Welcome back guys, I'm ThioJoe and today I've got a list of ten really cool and free Android
apps that you'll definitely want to check out if you don't have them already.
And these won't be in any special order, they're all pretty cool.
Anyway, let's get into it.
First up, Snapseed.
This is probably one of the best if not THE best photo editing apps I've come across so
far, and it's actually made by Google themselves.
The reason I think it's so great is that it has all the basic photo adjustments like brightness,
contrast, saturation, white balance, sharpness, and everything else you'd expect, but it also
has some really cool advanced tools as well.
For example, it has curves adjustment, so you can finely tune the brightness and contrast.
And possibly the coolest tool is the "perspective" tool, which warps the image in such a way
that kind of makes it look like you took the photo from another angle, and automatically
fixes the cropped edges too.
Pretty awesome.
And of course, it has a ton of premade filters as well you can use.
So if you like taking photos and need just a bit more control, this is something to check
out.
Next up number two, is Flow by Amazon.
This app is more or less a glorified barcode scanner, but it can definitely be useful in
certain situations.
Basically what you do is point the camera at a barcode for some product, and it will
look up what the thing is, then show you the price on Amazon.
You can scan things back to back, and it also makes a list of the things you just scanned.
What I typically use this for is when I'm in a store looking to buy something, and I
want to know if I can get it cheaper on Amazon.
Instead of having to search for the thing, try to figure out which version is the right
one and all that, I can just scan the barcode and instantly know how the price compares.
Then I can see if the store will do a price match, or if I need to just buy it right from
Amazon.
So pretty basic, but it has a cool interface and can be useful.
Number three is definitely a neat one, Google Opinion Rewards.
This is one I've talked about before, it's an App by Google where they occasionally ask
you some survey questions, and then give you Google Play Store credit in exchange.
The surveys are typically very short and easy, like you might answer two multiple choice
questions and get 50 cents credit.
So it's not like you're going to make a lot from it, but it can add up over time.
I've had the app for a couple years and earned about 50 bucks total, and it's kinda nice
to have some credit on your account if you come across a paid app you want.
Though the surveys seem to come pretty randomly, some times I've gotten multiple surveys in
one day, other times theres weeks between surveys.
Next, number four, "Mr. Number".
This is a great app for identifying and blocking potential spam or scam phone calls.
It has a bunch of different settings that allow you to filter phone calls from numbers
that are known scams, suspected spam, or even unknown hidden callers.
But what's more useful is that if you get a call from a number you don't know, you can
look at reports about that number from other users on the app.
For example, you might look up a number and see everyone reporting that it's a credit
card offer, or that they called about some other scam.
And if you really want to lock things down, you can just have it block calls from any
number that's not in your contacts at all, but that would be an extreme case I think.
It's worth checking out.
Number five, feedly.
This is a news reader app that gives you all the news stories and articles from any news
sources you choose.
And in addition to the app, you can use their website as well, feedly.com.
So I have a few different groups set up for different catagories, like all the technology
news in one, science in the other, that sort of thing.
It's like a much better version of the old RSS feeds you used to see.
The interface is nice, it shows you a little header image that goes with the article so
you don't have to just read the headlines.
So it's a great way to quickly get all the news you want to know about without having
to check every website individually.
Moving on, number six, Parallel Space.
This is definitely one of my favorites just because it's so unique.
This app basically allows you to clone apps on your phone and run separate instances of
them.
This means if you have an app that only allows you to log into one account at once, you can
clone it and have one logged into one account, and a second with another account.
For example, you may have seen in previous videos I have two snapchat icons on my phone,
one is just Snapchat, and the other is "Snapchat Plus", and the plus one is just a cloned version.
So one is my public account and another is my private account, and I don't have to log
out to switch between them, I just launch one or the other.
To use it you just open it up, pick an app you want to clone, and then it does it.
It's not perfect though, and sometimes the cloned apps just won't work.
They'll either crash, or not let you log in, or some other issue.
But those issues get fixed after updates.
I'd say this is one of the more useful apps I've come across so far.
Onto number 7, Google Trips.
This is a relatively new app from Google that is meant to help you plan trips for places
you're visiting.
So you type in what city you're going to be in, and it will give you lists of things to
do, places to eat, transporation options, and a bunch of other info.
And it also ties in with your Google account, so if you have any hotel reservations, it
will see that in your email and automatically show you some suggestions based on that.
So if you want to know where to eat, you can look up what are the top spots, the ratings,
different types of food, that sort of things.
Of course you could even use it for your own city if you want to find something new to
do.
Just a neat way to figure out how to spend your time.
Now, number 8, Google Keep.
This one you may already have preloaded onto your phone, but if you're not using it then
you're missing out.
Keep is a very powerful note taking tool to say the least.
Of course you can type text notes to write something down, but you can also add images,
check box lists, and audio recordings to your notes.
And you can set reminder times so it will give you a notification for the note whenever
you want.
But probably the best thing about it is that it all syncs to the cloud through your Google
account, and you can access all your notes through any device when you're logged in,
through "keep.google.com".
So if you're on your phone or computer, and you want to copy a bunch of text or something
between the devices, you can just paste it into a Keep note, and it will sync to everything.
This is also useful if you want to type up a long reminder, you can type it out more
easily on your computer keyboard, then copy it on your phone, instead of having to type
it all out on your phone's keyboard.
And what I'd also recommend is putting the keep widget right on your home screen, so
you can always have your notes and reminders visible, and you'll never forget about anything.
And that's just a quick run down.
There's really a ton you can do with the app.
Alright coming near the end, number 9, is Authy.
Ahh you know I've talked about this one before, and you know it's one of my favorites.
Authy is an excellent app for two factor authentication codes.
As I've said many times before, you should be using two-factor authentication on any
sites that allow it.
How it usually works is that on a site that supports it, you enable two factor authentication,
so any time you want to log in from a new computer, you not only need to type in your
password, but also type in one of the rolling codes from a code generator app, like Authy.
There are several of them out there, but I especially like Authy because it allows you
to back up all your code tokens encrypted, so if you lose your phone or get a new one,
you don't have to set everything up again.
And code generator apps are much better than text message codes, because you don't have
to worry about cell phone reception, plus you're safe even if someone were to compromise
your cell phone account to receive your text messages.
With this, if they don't have your physical phone, they can't access your accounts.
Super important if you're not using two factor authentication already.
And finally, number 10.
Actually I have some honorable mentions after this, so it's not really the end yet.
Anyway, number 10 is Cam Scanner.
Very useful app for when you need to scan or take a picture of a document, but you don't
want to go through the hassle of scanning it on your computer.
With this app, you just take a picture of the document, and it will automatically resize,
crop, and fix the perspective of the picture so it looks pretty similar to an actual scanner.
And on black and white images, it will remove the background too.
One obvious use is for saving pictures of receipts, whether you're keeping track of
expenses, or just so you have them in general.
Alright so now onto a few honorable mentions.
First, "WiFi Analyzer".
This is one not many of you will need but I know there are those of you out there who
will.
This one looks at all the different WiFi signal bands around you, and can tell you not only
which access points have the strongest signal, but also which individual channels are least
congested.
So if you're setting up your router, you can use this to choose the best WiFi channel.
Another app is Google Duo, which is kind of like Android's answer to Facetime.
If any of your other contacts have the app, you can call them up and do a video chat,
and it's cross platform too, not just for android.
Only problem is it doesn't really come preloaded to phones yet, so you'll have to go tell your
friends to download it before you can use it.
And the final honorable mention is "Rocker Locker", a simple utility with one purpose.
It changes the volume buttons so that instead of controlling the ring volume by default,
they control the media volume on the phone.
I like this app because I always keep my phone on vibrate and rarely every change it.
So if I want to change the volume of everything else on the phone, instead of having to press
a volume key, clicking the dropdown, then changing the volume, now the volume buttons
do it directly.
And in the rare cases I do want to change the ringer volume, I can just use the dropdown
for that.
Very useful for me at least.
So that's it those are a bunch of cool free android apps I hope you like.
If you want to keep watching, I'll put some other videos I've made right here, you can
click on them even if you're on a phone.
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So let me know what you guys think I'm looking forward to hearing from you, and as usual
thanks for watching I'll see you next time, have a good one.