21 Free And Best Android Apps For 2018 To Get The Most Out Of Your Smartphone

The number of apps in Google Play Store has grown to around 3.5 million by December 2017. There are multiple apps with the same functionalities. So, instead of trying all of them, we have saved you some time by compiling this list of free and best Android apps. These are also some of the essential Android apps that you should have on your device in 2018.
Note: We have made this list considering user ratings, app features, and popularity. You are free to choose any other alternative app that suits your need.

1. Launcher App: Nova Launcher

Nova Launcher is one of the best Android launchers that has been on Play Store for many years. The launcher is smooth and lightweight with tons of customizations. Numerous icon packs are available in the Play Store to change its looks.
Nova Launcher supports customization of app-drawer, has a scrollable dock, notification badges, folder and icon customization, and packs around a dozen gestures for ease of use. It is free to download, but its prime version unlocks a lot of other features including some locked gestures.

2. Assistant App: Google Assistant

Google Assistant is an artificial personal assistant developed by Google that allows users to navigate, communicate, and get a lot of things done. You can use the Google assistant on your Android or iOS devices to trigger apps, ask any questions, play games, make plans, etc. including these 30+ Super Useful Voice Commands. It is available for all kind of Android smartphones that run Android marshmallow, Nougat, or Oreo and even on smartwatches.

3. Keyboard App: Swiftkey

SwiftKey keyboard is trusted by over 250 million users worldwide. It uses artificial intelligence that enables it to learn and can satisfactorily predict what the user intends to type.
Swiftkey features autocorrect and gesture typing for faster input. Moreover, there is an inbuilt GIF search engine, a wide range of themes and is an excellent keyboard for bilingual folks. Swiftkey does not store information from password fields and sensitive information such as credit card numbers. Overall, Swiftkey will enhance your typing experience and is a must-have app on your Android device. We have featured it among the top Android keyboard apps.

4. Video Calling App: Google Duo

Google Duo is one of the best video calling apps for Android with a simple interface. It’s quite easy to log in and verify your number, and you can make fast video calls just like making a standard phone call. Its unique “Knock Knock” feature lets you have a live preview of the caller before you receive the call. It is available for both Android and iOS users.

5. Note Taking App: Evernote

Evernote is a cross-platform utility to take notes in a variety of formats, including text, photos, audio, video, sketches and more. It is one tool you need to keep yourself organized in today’s hectic life. It syncs across all your devices to facilitate workflow. Evernote also has home-screen widgets for quick access to your notes. It is one of the essential Android apps for every user.

6. Office App: WPS Office +PDF

WPS is a free Office Suite application with all-in-one features. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and integrates PDF, presentations, spreadsheets, memo, Google docs, etc. The app also comes with a free PDF converter, reader, editor, along with file sharing abilities, supports multi-window mode, data encryption, etc. It is intuitive and easy to use, and you can also connect to the Cloud Drive to automatically save your documents to the cloud platform. Overall, it is one of the best Android office apps.

7. Google News & Weather

Google News & Weather is one of the best apps for Android that helps you get news from your preferred topics along with accurate weather information and prediction. If you provide access to location services, it can show your local news and weather. The app uses AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to provide instant load and read experience. It also comes with widget support.

8. File Manager App: ES File Explorer

ES File Explorer is one of the popular Android file manager apps with all the necessary features. It comes with a Space Analyzer to help you free up space on your device. Sharing media with other ES File Explorer users over WiFi is easy. ES File Manager also comes with an App Manager where you can uninstall/backup apps. You can even uninstall system apps with root privileges. It’s “Root Explorer” feature unlocks a lot of functionalities for rooted devices. However, the app shows a lot of intrusive ads and is aimed at power users. For users who are not rooted and do not require advanced features, our list of best Android file manager apps will surely be helpful.

9. Cloud Storage App: Google Drive

Google Drive is a massive cloud storage service that gives you free space to store and access your files in the cloud platform. You can browse through all the files and folders you saved in your Drive and share, move, download, rename or print any files from the application.

It also encompasses Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, where you can edit documents, spreadsheets, forms, presentations, etc. and save them in the Drive. Users can have access to 15 GB of free space across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. This essential Android app helps you to keep your valuable files backed up on the cloud for free.

10. Instant Messaging App: WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a free, instant messaging application where users can communicate with one another using the phone’s internet service. It provides you the ability to send text messages and voice messages, share links, images, and location, make video calls, etc. to any other user worldwide. It is one among secure Android messaging apps and is also accessible from a desktop environment.

11. Browser App: Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a cross-platform browser application. It has free and necessary features like unlimited tabs, HTML5 support, desktop syncing, quick links to favorite sites, built-in Google search and Google translate, etc. The app is convenient, fast and provides secure browsing experience with a lot of customizable options. Google Chrome is one of the best Android browsers available.

12. File Sharing App: Xender

Xender is one of the essential Android apps you should have on your device. It saves you from the hassle of carrying your USB data cable around to exchange files with PC as no PC side software is required to transmit or receive files. Moreover, it is a hundred times faster than Bluetooth for transferring files between any device, thanks to it being cross-platform.

13. Video Player App: MX Player

This video player for Android supports almost all the primary video and audio file formats. It packs a lot of features including editing of subtitle timeframes, fast forwarding and volume control gestures, gestures for zooming in and out of a video, on-screen kid lock and many more. MX Player is available for free with ads. Moreover, it comes with additional plugins for extra functionalities.

14. Google Maps

Google Maps is a web mapping service for real-time GPS navigation, traffic, transit, and details about millions of people. It offers street maps, satellite imagery, real-time traffic info, short-cut route planning, etc. The app covers accurate maps of more than 200 countries and territories. With the help of the Google map services, you can navigate an unknown place with ease. It is one of the essential Android apps.

15. Photo Editor App: PicsArt

With over 100million downloads, PicsArt is one of the favorite photo editing apps for Android. You will be overwhelmed by the number of options you have for customizing your photos. It has a social network for sharing photos within the app. Its features include collage, drawing on photos, frames, stickers, free cropping, clone tool, tilt-shift, perspective changer tool and a lot more. The app is available for free with some in-app purchases and display ads.

16. Remote Control App: Unified Remote

Unified Remote is one of the go-to apps for controlling your PC from an Android device. It uses Bluetooth or Wifi to remotely control your PC and comes preloaded with support for more than 90 popular programs. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac, and requires a server program to be installed.
Using Unified Remote, you can remotely wake up your computer from sleep using its “Wake on LAN” feature. All the necessary features like screen mirroring, keyboard and mouse, media player controls, etc. are available within this app. You can even use it to control a Raspberry Pi or Arduino Yun. Its paid versions unlock a multitude of useful features including custom remotes and functions for Android wear.

17. RSS Reader App: Feedly

Feedly is one of the best Android apps. It neatly organizes all the information and news for you in a single place. Online magazines, blogs, Youtube channels and more than 40 million feeds are available within this single app. Many professionals use it to stay ahead of the market as it is helpful in analyzing competitors and trends.
Feedly is powered by RSS and offers integrations with Facebook, Twitter, Evernote Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. so that you to easily share stories with networks and teammates.

18. Password Manager App: LastPass

LastPass is a feature-rich password manager and secure private vault that can lock down your passwords and personal information. It has the ability to autofill logins in browsers and apps and can generate new and secure passwords instantly. You can log in with one password instead of remembering a dozen. Moreover, you can also sync your passwords and data across all of your devices. It is intuitive and fast across numerous platforms.

19. Music Discovery App: Shazam

Shazam is a popular music recognition application that can instantly identify music that’s playing in your surrounding and is used by a lot of music lovers. All you need is to hold your Android device close to the source of the song, and after a few seconds, the app will accurately detect the song. Besides, you can also play songs and add them to Spotify playlists, buy songs in Google Play Music with one tap, connect your Facebook account, etc. If you are a musicophile, this Android app is a must-have for you.

20. Task Automation App: Automate

Automate allows you to automate various tasks using simple flowcharts. You can automate system Settings to perform tasks like changing volume, Bluetooth, GPS, etc. It even allows you to trigger tasks based on location, time of the day, battery level and many other events. With this awesome app, you can automate almost anything on your Android device. It even supports plug-in for the popular automation app Tasker. It is definitely one of the best apps for Android.

21. Scanner App: Tiny Scanner

Tiny Scanner is a scanner application that can scan every type of document and save them as image files or as PDFs. You can name and organize the scanned files and share them by email, store in DropBox, Google Drive, etc. It comes with many scanner features such as color, grayscale and black&white scans, page edge removal, adjusting page sizes, sorting scans by date and time, etc. The app is optimized to run fast, and you can also protect your documents with a passcode.

Did you find this list of free and best Android apps to be helpful? Share your reviews in the comments.

10 golden rules of investing in stock markets

10 golden rules of investing in stock markets

The lure of big money has always thrown investors into the lap of stock markets. However, making money in equities is not easy. It not only requires oodles of patience and discipline, but also a great deal of research and a sound understanding of the market, among others.

Added to this is the fact that stock market volatility in the last few years has left investors in a state of confusion. They are in a dilemma whether to invest, hold or sell in such a scenario.

Although no sure-shot formula has yet been discovered for success in stock markets, here are some golden rules which, if followed prudently, may increase your chances of getting a good return:

1. Avoid the herd mentality

The typical buyer's decision is usually heavily influenced by the actions of his acquaintances, neighbours or relatives. Thus, if everybody around is investing in a particular stock, the tendency for potential investors is to do the same. But this strategy is bound to backfire in the long run.

No need to say that you should always avoid having the herd mentality if you don't want to lose your hard-earned money in stock markets. The world's greatest investor Warren Buffett was surely not wrong when he said, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful!"

2. Take informed decision

Proper research should always be undertaken before investing in stocks. But that is rarely done. Investors generally go by the name of a company or the industry they belong to. This is, however, not the right way of putting one's money into the stock market.

3. Invest in business you understand

Never invest in a stock. Invest in a business instead. And invest in a business you understand. In other words, before investing in a company, you should know what business the company is in.

4. Don't try to time the market

One thing that even Warren Buffett doesn't do is to try to time the stock market, although he does have a very strong view on the price levels appropriate to individual shares. A majority of investors, however, do just the opposite, something that financial planners have always been warning them to avoid, and thus lose their hard-earned money in the process.

"So, you should never try to time the market. In fact, nobody has ever done this successfully and consistently over multiple business or stock market cycles. Catching the tops and bottoms is a myth. It is so till today and will remain so in the future. In fact, in doing so, more people have lost far more money than people who have made money," says Anil Chopra, group CEO and director, Bajaj Capital.

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5. Follow a disciplined investment approach

Historically it has been witnessed that even great bull runs have shown bouts of panic moments. The volatility witnessed in the markets has inevitably made investors lose money despite the great bull runs.

However, the investors who put in money systematically, in the right shares and held on to their investments patiently have been seen generating outstanding returns. Hence, it is prudent to have patience and follow a disciplined investment approach besides keeping a long-term broad picture in mind.

6. Do not let emotions cloud your judgment

Many investors have been losing money in stock markets due to their inability to control emotions, particularly fear and greed. In a bull market, the lure of quick wealth is difficult to resist. Greed augments when investors hear stories of fabulous returns being made in the stock market in a short period of time. "This leads them to speculate, buy shares of unknown companies or create heavy positions in the futures segment without really understanding the risks involved," says Kapur.

Instead of creating wealth, these investors thus burn their fingers very badly the moment the sentiment in the market reverses. In a bear market, on the other hand, investors panic and sell their shares at rock-bottom prices. Thus, fear and greed are the worst emotions to feel when investing, and it is better not to be guided by them.

7. Create a broad portfolio

Diversification of portfolio across asset classes and instruments is the key factor to earn optimum returns on investments with minimum risk. Level of diversification depends on each investor's risk taking capacity.

8. Have realistic expectations

There's nothing wrong with hoping for the 'best' from your investments, but you could be heading for trouble if your financial goals are based on unrealistic assumptions. For instance, lots of stocks have generated more than 50 per cent returns during the great bull run of recent years.

However, it doesn't mean that you should always expect the same kind of return from the stock markets. Therefore, when Warren Buffett says that earning more than 12 per cent in stock is pure dumb luck and you laugh at it, you're surely inviting trouble for yourself.

9. Invest only your surplus funds

If you want to take risk in a volatile market like this, then see whether you have surplus funds which you can afford to lose. It is not necessary that you will lose money in the present scenario. You investments can give you huge gains too in the months to come.

But no one can be hundred percent sure. That is why you will have to take risk. No need to say that invest only if you are flush with surplus funds.

10. Monitor rigorously

We are living in a global village. Any important event happening in any part of the world has an impact on our financial markets. Hence we need to constantly monitor our portfolio and keep affecting the desired changes in it.

If you can't review your portfolio due to time constraint or lack of knowledge, then you should take the help of a good financial planner or someone who is capable of doing that. "If you can't even do that, then stock investing is not for you. Better put your money in safe or less-risky instruments," advises Kapur. 

How to handle success gracefully

1. Don’t tell everyone.

If someone should know, text them. If you wouldn’t want to text them, they aren’t important enough to know. Boasting on social media can feel well earned and fun, but  there’s two sides. First, it can come off as impersonal to the friends you’d most want to share it with. Isn’t it more fun to savor it together in person? And second, if you are more moved by spite or ambition, nothing is more impressive than a boast you don’t have to make it. Let the news get to them organically- let your high-school ex hear through the grapevine about your record deal. Carry the implicit boast that you forgot to even brag about it.

Petty? Absolutely. But at least you’re keeping social media less obnoxious with your silence. If you’re going to do the right thing, you’re allowed to do it for the wrong reasons.

2. Do the things you swore you’d do if X happened. You might as well celebrate, and if you promised too much, holding true to your excessive boasts is the most fun way to learn a valuable lesson about keeping your mouth shut and moderation.

3. Remember your failures, both to humble you and excite you. Success can feel natural when it comes, and it’s important to savor it, to feel grateful and aware.

4. Remember time before your success. You were okay without it, right? Don’t let it own you. You were good without it, and, if it should flee, you’ll be good again. Success doesn’t define you. Understand that and enjoy it without a sense of worship.

5. Share it. Success can be lonely and self segregating. Spending $75 on burgers for everyone is tastier than a $75 steak alone. Don’t let numbers dictate you away from happiness, or let a bent towards pride or even statistical pursuit of more sour the true goals of success.

6. There are always going to be people who have more and those who have less. Find a way to balance those two feelings and you can combine gratitude with vision and ambition to propel you. Mangle them and you’ll end up complacent or miserable.

7. Save some success for a rainy day. Let it last and breath. Do not blow it on solid gold yachts. Do not let momentum trick you into assuming your success is permanent or ineffable. The world is strange and cruel. Plan for it.

8. Do something you always wanted to do. If you’re not going to do it now, when will you (do a road-trip, go skydiving, ask them out, etc.)

9. Indulge deeply in cheap, simple and undestructive ways. There is an impulse to GO NUTS when you’re successful, so go nuts- in a safe space and place. A strong playlist, strong friends and strong brews at home is going to be a much better way to go off than to “paint the town” with your credit card. You can buy bottle service, or you could have an equally good time for ten percent of the cost. It might be less dramatic, but it’s no less fun.

10. Savor it. This did not come cheap or easy. Do not take it for granted. Get pumped, grateful, and psyched every day for a week. This cost you a lot of effort. Enjoy it.

11. Stunt on them haters. Invent haters, if you have to, then proceed to stunt on them. Do the money dance. Browse flights to Europe you know you wouldn’t buy but tell yourself, in the coolest way, that you might. Put a big chunk into savings and debts and savor every penny you waste, knowing full well you can afford to waste them. Take a taxi three weeks later because you’re feeling lazy, and know that you planned for that and it’s fine and you might as well.

12. Really. Do the money dance.

How to manage failure in life

Ron Miller knows a little about success. He has founded, built and sold 5 successful companies as an Ernst and Young, Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist and and has been on the Inc. 5000 list 4 times. But these days Miller makes failure his business. Miller learned from his own experience that succeeding is not the most important factor in ultimate success but actually managing how you fail. Miller believes mastering failure is crucial to all leaders, whether you are managing a team inside an existing company trying to innovate or about to launch a new idea.

While much of the world is talking about how crowdfunding startups is a surefire way to increase success, Miller is banking that it is a useful way to speed up failure and fast. Now you may wonder why Miller would want to fail faster. He explains simply that investors want to reduce their risk. They do that by reducing exposure. Nothing is worse than tying up time and money in a venture that will ultimately go nowhere. When the failure process is accelerated, investors can preserve time and resources on companies that won't likely succeed. The bad companies dissolve faster and the winners prove themselves quicker.

Miller's new venture StartEngine specializes in failure acceleration for start-ups and with the full approval of the SEC.

Here are Miller's tips for turning failure into success.

1. "Approach failure with the right mindset."

Many people think failure is just plain bad. Often managers and entrepreneurs are paralyzed by fear of failure. Failure is so scary in incremental and large context - they refuse to act and innovate. Miller believes you should let go of the fear and embrace the failure. He notes, "At the end of the day, innovation and action is what creates success instead of blocking ourselves from taking risks."

2. "Own the Failure."

Ownership of failure should be celebrated by managers and entrepreneurs alike.

When you acknowledge failure, you acknowledge the need for innovation, initiative and action. There is always a new idea to take away from failure. One has to be open to looking for the benefit. "Owning failure is a critical step to being able to identify course corrections and pivots that are necessary to ultimately get a successful result," says Miller.

3. "Stay Clear on Your End Result."

Failure is hugely discouraging, but if you harp on how bad it makes you feel, you will likely lose sight of the reason you failed in the first place - to achieve something you care deeply about. Miller explains, "If you are focused on the small failures and successes, you may miss out on how those failures or successes are affecting the big picture."

4. "Get Feedback From Your Team."

Oftentimes people who fail are unable to maintain an objective perspective on why things went off the rails. They are too emotionally attached to what happened. Listening to others can help put things into perspective. Miller says, "The feedback of others, can identify more than just whether the initiative is successful or not. It can also identify the causation of failures.

5."Use Data to Find the Roots of Failure."

Miller believes using metrics is not only essential for determining success, but also identifying where failure lies. He explains, "Within each major high level metric, there may be sub metrics that must be measured to identify where in the chain of events lie the success and favors. By creating a consistent measurement system, leaders can readily identify what is successful and what is off track to allow for course correction."

6. "Keep on Trying."

Thomas Edison once stated, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Miller believes you should feel good about taking risks and daring to innovate, even if it leads to some degree of failure. Not everyone succeeds, but if you keep at it and learn, you will eventually achieve success.