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Some notes about Android Apps in general Malware: Not really an issue if you stick to the Google Play Store. Free: I mostly link to the paid version of apps below, but some of them have a free, more limited version available. Just search if you want to see. More apps: If you think this list is missing an app, or has an app that shouldn't be here, let me know! Mention it in thread, and PM me if I haven't gotten around to it. I can’t really think of any other notes! Oh, also: Android Tablet Thread, General Android thread, and Android gaming thread. RSS
Keyboards Google Keyboard is fine for most uses, but hey, you’re going to be using this constantly so you’d best find a fit.
Launchers Launchers control the home screen of your phone, which may be a bit underfeatured. If you like customizing your phone, check these out.
Wallpapers Watch out for device permissions when installing anything not listed here. This category has a high concentration of malware.
Widgets Widgets used to be a very strange beast on Android, with Zooper and UCCW widget maker thingamajigs taking over. They’re bitches to use, but have basically infinite flexibility for any widget you might want to make. With the advent of material design, there are actually some good native ones, though.
File Browsers You’d think it’s easy to get a file browser right. You’d be wrong.
Photo Gallery QuickPic used to be the top-most pick I think, but it got bought by some Chinese company that doesn’t have the best reputation. I don’t know much about this.
Camera apps
SMS/MMS Messaging What, not happy with the Galaxy SMS app’s pink bubbles and Comic Sans? Okay, fine, but be warned that some of these apps might have issues with MMS, depending on your carrier.
The Gmail app is pretty great, and almost certainly better than your manufacturer’s “Email” app. Still...
Alarms / Timers / Clocks Your phone has one preloaded that works just fine, but here are some others:
Website / Social Media Readers
Podcasts i swear, if one of you asks for any other recommendations, so help me God...
Media Players There is no silver bullet, but let me break some stuff down:
Weather
Finance
Lists / Notes / To-Dos
Administrative / Advanced
Security Don’t bother with anti virus crap.
Web Browsers
IRC
Other Crap
Credits to f#a# for putting the original version of this list together. Most of the comments belong to this person, not me. Thermopyle fucked around with this message at 18:58 on May 13, 2020 |
# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 17:57 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 03:39 |
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Uthor posted:What makes Fleksy better than SwiftKey? As far as I can tell, nothing really, but its good and some people prefer it (not me). OP updated with the suggestions so far...
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# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 20:18 |
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Astrotrain posted:Authenticator plus is the paranoid authy. Syncs an encrypted database to either drive or Dropbox. Also does encrypted manual backup if that's more your thing. Hey, thats nifty. That's not very convincing to me without context about whether their security history is worse than you would expect for a company to be. I mean, every company has screwups, so saying "don't use LastPass because they've messed up" doesn't mean anything. I would literally not believe it if you told me that LP had never had issues. The real test is whether or not they've had breaches of user passwords. All security is a matter of tradeoffs...particularly the tradeoff of convenience vs security and AFAIK there is not a non-cloud-based password manager that is as convenient as LastPass.
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# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 20:34 |
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Sir Unimaginative posted:My concern with security management by third parties is not so much that they're hackable, but that what recourse do you have when you do end up compromised. Who licenses/bonds/audits password management firms? I mean, yes that's a trade off you should think about, but it's not as cut and dry of a decision as you make it out to be.
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# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 22:07 |
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I switched from Authy to that Authenticator Plus mentioned in the OP. It was a Good Decision. The app is simpler, it encrypts your code database locally and syncs between devices via Dropbox. I wasn't exactly worried about Authy having my poo poo, but switching to Authenticator Plus cost me no features, a little bit of money, and a few minutes of time. All in all, you gain security for little cost. If you're still using Google Authenticator, you would gain a lot of convenience with only the most hypothetical decrease in security. (As long as you trust Authenticator Plus to actually encrypt the db and not be harvesting your info)
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# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 16:35 |
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Skarsnik posted:It does involve installing dropbox though, and I haven't used it in years. I'd rather not install another app just for one other app You can also use Google Drive I think. edit: yeah you can Also, the OP is missing grocery apps. I don't use one, but I was just thinking about getting something set up for wife and I to use. Is Our Groceries still the thing to use? Thermopyle fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Nov 19, 2015 |
# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 19:00 |
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vyst posted:Serious question: Why would I use Authenticator Plus over say just Google Authenticator? Like what's the case for it? Does it consolidate all of the individual app authenticators into one like facebook/google etc? I've got like 10 sites in Authenticator Plus. It syncs them to other devices, or if you get a new device.
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# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 19:36 |
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I went ahead and uninstalled ES File Explorer and didn't install another file browser because I realized it's been months since I needed one.
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# ¿ Nov 23, 2015 16:31 |
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Meldonox posted:I apologize for talking podcast apps since I know that's pretty played out, but out of curiosity, why does no one recommend Doggcatcher these days? It was hot poo poo back when I first got a smartphone. I haven't used Doggcatcher in years, but I can talk about this phenomena in general... There's lots of app categories where theres tons of apps that cover the basic requirements of the category in basically a sufficient manner. Once apps have reached that point, the overwhelmingly biggest differentiator is UI and ease of use of the basic, must-have features....thus the reason you see PocketCasts recommended again and again. You'll then see a long tail of people using apps that cover specific use cases not covered by the category leaders in UI. Thus the continued existence of apps like BeyondPod, Podcast Addict, etc.
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# ¿ Nov 27, 2015 22:48 |
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I use Pocket Casts and Podcast Addict. I use PC for things that I'm caught up on and listen to as episodes come out and I use Podcast Addict for when I'm powering through the archives of a podcast because it seems to be impossible to listen to all episodes of a podcast from oldest to newest in PC.
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# ¿ Nov 29, 2015 18:52 |
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The rear end Stooge posted:The Google+ app has actually never worked but you're the first person to notice This reminds me of this thing I saw a couple of days ago which reminded me of this thread but not enough to get me to remember to come post it. (lots of reminding and remembering in that sentence) http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/google-plus-is-more-popular-than-you-think Basically, according to those guys, G+ is fairly popular everywhere except North America where only 16% of internet users 16-64 "contribute" to G+ in the last month. It looks like G+ is way more popular in developing markets than it is in established markets like North American and Europe. This makes sense. When everyone (G+, FB, Twitter, whatever) are basically starting out from zero, network effects aren't weighing against G+. Then again, I don't know anything about that sites data, so it might all be bullshit.
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# ¿ Dec 2, 2015 00:22 |
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https://play.google.com/store/apps?hl=en Is the search there working for anyone? It just doesn't do anything when I press Enter or click the magnifying glass. Tried on desktop Chrome, desktop Firefox in both incognito and not.
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# ¿ Dec 4, 2015 22:58 |
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Hey, Circa is coming back! Sounds like the new owners are making some changes, but hopefully its still awesome.
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# ¿ Dec 7, 2015 20:26 |
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hooah posted:Excellent news! Well, I'm hoping it has excellent news, it always did in the past.
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# ¿ Dec 8, 2015 16:18 |
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Montalvo posted:Google Music has far better radios than Spotify, if that's a thing you care about. They are quite great. I like them more than Pandora's even, which is pretty bad since that's Pandora's whole point.
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# ¿ Dec 13, 2015 17:16 |
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Tunga posted:How does the watch know that you need a code? Do you have to navigate through the app launcher list and then wait for the app to launch and then scroll through accounts and...this sounds horrible basically. Partly because I have a 360 and it's slow, mind. Yes, but it's not bad on my 360. That may be because I almost never open any watch apps so Authenticator is always at the top of my app list, and even if I've opened another app...Authenticator starts with "A".
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# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 16:49 |
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XIII posted:Google must really hate the Hangouts team lol google
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# ¿ Dec 22, 2015 23:23 |
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LastInLine posted:What he wants is for SMS to be present and available on the desktop in Hangouts and he's right, it's a glaring omission because they don't want it to work the way iMessage does. It is if you use Google Voice! There's the option to pick voice call, SMS, or Hangouts. The Hangouts Chrome extension is pretty awesome like that.
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# ¿ Dec 23, 2015 16:22 |
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Taffer posted:That's part of the problem, though. Hangouts is basically the opposite of something that "just works" like imessage, requiring lots of setup or esoteric things like Google Voice that almost no one has. Yes, I wasn't defending hangouts as being good because of that, just that in that narrow use case it works well and if you want that functionality that's how you get it.
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# ¿ Dec 23, 2015 21:07 |
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i like tacos posted:Did anybody else lose their survey credits? I just answered a survey and now I'm back down to 50 cents. Did they expire? I think survey credits expire after one year.
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# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 19:06 |
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Forceholy posted:There are porn podcasts? I would listen to a porn podcast about the industry. also a porn podcast
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# ¿ Jan 17, 2016 01:35 |
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Three Olives posted:OK I somehow just stumbled onto the YouTube Music app that I downloaded forever ago and holy shitballs it is good, better than Pandora. All of this is true facts.
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# ¿ Jan 19, 2016 14:44 |
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Uthor posted:Speaking of alarm clocks, Microsoft just released one for Android. Deep learning techniques are amazing and the next few years are going to be amazing in what AI does for us...we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg with stuff like Google Photos and this app.
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# ¿ Jan 21, 2016 23:54 |
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Taffer posted:It's also notoriously bad at predicting weather. Like the 3 times already this winter that it's predicted 10in+ (19in once) of snow but through the entire winter we've gotten about 2. It has multiple data sources for you to choose from. The best one for me is Forecast.io which is freakishly good.
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# ¿ Jan 21, 2016 23:57 |
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Three Olives posted:Perhaps but to me this seems like way, way, way more annoying than just finding the willpower to force yourself out of bed. And I get it, I am not a morning person at all, my alarm clock has a 20 minute snooze and goes off an hour before I have to get up for work but by the third alarm but it seems like at some point as an adult you have to be able to say to yourself that I have, have, have, absolutely get my rear end out of bed when the alarm goes off, no games, no taking cute photos, this is real life. Yes, it's a dumb alarm clock. I wasn't saying it was good. I don't even use an alarm, I always just wake up when it's time.
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# ¿ Jan 22, 2016 02:03 |
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LastInLine posted:Imagine using a Microsoft product by choice. The face you're making when doing that is "disgust". MS has lots of awesome products. Don't try to stir up poo poo.
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# ¿ Jan 25, 2016 17:46 |
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Adenoid Dan posted:Speaking of which, one note is a great Android app and I also use it on my windows laptop and desktop for a variety of things. I was close to including an example of an awesome MS product in my post, and OneNote was going to be it. I switched from Evernote to OneNote partially a year ago, and last month, I switched to it completely. The Android app is great and so is the desktop app.
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# ¿ Jan 25, 2016 21:58 |
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AnimalChin posted:What makes OneNote better than Google Keep? Notepad is to Word as Google Keep is to OneNote.
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# ¿ Jan 26, 2016 01:02 |
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I wonder if when you control for high-end vs budget phones, that still holds up. (by "that" I mean Android users spending less on apps)
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# ¿ Jan 26, 2016 16:26 |
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Massasoit posted:What do people use for managing workflow? Trying to keep task lists and get more organized. Keep doesn't seem quite robust enough. OneNote.
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# ¿ Jan 26, 2016 18:21 |
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Gyre posted:Can anyone recommend me a budgeting app that lets you overflow unspent money in a budget to the next month? Like if my initial budget is $150 a month and I don't spend $50 of it, the next month's budget will show I have $200 to spend. I find this much more intuitive for leisure spending. http://www.youneedabudget.com/
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# ¿ Feb 2, 2016 17:03 |
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nexus6 posted:Ad blockers do that too You get all you can eat streaming music with ad blockers? Ad blockers pay content creators?
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# ¿ Feb 5, 2016 14:39 |
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I found a neat app. It's called Kubity. I'm always messing around with SketchUp. Like, right now we're thinking about completely reorganizing the furniture in our living room, so I've been moving furniture around in SketchUp. With Kubity, you can upload your sketchup file to kubity.com, and then open it in the kubity app on your phone and then go through the model in Google Cardboard. Cardboard has always been a pretty gimmicky thing to me, but this has actually been pretty useful!
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# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 00:04 |
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Maybe someone here knows this: There's a Google developer who posts on G+ about the new stuff that keeps coming to the Google+ web edition, but I forget who it is. Anyone know who I'm talking about? edit: Nevermind. It's Luke Wroblewski and [ulr=https://plus.google.com/collection/AceM_]this[/url] is where he posts about Google+ updates. Thermopyle fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Feb 12, 2016 |
# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 19:04 |
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Tunga posted:Android Police says you can stack it up to five years of subscription. But no Family Plan discounts. Yeah, that's him. I edited him into my post just as you were posting this.
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# ¿ Feb 12, 2016 19:15 |
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I need an app to give me notification on new items in an RSS feed. It doesn't need to display content, but it'd be nice to get a clickable url or something. What would be the absolute bestest is if they've got a server that sends a notification on new feed items so that my device isn't constantly polling an RSS feed. Searching shows me a bunch of stuff, but it's effort to comb through it all...
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# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 01:02 |
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LastInLine posted:I'd imagine it would depend on what you're using to view RSS feeds, but wouldn't any reader do that? I see that gReader Pro does which is what I use but I'd imagine they all can. Well yes, but I'm particularly interested in using Google Cloud Messaging or something to avoid having the RSS app polling the RSS feed. BottleKnight posted:I use Blogtrottr for this. They just send you an email every time an RSS feed updates, and I have gmail set to put it in my priority inbox so it sends me a notification (Inbox sends me one too). I use it for some podcasts that I like to listen to the second they update. It sometimes will take a couple of hours to send you the email but it's a lot better than using an RSS app. This will probably work fine, thanks!
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# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 02:19 |
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Kheldarn posted:Why not IFTTT? I made a recipe for new LP alerts. IFTTT does all the polling, and sends an alert to my phone when there's a new entry. It shows whatever the RSS feed shows, and you can tap on it to open it in your browser. Oh, actually I should do this because I already use IFTTT. I didn't even think about this for some reason.
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# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 02:30 |
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Looking for a good app that pops up notes about the callee/caller when making and receiving calls. Anything good out there that does this? It's really hard to keep all the stories I tell my honey's straight.
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# ¿ Feb 23, 2016 16:16 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 03:39 |
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Teeter posted:Google Hangouts looks like pure poo poo but apparently the picture sends just fine and the recipient doesn't have issues, it only uses a compressed version cached locally on your end. This does not happen to me as far as I'm aware of. I take a picture, share it to Hangouts, and it looks just fine in the Hangouts app. edit: Oh yeah, I forgot why I came into this thread... I want to save a bunch of locations on a map with notes about them and then be able to easily navigate via Google Navigation to whichever location I select. My first thought was Google's own My Maps...but as far as I can see there's no way to navigate to the location in the My Maps app. Any suggestions?
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# ¿ Mar 5, 2016 16:58 |