12 Of The Best Free Android Apps For 2018

For a long time, the go-to music player on Android has been Winamp, for its huge range of features and different options. That, however, makes it a little overly complicated to use for a casual listener, and it looks a bit retro too. Phonograph is the opposite in terms of design, and brings a simple flat Material Design approach to your music. There aren't endless pages of options to scroll your way through but there's enough for most users and, more importantly, it's really simple to use. If simple isn't what you want, then Winamp is the one to check out. Open source fans should be happy with Amaze File Manager: The file manager is free and provides full access to local files on your phone or tablet. Of course, you can manage your memory card with Amaze. There is an additional App Manager, with which you can manage, save or uninstall your applications.

It has a simple UI and doesn't come as an over-sized, bloated app overflowing with features. Instead, it focuses purely on protecting your device from malware and identifying potential privacy concerns. For many people, Google Calendar probably offers enough functionality and convenience that you'll never need to look around for an alternative. If, however, you fancy a change of scenery and a few additional features, and all still for free, then SolCalendar is well worth checking out. It offers fewer integrations with other services than some paid rivals, but gives a great balance of functionality and ease of use - and with Sunrise now closed down, it's one of the better options still available for free. It also includes a few different options of home screen widgets too. Waze is the best free navigation app because in addition to searching for the best route based on distance, it also takes into account the current traffic congestion along your route. It does this by crowd sourcing real time congestion information from its users, allowing you to save time by avoiding construction and traffic accident delays in the busiest parts of the city.

It also has the option to change the voice to several funny alternatives, and it can warn you when you're speeding. Another great feature is that it can sync with your calendar so you don't have to type in addresses. Need to use maps offline, It's a tough call between two experienced apps for best free photo editor, but Snapseed (now owned by Google) just beats VSCO Cam. Video editing is a tricky category if you're looking for a fully-featured app with a whole bunch of different options, but still don't want to spend any money. Kinemaster is a good compromise for this, if not the one with the most features. For free, you get a super-easy video editor that supports images, clips, music tracks, screenshots and other types of content. Quickly throwing together a video is a quick task, along with editing it and setting it to one of the pre-installed themes. The downside, however, is that you'll have a small watermark unless you choose to pay for a subscription to the service.

If you want a massive amount of options for capturing your pictures, and a whole lot of manual control over the settings, AND you want all that without ever paying any money, then Open Camera is well worth a look. Is it the best designed UI, Nope. Is it the easiest to use, Not even close (it's not hard either, though). There are other camera apps with more features available, but you'll have to pay for many of them, whereas Open Camera is totally free. There's a donation version of the app if you want to show your appreciation to the developer though. Free apps can definitely be good. Developers can genuinely make a good source of income through affiliate links or banner adds, and other apps may come from developers who don't rely on any profit from the app. These are both positive examples. It may not seem like it, but the Play Store is actually monitored and maintained. Individual apps can be categorized into Android Excellence apps. The list is constantly updates and includes mostly mainstream apps, but there will be the occasional one you've never heard of. Give us your recommendations! What were your favorite apps of the year, Do you agree with our choices, or do you have some favorites of your own, Let us know in the comments below! The contents of this article have changed since it was originally published. The comments below may have been left in response to a previous version.