These are the 5 best Android apps I use that aren’t on the Play Store

For many Android customers, the Play Store is the solely place they ever search for apps, and truthfully, that’s how I used Android for years, too. However over time, I realized that a few of the most attention-grabbing Android apps aren’t truly accessible on the Play Store in any respect. Some are not listed as a result of they violate Google’s insurance policies, whereas others are just too area of interest or developed by small open-source communities that merely don’t care about Play Store distribution.

For the longest time, I simply caught with no matter climate app got here preinstalled on my cellphone. It labored, positive, but it surely was by no means one thing I truly loved utilizing. However then, I got here throughout Breezy Climate. It’s a free and open-source app that places privateness entrance and middle.

Not like most mainstream climate apps, Breezy Climate doesn’t have any advertisements or pointless information feeds. One among its largest highlights, although, is flexibility. It lets me select from 50 totally different climate knowledge sources, so I have loads of choices, together with some region-specific servers. The app additionally appears unbelievable. It follows Google’s Materials You design language, which makes it really feel completely at residence on my Pixel 10.

What I love the most is the sheer quantity of customization it affords. From the settings menu, I can swap themes, disguise info blocks I don’t care about, change the icon pack, and even flip off animations to avoid wasting battery. Its widgets deserve particular point out too. Breezy Climate affords 13 resizable widgets, together with clock-and-forecast combos, hourly pattern widgets, multi-city layouts, and compact choices.

Seal is a type of apps that feels nearly too helpful to be free. It’s a easy app that lets me seize audio and video information from just about wherever on the web — which additionally type of explains why it isn’t accessible on the Play Store.

The app is powered by yt-dlp below the hood, which implies it helps a large variety of web sites and companies. It’s additionally ridiculously straightforward to use; I simply have to stick the audio or video hyperlink into the app and hit obtain. Seal additionally offers me full management over these downloads. I can select to avoid wasting the full video or extract solely the audio. And if it’s a YouTube video, I may even obtain it with subtitles and a thumbnail. 

After all, it’s not an app I want each single day, but it surely’s extremely helpful each time I need to save one thing in a pinch.

Ever since the information about Nova Launcher slowing down growth, I’d been on the lookout for alternate options like everybody else. And that search ended when my colleague Andy wrote about Kvaesisto final yr.

One among my favourite issues about Kvaesisto is its search-first method. The search bar isn’t only for discovering apps and settings. I can use it to search for contacts, information, calendar occasions, and even do some calculations. I additionally like how the launcher retains the residence display minimal and exhibits my most-used apps in the pinned part inside the app drawer. In the identical part, it even lets me add customized shortcuts for particular issues like navigating residence in Maps, creating a brand new doc in Docs, triggering one in every of my routines, or accessing Google Drive’s scan software.

All the interface is constructed round vertical scrolling, which truthfully can take some getting used to. Swiping down opens the app drawer, whereas swiping up opens the widgets web page. One other factor that’s distinctive about Kvaesisto is that it lets me assign tags to apps, so I don’t must rely on simply folders to group related apps.

And naturally, Kvaesitso affords all the typical customization options you’d anticipate from a typical Android launcher. There are customizable gestures, icon packs, widgets, and loads of look tweaks. Better of all, it’s fully ad-free with none of the options locked behind a paywall.

Though there’s no scarcity of Play Store alternate options for Android, Aurora Store is definitely my favourite as a result of it doesn’t attempt to be totally different. It’s basically a entrance finish for the Play Store, the place I can browse, obtain, and replace apps from Google Play’s large catalog. The principle benefit is that I don’t must register with a Google account in any respect. Which means I can browse freely with out Google tying each search and obtain to my account. I’d say it’s the closest factor to a correct Play Store substitute for anybody attempting to de-Google their Android cellphone.

One among the options I notably love is Guide Obtain, which lets me obtain older variations of the app. That is helpful any time I want to put in a particular model of an app for one in every of my articles. I can get it straight from the Aurora Store as an alternative of looking for APK information on random web sites.

One other helpful function is the Spoof Supervisor, which basically lets me pretend my cellphone’s mannequin and area. So if an app I need to obtain isn’t accessible for my machine or area, I can nonetheless get it with this function. The one actual draw back is that Aurora Store doesn’t help paid apps or in-app purchases. For these, I nonetheless must rely on the Play Store.

Like most individuals, the keyboard might be the app I use greater than anything on my cellphone, so it’s not one thing I can actually compromise on. I’ve tried standard keyboard apps over the years, however I preserve coming again to HeliBoard. It’s a free, open-source Android keyboard constructed round privateness. My favourite factor about it’s that it really works fully offline.

However being privacy-focused doesn’t imply it’s missing options, although. HeliBoard has every little thing I really want from a keyboard app, together with typing options, themes, customizable layouts, and even clipboard historical past. At the identical time, there’s no AI bloat or random gimmicky options.

The largest motive I get pleasure from utilizing it’s the peace of thoughts it offers me. Since it really works fully offline, I don’t have to fret about delicate info like my passwords, messages, notes, or search queries I kind from leaving my cellphone.

That’s it for my record. Actually, I may’ve simply added a pair extra like Obtainium and Good Dock, however I needed to maintain this centered on apps I completely can’t stay with out. For those who’ve bought any favourite apps that aren’t on the Play Store, be sure you tell us in the feedback under.