There are a few noteworthy ones that have significantly enhanced my digital experience. Let me share them with you:
-
Musicolet: It’s a fantastic music player with a user-friendly interface. The best part is, it doesn’t bombard you with pesky ads like the default music player does.
-
Cube Acr: If you ever need to record calls, this app is a game-changer. It’s the best free call recorder I’ve tried so far.
-
Macrodroid: This app lets you automate almost anything you can think of. Personally, I love how it allows me to easily turn on the WiFi hotspot with just a few taps. I couldn’t find any other app on the Play Store that offered this feature without requiring root access.
-
Auto redial: You know those moments when you keep calling a restaurant repeatedly until they finally answer? This app saves you from that frustration. It automatically redials the number for you, making your life much easier.
-
Dynamic rotation: Auto-rotate can be a bit annoying, right? But sometimes, you do want your screen to rotate. That’s where Dynamic Rotation comes in. It prompts you to rotate the app whenever you rotate your screen, giving you more control.
-
Folder sync: It’s surprising that popular cloud apps like Mega don’t offer a way to sync folders. Fortunately, Folder Sync fills that gap. You can keep selected folders always in sync without any hassle.
-
Volume booster: We all come across situations where the audio is too low. This app comes to the rescue by boosting the volume, allowing you to hear even the faintest sounds clearly.
-
Always on AMOLED by Tomer Rosenfeld: Recently, I dropped my phone in water, and since then, the screen has been acting up, moving randomly. However, I noticed that if I use this app for a while, it stabilizes the screen. It’s been a lifesaver for me.
These hidden gems have definitely made a significant difference for me. It’s fascinating to think about the missed opportunities had I known about them earlier. But hey, now that we know, we can make the most out of these fantastic apps, feel free to add your list below as well ❤️
KDE Connect is an app to connect your phone and computer. It works on most OS (windows, Linux, etc.), and it works extremely well (better than the solution developed by Microsoft).
I can’t count how many times I used this. It’s been a huge timesaver for me
Yep, the shared clipboard and file sharing options are things I can’t live without now. No more sending stuff to yourself using messenger apps or stupid workarounds like that.
Does it work ok on Windows now? Last I tried it it wasn’t so great, but it was at least a year ago.
I’m using the version downloaded from the Microsoft Store and it’s a bit spotty. The experience might be a bit better with the exe installer.
In my experience, windows store server apps (like Plex) are sometimes broken if your os updates are due. It causes some interesting headaches. When in doubt exe it from the trusted site
Yeah I usually prefer directly downloading installers, I just thought I’d give the Store a try and see what the experience is like.
Yes. I’ve been using almost daily and it’s great! My only issue is that it sometimes (like once every one or two months), it has some trouble connecting back to my phone.
How does it compare compared to Join by JoaoApps ?
Does it work over LAN if I lose internet?
Yes, in fact it only communicates over LAN - so if you go away from home it will stop mirroring, unless they’ve changed that in the last few months.
Perfect, thanks!
Isn’t dynamic rotation built in to Android these days?
I don’t know about other brands but Samsung does have a small icon in the bottom corner prompting this when I rotate my phone yeah. Ignore it if not needed. Very useful.
It is built into Android proper meaning most phones should be able to do it
TIL about this and it’s a freaking lifesaver. Thank you!
Yes but I think many people don’t know it exists and how to use it. For those who don’t know : rotate your phone and a little rotating phone will appear next to your “go back” button. Just click it.
Think the point is it asks instead of just doing it.
On my phone at least, when I have autorotate off and tilt the screen, an icon appears next to my back button that will rotate the screen. Which sounds to me like the goal of this app.
There’s an accessibility option that can do this but it’s inconsistent at best for me.
- NewPipe has made my YouTube watching experience way better; it’s a standalone app with features like ad blocking, subscriptions, and downloading.
- F-Droid (particularly the Droid-ify client) is an open-source app store that generally provides quality apps.
- Obtanium has helped me stay up to date with some of my more obscure apps, which are released only on Github. Obtanium can auto-update apps from a GitHub link or similar, which makes the process way easier.
- Auxio is a pretty good music player, it’s quite lightweight but it also looks good.
All of these are available on F-Droid, I find that many F-Droid apps provide a better or cleaner experience than Google Play apps.
Last time I used NewPipe, it downloaded fine, and I could play back the downloads from the app, but there was no way to move the downloads to a non-system folder, so they were effectively locked into the app. Has that changed?
Joplin. Organise your notes into notebooks and you can also write them in markdown. You can also save your notes encrypted and syhcronise them with the cloud to have them in all of your devices. Joplin is available in all Operating Systems. Also supposts Nextcloud so it can be self-hosted!
What do you think about replacing Samsung notes with this? S notes have everything I need but I think the text formattings in it aren’t markdown.
I’m not a Joplin user, but I use Obsidian which is similar as it’s also in markdown and notes are saved locally or hosted with encryption.
I’d say either app is better than the stock note-taking apps. I’ve been using Google Keep prior.
I’m biased since I only use Obsidian but I love it, been a power user for a month now.
Feel free to check both out! The link below is what I just searched for and learned about Joplin.
Thanks. Tried both and decided to go with obsidian. Because I can use <span style=“color:blue”>text</span> in both but Joplin doesn’t hide the tags and show the colored text when I move to the next line, Instead only show when I stop editing and save. Obsidian does. I have some notes with a lot of colors so yeah
I will check it out, thank you!
I havent used Samsubg Notes. However Joplin does not support to “draw” with a Pen.
I set up a Nextcloud server recently and have been looking for a decent note app. I’ll try it out today. Thanks!
You should definitely try, I have this setup (VPN) on my server for more than 1 year
You should definitely try, I have this setup (VPN) on my server for more than 1 year
You should definitely try, I have this setup (VPN) on my server for more than 1 year
Syncthing, I setup synchronisation between my PC and phone in apps that have bad built-in synchronisation or don’t have it at all, e.g. for PPSSPP: I am able to have my save files for games synchronised and keep playing a videogame on phone just where I left it off on my PC
+1 for sure! I used it to sync my Obsidian Vault between devices, phone included. It’s very useful if you want the same folder in multiple places.
How about the battery drain on the phone? I tried to use it once to sync my notes but it didn’t work out well in terms of battery drain
Did you measure that empirically? Gsam indicates it only accounts around 1% of battery drain.
It depends on usage. I didn’t synchronise anything yesterday and my phone reports 0% battery used since last full charge. I only synchronise PPSSPP files, sometimes move files from phone to PC with a dedicated folder and synchronise a fairly small amount of notes (joplin saves each note separately IIRC, and that means syncthing doesn’t need to move the whole database accross devices) so the battery drain of the app is not of concern to me
Oh, and by the way, I setup Syncthing to only run locally, so it doesn’t run when I’m not connected to Wi-Fi and doesn’t maintain connections with discovery/relay servers, I think those could have impact on your battery drain as well
For me
- MiXplorer (Mix) : Clean and powerful file manager at the same time. It’s easy to use for normal user and very powerful for power users.
- Lookup Pro: Floating dictionary that can blend in to native Android context menu when highlighting words. It’s similar to iOS lookup or Kindle lookup feature.
- Maosure: Google virtual measure app that make use of ARCore library.
- Moon+ Reader Pro: favorite ebook reader
- Seal: Favorite youtube downloader. Unlike other YT downloader that is riddled with Ads, it FOSS app.
- Toolwiz Photos: Best all in one photo editor for me. It’s very underrated. The variety of feature it pack is u match by any photo editing apps for me. From color correction to healing and cloning tools, the fun feature that gets old very fast like face rater, face swap, pip, etc. I just noticed that it has AI painting feature too.
- TTS Server : Azure/Ms Edge TTS ported to Android to use it as system wide TTS. It’s the most natural free TTS I’ve ever used. It’s originally Chinese only app, but I forgot where I got English version from.
MiXplorer is genuinely the best file manager I ever used, has basically everything but keeps being easy to use. and it has theme support!
How does it compare to Amaze File Manager? I’ve just started testing out different file manager apps today
User of Amaze here. It is actually a little buggy (especially when you have root and you go to folders accessible only with root access, and USB OTG, and network folders e.g. smb), but too lazy to switch. A great interface otherwise. Maybe I should try out mixplorer too.
Seconding Moon Reader Pro. Even the basic version is great.
KOreader is great lightweight, feature-packed alternative like Moonreader but substantially different-looking, some may prefer it (I do).
-
Spectroid: what’s that sound? Do I hear that faint but annoying sound or just imagine it? With spectroid you can see the sound spectrum over time.
-
Nova launcher: Lets you cutomize the home screen of your phone and make it just right. I like my apps a bit closer together in five columns instead of four. Nova launcher let’s me do this.
-
Business calendar: it’s just so much better than the default calendar, especially if you have lots of meetings and need an information dense view.
I recently found out Nova was purchased by an analytics company. I don’t have any proof or solid reason to think they’re up to no good necessarily. But I have zero desire to use something as integral as a launcher that’s owned by a company like that.
I moved to Neo Launcher and it’s been 95% as good as Nova. The knock is just some fine tunings that Nova had, but I’m not having any issues with Neo.
Was not aware of this. Thank you!.. :(
Love Nova Launcher! It offers so many customisation options, particularly in terms of home screen and app drawer layout, icons and fonts.
I remember a few years back when my phone was stolen (I accidentally left it in the back of an Uber) and I was forced to buy a new one. The relief I felt when I started up the new phone, signed into Google and straightaway saw my familiar home screen, courtesy of Nova Launcher.
I guess I was surprised so much was still there given I didn’t do a formal backup / transfer between old and new phones, but that’s the beauty of the cloud! :)
Edit: Also @distantlight, agree with Cube ACR - I have been immensely grateful having an easy way to record calls. It has a button to allow you to start and stop recording in the middle of a call so for me, it was piece of mind, especially during legal scrapes! But as another commenter has said, I feel like it stopped working at some point so no longer have it installed…
I second nova launcher and business calendar. They’ve been staples on my phones for the past 5+ years
I use Business Calendar daily. It’s very customizable, easy to use, and has been awesome for years.
-
A few of mine :
- AndOTP : A good app for OTP that actually let’s you backup your keys and move them easily and securely to a new phone
- Blokada : A system wide adblocker for Android. 4000000 ads blocked so far on my phone
- YouTube Vanced: Not really a “hidden” gem but a cool app nonetheless. I wish people knew you could get an ad free YouTube experience on mobile. It also includes sponsor block so you really get straight to content. Also let’s you get a YT popup player and shutdown the screen with the video still playing.
- F-Droid an Android open source app market. Often includes apps that are not allowed on Google market.
AndOTP is no longer maintained. I’d suggest switching to something still supported, like Aegis for example.
+1 for F-Droid. I always prefer open-source alternatives from there over ad-infested bloatware which the Play Store has a lot of.
Plus, there are some really good F-Droid apps too, like Droid-ify (F-Droid client with smoother UI) and Obtainium (update apps automatically from a GitHub link).
deleted by creator
Oh really? I need to add my apps to Obtainium then.
Vanced is dead, check out Revanced instead. Takes a bit more effort to get going as you need to build the app yourself but it works just as well
Strange, I had YouTube Vanced but I remember it outright dying maybe a year ago. Had been using NewPipe for a while before I finally decided I use YouTube so often it’s perfectly reasonable for me to just subscribe.
YouTube Vanced is still up and running?
The original YouTube vanced is dead, but the new revanced works like a charm
Interesting. I’ll have to play around with it at some point.
Revanced Extended ftw
ReVanced is.
deleted by creator
It’s not. Check out Revanced on GitHub, it’s successor of Vanced.
There is Youtube Revanced which tries to continue an app like Vanced, but it’s a lot harder to install rhan Vanced.
- Copy: Allows you to copy text from apps where it usually isn’t possible (eg. Instagram). While certain Pixel phones come with a similar feature in the form of OCR, it does not work with non-English text.
- Island: Allows you to run two of the same app on a single device - for example if you have two phone numbers and want to use WhatsApp for both numbers on the same device. Some companies like Samsung and OnePlus have this functionality built-in, but they may restrict it to certain apps. Island works with all apps.
- Unit Lab: Well designed unit converter that should honestly be a default app on all operating systems. It allows for simple unit conversion (weight, temperature, currency, length, etc.) while also allowing you mix units in calculations (eg. 5 miles + 10 km + 2650 ft).
- RustDesk: An open source alternative to TeamViewer.
I just want to share my positive experience with Folder Sync.
I use Obsidian for journaling and note-taking, and unless you use the paid plan it doesn’t have native sync across multiple devices. I have the root folder of my notes stored in Google Drive and use Folder Sync to sync my PC/laptop with my mobile. Very useful as I’m out in the field often and like to jot down quick notes on my phone.
10/10 it just works.
deleted by creator
I just write my notes to gmail. No need to send it anywhere. And it automatically syncs to all devices.
Oh my god I never considered doing this, I’ve been very tediously syncing them using git
deleted by creator
Auto Auto-Rotate - Allows you to pick specific apps to turn on auto-rotate for while turning it off for the others. Works great if you wish to keep it on for media and video apps but not other apps.
Mixplorer - aka MiX, the only file explorer I’ve ever needed. It’s intuitive enough for basic file browsing, but it can do heavy lifting tasks. I exclusively move files on and off my phone by starting an FTP server.
Pulsar - One of the only apps I’ve ever paid for, it’s a music player that does everything I want and nothing I don’t. I’m one of those nuts who still maintains a personal library of thousands of songs rather than using spotify or whatever.
MS Swiftkey Keyboard - I went looking for this when Swype was finally discontinued. Gesture typing wasn’t common yet and I still find google’s stock keyboard absolutely insufferable. Swiftkey lets me adjust the size and layout of the keyboard with far less restriction.
Any “Simple Mobile Tools” application. They are simple (obviously) and do their job well.
I’d add Tasker to that list, even if some of the functionality requires root. It’s actually insane how powerful Tasker is.
Tasker is good too but a bit redundant with MacroDroid. Both are amazing though! Everyone needs to have one or similar!
If you enable ADB Wifi you can do practically anything in Tasker with no root
aCalendar+ in combination with nextcloud. Sorted my life completly. Imo the best calender app for Android.
Image Toolbox the name explains all. Adfree ☝🏻
Paperless mobile adding documents has never been easier. Scanapp inclusive ☺️
