Best Android Apps (Utilities)

Utilities

Flashlight HD LED (Free)

There are a lot of flashlight apps, and some phones come with them, but if you’re in need, we like the Flashlight HD the best. It can use your phone’s camera flash as a light, but also gives you complete control over the screen. You can choose from thousands of colors, turning your phone’s front screen into whatever color you’d like. That’s mostly all it does, but it does it well. When you need a flashlight, you need a flashlight. This does the job. Did we mention it has an on/off widget? Very handy.

HopStop (Free)

Those of you who don’t live in a city, this won’t be an app for you, but those of you in New York City or other cities full of complicated subway and bus routes, HopStop is one of our favorite services. The Android app (m.hopstop.com works as well), but it’s the most accurate subway and bus navigation system we’ve used. You do have to know the address of your location, but HopStop does a good job guiding you to more generic locations like an intersection, which some services struggle with. It also maps out how long it will take you to walk around, features a lot of flexible options to modify your route, and lets you save routes for the future and view them offline, which is helpful if you’re underground. Give it a try. (The tablet version is coming soon.)

Weather Channel (Free)

This is the weather app you’ll find yourself checking before you even crack the blinds in the morning. Besides offering accurate current conditions with extreme detail down to wind speed, humidity and UV index, the Weather Channel’s app offers hourly and 10-day forecasts for planning ahead, plus advanced features like animated weather radar.

Widgetsoid (Free)

Widgetsoid allows you to create your own widgets for various phone functions. You can create a widget that will allow you to toggle your 4G antenna on and off, or create your own clock widget that can display whatever phone information you want, from battery charge to phone temperature. It’s pretty useful. There is a free and a paid version, which has some added functionality.

iTriage Mobile Health (Free)

Created by doctors, this app is designed to give users quick and easy access to medical info as well as nearby treatment facilities. With just a few clicks, users can find the nearest medical facility based on need (emergency, urgent care, pharmacy, etc.) and quickly use built-in Google Maps to navigate to the destination. The app also features a symptom-checker, doctor directory, and information about diseases and procedures.

Chrome Beta (Free)

The default Android Web browser is fine, but if you’re on an Android 4.0 phone (or tablet), you can now download a fully operational version of Google Chrome. Simply put, it’s the best mobile browser we’ve used, with robust tab management, private browsing, and the ability to sync your tabs from your browser with your phone.

Pulse News (Free)

This free app is a great reader for those who like to get their daily dose of news or gossip on their Android device. Pulse lets users select up to 30 online sources to pull from, and then creates clean, magazine-like pages that feature thumbnail photos and headlines from each source. Most articles or blogs can be easily read within the app, and the sources update in a flash. It’s the perfect substitute for your morning or evening Internet scan. Add sources like CNN, Gawker, Salon, Wet Paint, MSNBC, and Mashable.

IMO Chat (Free)

If you like to use your Android phone to chat with friends using instant messaging applications instead of simple text messages, you most likely find yourself shuffling between Facebook, GTalk, and AIM, or some similar combination of apps. While most of those individual apps for Android are great themselves, IMO Chat eliminates the hassle of carrying on multiple conversations on different IM apps. IM on Facebook, GTalk, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, Skype, and more with this app. The IMO Chat app also supports voice IMs, group chat, and multimedia attachments.