The worst of April Fools’ is behind us, and the best part of April lays ahead, but before you erase March from your mind, take a few minutes to check out the best of last month’s new and updated Android apps.
As always, only the most interesting apps make it into this roundup each month.
No doubt, you’ll have your own favorites that I likely missed out – you can leave them in the comments below!
Remente
There are a lot of apps available for mood logging and stress reduction, but few offer advice on a whole range of different aspects of your life in order to make you a bit happier.
Remente, however, tries to do exactly that by walking through a quick happiness rating tour of various parts of your life – like money, relationship, health etc.
It then suggests programs of goals to achieve those ends, or you can set up your own custom ones.
Handily, it’s also free to download on both Android and iOS – though a Premium subscription that gives access to in-app courses on things like leadership and stress management will cost you a not inconsiderable $8.99, making it about the same price as Spotify or Netflix.
➤ Remente
F.lux
It certainly took quite a while for F.lux’s eye-strain reduction app to make the leap from desktop to mobile, but it finally arrived on Android in March. And even now, it’s still not quite there.
Nonetheless, just like it does on other platforms, it moderates the level of blue light to reduce strain as day inevitably turns into night with you sat at your PC. If you find this happening to you frequently, you should really check it out.
Here’s the catch, however: it requires a rooted phone to work properly and the company says that many Samsung Galaxy devices running Android 5.0 or higher simply won’t work, rooted or not.
If none of that is a problem, go right ahead.
➤ F.lux
Flyover Country
If you make a lot of frequent flights, or simply don’t get enough information from your in-flight info systems, then Flyover Country can fill in the gaps about your journey.
Available for iOS and Android, the app not only shows your exact location, but also any points of interest that you’re passing over. If you see anything that particularly excites you, you can dig further into the data.
And no, you won’t need the (often pricey) in-flight WiFi for the app to work – it uses GPS and cached data to work out your position.
Inside Abbey Road – Cardboard
Inside Abbey Road is a Google-created VR experience designed for use with a Cardboard viewer.
If you have one of these, you can go right ahead and download the app to start looking around the iconic recording studio, that’s famously played home to The Beatles (and, less famously, Kanye West).
You can check out the London Symphony Orchestra in action at your leisure, and see how different recording configurations effect the outcome of the recorded product.
It’s not every day you get to explore one of the world’s most famous recording studios.
Logo Foundry
Need a logo in a hurry? For some reason only want to design it from your phone? No worries! Logo Foundry for exactly this purpose.
It’s perhaps not going to give you the same results as hiring, say, an actual designer, but it’s worth a look if you’re after some templates with pre-loaded fonts and support for things like layers and rounded logos.
If you fancy having a play around with it to see what it can do, it’s free to download and also useful for things like stickers, if you don’t have a company brand to conjure up right now.
Drupe
Drupe’s dialer for Android isn’t altogether new, but last month it got a whole range of updates to make it a lot more useful.
For example, you can now use it to directly call people via Hangouts, WhatsApp or Skype (as well as regular calls, of course), as well as letting you send DMs to people on Twitter. It’s a veritable one-stop-shop of communication options.
There are a few other new features to check out too, like being able to launch straight into speaker phone mode as you dial and the way it displays missed calls as floating bubbles.
➤ Drupe
Imgur
No one knows the faltering attention spans of millennials like everyone’s favorite GIF repository Imgur, which is why last month it updated its Android and iOS apps with a new look and some redesigned features.
While the iOS version got 3D Touch support, the Android app had a Material Design makover. Like the iPhone app, it also supports new gestures and a landscape mode.
➤ Imgur
Hulu VR
This is an app in the list, like the Abbey Road Tour, that will require some additional hardware – in this case, a Samsung smartphone and a Gear VR.
If you do have those, however, then Hulu’s new app Oculus is well worth checking out if you like the sound of watching your favorite shows on a huge virtual screen in complete privacy.
Unlike the rest of the apps in this list, you’ll need to download it from the Oculus store while you’ve got the Gear VR strapped to your face.
➤ Hulu VR
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