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Technology

Android apps: Install these on your new smartphone

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Just got a new Android smartphone for the holidays? If it’s your first one it could be a little intimidating so, to get you started, here are a few apps you should immediately install or set up on a new Android device. Alternatively, if you’re not already using these apps, it might be time to give them a shot!

Up your messaging game

Google Messages (RCS)

In the US at least, messaging has traditionally been a sore point of Android smartphones. Thankfully, Google has been hard at work trying to fix that in recent months and now, the solution known as RCS (Rich Communication Services) is available to every Android smartphone in the world at this point.

How can you get RCS on your device and, more importantly, what’s the benefit? The benefit, firstly, is that RCS is much more capable than SMS/MMS. Pictures can be sent in higher quality, typing indicators, and more all arrive with RCS. Group chats also get a huge upgrade too. On top of that, RCS chats are now encrypted to offer better security.

Basically, RCS is like Apple’s iMessage, but for Android phones.

To get RCS on your Android phone, all you need to do is download Google Messages. The free app is an SMS app at heart, but in select countries including the US, it can also enable RCS messaging on any carrier and any Android smartphone too. Simply download, set it as your default SMS app, and wait for the prompt to turn on RCS. We’ve got a more detailed tutorial on the process as well, and some tips and tricks on the best features you should turn on.

As of 2022, Google Messages RCS has rolled out end-to-end encryption, as well as finishing up support for encryption in group chats.

Telegram, Signal, & other messaging apps

If you want an app for even better messaging, you can go beyond the RCS and typical SMS, Telegram is one of our favorite messaging apps and it works a lot like the super popular WhatsApp. Unlike that app, though, Telegram works easily on multiple smartphones or tablets at one time and backs up all of your messages automatically. Plus, everything is still encrypted end-to-end and you have both voice and video calls available.The app is always getting better through updates and has improved its messaging experience greatly alongside adding a more robust video call app too.

Discord is another great messaging alternative, offering private messages as well as “servers” to host a few friends or hundreds, all with rooms and chat admins. It’s a great experience, and one that’s especially excellent for gamers.

Meanwhile Signal is an even-more privacy-focused messaging app that became especially popular when the Facebook-owned WhatsApp was under fire for new privacy policies. Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the populairty of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger both globally and in the US. While many are uncomfortable with Facebook, these apps are still far better than the usual SMS you’d otherwise be using.

Staying connected

Google Meet

Video calling is a great way to keep up with friends and family beyond just texts and audio calls, and there are some great services to do it.

Google Duo was always one of the best video calling apps on Android, but in 2022, Google consolidated some of its services which saw Google Duo fall under the Google Meet brand. Previously aimed just as business matters, Google Meet now has a free experience that works a lot like Duo did. The change has been relatively seamless, but it’s worth knowing that Meet is your new home for video calls on Android.

Using Google Meet for calling friends and family is completely free, and it works across a ton of devices. Android phones and tablets. Chromebooks. Windows and macOS. It even works on iOS!

Think of it as Apple’s Facetime, but not locked down to one ecosystem.

The app works with your email address and features fun filters and even screen sharing on some devices. Its best feature though, might just be how well it works on less-than-ideal connections.

Zoom and more

One of the most popular video calling/conferencing tools during the pandemic so far has been Zoom. By its popularity alone, this is an app you should have installed. The service offers meetings that you can connect to with just a link or a password, easily connecting with loved ones, friends, or using it for business meetings. Many schools are also using Zoom for remote learning. It’s a powerful app, and one that’s not going to cost you anything unless you’re the one hosting, and even then it’s got a free offering.

Other great video calling apps include:

  • Skype, one of the original video calling apps that still works great especially for friends and family.
  • Facebook Messenger, a service that lots of people in the US currently use and has an excellent video calling option alongside its messaging features.

Back up your pictures and videos

Google Photos

One of the first things you should install on a new Android smartphone – or an iPhone for that matter – is Google Photos. For the vast majority of Android users, the app will be pre-installed on your device, but you’ll still need to get things set up.

To do that, simply open the app, sign in with your preferred Google account, and decide on backup options. Photos will automatically backup your pictures and videos in the background, but you’ll need to tell it if you want that done over Wi-Fi only or on cellular data as well.

From there, you’ll just need to decide on quality. Google offers full resolution backup as well as a slightly compressed, data-saving option that will lose a bit of quality, but you’ll be hard-pressed to tell the different.

In 2021, Google changed its storage policy with Photos, taking away the “free forever” offer that was attractive to so many, and instead pushing customers to use only the 15GB of free storage included with their account, or paid upgrades. You can still get fully unlimited photo storage through a special offer with T-Mobile, though.

Amazon Photos and more

Outside of Google, there are some other solid options for storing your photos. Amazon Photos has one of the best values, with unlimited photo storage for Prime customers, while OneDrive has affordable rates and a robust setup for both photos and files alike.

Upgrade your keyboard

Gboard

The keyboards pre-installed on a lot of today’s most popular Android smartphones are, well, not great. We have particular qualms about LG’s in particular, but in any case, you can get more features and in many cases better functionality out of a different keyboard.

Our top pick? Google’s own Gboard. This keyboard has a great layout that’s comfortable for typers of all styles and supports features such as gesture/swipe typing, GIF search and input, and so much more. There are even unique features such as the “Emoji Kitchen” which can create some wacky emoji stickers on the fly. You can also theme Gboard to your heart’s desire.

Put simply, it’s an excellent keyboard that’s totally free and, if it wasn’t already on your phone, it’s one you should absolutely try.

SwiftKey and more

If Gboard isn’t quite your style, there’s another great option on the Play Store inthe Microsoft-owned SwiftKey. This keyboard has been one of the most popular Android apps since the platform’s app store existed. Recently acquired by Microsoft, the app offers excellent gesture typing and features the neat trick of learning and adapting to your typing style and your spelling mistakes too. SwiftKey supports over 400 languages and is free. It even supports syncing your clipboard with Windows PCs.

Some other popular Android keyboards include:

  • Grammarly was popularized as a Chrome extension, but works great on Android too. The Grammarly keyboard for Android goes beyond basic spell check to offer grammar fixes and alternate phrasing to improve how you send texts and emails.
  • Fleksy is designed for speed typing with some excellent auto-correct. The keyboard is also adding support for “glide” typing and supports over 80 languages.

Use a password manager!!

We all have a ton of online accounts, and the best way to both manage and protect that data is with a password manager. Password managers usually work by encrypting your data behind a “Master Password” or some other means, while allowing you to organize that data by the site it works with or in folders.

One of our favorite password managers is 1Password, with affordable pricing, excellent security that uses both a master password and a “Secret Key,” and an easy-to-use app.

DashLane works similarly, but also has an option to automatically change your passwords for you and some free functionality too. If you really need a completely free option, though, Bitwarden is a great option.

The only password manager we currently don’t recommend is LastPass. While it has a solid free tier, the company has had several notable security breaches, including one just recently where password vaults from customers were stolen.

Don’t lose your phone or your data

Find My Device

Here’s another app that should already be installed on any new Android smartphone. “Find my Device” is a Google app designed to help you keep track of your smartphone should it be misplaced. If the app isn’t installed on your device for some reason, Find My Device available via the Play Store.

When you open up Find My Device, you’ll be prompted to sign in with a Google account and enter your password as well. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to see your device as well as any others attached to your account. You can then ring, lock, or wipe any device on your account. The same applies for your new phone as well from any other Android device you own, a friend’s Android phone, or even just a web browser. As a side note, the core functionality of actually finding your phone with this app is on by default in Google Play Services, but using the app you’ll get a bit more control as well as being able to find your other Android devices through the app as well as helping friends to find their phones.

Google One

If you do lose or break your phone, you don’t have to lose your data. That’s where Google One comes in handy. With any Google One storage plan (starting at just $2/month), you’ll get improved backups of your phone. By default, Android already backs up core data for free to your Google account, but the One app can back up SMS messages and MMS messages along with your photos and videos.

Manage your money

Google Wallet – Tap to pay and more

Mobile NFC payments are super conveinent, and setting them up on Android is easier than ever. Google Wallet is a free and quite simple app that lets you add credit/debit cards to your phone for NFC payments, as well as holding your loyalty cards, gift cards, COVID-19 vaccination data, airline passes, and so much more. The app is even working on support for holding your driver’s license.

Cash App, GPay, and more

Sending money has gotten a whole lot easier with apps, and there are some excellent choices to do so. Here are a few popular options.

  • Google Pay: Google’s money-sharing app “GPay” makes it easy to send funds to friends or family with no added fees, and the app also holds hundreds of discounts, cashback options, and can even help you with your budget.
  • PayPal: The classic, PayPal is a great way to send money to your friends and family, but is also super useful for online shopping as well as selling.
  • Venmo & Cash App: Both using the same basic model, Venmo and Cash App are excellent apps for sending money between friends and family with usernames for sharing and easy linking to your bank. Plus, since they’re widely used, most folks are usually going to have at least one of these two.

Boost your savings and your security

To help you hit new goals in the new year, as well as up your security, there are two other money-related apps we’d recommend trying out.

Privacy is a virtual card service. After linking it to your bank account, the app can create virtual card numbers that are attached to a single online retailer, or even turn off after a single use. It’s a great way to ensure that some retailer’s security breach doesn’t affect your finances later on. Digit.co is a money-saving app. It links to your bank account and automatically saves funds here or there to help you establish some emergency savings or a rainy day fund. You can also set up manual goals to help you put away money for a vacation, special event, or big purchase.

Keep track of your Digital Wellbeing

ActionDash

Finally, let’s talk about smartphone habits. For many, smartphone addiction is a real problem and going into a new decade, there are ways to help curb that – Digital Wellbeing apps. There might already be one installed on your device but, if not, ActionDash is a free Digital Wellbeing app for Android smartphones that works on almost any device. The app tracks how you use your phone through the day including which apps are used, how many times you’ve unlocked your device, and even how many notifications you get.

To help curb your smartphone use, ActionDash offers tools such as pausing apps to keep you from using them, limiting how long an app can be used each day and more. Everything is done on-device and isn’t uploaded to the cloud and, better yet, the app is free and won’t hurt your battery either. ActionDash is available on Google Play.

Google’s Digital Wellbeing experiments

If you really have a smartphone addiction and you want to find a way to guilt yourself into stopping, Google’s collection of Digital Wellbeing experiments might be able to help. These include:

  • Screen Stopwatch, a wallpaper that constantly updates with the amount of time you’ve been using your phone that day.
  • Activity Bubbles, a wallpaper that shows how many times you unlock your phone in a day and how long each “session” lasts.
  • Unlock Clock, a wallpaper that counts how many times you’ve opened up your phone each day.

The best note-taking Android apps

Google Keep Notes

Keeping track of reminders, lists, and more can be made much easier by using a note-taking app. Personally, my favorite note-taking app on Android is Google Keep Notes and it’s something that just seems to keep getting better over time.

Google Keep is completely free and lets you store notes, lists, and even drawings in the app. Those notes are also synced to your Google account which means you can access them on any other device including computers. With a quick setup, you can even use Google Assistant speakers such as the Nest Mini to manage a shopping list!

Microsoft OneNote

If you want something that’s not from Google and has a few more advanced features, Microsoft OneNote is an excellent option. The app is completely free, though works better with other Microsoft apps using a Microsoft 365 subscription. You can back up notes, drawings, and insert pictures in the app and, like Google’s app, they’ll sync across devices with your Microsoft account.

Keep connected to your computer

Link to Windows

If you spend all day at a desk, it can be super conveinent to keep your Android phone connected to your PC. With the Link to Windows app, that’s super easy.

After connecting, Link to Windows allows Android users to take phone calls on their PC, use messages, bring their notifications to their computer, and even access of their photos and videos without hooking up any wires. You can even mirror Android apps from your phone up to your computer.

How to set up Chromebook Phone Hub

Alternatively if you have a Chromebook, you can set up “Phone Hub.” This offers most of the same features as Link to Windows, but further building on it with support for setting up a hotspot and also using your phone as a “key” to unlock your ChromeOS device. You don’t have to download anything to set up Phone Hub either, just follow the instructions below.

A few more noteworthy apps:

  • Waze: While Google Maps will do the trick for many, Waze offers crowdsourced live traffic data and reports for speed traps and more.
  • Google News: Especially in these times, keeping up with the latest news is important, and using personalized data, Google News will bring you top stories in a slick app that’s really easy to use.
  • Feedly: Want to keep track of the news using personalized RSS feeds? Feedly is one of the best apps for the job, and it’s free!
  • Google Home/Amazon Alexa: Got some smart home speakers or displays? You’ll want to have the Google Home or Amazon Alexa apps installed depending on what devices you own.
  • Get a 3rd-party launcher: Installing a new launcher is a great way to fully customize the homescreen on your new Android phone. Nova Launcher and Action Launcher are great options for this.

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Technology

15 best Android apps released in 2022

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We’ve come to the end of another year and it’s time for fun yearly roundups. Android apps aren’t quite the draw that they used to be. After all, it’s difficult to break out into a scene where there are already so many excellent apps. Still, we think quite a few made out well this year, and we’re going to talk about them. Here are the best Android apps released in 2022.

We sorted through over 200 apps for this list, with many more on the cutting room floor. Our cutoff this year was December 10th, so apps released on or around that date didn’t make it because we couldn’t test them thoroughly first. Thank you for understanding.

This list is in alphabetical order except for the final three apps, which we chose as the best Android apps of the year. We hope you enjoy the read.

The best Android apps released in 2022

AetherSX2 is a PlayStation 2 emulator that launched in beta in late 2021. It received its first full release in 2022. This app is

nice for a few different reasons. For starters, it’s the first PlayStation 2 emulator on Android ever. It also works reasonably well. Some features include the usual emulator stuff like save states and hardware controller support. You’ll also get stuff like 1080p upscaling, per-game settings, and widescreen patches for select games.

You do need a PlayStation 2 BIOS file, and the developer doesn’t provide one for obvious reasons. Other than that, it seems to work pretty well on most high-end, modern phones. The developer notes that Mali and PowerVR GPUs don’t run the emulator as well as the more popular Adreno GPUs, so your mileage may vary. In any case, it’s nice to have PlayStation 2 support on Android now, along with all the other good emulators.

Console Launcher

Price: $4.99

Console Launcher is a launcher for mobile gamers. It’s set up to look like a Nintendo Switch UI, where your games show up as large tiles. The launcher has a few gamer-centric features, like controller support so you can scroll through your games with the flick of a joystick. It’s definitely a neat little feature for people who game with controllers a lot, but a bit niche otherwise.

Some downsides include a lack of customization and less-than-ideal accessibility support, and it’s actually less ergonomic to use without a controller. This certainly isn’t something we’d run on a daily driver, but it’s a unique premise. After all, Kodi exists for multimedia. Why shouldn’t there be a launcher for gaming? In any case, the launcher costs a flat $4.99 and has no in-app purchases or ads.

Daily Diary

Price: Free / $2.99

It’s a little weird putting a diary app on a best-of-the-year list, but this one is surprisingly good. Daily Diary does everything you expect from a decent diary app. That includes a biometric lock, the ability to add photos to your diary entries, a calendar, a mood tracker, reminders, and a pleasantly uncluttered but modern UI. The soft, muted colors and easy-to-understand controls are appealing to most people.

One of the best parts about the app is its price tag. Most diary apps use a subscription service. This one goes for just $2.99 with no additional in-app purchases or ads. It accomplishes this feat by using Google Drive to back up your diary if you need to switch devices. That, along with the excellent execution, helps separate it from most of the other great diary apps. We know diary apps aren’t the most popular segment on mobile, but this is definitely among the best apps in the category, so we’re writing about it.

DanceFitme

Price: Free trial / $7.99 per month / $59.99 per year

DanceFitme is a fitness app mixed with a dance app. Create an account, subscribe, and you’re treated to a variety of videos that help you learn how to do some dances while also losing weight. The app offers videos with various types of dances along with workout plans to help you accomplish your fitness goals. Of course, you’ll learn the steps for the various dances as you do them.

The app can also do the usual fitness stuff like track your progress and tailor your workouts based on your experience level. We wouldn’t recommend a subscription-based fitness app if it didn’t offer those things. This kind of workout isn’t quite my thing, but I definitely see why a lot of people hopped on this one this year. The subscription also isn’t terrible, as many fitness apps go for $9.99 per month or more.

DeepL Translate

Price: Free

DeepL Translate is a foreign language translator. It currently supports 29 languages. It can translate in a few different ways. You can type in words, use your camera to look at text, or even talk to the app to get direct translations. The UI is simple, but effective, with a few modern flourishes, so it doesn’t look outdated.

It doesn’t support as many languages as the big dogs like Google Translate or Microsoft Translate. Those apps have years of developmental maturity over this one, so the fact that this one supports over two dozen languages is still pretty impressive. Translations were quick and accurate in our testing. It’s nice to see another option in the translation space that isn’t a Google or Microsoft product.

Duolingo ABC is a learning app for children. This one helps teach literacy, as indicated by the name. It basically takes Duolingo’s winning formula and applies it to reading. Kids take bite-sized lessons in the form of stories for them to read. The app boasts over 700 reading lessons in total.

Some other features of the app include offline support, no advertising, and lessons for kids up through first grade. Obviously, older kids with reading difficulties can still use the app as well. A lot of children’s learning software is much of the same stuff presented in the same way. Duolingo does it a little bit differently; this is an easy recommendation for teaching kids how to read.

Dream by WOMBO

Price: Free trial / $4.99 per month / $99.99 once

Dream by WOMBO is Google Play’s choice for its app of the year. We think it’s pretty good as well. It’s an artificial intelligence art tool that can create all kinds of neat images. It specializes in dreamscapes that are vaguely reminiscent of posters you used to be able to buy from Spencer’s back in the 1990s. These images are great for sharing on social media or as background images.

It works a bit like a search engine. You type in nouns that you want to see. The app then draws a dreamscape with those nouns. I found the functionality to be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes it would make the artwork as described, and sometimes it would skip keywords. In either case, there are a lot of apps similar to this on the Play Store, but even with its quirks, this one still does it better than its competitors.

Linktree

Price: Free / $5+ per month

Linktree is a biography website. You use it to create a profile page. The website then generates a short link that you plug into your bio on social media profiles. You’ve likely seen Linktree links on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter profiles. The app is an extension of the website and lets you craft the exact same things you find on the website.

There really isn’t much to it, and it kind of reminds me of a MySpace profile. You can add your name, things about you, likes, dislikes, and the usual stuff. It also lets you link things like music, playlists, videos, and podcasts, which is what gives me the MySpace vibes. It’s made specifically for sites with short bios, and we see people using them all the time.

NoteIt Widget

Price: Free with in-app purchases

We’re honestly surprised NoteIt Widget has as many downloads as it does. The app boasts over ten million downloads as of the time of this writing. It’s a novel concept. The app connects you to another person and then places a widget on your phone. Once done, you message that other person directly from the widget by writing out words or drawing little doodles.

It obviously won’t replace the utility of standard messaging apps, but we found that it’s a nice little app for couples or best friends. The app keeps track of streaks, similar to Snapchat, and you can buy back your streak if you break it with in-app purchases. This one is a bit more buggy than we’d like for a best-of-the-year list, but we can’t argue with those download numbers. People like this one.

Recover Athletics

Price: Free / $7.99 per month / $79.99 per year

Recover Athletics is a different kind of fitness app. The main premise isn’t to help you get into shape. Instead, it helps you recover from your fitness training in a healthy manner. The app has a bunch of tips, tricks, and tutorials for nursing aches and pains while preventing injury. Some other features include integration with Strava, a digital coach with personalized recovery recommendations, and custom routine creation that lets you plan your recovery.

In terms of use, the app is pretty decent. It takes a minute to get used to, but most fitness apps do. There is a subscription cost associated with this. It’s cheaper than most fitness apps, but since this is meant to run alongside your primary fitness app, we think it could’ve been a little cheaper.

Symfonium

Price: Free / $3.99

Symphonium is a music player for cloud-based music. The app lets you connect to Plex, Subsonic, Jellyfin, Emby, Kodi, and others. It works by connecting you to your music collection on your computer and playing it like any other music app. It sounds niche, but there really aren’t any other apps like this on Google Play, and that’s why it’s on this list. The app does what it does better than any of the competition, to our knowledge.

Some additional features include song ratings, smart filters, smart playlists, Android Auto support, offline playback functionality, lyrics support, and an equalizer. It looks like and works like any other music player after you get everything set up. This one is excellent, and we think it’ll end up on some of our best lists within the next year.

Ukulele by Yousician

Price: Free / $14.99 per month / $139.99 per year

Yousician already has a successful app for guitar, bass, and singing. This app is an extension of that, but just for ukuleles. To be perfectly honest, we’re not sure why the ukulele got its own app instead of just being integrated into the main Yousician app, but we don’t make those decisions. The app works just like the main one. You log in, find lessons, and learn how to play the ukulele. There are lessons for chords, tuning, reading sheet music, various picking patterns, and more.

The only real downside is the price. It’s substantially more expensive than the base Yousician app at $14.99 per month. The free trial is a little bare-bones as well. We assume it’s because it’s catering to a smaller group of people, but we think it probably should be a bit cheaper. Otherwise, the app works well.

Second runner-up: Mastodon

Price: Free

Mastodon released its official app back in April of 2022. Months later, Elon Musk purchased Twitter and Mastodon saw a massive influx of new users. We can’t think of a better-timed release than this one. The app works pretty well. You can sign into your instance, create posts, and check out what’s going on with the people you follow. It’s a clean experience that isn’t terribly difficult to use once you get set up.

Most of the bugs reported by users are during the setup process. After that, everything is pretty straightforward. The app could use a little polish to keep up with modern social media apps, but honestly, it works fine without it.

Runner-up: BeReal

Price: Free

BeReal is Google Play’s app of the year. It’s a social network that tries to remove the fake from social media by only giving users a couple of minutes per day to post. The app chooses when you post, so you can’t really plan it. You just take a picture of what you’re doing and go. Influencers have some issues getting into this platform, which makes me happy.

Using the app is pretty simple. You follow your friends, check out their stuff when they post, and that’s it. Since it doesn’t give you a constant stream, you have to leave when you’re done because you have nothing else to do. That’s kind of the charm with BeReal. The app itself works mostly okay, but some intermittent network bugs along with annoying notifications hinder it somewhat.

App of the year: DynamicSpot

Price: Free / $2.49-$4.99

We’re going out on a limb here and saying that DynamicSpot is Android Authority‘s app of the year. It’s a customization app that mimics the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. You can set it to work in a few different ways and with several different apps. We like it because most Android phones have a notch or pinhole camera anyway, and this is a way to play with it. It also works very well and, to our knowledge, is the only Dynamic Island app on the Play Store that doesn’t have a ton of bugs.

Some of the ways you can customize DynamicSpot include iOS-style music controls, a countdown timer, battery charging, and sending notification replies from the pop-up — and you can set up your own custom interactions as well. Plus, unlike BeReal, this app actually launched in 2022, is an answer to a 2022 trend, and it’s honestly fun to use. Congratulations, DynamicSpot.

Honorable mentions

Every year we select the 15 best apps to list as the best of the year. However, there are some other apps that are close to making the list. Since listicles like these are subjective, we decided to add ten additional honorable mentions that you could easily switch out with almost any of the above apps. Here are our honorable mentions for the best Android apps of the year.

  • 28 — 28 is a hybrid fitness app and menstrual cycle tracker. It suggests fitness routines for you that change based on where you are in your monthly cycle. It also tracks your cycle and gives you information based on each phase. With a 4.4 rating on Google Play, and an increasing focus on women’s fitness in Google Play, this app hit the ground running.
  • Breathwrk — Breathwrk is a meditation app with breathing exercises. The idea is to use breathing exercises to help control and relieve stress, anxiety, depression, and even stuff like high blood pressure. The app works well, and the exercises are genuinely relaxing. The only downside is that it’s pretty expensive.
  • Google’s busy year — Google revamped a few of its apps this year, including Google Family Link and Google Home. Family Link received a redesign to make it easier to manage and use. Google Home finally received Wear OS support. The company also re-released Google Wallet. These changes didn’t fix all the issues, but it seems Google is on the right track with this stuff, at least.
  • Lensa — Lensa received significant attention this year as a social media trend. You upload or take a couple of photos, and the app turns those photos into AI-generated images. The app does a lot more stuff, too, and includes some photo editing tools as well. However, most people know about it and use it for AI stuff. One package costs $7.99 to create, and your mileage may vary.
  • Lightness — Lightness is an anonymous social media network. Essentially, users post stuff as lanterns. You tap those lanterns to read someone’s posts. Since it’s anonymous, people use the platform to post secrets, admissions, emotional stories, and stuff they may not post elsewhere. We don’t think it’ll disrupt the status quo, but it’s a neat idea with good execution.
  • Little Lunches — Little Lunches is a meal planner app designed for people with kids. The app helps create meal plans, and users can include things like dietary restrictions and caloric intake needs. It also has information for meal plans for children. It can be a bit finicky, but we think the idea is good. Not many meal planners focus on kids.
  • MJ PDF Reader — MJ PDF Reader is a well-done, totally free, and open-source PDF reader. It eschews the super long list of features for a simple, but functional experience. You can do things like print PDFs and view them in true full-screen mode, and it’ll remember where you left off when you leave and come back. It’s the best PDF reader launched this year.
  • PetStar — PetStar is an entertaining little app. You take a picture of your pet, outline where the mouth is, and the app will make your pet sing a song. It’s not a serious app by any stretch, and it’s meant to give you a few minutes of entertainment and laughs. The app does have different songs, and they add more periodically. We don’t think it’s worthy of a top 15 vote, but people seemed to enjoy it.
  • Plant Parent — Plant Parent is an app to help you take better care of your plants. It includes things like smart reminders, a Plant ID function, a calendar, and several guides for nursing sick plants back to health. The UI is modern and relatively easy to use. Good gardening apps don’t along very often anymore, so we’re just happy to see some competition in the space.
  • Wamble — Wamble is a discovery app of sorts. It helps you find things to do that are within one mile of where you currently are. We don’t think this sort of thing helps all that much for long-time residents of a spot, but travelers can get a ton of use out of something like this. There is a chat function, a buy and sell function, and you can find events with it. We think it’s niche, but the concept is good.

If we missed any great Android apps from 2022, tell us about them in the comments. You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.

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Technology

Five apps to use to stay on top of news without looking at Twitter

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A few weeks ago, I deleted Twitter from my phone and tablet. This was a long time coming, and the reasons I chose to do it are obvious, so I’m not here to write an essay about why I did. Instead, I’m here to provide some tips if you, like me, used to rely on Twitter for staying on top of news and events and don’t want to use Twitter to do so anymore.

I used a lot of the tools here before I deleted Twitter, but they’ve become more useful and prominent in my screen time calculations without Twitter around. (And no, deleting Twitter did not reduce my screen time, sadly.) Some of them may be obvious and some of them may be new to you, but here’s what I’m doing to keep up with both general news and topics I’m interested in specifically.

Apple’s News app has been around for years on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac but hasn’t really gotten much credit for how good it is for those of us who consume a lot of longform articles. It’s far from perfect, and yes, even if you pay $9.99 / month (or get it bundled with an Apple One plan) for a News Plus subscription, there are still ads in articles (though, I’m not sure how this is different from buying a magazine off of a newsstand? I digress), and you have to have an Apple device to access it.

Still, Apple News provides me with top headlines of events around the world every time I open it plus curated selections based on my reading history and topics I’ve selected. It also provides push notifications from publications I follow and integrates sports scores and reporting from teams I care about.

But the best part of Apple News is that it provides me access to longform articles from The Atlantic, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, and many others for a flat fee through my News Plus subscription. There’s no other service I’ve been able to find that provides so much longform content to me for such a relatively low price. I used to rely on my Twitter feed to stuff my Pocket queue full of things to read later, but Apple News provides much of that for me now.

Along with Apple News, Google News provides a curated list of news articles based on my interests every time I open it. Compared to Apple’s offering, Google News leans more on shorter pieces and is better at providing me with local updates, whether that’s upcoming weather, local politics, or restaurant happenings. It’s available on both iOS and Android and is free, so it’s an easy one to pick up and start using.

Google News isn’t perfect — it relies on Google’s AMP format of website too much and doesn’t do a great job of remembering my logins to paywalled sites — but it, too, has provided a wealth of options for my read-later queue now that Twitter is gone.

Google provides a similar feed of articles in its Discover product, which is available just to the left of your homescreen on Android phones and in the Google app on an iPhone. But Discover kind of sucks and provides terrible recommendations more often than good ones in my experience, so I generally just go right to Google News.

Believe it or not, RSS is still around and still works great for keeping on top of updates from various websites. I’ve used an RSS reader for longer than I used Twitter, and it’s still one of the first apps I open every morning to get a bead on what’s happening on the sites I care about.