You’re staring down at your shiny, unwrapped, brand new
smartphone—so what do you do next? Where do you start with the hundreds of
thousands of apps at your fingertips? These are the apps we always install
first on any new iOS or Android device.
1. Dropbox
The rise of iCloud, OneDrive, et al might have taken some of
the shine off Dropbox, which was the first app to properly handle syncing and
cloud backup, but it’s still the best option for sharing files and moving them
around between platforms, and of course for backing up your photos. You’ll
probably want to fork out for 1TB of storage though, for $9.99/month.
2. Google Photos
We’ve got nothing against Apple Photos per se, but Google
Photos works perfectly across Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and won’t cost
you anything at all if you don’t mind a bit of resizing. Those considerations, plus all of Google’s smart image
recognition and a few neat editing tools, mean it’s our default choice for
managing photos and videos.
3. IFTTT
What is there left to say about IFTTT (If This Then That)? Change your phone wallpaper on a
schedule, turn your Wi-Fi off as soon as you reach the office, post to multiple
social networks at once, get alerts about specific app price drops, launch
Google Maps when you need to leave for a meeting, back up your iOS contacts to
Google, and so on, and so on...
4. Evernote
Evernote’s star has waxed and waned somewhat across its nine
year history, but we continue to love it for its cross-platform syncing, its
flexibility, and the host of features that it offers, some of which you might
have forgotten about—like handwriting recognition, presentation mode for the
big screen, and easy note clipping from just about anywhere.
5. Instapaper
There’s very little to choose between this and Pocket but we’ve opted for Instapaper as the cleaner and more
focused of the two. Anything on the web you don’t have time to read
immediately, send over to Instapaper, and it’ll be there waiting for you in an
ad-free, clean, clear, format that doesn’t make you want to throw your phone
out of the nearest window.
6. Microsoft Word
Alright granddad—installing Word might feel like a step back
in time but Microsoft’s mobile apps are more nimble than you might think, and
having Word on board ensures you can view all those email attachments properly.
Plus, if you do want to jot down some ideas or the start of the great American
novel on the go, then Word is one of your better options.
7. Swifkey
You’re going to be doing a lot of typing on your mobile
device, and SwiftKey takes that text (and emoji) input to the next level with
features such as AI-powered autocorrect, the option of swipe-to-type, and a
pile of customizations that help you make your keyboard your own. There’s also
integrated support for typing in more than 150 different languages.
8. CamScanner
CamScanner isn’t unique in being able to turn your paper
documents into digital versions with a snap of your smartphone’s camera, but it
is the best app we’ve found for the job: The smart crop and auto-enhance
features just work, with the minimum of fuss, and if you stump up $5 a month
you can get OCR text recognition plus a bunch of other extra goodies.
9. ExpressVPN
You’re probably familiar with the benefits of using a VPN
(Virtual Private Network), especially when connected to public wi-fi, and
ExpressVPN is one of the leading choices for mobile from a very, very big
field. Its intuitive interface, its money-back guarantee, the choice of VPN
locations and the prompt support are some of the reasons it stands out.
