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These 5 free Android apps are always the first ones I install

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These 5 free Android apps are always the first ones I install

Key Takeaways

  • The Google Play Store is filled with high-quality apps, some of which are completely free.
  • Subscription and advertisement fatigue is a real thing, and so I cherish the times when I stumble across a great free app.
  • These apps are high on my list for installation as soon as I set up any new Android-based device.


Nothing feels quite as satisfying as getting something for free, and this can certainly be said about smartphone apps. In a world saturated with in-app purchases, subscriptions, microtransactions, and ‘freemium’ business models, free software feels like an absolute breath of fresh air.

1 KineStop

The go-to app for reducing motion sickness


KineStop: Car sickness aid

A well-built app for reducing motion sickness when in a vehicle.

Back in May, Apple announced plans to incorporate a new ‘Vehicle Motion Cues’ feature into both iOS and iPadOS. The feature embeds a variety of animated dots onto your screen, which shift in accordance with vehicle motion to reduce car sickness in those afflicted with the issue.

Luckily, Android users are able to experience a very similar feature using the completely free KineStop app from the Play Store. The concept is roughly the same, and the interface is simple and easy to set up. If you’re prone to feeling motion sickness when using your Android phone in the passenger seat of a car, KineStop is simply a must-download.

2 Feeder

A wonderful and open source RSS reader


Feeder

A free and open-source RSS reader app that works without fuss.

Really simple syndication readers, usually acronymized as RSS readers, are streamlined systems for viewing news articles across your favorite publications. In the age of social media, these apps aren’t as popular as they once were, but they’re still a useful tool for when you want to reduce distractions while still keeping up with current events.

Feeder is one such RSS reader available on Android, and it’s completely free and open-source. For an open-source app, the interface is genuinely gorgeous, and the user experience is equally intuitive. The one caveat here is that it forces you to manually enter RSS feed links to get started, but that’s a fairly small complaint overall.

3 AntennaPod

An excellent solution for streaming your favorite podcasts


AntennaPod

A free and open solution for all your podcast streaming needs.

In the same vein as Feeder, AntennaPod is a completely free and open-source Android application — but instead of aggregating news articles, it’s designed with podcast streaming in mind. The interface is clean, simple, and effective, and I have no usability complaints.

Important inclusions like shownotes, casting support, and a sleep timer are all present, which makes this a fairly full-featured experience. If you love listening to podcasts but want to steer clear of major players like Spotify, Apple, and Google, then AntennaPod is an excellent choice that I’d highly recommend.

4 VLC

The infamous Windows program is also at home on Android

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