Android apps continue to get more and more powerful in 2020 as they take advantage of the new hardware we see in modern smartphones. Some of the best apps are totally free to use, while others let you get a subscription to unlock premium original content. This list will highlight the best Android apps for each category.
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Best Android Apps for Movies & Video
There are several aspects that go into making a great video app. If you are subscribing to a service that offers streaming movies, you’ll want to know that your movies will be streamed at the highest quality with little buffering. You also have to take into consideration their selection of titles and original content. For media players, you need something that can play many different types of files. Nobody wants to use more than one media player for their audio or video files. So something that can support all files, while offering features like subtitle customization, video preferences, and playback interface edits is ideal. With these in mind, here are the best movie and video apps in 2020.
The Netflix app is a very reliable app and is essential for anyone who has a Netflix subscription. Easily continue watching your movies and shows where you left off, or find great new originals based on your watch history. Netflix has built one of the largest catalogs of any subscription-based streaming service. Some of the best original series are now premiering on Netflix. You can try the service as a 30-day trial to experience their selection.
Price: Free+
VLC
VLC is the most popular video player for PC, with its ability to playback almost any video or audio file you throw at it. The Android app is no different. This player will be able to play movies, videos, music, photos, and more. It’s totally free to download and is completely ad-free. If you have a phone or tablet with a high-resolution display, VLC will be able to decode the larger videos files that can really take full advantage of your hardware.
Price: Free+
YouTube
The official YouTube app is the best way to watch YouTube. It’s compatible with tons of different types of devices and is one of the most popular Android apps ever. You can also manage your YouTube channel and access all of your creator tools. The YouTube app supports high-resolution playback for 4K videos. YouTube also supports picture-in-picture (PiP) mode, so you can keep watching while you use other apps. For watching online video content, the official YouTube app is the best solution.
Price: Free
Best Android Apps for Music & Audio
Choosing the right music subscription can be tricky. While a big part of choosing will be looking at the content selection and quality of the music, you also have to consider how well the app works with the service. Different types of music lovers will be interested in different apps. For many people, it’s important to have high-quality lossless playback options. This is how you can get the most out of your high-end speakers or headphones. Other users might care more about the search and radio features. These apps should satisfy any music-lovers needs.
Apple Music
Apple Music gives you unlimited access to millions of songs and your entire Apple Music library. All of this content is ad-free and available right from your Android device, iPhone, iPad, or Mac or PC. This is the more obvious solution for someone that uses Apple devices in conjunction with Android. Apple Music supports the highest quality playback of lossless media files. You can try Apple Music for free for the first three months. A subscription costs $9.99 per month.
Price: Free
Spotify
Spotify is one of the most popular music apps in the world and has a massive collection of music. You can listen for free, or get a premium subscription for ad-free playback. Spotify has one of the best personalized radio systems. It’s very good at figuring out what you like to listen to, and introducing you to new music. The Spotify user interface is one of the best out of any music app.
Price: Free
YouTube Music
YouTube Music is now the official music app from Google. It will works really well with your existing Google ecosystem. Enjoy high-quality songs, radio stations, music videos, and more. YouTube Music is replacing its previous Google Play Music service as the default service from Google. It has been a strange transition as Google tries yo push its users to YouTube Music, but in 2020 YouTube Music is now one of the best music apps.
Price: Free
Best Android Apps for News
News apps can be difficult to get right. People are very particular when it comes to their news sources. These apps will help you get the news that’s most important to you. We looked for the apps with the best news features that readers enjoy. Highlights, videos, in-depth articles, opinions, and more. All of these things are important to consider when looking for a great news app.
Google News
Google News is a personalized news aggregator that organizes and highlights what’s happening in the world so you can discover more about the stories that matter to you. It’s very good and learning your interests and feeding you relevant news stories. Your stories will be selected based on your preferred sources, local news, interested topics, and previously saved stories. It’s free to use and has great performance on Android devices.
Price: Free
National Geographic
A source of endless inspiration for the everyday explorer and the insatiably curious, the National Geographic app reveals new insights into cultures, ideas, and discoveries through high-definition storytelling. Your free account gives you full access to a personalized feed of the topics you love. Give the National Geographic app a shot and use your existing magazine subscription to get access to digital copies.
Price: Free+
Axios
Axios is a highly-rated news app that is elegant and simple to use. They cover politics, business, culture, science, and technology. The app provides a clean reading experience that puts the news you care about front and center. You start by following specific channels that correspond to topics that interest you. You can then access relevant content either in a single integrated feed or by hopping from channel to channel.
Price: Free
Best Android Apps for Sports
The Google Play store has a huge variety of sports apps available. Depending on what type of sports you’re in to, you’ll find that different apps can serve totally different purposes. You might need one app to follow your favorite teams, while another app helps you find local games and related events. These are the best sports-related apps for 2020.
Fishing Spots
The ultimate fishing guide! Discover local fishing spots, get seven-day fishing forecasts, and track all your catches with a robust fishing logbook. Connect with anglers, get tips & share your catches. This is one of the most popular apps used by fishermen. Explore fishing maps that show locations, photos, and catch details. Find the best times to fish with our robust fishing forecast. Then create your personal logbook and capture the details of every trip.
Price: Free
NFL
If you’re a fan of football then you’ll want to have the official NFL app. This app is essential for all NLF fans and keeps you up to date with NLF Game Pass. The NFL app keeps fans fully updated all off-season long, with breaking NFL news, highlights, stats & more. It doesn’t matter where you are, the NFL app has you covered. Articles and video highlights featuring the latest stories and breaking news from all around the NFL.
Price: Free+
theScore
theScore is the best app for tracking the latest stats from your favorite teams. It covers a wide range of sports and has an easy to use design. Keep track of every major league competition.
Price: Free
Best Android Apps for Social
Social media is a constantly changing industry. Apps can pop up overnight and quickly become the most popular in this category. There’s no need for us to go over Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn. These websites are less relevant in 2020, as the next generation embraces these apps from the selection below.
TikTok
TikTok is by far the hottest social media app in 2020. Scroll through an endless stream of original videos with instant playback. TikTok is like flipping through channels on your TV, but you never stop changing channels, and only the best parts of the shows are played. TikTok has tons of different effects and filters to make your videos fun and easy to make. You can explore different videos by trending topics or sounds.
Price: Free+
Snapchat is still one of the most popular ways to communicate with your friends in 2020. The app has been around for a long time and has been through many different redesigns. The 2020 design of Snapchat has the best filters and is still the easiest way to send a short video to one of your friends. Snapchat opens right to the camera, so you can send a Snap in seconds! Just take a photo or video, add a caption, and send it to your best friends and family. Express yourself with Filters, Lenses, Bitmojis, and all kinds of fun effects.
Discord has become the best community management app there is. It’s one of the only apps where you can find large groups of people and instantly video or voice call with them. With Discord’s massive userbase, chances are that your friends are already on here. Don’t be left out! It’s easy to start your own server and set up everything the way you like it. Create voice channels, text channels, and different roles for your members.
Price: Free+
Best Android Apps for Messaging
When you’re picking a good messaging app, you want to find something that’s hopefully going to have to be the only messaging app you use. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case. People find themselves using tons of different messaging apps to reach all of their friends. These messaging apps are the most popular and have all the features you’d need and more. Hopefully one of these will be able to replace your collection of communication apps in 2020.
Telegram is a great solution for messaging to your friends or coworkers. Group chats, video calls, voice calls, and file sharing are all supported. The app is free and supports a massive amount of features. You can send media and files, without any limits on their type and size. Your entire chat history will require no disk space on your device and will be securely stored in the Telegram cloud for as long as you need it.
Price: Free
Signal
Signal focuses on privacy, with its end-to-end encrypted messaging. You can also take advantage of disappearing messages, voice calls, video calls, and file sharing. Signal’s advanced privacy-preserving technology is always enabled, so you can focus on sharing the moments that matter with the people who matter to you. Messages are delivered quickly and reliably, even on slow networks. Signal is optimized to operate in the most constrained environment possible.
Price: Free
Facebook Messenger Lite
If you have a Facebook account, you can use Messenger Lite with your existing profile. It might be the most convenient way to connect with friends and family. The stand-alone messaging app is super light-weight while still supporting all the essential features like video and voice calls. With the app size being only 10MB, installs quickly and is compatible with lower-end phones.
Price: Free
Best Android Apps for Dating
Technology can be really good at matching you up with new friends or love interests. You can use one of these apps to find and meet new people in your area. We looked for the apps that are the most popular, and have the best success in matching people up.
Tinder
Tinder has been the go-to app for dating for many years now. Tinder lets you swipe through people in your area, and match with others that are interested in you. You can use Tinder for free with some limitations, or get a subscription to unlock more features. If you need some help matching with more people, you can use Tinder’s boost and gold subscriptions to reach more people. You can also change the geographical location of where you want to search for matches.
Price: Free+
Bumble
More than 100 million people have registered on Bumble to create meaningful relationships, find online friends, and make purposeful connections. Bumble is a dating app that allows you to make new connections, whether you’re looking for a partner, to make new friends, or to expand your professional network. While other apps are designed strictly for dating, Bumble is much better if you’re just looking for casual friends.
Price: Free+
Plenty of Fish
It seems like Plenty of Fish has been around since the beginning of the internet. So they have tons of experience matching people up. This app has 1.5 million downloads in 2020. POF is the preferred singles dating app because you can view matches and communicate for free. Unlike smaller dating apps, POF has the most users and thus, the highest chance for you to find your relationship!
Are you a bookworm? Reading on your smartphone or tablet doesn’t have to be a terrible experience. These apps will help you read with great user interfaces and good book-related features. You can also find new books based on your interests and save them all to your account.
Kindle
On the bus, on your break, in your bed—never be without a book. Built for book lovers, the Kindle app puts millions of books, magazines, newspapers, comics, and manga at your fingertips. Since Kindle has been around for so long and has a long history with e-reading hardware, many users have depended on them to store their digital book library. If you already use Kindle, or have in the past, this may be the best reading app for you.
Price: Free
NOOK
NOOK is the popular e-reading app from Barnes & Noble. Access our vast online library of over 4 million eBooks, magazines, graphic novels, and comics; plus, enjoy recommendations just for you curated by our expert booksellers. Customize your experience with multiple font and page styles and robust organization and social sharing tools. Put down your reading and pick up where you left off—even as you jump from one device to another. The NOOK Reading App syncs across all your devices.
Price: Free
Best Android Apps for Blogging & Productivity
Are you a writer, photographer, editor, or another profession that requires important productivity apps? Having the right apps that can make a meaningful difference in your workflow is so important. 2020 showed us that we need to be able to continue to work while we are away from the office. These apps should have a place in your mobile productivity solution.
WordPress
WordPress for Android puts the power of web publishing in your pocket. It’s a website creator and so much more! Give your big ideas a home on the web. WordPress for Android is a website builder and a blog maker. Use it to create your website. WordPress is more than a blog maker — use it to connect with a community of writers in the WordPress Reader. Explore thousands of topics by tag, discover new authors and organizations, and follow the ones who pique your interest.
Price: Free
Photoshop
Tap into your creativity on the go with Photoshop Express–a fun, fast, and easy picture editor for one-touch transformations and photo edits–used by millions of creative individuals. Make pro-looking images with an easy-to-use digital studio on your mobile device. If you’re in the Adobe ecosystem, photoshop will sync with your Adobe cloud so your edit can be accessed across all of your devices. Photoshop is the best way to make advanced edits to your photos on Android.
Price: Free
Best Android Apps for Nutrition, Cooking, and Food
Losing weight and eating healthy can be fun when you’re using the right app. We all have our favorite fitness app, but sometimes we skip on nutrition, cooking, and food. Use these apps to track the number of calories that are in your meals, and find better ways to eat healthier.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition facts is a great resource for quickly finding nutrition info on just about any food that there is. There are more than 8,700 products collected in their catalog that they divided into categories. The application has a convenient and quick search. Select the desired product and receive its details: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and, of course, calories. For anyone looking to lose weight or start eating healthy, this app is a must-have.
Price: Free
Nutritionix Track
Nutritionix Track is a fitness tracking app developed and maintained by a team of registered dietitians. Making fitness tracking a daily habit is an effective way to work towards your health goals, so the mission of the Track app is to take the heavy-lifting out of keeping up with your food log. Upgrade to Track Pro to access the Coach Portal and share your Track food log with your dietitian, trainer, or other ‘coach’.
Price: Free+
These are the best Android apps in 2020. New apps can rise to the top overnight, as other apps fade out of existence. Finding the best app for each category may take some time, so use the list to quickly find a good solution.
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
