I’m sure there are countless apps out there that are incredibly cool, interesting, or useful, but just haven’t hit the mainstream yet. Maybe it’s a productivity tool that’s boosted your efficiency, a unique game that’s kept you entertained for hours, or a niche app that’s catered perfectly to one of your hobbies or interests.
What are some Android hidden gem apps that you’ve used a bunch or think it’s really cool/interesting/useful?
Please share your recommendations, and if possible, a brief description of what the app does and why you find it so valuable.
Looking forward to uncovering some hidden treasures in the Android app world. Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
Fit Notes - simple lifting progress app that i’ve been using for years. On play store.
Kvaesitso - launcher on fdroid. Has become my favorite launcher.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles
Several puzzles in one app, no ads, completely free.
Minimalist Phone has changed my life. For anyone looking to either spend less time on social media or get rid of the digital clutter constantly bombarding you, this app is amazing.
It Filters my notifications so I can check them on my own time, it sets time limits on all social media and game apps and kicks you out when time is up, and it has a simple black background with no app icons, only the names of the apps you choose in white letters. Perfect for my over-stimulated adhd brain.
App for learning to draw - AR Drawing: Sketch Paint Beautiful design, free, no ads…
Is newpipe a hidden gem? It was to me until 6 months ago.
Quick Cursor, reach the top of your screen effortlessly.
Mixplorer, a file explorer that does everything. Want to share a file between android devices on your home network over WiFi because Bluetooth will take a million years ? Start a server via mixplorer, send from mixplorer on the other device. The other day I was looking for an app to browse a simple nas storage. I searched for “nas” in F-droid and found nothing. Then I remembered good old mixplorer. Yup there it was, add smb. And I think I barely use 10% of its capacity. Batch processing, queued actions, regex renaming… Many add ons. Edit:free on xda
Games:
Survivor.io - even though the name screams cheap shitty ad app, it’s pretty limited in ads (if any) and the game is a rogue like zombie killer. Each game plays out for about up to 15 minutes. One of my favorites.
Rebuild - a turn based strategy game about surviving the cities full of zombies.
Pawnbarian - a chess rogue like where you control a piece that has unique abilities. I believe they let you play part of the game as a demo.
Lifeline - a game you can get where you text some random dude who is lost in space. The game progresses over a few weeks and unfolds but you can only message him after he contacts you through notification.
Apps:
Nova Launcher - I have used nova launcher for probably like 10 years. I love the customizable options given and the ability to set gestures on icons.
Doctor on Demand - OK HEAR ME OUT. First, I live in America. Medical care is stupid. Also, I have children. Going to the doctors is like upwards of a hundred dollars per visit (if not more). Doctor on demand (through my insurance) is free. Even if you don’t have insurance, I think it’s only lope $50-$75 per visit. So… I recommend this for American users who need to see a doctor but may not be covered effectively.
Offline Survival Manual - haven’t needed to use it but good to have I’m thinking. You can print it all out through the app.
Survivor.io seems to be a crappy copy of Vampire Survivors which the base game is free on the play store and a lot better imo.
Vampire survivors released on Dec 2nd, 2022
Survivor.io released Aug 9th, 2022
Regardless, in the world of games (mobile games specifically, sometimes innovation is a leap frog off of someone else’s creativity.
Yea so it was released on Steam on Oct 20, 2022 so only a month after survivor.io released. Pretty crazy how similar they are. I can imagine that they were in development at the same time, I wonder if they took inspiration from the same source and put their own spin on it.
My understanding is that Magic Survival is the original source of inspiration for VS. Released in 2019, no less.
URLCheck
Checks URLs for nasties like tracking links. Can also be used to open links in specific apps (where they don’t always want to)
Available on both f-droid and the play store.
https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.trianguloy.urlchecker/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trianguloy.urlchecker
also great bc u always have the option to choose which app to open with, and acts as a confirmation if you accidently click a link
One thing I’d like though is a module to scan YouTube links this is why I think that would be useful
oh, i hadnt thought of that. i didnt think think it would be very helpful, but after i watched that video, it really opened my eyes to the dangerous possibilities.
Droid-ify is a much nicer client for F-Droid.
Obtanium for downloading apps from various other sources.
Aurora Store for anonymously downloading apps from the Play Store without a Google account
LibreTube or NewPipe for watching YouTube videos without ads or tracking.
Seal for downloading YouTube videos.
Retro Music Player - probably the best looking music app for Android.
Pano Scrobbler - a FOSS app for Last.fm, Libre.fm and Listenbrainz. (I recommend Obtanium to download it from GitHub.)
Murglar for downloading Music in full quality from Deezer.
Molly - a better Signal client. (You can use Obtanium to download it from GitHub, you can add their F-Droid repo or download it using Accressent, a new experimental app store that seeks to replace F-Droid.)
Gallery - a simple gallery app that looks good and respects your Material You theme.
Element X is a much better Matrix client than the standard Element app. (I recommend downloading it from GitHub using Obtanium.)
LinkSheet - a small app that restores the old Android URL link chooser. It has many great features like the ability to remove tracking parameters from URLs or using FastForward to annoying bypass URL shorteners.
UntrackMe - a tool that can redirect YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, etc. links to privacy-friendly alternative frontends like Invidious or Piped for YouTube, Nitter for Twitter and LibReddit or Teddit for Reddit
Thunder, the best Lemmy client I ever used.
Most of the apps I mentioned are free and open source and many of them are available on F-Droid. They don’t collect or sell any of your data.
The last one is not an app, but an entire OS that can replace the spyware-infested ROM that’s preinstalled by your phones’ manufacturer. I’m talking about GrapheneOS. No ads, no tracking, no proprietary Google services. Just free and open source software with maximum privacy and security. It’s so great!
