Back in September, I switched from the iPhone SE (2020) to a Samsung Galaxy A54. While readjusting to Android after several years of using iOS took some planning, things so far have gone well. It helps that Samsung and Android both have made improvements over their state in the 2010s, when most of the Android world treated things like security and OS updates more as “broad suggestions” versus “mandatory.” I assume making such improvements was all but forced on them to stay competitive against Apple’s iPhone/iOS.
While most of the apps I use have iOS counterparts, a few apps are specific to Google, Android, or Samsung’s One UI user interface. Below are some of the Android apps I use.
Samsung’s default apps
While there’s Google’s default apps, Samsung also adds their own apps to their phones. Thus, I’ve been using some of those, as they seemed to work as well as or better than Google’s. (That said, I also turned off or deleted a few; Samsung tries to push their own apps/services as defaults.) Among the Samsung apps I use:
- Calculator. It’s the default, and it works.
- Calendar. However, my calendar information is pulled from Google Calendar, where I’ve decided to store everything (after moving it from Apple Calendar).
- Email. Samsung’s email app allows access to Gmail, Outlook, etc. more easily than the included Gmail app.
- My Files. The file directory app for the phone.
- Samsung Music. I wanted a stand-alone music player for playing MP3s, and Samsung’s own music app works well for that.
Google’s default apps
Despite what I said above, I also find some of Google’s apps useful, or even preferred over Samsung’s apps. Such apps include:
- Gboard. Google’s default keyboard app, which one can install and use instead of the default Samsung keyboard app.
- Google Drive. I get 100GB of free cloud storage via my phone carrier. Drive is also cross-platform (versus Apple’s iCloud), so it works on all my devices.
- Google Fit. An app that keeps track of fitness statistics, similar to the one on iOS. I use it mainly as a pedometer.
- Google Photos. Like Drive, Google Photos is a cross-platform photo app/service that works on everything, unlike Samsung’s default Gallery app, or Apple’s Photos.j
AntennaPod
AntennaPod is an open source Android podcast app. It’s free, works well, and doesn’t seem in danger of shutting down (unlike Google Podcasts).
Tusky
Tusky is an Android app for the Mastodon social network. It provides a Twitter-like experience; offers a few features not in the default Mastodon app (such as including the headline when posting shared articles from the web); is kept up-to-date; and the app’s free.
Visual Voicemail (Metro)
This app is more specific to my case. My phone carrier is Metro, a prepaid subsidiary of T-Mobile. Unlike Apple’s iPhone, apparently phone carriers can override the default Google visual voicemail app for… reasons. Thus, I downloaded the one for Metro, via the Google Play store’s web version, since it didn’t show up in my phone’s Google Play app for some reason.
Unsurprisingly, the app isn’t particularly slick, well-designed, or integrated into the phone app. But it still provides voicemail, without having to dial a number to manually check, like it’s the 1990s. The fact that’s the default state of voicemail for Samsung shows one spot where the iPhone/iOS beats Samsung/Android by a mile.
Warpinator
Warpinator is a Linux app that’s designed to work similarly to MacOS’ AirDrop. Setting up the app on my Linux Mint laptop (which includes it by default) and my Samsung phone (Android includes a third-party-but-popular port) allows me to copy files between both devices. This makes using my phone with my Linux laptop much easier, versus plugging it in and clicking off a few error messages (despite Linux Mint mounting the phone fine after that).
Image by Irfan Ahmad from Pixabay
