Your Favourite Android Apps

I’ve taken the plunge to ditch Windows Phone after many happy years and am now enjoying the wonderful world on Android. So, what are everyones favourite, can’t do without and ‘this is cool’ apps? Got all the usual suspects, Strava, Instagram etc, so let me know what else is worth grabbing.

never quite get these threads myself, generally I get apps I have a need for. What do you want them to do?

It’s a totally new eco system for me, so I have no idea where to start. There’s load of productivity apps, great image editors, games, different keyboards, & browsers, all sorts of stuff. Just looking for an insight into who loves what and why. We’re (for the most part) all mountain bikers with a fair few shared passions, jobs etc, there’s bound to be some insight into cool things that I would of never even of thought to look for.

Not exhaustive, but my usage of a phone centres around these apps generally: (in no particular order).

memory map
google maps
myfitnesspal
mapmyride
kindle
calculator
livescore
dropbox
firstbus as a ticket
firstbus for live bus times
scotrail
hampden taxi app
btsport
youtube
netflix
iplayer
megaboxhd
justeat
play music
soundcloud
fmradio
bbc weather
bank app
whatsapp
clock
camera
chrome, i guess this covers loads of apps tbh, i don’t really see the need for lots of apps that you can work well through a browser, ie ebay/amazon and the likes

Just released last week…. (as in, just released to run on Android phones, if you don’t have a headunit)

Android Auto!

If you use Google Directions in the car, this is a must.

Driver friendly as it cuts out all the distraction and limits you to three always visible shortcuts (Maps, Call, Tunes).

Maps – clearer traffic conditions so you don’t have to peer at the screen, suggestions (such as home or somewhere you go regularly). Also, I think it shows conditions on other roads now (as opposed to just alternative routes) so if you want to detour off route to a petrol station etc you can see if you are going to be delayed.

Calls – not tried that, except for voice texting which seems fairly good (as before). Edit – did try it, unsuccessful as it muted Spotify, but then routed the call through the handset. Pressed speakerphone and it used the phone’s loudspeaker. Couldn’t get it through the car speakers, but not played with it since.

Tunes- really good, Spotify is simplified therefore reducing temptation/distraction. Long press on the shortcut brings up other players.

I’ve stuck an NFC tag to my phone holder so it starts automatically, only bug bear is it toggles Auto on, but not off. Suspect its a bug or the NFC app is not very good.

Backcountry Navigator,for OS mapping.

Strava

For music, neutron. Superb music player for quality. It’s a fiver though but worth every penny.

I use Carbon instead of Twitter app, but thinking of changing as it doesn’t handle long tweets

Pumped BMX 3!! Best phone game I’ve played, perfect for when you’re having a jobby!

Android Auto!

thanks for the tip, looks useful

Slither…

Keyboard – Swype or Swiftkey.

Music player – Power Amp.

Video player – MX Player.

Weather – rain alarm and yr widget HD

Android Auto!

That looks like a good one.

If you like messing around with music production check out Caustic.

+1 for Backcountry Navigator, definitely worth the price to have the whole of the UK on OS maps in your pocket! You can download big chunks to your phone for use offline too.

Google Maps as a sat nav has saved me countless hours by routing based on current traffic info,

2048 – a slightly addictive game that I was introduced to by a similar thread to this one.

yr widget HD

+1 and the main Yr.no app

Android pay – saved me yesterday at the Severn cross tolls when my wallet was in my riding bag in the back of the van.

Bubble – for checking head angles and setting up angle of your brake levers 😉

Tasker, AutomateIt, MacroDroid for automation.

Power Toggles for shortcut bars.

Yr weather
Twilight
Strava
Spotify
Mymail
Flashlight
Bubble level
Echo112
Swiftkey

Google Keyboard
Pulse SMS
Make it Rain
Strava
Chrome
City Mapper (Google Maps has wrong times for most buses)
VLC
Deezer
Google Keep

Don’t bother with Facebook app, just create shortcut on homescreen from Chrome. Much battery saved.

Music – Poweramp
Video – VLC
Podcasts – Podcast Addict

Snapseed and Lightroom for pic editing.

Same as on Win Phone. An app for email, text, browsing, photo app, WhatsApp, Strava, something that does OSM maps, Barclays app. That’s about it. Rest is fluff, though I may have Instagram, and the Garmin app is a novelty to pair with a Garmin when it decides it actually wants to.

On both Android and Win Phone I do Facebook via browser as the apps are either unusable or bloated and power/storage/data hungry.

Got rid of Android due to a lot of frustrations, especially with Google’s own apps which bloated everything and consumed battery like crazy on updating. Win Phone and can do all the same stuff I listed above and way better battery life.

untappd – so I can get badges for drinking beer
yr – so I know what the weather might do
google keep – for a few notes/reminders
google maps – so I know where I am
polar flow – to record where I went (only if you have a Polar watch/speedo)
endomondo – cos I don’t use strava
local train/bus/tram app – so I can get home if the bike spacks
errm that’s about it.

chrome is default, facebook app(s) aren’t going anywhere near my phone, even if they do remove functionality from mobile browsers.

pretty much all other apps I could probably delete

Don’t bother with Facebook app, just create shortcut on homescreen from Chrome. Much battery saved.

That’s a good tip, I might try that, but more for the fact the Facebook app is a freaking huge use of memory.

Android auto sounds good.

google keep – for a few notes/reminders

Microsoft OneNote is free and one of the best products they’ve ever made.

FindaBinners

Maps.me – free, offline maps for the whole country, based on OpenStreetMap
MM-Tracker – viewing OS maps in Memory Map format
GPS Logger for Android – lightweight app for recording a GPX track
Vanilla Music – simple, lightweight MP3 player
aCalendar+ – nicer than Google Calendar
K9 Mail – better than the standard email app
Sun Surveyor – for sunrise/sunset times, and shows where the sun and moon will be, useful for planning photos
Trees of Britain – handy for identifying trees when out and about

Back country navigator
Ebay
Met office
Call recorder
Convert droid
Aldi
Es file explorer
Keep
My EE
My Vodafone
My fitness pal
Malware bytes
Navmii
Nova settings
Photo bucket
Radio player
Tado
Skype
Viamichelin
WhatsApp

Stuff to use with Chromecast:
iPlayer
Red bull TV
YouTube…..and others

never quite get these threads myself, generally I get apps I have a need for.

I love these threads, as they sometimes make me realise what other things I can do with the ridiculously under-used amount of computing power in my pocket 😀

Aside from the stuff above (Strava, Keep, Banking etc), I also quite like having
SkyView (to settle star/planet discussions)
Daily Yoga (trying this out – lots of free routines)
xkcd browser (geek)
Pl@ntNet (because I can’t even tell most trees apart)
AirDroid (because not all my machines easily support media transfer mode – thanks Sony)
Tabata Timer (for Beastmaker-style hangboard timings : 7s on, 3s off!)
Viewranger (good if I remember to store maps – interested to see the skyline recogntion when it’s ported across from the iPhone version)

Oh and Sky Force Reloaded, Badland and Ultraflow2 for games

Using Weather Underground for weather – most of the others seemed to require always-on data.

(I’ve also used MyFitnessPal and Sleep Better, but have stopped using them)

Shazam!

Listens to music and identifies it, almost works every time.

dawson – Member
I use Carbon instead of Twitter app, but thinking of changing as it doesn’t handle long tweets

So annoying. I miss Tweetdeck

Army knife for Android…loads of wee apps in 1…well about 9. Unit converter and bubble are used most for me.

Whilst we’re on the subject, can anyone recommend a file manager? I’ve used EStrong’s ES File Manager for donkey’s years, but it’s turned into bloatware central and I want rid.

Whilst we’re on the subject, can anyone recommend a file manager?

I like Ghost Commander. It is free/open source, no adverts or bloat etc. A lot simpler than ES, but can still do most stuff I want. It has plugins for Dropbox, Google Drive, SMB shares etc.

Whilst we’re on the subject, can anyone recommend a file manager? I’ve used EStrong’s ES File Manager for donkey’s years, but it’s turned into bloatware central and I want rid.

Yeah I got sick of those.

I find the explore button built into Android good enough for very simple tasks.

Cheers folk, a few interesting things to look into there! Living in Canada so the OS mapping suggestions don’t apply but I’ll look for something a bit more local.

Anyone know if there’s a web browser with the address bar and what not at the bottom of the screen? It was one of the best things about Edge (and WP in general). My stubby thumbs aren’t enjoying chrome too much at the moment!

Rain Today – Alerts you to incoming rain, like the future!
Sky Map – Can’t remember if mentioned already
ISS Detector – nothing impresses people more then pointing to the night sky and showing them an iridium flare