When it comes to theAndroid operating system, there are a staggering number of mobile applications out there to choose from. These apps are available to download from across a number of sources, including the Google Play Store, the free and open-source F-Droid storefront, the Amazon App Store, the Samsung Galaxy Store, and others.
As with other platform holders,Googlepublishes and maintains up-to-date guidelines on how Android apps should look and behave. This includes several visual considerations: user interface buttons, toggles, sliders, menus, context menus, and more. The goal is to create a coherent design language that extends across third-party apps, and to foster a unique identity for Android apps as a whole.
Regardless of where you get your apps from, one thing is clear: not all Android apps are created equal. In particular, many cross-platform apps (particularly social media and streaming services) neglect Google’s UI guidelines, resulting in a disjointed end-user experience. Thankfully, there are plenty of excellent apps that do tap into the Material Design language, whether it be Android 12-era Material You or Android 16-eraMaterial 3 Expressive. Here are six of my personal favorites.
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1Gramophone
YouTube Music doesn’t even come close
Gramophone
Gramophone is an offline music-playing app for Android that focuses on providing a clean and intuitive user interface, local music file organization tools, and dynamic Material You theming.
As far as local music playback apps are concerned, the Android OS is home to some of the very best options on the market. I’ve tested numerous old-school music players over the years, and Gramophone is far and away my current favorite. The app makes perfect use of Google’s Material You theming, with dynamic color tinting, the unique squiggly progress bar also found in Android’s native music mini player, and playful animations. It’s easy to parse through tracks via a number of sorting options, and you’re able to dive right into the file system for a more hands-on experience, too. Gramophone is an entirely free app, with an open-source code base to boot.
Ditch Spotify and relive your iPod glory days with offline Android music players
The best compass app availble for Android
Compass is a delightful compass app for Android that looks and feels native to the platform.
Shockingly, Google is yet to build its own native compass or level tool app for Android. Most third-party phone makers have taken matters into their own hands, but modern Pixel phones still don’t provide a user-facing app for accessing coordinates, altitude, magnetism, and other useful metrics. Thankfully, Compass has you covered. Aside from offering beautiful and clean visuals that look and feel native to the Android platform, there’s an expertly crafted implementation of haptic feedback throughout the app that brings the whole experience together in a polished fashion. Compass is available for a small fee on the Play Store, and the app itself is entirely ad-free.
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Explore your Android’s specifications
Inware is an Android application that provides useful device specifications, properties, and status details in an attractive and glanceable format.
There are a variety of Android apps out there that can surface useful hardware and software device specifications, but my personal favorite has to be Inware. It follows Google’s Material You theming to a tee, with excellent organization of data and a highly approachable home page with large iconography. I particularly enjoy the app’s bespoke font, which looks pleasant and provides a splash of personality to the mix. Device metrics displayed by Inware include data relating to the system, hardware, memory, camera, network, connectivity, battery, and media digital rights management (DRM) status. The app is fully free to use, with no ads or in-store puchases to speak of.
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The equalizer tool that Google never made
Wavelet: headphone specific EQ
Wavelet is a comprehensive audio equalizer (EQ) app for Android that offers in-depth options in an attractive and easy-to-understand user interface.
Despite there being some excellent alternatives, Wavelet continues to be my Android equalizer (EQ) application of choice. The app makes it easy to adjust bass, treble, channel gain, channel balance, release time, attack time, and more. There’s a helpful graphic equalizer page with various presets available to choose from, and a prominent on / off button is something I greatly appreciate. Best of all, Wavelet fully embraces Google’s Material design language, down to Material 3 Expressive’s excellent new slider design. The app itself is free, but a one-time Pro purchase is required to unlock additional features like reverberation, equal lludness, and the bass tuner.
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You can count on this app to keep tally
Counters (Material You)
Counters is a simple tally and score-keeping application for Android that makes it easy to track and log various metrics with the push of a button.
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Track your expenses in style
Everplan - Expense Tracker
Everplan is a gorgeous expense tracking app for Android that makes it easy to keep tabs on upcoming subscription bill cycles, with visual graph options available.
If Google were to build its own expense tracker app for Android, I’d invision it to look and feel a lot like Everplan. Published by the same developers behind the excellent Lumolight and Groovy apps for Android, Everplan lets you keep tabs on your bank balances, subscription fees and due dates, and other recurring fees. The app adopts a gorgeous Material You aesthetic, complete with dynamic color tinting and iconography, and the interface itself is simple and minimalistic. There’s a nice graph visualizer on offer here, as well as an option to create unique expense categories to better reflect your own finances. Everplan is free to download and install, with a one-time fee required to remove all ads.
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