5 Google apps I think Samsung can’t match – Charm

Key Takeaways

Google Maps is the top navigation app with accurate directions and street views, and iPhone users love it, too.
Google Arts & Culture lets users explore museums and cultures worldwide, offering a positive and educational experience.
Google Photoscan simplifies digitalizing old photos, offering easy restoration and quality improvement features.

Galaxy phones often come with pre-loaded Samsung and Google apps right out of the box — they let the customers choose the ones they prefer to keep. Many Samsung apps give Google a run for its money, while some, like Internet and SmartThings, stand out for being better than the alternatives.

On the other hand, Samsung’s best apps can’t compete with certain Google offerings, which set the standard high and are the outright best options for all Android users. I’m going to highlight some of the best Google apps that Samsung can’t match — here are the go-to options on my phone.

1 Google Maps

Find your way to any location

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Google Maps

Google Maps is one of the most popular navigation apps because of its accurate directions, street view, and detailed locations with reviews.

It’s no surprise that Google Maps takes the top spot — it’s the de-facto navigation app for most people, including iPhone users looking for a more feature-packed alternative to Apple Maps. Google Maps gets the basics right, offers reliable and easy-to-understand directions to any location, and includes street views if there’s no visible address at your destination.

Google Maps gets the basics right and offers reliable and easy-to-understand directions to any location.

The best thing about the app is that it’s regularly updated to show roadworks and detours, unlike my car’s built-in navigation, which often takes me in circles looking for the right off-ramp. I also love that it has in-depth details about restaurants, hotels, and other locations, with honest user reviews to help me decide which is best.

Google Maps is so good that Samsung doesn’t bother with an alternative and invests its cash elsewhere.

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2 Google Arts & Culture

Explore new cultures from the comfort of your couch

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Google Arts & Culture

Google’s Art & Culture app gives you access to museums from around the world and showcases various cultures, locations, and fashion.

Google Arts & Culture isn’t as renowned as Maps, but it holds its own as a way to appreciate the beauty in our world. The app takes me on a journey to experience natural history, crafts, fashion, history, and more from countries around the world without leaving my seat. I love looking at famous paintings and sculptures I’ll never get to see in a gallery, and it’s easy to filter them by category or period.

With so much bad news in the media, finding an app that generates positive energy is refreshing. Google Arts & Culture is probably one of the best educational apps I’ve tried, because it doesn’t force unwanted information down my throat and allows me to enjoy interesting topics on my own. It displays stunning natural locations to explore, like mountains and forests, and showcases exciting designs and architecture.

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3 Google Photoscan

Digitalize your old photos to bring them up to date

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PhotoScan by Google Photos

Photoscan is one of the easiest ways to scan old photos, so you can store them in digital format for easy sharing with family and friends.

We all have old photos we’d like to save on a digital platform for easier sharing. There’s no need for a cumbersome flatbed scanner because I can use Google’s Photoscan app to capture old photos instead. The app is faster and cheaper than a conventional scanner, and it can also restore colors and improve image quality. It also works for documents if you want to try an alternative to your regular camera scanner.

Photoscan is superior to your phone camera because it removes the glare from your photos. It also works differently — it asks you to line up your photo in the frame and takes a single shot like a regular camera. It then displays four circles over the photo, and then you’ll need to line up your camera with each to progress. After lining up all four circles, the app joins the four images to make one detailed copy of your photo. You can then adjust the corners with the built-in tool to get it to the perfect size.

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4 Google Snapseed

A free photo editor with various tools and styles

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Google Snapseed

Google Snapspeed is a free image editor with 12 style presets and 28 tools to enhance color and brightness and add effects to your photos.

Snapspeed is a free photo-editing tool that provides a more advanced alternative to my phone’s built-in editor. It’s user-friendly, and after selecting an image, I can enhance it with 12 style presets, like Pop, Fine Art, Push, and Silhouette, to make it really stand out. Each preset offers an instant preview, so I can easily compare them to select the one I prefer.

This app is perfect for photographers.

This app is perfect for photographers because it has 28 handy tools for editing photos and images. Most of them require simple swipes and sliders to work. The turning feature makes adjusting the contrast, saturation, brightness, and warmth simple. I also enjoy the Lens Blur, Grunge, and Vintage tools to add custom colors and effects to my images. Adding text to my image is easy with font presets like Line or Manhattan, and I choose whatever color I like from the various options.

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5 Google Earth

View the world from above and find any location

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Google Earth

Google Earth offers satellite images of the entire planet, so you can visit countries around the planet, check the terrain in certain areas, or measure the distance between specific points.

Google Earth allows me to see the world from a bird’s eye view and explore cities I’ve never visited. It’s an amazing mapping tool that starts with an image of the planet and lets me zoom in on any point on Earth by swiping my finger across the screen. With Google Earth, I can view my home and other nearby locations and easily find the distances between them with a useful measuring tool. I can also view trails and nature reserves I expect to visit to scout the terrain.

Most people like using Google Earth to visit foreign countries virtually to see how they differ from their homes. The level of detail is fantastic, and the app can often display 3D representations of buildings and locations. The app displays useful information like borders, places, and roads in its default mode. I can also configure it to show nothing when I want a clean interface or display everything when I want to see every detail. It also includes a nifty search feature to find addresses without scrolling around the globe to find what you’re looking for.