Opinion – Must-have Android apps

One common question I see getting asked by new Android smartphone owners is – what are the must have apps for Android?  I thought I’d list those that I either can’t live without or just plain love.  So, without further ado, here are what I consider to be my must have apps (your mileage may vary).

Locale

One of the winners of the first Android Developers Challenge, Locale is a great piece of software that changes phone settings dependent on certain conditions being met, such as your current location or the time of day.  It is hugely customisable and if you find yourself constantly changing settings such as turning on or off airplane mode or silent mode, then Locale could be a godsend as it can make these changes automatically for you.  There are also a lot of custom made add-ons for Locale available on the market.

Shazam

If you’ve ever heard a song somewhere and wondered what it was called or who was singing it, then this app might interest you.  You start the app up, record a snippet of the song for Shazam to look up and it’ll go off and check it’s databases and return the song name and artist.  I’ve thrown some obscure songs at Shazam and so far it’s not failed to get it right on the money.

mAnalytics

I constantly check Google Analytics to see how my various websites are doing traffic-wise, and I recently discovered an app called mAnalytics which checks your Analytics stats for you.  You can set up the software to check the stats for multiple sites and, from the interface, you can view, among other things the amount of pageviews and unique visitors you’ve had, as well as site referals and search terms used.  It’s much quicker than using your phone’s browser to check Google Analytics.

Google SkyMap

I have two children, the eldest of whom is fascinated by the stars.  Now, I know my way around the major constellations and celestial bodies, but I couldn’t hope to tell him about all of the stars he asks about.  At least, I couldn’t before, but now I use Google SkyMap.  Using it is as simple as starting the app and then holding your phone up in the direction of the star you want to find the name for.  It uses your location, accelerometer and hardware compass on your phone to calculate which section of the sky you are pointing the phone at and displays the according star map.  You can also use it to search for a particular star on the phone so you can use the star map to locate it in the night sky.  It’s not exactly an app that’s going to increase your productivity, but it certainly makes nighttime walks more interesting.

NetSentry

Android smartphones are a data hungry bunch.  With the focus with some of the newer handsets being on merging your various social networking accounts, email and tweets, it’s crucial for many users to keep an eye on their data usage, particularly if you have a low data usage cap, such as those provided by Orange or Vodafone.  I use NetSentry to keep tabs on how much data I’ve used.  NetSentry separates your Wi-Fi data use from your 2G/3G and also allows you to set levels of usage at which you want to receive a wanring notification, so you know to reign in your YouTube watching until next month.

Astro

A file management app is a must have as there isn’t really a useful alternative built-in.  Astro is the only one I’ve tried to be honest, but I’ve had no need to try out others as it does exactly what I need it to.  I can browse my files and folders, move them around within the directory structure, rename them or open them.  A well desinged app that does the simple things well.  I’ve heard that Linda File Manager is simpler to use, but I’ve never had any problems with Astro.

Beebplayer

This one’s for the folks in the UK.  Beebplayer is a great little app that ties in with BBC’s iPlayer to allow you watch iPlayer videos on your phone.  Not only can you play video that is live on the iPlayer listings, you can also play live TV and radio, including BBC1 to BBC4, CBBC and BBC News Channel.  Quality in the live TV feeds isn’t the best, even on a Wi-Fi connection, but it’s definitely watchable.  I’ve found that the quality of the iPlayer feeds is much better though.  I use this app a lot.

Advanced Task Killer

A task management app is a must.  There are a few on the market, the most popular of which is Taskiller which is definitely a great app.  I use Advanced Task Killer myself, although there’s not much between it and Taskiller in my opinion.

I’d be interested to hear which apps others are finding they can’t live without.  If there’s an app I’ve missed that you think people should know about, let me know.