Looking at the must have android apps in 2023? you are in the right place. The number of Apps in the play store is more than we could imagine. Also, the number of Apps for the same purpose is also huge. Choosing one that is most efficient and is most suitable for you will be a hectic task. Usually, we download the one which comes at the top of the search results in the play store or the one with more users. But there is an ocean of apps with better UI and facilities some even without ads. Let’s try some handpicked apps of various categories.

Do you want to remove Apps, before installing these apps? If you want to remove the bloatware from your mobile phone easily, without root or any paid apps, check out this guide for removing bloatware easily using universal android debloater.
Best Android apps in the play store
1. Via
Browsers are one of the most important apps on our phones. While Chrome is the most used browser on mobile phones and desktops, it does not necessarily mean that it is the best browser. It does have many shortcomings when compared to other browsers and still has tools at the top of the app. While there are many good alternatives like Brave and Edge, the browser that stands out is Via. Via is a lightweight and fast browser with insane app opening and loading speeds. Even though its size is under 1MB, It is one of the most customizable and user-friendly mobile browsers.
Apart from making browsing easier and faster, it also provides support for setting external download managers such as ADM down in the list as the default download managers. This will no doubt will make the browsing experience much better, for both normal users and power users.
Browser

Via
- Lightweight
- dark theme
- supports external download manager
- less than 1MB
- fast and reliable
2. Advanced Download Manager (ADM)
Have you ever tried to download files from the internet, and got stuck halfway between, with no other option to download, except to restart it, and lose all your internet data packs? ADM, Short for Advanced Download Manager, is a powerful and handy download manager. It is an accelerated file downloader and downloads up to 5 files simultaneously. You get many advanced options like refreshing the download link, and pausing, and transferring downloads that will come in handy when downloading large movies, software, etc on unstable networks.
It can also be integrated with browsers like Via, or provide a handy browser inside it, with which you can download embedded videos from many sites too. It will surely be useful for both normal and pro users, as long as you download large files from the internet, or have an unstable internet connection.
Download Manager

ADM
- Up to 5 simultaneous Downloads
- inbuilt Browser
- Pause/Resume support on most downloading sites
3. PowerAmp Music Player
Gone are the days when people had a collection of music. Now, most people have Spotify, youtube music, or such streaming apps. But still, there is a minority of people who love to keep their music on the local storage, either due to personal preference or because they don’t want to cope with the insane amount of ads on those services. if you are in this group, then Poweramp might be the app you have been looking for all this time.
This is a completely customizable music player without Ads and a must for people who love to have their music in the phone storage. Even though it is paid, there is a trial version, that you can download for free, and you just need to uninstall and reinstall the app every 30 days, and you are good to go.
Music Player

PowerAmp
- Sleep timer
- Auto download META
- Quick settings Play Button
- Internal Equalizer
4. ReadEra
Are you someone who loves to read books, and love to read books on your device? then you may know that most ebook readers on Android are mediocre at best. So if you are searching for a good ebook reader, that can at least imitate the feel of reading a real book, and provide intuitive gesture navigation? Read Era is your best choice. It supports all formats. It is completely Ad-free and helps to manage your books and has many unique features that will make your reading time hassle-free and more enjoyable. It has a book-like flipping animation, lets you read in dark mode, and supports all major ebook formats such as PDF, epub, etc.
PDF Reader

ReadEra
- Support All formats
- Ad-free
- Customizable settings
- Detailed About document page
- good animations
5. VLC For Android
I’m sure there had been times when you really wanted to see a movie, but your video player did not support the format of the video. some people also don’t like the inbuilt video players, due to their lack of features, as most of them do not even have a good online subtitle searching feature. In the past, most of us would have recommended the MX player, but now that it is filled with bloatware and ads, it no longer gives users the experience it once delivered.
VLC is an open-source and free Mediaplayer, which has many good features up its sleeve. it may not be as feature-rich as the MX player, but it has all the basic features, and will surely open any video format you throw at it.
Video Player

VLC For Player
- AD-Free
- Supports all formats
- Customizable
- open source
- auto subtitle downloads
6. Lean Launcher
If there is one part of the phone’s os that you would spend time in the most, that would be its launcher (Home screen). due to this, third-party launchers with customizations, smoothness, and features were always plenty in the play store. but as time went by, the manufacturers improved their launchers and hence the relevance of these old launchers faded away. But now, the number of ads and bloatware in budget Android phones is increasing the relevance day by day.
Especially if you have a POCO or MI phone, that purposefully makes their launcher garbage, so that the users would buy a new phone. Try lean launcher, hide all the bloatware, ( check out this Guide on how to remove the bloatware to make your phone even better) change the icon shape to how you like it, and enjoy a much better Android, with under 10 minutes of work!
Launcher

7. 1.1.1.1
VPN or virtual private network is one of the must-have apps for anyone who is concerned about their privacy. it helps you to hide your real device location and IP address, and thus helps you protect from the evergrowing number of trackers found on the internet. But finding a good VPN is as hard as finding a country that values your privacy ( there is only a handful of them), but they are costly and most of us cannot afford them.
1.1.1.1 comes to our rescue, with decent speeds and latency even on the free version, with an unlimited cap on the internet quota. what is even better? it comes from Cloudflare, which is the people who provide most of the websites to your devices, including our website.it is fast, easy to use, and secure.
VPN

Best Android apps not in the play store
Even though Playstore is the most trustable source to download our favorite apps from, there are a couple of other sources too. We can also download apps from the internet in apk format. But we have to make sure that it is trustable. Here are another 5 apps which are not available in the play store but are life changers.
8. Blackhole
As we are out of googles Jurisdiction on what is wrong and what is right, Introducing to you the best music player, period. Blackhole has anything you ask for. Material UI? Support for local music ? you name it, and it has that. But how is it different from Poweramp, and why is it not in the play store? because it can stream songs from SPOTIFY AND YT music, for free, and without ads! it surely would amuse Google, but it will amuse us for sure.
Blackhole

Blackhole
- Best Streaming Quality (320kbps aac)
- Import Playlists from Spotify & YouTube
- Sleep timer
- Dark mode/accent color
- Play Online as well as Offline Songs
- No Ads
9. Vedioder
If there is one platform that is the king of video content, will be youtube. it is the second-largest search engine, just after Google. so whatever content you like to watch, youtube will likely have it. But the recent updates have crippled youtube beyond a reasonable level, much like Spotify, like the very intrusive ads and lack of background playback. check vedioder, a not-so-good youtube client that lets you watch and download youtube videos, for free. No wonder they are out of Google’s Store.
Youtube Client

Vedioder
- Download youtube vedioes
- Watch youtube videos without ads
- Inbuilt browser
- background playback
10. GCam
Google is arguably the wizard in terms of software. their wizardry is what enabled them to produce the best image quality of any smartphone, from an old sensor. it did not take long for modders to mod these Google cameras (GCAM) and make them work on other Android phones too. if you use budget Android phones, whose cameras are neglected by the OEMs, and want your phone to shine, Try a gcam from the many available ones, and when you find the right one, you can see how magically all your photos suddenly look like they are from a smartphone with a much higher price tag
Camera

G Cam
- High-quality HDR
- no auto beautification
- Night sight/ Astrophotography
- customizable
- portrait mode
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