Android Apps I Can't Live Without: 15 Daily Essentials
These Android apps have become the first things I install, the tools I rely on every day, or the little utilities that make Android feel properly mine. The biggest surprise is Essentials, which has replaced a bunch of apps I used for years, but the full list covers reminders, Android-to-Mac workflows, smart home control, travel, podcasts, health, VPNs, and voice typing. If you like Android because it lets you tinker, automate, and build your own setup, this is the exact kind of app list I get excited about.
Essentials replaced a bunch of my old power-user apps
Essentials is the rare Android utility that made me uninstall multiple staples from my app roster. It replaces the kind of jobs I used to rely on Button Mapper, System UI Tuner, Hail, and Quick Tiles for, then adds a heap more on top. I’m talking button remapping, hiding status bar icons, hiding system apps, and unlocking stacks of power-user quick settings toggles.
now I literally do not know what I would do without it.
— Sam BeckmanThe catch is that Essentials needs Shizuku to work properly, and I’m no longer using the standard Play Store version. This forked version still requires the initial setup the first time, but once you enable start on boot and watchdog, it can automatically start again after a reboot or if it crashes. That alone makes it one of the very first apps I install on every Android phone I use.
InstallerX Revived fits perfectly into that same power-user stack. Once it is set up with Shizuku, downloaded APK installs open in the InstallerX Revived interface instead of the default Android installer. It looks better, but the real reason I keep it around is the advanced control: auto-deleting APK files after installation, bypassing warnings for older APKs, allowing restricted permissions, granting requested permissions, and plenty more.
Remy became my one and only reminder app
I moved from my longtime reminder app, Memory, to Remy because I wanted two things Memory didn’t give me: an iOS version and background cross-device syncing. I didn’t want to lose Memory’s best trick either, which was custom snoozing straight from the notification, so my developer and I built Remy around that idea.
Remy also has highly customizable repeating reminders, location-based reminders, and now voice-activated reminders. I can say a bunch of different reminders in one go, including repeating schedules, and Remy turns them into actual reminders. It is a paid app, but you can use it completely free for 7 days with no payment details required.
Blip and ClipSync make Android and Mac feel less awkward
Since moving to a Mac Studio while still using Android as my primary smartphone OS, I’ve started relying on a couple of apps to make that setup feel seamless. Blip is my file-sharing pick for personal Android devices and personal Mac computers because once it is set up, it works in the background without needing to enable share with everyone or accept every transfer manually.
Quick Share working with AirDrop is great for one-off sharing with Apple devices you don’t own, like sending photos or videos to friends. But for the devices I routinely share between, Blip is still the better option. The one big missing feature right now is text sharing, which feels like a serious missed opportunity.
That is exactly where ClipSync comes in. It unlocks clipboard sharing between Android and Mac, and once pairing and permissions are done, copied text appears on the other device almost instantly. Copy something on the Mac, and it appears on the Android clipboard; copy something on Android, and it is ready to paste on the Mac.
ClipSync is not perfect yet. On my Android phone, it can sometimes get into a weird funk where it starts auto-closing the keyboard, which is really annoying. It also does not auto-start after rebooting the Mac, so you need to repair it when that happens, and it currently has to be downloaded from GitHub rather than the Google Play Store.
Wispr Flow is my universal voice typing replacement
Wispr Flow solves one of the things I miss most whenever I’m not using a Google Pixel phone: assistant voice typing. It gives me a much more accurate voice-to-text experience that works not just on Android phones, but also on Windows and Mac devices.
The way I use it is simple. If I’ve got a big chunk of text to send from my phone, I activate Wispr Flow, talk it out, and within seconds it gives me a clean transcription with formatting, punctuation, and errors removed. Google has announced Rambler, but it is not out yet, I don’t think it will work on computer-based devices, and Google has said it will come to Google and Samsung’s most recent flagships first.
Home Assistant now runs my desk and smart home properly
Home Assistant has gone from something I was getting into, to something I pretty much use daily through the app and the web platform. I moved away from running it through Docker Desktop and installed Home Assistant OS on an old MSI laptop, then recreated my setup around that instead.
The difference is speed and control. I can now use Home Assistant, or my Stream Deck Plus, to control devices directly instead of relying on the Google Assistant SDK method I was using before. That older method worked, but it was way slower, while my smart devices now react nearly instantly and give me more control.
The smart blinds in my studio also made the setup feel less hacky. My previous blinds were purely Bluetooth controlled, slow to respond, and basically limited to open, close, and stop. The newer blinds I’m using support Matter over Thread, so inside Home Assistant I get more granular control and can see diagnostics like individual battery levels.
Gradient Weather finally replaced my old weather setup
For the first time in a long time, I switched to a new weather app: Gradient Weather. My previous setup used Frog Weather Shortcut to launch my go-to weather app, but that basically stopped working after some kind of update or patch.
Gradient Weather has the kind of modern design that looks almost like Google designed it themselves. More importantly, it gives super detailed weather insights and has a built-in weather radar, both of which feel weirdly rare in modern weather apps. The core features are free, with a paid upgrade if you want extra tweaks.
Standby Mode and zFont 3 are small apps that change the feel
Standby Mode is a random one, but I genuinely use it on every Android phone now. After getting obsessed with iOS-style standby mode when wirelessly charging overnight, I started replicating that same experience on Android. I place the phone on the charger, my clock of choice appears within moments, and at night it switches to a dimmer night mode that doesn’t light up the whole room.
zFont 3 is another one I’ll use on any phone that lets me. Ever since I used it to load Google Sans system-wide on my Galaxy S25 Ultra, phones without that font, or at least something similar, just look outdated to me. Samsung patched the workaround zFont 3 was using in One UI 8.5, but there is still a working backdoor method for Oppo phones, which is what I’m using full-time.
Flights25 went from maybe-useful to essential for travel
Flights25 is one of those apps I installed without being sure I’d actually use it, then ended up depending on during a trip to the UK. It has a clean, intuitive design, and tracking a flight is as simple as entering the flight number into the search bar.
If you connect Gmail, upcoming flights can be added automatically. Once you’ve checked in and received your boarding pass, you can scan it into the app for more detailed flight information, including a digital boarding pass you can use when boarding. Unless something with an even better design and feature set comes along, I can’t see myself uninstalling it.
Pocket Casts is back because it just works
The last time I made this kind of app video, I was using Snipped as my podcast app, but it never seemed to figure out its cross-device syncing issues. So for probably close to a year now, I’ve been back on Pocket Casts.
The reason I came back is boring in the best way: it just works. It also doesn’t look outrageously outdated, which is more than I can say for a heap of other popular podcast apps.
Ultrahuman is the health app I check every day
Ultrahuman connects to the Smart Ring I wear, the Ultra Ring Air, and it is where I track the data transmitted from the ring. I use the app literally every single day, even though it only makes sense if you own an Ultrahuman product.
It also deserves credit for its design. It is one of the few Android apps I’ve used that pretty much nails the liquid glass aesthetic, which makes it feel far more polished than a lot of companion health apps.
Surfshark is still my go-to VPN app
Surfshark has sponsored videos of mine in the past, but it was not sponsoring this one. I included it because I genuinely use it often, and it remains my go-to VPN app of choice.
Aside from the functionality, the price is what has made Surfshark feel pretty much unbeatable for me compared with the competition. If you’ve been thinking about getting a VPN and you’re not sure which one to pick because there are so many options, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
The common thread: these apps make Android feel personal
The reason these apps stuck is not that they all do the same kind of thing. Essentials and Shizuku make Android more powerful, Remy keeps my reminders synced and flexible, Blip and ClipSync smooth out my Android-and-Mac setup, and Home Assistant gives me faster control over my smart devices.
Then there are the smaller quality-of-life apps: Gradient Weather for detailed weather and radar, Standby Mode for the bedside charger, zFont 3 for system-wide font tweaks, Flights25 for travel, Pocket Casts for podcasts, Ultrahuman for ring data, Surfshark for VPN use, and Wispr Flow for voice typing anywhere. That mix is exactly why I love Android: the right apps can completely reshape the way a phone fits into your day.
From Sam Beckman
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