Modern phones are termed smartphones because of their high capabilities. There are many things that can be done on the smartphone itself without reaching out to a computer. Also, there are things that are done better on the smartphone than on any other device. Their immense power of doing vivid tasks can be attributed to the wide range of apps available for them.
In this article, I’m listing a few apps which are a must-have if you are seeking to use your phone to enhance your productivity.
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Top Productivity Apps for Android
1. AirDroid
When you’re at your desk, it can get annoying to keep grabbing your smartphone to send texts or see whose call you missed. Why not do it all from your PC instead?
AirDroid makes it possible: Once you’ve installed the app on your phone or tablet, you simply pull up web.airdroid.com on your computer’s Web browser. From there, you can read and send texts, view call logs, browse through your device’s storage, and wirelessly transfer files between your Android device and computer. With certain devices, AirDroid can even fully mirror your home screen on your desktop and allow you to control your phone completely from your computer.
AirDroid works over both Wi-Fi and mobile data connections. The app itself is free to use, though some features require a $20-per-year premium subscription.
2. Chrome Remote Desktop
Want full remote access to your PC from your Android phone or tablet? Google’s free Chrome Remote Desktop is all you need. Simply install the companion app for the Chrome desktop browser — compatible with any operating system where the browser is supported — and within minutes, you’ll be securely connecting to your computer from your mobile device.
Once connected, you can use your Android device to open folders, manipulate files, and run programs on your desktop system as if you were sitting right in front of it. You can connect multiple computers to the service, too; all you have to do is install and configure the Chrome app on each additional system, and it’ll show up as an option in the app.
3. Google Keep
Need a simple way to keep track of thoughts, tasks, and lists? (Who doesn’t?) Google’s Keep app gives you a dead-simple interface for recording, managing, and sharing all the little things in your life.
Keep allows you to jot down notes or leave yourself memos via voice and have them transcribed automatically into text. You can snap photos to include with notes, too, and even search later to find any text visible in those images.
Keep has a bunch of other useful bells and whistles, including a checklist function, the ability to tag and color-code items (then sort by those variables for easy access), and the ability to set location-based reminders for specific notes or lists. The app also makes it possible to share notes or lists, then collaborate on them with others in real-time.
Perhaps most important, Keep works on any platform — and everything you do is always synced across all of your devices.
4. Expensify
Keeping track of expenses can be a pain sometimes. Expensify can ease the burden. The app provides an easy-to-follow interface for tracking time, miles, receipts, and invoices on the go, then generating on-demand reports as needed.
Expensify lets you scan receipts as you get them, after which it automatically pulls out the pertinent info from the images and puts it into your records. It can tap into your phone’s GPS to log miles as you drive, and it offers offline functionality for the times when you can’t get a signal.
Expensify is free, though optional premium plans will lift certain usage restrictions and unlock additional features.
5. TripIt
TripIt is a traveler’s best friend. It helps in planning and organizing your travels. TripIt takes all the heavy lifting out of travel, giving you a simple centralized place for storing and tracking all your travel info.
Once you sign up for TripIt, all you do is forward every travel-related email — flight reservations, hotel bookings, even car rental or restaurant confirmations — to [email protected]. TripIt then extracts the important details and puts them into comprehensive and user-friendly itineraries that are accessible from any phone or tablet (as well as from the Web). It can also sync the data automatically into your Google Calendar if you want.
TripIt is free; an optional $50-per-year Pro subscription gets you a variety of advanced premium features, including real-time flight alerts and a virtual assistant for finding alternate flights along the way.
6. SwiftKey
Depending on your device, your default keyboard may be decent, but there’s a strong chance SwiftKey is better.
SwiftKey — free, with optional in-app purchases for extra themes — provides an outstanding next-word prediction that’s personalized based on your typing habits. The app also has an excellent swipe-to-type option that lets you input text by sliding your finger from one letter to the next without lifting.
All combined, it’s a stellar keyboard that can boost productivity and transform your smartphone- or tablet-using experience.
7. Tasker
Tasker, which costs $2.99, lets you create intelligent automation on your device. You could have your phone automatically connect to a certain Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device whenever you’re in a particular location or change its ring behavior and volume settings based on location, time of day, or currently occurring calendar events.
Tasker isn’t for the faint of heart — if you want something simpler but less versatile, the more user-friendly (and free) Agent (you know about this app, don’t you?) might be the app for you but if you’re up for a little geek-targeted tinkering, Tasker will open your Android device up to a practically limitless range of new and exciting possibilities.
