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I bought a new phone last week -- a Motorola Moto G7 Power, since I didn't want to buy Apple, Google, or Samsung, and this one has battery for days (literally) -- and it got me thinking as to what utility apps I should use. And what better place to get some opinions than here?

So what apps do you guys use for:
- Web browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Firefox)
- Navigation (e.g. Google Maps, Waze)
- Texting (e.g. Google Messages, Textra)
- Keyboard (e.g. Gboard, SwiftKey)
- Others I may have missed

I am very new to the whole smartphone thing so I can't provide much assistance here but if your phone supports it then I might never mind I don't actually have any suggestions for utility apps come to think of it since so far I have mainly been using the ones that came with the phone like Google's apps, Samsung's internet, and stuff like that.

I have heard that What's App is a good alternative for texting though.  If you need to take a bus then Transit is a pretty good app because while it tracks your location it tells you how close buses are to arriving at the nearest stops and tells you when you should leave for the stop if you are walking to it.

Yeah, definitely get WhatsApp. It's a must.

I think Google does an amazing job with most of their apps, so for all the utilities you mentioned, like the browser, GPS etc, stick with them. SwiftKey is much better than gboard, though. Gboard certainly has potential, but it has a lot of catching up to do.

Some other suggestions: Discord for Android; Über (you never know when you might need it); Youtube Music; if it doesn't come with some sort of blue light filter, get something for that as well.

That's all I can think of right now, really.

I'm on iOS so my used apps will be slightly different.

I used to use SwiftKey years ago. I use Gboard now. IMO, in general it's just incredibly hard to switch keyboards and any new keyboard will feel inferior because your fingers haven't adapted to the keyboard and autocorrect hasn't adapted to your habits. I stopped using SwiftKey because my old old phone was getting old, was on default iOS keyboard for a long time, and I only switched to Gboard recently when I got a new phone. (Now that iOS keyboard has swiping it's possible I may switch back since it's what I've gotten used to over the years and my fingers still hit the wrong buttons months after switching to Gboard and I feel like the default iOS keyboard's non-swiping autocorrect is superior.)

For messaging I can't exactly support one platform over another. Realistically, it's pretty much just use whatever your friends use. Use WhatsApp, LINE, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, iMessage, GroupMe, Discord, Slack, Hangouts, etc. if that's what your social circle uses, if not then don't. I personally think (Facebook) Messenger has good UI though, privacy concerns aside (and it is what my friends tend to use); am partial to the multi-channel group chats and custom emoji reacts of Discord/Slack; and rather dislike GroupMe and find it a fairly bad messaging platform.

I know that Android has some pretty good third-party SMS/MMS apps though. I've heard good things about Google Messages.

I use Google Calendar to schedule my life, as well as all the Google Drive/Docs/Sheets/etc. office apps to do work when I'm away from my laptop. Would recommend all of them.

Google Photos is absolutely great for free automatic photo backup and sorting (even if it is a little terrifying how much data Google has on you, but if you're on Android there's not much escape from that).

I use Google Maps for driving navigation. I occasionally use Waze, but the only real useful feature I've found over Google Maps is its carpool directions/ETA, which I pretty much never need.

For transit I would highly recommend Citymapper. Tells you which station exit/entrance to use, which car to sit on, service announcements, total fare, etc. Also seems to pick smarter routes than Google Maps (preferring rail options for instance). (I do believe Google Maps is getting more transit features recently but Citymapper is still better.) Transit, which Kane recommended is also a good app and there are some other good ones too. YMMV based on what city you're in and what app supports what.

For web browsing I currently use Safari with AdGuard as a content blocker (previously, I had used Firefox Focus and 1Blocker as content blockers). Am using AdGuard because it lets you granularly enable all the typical adblocker and privacy filters, and for free. Before content blockers were added, I used to use Dolphin for the built-in adblocker.

If I were on Android I would probably use Firefox for the extension support—you can install uBlock Origin on your phone, how cool is that? (Sadly not an option with iOS Firefox due to Apple's restrictions.) Furthermore, whatever browser you use on desktop (Chrome for instance) is always good to have on your phone for syncing purposes in case you ever want to switch between them. For plane flights and such it's also good to have a web browser with offline reading capability. These days most browsers will have some form of offline reading list so you should be fine; in the past I used to use Opera (which unfortunately seems broken these days) and Pocket.

Snapseed by Google is an excellent free photo editor with surprising capabilities and cool AI features as well. Adobe Lightroom is also free (!) on mobile: that's professional-grade software (the desktop app costs $120/yr) for free, though I've never personally used it.

Personally, the default iOS Reminders app, plus Google Calendar, serves my purposes well enough. I've heard good things about Any.do and Todoist though.

Google Translate is always good to have if you ever need to translate anything. If you download a language pack it also has surprisingly good OCR if you need to translate something quickly, or from a script which you can't read.

I use Antenna and Apollo as my Reddit apps. Neither of those are on Android though, but I've heard good things about Reddit is Fun, Boost, Joey, and Relay.

I didn't know you were such a nerd, tau!

I didn't know you were such a nerd, tau!

I'm curious, which part of my recs did you feel was nerdy?

Yeah, with my Galaxy I pretty much stick with Google for mainly anything except translations (I use Samsung Translate) and obviously e-pay (I use Samsung Pay).  But maps, browser, email, there's really no reason to get anything else for those.

Like mentioned previously, I'd recommend some sort of rideshare app, though I honestly greatly prefer Lyft over Uber.  Between the 2, I've overall had better experience with Lyft when it comes to drivers.  Though some people have better experience with Uber, so either one is pretty okay.

I also recommend Doordash (or Uber Eats if you use the Uber App, since any Uber Credits you have can work between the two apps) for days that you don't feel like going out.  It'll be a little higher fee than going out and grabbing food yourself, but that's basically the convenience.

For anywhere that you frequent (Starbucks, 7-11, Walmart, Safeway, etc...), I recommend downloading their app.  Many fast food places do e-coupons through their apps, apps for places like Walmart offer electronic forms of payment (although Android Pay works just as well for not wanting to pull out your card), and some places like Pizza Hut, Starbucks, or 7-11 will let you wrack up points for their stuff (and 7-11 has a recurring 7th drink free thing that never expires).  This also applies to if you want to get into the home grocery-delivery bit, since more places are allowing for grocery delivery.

Other than that, apps like Zedge are great for finding tons of different wallpapers and especially ringtones/notification sounds.

And naturally, Discord is a must.  And if you're a console user, then whatever console you use has an app you can download (Nintendo Switch Online, Xbox/Xbox Gamepass, Playstation/Playstation Messages)...and likewise there are mobile versions of PC ones (aka Steam, Good Old GoG).

Finally, Google Drive is excellent for digital storage.  However, Dropbox is an excellent secondary, and syncs perfectly well with the app on your PC.

Also, contrary to what's been said on here, I've never really been a big fan of Whatsapp or Kik (another one I hear people recommend).

Oh, and for texting, Facebook Messenger is just fine.  Though I personally just use my phone's normal messaging system.

WhatsApp is a decent app. It's end-to-end encrypted; very secure, though this has reported caused tensions now that it's been acquired by Facebook. Kik was not, and had acquired a reputation for housing child predators and the company doing nothing about it.

I say this in the past tense because I saw in the news that Kik Messenger shut down last Friday. Amusingly, this is to focus on their cryptocurrency, which from what I can tell is near-worthless and which they are embroiled in a fight with the SEC over.

On the topic of rideshare, if you live in a city that has Juno or Via, I would strongly consider those. Juno is known for paying its drivers much more, as well as screening its drivers and only accepting the top Uber/Lyft drivers. It also has a carbon offset program to contribute to planting trees at certain rate per mile. Via is more of a shared rides service, a la UberPool; it charges a cheaper flat (unchanging!) rate for this, and also has more traditional rideshare. It also pays its drivers significantly more than Uber/Lyft, and does so hourly, irrespective of how many rides they get (though doing it on a per-ride basis is also an option for drivers).

I didn't know you were such a nerd, tau!

I'm curious, which part of my recs did you feel was nerdy?

It was just a joke. For real, as a fellow iOS user, I appreciate your in-depth answer and I'll probably check out a few of these myself.

Well tau pretty much covered everything that I have/would recommend for iOS. However, I do have a couple additions.

For photo/video, I have switched from Snapseed/Lightroom to Polarr for my main mobile photo editing as it offers more granular editing, especially with HSL sliders (which are a paid feature on Lightroom and absent in Snapseed). However, iOS 13's photo editing has been revamped and is pretty amazing. In actually taking photos, the iOS camera app is great, however for manual control I personally would recommend Halide and Moment (although these have become paid apps/more expensive since I've gotten them). In video editing, iMovie is a great free option, as well as InShot for making really quick, simple videos (usually for social media).

For simple graphic design, Canva and Adobe Spark are great if you need to design a quick poster/flyer/icon/social media story/etc. on the go.

I also highly recommend Libby and RBDigital for reading. All you need is a library card, and you have access to a plethora of books, audiobooks, magazines, and newspapers for free!

For weather, I personally use Dark Sky for its freakishly accurate precipitation forecasts.

I use Todoist as a task manager, recently switching from Any.do (and before that Reminders, although iOS 13 Reminders has been rebuilt from the ground up) for its natural task input integration. However, the free version of Todoist lacks some features that Any.do offers for free. I also use Google Calendar and everything else Google (Gmail, Google Drive/Docs/Sheets/Slides, Google Maps, Google Assistant, Google Photos, Snapseed, etc.).

Scannable is a handy app for scanning documents into PDFs or images.

Other than that, I use Vellum for wallpapers (although the wallpapers I use now are all self-shot) and Spotify for music, along with basically everything else tau mentioned.

WhatsApp is a decent app. It's end-to-end encrypted; very secure, though this has reported caused tensions now that it's been acquired by Facebook. Kik was not, and had acquired a reputation for housing child predators and the company doing nothing about it.

I say this in the past tense because I saw in the news that Kik Messenger shut down last Friday. Amusingly, this is to focus on their cryptocurrency, which from what I can tell is near-worthless and which they are embroiled in a fight with the SEC over.

On the topic of rideshare, if you live in a city that has Juno or Via, I would strongly consider those. Juno is known for paying its drivers much more, as well as screening its drivers and only accepting the top Uber/Lyft drivers. It also has a carbon offset program to contribute to planting trees at certain rate per mile. Via is more of a shared rides service, a la UberPool; it charges a cheaper flat (unchanging!) rate for this, and also has more traditional rideshare. It also pays its drivers significantly more than Uber/Lyft, and does so hourly, irrespective of how many rides they get (though doing it on a per-ride basis is also an option for drivers).

Wait, the makers of Kik got into the cryptocurrency field?

That's...interesting.

And Kik has always been questionable at best, and was something a lot of bots on apps like Tindr would want you to go to.

Maybe elsewhere WhatsApp has a better fanbase, I just know around here it's not the most highly considered by people.

It's more that WhatsApp is used by literally everyone in some places, so it has sort of lowest common denominator thing. In terms of its actual technology, I think it's generally better than most but I don't use it so I can't speak for the actual design.

Yeah, Kik's pivot to crypto is certainly interesting.

Hydra has reminded me of weather apps. As he mentioned, Dark Sky's algorithms are scarily accurate at predicting the weather, down to the minute. The app also has excellent UI, radar, and other important info. As a free alternative, Hello Weather uses Dark Sky as its weather source. It isn't as good as Dark Sky in terms of features/UI, but has the same basic information (like when the rain is starting/stopping next).

I still think Weather Underground has the best UI of any weather app I've seen: the way it maps both temperature and precipitation levels as line plots overlaid on the same graph is just so simple and a great way to visualize the information, and yet shockingly I can't find any other app that does the same thing. Which is unfortunate because in recent years I've found that Weather Underground's displayed information is often buggy/outdated/inaccurate.

I'm honestly surprised that there are places in the world where WhatsApp is not the ultimate app. Literally everyone in SA uses it. Even my grandmother.

Same here, though there is some competition for some Chinese app called like WeChat or something.

I'm honestly surprised that there are places in the world where WhatsApp is not the ultimate app. Literally everyone in SA uses it. Even my grandmother.

Yeah.  Here, most people know of it, but it's definitely not very common to hear about someone actually using it.