The 19 Best Free Android Apps

1. Bleep

It’s Whatsapp, with privacy. Made by the makers of BitTorrent, it fully encrypts the messages and stores them locally, so no one can access them from the cloud. Even better, “whisper” messages are deleted immediately after they are read.

2. Periscope

Obviously, this guy has been getting a lot of fanfare, and for good reason. Twitter’s live-streaming app lets you send comments and hearts in real time and replay streams.

3. Evernote

This is the organizational-end-all app. Sync your school notes, voice memos, and computer calendar and access them all in one place. Even better, take notes as you read a text on your device, and they will be saved as well.

4. Pushbullet

You can view all your notifications from your Android phone right on your desktop, and send files directly to your phone as well.

5. Layout

Made by Instagram, it creates collages in 1:1 aspect ratio, which then lets you share them directly on Instagram. You can also save it to your camera roll and other apps and sites.

6. Google Photos

You get unlimited storage for photos and videos, and it’s all for free. Obviously, this one isn’t only available for Android.

7. Prey Anti Theft

In case your device is lost or stolen, you can login to your Prey account and find it on a map, or take photos from the front or rear camera to ensure that you caught the thief red handed! You can remotely lock it, or even trigger an alarm - even if it’s on silent, so you can find it. You can also write a message on the screen, terrifying anyone who stole it.

8. Google Fit

The app that keeps track of your activity without any additional fitness trackers. Simply by carrying your Android phone around with you, it will track your level and help you reach a level you desire.

9. Duolingo

You can learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish and English - all completely for free.

10. Twilight

All the studies prove that using your phone before bed disrupts sleep due to the blue light emitted from the device. Not to worry, this app adapts the display colors by time of day, which means that as soon as the sun goes down, it begins to filter the blue light, so you can get some good Zzz’s.

11. Microsoft Office

It’s a little known fact, but yes, the whole suite of office applications are available on Android. It’s totally free, and you get Word, Excel and Powerpoint - which lets you open and edit all your documents no matter where you are.

12. Office Lens

Office Lens scans all your real life files, so you can use them later. It lets you take photos of your documents, whiteboards, posters, etc, and then converts them into Word, PowerPoint or PDF files and uploads them to OneNote or OneDrive so you can access them from every device. Even scanning a business card will immediately make it a contact in your phone.  

13. Lumi: Smart News

Instead of being overwhelmed with news stories, simply swipe right to like a story that pops up, and it will be saved to your profile for later reading, or swipe left to skip. Yep, basically a Tinder for the news. It also tailors suggestions based on your prior likes.

14. Feedly

If Lumi doesn’t do it for you, Feedly will. It manages to collect all the news from your favorite sources and puts them together in one interface.

15. Pocket

Even though it seems like we’re always connected to the Internet, sometimes we really aren’t. Pocket lets you save articles, blogs, videos, podcasts and more, so you can read and watch them even when you’re offline.

16. Field Trip

Perfect for a tourist or a local, this app notifies you when you’re near a point of interest - whether it’s historical, or food related. You can also browse through all the content and find cool new shops, new street art, etc.

17. Kindle

Yeah, you can download Kindle on your mobile and read everywhere all the time. It even has some magazines and newspapers, but it’s still pretty limited for Android.

18. Vivino Wine Scanner

If you’re like me and can’t tell the difference between and a Sirah and Malbec, simply snap a photo of the label and this app will give you a description, user reviews, ratings, average pricing and even food pairings.

19. Twickets

So you wanted to go to a concert but it’s sold out and you fear that ridiculously inflated price from the scalpers that might not even be legitimate. This app connects fans that bought the tickets but can’t go, to people that didn’t buy the tickets but want to go. Even better, you can’t post tickets above the face value.