All Android phones have built-in apps made by Google, such as Google Maps, Chrome, Calendar, etc. But did you know Google also has dozens of apps other than the default apps in Android phones?
In fact, there are over a hundred apps on the Google Play Store made by Google, and most of them are among the best in their category. I personally prefer using apps made by Google for their intuitive design and being completely free.
If you also like Google apps, then keep reading, and I’ll share some amazing Google apps that you probably didn’t know existed. All of the below apps are completely free and don’t contain ads.
Socratic
Socratic is a great app for high school and university students to get information on different subjects. You just need to ask a question using voice or by scanning the question with the phone camera, and the app will find the best sources to understand the concept.
The app offers step-by-step instructions, animations, and videos on the topic you need information on. Subjects it covers include Geometry, Biology, Chemistry, history, Physics, and a few more.
Grasshopper
If you are interested in learning how to code, then Grasshopper is a beginner-friendly app to learn to code. The app uses a gamified approach to learn to code by making you play quick games where you write real JavaScript.
The games become progressively more challenging, and you can unlock achievements that will keep you hooked. Overall, Grasshopper is a nice first step to learning to code.
Snapseed
One of my favorite apps and among the best photo editor apps on Google Play Store, Snapseed is perfect for both basic touchups and advanced photo editing. The app is straightforward to use and gives you full control over how you want to apply the filters and tools.
The app comes with 29 different editing tools, including healing, text, HDR scape, vintage, face enhances, face pose, crop, etc. Each tool has further settings to apply properly. Best of all, it also remembers your edits to let you apply to more photos later.
Lookout
Lookout by Google is made to assist visually impaired or blind people with daily tasks. Using the phone’s camera, the user can scan nearby identifiable objects. It can identify currency notes, scan food labels, and read aloud documents. It uses OCR to scan documents, converts them into readable text, and then uses text-to-speech to read it aloud.
There is also an experimental option of identifying objects near your, but it’s not perfectly accurate, so you can’t fully depend on it.
Google Family Link
Google Family Link is a parental control app by Google to help parents control their underage children’s phone usage. Parents can view the complete history of child activity on the phone and block/allow apps as they find them right. You can even allow or block apps before downloading using a handy notification system.
You can also track the child’s screen time and add limitations after which they won’t be able to use the phone. There is also an option to lock the phone on demand if you need to remove access immediately. And all this is possible remotely using your own Android phone.
Explore more parental control apps for better safety!
Read Along
A handy app for kids to improve reading skills. Read Along comes with fun short stories that encourage children to read aloud those stories. There is a dedicated assistant name Diya that listens to the children and gives feedback in real-time.
The children can also play mini-games and earn badges by completing different tasks, so they don’t lose interest. The app works offline with all the functions and supported languages include English, Hindi, Urdu, Spanish, Portuguese, and more.
Crowdsource
Many Google apps depend on volunteer contributions for information, such as Google Maps. If you are interested in helping Google make its products better, then download Crowdsource. The app will send daily questions to you that you can answer to help make Google products better.
You can help translate words, identify objects and writing, take photos, learn about nearby places, and much more. You level up and earn badges for your contribution.
If you contribute often, you can also access other perks like meeting other nearby contributors, chat with other contributors on hangouts, and even get featured on Crowdsource social channels.
Wallpapers
It’s a wallpaper app powered by images from Google Earth. Wallpapers can automatically change your wallpaper as frequently as you want using images from a category you like. You can also configure it to show a different wallpaper on your home screen and a different one on the lock screen.
The app uses a new wallpaper every time, and the collection of wallpapers keeps increasing as the sources update.
Digital Wellbeing
If you think your phone addiction negatively affects your life, then Digital Wellbeing can help put a leash on your phone usage. The app helps keep track of your phone activity, including how frequently you use specific apps, the number of notifications your receive, and how often you unlock your phone.
This information will help you understand how frequently you are interacting with your phone and whether you need to control it or not. To help you control, it allows you to set app timers per day, set bedtime, and use focus mode that disables distracting apps.
Google Go
This app is already available on Android Go phones, but you can download it on any phone if you want to save mobile data. Google Go helps you search the internet faster by optimizing results to consume 40% less data. This also makes it faster to search as less data is needed to be downloaded.
There is also an option to scan text with the phone camera to read aloud and even search it online. Being a minimal app, this is perfect when your phone is low on resources, but you don’t want to compromise on surfing the web.
Google My Business
A must-have app for any business owner who wants to have an online presence on Google. Google My Business helps you list your business on Google and manage it. You can upload photos of your business, track people’s interaction with your business profile, respond to customer messages right from the app.
You will also receive real-time notifications whenever a new review or message comes to you. Basically, it’s a one-stop place for managing your business profile on Google.
Google Podcasts
Google Podcasts lets you access free podcasts from multiple categories and manage them. You can subscribe to podcasts, browse the latest podcasts, and get personalized recommendations based on your interests. Podcast categories include news, comedy, business, education, history, technology, and many more.
You can also download podcasts and auto-downloads episodes as soon as they become available. The podcast player is also very intuitive and lets you easily control playback and even remove silences in the podcasts.
PhotoScan
If you have some old photos that you would like to digitize, you can quickly do so with PhotoScan. Using the app, you can scan a photo with your phone camera, and it will try to digitize it as accurately as possible. The app will automatically remove any glare effects and crop and rotate the photo according to photo size.
Chrome Remote Desktop
Interested in managing your PC from your Android phone? Chrome Remote Desktop can make it possible. You just need to install the app on your Android phone and set up Chrome Remote Desktop on the PC. Afterward, you can control the PC right from your Android phone.
You can set it up on more than one PC to control multiple PCs from one place. There is also an option to create temporary sessions to offer tech support.
To conclude
Among these apps, Snapseed, Crowdsource, and Socratic are my favorite apps, especially Snapseed, as it is my go-to photo editing app on all my phones. However, the rest of the apps are also excellent and definitely worth downloading if you need their features. If you are interested in checking out more apps by Google, go to the Google LLC developer profile on Google Play Store.
Next, find out some of the best antiviruses for mobile.
