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Best Free Android Apps

Updated 18. May 2013 - 3:33 by Jojoyee
Best Free Android Apps - Page Index
   9. Best Free Phone and Messaging for Android

Best Free Dialer for Android
Dialer One
(681 KB)
 
 Better than the default Phone app, it comes with a smart T9 dialpad with speed dial, simultaneous search on calls and contacts, horizontal swiping to navigate between call log, contacts and favorites.
 
Best Free Contact Manager for Android
aContacts
(602 KB)
 
 Speed up searching contacts by favorites, alphabets or groups, send email or SMS to groups, complete with T9 speed dials, advanced call log, setting for grid or list view and more. Ads free.
 
DW Contacts & Phone
(3.2 MB)
 
 Easily search for a contact by group, organization or title, manage contact groups, send emails or SMS to a person or group, set group ringtones and icons, etc. The free version is supported by a small ad.
 
Best Free Contact Sharing for Android
Bump
(2.9 MB)
 
 Bump two devices together and share your contact info instantly without the need to type or write with a pen on scraps of paper. With a built-in messenger, you can also easily send photos and instant messages to the devices you bumped.
 
Best Free Messaging Client for Android
GO SMS Pro
(8.1 MB)
 
 Easier to find a contact or group to send an SMS or MMS with useful features such as message popup, quick reply, messages and folders view, emoji support and more. A good replacement of the default Messaging app.
 
Best Free Browser Texting for Android
SMS Text Messaging -PC Texting
(399 KB)
 
 Enjoy receiving and sending SMS from your PC's browser using your phone number, just like you normally would on your phone but without touching it. Unlimited SMS, supported only on Chrome with the MightyText extension installed.
 
Best Free Instant Messaging for Android
eBuddy Messenger
(1.8 MB)
 
 A popular instant messaging service support multiple accounts including GTalk, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, MySpace and more. Useful settings include hiding offline buddies and blocking unknown users. Ads supported.
 
WhatsApp Messenger
(9.4 MB)
 
 Chat with your friends and family using this messenger across multi types of devices including Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Nokia phones. You can send text, pictures, audio and video messages. This app is free for the first year.
 
Best Free Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for Android
Skype
(15 MB)
 
 Make free Skype-to-Skype calls over 3G or WiFi network on the move, or cheap calls to landlines or mobile phones at Skype rates. No video calls is available and some handsets may not be supported.
 
LINE
(11 MB)
 
 A light and popular messenger supports both free messaging and voice calls. Features include automatically identify your friends using LINE, send photos, unique stickers and emoticons, create or join group chat rooms.
 
Tango Text, Voice, Video Calls
(13 MB)
 
 Make free voice and video calls over 3G, 4G and WiFi network on the move. From my contacts, it automatically finds the friends I can Tango. More mobile devices are supported but the desktop client has yet to be developed.
 
Best Free Walkie-Talkie for Android
Voxer Walkie-Talkie PTT
(5.6 MB)
 
 Turn your phone into a live walkie-talkie or a handheld transceiver with this app easily. Besides talking with friends, you can also send text or photos to them using Android or iPhone devices over WiFi, 3G/4G or EDGE.
 
Best Free Call & Message Filter for Android
BlackList
(1.5 MB)
 
 Block unwanted calls and SMS easily and effectively by adding a call number to a black list from your contact, call logs, message logs or manually. Features include auto reply, logging and other various options. An exception list is limited to the paid version.
 

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Comments

by Weezl (not verified) on 4. June 2011 - 9:19  (73209)

Great article and especially helpful to a new smartphone and android user (2.1). I am currently implimenting your recommendations. Thanks.

Can you advise on the next best alterative for App 2 SD Free as it is not available for Android 2.1? Alternatively, is it possible to upgrade a phone with 2.1 to 2.2 (hope this is not a stupid question!)
by Jaikrishna on 4. June 2011 - 15:33  (73218)

The upgrade depends on your device's hardware and support.
Just google for upgrade to froyo
And if there's an upgrade you'll know.

Also search gsmarena.com for your model and see the OS version.
by Av_Crazy on 5. June 2011 - 22:33  (73321)

Robotek , 2 player reactor , robo defense are good addicting games

and tweetdeck is now just for facebook and twitter..plz correct that in ur article...
and seesmic[by comitic] is a better choice imo

daily horoscope is another good app

netcounter doesnt sync data in realtime for wifi atleast for me..droidstats does that better

home manager[by carp] for those who use more than one home replacement app

and for im - meebo is not the best
trillian and imo are far better

quick settings by sergej is a good app

wallswitch is a good wallpaper changer app

thats it for now
by Jojoyee on 6. June 2011 - 6:22  (73334)

Thanks Av_Crazy for the various suggestions and I'll check them out.

Nevertheless TweetDeck works just fine on my device for all four services including Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Google Buzz as described in the article. See also more details about Android TweekDeck.
by Av_Crazy on 6. June 2011 - 11:51  (73339)

oh m sorry for misunderstanding for tweetdeck

i went on the market
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.thedeck.android.app&feature=se...
and it just shows twitter and facebook in bracket after the name so i got confused as i hadnt read the description
by Jojoyee on 6. June 2011 - 16:15  (73377)

You're welcome Av-Crazy. The two words Twitter and Facebook in brackets after the app name is indeed misleading.
by gibby (not verified) on 7. June 2011 - 16:59  (73452)

thnks for telling me now im searching these apps
by ValR (not verified) on 10. June 2011 - 14:42  (73597)

Super article, really helpful and informative. At risk of playing Olver Twist and asking for yet more though. . .

My wife & I don't have smartphones (or iPhones, either) and have never had anything running an Android OS. But we're now about to acquire an Asus eeePad Transformer, this to save us from (a) lugging a laptop around with us and (b) avoid falling into the evil clutches of The Emperor Jobs.

Friends with smartphones say the Android apps get better and more plentiful by the day. But they also say, there's a big difference between a mobile phone app and a tablet app. And we've now read elsewhere that Android phone apps don't scale up well on the larger-screen tablets (our Asus is 10.1).

Asus and Motorola (and others) should now be running Honeycomb 3.1, so I wondered if the apps listed in this article are going to be compatible with Honeycomb -- or whether (as I suspect!) we're just going to have to download 'em all and find out for ourselves. . . Aaaargh.
by Jojoyee on 10. June 2011 - 16:15  (73602)

That's a good point VaIR. For the time being, the list of Android Apps reviewed here mostly works best on Android 2.x, good for smart phones and other devices with a bigger screen for example 7".

Android 2.x dominates the market currently while Android 3.x is still pretty new (see also Android chart). I'm afraid that not many apps have optimized for the 10" tablet running on Android 3.x as yet, but things certainly will change given some time.
by Mike Gregory (not verified) on 13. June 2011 - 6:45  (73703)

Laputa application missing from Apps Store

I tried both your link and the one on their site but is is missing.

Emailed them to see what happened
by steveorg on 17. June 2011 - 16:01  (73925)

Gtunes QR code doesn't work.
by Angus S-F (not verified) on 17. June 2011 - 19:11  (73930)

Laputa Reader is gone from Android Market.
by Jojoyee on 18. June 2011 - 0:26  (73940)

Laputa Reader's homepage is still on but its download from the Market is now not working. As an alternative, you can try to download the app from here, then use an installer to install the apk package.
by Jojoyee on 18. June 2011 - 0:50  (73942)

Unfortunately GTunes Music is no longer available from the Android Market and it's now removed from the list. It'll be reviewed when it's back. Thanks Steveorg for posting it.
by Cdsonic (not verified) on 18. June 2011 - 0:52  (73943)

Try 'Wifi Static' to setup a static ip address on your android for your home or business wireless network.
also try 'Overlook Fling' to find out info about your home or business wireless network.
by Av_Crazy on 18. June 2011 - 5:37  (73950)

Try appremover from curvefish .. its much faster then easy uninstaller...easy uninstaller takes a lot of time to open sumtimes
by Kon (not verified) on 18. June 2011 - 22:15  (73972)

Pinky Dress is broken.

Battery Improve is also broken. I think there's a newer version, "Battery Improve(new)", which I think is the same?
by Jojoyee on 19. June 2011 - 12:18  (73990)

Thanks Kon for the info. Battery Improve is now updated to Battery Improver(new) and Pinky Dressup is removed as it's currently not available from the Android Market.
by lizgor1 on 21. June 2011 - 15:30  (74098)

how do you register android phone so as you can download free apps
by Moj Mail (not verified) on 22. June 2011 - 5:27  (74143)

You forgot Docs!
Google's app to work&sync with your Google Docs.
Why keeping local notes if you can make it safer in the cloud and always accesible from other devices and computer?
The widget makes it quick to launch existing docs or make new.
But remember to NOT move it on SD card if you wish to use the widget, Android doesn't support widgets from SD card.
Go Docs ;)
by abhay2009 on 23. June 2011 - 4:46  (74221)

Dear Jojoyee,

I would like to suggest to wonderful applications:
ZDBox - ALL IN ONE SYSTEM UTILITY SMALL IN SIZE AND VERSETILE.
ZDCLOCK - WONDERFUL ALARM UTILITY - ANYONE WOULD START LOVING IT. SO EASY TO USE.
CUBE CALCULATOR - PL TAKE A NOTE OF THIS GOOD CALCULATOR. IT IS VERY HANDY AND USEFUL.
REGARDS.
by abhay2009 on 23. June 2011 - 4:48  (74222)

ANOTHER SUGGESTION:
3G WATCHDOG IS BETTER THAN ANY OTHER MOBILE DATA MONITOR APP.
by abhay2009 on 23. June 2011 - 4:50  (74223)

HAVE ANYONE TRIED GO LAUCHER EX. IT IS FREE EASY TO USE AND CUSTOMIZE AND COMES WITH A LOT OF THEMES AND WIDGETS (FREE). IT IS INDEFENSIBLE FOR ME AFTER LAUNCHER PRO PLUS STARTED FREEZING ON MY PHONE.
by Anupam on 23. June 2011 - 11:42  (74249)

Its a kind request. Please type in small alphabets. In net etiquette, capital letters means you are screaming.
by Jojoyee on 26. June 2011 - 4:46  (74344)

Many thanks Abhay2009 for the various good suggestions. ZDbox, Cube Calculator and 3G Watchdog mentioned by you are now added to the list and your other recommendations will be looked into.
by abhay2009 on 27. June 2011 - 2:45  (74379)

Pl also consider
Battery Minder - for battery alerts!
ZDclock - versatile alarm utility
SecretLock - for locking files.
by Jaikrishna on 28. June 2011 - 12:36  (74465)

You should definitely add handyCalc to this list. It includes a great scientific and graphic calculator, unit and currency converter.
I've already told once about this and you've not replied. Pls check and reply.
by Jojoyee on 28. June 2011 - 15:51  (74470)

My apologies for missing out a good chance to try out this app.

The current version 0.51 of handyCalc available from the Android Market doesn't work well on Android 2.x. It's known to have a keypad problem in which a user is not allowed to enter any numbers from it, let alone doing calculations :(

I've downloaded the previous version v0.50 from the developer's site and it works on Android 2.x. The app is outstanding in its class and will be added to the list soon.

[Update]: handyCalc Calculator is now added.
by Jojoyee on 28. June 2011 - 16:04  (74471)

Thanks Abhay2009. SecretLock seems to be identical to iLock which is currently available from the Android Market or unless I'm mistaken?
by Red Jenny (not verified) on 29. June 2011 - 8:05  (74505)

iRunner is a really fun game.