos you store on your phone or flicks you got from the Market. It streams over Wi-Fi and supports offline viewing too

SoundHound: Shazam gets all the pub but SoundHound is just as good at identifying music and better for Android because there's no limit on how many songs you tag per month. Soundhound also throws in lyrics and links to videos too. Free.

IMDb: Who's that guy? Where's he from? Should I even watch this movie? Solve all your movie questions with Android's official IMDB app. It's basically IMDB's website optimized for your phone—which in this case, is a good thing. Free.

Movies: Pretty simple: you like knowing the movies that are playing in theaters around you, right? Flixster's got local listings and showtimes, along with trailers and reviews from Rotten Tomatoes. Plus, you can manage your Netflix queue! Free.

FX Camera: It's a fairly basic lomo FX/hipstamatic style camera but it's REALLY easy to use and processes the pictures REALLY fast. There's not too many effects available (ToyCam, Polaroid, Fisheye, SymmetriCam, and Andy Warholizer), but all of them are stellar. Free.

Kindle: Just because you don't own a Kindle doesn't mean you shouldn't be buying Kindle ebooks—especially when Amazon has an Android app that's dead simple to use. The e-book wars aren't quite over, but no one will judge you for siding with Amazon. Free.

Listen: For podcast fiends, Google's Listen is easily the easiest app to use. Find your podcasts by searching Google's database and stay up to date with automatic downloads (set to your preferences).

Backgrounds: Ain't nothing like pretending your old phone is brand new than switching up the wallpaper. Backgrounds has a ridiculous, ridiculous amount of options to choose from (over 10k!). Free.

Lightbox: Lightbox is a stylish camera app that's good enough to replace the stock camera app. Though it doesn't have basic features like zoom or autofocus, it does give you the ability to add 10 trendy filters after your shot. Your artsy photos can be shared via Twitter and Facebook and is automagically beamed down to your Honeycomb tablets and Lightbox's web interface. Like Instagram and iCloud but for Android. Free

Snaptastic: An excellent photo editing app that's currently in beta, Snaptastic allows you to quickly tweak your pictures anyway you want. There's 15 presets already built in, custom presets you can set yourself and controls for brightness, contrast, temperature, tint, vignetting, etc. Make your pictures look better and share them immediately to all your favorite social networks.

Sketchbook Pro: For Honeycomb tablets, it's a canvas for you to draw and paint on, with virtual tools and brush styles that can be really used to create art. You can save up to six layers per file and export files to photoshop for further working. Great for professionals who want to use their tablets for ideas and amateurs like me who can only hope to draw a straight line. $5

Crackle: Sony has released Crackle, an app that streams full-feature movies and popular TV shows to Android for free. For free. For free! We're talking popular TV shows like Seinfeld or big times movies like The Da Vinci Code and all completely free! The app is the same ad-supported streaming service as the Crackle.com website (and iOS apps) and has a decent catalog from Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics and other studios. It's obviously not as comprehensive as Netflix or Hulu but you're not paying a damn thing.

360 Panorama: Take a photo while spinning around to create 360 panoramic photos on your Android phone. Just be careful not to fall over.

Lapse It: It's a time lapse camera that makes it dead easy to capture time lapse videos with your Android phone. What's cool, if it's your cup of tea, is that you can add camera effects to your time-lapse videos too. Other than that, you basically set what sort of interval you want to take pictures at and Lapse It will export the video in all its amazingness.

Plex: Plex offers a dead simple media streaming and conversion utility for Android (and other platforms, including iOS and-coming soon-WP7) that requires little to no setup. Install the Plex media server on your home computer, install Plex for Android on your handset, create a myPlex account and log in to it, and you're pretty much finished.

Games

Plants vs Zombies: The insanely addicting tower defense game where you battle zombies with various plants, flowers and rocks is finally on Android. It's still the same heart-racing, finger-mashing, zombie-killing fun as it ever was. $3

Angry Birds: It's the world's most popular smartphone game, and with good reason! There's something about launching these different sorts of aviary ammunition into the precarious pig pens that just never gets old. There are always new birds and new stages coming out the pipeline to keep things fresh, too. Free.

Need for Speed: Shift: The best racing game on Android because of its impressively rich graphics and buttery smooth gameplay. You'll pop your eyeballs out when you realize that this kind of game can work that well on your phone. $5.

Fieldrunners: The endlessly popular tower defense Fieldrunners is finally on Android. There's over 400 levels across 4 battlefields, 7 different weapons to guard your territory with and hours upon hours of fun. I've lost myself in this game when it was on iOS and plan to lose myself for the rest of the weekend now that it's finally on Android.

Cut the Rope: An iOS game mainstay, it's finally available on Android. And it's Free at GetJar! The premise of the game, if you've been living under a rock, is to feed Om Nom his candy by cutting ropes in strategic fashion and also gathering as many stars as you can. Trust me, it's not as boring as it sounds. You'll be addicted in no time. Free.

Fruit Ninja: I don't know what it is about chopping fruits that pop up on the screen but slicing a sick multiple fruit combo with juicy visuals never felt so good. Simple gameplay that's ridiculously addictive. $1.

Robo Defense: Robo Defense is a tower defense game at its best: excitingly chaotic, stressfully fun and strategically simple. Time disappears when you're trying to hit the upgrades and achievements in this game. $3 for Pro.

Alchemy: Alchemy is fun because it's so damn clever. The premise is simple, to combine elements to create things like beer, life, skyscrapers, vampires and more. One thing: you'll have to use your noodle to complete the game. Free.

Words with Friends: Finally available on Android, Words with Friends lets you dominate your Android and iPhone-wielding friends (cross-platform gaming!) with your vocabulary skills and astute tile placement. Free.

Nesoid: It's BYO ROMs, but this $3 NES emulator single-handedly solves Android's gaming problem by letting you play any NES game you can get your hands on. Bonus: The smug sense of satisfaction that this would never fly in the App Store. $3.

Meganoid: A really hilarious and super fun 8-bit game that proudly takes inspiration from Megaman and Metroid. Hilarious because the 8-bit graphics and sound effects are a nod to the simpler days and super fun because it reminds you of being a kid again. Free.

PewPew: It looks a whole lot like Geometry Wars, which is one of the highest compliments we can give a game. PewPew for Android features four game modes of laser-blasting enjoyment, and best of all? It's totally free.

Roboto: A beautiful looking action game where you play the role of a teen robot in love with a pretty robot and have to shoot a bunch of bad guys to win her. Silly, yes. But the graphics are awesome and though it's ostensibly a classic side-scrolling game, the world occasionally flips upside down to keep you on your toes. $3

Eternity Warriors: Made by the people behind Gun Bros, you play as a warrior armed with swords to chop up the bad guys. It's sorta action RPG-ish, loads of fun and you can play with friends too.

Samurai II: Vengeance: Absolutely stunning anime/comicbook-style graphics plus controls that actually make sense plus a ton of ways to slice dudes in half plus samurais plus swords equals a ridiculously engaging Android game. There's a HD game for dual core phones too.

Tiny Tower: IA free 8-bit style game that lets you channel your inner landlord. You build floors on a tower to attract "bitizens" to live in it and then control their lives (manage, hire, give a job, evict). It's like SimCity but actually fun.

MineCraft Sweeper: Marry two addictive titles into one app and you're sure to create a sort of new super game addict. The app is cross between Minesweeper and MineCraft. Good luck getting anything done after downloading this.

Productivity

Launcher Pro: Launchers are wonderful things! In a nutshell, they're homescreen replacements, but really, they can magically tranform an entire phone-especially if your phone has been saddled with crappy manufacturer skin. You get faster performance, new animations, more homescreens and a cleaner interface all around with Launcher Pro. Free.

Google Reader: Finally! After years of only having a web app (that's admittedly decent!), Google just released a full fledged app for Google Reader. If you're familiar with using Google Reader, it's exactly what you'd expect, only translated for the smaller screen (and faster than the web app). One super cool feature: using the volume keys to navigate through feeds. Free.

Google Voice: Google Voice simply changes the way you use your phone, and the app's seamless integration is a killer feature for Android as a whole. Free.

Google Docs: The native Google Docs app acts more like a documents manager to search, find and share all your documents than a text editor (as you'll be routed to the online web editor to make changes) but is still plenty good. Also: the OCR function to turn images into Google Docs is great. Free

PDAnet: PdaNet is the ridiculously easy (and free!) way to tether your laptop to your phone, over USB or Bluetooth, without rooting it. If you don't wanna cough up $30 for the full version it'll still connect to non-https:// addresses just fine (basically the regular stuff). Free.

SwiftKey Keyboard: The star feature of Swiftkey is its predictive text, it literally learns the way you type. We're not kidding, Swiftkey will scan your SMS messages to see what words you're most likely to use. You'll feel like it can read your mind. Plus, it looks better than the stock Android keyboard. $2.

Beautiful Widgets: If you don't have a HTC Sense phone but still want some gorgeous looking widgets, Beautiful Widgets is all you need. Like the name, the visuals and animations are to die for. $2.

AK Notepad: There's plenty of note apps that throw in snazzier features but the beauty of AK Notepad is in its simplicity: it's a basic yellow pad that let's you jot down what you need. Free.

Epistle: A super simple and great looking text editor that syncs with Dropbox. Your notes are saved in a plain text file, the titles are searchable and the syncing is super fast. Great for those who don't need all the bells and whistles. Free.

Evernote: If you need more features in a "note taker", Evernote is simply a powerhouse of a note taking app. Not only can you jot down notes but you can take pictures, record voice notes and upload files to remember all on their cloud. Free.

Classic Notes + App Box: Classic Notes+ App Box is a note taking app that looks a lot like AK Notepad, but with a lot more features hidden inside. Seriously, there's nutty features like conversion options, tip calculator, weather, time, Wikipedia search, and a ton more bat-shit crazy options (seriously) that don't really belong in a note-taking app but are nice (?) to have as a backup.

Read It Later: Read It Later is a similar service to Instapaper, which means it's an offline news caching reader. Save articles through their browsers and read them offline on your phone. Looks great while reading too. $1.

Feedly: A magazine overlay for your Google Reader, it has the perfect balance between good looks and easy readability. It syncs with your Google Reader account for feeds and plays well with Twitter and Read it later. Free.

HandyCalc: HandyCalc is by far the best calculator on the market. It's so smart it gives suggestions on what you're trying to do and can even convert units and currency. Free.

Dropbox: It really doesn't get easier than Dropbox. With its Android app, you can view and edit all your Dropbox files in a sweet and simple interface and even stream music and videos you've uploaded to Dropbox in its media player (or save for offline viewing). Free.

Barcode Scanner: It's a straight scanner. Barcode Scanner handles both UPC codes (which does a quick product search) and QR codes (which will give you options to add contact, show on map, download, etc) with ease and throws in a few extra features (like searching within the book you scanned) as a bonus. Free.

Tasker: Here's what Tasker does: it performs a set of actions given certain rules and context, like if X happens, then Y will follow kind of deal. So if you're in your car and turn on Car Home on your Android phone, Tasker will know to also shut off Wi-Fi, turn on GPS, flip on Pandora, and crank the volume. Completely customizable, Tasker makes your smartphone even smarter. $6.

Astrid Task/To Do List: No other app gives as much detail to to do lists as Astrid. Its "advanced" options lets you set priority levels, integrate with Google Calendar, sync with Google tasks, and set up tags, alerts and periodic reminders. Astrid keeps it easy, for the most part, but also offers deeper settings if you're the obsessive, customize-everything exactly-how-you-want-it type. Free.

Astro File Manager: Astro File Manager makes it pretty easy to dig up files hiding around in your phone. It also can act as a backup, application manager, and task manager (if you're into that kind of thing). Free.

Voice Recorder: If you need a voice recorder app, this is the one to get. Send the recording via Gmail, record by widget and more, it does all a voice recorder needs to do.

Gmote 2.0: Using your phone as a remote control for your computer is practically a God-given right, and Gmote's the best Android remote for playing and controlling movies and music on your computer. Free.

Exchange by Touchdown: TouchDown syncs with your Exchange Server to let you send and receive email, manage contacts, view and edit appointments and filter through tasks. It all sounds so simple but TouchDown really is the best way to work with Exchange on your Android phone. $20.

3G Watchdog: With a lot of the carriers moving towards monthly data caps, 3G Watchdog smartly protects you from going over your limit. It shows your data usage in either the notification window, through the app itself, or widget. Free.

Amazon Free App Reminder: Amazon has its own Android app store and one of the perks is that they offer a free app everyday. This will send you a daily notification about the free app on that particular day and link you straight to the Amazon app store. $1

Connection Checker: A simple but incredibly useful app that disconnects you from terrible Wi-Fi and 3G signals. Basically, if you have a crappy Wi-Fi connection it'll flip you over to 3G and turn off Wi-Fi. If you have a bad 3G connection, it'll put you on Airplane Mode until it gets better.

Prox: A genuinely clever app, Prox can control your Android phone without ever touching the touchscreen. The way it works is that the accelerometer determines how you hold the phone (left, right, toward, away) and can associate an action for the grip. You trigger that action by waving your hand over the proximity sensor. So you can load apps, change ringer mode, open notifications, turn off the screen, etc with a simple wave of the hand. It could prove useful in cold weather situations or if you want to pretend you have wizard powers.

Pops: Pops makes notifications ridiculous. You can flip your email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, etc. notifications into VIDEO or ANIMATED notifications. Nyan Cat, Android Robot, anything. Think of it as the next evolution of ringtones. Free

Light Flow: It doesn't work for every phone but you can take control of the notification light on your Android light. You can change colors, cycle through 'em all, program apps to work with it and a whole ton of other customization. It's a small tweak but one that makes your phone, yours.

Smozzy: It only officially works with T-Mobile Android phones but with Smozzy you can surf the web without a data plan. You send a SMS to Smozzy's server from their 'browser' and you get a MMS picture file of the website you want. With links and pictures! Free

Price Check by Amazon: Check the prices of items against the largest retailer on the Internet. Price Check has been on iOS for a while and now it's finally come to Android. You don't even have to type, just take a photo of the item, scan the bar code, or speak the name of the item in tooth e app, Price Check does the rest.

MoneyWise: The app that lets you manage your budget and transactions on your phone without being a gateway to a web app or desktop client.

Tape-a-Talk Voice Recorder: The app will record audio at variable bitrates. It'll even record in the background and share those recordings via email and DropBox.

Lifestyle

Flash Player 10.2: I really don't care if Flash is good for the web or not, I just want to see as much web content as I can on my Android phone. Downloading Flash Player 10.2 gets me one step closer to that. Free.

The Weather Channel: The Weather Channel app on Android isn't the most feature packed, but its the easiest to use. We love it because we can hit all the important features, like the "What It Feels Like" temperature, the 10-day forecast and hourly temperature, faster than any other app. Free.

BeWeather: BeWeather is a drop dead gorgeous weather app that gets its data from Weather Underground. There's detailed forecasts, 11 different widgets in 6 different sizes, temperature notification in the status bar, radar and satellite maps and a TON TON TON of customization options where you can change the icons, fonts and colors of the look of the app.

Live Scores: I'm not exactly smitten with the app's design but there's no other app that offers as much details and stats about sports games as Live Scores. You could set scoring alerts for your favorite teams too. Free.

MLB at Bat 2011: Hands down, the best sports application on any device. You'll be able to keep up with your favorite team in a snazzy new customizable homescreen and stream live games (if you have a MLB.tv package). For any self respecting baseball fan, it's an absolute must have. $15

WatchESPN: If you have the right cable provider, you can stream ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU straight to your phone. Works over 3G or Wi-Fi and lets you watch all the biggest sports moments on the go. A must have for any sports fan. Free.

Yelp: Everyone's a critic when it comes to bars and restaurants; Yelp puts that impulse to work for you. Search for food, drink, or whatever else by location, price, style and then read up on what people have to say about it. Free.

MenuPages: If you happen to live in New York, LA, San Francisco, Philly, Boston, Chicago, DC, or South Florida and you like going out for food, Menu Pages has to be on your phone. It has full menus for an impressive roster of restaurants, so you'll be able to know what you want before you even get there. Free.

CNN: You get to watch live video, receive breaking news notifications, tune into CNN radio, use a customizable widget and more. Pretty much a must have for news junkies. Free.

USA Today: A great app to find the latest headlines, sports scores and weather reports because everything is laid out right smack in front of you. USA Today's app is much like USA Today itself, all the relevant news whittled down and easy to understand. Free.

BBC News: It's the inimitable news network, available on your phone. Which is great because you can still catch up on the latest breaking news, personalize the homescreen to your interests, share a story via email, SMS or social networks has been included also, and watch the news too. Free.

Wapedia: Wapedia is perfect: it gives you all of Wikipedia, in a quick and easy-to-understand format, and offers more reference options to search through like wikiquotes, wiktionary, and even more specialized wikis for the most specific information you can glean from in an app. Free.

Google Earth: It's, like, the entire world...on your Android phone. Google Earth is cooler than ever when you're using your fingers to manipulate it, seamlessly zooming around the globe and diving into various places to take a closer look. Free.

Google Shopper: If Google Goggles and a barcode scanner hooked up, we'd get Shopper: a barcode scanning, voice and image searching, product finding, makes-you-a-smarter-shopper shopping assistant. It's a damn good app, and ties nicely with Google because well, it's made by Google. Free.

Google Goggles: Hey, what's that building over there? Is this a famous painting? Those are all questions that can be answered by Google Goggles, which is really searching by taking a picture. The image recognition can be insanely good. Free.

TripIt: TripIt is just an absolute godsend when you're travelling. It's like having your own travel assistant, all you have to do is forward your travel confirmation emails to TripIt and they'll automatically organize it for you in their tidy app. You'll always have your itinerary right on your phone. Free.

Layar: Quite simply, the king of augmented reality apps, able to layer pretty much whatever kind of data you want on top of your boring, HUD-less reality. Free.

NFL Mobile: It's only available for Verizon customers but NFL Mobile gives you live game video, live game audio, news, highlights and more. Heck, you get to stream the NFL Network 24/7. Free.

HBO Go: If you're smart enough to order HBO with your cable, HBO Go will let you watch every episode of every season of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rome, and any other awesome show HBO has ever made. Oh, and you can stream movies too. Free.

AnimGIF Live Wallpaper 2: A wallpaper "app" that lets you use any GIF you find on the world wide web as your phone's wallpaper. I put app in quotes because its actually more like a settings option, the app is only visible as another option when you want to change wallpapers. It gives your phone depth with a brand new moving personality.

iOnRoad for Android: It's an app that uses your phone's native camera and sensors to tell you if you're driving a safe distance from the cars in front of you, and alerts you visually and audibly if you're approaching a car or object in front of you that pose a danger for collisions.

Square Card Case: With the Square Card Case app, you don't have to pull out your wallet or your phone to pay for anything-you pay invisibly. It's like being a 'regular' and having a tab somewhere. Walk in, grab your stuff, walk out. How does it work? Cleverly, with GPS. The Square Card Case app automatically establishes a connection with their approved merchant once you're within 100 feet of the merchant's business (user opt-in, of course). Once you purchase your things, you just tell the merchant your name and they'll charge your account tied to the Square Card Case.

Darth Maul Me: Take a photo of yourself. Make a few adjustments and you'll see what you would look like as a Dathomirian Zabrak. Seriously, I had to look up what species Darth Maul was.

Embark: Embark: It's not just one app, but rather a series of apps that provide simple and straightforward public transportation directions and related information, like advisories, on your smartphone. They're simple, fast, and really useful whether you're exploring a new city or just need to know how to get around the one you live in.

Decide: The app scans barcodes in the store to see if an item is at a low price point or if you should wait for an upcoming drop. Woohooo deals!

Aldiko: Lifehacker found the best eReader for Android. I can't imagine how many books they had to read to come to this conclusion. I'm guessing hundreds. The reader can open, ePUB, PDF and DRM-locked Adobe books. To appease the demands of your eyes, you can customize the interface.

Mixologist Drink Recipes: You like booze? Yeah, you like booze. Mixologist was voted one of the best drink app for Android in a recent Lifehacker poll. Just because New Year's is over doesn't mean the party has to stop.