No matter how many sales Apple makes, there’s no denying that Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world, so we’re now going to take a look at the 11 coolest Android apps of 2016.
According to Statista there are over 2.2 million apps in the Google Play app store, which is… a lot. But that also means there’s something for everyone in there, whether it’s a free app or one that you’re going to pay for, or one that allows people to make in-app purchases. There’s a great variety in the type of apps available, too, but they’re all meant to make your life better, to make it easier to handle your day to day activities, your social life, or your workload. There are some apps that are great for younger generations, such as these best Google apps for education.
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In order to create our list of coolest Android apps of 2016 we took a look at a bunch of websites such as Android Authority or Tech Radar, to name a few out of the nine we checked out. These all list hundreds upon hundreds of apps that everyone loved this year. So, we took note of how many times they’re all mentioned and made a list out of that. Then, we went through them all and checked just how many review stars they received from users and how many reviewers there were since the number of installs isn’t really telling considering anyone can download them and forget about the app altogether or even uninstall it. Those that review actually use the apps and care enough about them to leave a note.
On that note, let’s take a look at the 11 coolest Android apps of 2016.
11. Microsoft Office
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4
Reviews – 479K
If you need to pay loads of cash to be able to use Microsoft Office on your computer, it’s free for your mobile phone. Hooray for that!
The Microsoft Office Mobile pack comes with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint so you can access, view and edit these types of files anywhere you are. This makes it ideal for when you have to work on the go or make a small adjustment before your big meeting, and it’s even better since the files are backed onto OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage. There are plenty of customization features available to work with on your smartphone so you’ll surely find it extremely useful to work with.
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10. Google Now
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4
Reviews – 727K
The Google Now launcher ranks 10th in our list of coolest Android apps of 2016. It is ideal for those that want a cleaner version of Android. Each Android manufacturer has taken to make some kind of personalization to Android, some kind of skin that will set them apart from the many other companies producing similar smartphones.
In this manner, you’re getting your phone to look pretty much like Google intended it to when designing Android in the first place – clean and sharp. Plus, you can get to the Google Now feature with just a finger swipe, quick access to search from every Home screen. “OK Google” also works for voice search, texting and asking for directions to the best pizza place.
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9. SwiftKey
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4
Reviews – 2 million
The keyboard that comes default with Android is decent, but there are so many advantages to upgrading to an app such as SwiftKey. What can SwiftKey do? Well, you can swipe your finger across keys and have the app suggest the right word to you. It can also save you some embarrassment by suggesting the right way to type a certain word. If you let it “learn” the way you type from your emails, social media and so on, it can even suggest words you may use next, thanks to the AI it comes with.
There are also multiple skins you can use to make your keyboard prettier, plenty of emoji and hundreds of languages it can correct your typing in.
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8. Google Photos
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4
Reviews – 5.2 million
There are so many benefits to using Google Photos that rank 8th in our list of coolest Android apps of 2016. It comes pre-installed on most Android phones, and it’s particularly useful since it can automatically backup all the photos on your device, whether you took them yourself or received them via messenger apps and so on. It can create collages, videos and albums of photos taken closer together.
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7. Google Maps
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4
Reviews – 6.7 million
There we go, another Google app. Frankly, we shouldn’t be surprised by the number of Google-made apps on the list since they often come pre-installed on Android phones. Even if they don’t, it’s just easier to get them installed and to use them over other apps because they’re so interconnected with the Google account, making backing everything up that much easier.
Google Photos, in particular, can back up all the images on your phone, including those you receive via messenger apps, and those you take with your camera, and even screenshots. That means you don’t have to worry about losing your pictures even if your smartphone crashes or you lose it altogether. Plus, it even offers to delete the pictures from your device when storage space is tight.
Another cool feature of Google Photos is the Assistant that delivers collages, movies, albums and animations by putting together pictures you’ve taken in quick succession, or in the same area of the city, or in a particularly adventurous day, for instance.
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6. WhatsApp
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4
Reviews – 44 million
One of Facebook’s biggest investments was made to purchase WhatsApp, one of the most used messaging apps in the world. Linking to your phone number, but relying on your data plan or WiFi, WhatsApp provides a valuable service – lets you text your friends or call them over the Internet. Furthermore, you can send and receive photos, videos, documents, and even voice messages. There are plenty of emoji to send if you want to, as well. Group chats are also available for users.
The best part of it all is that it’s free. Back in the day, before Facebook bought WhatsApp, you could pay a few bucks for a 5 year plan, money you were more than willing to pay considering all that you were getting in exchange. And even that payment was made after a year of free use. Now you don’t have to worry about that part anymore.
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5. Tasker
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4.5
Reviews – 40K
Retailing for $2.99, Tasker is an app that allows users to create automatic responses to various actions of your phone. It’s a rather intimidating app to play with since it gives you so much control over your Android operating system and it’s probably best if you have at least some knowledge of what you’re doing before delving right in.
So what can you do? Well, for instance, you can have your led light flash in a specific color when you get a text. You can have the phone turn off mobile data when you’re home or have it turn on your WiFi automatically in certain instances. There are so many things you can do with this app that it’s really worth your money and then some.
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4. Pocket Casts
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4.5
Reviews – 41K
Going for $3.99, Pocket Casts is a player designed for podcasts. It’s beautifully designed, easy to use and even if it’s not free, something that Android users often look for, it’s one of the best choices you can make. Not only can you play podcasts, but you can make your own. You can build a beautiful podcast that looks beautiful, change colors to go with the artwork and go back and forth between dark and light color schemes.
There are strong playback features, as well as plenty of witty tools available. For instance, you can sync your subscriptions, playback, and filters in the app’s cloud, and you can also get notifications when there are new episodes to podcasts. And now, let’s see the top three entries in our list of coolest Android apps of 2016.
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3. Duolingo
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4.5
Reviews –3.4 million
How many languages do you speak? Have you thought about picking up a new one in the future? Well, there are less expensive options out there than getting a tutor or paying for organized classes, but you have to be willing to put in the time and effort.
Duolingo ranks third in our list of coolest Android apps of 2016. It is an app that provides support to those looking to learn English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Ukrainian, Esperanto, Polish, and Turkish. The tool wants to help people practice speaking, reading, listening and writing in these languages while playing a cute game. You’ll start slowly and go from there, building up to more difficult lessons.
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2. Spotify
Mentions – 5
Stars – 4.5
Reviews – 3.4 million
Is there a more famous music tool out there? Well, Spotify that ranks second in our list of coolest Android apps of 2016 is here to bring happiness to those who enjoy music. The downside of Spotify is that it’s not available everywhere in the world. On the other hand, if you have an account, you can play songs you like, playlists you stumbled upon that others create or music to suit a certain mood. Furthermore, it’s possible to binge listen to your favorite artists, if their discography is uploaded to the service.
1. Google Drive
Mentions – 6
Stars – 5
Reviews – 1.4 million
Another Google name hits the list! Well, it’s not necessarily a surprise, as we said before because Google Drive is just easy to use. Plus, it comes pre-installed so that should push a lot of people to use this one over other cloud services, but it’s obviously not the only reason.
Drive allows users to store files in cloud and access them anywhere, from any device, to search for files by name and even by content, which is obviously great for all those files you wisely named “alskdhalksd” before hitting save and uploading them to the cloud. All files are easy to share with others with just a few button pushes and you can even check to see whether you’re sharing the right file before taking that extra step. To make things even better, you can access pictures and videos from Google Photos from the same Drive since the two are intertwined.
With that being said, these are some of the 11 coolest Android apps of 2016.
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