Getting a new phone for Xmas is always a great time to reflect on what apps you truly use or need and what apps you can do away with. So as part of the cleaning of my phone I compiled this list of aps I commonly use or need. First will be the top 10 list and 2nd will be the full list of things on my phone:
Often I get asked what apps I use or which ones I would recommend. After just switching from my Samsung Galaxy to the Blackberry Key2 Android dual sim Phone, I was forced to ask myself what apps do I want to install on the new phone and which ones I could do without.
I used a great application called App List Backup via Email. This app allows you to create a list of apps to install on a device. You can select some or all apps and you can send it as either a clickable list with links or as a data file that the program itself will read and use to simplify the process. The advantage of using this app is that It has made it rather easy for me to share with you the apps that I chose.
As a partially sighted mostly blind person who uses mainly Talkback and high contrast or an inverted screen configuration. . The below apps should also be mostly or fully usable by any sighted or partially sighted android user. Hopefully you find this list interesting and find a few useful apps to add to your devices.
Also, if you are looking for more great apps, don’t forget to check out the directory of apps at the Inclusive Android Site and feel free to post lists of your own app recommendations or links to lists of your favourite apps below.
Top 10 Apps
- @Voice Aloud Reader: A great document reader that can read aloud the contents of a lot of different file formats including docx, rtf, txt, pdf, pptx and many more.
- Amazing MP3 Recorder: A powerful and reliable audio recording app
- Audex: A very cool app that allows you to change the sound scheme for actions and activities on the phone including screen reader notices. It also allows you to get extra label information and label controls that aren’t accessible or labelled. My daughter uses this feature to be able to use an app called what pad that has no labels but Audex provides sufficient info to figure out what each button does.
- Be My Eyes: A free app to call for video assistance. A team of volunteers is available for general inquiries. Also, companies can be reached for product specific service (e.g. Microsoft’s Disability and Accessibility Answer Desk)
- Nearby Explorer: GPS outdoor and Bluetooth beacon Indoor navigation system for blind travellers. Best in class for online and offline travel. Has downloadable maps for offline use. Allows everything from street and location browsing to identifying the direction and information about points of interest around you. Also integrates bus stops and timetables for supported cities.
- NFC Tools PRO: This app has a variety of tools for working with and writing to NFC Tags. NFC Tags come in all kinds of forms including stickers. You can use this app to write a variety of information on to a tag. I’ve used NFC tag stickers for common labelling tasks like labelling packaging or documents and also for labelling card games. Because the tags can contain a lot of information they are ideal as a print alternative.
- AquaMail: The best and most usable email app for android. Supports Tons of customisation. Allows you to connect all kinds of email services in 1 app. Change the look, feel and behavior of the app. Make sure you turn off the new “rich text editor” in the settings as it isn’t usable but also isn’t needed.
- Shouter Pro- The Announcer: A highly customisable tool to have your phone read certain messages or, information or notifications using a Text To Speech Engine. This is highly useful for having certain apps speak important messages without unlocking or loading the app. You can also have the app talk only through the headset. There is also a free version of shouter called Notification Reader: Shouter.
- File Commander: One of the best file management apps. Supports a number of advanced features such as media conversion and cloud storage access
- Listen Audiobook Player: An audiobook player that supports many different file formats and is very configurable. I especially like the fact that you can set a sleep timer that once it goes off, you can extend by simply shaking your phone. If the sleep timer wasn’t shaked, you can set the app to rewind a certain amount of the audio so you never lose your place when reading books in bed.
I also considered adding the Blackberry Hub app to my top 10 apps because of how much it has helped me streamline all communication types on a device. So it gets an honorable mention:
- Blackberry Hub: The Blackberry Hub – a unified messaging and communication app that centralises all messages and allows you to filter the view from all kinds of services like hangout, facebook messenger, whatsapp, gmail, sms, etc. I agree completely with the blurb from the ap description “This unified inbox is an irreplaceable tool for consolidating all of your messages in one place – whether it’s email, calendar, social or phone calls. Once you experience BlackBerry Hub, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. The Hub seamlessly integrates notifications from apps like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram and many others to allow you to manage important notifications and view your communication history.”. If you don’t have a BlackBerry device: You can use this app on your Android device absolutely free for 30 days. After that, you can continue using the app for free, with some ads. To remove ads and unlock access to more apps, subscribe to BlackBerry Hub+ Services.
All Other Apps I Use
While not all of these apps are fully accessible, they are usable with a screen reader. The rest of this article could also be titled “What’s On Jeff’s Phone”, so here is what’s on Jeff’s Phone. The list below is presented In alphabetical order:
- @Voice License: Paid License for @voice aloud reader – Support your developers.
- @Voice Network Libraries Plugin: Browse online book libraries.
- @Voice PDF Plugin: Improves @voice aloud reader’s ability to work with PDF documents.
- @Voice Sync Plugin: Allows @voice aloud reader to sync reading lists across devices.
- A Blind Legend: I have waisted many fun hours playing this challenging game which puts you in control of a blind knight on his quest to save his wife and country.
- Acapela TTS Voices: One of the most natural text to speech engines on the market. Also has some rather fun options too, my favourite voice is called – will little creature.
- AccessNote: A rather useful note taking app
- Accessibility Scanner: A free accessibility scanning tool that allows you to inspect a screen and get feedback on how to improve it for users with disabilities.
- Accessible Memory Pro: A memory game like simon
- Aira: A paid service that video calls a sighted helper
- Amazon Drive: Amazon’s cloud storage service that is similar to dropbox, onedrive or google drive
- Amazon Shopping: Amazon store shopping app
- Android Accessibility Suite: Contains the main accessibility services like Talkback and Select To Speak
- AquaMail Pro Unlocker: This is the paid license for unlocking premium features in Aquamail
- Assistant: The powerful Google Voice Assistant
- Audio Game Hub 2: A fun set of audio games
- Audio Game: Wizard’s Choice 1: An interesting conversion of a text based choose your adventure game into audio format
- Autoharp for Blind Pro: Turns your phone’s touch screen into a harp
- BBM: Blackberry Messenger Instant Messaging
- Back Camera Selfie: A camera app that self-voices queues to help you take better photos of people.
- BaconReader Premium: An app for accessing and using the ReadIt site
- BeSpecular: A free service you can send a picture or series of pictures to and ask a question of a sighted volunteer to get an aswer. E.g. “is this can peas or corn?”. What is nice about this service is you can receive multiple answers from multiple volunteers.
- BlackBerry Hub+ Services: Blackberry Hub is available free on Blackberry Android devices and as a paid service on non-Blackberry Devices. It is a unified communication center that collates phone and service communications. View hangout, facebook messenger, texts, calls, whatsapp and messages from other service all in 1 place. Sort, filter and group them into different views.
- Blind Samurai: A samurai audio fighting game
- Button Mapper: An app that allows you to remap the functions of physical buttons like the volume up and down key
- CARROT: A rather funny weather app that provides off-color weather reports
- Call recorder: An app to help you record calls
- Champion of the Gods: A choose your own adventure game.
- Choice of the Petal Throne: A choose your own adventure game.
- Cocktails: Drink recipes for mixing up an exciting happy hour
- Cortana: Microsoft’s voice assistant
- Crafting Kingdom: A fun accessible game of building up a kingdom
- Creatures Such as We: A fun choose your own adventure game
- DS audio: Audio Library App For Synology Network Addressable Storage Devices
- DS file: File management App For Synology Network Addressable Storage Devices
- DS finder: App to detect Synology Network Addressable Storage Devices On Local Network
- DS photo: Photo backup App For Synology Network Addressable Storage Devices
- DS video: Video playback App For Synology Network Addressable Storage Devices
- DVBeep Pro: Hourly chime app
- DW Contacts & Phone: A contact and dialer app that is extremely customisable
- Delight Games (Premium): A collection of choose your own adventure games
- Detective’s Choice: A choose your own adventure game
- DigiCal: A calendar app with a nice agenda view
- DigiCal+ Key: The license to unlock the premium features of DigiCal
- Direct to Player: Access the Canadian libraryCELA (Centre for Equitable Library Access) service
- Drive: Google’s cloud file service like dropbox or onedrive
- Drives: A somewhat hard to use app that comes in occasionally useful to get a sense of device storage usage
- Dropbox: Cloud file service like google drive or onedrive
- Dropsync: Allows you to synchronise dropbox folders with local folders on your phone
- Dropsync Pro Key: License for pro features of dropsync
- Duo: Google’s video and audio chat service
- EN_DVBeep: The English voice for dvbeep time announcement app
- ETI-Eloquence TTS: Eloquence Text To Speech Engine
- Easy Uninstaller: App to quickly uninstall multiple apps at once
- Envision AI: Camera scanning app to identify text, objects, scenes and more. Uses same engine as Seeing AI
- Eye-D Pro: A collection of blindness specific tools such as a travel tool, OCR system and object recognition
- Facebook: The standard facebook app.
- FeedMe: RSS Reader
- Find My Device: Google’s app to find a lost phone or tablet
- For Rent: Haunted House: A choose your own adventure game
- Freelancer: Hire and manage freelance work through the freelancer.com service
- Gboard: Google’s on-screen keyboard
- GetThere: A GPS travel app for blind travellers
- Gmail: Google’s email app
- Godville: A multi-player role playing game that requires little or no work on your part but is surprisingly fun to watch your character’s adventures
- Goggles: Google’s older camera based machine learning experiment
- Google: Google’s main app, showing news, search, upcoming activities and more
- Google Play Games: Google’s game service, required for some games
- Google Play Music: Google’s fantastic online and offline music streaming service
- Google Play Store: Google’s app store
- Google Text-to-speech engine: Google’s text to speech engine
- Google Trips: A must have for anyone who is travelling somewhere. Google’s trip app scans your emails and stores all relevant reservations, local information and recommendations for offline use.
- Groupon: A coupon like service that gives you discounts on activities, goods and services
- Hangouts: Google’s multi-platform instant messaging, audio and video service
- Hangouts Dialer: Allows you to use hangouts to make voice over IP calls to traditional phone numbers
- Hero of Kendrickstone: A choose your own adventure game
- Hollywood Visionary: A choose your own adventure game
- Home: Google’s app for managing hardware devices like google homes, chromcast dongles and other hardware
- Hub: The Blackberry Hub – a unified messaging and communication app that centralises all messages and allows you to filter the view from all kinds of services like hangout, facebook messenger, whatsapp, gmail, sms, etc.
- Hue: An app to allow you to setup and control Philips hue light bulbs
- IM+: A multi-platform instant messaging program
- Instagram: App to access Instagram social media service
- Instapaper: Store documents and webpages offline
- JumpInSauceRS: An arcade style audio game
- KNFB Reader: Converts text in images into spoken text
- Keep Notes: Google’s note taking app. Allows you to store and sync audio, text and graphical notes and lists
- LampShade: A 3rd party app to control light bulbs from various services including Hue and LIFX
- Lazarillo: A GPS Travel app designed to support blind travel
- Legend of the Blue Dragon: A multiplayer role playing game based on an old text based BBS game called the Legend Of The Red Dragon.
- Lensinator: An OCR, object, barcode and image scanner
- Lifeline 2: A fun game involving aliens and an unlucky person on a space ship
- Lifeline Silent Night: A fun game involving aliens and an unlucky person on a space ship
- Lightning: A configurable browser that supports adblocking and browsing with different color schemes
- LinkedIn: App to access the LinkedIn social media service
- Listen Audiobook Player: An audiobook player that supports many different file formats and is very configurable
- Lyft: App to use the Lyft Ride service
- Maps: Google’s Map application
- Mecha Ace: A choose your own adventure game
- Messages: Google’s app for sending and receiving SMS text messages
- Messenger Lite: FaceBook Messenger Lite is a stripped down and more usable version of the standard facebook messaging app
- Microsoft News: A news reader app that collects news articles from various sources
- Microsoft exFAT/NTFS for USB by Paragon Software: Allows you to access hard drives and other storage media plugged into your phone
- Minerva: A money identifier, object recognition, OCR and image recognition app
- Moments: Access and backup photos on a Synology Network Addressable Storage Device
- Music Folder Player Full: A local music playing app that uses folder structure as a navigation mechanism. As an example, you can select a folder and have it play everything in sub folders under that folder.
- My McD’s: The McDonald’s app.
- NBP Editor: National Braille Press’s note taking and text editor app
- Netflix: App to access the Netflix online video streaming service
- Network Manager: A collection of network tools for pinging, listening, scanning and monitoring your network connections.
- Nomedia: Mark folders so they don’t get scalled for media by apps like play music
- Nova Launcher: The most versatile desktop interface for android.
- Nova Launcher Prime: The license to unlock the pro features of nova launcher
- NowNav: A GPS travel app for blind travellers
- Nuzzel: A unique way to browse for news. Keep up on news and articles that are being talked about by the people you follow on social media.
- Office Lens: An OCR app
- Office Mobile: Access Microsoft Office tools and apps
- OneDrive: Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage service like dropbox or gooogle drive
- Photos: Google’s photo service that offers unlimited photo storage
- Plex: A video solution that allows you to access videos, tv and music at home and away.
- Pocket Casts: A powerful cross platform podcast player that can sync across devices.
- Pontes GameZone: Casino games such as Blackjack, Five Cards Draw Poker, Cards War, Who is Greater, Four in a Line, Slot Machine, Scopa (with its variants Escoba, Scopone and Scopone Escoba).
- PowerPoint: Microsoft PowerPoint
- Prime Video: App to access the Amazon Prime video streaming service
- PrintBot Pro: Print to any printer including very old printers
- Psy High: A choose your own adventure game
- RapiTap!:An accessible, real time reaction based game for Android! RapiTap is a quick adrenaline rush for anyone, whether fully-sighted or not
- Reader: VoiceDream Reader is a e-book and document text to speech reader
- Redemption Season: A choose your own adventure game
- Seeing Assistant Home Lite: A set of tools for blind people such as a digital magnifier, barcode and QR code reader and writer
- SkipTheDishes: A delivery food service
- Skype: Microsoft’s Instant Messaging, Audio and Video chat service
- Smart Scanner – QR & Barcode: A quick and efficient barcode and QR Code scanner
- SoundCloud: App to Access the Online Soundcloud Audio File Hosting Service
- Stitcher: A App to access the stitcher paid service with premium podcasting content
- Stones: One of my favourite games on android. A little like candy crush. A puzzle game that involves Aligning blocks together to create rows and destroy them
- Tally Ho: A choose your own adventure game
- TapTapSee: An app that uses machine learning for describing a scene or image.
- Telegram: App to access the Telegram Instant Messaging Service
- To-Do: Microsoft Task List Application. Has a very clean and straight forward interface.
- Total Commander: A powerful and versatile fime management app with tons of plugins to access different cloud and local services
- TotalBox plugin for Total Commander: Adds Dropbox connectivity to Total Commander
- TotalCmd-FTP (File Transfers): Adds FTP connectivity to Total Commander
- TotalCmd-LAN (Windows shares): Adds Local Shared Drive connectivity to Total Commander. Connect to shared drives across your network such as those on a Windows PC or NAS
- Transdrone: Connect to Transmission or other headless file downloading apps or servers
- Transit: A fully featured transit schedule and route planning app
- Tusky: a lightweight client for the Mastodon social media service
- Tweetings: A powerful fully accessible twitter client
- Twitter: The official app for the twitter social media network
- Uber: App for accessing the Uber ride sharing app
- Uber Eats: Order delivery from local restaurants and take-out places
- V Browser: A browser that uses smart detection to identify the main area of a page and read it aloud
- Visor: A simple digital magnifier (or CCTV) app
- Vocalizer Voices: The Nuance vocalizer text to speech engine for android
- Volume Controls: A simple app to adjust the various volume controls of android
- Weather: Get detailed and hourly run downs of your current location and other locations
- WhatsApp: App to access the WhatsApp instant messaging, audio and group chat service
- Word: Microsoft Word
- Yelp: Access local reviews and information about restaurants and other local services
- YouTube: Google’s Youtube app
- feedly: An app to access RSS feeds
- hyperion: A desktop launcher that is very accessible and customisable
- iPrint&Scan: Print and Scan from your android device on Brother printers and multi-function devices
As a returning android user to the pixel XL three, I really appreciate this comprehensive list of applications to explore.
Give me a great place to get started with looking into apps I should install on this awesome device.
One question for you, do you still use nova launcher as your primary lawn trip? I’ve heard that it’s not as intuitive as it was in the past maybe?
Would love to get your feedback on that.
Michael
Host of the your own pay podcast.
I do still use nova launcher. Although hyperion has a lot going for it too.