MY COLLECTIONS of top android apps that i use based on ~ 4 years of use of android as a platform

1. TOP ANDROID APPS.
Those that I tend to use and rely on.. And their
alternatives.

2. NEWS , CONTENT & TRAVEL

3. FLIPBOARD
Read News – Top Activity! ] Search News ]
Create Own Mags
Reading news is made really easy through
apps like flipboard.. Provides search, topics,
rss, news feeds, favorites, and sharing into
social networks.. Flipboard stands out for its
UI /UX, ability to create own magazines based
on articles read, predict based on usage…
have detailed 3 among many alternatives.
Alternatives
Taptu
Provides feeds based on custom
search keywords, has its own
syndication engine.. Very good
browsing features and ability to
store offline and sharing are
very good.
Google Newstand
Currents , now replaced by newstand,
is googles own news reader.. This app
is more like a news RSS aggregator,
where user can collect news locations
based on topics like business etc.. The
downside is it burns significant amout
of local storage, while UX is very nice..
Pulse
This was one of the first apps to
aggregate news, lost steam to
flipboard and other such apps.
Users can give it a try.. No stand
out features in comparison to
the apps shown here.

4. FASTNEWS
Read News ] RSS Feeds ] Search News
A simple option for news are RSS aggregators
like fast News, provide pre-built set of news
sites and provides fast and light stream of
developing news on those sites based on RSS.
A user can pick and re-arrange news sources.
It feels like a twitter feed, , low on data and
fast updates.. My Compulsory morning news
read.. Oth alternatives Circa, News republic.
Alternatives
newsHunt
News hunt is a india focused app
that has worked with newspapers to present their digital
versions using RSS..
Continuously adds news papers
and ensures good formatting..
News Hog
News Hog and other Google
news readers are another twist
to news reading, context, local,
preference all driven by google
news, provide keyword and
custom search based news..
Very powerful
Zite
Zite, news-republic, Circa are
the new kids on the block on
providing news to users using
features seen in flipboard, pulse
and other early leaders..

5. MAPS
Travel Direction ] Navigation ] Local Search
Custom maps ]
Google maps is one of the primary reasons to
own an Android smartphone. Helps in many
ways, local search, directions, GPS and
navigation, etc.. add to that offline maps,
smart search including hotel prices and
continuous improvement etc.. Make this a
key app for travelers.
!! type okay maps in search to download
offline map
Maps with me - lite
Maps with me is a offline maps
alternative, very useful on travel
when you need complete
country maps.. This app allows ~
10 downloads for the free
version , have Ind and a couple
of US States.
Alternatives
Osmand
OSMAnd is based
openstreetmap and is a FOSS
project allowing multiple
downloads again downloads
complete coutnries, I have India,
UK and a couple of Us States on
this.
TripAdvisor
Another great alternative is
tripadvisor and their city guides,
very useful for the traveler
where all key things are
provided as a offline base while
visiting a city. ~75 cities
supported wolrdwide..

6. UC BROWSER
Internet Browsing ] Office Mobile Apps ]
Extensions
Ensure you have a good browser, browsers
are a big part of internet and content access..
Browser apps overcome the default app
limitations with features like gestures, prebuilt home pages based on location, favorites
and 1-click browing, add-ons like password
management and many more features.
Create your own gestures.. In dolphin.
Chrome
The big thing about chrome is
syncing the state and the
bookmarks of browsing
between devices.. It lacks other
browsers on speed, lag, memory
management.. Most other
features like gestures are
provided by other browsers.
Alternatives
Opera mini
Opera mini which I prefer has a
very small footprint on storage
and memory , shrinks data on
transit.. A low light is that on
select text while browsing it
does not allow share, only copy
/ cut!
Next
This browser from go- launcher
is very light and fast. Provides 1click pages

7. MYTRACKS
Fitness ] Outdoor Trails ] Performance ]
Sharing .
Mytracks is a google app, uses GPS to log
trips.. Needs a good a-GPS.. Helps while I go
cycling, driving abroad to track certain trips,
and trailing.. Provides upload to google
custom maps for future reference .. I
integrate trips into custom maps that I create
during travels.. Provides speed, slope,
distance etc. there are 100s of alternatives
have listed a few I have used.
You can play out mytrack trips if you
download google earth, awesome
experience. ..
Cardio Trainer
CardioTrainer helps running,
cycling, hiking, activities. Its
highlights include racing
mode, voice output, real-time
GPS tracking and many analysis
features.
Alternatives
Every Trail / Endomondo
These apps help track trails in
walking, running, cycling and
provide interesting sumary stats
of your activities along with
map-traces
Moves
Newly discovered thanks to a
friend, uses GPS to run in the
background and auto detect,
walking, cycling and running
giving summary stats on these
activities.. Great fitness tool

8. IMOBILE
ATM on Hand ] Transfer ] Equity ] Forex
The smarphone helps bring the ATM onto
ones hands.. Including financial information
like Forex, Equity etc.. Most Banks have their
apps, I use ICICIBank’s iMobile.. Where I can
transfer funds, view balance, and other
trasactions typical of an ATM. I also use forex
and equity apps .. As listed below.
Create your own gestures..
Alternatives
Forex
Very useful app while traveling
for quick reference of currency
rates of favorite currency + a
calculator to convert amounts
and display
Equity
Track stocks markets through
apps like yahoo and google
finance.. There are a lot of them
out there.
…
….

9. MESSAGING & SOCIAL

10. VONAGE
Data Calling ] ILD ] Video Chats ]
Using data for voice is a great strategy on
smart phones, vonage helps me access
numbers back home in india and for free US /
CAN and very cheaply other countries, a great
app to have.. It registers based on your cell
numbers and auto detects users based on
your contacts
!! Vonage provides pree calling to phone
numbers in US / CAN / UK.. This is a key
feature in this space.
Skype
With MSFT buying out skype,
times could be exciting .. This is
a default app with a great fan
following.. Key issue with skype
is that it was slow, but a recent
referesh has made the app very
user friendly.
Alternatives
viber
Have not used this service much
but this app comes on top on
many lists and has a good
following, combines vonage
with whats app features.
hangouts
Googles own hangouts a
replacement to talk is the new
kid on the block with a lot of
drawbacks in the app.. Belief is
that eventually it would grow
stronger given google parenting!

11. WHATSAPP
Beyond SMS ] Phone contacts ] Shopping
Groups ] New Social
Great messaging alternative, sniffs contacts
and builds a ntwork around that.. On
messaging supports, groups, attaching media
like pictures , audio and video.. Extremely
useful..
!! Use this for remote shopping with wife..
Send her snaps @ the store and she
responds yes or no
wechat
Chinese tencent based app..
Very useful, the base in india
population is less penetrated,
there not all your contacts
would be on the wechat.. They
have done extensive adverts in
india.
Alternatives
viber
Israeil innovation and
alternative that pretty much
provides the same features,
don’t know what is the
differentiating factor? Some
people are moving to this for
security issues with whatsapp
and wechat.
LINE
Finally one more messaging
alternative.. That is big on
google play.

12. EMOZE
Corporate Emails ] Calendar ] Contacts
Accessing office email is a big thing.. Emoze
ensures that when outlook access is not
directly available, can help the user through
ews webmail access. It syns email, calendar,
and contacts.. Still does not support GAL.. Is
FREE!.. Big negative is that emoze channels all
connects through their server in israel!
Spooky!
Emoze syncs calendar to the native app! Big
WIN!
maildroid
Another Free alternative that
supports ews to sync outlook
webail does not support Gal and
Calendar and interface very
basic.. But useful as it does
direct conect.
Alternatives
touchdown
OSMAnd is based
openstreetmap and is a FOSS
project allowing multiple
downloads again downloads
complete coutnries, I have India,
UK and a couple of Us States on
this.
K9-email
Waze is a interesting social
based maps, israel based,
provides information based on
user data aggregation.. Recently
acquired by google, making this
a very interesting combination

13. JIFT
Social feeds ] Status – Sharing
Sharing social status, reads and notes, and
quickly viewing the status of multiple social
networks is a very useful utility in ones had..
JIFT does a great job of both.. It integrates, T,
FB, G+ but does not do linkedin currently..
While posting it gives a clear stat on word
count and a nice interface
All good apps, but after the hack on buffer, it has
issues posting into FB. + To share into evernote
add@myen on the share.
buffer
Buffer is a decent sharing app
provides connects to all
dominant networks t,fb,g+ and
linedin.. Disused as after a
recent website hack into buffer,
the connects to FB and T not
working reliably
Alternatives
Hootsuite
Another great feed and share
integrator like buffer, JIFT is a
freemium app with more
features opened on pay-up
seesmic
Have not tried this much but is a
topper in terms of social
integration.. Should possibly do
both feeds and shares..

14. PRODUCTIVITY

15. EVERNOTE
Meeting Notes ] TODO ] SYNC ] Reference
Notes form a critical part of our existence,
missing out on taking a note could be a big
loss later in time.. Notes also help in
retrieving data. Evernote is the primary
notes app across platforms.. Provides great
storage, search and view.. Other
alternatives among the many apps include
google/ keep, gnotes, .
Freenote is a freehand tool, can add custom
icons and custom fields…
Keep
Keep is another great app
from google, syncs into
google/drive, provides
instant access across tab,
phone and chrome ]provides
reminds and also integrates
into google now.. Use this
for all TODO..
Alternatives
Gnotes
Gnotes is another
innovation with notes sync
into a notes folder into
Gmail.. Can do To-dos, has
folders and is a simple
alternative
Freenote
There are many free hand
noting tools, I have found
freenote very convenient,
works like a charm provides
keyboard and free hand
options.. Has custom icons
and fields that can be added
fast.. Like timestamp

16. QUICKOFFICE
Documents ] PDF ] Spread-sheets
Looking at documents, editing office
documents like DOC, XLS, PPT could be handy
in the move, these apps like Quick office,
Office suite help do just that. Also I have
included the app Duo-Lingo to quick language
learning .. Very useful
Integrate to cloud share like drive,
Adobe/PDF
Adobe pdf reader, provides
many of the power features of
the desktop tool into the tablet /
smartphone interface..
Alternatives
OfficeSuite
Provides essential office apps
and documents reading and
editing.. Comes default in many
android phones
Duolingo
Duo-lingo is an awesome
language learning tool, takes the
user through a lesson plan that
can be covered a few per day to
learn a lnaguage very fast

17. ALDIKO
Read Books ] Annotate ] highlight ] Share..
Reading ebooks is a big feature of having
smartphones / tablets , expecially 7” Nexus
like tablets that are very handy.. Most of
these apps provide annotation, highlighting,
share reading status across devices ..
Kindle provides web html version of all
highlights and annotations for noting..
kindle
Kindle is the smartphone
interface for all kindle
books.. Does not have ability
to read local files , but
provides a powerful
highlights extraction feature
on the web. Has DRM..
Alternatives
Google books
Very flexibly app needs
some more improvement,
provides all ebook features
including reading local
files..
Fbreader
Open source project for
users who would want a
back up in terms of
commercial closed apps.

18. SHOPPING & UTILITIES

19. JUSTDIAL
Shopping ] Yellow pages ] Local Search
Smartphone is a handy mobile device, having
the ability to find local services becomes a
critical value add, apps like just dial, Google
Maps local, Goby and Fancy help find such
services.. There are many this is just a short
listing of whats there in play-store.. One can
find services like restaurants, home utilities
and connect with these service providers,
Create your own gestures..
Alternatives
Fancy
The big thing about chrome
is syncing the state and the
bookmarks of browsing
between devices.. It lacks
other browsers on speed,
lag, memory management..
Most other features like
gestures are provided by
Goby
Opera mini which I prefer
has a very small footprint on
storage and memory ,
shrinks data on transit.. A
low light is that on select
text while browsing it does
not allow share, only copy /
cut!
Google Maps
Have heard a bit about this
browser, whichhas a big fan
following in Google. Play.

20. TOUCHPAL
Swype Key ] Scripting ] Custom Dictionary
Nxt Word prediction ]
Swype keyboards eliminate need for hard
keys and overcome small form factor issues.
Touchpal is one of the best in the business.
Provides very smooth swipe, custom
dictionaries, multiple languages, themes
short cuts for emails, symbols, and wave that
predicts next words. Others Google Keyboard
+ Swype original game changer from nuance
which comes for a price
Create own custom words and acronyms in
slide-it.
Slide-it
Slide-it is a good
alternative, but does not
compare with touchpal on
smoothness or swype and
response.. Key feature of
slied-it is it provides
acronym expansion …
Alternatives
Myscript Beta
This is an exciting keyboard
that emulates the s-pen in
samsung phones providing a
scripting approach to testing
/ key input
SwiftKey
For a price, this comes with
a reputation in google/play..
Have paid and tried and
have disused it in favor of
touchpal..

21. FLASHLIGHT
Using hardware sensors ] Light ] Compass
Surface Level ] many more..
Flash-light is a critical need in any emergency,
LED Flashlight provides many features like
strobing, morse, colors, symbols etc.. To be
beamed from camera led and front screen..
Other utilities include calculators <separate
item>, compass, conversion, measurement.
Create your own gestures..
Compass
Multiple apps available that
leverage the inbuilt compass
to provide
Alternatives
Clinometer
Multiple apps available for
surface level checking , they
use the accelerometer to
achieve this.
Wifi Finder
Wifi finder helps find Open
Wifi Signals while traveling
and the direction of the signal..
Similarly Sensor sense is a
comprehensive sensor analysis
tool.. I have also found GPS
Test to be very useful in
locking into satellites.

22. REALCALC
Sci-Calculator ] Math reference ]
Unit Conversion
As an engineer, a calculator is a habit.. I have
liked realcalc that mimics the classic casio
engineering calculators of past.. And provides
all the features + some more for a small fee..
Other custom calculators are also
recommended as below. Better than the
default calculator provided in Android ..
Try out Myscript Calc
Alternatives
Wolfram-alpha
Goes beyond the calculator,
providing results to
equation as graphs and
answers to math questions
Convertpad
Is a single place for all
metrics conversions.. For
e.g. Gallon to liter is a
useful output that we seek..
Myscript calc
Script to do calculations,
very intuitive.. Amazing
recent discovery ..

23. SWIPEPAD
Launcher ] Custom UI ] Floating Actions ]
Gestures
Launchers are a big feature of android, one
can customize UI, change icons, and also add
floating meta-launchers for instant action
from within apps
Create your own gestures..
Go Launcher
Innovative transitions, lot of
custom icon sets, also custom
gestures
Alternatives
Launcher7
Provides the metro tile interface
of windows phones.. Creative
innovation ..

24. FILE EXPERT
File Explorer ] Task manager ] Transfer Files ]
Tools
File management differentiates android from
iOS, file managers help move mange and sync
files with the PC.. FE additionally has ftp
based wifi access provided to connect to the
pc without cable. <airdroid like feature>
other featues include cache and memory
management. Network file access in dropbox,
drive is also very useful.
Alternatives
!! Try out share my contents without fail!
Es3 file Explorer
Another great file manager that I
use in sync with FE.. ES3 provides,
SD Card analysis for storage
management, multiple select and
…
Android Task Mgr
Helps manage memory, kill
apps, this in addition to
developer tools in system
settings can be used to optimize
the performance of the device.
…

25. MEDIA & GAMES

26. GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC
Audio ] music ] Discover ] playlists
Ensure you have a good browser, browsers
are a big part of internet and content access..
Browser apps overcome the default app
limitations with features like gestures, prebuilt home pages based on location, favorites
and 1-click browing, add-ons like password
management and many more features.
Create your own gestures..
Alternatives
Mixing
Mixing is a great audio player, is
free, provides auto search and
discover, has a folder based play
feature which makes it very
powerful.. Also light on memory,
fast
Shazam
This unique audio player, can
help you discuover songs by
listenng to the songs or singing
them out… that is the USP
Ulisten / MixerBox
I watch a lot of youtube, many
of the videos have more
listening and less viewing like
standup, some discourses and
speeches, where ulisten and
mixerbox come. They play only
audio and play in the
background..

27. STITCHER
Podcast ] playlists ] search ] Itunes
While music playout is useful, one can use
the phone to search and listen to a lot of
podcasts, apps like sticher which call itself
internet radio, beyond pod and ippodcast are
great such alternatives.
All the apps allow download and playout
from local store for offline listening ..
Alternatives
BeyondPod
Beyond pod and ippodcast
players are alternatives..
IPPOdcast player specific also
adds the unique feature of
connecting into the itunes
podcast data-base..
Dogg-catcher
Easy to find podcast, is a paid
app, now has a light version to
try out

28. PICSART
PICTURE ART ] EFFECTS ] SHARE ..
Camera is a critical part of the smartphone,
apps like Picsart, cymera and instagram, help
bring creativity into pictures through effect,
overlays and annotation and making the
pictures unique.
Alternatives
cymera
Cymera brings a vast set of
transform tools and can also
work as the primary camera
app.. The downside is it can get
slow on low config phones.. And
drain battery
instagram
Does everything, highlight is it is
not part of FB and there is deep
integration in sharing and social