Necessary programs for Android phone. The most useful apps for Android: why you should definitely download them

Have you bought a new Android gadget? This is great, but now it needs to be equipped with some useful software. There are about 700,000 apps in the Google Play app store, but not all of them are suitable for tablets. Therefore, we are going to tell you about those applications that you simply must have on your tablet/smartphone/smartphone or anything else. This will be especially useful if you have a good knowledge of English, since some applications still do not have Russian localization.

If you love racing or water skiing, then Riptide 2 GP2 is one of the best games in this regard. It was presented at Google I/O, and now this toy is called one of the best Android applications for a tablet, thanks to its stunning graphics and addictive gameplay.

Prepare to be out of play for just half an hour. Once you get into Riptide GP2, you'll be racing for hours.

If you like to keep up with the latest happenings in the world of Android, then the Android Authority app will help you do that. You will find various videos about various Android smartphones, tablets, etc. Android news will always be with you as soon as there is something, and this is the official application of our partners.

One of the best Android apps for tablets is Amazon Kindle, which makes reading books unobtrusive and comfortable. You will have access to an endless number of books in a convenient form.

At the same time, the Amazon Kindle application allows you not only to read books, but also view documents, newspapers, etc. But it’s not just the functionality of this application that is impressive, but the huge library from Amazon to turn reading a book into a real pleasure.

Flipboard is not your run-of-the-mill news service, but a beautiful magazine that organizes its content based on your preferences. The app also allows you to share your photos with friends, as well as access the news that your friends are viewing.

If you've ever played Call of Duty, then you won't have any difficulties mastering Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour. The essence of the toy is the same - terrorists are going to take over the whole world, and you, in turn, must eliminate the threat.

The only annoying thing about this game is the awkward controls.

Adobe Flash Player stopped working with Android some time ago, and they now use HTLM5 instead. The problem is that many videos still require Adobe Flash Player. Luckily, there is a way to activate Adobe Flash Player using Boat Browser in just a few steps.

Chrome browser is one of the best mobile browsers. It has features that allow you to sync history between two devices, browse the web in incognito mode as well as offline mode. You will also have easy access to creating tabs.

Chrome comes pre-installed on Nexus devices, so Nexus 10 or Nexus 7 owners won't have to worry about installing the browser. Other users will have to manually install Chrome via Google Play.

Agree that it’s nice to lie in bed and watch your favorite movie. The Netflix app is great for exactly this. It has an extensive movie library.

One of the most important benefits of having the Netflix app on your tablet is that all the latest movies and TV series are available on it.

This is another application for watching movies, even those that came out 20 years ago. Of course, here you will find all the modern and latest films, and watching them will be especially comfortable.

This toy is no longer free, unlike all the above applications, its cost is 6.99 USD.

Minecraft is one of the most popular toys nowadays. Compared to its PC counterpart, this toy certainly does not have the same quality, but it certainly serves as an excellent application for Android tablets.

The controls are almost the same as in most games, but they are much more convenient.

If you've ever heard of music recognition through Shazam, then the SoundHound app is considered even more advanced. He can recognize any song by listening to any excerpt from it.

SoundHound also offers options to search for a song on YouTube.

OfficeSuite Pro 7 allows you to create and edit documents from Micosoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. It also has a built-in file browser and integration with popular cloud services such as Dropbox and Google Drive. OfficeSuite Pro 7 has a beautiful design optimized specifically for tablets and easy editing. The fact that it contains the most comprehensive suite of office applications makes OfficeSuite Pro 7 one of the best Android apps for tablets.

If you're looking for a good note-taking app, then we recommend you try Papyrus, which lets you take digital handwritten notes using a regular stylus, finger, or even the S-Pen. In addition, Papyrus allows you to save the file in formats such as JPG or PDF. You can also easily upload your notes to the cloud service on Dropbox.

Every Android user needs ES File Explorer. The app supports over 30 languages ​​and is compatible with many services such as Amazon S3, Dropbox and Google Drive. However, it works as an FTP client, application manager, etc.

If you buy a smartphone based on the Android operating system, then in any case you will receive a device with a certain set of applications. However, not all of them will be useful, and some important programs will not be on the device at all. In this collection we want to talk about those utilities that you need to install first. Their presence on any smartphone can now be called virtually mandatory.

In the old days, it was a rare person to install additional programs on a mobile phone. Usually the user thought about Opera Mini and ICQ, and that was where his fantasy ended. But modern smartphones offer hundreds of thousands of applications. Here, willy-nilly, you think about which of them you need to download after purchase. In this article we will talk about the most useful applications for Android. All you have to do is click on the button leading to Google Play in order to install this or that program on your device.

Price: Free

A very useful application. But its effect can only be seen on older smartphones. Or on new ones, but with a minimal price tag and weak components. The essence of the program is to regularly unload applications from memory so that they do not consume battery power. You can also find out what temperature the battery has reached right from the main window of the utility. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modules are also controlled here.

In a word, Battery Doctor will increase your battery life. But you shouldn’t count on incredible results - on average, the increase is no more than 5-10%. And there is no point in installing this program on any Samsung Galaxy A5, which already has a well-implemented energy saving mode.

Advantages:

  • Increases battery life;
  • Possibility to download for free;
  • Availability of a task manager widget;
  • Possibility to find out about the battery temperature.

Flaws:

  • The meaning of the application on new powerful smartphones is lost.

Degree of usefulness: depends on device

360 Security

Price: Free

Nowadays it is impossible to use a computer without some kind of antivirus. A similar program can also be useful on a smartphone, especially if you have not asked your operator to block the sending of SMS messages to four-digit numbers. This product will prevent a malicious application from sending SMS without your knowledge, emptying your balance.

You need to download 360 Security not only for protection, but also to speed up your device. The fact is that this utility has a full-fledged optimizer built into it, which tries to speed up the performance of the smartphone. Of course, this works best on inexpensive devices, and also if there are too many applications installed on it.

Finally, 360 Security allows you to locate your device if it's lost or stolen. However, such a function is already built into the Android operating system - it’s just that not every user suspects its existence.

Advantages:

  • Not a bad antivirus;
  • Help in finding a smartphone;
  • Optimizer with automatic cleaning capability;
  • The interface has been translated into Russian;
  • Distributed free of charge.

Flaws:

  • In some cases, the antivirus will be useless;
  • Optimization is not needed on new versions of Android.

Degree of usefulness: depends on device

Price: Free

The Internet is replete with a variety of interesting articles. After all, even now you are reading exactly this kind of information material. But often the reading process using a browser is somewhat difficult. Advertising may interfere here, and the layout may not be designed for a mobile device. In this case, the easiest way is to use Pocket by moving the Internet page there.

The most necessary applications for Android cannot but include Pocket. In fact, this is a service containing various texts that you decide to save for later reading. The program requires registration, but then you can access articles from several devices at once. And you can even save a web page on your computer by providing the browser with the appropriate extension.

It should be noted that Pocket displays only text and pictures - nothing extra. This makes the reading process much easier. There is also a recommendation system implemented here, but it works best so far only with English-language texts. What is important is that the application developers do not require money and do not introduce annoying advertising into their project.

Advantages:

  • The interface has been translated into Russian;
  • Easy reading of articles;
  • Using the program without access to the Internet;
  • Access to texts from different devices;
  • Distributed free of charge.

Price: Free

Doing without cloud storage is very difficult now. The easiest way is to store photos in it, so that you can then access them from different devices. And transferring files from a computer to a smartphone or in the opposite direction is much easier this way. We recommend using the Dropbox service as a “cloud”. Its application has the most thoughtful interface. The program can automatically upload newly taken photos to cloud storage. It also provides access to the “cloud” to some other utilities. For example, this is how a database of your coin collection, which you maintain through a special application, can be saved.

The downside to Dropbox is the minimal amount of storage it offers for free. Some competitors provide much more space on their servers. Therefore, you can still think about installing the Google Drive or Yandex.Disk applications. But you should remember that a much smaller number of third-party programs work with these services.

Advantages:

  • Distributed free of charge;
  • The interface has been translated into Russian;
  • Automatic sending of photos;
  • Integration into some other applications;
  • Convenient to use.

Flaws:

  • Not much space is provided for free.

Degree of usefulness: required for installation

Price: Free

If Pocket saves ready-made articles, then Evernote is a kind of “cloud” notepad. You can save the notes you need in it. In the future, you will have access to viewing and editing them from any platform where you install Evernote - this can be Android, iOS and even Windows Phone. The corresponding program is also available on the PC. The creators also offer to use their website, in which case you only need a browser, and this opens up the possibility of creating notes even on outdated platforms.

All notes can be divided into separate notebooks, which act as folders here. Evernote is free to download and use. However, every month the creators provide you with a strictly limited space on their servers. If you want to create notes with many photos, you will have to sign up for a paid subscription annually. And it is very expensive!

Advantages:

  • The interface has been translated into Russian;
  • Distributed free of charge;
  • View your notes on different devices;
  • Offline viewing of recordings (paid subscription required).

Flaws:

  • Not the richest text design options;
  • Notes with photos will require a paid subscription.

Degree of usefulness: depends on lifestyle

KMPlayer

Price: Free

Each smartphone has a standard player created by the device manufacturer. But most often its capabilities are not enough. In this case, irreplaceable video players come to the rescue. For example, you can download and install KMPlayer as it. It is capable of playing video content of any format - even .flv, which many other video players do not recognize, will not be a hindrance.

The application can provide a background playback function. This allows you to read some magazine saved in .pdf format, from time to time being distracted by events in a series or movie. Previously, this could only be achieved through the use of several gadgets - for example, a tablet and a TV.

You can also consider installing other video players. In particular, they perform well MX Player And BSPlayer. Ours, which contains a corresponding comparison, will help you make your choice.

Advantages:

  • The interface has been translated into Russian;
  • Distributed free of charge;
  • Background playback;
  • No problems with AC3 audio codec;
  • Ability to create playlists.

Flaws:

  • Problems with playback on some devices.

Degree of usefulness: required for installation

Price: Free

Don't listen to those people who say that a modern smartphone or tablet can do without a file manager. No, someday you will definitely need such a utility. And it will be better if it is already in the device’s memory. Now there are a large number of file managers, we even wrote about the best of them. Theoretically, you can install any of these utilities. But if you are going to use it often, then it is better to pay attention to ES Explorer.

This program was developed by ES Global and is regularly improved. Now it includes very rich functionality. The creators even introduced support for themes! The utility allows you to instantly go to the “Downloads”, “Videos”, “Music” or “Pictures” folders. And in a separate tab there is the entire file system of the device - this should be of interest to experienced users. The application also boasts a built-in archiver, FTP client, support for cloud storage and some other useful functions.

Advantages:

  • Working with cloud storage and FTP protocol;
  • The interface has been translated into Russian;
  • Theme support;
  • Distributed free of charge;
  • Using this application you can easily get directions. You can also view panoramas here. Otherwise, this is a typical navigation program. One can only regret the lack of ability to download maps for subsequent offline navigation. More precisely, such a function is present here, but only for maps of the most popular Russian cities. By the way, in a separate article you can get acquainted with other navigation applications.

    Advantages:

    • Detailed maps of most Russian settlements;
    • Distributed free of charge;
    • Russian-language interface;
    • A large number of POI points;
    • View panoramas;
    • Support for the Yandex.Traffic service.

    Flaws:

    • Difficulties with offline use.

    Degree of usefulness: required for installation

    What are the most needed applications for Android?

    Perhaps, we have mentioned almost all the most necessary applications. But we deliberately forgot about instant messengers. The fact is that every owner of an Android device gives preference to his own messenger, and therefore we do not undertake to recommend a specific one.

    We recommend that immediately after purchasing a smartphone, install such necessary programs for Android as Yandex maps And KMPlayer. The extent to which you need to download the remaining applications discussed today depends on how you use your smartphone and its specific model.

One of the reasons why smartphones have got huge widescreen screens is for watching videos. Processors today are able to consume almost no energy when the smartphone is operating in video player mode, and in terms of the number of formats that a typical Android smartphone can handle, it is even cooler than computers. In theory, it can handle both ancient videos from the early 90s and new 4K videos.

In theory, because standard video players in smartphones are made according to the principle “as long as something is played somehow.” If you manage to record a bunch of movies from your computer to your smartphone to watch them on the road, you run the risk of finding that half of the videos either cannot be opened or are played back without picture and/or sound.

MX Player is an excellent omnivorous video player on Android

All this can be fixed by installing a truly omnivorous player. There are many of them, but MX is one of the most authoritative and sophisticated among its kind. It plays any video and music in a very economical mode, even on old smartphones, can make the volume in video recordings twice as high as a standard player (in films with a quiet soundtrack, this is very useful), switch between several types of voice acting, and zoom in with a pinch ", as in photographs, and open videos from sites in a convenient Android player.

MX Player itself is free, but full of advertising. The ad-free version already costs money. The only troublesome thing is that, due to the greed of patent holders, support for the AC3 format (multichannel sound in modern films) needs to be downloaded and “screwed on” separately. But take my word for it - the player is very good and deserves such trouble.

ES Explorer - cleaning your smartphone from junk and transferring files over Wi-Fi

A long time ago, when Android was a semi-finished product, there were no sensible file managers. In order to flaunt to iPhone owners the fact “look, I have everything organized into folders, like on a computer!”, it was necessary to download a separate application for managing files.

Those days are long gone, and now every smartphone has banal programs for renaming, moving or copying files. But there are no quality ones among them.

ES Explorer will help you transfer files over Wi-Fi and clean your system of junk

ES Explorer was one of the first noteworthy file managers on Android; today it has grown in breadth and can do much more than the average user needs. But an active Android phone user will definitely need the following “goodies”:

  • Ability to open files from local network. For example, from a shared folder on your computer/laptop, or from a hard drive/flash drive that you plugged into the router.
  • Working with archives. Someday they will send you a stack of photographs, a Word/Excel document inside .zip, .rar or something even worse. ES Explorer will be able to open such archives without problems.
  • Drive analysis. If your smartphone is filled to capacity with files, and it’s not very clear why the space suddenly ran out so suddenly, just press the “analyze” key in ES, after which it will show how much space in memory is occupied by pictures/music/applications and games/documents, will arrange them from large to small and allow you to remove “garbage” right in the same menu. There is almost no alternative in terms of convenience.
  • Transfer files between smartphones at Wi-Fi speed. It's unlikely that you send photos, music and videos to nearby mobile phones as often as in the era of polyphonic ringtones, but Bluetooth has always been a dull and slow method of communication, and the normal universal way to transfer files over Wi-Fi is not came up with it. More precisely, they came up with it, but only between identical applications. If you and your friend have ES Explorer, you can send large files in two clicks at the highest speed possible between mobile phones - the file manager has a “sender” function for this case.

WPS Office - Word, Excel and everything, everything, everything

During the existence of smartphones, Microsoft Office standard files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) were at first an “overwhelming” exotic, then a revelation with which everyone tried to edit texts on tiny screens. Today, there are no miracles in viewing and minor editing of text in documents and presentations. Another thing is that such files (+ Adobe PDF documents) will be sent to your e-mail from all sides, and there will be nothing to open them on your smartphone. You can, of course, keep the intrigue until you get to your desktop PC, but it is wiser to spend several tens of megabytes of memory on a ready-made set for opening and editing everything “office”.

WPS Office - Word, Excel and PowerPoint in your pocket

WPS Office (formerly Kingsoft Office, if anyone is interested) is not the coolest office suite of its kind, but it is free, bug-free, fast and not lacking in features even compared to expensive alternatives. We recommend.

Weather/news widgets - so as not to turn on the TV

As in the case of file managers, smartphones are not deprived of information about the temperature outside the window and the latest news, but the quality of standard widgets almost always leaves much to be desired. Therefore, we advise you to decorate your desktop with information details from other developers.

The appearance and functionality of widgets is always a matter of taste, but in our opinion, the least catchy and at the same time functional options for weather and news are offered today by Yandex. The side effect is the constant “steaming” of search, the Taxi application and other company products.

Weather and news will make your smartphone desktop always an interesting sight

At first, it will be unusual to look at headlines and weather forecasts on your desktop instead of “wallpapers,” but take my word for it - very soon you will begin to enjoy the fact that you will know all the main events in the world before TV viewers and news readers on the Internet. It is also not necessary to delve only into political conflicts - lovers of cars or electronic devices can receive information only on their favorite topics.

Shazam - find out what song is playing

Every day you hear music, among which there are songs that seem to give you an electric shock. Because when you were a child, you were running under the Christmas tree to this very song/getting ready for a first date/getting a job/something else, but from the text in foreign it is still not clear what it’s about, and you also don’t remember who actually performs this song and what is it called.

With new smartphones this is no longer a problem - you take your Android “shovel” out of your wide trousers and press a key. The smartphone listens to the song and names the artist and song title after a few seconds. That's what an app called Shazam is for.

Shazam: You'll always know what music is playing nearby

Of course, Shazam, although he was one of the first, is far from the only one of its kind - Sony has similar applications, and recently even Google began to learn to recognize music. But Shazam has the largest knowledge base, so it is still the most reliable way to recognize music using a smartphone.

Now it seems to you that such a function will not be needed regularly - when you begin to suffer after hearing a fragment of your favorite song, but did not know who sings it, you will remember our words.

Currency converter - a tragedy starring the dollar and ruble

Why are you laughing? Have you already forgotten how you tore your hair out and rushed to the stores to buy equipment in order to buy it before the price tags were rewritten?

Of course, I would like to believe that the worst is behind us, and in the coming years we will not experience sharp fluctuations in the ruble against the US dollar, but it is not a bad idea to look at how the national currency is doing, so that later you do not find out the shocking truth as the last one, from the evening news reports. And in general, a convenient tool for converting between the currencies of different countries will be useful on vacation and on business trips.

How is our long-suffering ruble doing?

There are a great many applications that can convert currencies, we will recommend one of the most visual among them - Easy Currency Converter. Simple in appearance, with the ability to select your “favorite” currencies and a graph with exchange rate dynamics. That is, in addition to the current figures, you can always see how the ruble jumped/fell against the dollar over the coming days, months or even years. Gourmets, by the way, can even look at the so-called Russian Zen - the “holy trinity” of dollar, euro and the price of a barrel of oil.

Messengers - VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and others

A very naive point in our selection, but if you have just recently bought a smartphone, know that “smart phones” differ from simple ones by focusing on constant communication, not only for calls and SMS in GSM networks, but also via the Internet. The ability to chat in ICQ existed in ancient times, but in new smartphones running Android you have the opportunity to share huge amounts of information, video recordings, and make video calls abroad completely free of charge!

A smartphone is an opportunity to communicate without regard to tariffs and distances

Because mobile operators have long switched everyone to tariffs with a monthly fee, to which the serious rubbish of the Internet is “nailed.” This will be enough to stop sending SMS and switch to communicating with friends and relatives online.

It is not necessary to install all instant messengers at once (although it is advisable) - choose those in which you will have someone to keep in touch with. It would be enough.

Online videos - TV, online cinemas or short jokes

Of course, with the limited amount of traffic in the new cellular tariffs (Russian operators have removed unlimited data further in order to more effectively milk subscribers), it does not allow much acceleration, but the Internet package is enough for a certain amount of video entertainment. And with occasional Wi-Fi at home or at work, you can get out even more efficiently.

If you didn’t know, the “Big Three” (MTS, Beeline, MegaFon) mobile operators have applications for watching television via 3G/4G without consuming traffic from the tariff. In MTS, for such pleasure they want a little money above the tariff, in Beeline there is a small number of free channels + paid ones, MegaFon varies the number of free tariffs depending on the amount of the monthly fee for your tariff. In any case, if you would like to watch television away from the “box”, pay attention to such services of cellular operators.

TV, cinema or short videos - Android has it all

And if, on the contrary, you don’t want the TV to reach you from your mobile phone, install an online cinema for yourself to watch feature films or music videos. The most popular applications of this kind remain ivi.ru And Megogo, among the unofficial (which are not on Google Play) and completely free clients we can note VideoMix , HD VideoBox And LazyIPTV.

Surely most people are wondering how to make their gadget as useful as possible. Those who say that a phone is just a dialer have no idea how useful and effective a multimedia device their device can become. Today we will talk about which applications for Android are the most necessary.

Antivirus

Since we are going to create a powerful working platform from an ordinary gadget, we will start by protecting it. Whether you work on the Internet, download data (music and movies), or just surf, reliable antivirus protection is important for any device. Of course, such programs eat up the lion's share of resources even on personal computers, so you need to install them on mobile gadgets carefully. However, if your resources allow you to install these applications, you will have to. These are almost the most necessary applications for Android.

Dr.Web Light is a simplified version of the world famous antivirus. Perhaps the best solution to protect your device. Programs from this manufacturer are distinguished not only by their reliability, but also by their low requirements for device resources.

Avast! Mobile security is a relatively new antivirus. Fast and high quality. However, judging by user reviews, finding a good version will be problematic. The Internet is full of links to installers with viruses.

Browser

No matter what gadget manufacturers say, the browsers preinstalled on phones and tablets are almost never easy to use. Despite the fact that these are the most necessary applications for Android, the developers are clearly treating them carelessly. To replace less successful programs, you can use the following applications.

Google Chrome is the leader among browsers in terms of speed. It is small in size and reproduces information on the screen with high quality. In addition, it supports account synchronization. This way, if you sign in to your Google account on another device, all your bookmarks and history will be transferred to it. In addition, this application can use voice search, which is very convenient for people who constantly have their hands full (for example, drivers).

Opera Mini - once this browser was number one among its analogues. The ability to work with many bookmarks was captivating. And reliability with no failures attracted more and more fans. But now, these “bells and whistles” won’t surprise anyone. The only unique advantage that this application guarantees is that it only works with the Tele2 operator. They have a tariff that allows you to use unlimited internet for 3 rubles a day, but only if you surf with Opera Mini.

Manager

The next item is the necessary applications for Android called file managers. Most mobile devices do not have any utilities for managing files in memory. You just download a picture, music or movie, and it gets lost in the endless number of folders on your gadget. To organize and not lose the necessary data, there are file managers.

Actually, there is little choice here. Despite the fact that such a utility simply must be on every gadget, the developers do not please us with the variety. You can download File Manager or File Manager HD, but they are almost completely copies of each other. These utilities allow you not only to view, but to completely manage all data, including archiving.

Social media

It is difficult to imagine a modern person who is not on social networks. Housewives look for recipes in public pages, teenagers simply communicate and organize meetings, and respected businessmen exchange information. Accordingly, which applications for Android are the most necessary? Of course, these are programs that allow you to use social networks without a browser, which means they save a lot of time and traffic.

Downloading such a utility is incredibly simple. All of them are named similarly to sites - Facebook, VKontakte and so on. Free, and most importantly safe, versions are available on PlayMarket. By the way, this is another mandatory program that will be one of the answers to the question: “What applications should be installed on Android?”

Navigator

You can discuss and argue for a long time about what applications are needed for Android devices, but not a single driver can do without a navigator, even if he knows the city very well. Taxi drivers, company cars - everyone will need such a program to know how to get to a specific entrance.

The leader among the programs in this series is Navitel Navigator. This application has the ability to download several maps and voice notification. The positioning system works quite clearly and without overlaps. Of course, professional navigation devices are much better, but those who currently do not have the means to purchase a separate device will be quite satisfied.

Cards

Any person who loves to travel cannot do without a road map. The times when we used hefty paper media are long gone, since the digital option is much more convenient, and there are no problems recharging the gadget in a cafe or car. It's safe to say that maps are almost the most necessary applications for a tablet. A smaller Android device, of course, can also work with them, but due to the insufficient screen size, this will not always be convenient.

Google Maps is the world leader in interactive maps. It allows you not only to explore the area, but also contains real pictures of cities, so you can always find yourself “live” in the desired area and get your bearings. The main problem of the application is its large volume and the need to connect to the Internet to download data.

"2GIS" is a worthy competitor to the previous version. If you are going on a tourist trip to another country, you can download a map of the city you need in advance. At the same time, you will have on your device not only a road map, but also a complete list of city organizations, their location, public transport traffic patterns and much more. "2GIS" is a real mobile reference book, useful for any traveler and not only.

Connection

Let's look at the necessary applications for Android of a slightly different plan. Namely, programs designed for alternative communication. Mobile operators can advertise favorable rates for sending SMS and calls as much as they like, but the fact remains that if you have unlimited Internet (via Wi-Fi or just a SIM card), it is much more profitable to communicate through it.

Once upon a time, the instant messaging system ICQ was especially popular, but now most people prefer Viber. But the most necessary application is Skype.

This program provides you with the conditional opportunity to make free video and audio calls to any other digital device on which the client of this program is also installed. If you can't speak, you can always just send a message. In addition, Skype allows you to instantly exchange any files without uploading them to file hosting services.

Additional programs

Despite the fact that we have already reviewed the necessary applications for Android, there remains a small list of programs that are still worth installing.

  • Adobe Flash Player - for greater convenience on the Internet and more.
  • MX Player is a great replacement for the built-in video player on any device simply because it includes more codecs, is capable of opening a huge number of file types, and has a convenient library for organizing your video files.
  • Cool Reader is an excellent “reader” for your smartphone or tablet. With its help, you can open most known text formats with books.

That's all. Our list of “Necessary applications for Android” ends, but this does not mean that you have nothing more to install. You can certainly find on the Internet many other programs that can be useful to you in your specific area of ​​activity.

One of the reasons why smartphones have got huge widescreen screens is for watching videos. Processors today are able to consume almost no energy when the smartphone is operating in video player mode, and in terms of the number of formats that a typical Android smartphone can handle, it is even cooler than computers. In theory, it can handle both ancient videos from the early 90s and new 4K videos.

In theory, because standard video players in smartphones are made according to the principle “as long as something is played somehow.” If you manage to record a bunch of movies from your computer to your smartphone to watch them on the road, you run the risk of finding that half of the videos either cannot be opened or are played back without picture and/or sound.

MX Player is an excellent omnivorous video player on Android

All this can be fixed by installing a truly omnivorous player. There are many of them, but MX is one of the most authoritative and sophisticated among its kind. It plays any video and music in a very economical mode, even on old smartphones, can make the volume in video recordings twice as high as a standard player (in films with a quiet soundtrack, this is very useful), switch between several types of voice acting, and zoom in with a pinch ", as in photographs, and open videos from sites in a convenient Android player.

MX Player itself is free, but full of advertising. The ad-free version already costs money. The only troublesome thing is that, due to the greed of patent holders, support for the AC3 format (multichannel sound in modern films) needs to be downloaded and “screwed on” separately. But take my word for it - the player is very good and deserves such trouble.

ES Explorer - cleaning your smartphone from junk and transferring files over Wi-Fi

A long time ago, when Android was a semi-finished product, there were no sensible file managers. In order to flaunt to iPhone owners the fact “look, I have everything organized into folders, like on a computer!”, it was necessary to download a separate application for managing files.

Those days are long gone, and now every smartphone has banal programs for renaming, moving or copying files. But there are no quality ones among them.

ES Explorer will help you transfer files over Wi-Fi and clean your system of junk

ES Explorer was one of the first noteworthy file managers on Android; today it has grown in breadth and can do much more than the average user needs. But an active Android phone user will definitely need the following “goodies”:

  • Ability to open files from local network. For example, from a shared folder on your computer/laptop, or from a hard drive/flash drive that you plugged into the router.
  • Working with archives. Someday they will send you a stack of photographs, a Word/Excel document inside .zip, .rar or something even worse. ES Explorer will be able to open such archives without problems.
  • Drive analysis. If your smartphone is filled to capacity with files, and it’s not very clear why the space suddenly ran out so suddenly, just press the “analyze” key in ES, after which it will show how much space in memory is occupied by pictures/music/applications and games/documents, will arrange them from large to small and allow you to remove “garbage” right in the same menu. There is almost no alternative in terms of convenience.
  • Transfer files between smartphones at Wi-Fi speed. It's unlikely that you send photos, music and videos to nearby mobile phones as often as in the era of polyphonic ringtones, but Bluetooth has always been a dull and slow method of communication, and the normal universal way to transfer files over Wi-Fi is not came up with it. More precisely, they came up with it, but only between identical applications. If you and your friend have ES Explorer, you can send large files in two clicks at the highest speed possible between mobile phones - the file manager has a “sender” function for this case.

WPS Office - Word, Excel and everything, everything, everything

During the existence of smartphones, Microsoft Office standard files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) were at first an “overwhelming” exotic, then a revelation with which everyone tried to edit texts on tiny screens. Today, there are no miracles in viewing and minor editing of text in documents and presentations. Another thing is that such files (+ Adobe PDF documents) will be sent to your e-mail from all sides, and there will be nothing to open them on your smartphone. You can, of course, keep the intrigue until you get to your desktop PC, but it is wiser to spend several tens of megabytes of memory on a ready-made set for opening and editing everything “office”.

WPS Office - Word, Excel and PowerPoint in your pocket

WPS Office (formerly Kingsoft Office, if anyone is interested) is not the coolest office suite of its kind, but it is free, bug-free, fast and not lacking in features even compared to expensive alternatives. We recommend.

Weather/news widgets - so as not to turn on the TV

As in the case of file managers, smartphones are not deprived of information about the temperature outside the window and the latest news, but the quality of standard widgets almost always leaves much to be desired. Therefore, we advise you to decorate your desktop with information details from other developers.

The appearance and functionality of widgets is always a matter of taste, but in our opinion, the least catchy and at the same time functional options for weather and news are offered today by Yandex. The side effect is the constant “steaming” of search, the Taxi application and other company products.

Weather and news will make your smartphone desktop always an interesting sight

At first, it will be unusual to look at headlines and weather forecasts on your desktop instead of “wallpapers,” but take my word for it - very soon you will begin to enjoy the fact that you will know all the main events in the world before TV viewers and news readers on the Internet. It is also not necessary to delve only into political conflicts - lovers of cars or electronic devices can receive information only on their favorite topics.

Shazam - find out what song is playing

Every day you hear music, among which there are songs that seem to give you an electric shock. Because when you were a child, you were running under the Christmas tree to this very song/getting ready for a first date/getting a job/something else, but from the text in foreign it is still not clear what it’s about, and you also don’t remember who actually performs this song and what is it called.

With new smartphones this is no longer a problem - you take your Android “shovel” out of your wide trousers and press a key. The smartphone listens to the song and names the artist and song title after a few seconds. That's what an app called Shazam is for.

Shazam: You'll always know what music is playing nearby

Of course, Shazam, although he was one of the first, is far from the only one of its kind - Sony has similar applications, and recently even Google began to learn to recognize music. But Shazam has the largest knowledge base, so it is still the most reliable way to recognize music using a smartphone.

Now it seems to you that such a function will not be needed regularly - when you begin to suffer after hearing a fragment of your favorite song, but did not know who sings it, you will remember our words.

Currency converter - a tragedy starring the dollar and ruble

Why are you laughing? Have you already forgotten how you tore your hair out and rushed to the stores to buy equipment in order to buy it before the price tags were rewritten?

Of course, I would like to believe that the worst is behind us, and in the coming years we will not experience sharp fluctuations in the ruble against the US dollar, but it is not a bad idea to look at how the national currency is doing, so that later you do not find out the shocking truth as the last one, from the evening news reports. And in general, a convenient tool for converting between the currencies of different countries will be useful on vacation and on business trips.

How is our long-suffering ruble doing?

There are a great many applications that can convert currencies, we will recommend one of the most visual among them - Easy Currency Converter. Simple in appearance, with the ability to select your “favorite” currencies and a graph with exchange rate dynamics. That is, in addition to the current figures, you can always see how the ruble jumped/fell against the dollar over the coming days, months or even years. Gourmets, by the way, can even look at the so-called Russian Zen - the “holy trinity” of dollar, euro and the price of a barrel of oil.

Messengers - VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and others

A very naive point in our selection, but if you have just recently bought a smartphone, know that “smart phones” differ from simple ones by focusing on constant communication, not only for calls and SMS in GSM networks, but also via the Internet. The ability to chat in ICQ existed in ancient times, but in new smartphones running Android you have the opportunity to share huge amounts of information, video recordings, and make video calls abroad completely free of charge!

A smartphone is an opportunity to communicate without regard to tariffs and distances

Because mobile operators have long switched everyone to tariffs with a monthly fee, to which the serious rubbish of the Internet is “nailed.” This will be enough to stop sending SMS and switch to communicating with friends and relatives online.

It is not necessary to install all instant messengers at once (although it is advisable) - choose those in which you will have someone to keep in touch with. It would be enough.

Online videos - TV, online cinemas or short jokes

Of course, with the limited amount of traffic in the new cellular tariffs (Russian operators have removed unlimited data further in order to more effectively milk subscribers), it does not allow much acceleration, but the Internet package is enough for a certain amount of video entertainment. And with occasional Wi-Fi at home or at work, you can get out even more efficiently.

If you didn’t know, the “Big Three” (MTS, Beeline, MegaFon) mobile operators have applications for watching television via 3G/4G without consuming traffic from the tariff. In MTS, for such pleasure they want a little money above the tariff, in Beeline there is a small number of free channels + paid ones, MegaFon varies the number of free tariffs depending on the amount of the monthly fee for your tariff. In any case, if you would like to watch television away from the “box”, pay attention to such services of cellular operators.

TV, cinema or short videos - Android has it all

And if, on the contrary, you don’t want the TV to reach you from your mobile phone, install an online cinema for yourself to watch feature films or music videos. The most popular applications of this kind remain ivi.ru And Megogo, among the unofficial (which are not on Google Play) and completely free clients we can note VideoMix , HD VideoBox And LazyIPTV.