Top 10 Best Android apps of 2017

Here it is ladies and gentlemen.The Android apps that stand alone at the top of the pantheon. These apps have become ubiquitous with Android and if you’re looking for good stuff it’s assumed that you have some of this stuff already. Without further delay, here are the best Android apps currently available! Make sure to come back because we do keep this updated every month!

10. Nova Launcher

Initially, we weren’t going to put any launchers on this list. Nova Launcher seems to be extend beyond what normal launchers are. It’s been around for years, it’s been consistently updated, and thus it’s never not been a great option for a launcher replacement. It comes with a host of features, including the ability to backup and restore your home screen set ups, icon theming for all of your Android apps, tons of customization elements for the home screen and app drawer, and more. You can even make it look like the Pixel Launcher if you want to. If you go premium, you can tack on gesture controls, unread count badges for apps, and icon swipe actions. There’s not much else to say. It’s just that good.

9. Pocket Casts

Those who enjoy podcasts probably have the easiest decision in regards to which podcast app that should use. The answer to that question is Pocket Casts. This insanely stable and good looking app allows you to download or stream various podcasts for your enjoyment. It features both audio-only and video podcast support so you can catch up on just about anything. There is also a light and dark theme, a sign-in feature so you can sync your podcasts across devices, and a pretty decent recommendations function. It’s the last podcast app you’ll have to download and one of the best Android apps out there.

8. Yarn

Similar to one of early 2017's top Android apps, Yarn is a reading app that offers stories in the form of text message conversations. Readers follow along as the story develops with each message. Yarn includes horror, mystery, romance, comedy and more genres for readers of any taste. It does have a paid model that has soured the experience of many users, but even more readers have found the app worth their while.

7. Solid Explorer File Manager

File browsing is something everyone inevitably has (or wants) to do, so you might as well do it with a capable, fantastic file browser. Solid Explorer is pretty much as good as it gets in the file explorer apps realm. It features Material Design, archiving support, support for the most popular cloud services, and even some more power user stuff like FTP, SFPT, WebDav, and SMB/CIFS support. It looks great, it’s incredibly stable, and it just works well. You can get a 14-day free trial, but ultimately the app costs $1.99 which isn’t a bad price. It’s one of those Android apps everyone should have.

6. SwiftKey Keyboard

SwiftKey Keyboard is one of the most powerful and customizable third-party keyboards available. It hit the market several years ago with a predictive engine unlike anything any other keyboard had and the app has grown a lot of over the years. It’s a free download and you can purchase themes for it if you want to. Other features include a dedicated number row, SwiftKey Flow which allows for gesture typing, multiple language support, cross-device syncing of your library and much more. It’s about as good as it gets in the keyboard space. It’s true that Microsoft now owns SwiftKey, but so far they have managed not to mess it up.

5. Tasker

Tasker is a glorious application if you have the patience to learn how to use the app. What it does is allow users to create custom made commands and then use them in various places. There are many apps out there that have Tasker support and you can even use Tasker to create very complex commands for NFC tags. It’s difficult to truly explain what this app can do because it can do so many things. Between the apps supported, plugins you an add, and the sheer volume of stuff that you can do, there aren't many apps out there as useful as this one.

4. Signal

With a new hack in the headlines almost every week, it’s worth taking some time to beef up your digital security. A top app to do that is Signal, an encrypted messaging app built with privacy in mind, which helps to keep your texts safe from prying eyes. You’ll have to get your friends on board to get the most benefits from using Signal, but it’s worth it if you put a premium on privacy.

3. Todoist

Todoist is a popular and good to-do list app. It features all of the basics, including Material Design, recurring tasks, multi-platform support, Android Wear support, and you can share tasks with other people. The multi-platform support includes Google Chrome extensions and native apps on some platforms. There really isn't anything wrong with this one. However, they do hide some fairly basic features like push notifications behind a pay wall. Otherwise, this is about as good as it gets in the to-do list space. We believe Wunderlist is a little better, but Microsoft is killing it off eventually. The title of best to-do list app falls to Todoist.

2. ZEDGE™

This is a wallpapers, ringtones, notification tones, and alarm tones app that gives you an unbelievable number of options to customize the most basic parts of your device. On top of having an exhaustive collection of things, Zedge also promotes various items during holiday seasons making it easy to theme your phone up for Christmas, Halloween, and other holidays. It’s not a 100% perfect app. It does have the occasional bug and some irritating advertisements. On top of that, their wallpaper selections may not be great for higher resolution displays (you can find better ones). However, no app in the Play Store does ringtones, notification tones, or alarm tones as good as Zedge.

1.Wallpapers HD, 4K Backgrounds

WallpapersCraft 4K Backgrounds is probably the best backgrounds app right now. It features tons of wallpapers at high resolutions. It boasts a collection of 80,000 wallpapers with more every day. The app can detect your display resolution automatically. Thus, the images you see are for your screen resolution. That takes all the guess work out. We liked that a lot. There are also some additional organization features and automation features. It's completely free. You just have to deal with a little advertising.