Fav Android Apps of 2014
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If you know me well, you’ll know that although I’m an Android engineer, I carry both iPhone and Android. It may be uncommon to dual-wield smartphones, but I think it gives me an interesting perspective to compare apps on both platforms.
People often ask me which one is my primary phone. Alas, I won’t choose favorites between the two. I will that admit I reach for my iPhone a lot, especially for iMessage…and if I already have my iPhone out, I’ll end up doing other things on it too. The fact is, most apps are better on iPhone (sorry, but it’s true).
Having said that, I do find myself reaching for my Android first for some apps. There are a lot of great apps on Android, but here are my 5 most-used and favorite apps on Android this year. These apps take full advantage of the Android OS, they are a joy to use, and I’ll go as far as to say that they are subtly yet significantly superior to their iPhone counterparts*:
1. Facebook Messenger
Why I love it: Messenger has become my preferred method of instant chat. It is by far the fastest, most reliable, and stable chat app. It’s used by almost everyone I know or care about. Although iMessage is great, it misses 50% of my friends. I don’t use Facebook too often, but I use Messenger daily.
Why it’s best on Android: On Android, the chat heads started out a little annoying. But as I’ve gotten used to them, I’ve found that they are not only useful, they are actually playful and fun! For the iPhone users that don’t know what they are, Messenger keeps your new and active chats in little bubbles that you can access at any time, no matter what app you have active. And because there’s no real comparable alternative on Android, I’ll reach for this app again and again. If you’re looking to get a hold of me, this is usually the best way.
2. Gmail
Why I love it: This year, we saw Inbox on both platforms and major updates to mobile Gmail. I thought Inbox was a little too magical, and I didn’t like all the inline expansion. With Inbox, I felt like I didn’t have as much control over my email as I wanted.
Why it’s best on Android: Gmail for Android is the best mobile email client, bar none. Swipe gestures, the multi-account support, and background sync work so well. Switching between work and personal gmail accounts on iPhone is frustrating: it seems the emails aren’t cached, and I’m frequently staring at a loading screen. Not on Android. Gmail for Android is always synced and always fast. It embodies the idea that an app should get out of the way and let you do your work. And of course, taking actions on emails as they come in through the notifications is awesome. The app is beautiful with the latest material design, too.
3. TripIt
Why I love it: TripIt continues to be my favorite app for travel. I use it for flights, hotels, sports, dining…all the things! I like that it automatically drops events with all the pertinent information on Google Calendar. I’ve been using TripIt Pro since 2008, and I can’t live without it.
Why it’s best on Android: TripIt is really well suited to Android’s notification system for gate changes, delays, etc. It’s also more immediately useful. While traveling for the holidays, I was delayed long enough to miss a connection. When trying to pull up my flight number to rebook, I couldn’t quickly find the flight numbers on iPhone, but Android had all the info I needed on the first screen. Also, there’s some wasted real estate on an unhelpful map on iPhone. Have a look:
4. Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
Why I love it: In this year’s fantasy football season, Yahoo! seemed to have more stability and point accuracy issues than in previous years. But the apps themselves, for both platforms, have come a very long way. You can now do almost anything around managing your lineup, researching, picking up and dropping, as you can on the web.
Why it’s best on Android: Fantasy Sports gets a spot on this list because this season I found it was faster to load (really important when your players are playing), the push notifications were more informative and reliable, and the inline ads were way less annoying. The Smack Talk was less buggy on Android too.
5. Uber
Why I love it: It’s no secret that Uber is my primary form of transportation, and the product needs no intro or explanation.
Why it’s best on Android: The Android app blows the iPhone app away, because the ongoing push notifications are excellent. One of the biggest pain points when waiting for your driver is reminding yourself what your driver’s name was or what model of car she was in. Seeing all of that information with a quick flick of the notification drawer beats having to reload the slow-starting iPhone app, 10 times out of 10.
There we have it! A common theme among these apps is the system notification experience. I hope Apple takes a lesson from Google on this one…their notification drawer remains a total mess.
Android friends, what were your fav apps of this year? Tweet me @pandemona.
Happy Holidays!
*Various disclaimers:
I’m currently using an iPhone 6+ and a Samsung Galaxy S4, both on Verizon, and I have all the above apps installed on both.
Twitter, Vine, Ping, and Secret aren’t eligible for this list because I am heavily biased, but they deserve a shout out anyway ☺
