There are a few noteworthy ones that have significantly enhanced my digital experience. Let me share them with you:
Musicolet: It’s a fantastic music player with a user-friendly interface. The best part is, it doesn’t bombard you with pesky ads like the default music player does.
Cube Acr: If you ever need to record calls, this app is a game-changer. It’s the best free call recorder I’ve tried so far.
Macrodroid: This app lets you automate almost anything you can think of. Personally, I love how it allows me to easily turn on the WiFi hotspot with just a few taps. I couldn’t find any other app on the Play Store that offered this feature without requiring root access.
Auto redial: You know those moments when you keep calling a restaurant repeatedly until they finally answer? This app saves you from that frustration. It automatically redials the number for you, making your life much easier.
Dynamic rotation: Auto-rotate can be a bit annoying, right? But sometimes, you do want your screen to rotate. That’s where Dynamic Rotation comes in. It prompts you to rotate the app whenever you rotate your screen, giving you more control.
Folder sync: It’s surprising that popular cloud apps like Mega don’t offer a way to sync folders. Fortunately, Folder Sync fills that gap. You can keep selected folders always in sync without any hassle.
Volume booster: We all come across situations where the audio is too low. This app comes to the rescue by boosting the volume, allowing you to hear even the faintest sounds clearly.
Always on AMOLED by Tomer Rosenfeld: Recently, I dropped my phone in water, and since then, the screen has been acting up, moving randomly. However, I noticed that if I use this app for a while, it stabilizes the screen. It’s been a lifesaver for me.
These hidden gems have definitely made a significant difference for me. It’s fascinating to think about the missed opportunities had I known about them earlier. But hey, now that we know, we can make the most out of these fantastic apps, feel free to add your list below as well ❤️
IgeBlock for watching youtube. No videos during playback, but you need to watch one ad every four days to keep most of the features available. Or you can pay.
Launcher KISS the simplest, cleanest and fastest launcher I have ever used. After few days I got so much used to it that when I get my hands on phone with another launcher I feel lost. My father and my son are also using KISS and they like it.
Auto Auto-Rotate - Allows you to pick specific apps to turn on auto-rotate for while turning it off for the others. Works great if you wish to keep it on for media and video apps but not other apps.
KDE Connect is an app to connect your phone and computer. It works on most OS (windows, Linux, etc.), and it works extremely well (better than the solution developed by Microsoft).
Yep, the shared clipboard and file sharing options are things I can’t live without now. No more sending stuff to yourself using messenger apps or stupid workarounds like that.
Yes. I’ve been using almost daily and it’s great! My only issue is that it sometimes (like once every one or two months), it has some trouble connecting back to my phone.
In my experience, windows store server apps (like Plex) are sometimes broken if your os updates are due. It causes some interesting headaches. When in doubt exe it from the trusted site
Spectroid: what’s that sound? Do I hear that faint but annoying sound or just imagine it? With spectroid you can see the sound spectrum over time.
Nova launcher: Lets you cutomize the home screen of your phone and make it just right. I like my apps a bit closer together in five columns instead of four. Nova launcher let’s me do this.
Business calendar: it’s just so much better than the default calendar, especially if you have lots of meetings and need an information dense view.
Love Nova Launcher! It offers so many customisation options, particularly in terms of home screen and app drawer layout, icons and fonts.
I remember a few years back when my phone was stolen (I accidentally left it in the back of an Uber) and I was forced to buy a new one. The relief I felt when I started up the new phone, signed into Google and straightaway saw my familiar home screen, courtesy of Nova Launcher.
I guess I was surprised so much was still there given I didn’t do a formal backup / transfer between old and new phones, but that’s the beauty of the cloud! :)
Edit: Also @distantlight, agree with Cube ACR - I have been immensely grateful having an easy way to record calls. It has a button to allow you to start and stop recording in the middle of a call so for me, it was piece of mind, especially during legal scrapes! But as another commenter has said, I feel like it stopped working at some point so no longer have it installed…
I recently found out Nova was purchased by an analytics company. I don’t have any proof or solid reason to think they’re up to no good necessarily. But I have zero desire to use something as integral as a launcher that’s owned by a company like that.
I moved to Neo Launcher and it’s been 95% as good as Nova. The knock is just some fine tunings that Nova had, but I’m not having any issues with Neo.
Syncthing, I setup synchronisation between my PC and phone in apps that have bad built-in synchronisation or don’t have it at all, e.g. for PPSSPP: I am able to have my save files for games synchronised and keep playing a videogame on phone just where I left it off on my PC
It depends on usage. I didn’t synchronise anything yesterday and my phone reports 0% battery used since last full charge. I only synchronise PPSSPP files, sometimes move files from phone to PC with a dedicated folder and synchronise a fairly small amount of notes (joplin saves each note separately IIRC, and that means syncthing doesn’t need to move the whole database accross devices) so the battery drain of the app is not of concern to me
Oh, and by the way, I setup Syncthing to only run locally, so it doesn’t run when I’m not connected to Wi-Fi and doesn’t maintain connections with discovery/relay servers, I think those could have impact on your battery drain as well
I don’t know about other brands but Samsung does have a small icon in the bottom corner prompting this when I rotate my phone yeah. Ignore it if not needed. Very useful.
Yes but I think many people don’t know it exists and how to use it. For those who don’t know : rotate your phone and a little rotating phone will appear next to your “go back” button. Just click it.
On my phone at least, when I have autorotate off and tilt the screen, an icon appears next to my back button that will rotate the screen. Which sounds to me like the goal of this app.
Joplin. Organise your notes into notebooks and you can also write them in markdown.
You can also save your notes encrypted and syhcronise them with the cloud to have them in all of your devices. Joplin is available in all Operating Systems. Also supposts Nextcloud so it can be self-hosted!
Thanks. Tried both and decided to go with obsidian. Because I can use <span style=“color:blue”>text</span> in both but Joplin doesn’t hide the tags and show the colored text when I move to the next line, Instead only show when I stop editing and save.
Obsidian does. I have some notes with a lot of colors so yeah
Copy: Allows you to copy text from apps where it usually isn’t possible (eg. Instagram). While certain Pixel phones come with a similar feature in the form of OCR, it does not work with non-English text.
Island: Allows you to run two of the same app on a single device - for example if you have two phone numbers and want to use WhatsApp for both numbers on the same device. Some companies like Samsung and OnePlus have this functionality built-in, but they may restrict it to certain apps. Island works with all apps.
Unit Lab: Well designed unit converter that should honestly be a default app on all operating systems. It allows for simple unit conversion (weight, temperature, currency, length, etc.) while also allowing you mix units in calculations (eg. 5 miles + 10 km + 2650 ft).
RustDesk: An open source alternative to TeamViewer.
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Keepass2Android Tasker Joplin DropSync, OneSync, DriveSync Evanova EDS Total Commander Aegis Instander Stocard Waze
IgeBlock for watching youtube. No videos during playback, but you need to watch one ad every four days to keep most of the features available. Or you can pay.
Launcher KISS the simplest, cleanest and fastest launcher I have ever used. After few days I got so much used to it that when I get my hands on phone with another launcher I feel lost. My father and my son are also using KISS and they like it.
Auto Auto-Rotate - Allows you to pick specific apps to turn on auto-rotate for while turning it off for the others. Works great if you wish to keep it on for media and video apps but not other apps.
I’d nominate AccuBattery, it does a good job determining my phone’s battery health. The pro version is cheap and has a lot of capabilities as well
RadarScope. I work a very weather-dependent job.
I too work a weather dependent job. What specifically do you like about this app?
Is Macrodroid better than Tasker in your opinion?
My Motorola phone does that dynamic rotation thing already :)
KDE Connect is an app to connect your phone and computer. It works on most OS (windows, Linux, etc.), and it works extremely well (better than the solution developed by Microsoft).
I can’t count how many times I used this. It’s been a huge timesaver for me
Yep, the shared clipboard and file sharing options are things I can’t live without now. No more sending stuff to yourself using messenger apps or stupid workarounds like that.
How does it compare compared to Join by JoaoApps ?
Does it work over LAN if I lose internet?
Yes, in fact it only communicates over LAN - so if you go away from home it will stop mirroring, unless they’ve changed that in the last few months.
Perfect, thanks!
Does it work ok on Windows now? Last I tried it it wasn’t so great, but it was at least a year ago.
Yes. I’ve been using almost daily and it’s great! My only issue is that it sometimes (like once every one or two months), it has some trouble connecting back to my phone.
I’m using the version downloaded from the Microsoft Store and it’s a bit spotty. The experience might be a bit better with the exe installer.
In my experience, windows store server apps (like Plex) are sometimes broken if your os updates are due. It causes some interesting headaches. When in doubt exe it from the trusted site
Yeah I usually prefer directly downloading installers, I just thought I’d give the Store a try and see what the experience is like.
What phone do you use? I recall my call recording app stopped working a couple years ago due to some Google permission thing.
Same, it’s possibly also because of his location/country. I haven’t tried the app, but if any europeans/british people get it working, please say.
Spectroid: what’s that sound? Do I hear that faint but annoying sound or just imagine it? With spectroid you can see the sound spectrum over time.
Nova launcher: Lets you cutomize the home screen of your phone and make it just right. I like my apps a bit closer together in five columns instead of four. Nova launcher let’s me do this.
Business calendar: it’s just so much better than the default calendar, especially if you have lots of meetings and need an information dense view.
Love Nova Launcher! It offers so many customisation options, particularly in terms of home screen and app drawer layout, icons and fonts.
I remember a few years back when my phone was stolen (I accidentally left it in the back of an Uber) and I was forced to buy a new one. The relief I felt when I started up the new phone, signed into Google and straightaway saw my familiar home screen, courtesy of Nova Launcher.
I guess I was surprised so much was still there given I didn’t do a formal backup / transfer between old and new phones, but that’s the beauty of the cloud! :)
Edit: Also @distantlight, agree with Cube ACR - I have been immensely grateful having an easy way to record calls. It has a button to allow you to start and stop recording in the middle of a call so for me, it was piece of mind, especially during legal scrapes! But as another commenter has said, I feel like it stopped working at some point so no longer have it installed…
I second nova launcher and business calendar. They’ve been staples on my phones for the past 5+ years
I use Business Calendar daily. It’s very customizable, easy to use, and has been awesome for years.
I recently found out Nova was purchased by an analytics company. I don’t have any proof or solid reason to think they’re up to no good necessarily. But I have zero desire to use something as integral as a launcher that’s owned by a company like that.
I moved to Neo Launcher and it’s been 95% as good as Nova. The knock is just some fine tunings that Nova had, but I’m not having any issues with Neo.
Was not aware of this. Thank you!.. :(
I’d add Tasker to that list, even if some of the functionality requires root. It’s actually insane how powerful Tasker is.
Tasker is good too but a bit redundant with MacroDroid. Both are amazing though! Everyone needs to have one or similar!
If you enable ADB Wifi you can do practically anything in Tasker with no root
Syncthing, I setup synchronisation between my PC and phone in apps that have bad built-in synchronisation or don’t have it at all, e.g. for PPSSPP: I am able to have my save files for games synchronised and keep playing a videogame on phone just where I left it off on my PC
+1 for sure! I used it to sync my Obsidian Vault between devices, phone included. It’s very useful if you want the same folder in multiple places.
How about the battery drain on the phone? I tried to use it once to sync my notes but it didn’t work out well in terms of battery drain
It depends on usage. I didn’t synchronise anything yesterday and my phone reports 0% battery used since last full charge. I only synchronise PPSSPP files, sometimes move files from phone to PC with a dedicated folder and synchronise a fairly small amount of notes (joplin saves each note separately IIRC, and that means syncthing doesn’t need to move the whole database accross devices) so the battery drain of the app is not of concern to me
Oh, and by the way, I setup Syncthing to only run locally, so it doesn’t run when I’m not connected to Wi-Fi and doesn’t maintain connections with discovery/relay servers, I think those could have impact on your battery drain as well
Did you measure that empirically? Gsam indicates it only accounts around 1% of battery drain.
Isn’t dynamic rotation built in to Android these days?
I don’t know about other brands but Samsung does have a small icon in the bottom corner prompting this when I rotate my phone yeah. Ignore it if not needed. Very useful.
It is built into Android proper meaning most phones should be able to do it
TIL about this and it’s a freaking lifesaver. Thank you!
Yes but I think many people don’t know it exists and how to use it. For those who don’t know : rotate your phone and a little rotating phone will appear next to your “go back” button. Just click it.
Think the point is it asks instead of just doing it.
On my phone at least, when I have autorotate off and tilt the screen, an icon appears next to my back button that will rotate the screen. Which sounds to me like the goal of this app.
Joplin. Organise your notes into notebooks and you can also write them in markdown. You can also save your notes encrypted and syhcronise them with the cloud to have them in all of your devices. Joplin is available in all Operating Systems. Also supposts Nextcloud so it can be self-hosted!
I set up a Nextcloud server recently and have been looking for a decent note app. I’ll try it out today. Thanks!
You should definitely try, I have this setup (VPN) on my server for more than 1 year
You should definitely try, I have this setup (VPN) on my server for more than 1 year
You should definitely try, I have this setup (VPN) on my server for more than 1 year
What do you think about replacing Samsung notes with this? S notes have everything I need but I think the text formattings in it aren’t markdown.
I’m not a Joplin user, but I use Obsidian which is similar as it’s also in markdown and notes are saved locally or hosted with encryption.
I’d say either app is better than the stock note-taking apps. I’ve been using Google Keep prior.
I’m biased since I only use Obsidian but I love it, been a power user for a month now.
Feel free to check both out! The link below is what I just searched for and learned about Joplin.
https://www.mksguide.com/joplin-vs-obsidian/
Thanks. Tried both and decided to go with obsidian. Because I can use <span style=“color:blue”>text</span> in both but Joplin doesn’t hide the tags and show the colored text when I move to the next line, Instead only show when I stop editing and save. Obsidian does. I have some notes with a lot of colors so yeah
I will check it out, thank you!
I havent used Samsubg Notes. However Joplin does not support to “draw” with a Pen.