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The last “summer month” is coming to an end. The beaches are getting less crowded. RV’s are being put back in storage. Back-to-school sales can be found in every store. It’s a sad time of year. The good news is we had a bunch of great new Android apps launch in the last month. We have compiled a list of the biggest and best apps you should know about. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a few new apps to try.
New Android Apps
Bravo Now, E! Now, Syfy Now
NBC Universal released apps for three networks this month. Bravo Now, E! Now, and Syfy Now offer full episodes of your favorite shows, including new episodes the day after they air on TV. The apps require a cable login, but otherwise, they are completely free. If you watch these channels, download the apps.
Cardboard for Gear VR
This simple app allows you to take advantage of Google Cardboard apps with the Samsung Gear VR headset. By default, the Gear VR can only run in Oculus mode. The apps made for the Gear VR are very nice, but they can be pricey. Cardboard apps are generally free and offer many more experiences.
Cine Browser
Cine Browser is a web browser made specifically for video-heavy websites. Watching videos in a mobile browser can be a pain, and now every website has a native Android app. Cone Browser lets you use those sites and play videos in a floating window. You can watch and browse at the same time.
Crowdsource
Crowdsource is a new app from Google that asks users to translate and transcript images or text. At the start, you are asked which languages you are fluent in, which will provide more options within the various categories. Once complete, you are presented with 5 different sections that allow you to translate or transcribe.
Disney Mix
Disney Mix is a new messaging application for kids. They can message their friends, challenge them to a handful of built-in games, customize their animated avatar and send hundreds of Disney-themed memes. Disney Mix doesn’t currently support image and video sharing, but the feature is coming in a future update.
Dropbox Paper (Beta)
Paper is an Evernote competitor from Dropbox. It helps teams word together on documents, find information, and stay in sync with everyone. Changes made by one person are instantly shown to everyone else. It’s the same idea as Google Docs, but for Dropbox users.
Duo
Duo is Google’s dead simple 1-to-1 video calling app. All you need is a phone number and then you’ll be able to video call any of your contacts who have Duo installed. Video quality is quite good even on a 3G connection. The app’s standout feature is Knock Knock, which allows users to see the video of the person calling them before answering.
FAST Speed Test
Fast.com is Netflix’s super fast internet speed test website. FAST Speed Test is the Android app that does the same thing. It’s super fast and ad-free.
FeedNews
FeedNews is a news reader with artificial intelligence baked in. The app recommends quality content so you don’t have to go out and find it yourself. Just pick a category and let the app bring the news to you. The more you use FeedNews the more it learns your interests and adjusts the recommendations.
MenuSnap
Have you ever tried to order food at a restaurant where the menu is in a language you don’t understand? MenuSnap is an Android app that scans your food menu into a user-friendly interface for you to easily search and translate the food items. This makes it ideal for travelers and people who like to try new places.
Navbar Apps
Navbar Apps is a customization tool for your virtual navigation bar. You can have the bar change color to match the app you are currently using or permanently change it to your favorite color. The customization doesn’t end there. You can also use a photo as the background and show your battery percentage. It’s highly customizable and it doesn’t require root access.
Night Mode Enabler
One of the more interesting features we saw introduced in the Android N Previews was a feature called “Night Mode.” Unfortunately, it didn’t make it to the official release of Android Nougat. Night Mode Enabler is an app that can bring it back. Just open the app, tap on “Enable Night Mode” and the feature will be back in the Quick Settings.
OneView Calendar
OneView is a calendar that gives you a slightly different view of your day than you’re used to seeing. It doesn’t have a day view, week view, month view or an agenda view. Instead, it replaces all of these views with one single view of everything. Zoom out to see multiple years and even decades, or zoom in to see specific days and hours.
Opera VPN
Opera VPN blocks ad trackers and lets you change your virtual location. You can use it to unblock more content and access your favorite websites and apps from anywhere for free. Opera VPN aims to be one of the fastest and most reliable mobile VPN apps.
Quidgets
Android Nougat allows developers to create their own tiles for the Quick Settings drawer. Quidgets allows you to display full-fledged widgets in the Quick Settings drawer. Simply hit “Edit”, drag the tile into the Quick Settings drawer, and tap it to set it up.
Sam’s Club Scan & Go
Sam’s Scan & Go is a very interesting app that could change the way we shop. Instead of scanning your items at checkout, this app allows you to scan each item as you shop. When you’re done shopping you can pay for all the items in the app. Show your e-receipt on your way out of the store and you’re done!
Skyler
Skyler is a very strange weather app. Some apps will tell you to wear a sweater or bring an umbrella, but Skyler creates an outfit for you based on the weather. The outfits are a bit on the bizarre side, but they accurately demonstrate how you should dress. Mostly.
Stitch It!
Stich It! has been a popular app on iOS for a while, and now it’s available on Android. The app allows you to take multiple screenshots and stitch them together into one long screenshot. This comes in handy when sharing conversations, long webpages, and more. Just choose the screenshots, crop them, and then let the app stitch it all together for you.
Voter
Voter is one of those apps that everyone should use. The app takes a Tinder-like approach to showing you which candidate matches up with your interests. With just a few easy questions you can see which influencers, parties, and candidates you line up with. There are four levels of questions so you can really focus in on the issues.
Weather Quick Tile
This is another app that lets you customize the Quick Settings tiles in Android Nougat. With this app you can add a weather tile to the Quick Settings drawer. The text shows the current temperature and the icon shows the current conditions.
smartWake
smartWake allows you to mimic the display features of early Moto X phones. You can wake the screen by picking the phone up, taking it out of your pocket, waving your hand over the display, and even when your face is looking at the phone.
Weekly App Round-ups
These are apps featured in our “Download This” series. Not all of these apps launched in the last month, but we try to highlight apps that most people don’t know about. You might find a gem.
August 5th
August 12th
August 19th
August 26
Updated Android Apps
Some of the biggest app news comes from app updates. We try to highlight big updates to apps that introduce awesome new features deserving of an entirely new look at an app.
EarlyBird
EarlyBird, the only app you need for following Android news, received a very important update this month. You can now subscribe to specific topics and be notified when new content is tagged with those topics. For example, you can subscribe to the phone that you have an see any story about it.
Instagram received a HUGE update this month. A new feature called “Stories” does exactly what you can do with Snapchat Stories. Record a video or take a photo, draw and write over it, and add it to your Stories. It will be visible to your followers for 24 hours.
Nike+ Run Club
The Nike+ running app was updated with a brand new user interface this month. The reception among hardcore runners has not been great. Many of the features that actually motivated people to get up and run have been removed.
Inbox
Version 1.29 of Inbox for Gmail has new integrations with popular services like Trello, GitHub and Google Alerts. When subscribed to any specific projects, you will now receive emails in Inbox which will be organized accordingly along with with a brief summary of the changes.
Hangouts
The biggest update of the month goes to Hangouts. You can now add the shruggie ¯_(ツ)_/¯ to any conversation by typing “/shruggie.” That’s it.
Best of the Best
The Google Play Store has hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from. This list only scratches the surface. We’ve published numerous “Best Apps” lists for everything from dating to education. Check out the lists below to explore even more!
- 100 Best Android Apps
- Best Android Apps for learning languages
- Best Android apps for college students
- Best Android dating apps
- Reader-voted best apps
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