Taken the jump and bought a Jiayu S3 which may arrive tomorrow.

I’ve never had an Android phone before (know nothing about ‘launchers’ or whatever) so please enlighten me with any basics I need to know and what apps should I be looking to install straight away.

Two Dots.

Wave goodbye to your life soon after installing.

BBC news
Fotmob – if you like football

Showbox

Strava, surely? (-:

I’d avoid any 3rd-party launchers and such until you’ve got your head round the stock interface and know what you’re looking for.

If you haven’t already, get it registered against a Google account.

eBay app.

Oh no, wait, they’ve taken a very good app and updated it to turn it into a complete piece of crap.

Don’t install the eBay app. Maybe tinder or something.

WhatsApp
Ampere
Iplayer
Cerberus
Keep
Pocketcasts
Swiftkey
Tunein radio
Twilight

That’s some of the non social media apps I’ve got on mine.

Google drive if it isn’t pre-installed.

First thing I always stick on is an app called Call Confirm. It checks that you want to phone a number before it phones a number. It’s dead useful because it’s easy to phone numbers accidentally on Android.

I always go through the apps list and disable lots of the pre-loaded apps. Hangouts, Google+, News and weather, Twitter, Picasa etc. Lots of stuff I never use!

There’s v little bloatware on the S3A
(GDrive, Play, Hangouts, Google Maps (I think) and GMail are preinstalled among others)

My instant installs on every build are:

Swiftkey Keyboard (a must have)
Real Calc (A great casio-clone scientific calc)
Google suite of Sheets & Docs & Slides etc (But that’s for work reasons)
BBC iPlayer and Radio Player
BT sport
ITV Player
eBay
BT WiFi

Grid Ref UTM (IGN Grid refs in France)
Glympse (tracking beacon)
Santander cycles for when I forget my lond bike lock key 😳

personal stuff like:
Economist
Spectator
Wiki

Games:
Find the AI Factory suite of card games. Very enjoyable

And two dots is rubbish 😉

Depends what you like there will be apps for everything.

For productivity
Google Drive/Dropbox
Google Office Stuff

For News
BBC or other
BBC Radio Apps

Bikes
Strava
Trailforks – offline trail maps

Podcasts
Podcast addict seems to be working well for me

Redbull TV

Most of the rest are things like local public transport apps etc.

I like Swype as a keyboard alternative, personally.

Real Calc is a good shout, it’s the best calc app I’ve found.

+1 for swiftkey.

Personally I would install the google now launcher, it’s not third party but it’s more or less down to preference which of the two google ones you like more.

The only other top tip I can think of is to install the amazon underground app, because they often have promos giving usually paid apps for free. Also any games you buy include all in-app purchases for free, so all those annoying games you can’t complete without paying for upgrades can be completed and all “expansions” can be unlocked for free.

Google authenticator – stop people from hacking your google accounts
Freeprints – free photo prints from your phone (you do have to pay delivery though but it’s still pretty cheap)
Singletrack – because why not?!
Shazam – identify those top tunes
trainline – train times

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Do I need anti-virus?

nah. Just dont side load shite or fall for any spam alerts on dodgy websites, much like you wouldnt on your desktop/laptop if you’re younger than 60 😉

As said above get the google stuff, Drive/Photos for cloud storage/backup, docs/sheets etc if you have the need.

Couple of my must haves not mentioned above…
Yr.no for weather
Navmii for offline navigation
ES File Explorer for file management

Then it’s really down to what you want to use it for, there are apps for almost anything.

Once you get a bit more settled into it you might want to look at some of the automation apps. Tasker is the big one but while very powerful it’s not so easy to get going, AutomateIt and MacroDroid seem more user friendly for the basic stuff.

Edit: Widgets….

For home screen calender widgets I like Business Calendar, but don’t like the actual app, prefer Google Calender.

Power Toggles for settings/control buttons

I’m just trying out Transparent Weather Clock widgets on my new phone, think it’ll be staying.

You may find these useful.

https://guardianproject.info/apps/

Also Tutanota for encrypted email.

Download the Android ‘messenger’ app for SMS instead of using the default Hangout app.

+1 for ES File Explorer

Some of these have already come up once or twice (should have been a poll)

ES File Explorer – self explanatory but handy for access to network drives too
Glympse – Let people temporarily know where you are and track your arrival.
RealCalc – a proper usable calculator
Here Maps – maps can be stored on the phone so a handy back up to google navigation at times when you don’t have internet and FREE
MS Office – Because it’s what I use including one drive and one note.

Viewranger GPS- Download OS maps to use offline on your phone. Does route planning, tracking, waypoints and all other useful GPS type stuff.

Before you install es file explorer may want to read this. In fact be careful of all Chinese software.

A lot of the banking apps are pretty decent now.
I use the Barclays one, and it’s good enough rarely have to bother using a computer for banking. Downside is that it can’t be used on a rooted device if that’s your bag.

Bimbler – Member

Before you install es file explorer may want to read this. In fact be careful of all Chinese software.

Naughty. Looks like I’ll be switching file browsers then.

sharkbait wont be able to use Barclays banking app on the Jiayu as it comes rooted. (Thats of course assuming he even wants to, he probably banks with an excellent bank that arent a collective of beelzebub’s pustule emissions)

Barclays is one of the only banks to prohibit their apps running on Rooted phones. It’s a real pain as I bank with them, but have to use a PIN Sentry to be able to do so through their mobile web page, rather than the app.

EDIT

Downside is that it can’t be used on a rooted device if that’s your bag.

sorry, missed that first time.

Alarm Clock Extreme, Animated Knots, Arcus, Col Reminder….

This is one of those threads where you might as well ask, “What Android Apps do you have installed?”, rather than, “What should I install?”.

Instagram, VSCOCam and Snapseed – your bike rides are now to be 3 times longer (while the distance stays the same…)! (“Oh! I must to take a photo of that!”) 😆

I’ve just installed Calls Blacklist to block calls. Find it hard to believe Lollipop hasn’t got a call blocker built in or is it just my phone.

Backcountry Navigator is really good for offline map use, I’m not normally one for paying for apps, but the full version is really good.

wont be able to use Barclays banking app on the Jiayu as it comes rooted.

Luckily [?] I’m with Nat West and Halifax – I hope they work OK as I use them a bit on my iPhone.

Anybody got a recommendation for an SSH client?

Llama is very useful. Location based profiles can be set up.

For example: At work = wifi on, mobile data off, notifications quiet

At home = passcode off, wifi on

At the cinema = all data off, silent.

whatever you decide to download, one thing you should definatley make sure you do is go into the settings of your Play Store and disable the auto update apps feature…if you dont the apps will do as described and this will eat the phone memory and your data

I use nightclock a lot when I am not at home.
BBC Radio App is good
WhatsApp
AVG Cleaner
Battery Solo Widget
FireAlert 2 (this is a bit niche, it over rides Silent settings to sound a loud alarm when text is received from certain number)

disable the auto update apps feature…if you dont the apps will do as described and this will eat the phone memory and your data

or just select the option to only update via wifi (which I thought was default)

Lookout
Flashlight
My Tracks

or just select the option to only update via wifi (which I thought was default)

no the default is to auto update whenever, you can switch it to wi-fi only but if you completely disable the updates Play Store will notify you when updates are available for your apps and you can then choose which ones to update.
most updates take up more memory without doing much so its best to update when there is a significant change to the app via the update

FireAlert 2 (this is a bit niche, it over rides Silent settings to sound a loud alarm when text is received from certain number)

Some of the rules I have in AutomateIt do similar. Scheduled silent mode overnight at set times. Incoming call from my missus and it switches from normal to silent silent to normal. SMS received from anyone with specific text and it switches from silent to normal sound mode, so will then hear subsequent messages/calls. When missus is working nights she can silently text me reminders for the morning (eg feed kids), or get my phone off silent if she needs to get hold of me in an emergency.