There is no dearth of Android applications, from millions of options in the Google Play Store to thousands in popular third-party stores, such as F-Droid. You’ll be spoiled for choice. But this choice can also be overwhelming while setting up your new Android phone. Even if you have used Android before, a new phone gives you the opportunity to start over, and it’s also a great time to pick some of the best the platform has to offer.
Everyone knows about the official apps of various social media giants, top streaming services, ride hailing and food delivery options, and the popular shopping destinations. Things like Canva, VLC, and WhatsApp have also been talked about countless times. So, what else is there that deserves to be among the first installs on your new Android phone? Here are some excellent options that add real value to your smartphone experience without costing you anything.
Bitwarden
A good password manager has become an absolute necessity and if you have been delaying installing one, it’s as good a time as any to download Bitwarden on your brand-new Android phone. It’s an excellent password manager that’s free, and more importantly, it’s open-source, making it trustworthy, as the community at large can inspect its code to satisfy their concerns.
It has all the essentials you want in a password manager, including apps for all popular platforms, extensions for popular browsers, a password generator, the ability to create and store passkeys, and two-factor authentication. Besides passwords, you can store notes, credit cards, and identities in it, and share sensitive information securely with other users. Most importantly, all your credentials are secured with top-tier encryption to ensure that even if Bitwarden somehow gets hacked one day, your passwords will remain safe.
If having your passwords stored in the cloud somewhere is a concern for you, Bitwarden gives you the freedom to host it on your network or server.
Ente Auth
Besides a password manager, another crucial security app that needs to be on your Android phone from day one is a two-factor authenticator, and Ente Auth is a solid choice. Although a relatively new entrant in this space, it has quickly emerged as an alternative to Authy, which discontinued its desktop apps in 2024.
Ente Auth is completely open-source and offers apps for all major platforms as well as a web app, giving you access to your two-factor authentication (2FA) codes wherever you need. Your codes are end-to-end encrypted to keep them safe.
It’s also chock-full of helpful features, such as the ability to see the next code, icons for easy identification, secure sharing, notes for specific codes, tag-based organization, and an offline mode that doesn’t require any accounts.
You can also import your existing 2FA codes to Ente Auth or export your collection away from Ente Auth if necessary.
Image Toolbox
With smartphones essentially becoming our point-and-shoot cameras, there is a ton we do with pictures on our phones. So, it’s best to have a reliable image manipulation app, and it’s hard to go wrong with Image Toolbox. It’s a widely-liked image editor that gives your plenty of options to play around with your captures.
From basics, such as the ability to crop, resize, or add filters, to more advanced options, like file format conversions, PDF tools, collage creation, background removal, batch editing, and color utilities, Image Toolbox has it all. Whatever you want to do with a picture, there is a good chance you will get a tool to do that in the app.
Image Toolbox is also open-source, free to use, and free from advertisements. Moreover, it has a reasonably easy user interface and impressive speed when it comes to do the edits. You really have to experience it to truly appreciate it.
LocalSend
Gone are the days of struggling with USB-C cables, Bluetooth, cloud-storage solutions, or shoddy apps to transfer your data between devices. LocalSend is a lifesaver when it comes to transferring files from your phone to your computer or another mobile device and vice versa. This gem of an open-source app only needs two devices to be on the same Wi-Fi network to work. Simply open LocalSend on both devices and send or receive whatever you want, including files, folders, and text snippets.
Your data never goes to the cloud, there are no accounts to sign up for, everything is encrypted, and you don’t need an active data connection for LocalSend to shine. You’ll also be happy to know there are no advertisements, no tracking, and no data collection. Moreover, LocalSend is available on pretty much every platform you may need it, including Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, and even Google TV. That’s also why the app finds a place among the most essential apps on Google TV and other platforms.
Pocket Casts
There are plenty of podcast apps in the Play Store, including open-source darlings like AntennaPod and YouTube Music that features the remnants of the now-discontinued Google Podcasts app. However, Pocket Casts is arguably the best free option that doesn’t shove too many advertisements into your face. It’s owned by Automattic, the folks behind WordPress.com and Tumblr, and has a beautiful interface using Material Design with cross-platform sync support.
You get all the essentials in Pocket Casts, including easy access to your subscriptions, an excellent discovery tool, and quick access to your playlists. It also packs several additional helpful features, such as Trim Silence to automatically remove any long silences in the podcast episode, Volume Boost to enhance voices while keeping background noise down, sleep timer, and Chromecast support. Plus, you can control playback from your smartwatch; however, you’ll need a paid subscription, which also removes the ads, among other benefits. All other Pocket Cast clients are free to use, including the Android app and the web player.
