Interestingly, many of these apps are very powerful, and honestly, worth a price tag. And today, I am going to share 10 such truly free apps that are astonishly powerful, but developers have still made them available free.
1. Feedly
Feedly is your all-in-one news reader app that can handle all your reading needs for free. You can add your favorite blogs, newspaper or YouTube channels and get all the latest updates in one place. Feedly also does an amazing job of helping find topics of your interest using behavior and keywords.
2. Snapseed
An app by Google, and probably the best photo editing app you can get on Android. Snapseed is a professional photo editing app that is almost as powerful as desktop photo editing apps. It comes with dozens of powerful filters and tools with amazing customization options. Although it’s a bit too powerful for my photo editing needs, but I still use it for its intuitive gesture-based interface.
3. OpenSignal
One of my favorite open source apps, OpenSignal is your best friend when you face slow network signal or 4G data speed. The tool can speed test your 4G connection and create a map to help you find the best spot for maximum data speed. It can even show you your carrier’s cell towers in your area so you could get closer and receive better signals. A must-have app for users with spotty connection or frequent travelers.
4. Khan Academy
A truly free hub of knowledge where you can get information on almost any subject. Whether you are a student, teacher or researcher, Khan Academy has unlimited free resources to learn science, math, economics, finance, history, and almost any other subject. On each subject, there are videos, questions with hints, interactive exercises, and even in-depth articles.
5. Signal Private Messenger
It’s a messaging and VoIP calling app similar to WhatsApp, but with a strict focus on privacy. Everything done inside the Signal app is end-to-end encrypted and private to the users involved. You can send private texts, make audio/video calls, and even create encrypted groups to have private chats. If you are concerned about privacy, this is a must-have app for you and your friends.
6. Loop
A very easy to use habit tracker app that can help you make or break a habit. The app offers flexible schedules to remind you to act on your habit. Depending on how you worked on your habit, it offers detailed graphs and score for tracking and encouragement. You can create schedules for unlimited habits and track them all in a simple interface.
7. Replika
Replika is an A.I friend with whom you can talk and share your feelings without having the fear of being judged. It learns everything from you and interacts with you similar to a human. You can have a one-on-one conversion where both you and the Replika will ask questions. Of course, at the start, it may seem rather repetitive, but it’s created to learn from you over time. So you must have some patience and talk with it every day to create a faithful friend out of it.
8. Files Go by Google
An extremely powerful file cleaning app by Google that learns from your phone cleaning habits. The app helps clean old data, individual chat data, duplicate files, unused apps, and much more with just a few taps. Additionally, it isn’t just limited to phone cleaning, you can also use it to share files offline with others and transfer data between phone and the SD card.
9. Lawnchair Launcher
If you are a fan of Google Pixel but can’t get your hands on it, then Lawnchair might help. It’s an Android launcher that is focused on bringing Google Pixel features to regular Android users. With an interface similar to Google Pixel launcher, it offers control over icon size, grid size, adaptive icons, blurry background, Android O shortcuts and notification dots, custom dock, and much more. The app is still in beta and new features are being added frequently.
10. Open Camera
Smartphone cameras can do many interesting things, but they are still limited to the capabilities of the default camera app. If you want more from your phone camera, then you might like to use Open Camera app. The app offers a ton of camera features that most default camera apps lack. This includes the auto-stabilizer, remote controls, voice capture, gesture support, SAF support, control over metadata, HDR support, manual controls, and much more.
Bonus
Apart from these truly free apps, I also know 2 more very interesting apps that are worth a mention. However, these two are ad-supported, so you might not like them if you hate ads. If you don’t mind ads, then check out SkyView Free. It’s a stargazing app that lets you point your phone camera to the sky and learn about stars. It uses augmented reality to reveal information on the sky, including planets, galaxies, constellations, and satellites in your current location. A must have app for any astronomy lover. Secondly, check out Life Hacks. The app contains thousands of text, picture, and video-based life hacks to get more out of things around you. You can use the app both online and offline and 100s of new hacks are added every week.
Ending thoughts
All of these apps are made truly free by either donation or created for goodwill. You can use every feature of these apps without any restrains and you’ll never have to pay anything in return. Do let us know in the comments which one of these free Android apps you like?
