The Best Android Apps

Looking for a new app for your device, Here's WIRED's pick of the best of the paid-for and free Android apps available through the Google Play store. If you're looking for iPhone apps then check out our guide to the best downloads. Use the phone's gyroscope to overlay images. SketchAR: Art made easy. Sketchar helps anyone to draw and create stencils by placing a virtual image on a real-world surface. From here you can trace it. Perch: If you've wondered what goes on in your house when you're not in it, Perch is the answer. Connect your phone with a strategically placed laptop, tablet or phone camera and watch live from anywhere. Gifrecipes: Find something for dinner and learn to cook - using gifs. This app pairs recipes with videos that display ingredients and cooking times. Swiping displays new recipes, making it a more satisfying version of Tinder. Splitwise: Carving up bills has never been easier. The app lets your split bills in different categories and across different groups of people. Importantly, it lets you manage what needs to be paid and who owes what.

1Password: This free manager stops you from having terrible passwords. As well as storing your codes it also has a password generator that creates secure options. Paid tiers are available. SmartPhone Lock: This app will change your phone’s PIN every minute - your loved ones will never hack your Facebook again. Pl@ntNet: The Shazam of gardening lets you take a photo of a plant and it tells you what it is. Connect with other gardeners for tips. Mimicker Alarm: Snoozing is impossible with this sadistic alarm clock, which makes you play games to prove you are awake. The default puzzle is to take a selfie while pulling a face. Built by Microsoft's Garage Team - using APIs from UK-based Project Oxford - the app's facial recognition software detects your expression. DreamLab: Donate your spare mobile processing power to the fight against cancer with this app, which downloads genetic sequencing profiles and processes them during the night when phones aren't in use. MoodCast Diary: MoodCast Diary is an app that tracks your mood by allowing you to input diary entries throughout the day.

Once it collects enough data on your day-to-day emotions, it can offer advice as to trends in your happiness or unhappiness. The ‘intelligent mood prediction’ might make it a bit easier to combat the bad-weather blues. Nasa GLOBE Observer: Everyone can get involved in Nasa's scientific experiments. Collect cloud and temperature data through the app. ReplyASAP: Overbearing parents can use this to contact kids by sending a stressed alarm tone with a message. Also works for couples. Peanut: Peanut helps new mothers connect with each other, using a tinder-like swipe and chat system. On Second Thought: Ever sent a text and regretted it, This allows you to embargo messages with a delay allowing you to change your mind. Sarahah: Receive anonymous feedback about yourself from family and friends. Perfect for self-growth - or if you need a good cry. Egg, Inc: Join the chicken gold rush in this incremental clicker game, which asks you to sell eggs, build henhouses and commission farm research. SpaceHub: SpaceHub uses real-time video feeds and GPS to keep amateur space-watchers up-to-date with astronauts and asteroids.

It also aggregates tweets from industry insiders into a single feed. Hungeremoji: Hungermoji turns the notifications system on Android phones' home screens into a game. Feed your character fruit or seafood while swiping away the bombs in this clever OS twist. Look up: Nigerian-American artist Ekene Ijeoma wants New Yorkers to engage with their city instead of looking down at their phones. His app runs in the background and, once you reach a busy street intersection, alerts you to "look up" and allow something serendipitous to happen. Refine a strategy and crush your rivals. This is a smart insight into character programming. Cardboard Camera: Cardboard Camera converts panoramic photos into a format which can be viewed through Google Cardboard VR viewers. Send photos and audio to family and friends or keep an album to relive awe-inspiring moments. Forest: Need time away fro your phone, Plant a digital tree and it will grow - if you star off your device for an agreed time. If not, the tree dies.

It is also completely free with ads. The app can assist you in making 16:9 videos or videos for Instagram in squared format. Overall, the app is useful for making short videos, but it displays a lot of ads which can be very disturbing. Movie Maker Filmmaker YouTube & Instagram is a stylish free video editor for Android, but we are not too keen on the default square output format and the ads are a little intrusive. PowerDirector is one of the most comprehensive video editor apps on this list. It is a fully featured video editor that has an easy-to-use timeline interface, but it might take you some time to get used to the controls. However, once you become an expert with this app, you can create professional and effect rich videos within seconds. It has over 30 different effects and transition effects to choose from and add to your video.