52 essential apps if you have an Android mobile: photography, messaging, note-taking or bank management apps

We are in the Android world and every manufacturer makes what you want in terms of the apps your phones have already installed when they come out of the box. It is possible, therefore, that some of the ones we recommend is already on your phone but if this is not the case, serve this as a recommendation to know what to have so that none of your contacts escape your text messages, voice messages or calls. Even video calls, why not.

We started with the queen of messaging apps today, the standard in the mobile world that ended the SMS to practically reduce them to the field of advertising and security messages to log in. We speak, of course, of WhatsApp . With WhatsApp you can send text messages, voice messages, make voice calls and even make video calls. And all this using WiFi or mobile networks, in case you were looking for something to make calls to other countries.

Another app that continues to grow in acceptance and functionalities is Telegram . Although it is still not a real alternative to WhatsApp in terms of the number of users (let’s not forget that to talk to other people we need them to be there on the other side), the truth is that Telegram is today one of the most popular messaging apps. complete that we can find. Text messages, voice messages, calls, video calls and, allow me this opinion, the best packs of animated stickers on the market. And let’s not get bots, always useful. Highly recommended.

Another messaging app to take into account, although it is closely tied to the social network to which it belongs, is Facebook Messenger . It is not trivial to include it here since Facebook is still the social network with the most users on the planet today and, therefore, it is more than likely that many of your contacts have access to Messenger. So you can install it on your phone to contact all of them. And if you have a Samsung mobile it is very likely that you already have Facebook Messenger as standard, look for it.

Finally, within the apps that we highlight in a special way, we would recommend you take a look at Zoom . With a really dizzying growth as a result of the pandemic, Zoom seems to have been somewhat buried in the workplace but it is a video calling app, simple or in a group, perfectly valid for personal use. An option to carry installed and that can be useful if our contacts also use it.

And now we are going for a battery of recommendations . We are on Android so it is almost guaranteed that you will have Google Duo in your phone (unless you have one of the latest Huawei), so it is a more than viable option to make video calls. In the areas of the safest apps we also have Signal , although it has the handicap of having little volume of users, for messages and calls, and it is always possible to go to one of the most veteran, the Skype from Microsoft, to also fulfill all the aforementioned functions.

Apps to make backup copies in the cloud

One of the most interesting functionalities in smart mobile phones is that of backup to the cloud . We take our data from the phone, package it and upload it to a server so as not to lose it. There Google has native apps such as Google Drive for general files, or Google Photos for photos and videos. But there are equally viable and even better alternatives in certain aspects.

We can start by talking about backups in general, to be able to have a file available in any time and from any device without fear of losing it if our phone stops working. There Microsoft has OneDrive as a free alternative (with the basic storage plan) to stand up to the native Google Drive. A recommended app with a fairly fast registration and ready to go in a few minutes.

Another alternative to Google Drive is found in Dropbox , another of the old acquaintances in the sector, also with a free plan although limited to a few devices (only three) but that can be very useful to have this or that file in the cloud, ready to be consulted or downloaded again. Without a doubt, an app to recommend and that is also easily configurable after a brief registration. Or after the corresponding identification if we already have an active account in it.

If what we are looking for is an alternative to Google Photos to save only photos and videos, at Amazon we can find one of the most competent cloud backups of the moment. Amazon Photos allows us to upload unlimited photos and a good number of videos (here with a limit, sorry). The only downside is that we will need have contracted Amazon Prime , But since hiring Prime gives you access not only to Photos but also to Music or Video, the truth is that more and more users pay for it. Prime is not only about saving you freight, it is more complete.

Apps to edit the photos we take with our Android

We take pictures with the native camera of our mobile phone, except for very specific characteristics will be the one that offers us the greatest number of possibilities. But once done, we may want to do a little touch-up. An adjustment of colors, brightness, intensity or maybe we want to remove a defect that we see in it (very useful to erase light cables or poles in landscape photographs, trust me). So for these purposes we recommend Snapseed , a Google app that you may have installed on your phone but that you should install if not . More complete than it seems, and very simple.

Another option for editing photographs, although more focused on the color spectrum of the same than on that of the defects themselves, it is the app of VSCO . VSCo also has something quite practical and that is that it is a social network in itself, you can maintain a showcase with your photographs so that other users can value them and generate some community. Very interesting. A kind of ‘Instagram with a very powerful editor’, perhaps, although the most fans of VSCO will punish me harshly for having made this comparison.

We are going to give you a third alternative to edit photos and this time it comes from Adobe itself, the owner of Photoshop. And of course, it is a Photoshop, in this case we are talking about Photoshop Express . It is a kind of reduced version of the classic Photoshop for computers, but it has very interesting functions such as noise reduction. A perfect option if you are looking for something more in photography with your mobile phones apart from capturing and uploading or sharing. Adobe also offers us Lightroom for mobile phones, if we also want to play with the RAW format and its presets, something a little more “pro”.

Applications to take notes and manage tasks on your Android

Again we have to start a section recommending an app that you probably have installed on your phone, but the truth is that Google Keep is valid for 90% of the uses you may need (99%?). Just install it (or open it), choose the Google account that we want to use to synchronize with the cloud and it is ready to take notes, upload photos, make lists of anything we can think of and plus. Very, very useful and completely free.

Another very practical option in this field is Evernote . Here we find an app more complex than Keep but also more focused on writing than taking quick notes or making lists, although we can also do everything with it. OneNote is also another perfect alternative by Microsoft and Dropbox offers us Dropbox Paper as his particular version of this mobile phone note-taking. All of them perfectly valid.

If what we are looking for more than taking notes or creating simple lists is a powerful app to manage tasks in an advanced way, with deadlines, annotations and others, we can go to Notion , one of the most advanced software in this field. There are also perfectly valid and equally powerful competitor alternatives such as TodoIst , like Asana or as Any.DO , perhaps one of the most popular. All of them can occupy a space in the storage of your phone to improve your productivity.

Other apps for your Android with various uses

We are going to talk about security on your mobile phone, although in a much more specific way: the password generators that also allow us to store them “secretly”. That means that we can use these apps to create strong passwords that we will then only have to copy and paste to identify ourselves on sites. Here the queen is 1Password , although it only allows us a trial period of 30 days and then asks us to pay. 2 dollars a month, specifically. Other viable options are Dashlane and LastPass . Ideal apps for fans of security and privacy.

If we are on the hunt for an advanced music and video player for our Android, because we don’t usually go to music and video streaming platforms, what we find on Android is a veteran of the audio-video world: VLC is on Android and it’s still as free as ever. We could recommend an alternative but listen to us, VLC is fine cinnamon. He does everything and will always be in our hearts.

In Feedly we find a magnificent RSS manager to keep up to date with everything that happens, and also It is free if we do not need advanced functions, and in Flipboard we also find a perfect alternative to carry all those blogs and news sources that we want to consult without wasting a second more. We miss you, Google Reader. Google, we will never forgive you.

Although Assistant does quite well to tell us what the weather is like, the truth is that Today Weather is a magnificent free app that allows us to bring advanced information in the phone’s notification bar and gives us access to information of all kinds . And if we want an alternative that we also recommend, Yahoo! Weather.

If what you feel like exploring the content of your phone to the limits that Android sets for you, Google Files has to be one of your alternatives and it is very likely that you have it already installed. If not, do it. And if you don’t want the Google option you can always go to MiXplorer since ES File Explorer decided it was better to screw us than make things easy for us.

Another excellent utility that your mobile has is that it allows you to translate things, and although you can go to Assistant to This Google has its famous Translate for you to install on your phone. Google Translate is as free as the rest of its software (sshh, in exchange for your data, sshh) and you can easily find it on Google Play.

The app of your bank and the app of your mobile operator

And to complete this compilation of apps to start up with a new Android phone, you should know that most banks and mobile operators have their own application to manage issues that allow you not to go to offices or pick up the phone. Here is a list of all of them, so you can download the one that interests you (yours, in fact).

We start with the banks.

• Santander Bank
EVO Bank
• Sabadell Bank
• Caixabank
  ImaginBank

• ING Direct
• BBVA
• Bankia
• Bank

We continue with the operators.

Simyo
• Yoigo
• Vodafone
• Orange
• Movistar
Jazztel
• Pepephone

My O2

• Mobile Republic
• MoreMovil
• Tuenti