The best free Android apps of 2021: the best apps in the Google Play Store

Date:
Mon, 12 Jul 2021 10:39:28 +0000

Description:
There are way too many free Android apps out there, so we've trawled through and found the top ones to download.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

We've collected together the best free Android apps you can download today,
so you can find exactly what you need without trawling through the Google
Play Store.

It has been over 12 years since Android was first launched by Google, and
back then it was hard to imagine the sheer number of apps we'd have today. There are apps for everything, and many of them are completely free, meaning you're just a few downloads away from supercharging your smartphone at no extra cost.

Admittedly, the huge quantity of apps doesn't mean they're all quality - far from it in fact, and finding the good ones can be tough.

There are tools and techniques to help, with various lists in the Play Store providing you with Editor's Picks across a range of categories, new releases and even apps that are specifically recommended for you based on your
previous installs.

You can also hunt out apps that are similar to your favorites by searching
for an app you have and seeing what else comes up.

And checking out user reviews and ratings can save you from downloading a dud of an app.

But even with all that, the sheer number of apps on Google Play means many of the best can often get lost, while weaker ones sometimes rise to the top.

So to make sure you never install a duff app here's our selection of the best you should install right now - each one carefully chosen to ensure you'll
have a whole suite of fun, engaging and, dammit, useful apps on your phone or tablet.

We've sorted them into categories so you can more easily find what you're looking for. But make sure to check back every few weeks for out latest app selection, which you'll find below. These are the world's very best Android phones What's the best phone of 2020? Stay safer online with an Android VPN app Best new free Android app

Every few weeks we add a new app to this list and you'll find the latest addition below. (Image credit: Anecure Inc) Swell

Is audio the future of social media? With the growing popularity of services like Clubhouse it very well might be, and an Android app called Swell is also trying to get in on the act.

Swell essentially lets you record and listen to mini podcasts. These can be movie or book reviews, reactions to a news story, interviews, advice, or any number of other things, and anyone can record and share their own.

While setting up a profile youll be asked which topics interest you. This
will affect what appears on your feed, but you can also just search for anything else.

You can follow users so you never miss their content, and leave voice replies to peoples posts essentially allowing you to build up an audio conversation. You can also set up invite-only groups, for more private conversations.

Its a solid app, with the main issue currently being the one most new social networks and similar services face the need to get users. At the time of writing theres not a huge amount of content, but hopefully it will swell over time.

Our favorite free Android apps for painting, drawing, sketching, design and animation. (Image credit: Veraxen Ltd) Color by Numbers Oil Painting

There are loads of coloring apps on Android but Color by Numbers Oil Painting is one of the best, as it contains hundreds of great, intricate pictures across a range of categories (such as birds and still life), with more images added every day.

Coloring these images is simple and intuitive. There are numbers at the
bottom of the screen, each of which represents a color and the part of an image that should be filled in that shade. Tapping on a number highlights all relevant parts of the image, which you can then tap on to fill in the correct shade.

It sounds easy, but when images can have dozens of different numbers with numerous tiny sections of the image taken up by each, it can take a lot of time to fill them all in.

To make things more straightforward, you can tap a bucket icon to automatically fill in all parts of the image related to a given number, but you have to watch adverts to do this unless you feel like paying, and anyway, it feels a bit like cheating. Better to fill each image in manually. Its more satisfying that way, and more of a project.

The only issue we have with Color by Numbers Oil Painting is the sheer number of adverts, as you also have to watch at least one when you start a new
image, and at various other times. Subscribing gets rid of these, and unlocks even more images, but at $19.99 / 19.99 per month or $39.99 / 39.99 per year, we cant really recommend that unless youre really using the app a lot. Tattoodo

If youre looking for tattoo inspiration then Tattoodo is a great place to start. The app has an enormous number of tattoo images, which you can browse, or you can follow tattooists to see their designs, or search for a specific style or image.

Tattoos that you like can be saved so you can easily find the image again,
and Tattoodo also lets you find nearby tattoo shops, upload images of your
own tattoos, book appointments and request consultations.

Thats just half the app though albeit the half that most people will
probably be interested in. But Tattoodo also lets you set up an artist account, which allows tattooists to add their tattoo studio and portfolio to the app and makes them visible to numerous potential customers. Google Arts & Culture

Weve written about Google Arts & Culture before, but its worth highlighting again, as the app has been steadily updated with new content and features.

In fact, theres an almost overwhelming amount of content tucked away inside this free app. You can, for example, view high-quality versions of famous artworks and zoom in close for a better look at them. You can also see 360-degree videos and with the help of a VR headset virtual reality tours
of museums and other attractions.

You can also tour many of these sites using Street View, with both exteriors and interiors covered. There are also articles, information on local events and exhibits, the ability to save favorite artworks to easily return to
later, and lots more.

And if you make it to an exhibit in the real world, you can also use Google Arts & Culture to learn more about artworks, simply by pointing your phones camera at them. If you have even a passing interest in art or culture, this
is an essential download. Over

Over could be the app to take your social media game to the next level, as
it has all the tools you need to create stylish designs full of photos,
images and text, fit for Instagram, Facebook and most other social sites or even for use on posters and flyers.

The app lets you select from a range of canvas sizes, many of which exactly line up with the sizes used by popular social sites, then lets you add images and text to them, with various options available, including a range of fonts, the ability to adjust colors and positioning, and more.

Over also includes plenty of pre-made graphics to spice up your projects, and when youre done creating you can easily share your design to other apps or save it as a JPG or PNG.

The basic tools are mostly free, but power users might want to pay for the
Pro subscription, as this gives you access to more of everything: more fonts, more graphics, plus a database of templates, so you dont have to build up
your designs from scratch. Houzz

Redecorating or improving your home can be a daunting prospect, but Houzz could make it a little bit more manageable.

It could do that by inspiring you through its library of millions of photos, showing exteriors and interiors of various styles.

It could also do that by giving you a single storefront to find and buy all the furniture and other items you need, even going so far as to let you see products in your home, using augmented reality.

And it can do that by helping you find experts such as architects and builders to do the hard work for you.

If youre planning to take on the task yourself then there are also plenty of articles on hand to help, as well as the ability to ask the Houzz community for advice. Sticker Maker

If you use WhatsApp, youre probably aware that the service has finally added support for stickers, so as well as emojis and GIFs you can now send larger emoji-like images. But while there are plenty of sticker packs to choose from theres also thanks to Sticker Maker the option to make your own.

The app first has you create a new sticker pack which you can name, then simply load up an image on your phone and cut out the part of the image that you want to use as a sticker. You can do this freehand or use tools in the
app to cut a perfect square or circle.

You can also rotate the image if you want and then save it to your pack when youre happy. Packs can contain up to 30 stickers, but need at least three. Once youve made at least three youll be able to send the pack to WhatsApp, where you can use your custom stickers just like any others.

If you later want to add or remove stickers from the pack, you can do that. You can also make additional packs if you have more than 30 sticker ideas or just want to keep the packs themed.

Sticker Maker is a slick app, and a useful one for anyone who likes WhatsApp stickers but just wishes they were more personalized. Pexels

Pexels is a database of photos that you can use for free for any purpose, including commercial uses, with no attribution needed (though it notes that attributions are still appreciated).

You can search using keywords or browse trending images, while tapping the photographer behind a photo will show you their other work on Pexels and let you follow them, so you never miss anything new that they upload.

You can also like and collect photos within Pexels and if you want to take them outside the app you can easily share them with Instagram or other apps, save them as your wallpaper, or simply download them.

But Pexels also lets you become one of the photographers, as you can upload any of your own photos to the app for other people to use. However you choose to use Pexels though, its a slick, beautiful app. SketchBook

SketchBook isnt a new app, but while many of the features used to cost
money, its now completely free, making it worth revisiting.

The features that are now free include more than 130 brush presets, customizable canvas sizes, various rulers, high quality image imports and more.

And thats on top of all the basic tools that were already free, such as a layer editor and pen mode, all of which combine to make this one of the most generous free sketching apps available on Android.

Coming from Autodesk, the power of SketchBook should come as no surprise, but its an app that seemed worth the money previously and is now utterly
essential if youve even toyed with the idea of digital sketching. Bitmoji

Ever wanted your own custom emoji and stickers that star you, rather than a generic face? Then you should definitely download Bitmoji .

This lets you recreate your likeness in cartoon form, with loads of tools available to make the look as perfect as possible. Then you can choose an outfit and get access to dozens if not hundreds of stickers, each of which feature you.

These can be shared to various chat and social apps, but Bitmoji has deeper integration with Gboard, letting you share its stickers direct from the keyboard. It can also be linked to your Snapchat account, making your Bitmoji your Snapchat avatar.

You can alter the look of your Bitmoji at any time, so if you change your own hairstyle you can change theirs to match, or just give them a new outfit, and new stickers and customization options are being added over time, so you shouldnt get bored.

Our favorite free Android apps for shooting, sorting and editing photos and videos. (Image credit: Capture Pal) DSLR Photography Training apps - Capture Pal

If you want to take better photos then whether youre a beginner or more advanced Capture Pal should be able to help.

The app is basically designed as a reference manual and cheat sheet, covering most of the basics such as the exposure triangle and metering along with guides to shooting various landscapes, portraits, cities, events, and nature.

Its all clearly laid out so the right information is never hard to find, and Capture Pal talks you through preparation and any specific gear youll need
for a type of shoot, as well as walking you through the shoot itself, with a range of handy tips.

You can also add notes to any of the sections, so you can easily use Capture Pal like a photography notebook too, and theres also the ability to post photos, tips, and questions to the community or view and reply to those posted by others. (Image credit: 1SE) 1 Second Everyday: Video Diary

1 Second Everyday: Video Diary is a way to document your life one second at a time. The app lets you shoot a one-second clip every day, then you can mash them together to create a video that shows all of them.

Early on that wont amount to much, but once youve been using 1 Second
Everyday for months or years it can make for a significant video. You can
then share the resulting video if you want, and all of this functionality is free along with some basic editing tools, the ability to attach a written journal entry to your days, and optionally get daily reminders to record.

Upgrade to 1 Second Everyday Pro and you can back your clips up online,
record two separate snippets each day, use clips of up to three seconds
rather than just one, add music, and more.

Doing so isnt cheap it costs $49.99 / 45.99 per year and even more if you
pay monthly so its fortunate that you get so much for free. (Image credit: Adobe) Adobe Photoshop Camera

Adobe offers all sorts of apps and most of them are good, with Adobe
Photoshop Camera being no exception. Dont let the Photoshop name fool you though this is a simple free Android app for applying filters to your
photos, but it does a good job of it.

You can see how filters will look before even taking a photo, and there are over 80 to choose from, including ones aimed specifically at certain things, such as food or the sky.

Photoshop Camera will also often suggest the filters it thinks are best based on what youre shooting, and switching between filters is simple a swipe on the screen swaps between variations on the same one (for example different
pop art effects), while along the bottom of the screen there are totally different filters that you can swap to with a tap.

Once youve taken a shot you can edit it in-app, with tools that let you
adjust highlights, vibrance, exposure, saturation, and the like. There are also tools specifically for improving portrait shots, such as bokeh and face lighting. If you like filters then Photoshop Camera should have everything
you need. Curator

Curator claims to be the first gallery app that organizes your photos using AI entirely offline, giving you the search power of something like Google Photos, without compromising on your privacy.

It works well too. The first time you launch the app it will analyze and assign tags to all of your photos (which can take a long time), then if you search using a keyword, such as beach or cat, it will show you every image containing that.

Curator has a nice interface too, with two themes and the ability to view albums, all images, or all of the tags that have been assigned.

Albums can be renamed and favorited, photos can be moved between albums and there are gesture controls, to help you navigate the interface faster. There are also new features on the way, such as private folders and shared albums.

If you dont care about the added privacy offered by Curator, then Google Photos is still the better app. Not least because it backs up your images and gives you access to them from other devices, but Curator is a strong alternative for those who prefer to keep their online presence to a minimum. Photo Map

Photo Map is simply a world map that displays your photos over the parts of the world that you took them in.

Zoom out and youll likely just see a single thumbnail of one of your images over each country that youve snapped shots in, but zoom further in and you will see photos grouped into much smaller areas too.

The thumbnails also have a number on them, telling you how many photos are in that gallery. You can easily see them all and enlarge them with a tap.

There are a few options, such as the ability to change the look of the map or add terrain or satellite imagery to it, but mostly its just a great and
simple idea a visual way of separating your photos based on where they were taken. This is definitely one for those who like to travel!

Photo Map is free to use, but a one-off $1.49/1.29 IAP will get rid of adverts. Picai

If you love slathering filters all over your photos then theres a good chance youll love Picai , as it makes the process a lot smarter than most apps.

But this isnt just a tool for sticking filters on photos youve already taken (though you can do that too). Rather, its a camera app. Simply point it at something you want to photograph and it will use AI to detect what youre looking at, even going so far as to provide a text pop-up telling you what it sees.

From there it will automatically choose filters that it thinks would be a
good fit and overlay two of them on the viewfinder one on the left half, the other on the right. That means you can see what a filter will look like
before you even take a photo.

If youre happy with one, you can swipe horizontally across it to select it,
or you can swipe up or down to cycle through filters. Its a clever idea, well implemented and completely free. PhotoDirector

PhotoDirector is one of the more powerful and polished photo editing apps available on Android. Its got you covered for fun filters, frames and
effects, but it gives you more control than some of its peers. For example, you can adjust the strength of effects and choose to apply them globally or selectively.

You get a lot of control over the core image too, as you can adjust the white balance, saturation, hue, sharpness, tone and more.

You can also rotate, crop or mirror the image, cut out sections, adjust the perspective, and if youve taken a portrait remove red-eye. Theres more here, too much to list, but suffice it to say, PhotoDirector is a comprehensive
app.

Youre not limited to just editing photos youve already taken either; theres also a camera component, allowing you to take new shots and see how effects and filters will look before youve even taken a picture.

PhotoDirector is free to download and use. Theres an optional subscription
for 2.59 (around US$3.70) per month if you want to unlock additional tools, remove adverts and improve the output quality, but the core app is already
far more generous than most free offerings. LightX Photo Editor

There are loads of filter apps and photo fixers on Android, but LightX Photo Editor is one of a much smaller number of comprehensive editing apps.

It has plenty of filters, as well as tools for sharpening images and removing blemishes, and much more besides.

You can tweak the hue, saturation and tone, adjust the focus, add a frame, sticker or text, merge images, create collages, flip, crop and rotate, draw
on pictures and change the perspective.

All of that is free, though theres an optional IAP to remove adverts and add
a few extra features.

Whether you opt for the free or paid version, LightX is a powerful, feature-packed app that should suit most mobile photo-editing needs. Motion Stills

Its not often that Googles apps come to iOS before Android, but Motion Stills did, as it was designed to stabilize Live Photos, so theyd come out smoother. Now though its out on Android too, letting you shoot a short video clip which the app stabilizes.

Clips that you shoot can be saved as a video or a looping GIF and then shared on social media, and Motion Stills also lets you use a Fast Forward mode, which will condense up to a minute of footage into a shorter clip. This too
is stabilized, to keep it smooth, and you can pick the playback speed.

Motion Stills only works for new footage so you cant import and stabilize anything youve already shot (though if you just want to turn old footage into a GIF there are plenty of other apps that will do that).

But for anything new you shoot Motion Stills is a great way to make a GIF or short video and ensure footage remains smooth. Its fast too, as footage is stabilized in real time, so you dont need to wait for it to process your
clip, and its completely free.

Our favorite free Android apps for learning new things, from history to music to coding and beyond. (Image credit: Google) Read Along by Google

Read Along by Google is aimed at helping young children to read. It has a collection of kid-friendly stories that they read along to aloud, and the app listens, so it knows if they get words right or not.

There are also word games, such as one where they have to read as many words from a long list as they can in a short period of time, and one where they have to drag letters into the right order to spell a word.

Success in these games and in reading stories rewards them with stars, which are both a mark of progress and unlock rewards, while a report card keeps track of how long theyve spent reading today and in the last seven days.

Read Along by Google is also colorful, and easy enough to navigate that it shouldnt need much supervision. As its completely free and doesnt require internet access its well worth checking out if you have a child with basic alphabet knowledge whos looking to strengthen their reading skills. (Image credit: TechRadar) Time Immersive

Time Immersive is designed as a way to bring you closer to Times journalism through augmented and virtual reality.

At the time of writing there are two experiences on there, one focused on the Amazon, and the other on the Apollo 11 moon landing. In either case, you can either project a related landscape (the Amazon rainforest for example) over a flat surface in augmented reality or view it in virtual reality using a Cardboard headset.

Then you can move your phone (or your head) to view it from different distances and angles, while relevant journalism is narrated to you. There are also points of interest that you can tap on to get an image or video with related commentary.

Its an engaging experience, mostly currently held back just by the lack of content. But its well worth a download given that its free, and will have
more content added over time. (Image credit: TechRadar) Duolingo

If youve ever tried using an app to learn a language then youve almost certainly come across Duolingo . So why are we highlighting it? Well, its very, very good, and its features and language selection have improved vastly over the years, so its worth revisiting.

Duolingo has a massive library of languages to choose from, covering everything from French, Spanish and German, to Japanese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Swedish, Hebrew and beyond.

Pick a language that you want to learn, and youll then be taken through fun bite-sized lessons that gradually teach it to you. The whole process is colorfully presented and has lots of gamification. This wont work for everyone, but we find it helps keep us motived, as does the ability to
compete with friends. Best of all, Duolingo is almost completely free, though you can pay to remove ads and unlock a few extra features. Tree ID British Trees

Tree ID British Trees is mostly one for UK users, but if you have any interest in trees then it could be worth a download wherever you are.

The main purpose of the app is to help you identify trees. It covers trees that are either native to the UK and common non-native ones, and you can work out which one youre looking at by answering a series of questions.

Start by picking a feature, such as the leaf, bark or flower, and the app
will ask you to describe it, showing you images and descriptions of different possibilities so you can drill down. For example, if you choose to focus on the leaf, you can then pick between needles, scales and several other kinds
of leaf, then select the color. After that, the app should be able to tell what tree youre looking at.

Once it finds the tree, it will show you photos and all sorts of details,
such as where its typically found, how to identify it, what its used for,
what threats it faces and even any associated mythology or symbolism.

Theres also a map of where specific trees are found in the UK, to which you can add your finds. And if you just want to browse British trees, you can do that too, with an A-Z of them built into the app. SmartPlant

SmartPlant is a database of plants, including care information for most of them, such as how much and often to water them and where to place them.

You can search for a plant by name, browse by category, or scan a barcode or snap a picture for the app to identify, then youre presented with images and details.

You can save plants to a wish list or tell the app that you have the plant already, and if you do the latter then it will add entries to an in-app calendar, telling you the optimal times of the year to do specific things
with it, such as when to move it into direct sunlight.

With an optional $3.99/3.99 monthly subscription you can also message experts to get more specific advice and answers to any plant-related questions you might have, but even the free version of the app is worth having to build up
a database of your plants and get basic care instructions. Big Bang AR

You might have read about the birth of the universe, but with Big Bang AR , you can see it. The app takes you on a journey starting 13.8 billion years ago, covering the Big Bang through to the development of Earth.

It does this with the help of augmented reality, letting you view the
universe through your phone and look around by moving your handset. At points you can even do things like hold out your hand and see the Big Bang happen in your palm.

There will also be points where you can tap on things for additional information, and the journey is narrated by Tilda Swinton, so its engagingly delivered and its well worth experiencing at least once. St John Ambulance First Aid

The St John Ambulance First Aid app isnt new, but it is worth highlighting as it could save a life. It includes a selection of situations that you can choose from, such as chest pain and choking, then talks you step by step through what you should do to help a person with these issues.

There are also guides to useful techniques that you might need, such as CPR, and the app while functional rather than stylish is easy to navigate.

Whether you ultimately choose St John Ambulance First Aid or not, wed
strongly recommend having at least one first aid app on your device - and
this is one of the best. StudySmarter

StudySmarter aims to help you do just that. When you first launch the app, you can pick your area of study from numerous categories, such as law and mathematics, then you get access to various flashcards aimed at teaching you the subject.

But better yet, you can create your own flashcards and optionally share them with the rest of the StudySmarter community. Speaking of the community,
theres also an area where they can ask and answer questions related to subjects.

StudySmarter users can also upload documents related to a subject, ensuring they have access to all their study materials within the app and also giving access to other users, and users can even add their own subjects to the app.

The result is an app with a whole lot of potential, because as the user base grows, so will the number of study aids. Right now, the content is somewhat limited, meaning its most useful just as a way to create and use flashcards, but as a free download thats enough to recommend it and if enough people take to it then StudySmarter could one day be a very smart way to study. StorySign

StorySign is designed to help deaf children learn to read, by translating childrens books into sign language.

To do this you need not just the app but supported books too, which at the time of writing in the UK is limited to just Wheres Spot?, but more are expected to be added.

With book in hand, just point your phones camera at the page and an animated character in StorySign will read the page in sign language. And children will know which words are being signed as the word will be highlighted. As such theyll both be able to enjoy the books unsupervised and learn to read in the process.

While the content of StorySign is somewhat limited so far, theres a lot of talent involved, with Aardman Animations (the company behind Wallace and Gromit) designing it and Huawei AI powering it, while Penguin Random House
has partnered with it to supply classic childrens books to the app.

Even in its limited form, StorySign is well worth trying if you have a deaf child young enough to appreciate it, but we expect that this is one app that will just keep getting better as its library grows. Scripts

Scripts is a language-learning app focused specifically on learning to write and read in Chinese, Japanese or Korean. These languages are among the trickiest to learn as each one has a unique alphabet, but Scripts gives you a fighting chance.

It does this by showing you letters from the language you choose to learn,
and then taking you through short exercises which see you swipe across your screen to draw the letter yourself. Initially youll be swiping across an outline of the letter, but it quickly moves on to just showing the letter at the top of the screen or not showing it at all, so you really have to learn
to progress.

Youll repeat the same letter a lot, but the exercises are all bite-sized, and so is your study, as you can only practice for five minutes each day unless you pay.

Thats not necessarily a bad thing, as everyone should be able to fit in five minutes of learning, but if you do want more you can pay $10.99/10.49 per month, with discounts if you commit to a year.

That gives you unlimited time, removes adverts, lets you access Scripts offline and gives you full access to Drops . Weve covered Drops previously
but it too is a language learning app, but its broader, rather than just
being focused on the alphabet. Khan Academy Kids

Khan Academy Kids is packed full of games and activities designed to entertain and educate young children.

From sorting objects based on their color, to selecting the right letter to complete a word, to drawing and a whole lot more, there are apparently thousands of activities in here, and while we havent tested that many, the ones we have tested are varied and well put together, with colorful drawings, songs and sound effects.

Most of the interactions use simple tap and swipe gestures, so most children should be able to navigate the app comfortably. A colorful character sits in the corner, and can be tapped whenever help is needed.

Theres a lot here, and Khan Academy Kids should be suitable whether you want something your kid can do on their own, or something they can play through together with you.

Our favorite free Android apps for having fun on your phone or tablet,
through watching videos, reading, socializing and more. (Image credit: eko.com) eko - You Control The Story

eko - You Control The Story sits somewhere between the ill-fated Quibi with its selection of short shows, and a game. The app offers a selection of shows - including scripted comedies and dramas - and lets you make decisions about what characters do at key points, changing how they play out.

Each episode of these shows is short usually under 10 minutes, but since youre making decision
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