Best Android apps: supercharge your phone with these top apps from Google Play

Essential apps from Google Play

Google Play currently has the largest number of apps of any mobile app store, which is great asides from the fact that it makes sorting the wheat from the chaff even harder than ever. It makes you constantly question what's worth downloading, as the consequences of choosing incorrectly is maximum embarrassment for you if someone decides to sift through your download history.

Luckily we're here to help you out.

Whether you're a long-time Android user, or you've just migrated from another mobile system, here are the best free and paid apps that you should have on your Android phone or tablet.

Opera Max

We've all had to suffer through the pathetic data allowances that networks like to make us think is a fantastic deal, and you no doubt want to squeeze as much out of those few hundred megabytes as you can. Opera Max is ideal for everyone, since it shows exactly how much data you're using (and which apps are using the most). Plus on top of that it actually manages to compress the data you're using by up to 50%, which is a big help if you;ve grown accustomed to watching Netflix on the way into work.

Free | Download Opera Max

Vivino Wine Scanner

We all like to think we're experts on wine, but most of us in reality only know the difference between red and white. Vivino, though, can make you an expert. The app scans the bottle of wine and produces loads of fact, right down to comparing it to other wines you like. You can even scan the entire wine list of a restaurant to see which is the highest rated by the 6 million Vivino subscribers.

QuickPic Gallery

Instead of using a 101 different apps to manage all your cloud photo collections, QuickPic pulls all those different accounts together to create one complete photo album. An included editor lets you touch up drab pics, GIFs and videos are supported and it automatically groups similar photos together.

Free | Download QuickPic Gallery

Cabinet

A clean, simple and well functioning Android file manager that gives you quick access to all your files along with remote server support.Thanks to the Material Design makeover, this is an app that almost looks like it came straight from Google.

Free | Download Cabinet

Plex

If you struggle to keep all your media organised across multiples PCs, smartphones, tablets and other connected devices, Plex is a lifesaver. Just install the server on your main computer, point the app to your files and it'll instantly clean everything up, add in the relevant artwork and metadata and make everything available for streaming, anywhere.

Free (With In-App Purchase/Subscription) | Download Plex

Pocket

The problem with reading on the web is that you generally need an active connection to find things. Pocket is a sort-of way around this, letting you save articles, video, and web pages offline for later reading. That means if you plan ahead you'll never be without something to occupy your time on the way into work. You'll also find that all the articles and pages have been saved in a simplified format for easy reading.

Free | Download Pocket

Trring

Rotary dials don't get much love these days, but there is a way to out them to good use on the Android lockscreen. Think of it as a form of speed dial for apps and settings, just grab the bubble and drag it round like the number on a rotary dial. That means you have quick and immediate access to everything you like to use regularly.

Free | Download Trring

Kaboom

Social media has a permanence issue, and that means that if you post something it's there for good, unless you take the time to delete them all manually. Really, who has the time for that? That's why Kaboom lets you set a timer on your social media posts, so that it will automatically be deleted after a set period of time. It works for SMS, email, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and direct linking.

Free | Download Kaboom

Gallery Doctor

Digital photography means we can take as many photos as we feel like, but that also means we have a bunch of photos that are totally worthless and just take up space on your phone's storage. Gallery Doctor makes it easy to get rid of all of the rubbish ones, by automatically identifying all the bad ones and getting rid of them for you. That said, if you're worried about what it's deleting you can review what it wants to get rid off before they're gone forever.]

Free | Download Gallery Doctor

Parallels Access

There are a great many apps for remote access to your home computer, but if you want something that gives you complete and total access to your PC or Mac. It doesn't matter if you need to access that file you forgot to bring into work, or if you need to access one of the programs you have installed, Parallels Access has you covered as long as your home computer is on and connected to the internet. The app is free, but you do need to buy the desktop software which costs you $20/£13 for the year.

Free (With Subscription) | Download Parallels Access

Videostream Chromecast: Mobile

There are so many ways to get in touch with people these days, but navigating your way through them is awkward and time consuming. Wouldn't it be better if there was a place where you can get in touch with everyone, regardless of which service you're using? There is, and it's called Drupe. It pulls together all your contacts and communications based apps into one handy place, and you need to do is drag a person's name over to the app you plan on using.

Free | Download Videostream Chromecast: Mobile

drupe Contacts & Dialer

There are so many ways to get in touch with people these days, but navigating your way through them is awkward and time consuming. Wouldn't it be better if there was a place where you can get in touch with everyone, regardless of which service you're using? There is, and it's called Drupe. It pulls together all your contacts and communications based apps into one handy place, and you need to do is drag a person's name over to the app you plan on using.

Free | Download drupe Contacts & Dialer

reTXT

Texting is great, but it sure as hell isn't perfect. There are a lot of things you wish you could do, and reTXT aims to offer them to you. It's an instant messaging app that lets you do all sorts of great thing, all while keeping your communications encrypted and away from prying eyes. You can swipe a message to instantly ask for some context, you can leave group chats without having to hassle other people, and you can even edit messages that you've already sent. It requires the recipient to have the app too, but it's more than worth a download.

Free | Download reTXT

Spam Blocker Smart

Spam manages to permeate every aspect of our lives, and the notifications bars is no different. If you're tired of your apps throwing push notifications at you for stupid things or at unreasonable hours, make sure you get Spam Blocker Smart installed. Rather than the default spam notifications blocker in Android, this doesn't require you to find the spam by yourself. It intelligently works out what's spam and what's not, meaning you don't have to lift a finger.It's all crowdsource too, so if you report notifications as spam you can take comfort in the knowledge that other people won't be suffering from that particular thing again.

Free | Download Spam Blocker Smart

AZ Screen Recorder

For whatever reason, you might want to record what your phone is doing. Whether you're showing off your skills at Candy Crush, demonstrating what an app does, or any number of other things, you'll need a screen recorder app. AZ Screen Recorder is one of the best. It's totally free, has no watermarks, no adverts, and doesn't impose any limits on how much you can record. It even records audio from your mic and automatically adds it to the final video.

Free | Download AZ Screen Recorder

Greenify

Battery life is important, but the more apps you install the slower and more power-hungry your phone can become. Greenify puts a stop to that, helping your phone run a lot more smoothly by putting problematic apps into hibernation mood when you're not using them. Apps won't be able to perform any background tasks, but they'll run perfectly smoothly when you're using them. Just like how iOS apps used to be.

Free | Download Greenify

Trinus VR

VR is the latest up and coming thing, but you don't need to buy an Oculus Rift to enjoy some 360-degree gaming. Trinus links your phone to the media server on your PC, and lets you experience your PC games in a form of virtual reality. The free version is limited to 15 minute sessions, but you can also upgrade to the full unlimited version for £5. Streaming can be done wirelessly, or via USB for extra performance.

Free/£7.49 | Download Trinus VR Lite | Download Trinus VR

TapPath Browser Helper

There's a lot you can do on a phone with different gesture combinations, and TapPath adds some of that to your browser. Essentially it lets you customise what tapping a link does. A single tap obviously opens the link, but you can set up double or triple taps to do other things. A double tap could send the contents straight to Pushbullet, or even Gmail. A triple tap could then download the contents to Pocket. It's all up to you.

£0.59 | Download TapPath Browser Helper

QCast Music

If you're having a party you want to make sure everyone is enjoying the music that's playing, but unless you plan having them queue up next to whichever device is playing music. Qcast is a system that plays music via Chromecast, and actually lets your guests choose the songs. People can add their favourite songs to the playlist, and downvote anything they don't like. If enough people decide they don't like it, the song is removed from the playlist altogether. As always, however, the host does get to pull whatever songs they feel like.

Free | Download QCast Music

Digify

We live in a world where sharing files happens on a very regular basis, but the problem is once you've shared those files you don't have any control over what happens to them. Digify lets you send out files without having to worry, because you can set them up to self destruct at a specified time. Files are also protected from copying, printed, and downloading, authentication prevents other people from seeing them, and you have the option of encrypting files with a passkey.

Free | Download Digify

Copy Bubble

The clipboard is an essential part of the copy/paste process, but it is limited to one thing at a time. Copy Bubble tries to work around that, functioning as a clipboard that stores text and images that you copy from anywhere on your phone. Just hit copy and it'll get thrown in automatically, and you can access the clipboard any time from a floating bubble icon on your screen.

Pintasking

Desktop PCs (and Macs) are incredibly useful, and part of that is down to the customisable taskbar that gives you easy access to all of your favourite programs. Android doesn't have that feature by default, so Pintasking lets you create the next best thing. You get to choose which apps, tasks, and documents are involved, and they get added to the side of your phone's screen as a floating bubble-shaped link. Just tap it and you're instantly transported to where you want to go.

TravAlarm

Transferring big things between devices has always been fairly simple, but the little things were always a nuisance. If you wanted to send a link or some text from your iPhone to your desktop the best way often involved emailing it to yourself, but not with Pushbullet. Pushbullet lets you share all sorts of things between your devices instantly, including links, photos, and music files.It also forwards calls, texts, and notifications over to your desktop, without requiring an arduous setup process.

Free | Download TravAlarm

Pushbullet

Transferring big things between devices has always been fairly simple, but the little things were always a nuisance. If you wanted to send a link or some text from your iPhone to your desktop the best way often involved emailing it to yourself, but not with Pushbullet. Pushbullet lets you share all sorts of things between your devices instantly, including links, photos, and music files.It also forwards calls, texts, and notifications over to your desktop, without requiring an arduous setup process.

Free | Download Pushbullet

Everything Me Launcher

One of the beauties of Android is the sheer amount of customisation options that just aren't available on other platforms. That customisation means you can set up a different app launcher to the one set out by Google, and Everything Me Launcher is one of the most useful. It's designed to anticipate your needs, and serve up the relevant apps exactly when you need them. It also has a feature that automatically organises your apps based on your interests, and there's even a search function which promises to be far more powerful than the default Google-powered offering.

Soundhound

Sadly the human brain is incapable of containing in-depth information about every song ever made, but luckily there are apps that make identifying them a breeze. Soundhound is one of them, listening to clips of songs to identify them and feed you names, artist information, lyrics, and where you can buy it online. The best thing about Soundhound is that it doesn't need to listen to the exact song, because it's capable of identifying music if someone hums the tune. That means it's perfect for that song stuck in your head that you can't quite remember the name of.

CamScanner

Scanners are big and bulky, and you can't really carry them around in the pocket. Luckily you have CamScanner on hand, which lets you snap a photo of physical documents and digitise them in the form of a PDF. Once there you can crop, annotate, and export those documents. There's also a built-in QR reader, and premium users get access to OCR tools that let you extract text from documents.

Free | Download CamScanner

Contacts+

We've all had to suffer at the hands of nuisance callers, but what if there was a way to know which numbers were worth ignoring? Contacts+ does just that, using crowdsourcing to identify problematic numbers before you answer the call. If that wasn't useful enough, it lets you backup your contacts, SMS, and call logs, as well as blocking nuisance numbers and preventing them from calling you again.

Free | Download Contacts+

avast! Mobile Security and Antivirus

The sad truth about Android is that it can be vulnerable to malware, so you need to protect yourself. avast! is one great option, and not just because it scans your phone and automatically checks downloaded content. It also offers app locking (two on the free version), anti-theft and phone locating features, a network meter, a web shield that checks links for malware, a filter for calls and SMS, and insights into the permissions you've granted to your downloaded apps. Premium features include more anti-theft features, details about advert trackers, geo-fencing, and unlimited app locking. It's really one of the best ways you can ensure your phone's security.

Free | Download avast! Mobile Security and Antivirus

AdBlock Browser

Everyone has been making a big deal about ad-blocking software coming to iOS 9, but it came to Android first in the form of Adblock Browser. It's a modified form of Firefox from the people behind AdBlock Plus that, you guessed it, blocks the adverts on your phone and makes sure you can see what's going on on your pages. Just like the AdBlock Plus browser extension you have the choice of blocking all ads, or letting some non-intrusive ads through to help support the sights you visit. There's also whitelisting options available to you. In the end it's not just about blocking annoying adverts, because Adblock Browser promises to speed up page loading time, save you data, and prevent dodgy sites infecting you with Malware.

Free | Download Adblock Browser

If by IFTTT

IFTTT is the app for all your website essentials, enabling you to control and connect your social-media profiles, quickly and easily. Just log into Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, as well as devices like Philips Hue, Belkin WeMo, and UP by Jawbone, for a host of nifty features, without wasting time jumping from app to app.

Movie Roll

Combining a cinema locator, movie charts and an almost endless list of recommended titles, this app will become your one stop shop when it comes to film night. It's pretty much completely visually based, so you'll see movie posters everywhere – tap on one to get everything from full actor info, to loads of ratings and even a personalised discussion feed.

Free | Download Movie Roll

Talon for Twitter

Recent updates to the official Twitter Android app haven't been that well received, but fear not, there are plenty of replacements available. Talon takes advantage of Lollipop's Material Design to reduce the amount of wasted space and increase the number of tweets you see on one screen, as well as offering a stunning beautiful layout that you should expect from a premium app.

£2.89 | Download Talon for Twitter

Flipagram

Turn your snaps into a beautiful looking magazine, complete with Facebook sharing, customisation options galore and to make things even more personal, watermarking. Great if your Instagram library is growing at an uncontrollable rate, you can reel it in and relive all those great moments once again. Add music, titles, adjust the timing and transitions and then store in it all in your Flipagram library for easy access in the future.

Free | Download Flipagram

Weye Feye

Acting as a second screen for your compatible DSLR, you can take control of the cam and do everything from snapping shots to altering setting, all from your smartphone and with the assistance of just one additional piece of kit. A killer feature though is the ability to save pictures straight onto the phone, without having to mess around exporting and importing files, it's just there waiting.

TRX Force

We all do it – promise ourselves we're going to get fit, eat healthier and be more active, yet, how often does the meticulous regime fizzle out after the first few weeks. Using the same Tactical Conditioning Program as the US Military, TRX will push you to your limit in a vicious 12-week fitness programme. With constants updates and additional feature being added all the time, you'll finally be the 'new you'.

Nooz

By scanning your activity on social networks, Nooz brings you just the latest news that is actually relevant to things you'll be interested in, cutting out all the gibberish you normally avoid. Stories are taken from a load of news outlets, you can easily comment on and share articles you're passionate about and there's a great widget for your homescreen. Never again will you be paging through countless stories you're never going to read.

Free | Download Nooz

ifussss

Ever fancied yourself as the next big citizen journalist? Capturing and reporting on news from around the globe and even getting paid to do it? Well, know that's now even easier than it was before. Simply go through the quick set-up process and get filming, then upload your content to some of the world's biggest news desks. If your footage is used then you'll earn rewards – plus that satisfaction of breaking a great story.

Free | Download ifussss

Moneyhub

Manage your money with ease, thanks to access to the latest tech and a whole load of features to make sure you have enough money left come the end of the month. Money Hub technology lets you gain a clear understanding of your financial situation, track your net worth, see a live view of all your current accounts and, best of all, set reachable monetary targets, tracking their progress all the way.

Free | Download Moneyhub

Duolingo

Critically heralded and constantly seen in lists of the best apps, Duolingo is a free tool that helps you learn a new language, as well as improving your current skills. The best bit is this that free actually means free – there are no subscriptions, no pestering ads and no hidden fees – can't say fairer than that. As the app is always being updated, there are constantly new challenges and languages to learn and master.

Free | Download Duolingo

Moves

Personal fitness accessories, like the Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband, have seen a boom in the last few years, though they can often be very pricy bits of tech. Moves packs a load of the same features you'll see in those products, but in a free app. Automatically track your daily steps, see your routes and most visited place in a good looking visual timeline, and set achievable, and beatable, goals.

FIFA

The official FIFA app aggregates a ton of footy news, player profiles and info about all the teams. Design was clearly a key feature for the developers, as it truly does look stunning – brimming with intuitive menus and neat touches, it really is a joy to use. This should keep all your football needs covered throughout the big domestic and international tournaments.

Yahoo Aviate

One of the great things about Android is that you can customise the launcher – this is basically the home screen and app menu. There are a few apps currently in the Google Play Store which take advantage of this; though we'd have to say Aviate is the most inventive. Taking cues from Google Now, Aviate constantly updates your homescreen, only showing information you need to see. It's clean, quick and definitely an app to try.