What are 8 Essential Android Apps you Must Have?

by Antonio Wells Apr 15, 2009 7:17 AM – 13 Comments

Unsure if anyone caught my recent Tweet about my main T-Mobile G1 going out… Aaarrgghh! It slowly dwindled to death as the screen would just go black. The keys would light up and the screen would attempt to light up (black light) but now graphics So I called T-Mobile up to get a replacement. Now that it has arrived, I can experience the G1 all over again… that soon lead me to ponder what absolute Essential apps I have to download for my new phone.

Since I use my phone for more Communications and Internet (even more than the actual phone), here’s my list:

K9 Mail, absolutely vital for managing multiple email inboxes!

I use chomepSMS and SMS Popup and the one-two punch for SMS text messaging.

Linda File Manager for browsing and managing file on my phone, plus install other non-Android Market apps.

The Weather Channel, self explanatory…

Twidroid, need something to keep up with the Tweeps! I have a personal love-hate relationship with Twidroid.

Video Player, as I listen to a lot of videos as music tracks via videos I download to my G1 using this tip. Yeah the app is Plain-Jane… but it’s one of the only decent video players.

Pac-Man, classic arcade fun… plus the joy of keeping my daughter out of my hair sometimes (Oops, can I say that in a blog).

I pose this question back onto the community. If you have a brand new G1 (say if you won our G1 Giveaway), got a replacement or did a factory reboot… what are 8 Essential Android Apps you must have, if only 8, and why? Place your comment below:

[Photo via GearLive]

Tags: Essential Android Apps

Categorised in: Apps Blog

13 Comments

By nick on April 15, 2009 at 8:04 am:

I’ve basically got the same list… some variation…
1. I’ve been liking Handcent over Chomp lately (but I think I still prefer the builtin Messenger client with MMS support)
2. I have Ringo Pro which include the SMS popup
3. I’m torn between Astro and Linda… both work great
4. I’ve been liking TwitterRide over Twitroid
5. KiddGBC is my main ‘game’ followed by Solitaire and Soduku (depends how ‘smart’ I want to look in public

other Apps I really like and use daily:
1. Useful Switches
2. ConnectBot
3. PingDroid
4. Last.FM

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By Joel Gray on April 15, 2009 at 8:17 am:

Funny, I just wrote a follow-up to my original essentials list and posted it yesterday. While I use most of the apps you’ve listed, my needs, and therefore my essentials, are a bit different.
It is at: http://blog.palehorse.net/2009/04/14/essential-android-apps-3-months-later/

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By Michael Martin on April 15, 2009 at 8:27 am:

I use the COMPASS app the most along with Twidroid & StreamFurious.

,Michael Martin
http://www.googleandblog.com/

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By Jürgen on April 15, 2009 at 8:56 am:

I use:

real time Navigation: andnav2 http://www.andnav.org/

Caller Lookup: Lookup incoming call: http://joppefan.net/page2/page2.html

Useful switches

twidroid

imeem Player

My Tracks

RTM Tasks

Locale

VaniWiki (Germany Wikipedia search)

Rad Alert (Germany)

Qype

Shop Savy

A-Traffic (Traffic Jam Info Germany)

Buzzoff (Mute Phone for a given Time)

Klicktel (German yellow Pages)

And I love my G1

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By BDot on April 15, 2009 at 10:24 am:

My list, with a short review of each:

-Twit2Go (switched from Twidroid to this. Much lighter than the former, but doesn’t allow ability to delete tweets)
-WalletZero (essential for managing all those “club cards” you have)
-Toggle Settings (best ‘switcher’ app on the market IMO. Hard to give up since they added profiles)
-ParkMark (if you stay forgetting where you parked like I do)
-SnapPhoto (better than the built in camera app by leaps & bounds)
-Quickpedia (because who doesn’t want constant access to Wikipedia?)
-Shazam (Who sings that song? Wonder no more)
-OI Shopping (Simple notepad app with ability to add lists)

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By HyperAware on April 20, 2009 at 11:05 am:

Don’t let the bare bones Video Player bring you down. Try Act 1 Video Player instead. It’s worth the 99 cents for the full version.

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By gordyuk68 on April 26, 2009 at 8:03 am:

dont try video recorder it almost broke my phone i have
imeem listen to all the time
i like open home and skins
my maps barcode reader all help me save cash and find my way around too

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By mobilepush on July 18, 2009 at 10:03 am:

One of the indeed interesting apps that needs mention is BMAX from http://iologue.com – it leverages the phone-to-phone callback services from Finarea’s (Betamax), to lower calls while on-the-go. Does not handle calls over VoIP, hence all calls are via TDM, or normal telecom circuits offering much better call quality.

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By Erwin Sigterman on September 7, 2009 at 8:35 am:

And of course Layar!!!
Augmented Reality will be THE trend of 2009 and 2010.

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By Lior on December 14, 2009 at 4:45 am:

Try UltimateFavesPRO: It lets you organize your most frequently used items (contacts, phone numbers, applications, bookmarks, etc.) in beautiful floating 3D carousels for a quick access with its unique and highly customizable user-interface.

Next update should include built-in carousels for system-settings, running tasks, running processes, and recent tasks, making it a great task-manager and task-killer replacement!

More details here: http://ultimatefaves.wordpress.com/

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- By Lior on January 13, 2010 at 4:45 am:
  
  UltimateFaves just got new features:
  
  UltimateFavesPRO 1.2 – With Task-Killer / Task-Switcher / App-Manager Features:
  * Running tasks carousel – Displays the current running tasks, letting you switch between tasks, kill tasks, and uninstall applications.
  * Recent tasks carousel – Displays the last 16 used tasks (as opposed to Android’s default 6 when long-pressing home).
  * Running processes carousel – Displays the current running processes, letting you kill background processes (including system processes).
  * Settings carousel – Quickly enable / disable Wi-Fi, 3G data, bluetooth, ringer vibration and more.
  
  Check it out: http://ultimatefaves.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/ultimatefavespro-1-2/
  
  Reply
By Julio Fuente on July 26, 2010 at 3:21 am:

There is a web site that is only dedicated to android must have, its http://freeandroidmusthave.com/

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By Sorbi on August 14, 2010 at 10:56 am:

Thank you for the very useful list. I’m from the Philippines and Android phones are still quite new. I’m thinking of getting the HTC Wildfire that includes Twitter and Facebook integration.

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