10 best Android tools and utility apps

In today’s digital age, Android users rely on tools and utility apps to enhance their smartphone experience. From optimizing device performance to streamlining daily tasks, this article explores the must-have apps that cater to every Android user’s needs. Whether you’re seeking organization, security, or productivity, we’ll delve into the top solutions available, helping you unlock the full potential of your Android device. The following are the best tools and utility apps for Android.

The best Androoid tools and utility apps

2FAS

Price: Free

2FAS is an excellent two-factor authentication app and among the best 2FA apps on mobile. It handily keeps all your two-factor authentication codes in a single place and lets you back them up for use on another device. The backups are encrypted, so it’s reasonably secure. You can also organize your tokens by what kind of websites they are. The UI is clean and easy to read as well. There’s very little wrong with this app in general. It’s excellent, and everyone should have 2FA enabled on every website or service.

Find My Device by Google

Price: Free

Find My Device is probably one of the most valuable Android tools, and it’s completely free. This app lets you pin the location of your device if it becomes lost or stolen. It’s compatible with phones, tablets, and even Wear OS smartwatches. You can also lock your device, erase it, and show a message on your device to plead to the finder to return it. It’s a free service by Google. Those who want something a little more powerful should check out Cerberus. It does a lot of the same stuff but has more features if you don’t mind paying for them.

GasBuddy

Price: Free

GasBuddy is an app that helps you find gas. You can use it to find fueling stations on long road trips. Alternatively, you can use it in the city to find the cheapest gas in your area. On top of that, the app allows you to report the gas prices at stations nearby so you can help out fellow drivers. It only works in the US, Canada, and Australia now. The lack of support for other countries is one of only one of the few downsides. This one can save you real money, and we immensely like that. However, the app may collect some user data and sell it. If you don’t like that, you may want to avoid this app.

GlassWire

Price: Free / Subscription ($39/year)

GlassWire is an excellent utility app for many reasons. It shows when apps use data. This is useful for a lot of things. Those on tiered data plans can see precisely where their data went. Additionally, it’s useful for security purposes because you can see when apps send data back to their home servers. You also get customizable data alerts, a real-time graph showing your data usage, and other customization features. The subscription plan is $39/year. 

Google Assistant / Google Search / Google Feed

Price: Free

The official Google app is one of the most powerful tools on mobile. It can do almost anything. You can ask Google Assistant for the weather or to control your smart lighting setup. Google Feed provides relevant info just for you (although that does take time to customize). We all already know the benefits of Google Search. Google was nice enough to incorporate all of that functionality in a single app, which makes it difficult not to recommend it to everybody. This is an excellent app.

Tasker

Price: $3.49

Tasker is an Android automation app that enables users to automate diverse phone tasks. It operates by creating profiles with conditions and associated actions. Tasks range from basic, like toggling Wi-Fi based on location or adjusting volume by time, to more complex, such as auto-photography at new places or sending work-related emails when running late. Tasker, though initially daunting due to its many features, offers extensive online resources for learning. Its benefits include time-saving, heightened productivity, workflow enhancement, and convenience.

HidePass

Price: Free / In-app purchases ($10.99 per item)

HidePass is one of the better password management apps. It is a secure and user-friendly password manager, offering efficient encryption through a zero-knowledge algorithm, ensuring only you can access your passwords. It provides password generation, sharing, and two-factor authentication for strong and organized password management. Another feature includes an auto logout function when idle for a certain period. It also allows you to add a secret memo, ID, website address, and description.

MiXplorer Silver

Price: $4.99

MiXplorer Silver is an excellent file browser and one of the best file explorers on Android. The base app costs $4.99 and comes with root access, various file browsing tools, support for the most popular archive files, FTP server support, and most cloud storage apps. However, you can add a variety of additional plugins for even more functionality. They include a codec pack for most video and audio files, a PDF reader plugin, a plugin with even more archive file support, and even one precisely for SMB support. The cost is a bit high for a file explorer, but you likely won’t need anything other than this for a while.

Smart Tools 2

Price: $4.50

Smart Tools 2 is a collection of small tools that use your phone sensors. The app includes a ruler, a compass, a sound meter, a unit converter, and even a QR code reader. This is one of those things where you only need something like this sometimes. For example, I once used the level function in this app to balance my washing machine. It saves you a few bucks having to go out and get a hardware version of something you may only need once or twice, and it’s helpful in a pinch when you need it. We like that it has a single cost with no subscriptions or in-app purchases.

Wifi Analyzer 

Price: Free

WiFi Analyzer helps analyze your WiFi signal and other signals around you. For most, this isn’t overly helpful information. Still, you can use the info to optimize your router, get off clogged WiFi channels, and perhaps even help improve your overall WiFi performance. It uses simple, easy-to-read graphs that virtually anyone can understand, along with a signal-measuring function and support for 2.4 and 5 GHz. It’s also entirely free.

If we missed any of the best Android tools or utility apps, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.