Mobile applications are built for a simple purpose: to make us interact with the world in a much more exciting and useful way. In such a piece of software, a programmer can create pretty much anything you can imagine unfolding on a screen. Android is the best operating system for mobile devices, as even Microsoft acknowledged it back in the days when the Redmond-based giant had its own operating system for smartphones. There are millions of available apps for Android out there, and here are the most popular ones:
Waze/Google Maps
Whenever you’re hitting the road with your car or by foot, it’s a great idea to turn on Waze or Google Maps to show you the right way. These two apps bring a huge amount of information for pretty much any city, town or village on the planet. You can see roads, restaurants, bars, institutions, and many more. You can see the exact route and distance left until a precise spot on the map. You can even measure the distance between any two precise spots. With Waze or Google Maps, you will even get vocal commands to know the exact route you have to follow until a certain point.
1Weather
1Weather represents the right option when you need to find out how’s the weather in your area or in the areas where your friends, co-workers, or family members live. If a storm is on the way, 1Weather will announce you! The app also brings some nice widgets to your smartphone screen. Whether you need a weather forecast, widgets, or alerts & radar, the 1Weather app has them all.
Google Drive
With the cloud service known as Google Drive, you won’t be forced to store your files on physical discs anymore. Google Drive offers a free storage space of 15GB, and you can extend it easily by paying some fees. Whether you want to store photos, music, videos, games, or apps, it’s all easy with Google Drive. You can even access those files from any device. You can arrange your files in the app as you wish, in folders, subfolders, and so on. For text files, Google Drive offers the possibility to open them directly in your browser using online versions of Word, Excel, and more.
Google Assistant
First, we had physical buttons, then we had touch screens, and now we have an even more revolutionizing way to interact with our phone: simply talking to it as we do with a real person. Google Assistant offers us that chance to grant our wishes after we actually ask for them verbally. You may want to see your plans for the current week, call a specific person, open an app, see the election results, and more. Google Assistant will do all those things for you without requiring you to type.
Podcast Addict
If you’re also a fan of podcasts like many of us, giving Podcast Addict a try is practically mandatory. The app can bring pretty much any podcast you want right at your disposal. The UI is simple and friendly, and you can choose from a variety of playback, download, and organizational features. If you don’t know what podcast to choose, you can even select your desired category and see the recommendations. But the good news is far from over, as you can even create playlists in Podcast Addict, browse podcast networks (select between BBC, Serial, NPR, Gimlet, Ted Talks, and more.).
Any of the apps mentioned above can easily be found in the Google Play Store, meaning Android’s official marketplace. You can also run these apps on your computer using BlueStacks, LD Player, and similar android emulators. Of course, what’s popular doesn’t necessarily have to be great as well, but we guarantee that the apps mentioned in this article are worth giving a try.