10 must have Android apps for your new Android smartphone (2014)

Getting your first Android smartphone is a special event. It opens up a whole new world and you’re officially a part of the largest platform in the history of mobile devices. That said, there are a virtual ton of applications and getting started with them isn’t easy. In this round up, we’ll take a look at ten essential Android apps that all new Android phone owners should have! Don’t forget to check out our list from last year!

[Price: Free]
First up is Android Device Manager and for good reason. Your just got a new Android device and you should put at least something on it in case it gets stolen. Android Device Manager is developed and maintained by Google and it’s very easy to use. It comes with the basic functions like a phone finding feature and wipe your device if it gets stolen. There are other apps out there with more features but this is the bare minimum that everyone should have in device recovery.

[Price: Free]
Most Android devices come with a file manager but they pretty much all pale in comparison to ES File Explorer. This is a full featured file browser that lets you view your SD card, your downloads folder, and the other folders on your device. This is a great way to stay organized or find files you downloaded previously and it’s totally free.

[Price: Free with in app purchases]
Evernote is, feature for feature, the most powerful note taking app on Android. The app is well designed and it also has cross platform support so you can use it on your PC, Mac, or even on an iOS device if you have, say, an iPad. The free version is very solid but if you pick up the paid version there are a lot more features you can take advantage of. There are other, more simple options but this is still great even for jotting down a quick note.

[Price: Free (All Access is $9.99/month)]
Google Play Music has evolved quite a bit in the last year. You can use this to access the music you keep on your phone or you can upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud and stream them from there for free. If you fork out the $9.99/month, you can also have access to various curated music stations and you’ll have access to pretty much every track on Google Play Music for free. With the upcoming YouTube Music Key integration that takes ads out of music videos on YouTube, this is the music app you should at least try out on Android.

[Price: Free]
Google Hangouts has also undergone quite a few changes in the last year. With this app you can message other Hangouts users for free, enable text messaging so you can use this as your text app, and you can even do things like call other Hangouts users for free and video chat with up to 10 people which is also free. Since you already have a Google account, there is no set up required. Just download and go but you may have to talk some of your relatives into using it too.

[Price: Free]
IFTTT stands for If This Then That and it is a really unique and fun Android app. Using this, you can create connections between applications on your Android device. Some popular ideas include saving photos automatically when you view them on Instagram. Or you can have a photo automatically save to Google Drive. The possibilities are virtually limitless and it’ll save you a lot of time!

[Price: Free]
It is inevitable that people eventually start wondering if they can connect their phone and computer in a way that’ll let them check notifications and the like on their PC. Pushbullet allows you to do just that. You can check and even send text messages, see all of your notifications, send files to your phone from your computer and vice versa, and a lot of other stuff to make working with both of your devices easier. It’s also free and that makes it a great deal.

[Price: Free with in app purchases]
SwiftKey underwent a lot of changes this last year and remains among the most popular and best keyboards ever. Its predictive text is very good and it does great work auto correcting once you teach it how you type. There are dozens of themes to choose from that you can purchase through in app purchasing including Material Design and some more colorful and festive themes. It’s a great replacement keyboard with a lot of customization options.

[Price: Free with in app purchases]
Todoist is a to-do list app that helps you keep track of the things you have to do. You can use it to remind yourself to do anything from grocery shopping to picking up the kids from soccer practice and even stuff like work related activities. It works on a Karma system where you earn points for doing tasks and you can do stuff like create repeating tasks and organize them into different categories. It’s a powerful and simple app to help keep you on track.

[Price: Free]
Last and certainly not least is Zedge. With this app you can find a metric ton of ringtones, notification tones, alarm tones, and various wallpapers. The ones that came on your phone are probably pretty good but more is always better. You can find stuff from all kinds of sources like movie quotes, funny stuff, and various sound effects. The wallpapers are updated frequently and feature all sorts of stuff ranging from holiday and seasonal wallpapers to art, landscapes, and space. It’s an app everyone should at least check out.

[Price: Free]
As a bonus, why not download the official Android Authority app? You’ve been here for at least a couple of minutes now and we want you to keep coming back and reading more of our stuff. With the official Android Authority app you can keep track of the latest Android news and reviews, check out our videos, and even check out the forums if you want. It’s totally free and we’re doing a big redesign very soon.

Wrap up

If we missed one of the essential Android apps that new Android owners should have, let us know about it in the comments!