The best smartphones of 2024, tried and tested – but are they worth the upgrade?
15 Best Free Android Apps Available Right Now
Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Android's biggest strength is its app ecosystem. There are tons of Android apps and thousands of people have downloaded them billions of times. Some of them cost money, and some of them don't. Usually, the best apps will cost you a few bucks. However, plenty of amazing options don't cost you anything. These services are usually supported by advertising, sponsorship of some sort, or something else.
However, there are still some truly excellent apps out there that you can use for free. After all, good functionality shouldn't always involve spending money. These are the best free Android apps for Android as of right now.
This is a best-of-all-time list, so the contents of this list won't change very often until something better comes along. You should also recognize most of the apps on this list.
The best free Android apps 1Weather
Price: Free / In-app purchases from $1.99
1Weather is about as complete of a weather app as you can find. It comes with all kinds of stuff, including current conditions, forecasts, radar, predictions, fun facts about meteorology, graphs, and even a sun and moon tracker. The design is also gorgeous, and the app includes fairly decent and somewhat configurable widgets.
You can remove advertising with in-app purchases. However, all the features are available in the free version, and the ads are inoffensive, so it's largely worth buying it. You can also check out our list of the best weather apps if you want an alternative. We also quite like AccuWeather, especially since that app's redesign in mid-2020.
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Let's be real, Firefox is one of the best browsers to have. There are multiple reasons for this. From a privacy-based perspective, it is better than most browsers and offers security with enhanced customization. This one blocks trackers and scripts, cross-site cookie trackers, crypto-miners, and fingerprints. With the enhanced tracking protection mode, you won't even have to manually set it up; it'll automatically configure itself to protect you. It's pretty fast too, user-friendly, and looks very neat and minimalistic. If you still have an issue with how it looks, don't worry; you can customize it to your preferences. And this one still supports ad-blocking extensions, which is great. There are also a ton of great extensions, add-ons, and themes available on the Mozilla Store.
Blue MailPrice: Free / In-app purchases from $6.99
Blue Mail is one of the best free Android apps for email. It features a simple design that helps you keep your emails in line. Additionally, it supports many email providers, color coding for easy organizing, app theming, Android Wear support, and widgets. Various smart features, such as blocking notifications during certain times (per account), also help customize your experience.
There aren't many email apps that are more customizable than this one. It does a lot of things right and very few things wrong. This is about as good as it gets without a price tag. There are some questions about its privacy policy; we recommend reading it if those things concern you. Here's a list of more excellent email app options as well.
COOKmatePrice: Free / In-app purchases from $2.49
COOKmate is arguably the best individual cookbook app on mobile. A lot of people have a lot of dietary wants and needs, so the use of a personal cookbook app benefits a lot of people. This one is particularly nice to use. You can create custom recipes from scratch with instructions and an ingredient list. Additionally, you can import recipes from virtually any website.
The UI is clean and easy to use, and there is cloud backup, even in the free version. The premium version is a yearly subscription, but it only increases the number of recipes you can sync or use the Dropbox option for.
Credit Karma is a fun little financial app. What it does is let you check your credit score for free. On top of that, the app will notify you when there are major changes to your credit score. The app offers some other things too, such as potential credit cards that you may qualify for based on your credit score. You don't have to accept those if you don't want to.
It's a simple, easy way to check out your credit and start fixing things if needed. It's one of the more underrated free Android apps. Credit Karma is not 100% accurate, but it gives you a good idea of what's happening. The notifications also let you know if a new account was opened in your name. NerdWallet is a great alternative to this. Additionally, Intuit (the owner of Turbo Tax) purchased Credit Karma back in 2020.
Gboard is Google's official keyboard app. It's a simple keyboard that doesn't have too many frills. It does have gesture typing (swiping), light theming, voice typing, emoji search, GIF support, and more. Its most unique feature is the built-in Google search that lets you search the web without leaving the keyboard or app that you're in.
It can also sync between devices, so your saved words go with you. It's effective, simple, and 100% free. If your phone keyboard is giving you fits, you'll want to try this one out. It's one of the best free Android apps, for sure.
Google DrivePrice: Free / In-app purchases from $0.99
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
The Google Drive suite is a group of applications that are all directly integrated into Google Drive. The apps include Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Google Photos, Google Keep, and the actual Google Drive app itself.
These apps focus primarily on office use for documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows but also work for note-taking, backing up your photos, and storing whatever file you can think of. The best part is that they're all free, unless you need more than 15GB of storage on Google Drive. Most people don't. These are all great free Android apps. You can also find more office app options here if you need more choices.
Google Opinion RewardsPrice: Free
Google Opinion Rewards is easily one of the best free Android apps in the Google Play Store. To use this app, you simply download and install it, then open it one time. After that, the app will periodically notify you to ask you some questions about where you go, what you do, and what Google products you use. You'll get credit for use in the Google Play Store every time you answer a survey. That credit can go toward buying yourself apps or games on Google Play.
It's a great way to expand your collection without spending real money. At worst, everyone should have this app installed. It is only available in some regions, so our international readers may be unable to use it.
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Google Maps and Waze are two navigation apps. Google Maps will give you turn-by-turn directions, let you view businesses (and their reviews), and all kinds of other stuff. Waze is another navigation app. It lets you check out the traffic along your route. Google Maps is definitely the more powerful of the two. Waze is a little bit more fun to use, though. That makes it a good option if you're looking for something simple. Both apps get heaps of new updates and features all the time. You can't go wrong either way. You do have more options, so here's our list of the best navigation apps for Android.
Giphy is an image database. It's a great place to find things like funny GIFs, fun images, little facts, and all kinds of other entertainment purposes. Most of those awesome pictures you see on Facebook, Twitter, etc, come from here. Giphy is completely free to download and use. There's another app, Imgur (download here), that works in the same way; you can give that a try too. Both of these apps have your back, whether you want to kill a few minutes slacking off or are looking for the perfect reaction GIF for your posts and replies. They're two free Android apps worth having. Plus, you can upload your images to Imgur without limits for sharing in various places. There are other funny apps on Android, but we like these two the best.
MusicoletPrice: Free / In-app purchases from $0.99
Musicolet is an intriguing option for local music playback. It does all of the basics, including playlists, tag editing, organizational features, file browsing, and embedded lyrics (LRC) support. You also get an equalizer, a sleep timer, widgets, lock screen controls, Android Auto support, and more.
It covers all standard use cases and still piles more on top. In addition, it's entirely free, with no in-app purchases and no advertising. We also quite like the simple, effective UI. You can check out other music app options here as well if you need to.
Microsoft OneNotePrice: Free
One Note by Microsoft is one of the most popular and best free Android apps to have. Firstly, we have to admire the neat and clean UI of the app, the color scheme, and everything about it that looks great. You have the option to type, hand-write, draw, or insert clips. It even supports voice recognition. The customization options and the variety it gives you to organize your notes — it's just phenomenal. There's even the option to scan physical pages; how great is that?
TickTickPrice: Free / In-app purchases from $0.99
Google Play Store
TickTick is among the best to-do list apps on Android. You can make lists, share tasks with others, organize your tasks in various ways, get reminders, set recurring tasks, and more. It's also highly modular, and that helps with organization. The widgets aren't half bad, either.
There is a pro version, but it adds things like calendar support and other additional features. The free version of this is far above what most other to-do list apps offer. It's also clean, easy to use, and great for small teams or families. It's technically not a free app. However, the free version functions better than most free to-do list apps. Don't worry; you won't need the premium version except in extreme cases.
ZedgePrice: Free / In-app purchases from $0.49
Zedge is pretty much a one-stop shop for things like wallpapers, ringtones, notification tones, and alarms. There is a large selection of all those things available in various genres, including fantasy, mainstream, funny, and whatever else you can think of. Zedge's users add most of the content themselves. The only downside is the hilarious number of ads that bother you while you are browsing the app. They are forgivable, but only just so.
Thanks to this, there is quite a bit of variety. There is also a premium option for wallpapers, which are pretty decent. Abstruct, Walli, and Tapet are better wallpaper options, but Zedge's premium content isn't half bad, and Zedge is basically the only truly great app left for ringtones. There are other great wallpaper apps and ringtone apps, but Zedge is the only one that can reliably do both.
ZoomPrice: Free / In-app purchases from $15.99
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Zoom was one of the definitive apps of 2020. When the pandemic hit and everybody started working from home, Zoom became the app to beat for video conferencing. It has a fairly robust free version. You can do unlimited one-on-one video chats and 40-minute meetings with up to 100 people. That's good enough for most use cases.
You can pay to remove many of those restrictions. The app lets you screen share and use a whiteboard to write stuff down, and it even includes end-to-end encryption. The app could be better, and Zoom quickly adapted to its new popularity. However, it managed to persevere.
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Best Note-taking App For Android Of 2024
The best note-taking apps for Android make it simple and easy to make manage notes on the go with your Android smartphone or tablet.
Best note-taking app for Android of 2024: Quick menu
This has become a lot more simple as smartphones have become a common device for use by business as well as general consumers. While note-taking apps are one of the simplest of the best business apps available it is often one of the most essential, especially when it comes to quickly putting down new ideas, inspirations, or general reminders before you forget.
Whether you're just typing text, writing with a stylus, or scribbling with your finger, there are a lot of different note-taking apps for Android out there. Some are focused on just taking notes, while others come with more features and functionality, such as adding multimedia, which can turn your smartphone into a digital notebook, or workbook.
Additionally, while note-taking apps were originally focused on a sole user, these days many now also come with options for collaboration, such as sharing files and folders with colleagues from the notes you make.
We've previously listed the best Android apps and the best free Android apps, so below we'll feature the best note-taking apps for Android currently available.
Also take a look at the best productivity apps.
The best note-taking apps for Android of 2024 in full:Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Best overall
A flexible note-taking app
Reasons to buy +Multi-platform support
+Works with Microsoft Office formats
+Free
For decades, Microsoft has dominated the software scene, and things haven't changed today. Offered as part of the Office family of productivity apps, OneNote is one of the most popular and capable note-taking apps you can get. This app is capable of a great deal, whether you want to capture information from emails or embed Excel tables.
This app is a multi-platform affair which is hooked up to the cloud, meaning that if you've written some notes on your laptop, you can pull these up in a meeting via your smartphone. OneNote works across Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices.
The Android app is easy to use and works as a flexible canvas, letting you type, handwrite, draw and clip things you find on the web. What's more, you can even scan notes made on paper and make them searchable through OneNote. To organize your notes, you can create tags, labels, to-do lists and follow-up items. It's also possible to categorize notes based on their importance.
OneNote allows for collaboration, letting you share your virtual notebooks with anyone. People can leave comments and follow-up questions on your notes as well. The best thing about OneNote, though, is that it's completely free to download while offering a plethora of premium capabilities.
Read our full Microsoft OneNote review.
Best for productivity
Many regard this as a must-have productivity app
Reasons to buy +User-friendly
+Powerful note-taking features
+Free version
Evernote is a well-respected and powerful productivity app. It's described as an organization and planning app that lets you take both typed and handwritten notes, create to-do lists, scan documents using your camera, and collaborate on content with others.
The great thing about Evernote is that it makes use of a variety of media. For instance, you can create notes in text form, or as sketches, photos, audio, video, PDFs or web clippings.
Just like Microsoft's OneNote, this app is underpinned by cloud technology. That means you can sync content across all your devices from computers through to tablets and phones. In other words, if you start a task on one device, you can complete it on another.
With Evernote, you can create, share and discuss content with your colleagues as well. The app is currently free to download, but the premium plan which offers a wider range of features is available for a monthly or yearly subscription.
We've also featured the best free alternatives to Evernote.
Read our full Evernote review.
Best general
A comprehensive offering for note-taking
Reasons to buy +Backed by Google
+Allows for scanning documents
+Free
Google offers a highly capable note-taking app in the form of Keep, which allows you to create as many notes and lists as you want. And you don't need to stick to mere text – you can also add images and audio to your notes.
In fact, there's even the ability to record memos for the app to automatically transcribe. That's particularly handy if you've had a light bulb moment and want to get it noted down somewhere quickly. Similarly to OneNote, you can scan handwritten notes, receipts, invoices and other documents through your camera.
Google Keep is a pretty decent productivity app for teams, too. You can easily share notes and collaborate with others. Other features include color-coded labels, reminders and the benefit of multi-platform support. The app is free to download from the Play Store.
Read our full Google Keep review.
Best visual
4. Material Notes
A visual way to make notes
Reasons to buy +Easy-to-use
+Colored notes
+Affordable
Material Notes is a streamlined app that allows you to create notes, to-do lists and reminders. These are all color-coded and stored within a card-style interface to keep things better organized, and to make it easy to find relevant information. You also get the ability to mark important notes with stars, and these are saved within a category based on the urgency of projects.
To ensure you never misplace an important note or list, you can easily locate anything by making use of the app's search function. Plus you can create and place widgets on your home screen, which give you quick access to your notes.
In terms of security, you can create a four-digit pin for all your notes, ensuring that sensitive information doesn't get into the wrong hands. And the app allows you to easily and swiftly import content stored on other devices. Material Notes is free to download, with additional features available as an in-app purchase.
Best simple
A simple notepad application
Reasons to buy +Highly streamlined note-taking
+Solid organizational capabilities
+Free
It's easy to feel overwhelmed when an app is weighed down with tons of features, many of which you might never use. Simplenote is designed for people who just want a quick, easy-to-use piece of software to jot down spontaneous ideas.
Just open up the app, and right away you can create notes and lists. As you continue to use the software and amass more notes, you're able to organize them with tags and pins. Every time you create a new note, it's stored in the cloud and can be accessed through other devices. The app is completely free to download and use.
Read our full Simplenote review.
Best for features
6. Notepad Notes
Best for features
Reasons to buy +Multiple formatting options
+Speech to text
+Password protect notes
Keep My Notes is a note-taking app for Android that comes with a number of neat features. For starters, you can create handwritten notes using a finger or stylus, plus there's also the option to create notes using a built-in text-to-speech feature.
There are also various formatting options available to bold, underline, or italicize - among other things - plus the ability to add audio to your notes. Even better, for added security, you can password protect notes.
Notes can be set up like sticky notes on your home screen, and notes can even shared with other apps. There are different light or dark themes available, and the display can be changed to portrait for phones and landscape for tablets.
Additionally, you can also change the text size and color when inputting text for your notes in the first place, which can be very handy.
Altogether, Keep My Notes is a handy little package that backs up to the cloud. You can run the app for free with ads, but there are in-app purchases, not least to run ad-free.
While we've featured Microsoft 365 as the best overall productivity app, there are other mobile office suites worth considering. Here we'll provide a run down of these:
A formidable free office suite for Android
Reasons to buy +Free to install
+Full office suite
WPS Office is an office suite developed by Chinese software outfit Kingsoft. The app is free to download but in-app purchases can be made to include more features. The suite comprises of WPS Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheet.
The WPS PDF reader has the ability to convert PDF to WPS and is able to read Adobe PDF files. The app supports a number of file types such as DOC, RTF, DOT, PPTX, TXT and HTML amongst others. All documents are fully compatible with Microsoft Office and Google Docs.
The app allows you to securely encrypt your files with passkeys, and you can edit your documents without fear of losing your work thanks to the auto-save option. Features include the ability to track changes, comments, and run spell checks.
Another handy feature supported by the app is the ability to present documents straight from your smartphone (or tablet) to a compatible TV or projector. WPS for Android also supports 47 different languages.
The downside here is that if you're not a paid user, you get shown adverts, and they are seemingly quite intrusive.
Read our full WPS Office Free review.
A user-friendly suite with neat chat and collaboration options
Reasons to buy +Free office suite and PDF viewer
+Easy-to-use
Reasons to avoid -Standard version is very basic
OfficeSuite was first released as a mobile app in 2004 on Palm OS, where it was mainly read-only until 2009. At this time Sony requested an Android version within a very short time span of 12 weeks. This was achieved and OfficeSuite for Android was born. The product is now a fully featured cross-platform productivity suite.
Although OfficeSuite is free to download, there are in-app purchases to upgrade the features available. If you purchase the Pro version you won't be forced to make certain in-app purchases (for example, paying for extra fonts), but you can still make purchases if you wish.
This suite is also fully compatible with a large number of file formats such as ODT, PDF, RTF, TXT and CSV. However, the free app is inundated with ads. Further note that you will need to upgrade to the premium version if you want to open certain file types such as ODT.
The OfficeSuite Drive allows you to store up to 5GB of files in the cloud. The Chats feature helps co-workers to collaborate and swap documents online. The app is fully compatible with all Microsoft documents and boasts support for PDF files with features such as camera scanning and PDF exports.
Read our full OfficeSuite review.
3. Docs to Go
A powerful suite with word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools
Reasons to buy +Versatile free version
+Lots of functionality
Reasons to avoid -PDFs can seemingly cause crashes
DataViz, the company that established Docs to Go, started off with a product that connected Macs and PCs together. Docs to Go was subsequently created for BlackBerry and is now a multi-platform app.
The Android app allows users to view Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office files. From here you can edit and create Excel, PowerPoint and Word files, all in the palm of your hand. Docs to Go has many formatting tools, such as word count, tables, font color and the ability to track changes.
There's a free and premium version of the app. Both support editing and formatting within the app, along with advanced Excel support. Some features such as cloud services, desktop sync, and password-protected file support require in-app purchases. Both the free and premium applications are optimized for use on a tablet with portrait and landscape views.
Docs to Go has its own versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. These are known as Word to Go, Sheet to Go and Slideshow to Go. The only criticism the solution seems to receive is that PDF files tend to cause the app to crash, with folks being advised to stick with a separate PDF viewer for this purpose.
Editing and viewing documents made easy with this collaboration app
Reasons to buy +Free trial
+Integrated chat rooms
Quip is an online collaborative software suite that is available on Android devices. The company was founded in 2012 by Bret Taylor, who was a former Facebook CTO, in conjunction with Kevin Gibbs, founder of the Google App Engine.
The main features of Quip are the spreadsheet and word processing functions which allow online collaboration as well as alterations on the corresponding Android apps. All members of the group can view and edit documents at the same time and also have the ability to add comments if need be. Quip also has its own chat rooms and it is used by major players such as Amazon and Dell.
Quip offers a free tier, although it's based on the activity of the user, rather than on the number of days you use it for. So, the more you make use of it, the more free time you will receive.
The paid tier enables a team to use spreadsheets, chat and Live Apps such as a Calendar. If you need assistance there is also excellent support available. The app allows you to work offline and sync documents when you are next online.
Some online reviews have criticized Quip's ability to load PDF documents saying that it is limited and sometimes can be time consuming. Further note that the app only supports a limited number of import/export formats.
Read our full Quip review.
Other Android office suites to considerWe've covered just a few of the office apps for Android above, but there are plenty more to consider. Here we'll add a few more than are also worth thinking about:
Google Workspace is also worth considering, though while there are limitations to Google Docs and other apps in Google Workspace compared to other offerings, it's still worth considering. This is not least because of the integration between the different Google apps and other Google services, such as GMail and Google Drive (aka Google One) which means it provides a decent if sometimes basic all-in-one office software solution. Perhaps the bigger sell is the collaborative functions that are available to use across Google Workspace, which could make them ideal for small teams.
Polaris Office is another big office software suite, providing word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations in a single app for Android. Advertised as an All-in-One Complete Office Suite, it's compatible with Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat files. In fact, it has a decent list of file types it can work with, not least DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, PPS, PPSX, TXT, HWP, ODT as well as PDF. Even better, it's free, though it is advertising-driven and in-app purchases are available to both remove the apps as well as expand the available feature list.
Zoho Sheet is just one of a large number of apps from the Zoho Corporation for office and business use, all of which should integrate easily with one another. As with some of the above, collaborative working is available on shared documents. Not only is Zoho Sheet free, it also works easily with Excel files for creating, editing, and saving.
AndrOpen Office works with the OpenDocument format and advertises itself as 'the world's first porting of OpenOffice for Android'. As with other office suites, it provides a platform for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, but also comes with a drawing feature as well as a math editor. AndrOpen Office certainly contains a lot of features and is compatible with a huge range of file types that most other applications can't touch, so for accessibility it's definitely a winner.
We've also featured the best free office software.
Other note-taking apps for Android to considerThe above are only a small selection of the number of note-taking apps available for Google's Android operating system. There are plenty more available at the Google Play store and we'll cover some of the most popular alternatives below: Samsung Notes is Samsung's replacement for S Notes and Memo, and is a general notepad for organizing text, images, and audio. Where it differs from others are the extra features for scribbling or sketching, with various color editor options that make it as much as an all-purpose sketchbook as a notepad, depending on what you want to get from it.
Notes is another general notepad app which allows you to organize text, images, and audio. It has a simple but clean look that makes it easy to work with. Notes also allows for password-protected areas, and is free to use when running ads, which can be switched-off using an in-app purchase of about two dollars.
Classic Notes is one of the simplest apps listed, and this is probably one of its selling points. While it allows for taking basic notes, it doesn't do much more, so people not so use to smartphones and apps should be able to get a lot of use from it without becoming so confused by features and options present in other apps. It's free to use, but contains ads.
We've also featured the best iPad Pro notetaking apps.
FAQs Which Android note-taking app is best for you?When deciding which Android notetaking apps to download and use, first consider what your actual needs are. For example, are you planning to keep your notes mostly as plain text notes, or do you need to add media to them? Additionally, do you need to use your notes in other software such as Microsoft Word? Are you happy to just save locally or in the cloud? In such instances, you will need to look at the features to see whether the app satisfactorily answers such questions or not.
How we testTo test for the best Android notetaking apps we first set up an account with the relevant software platform, then we tested the app to see what sort of features and tools were available for our notes. We also looked to see if we could export our notes to other platforms, and also share them with other users. The aim was to push each software platform to see how useful its basic tools were and also how easy it was to get to grips with any more advanced options.
Read how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.
Get in touchTomTom Navigation App Arrives On Android
TomTom's Navigation application is now available for Android devices through Google Play.
The downloadable sat nav has been available to Apple device users for some time, and was first announced for Android at the IFA trade show last month.
Navigation comes to Google Play with a range of features, including live traffic updates and offline support. However, the app is presently incompatible with several popular devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Google Nexus 7 tablet.
"TomTom has a history of making great navigation applications. Our existing iPhone app gets fantastic customer feedback and regularly wins awards," said Corinne Vigreux, managing director of TomTom.
"Today, we are bringing this world-class navigation experience to millions of Android smartphone users for the first time."
TomTom supplied the technology behind Apple's disastrous iOS 6 Maps application, but the firm quickly moved to deny it was at fault for the issues plaguing the service, claiming that the additional visual data Apple added was to blame.
TomTom's Navigation is available to download for selected Android devices for £30.99 for the UK/Ireland map and £39.99 for Western Europe. The software requires 3.7GB of free memory to install.
Watch a video introducing TomTom Navigation below:
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