10 Of The Best Free Android Apps You Haven’t Heard Of

Android is the most popular mobile operating system around today. Over 72% of smartphone users rely on it – not just because it’s affordable, but because it allows users to customize the OS and gives them access to a seemingly unlimited selection of apps. Android users are spoiled for choice, especially when it comes to free apps. However, the sheer number of free apps means that some of the best ones never get the attention they deserve.

Open the Play Store, and you’ll see popular apps like Spotify, TikTok, and WhatsApp right on the home page. But in the shadow of those heavy-hitters is a long list of hidden gems that do just as much, sometimes more, for free. You can find file managers that easily outperform your phone’s default file app, or image editors that rival Adobe’s lineup. And with rising subscription costs and privacy concerns around big-name apps, smaller developers end up offering better value.

We’ve covered essential Android apps you should be using in 2025, so let’s talk about ten amazing free apps that you’ve probably never heard of before.  Each of the following free apps has been selected for its ability to solve real problems, and each has at least a 4.0 rating in the Play Store.

Upon first launching Solid Explorer File Manager, you will immediately notice its dual-pane layout, which makes moving or copying multiple files a lot more intuitive. Rather than hunting for your destination folder each time, this layout lets you drag and drop between two side-by-side windows. But that’s not even its best feature. Solid Explorer connects to cloud drives like OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox, allowing for easy transfer between your device and your preferred cloud storage.

It can manage files across your device’s main storage, SD card, external USB storage, and even has NAS support for accessing files on your local network. Solid Explorer lets you rename large batches of files with naming patterns, so you can have unique names for each file. The app also supports AES encryption (password and fingerprint) for securing private files and folders, and supports file archival

Solid Explorer features a built-in image viewer, music player, and text editor. And if you like to customize your apps, the app provides multiple themes and icon sets. While it’s completely free to use, the developers offer paid add-ons for advanced features on the Google Play Store. With a 4.3-star rating from 150K reviewers, it’s clear that its users are very much satisfied with this file management app.

Most people have no real idea where their money disappears each month. The highly rated — 4.8 stars – Cashew app solves this problem by giving Android users straightforward expense tracking, along with pie charts and bar graphs that can reveal spending patterns. It offers flexible budgeting with monthly, weekly, or custom time frames, and can manage multiple currencies with up-to-date conversion rates.

One extremely useful feature Cashew offers is subscription and recurring transaction tracking with timely reminders. This means you will no longer forget that you are still paying for all the top streaming services you signed up for, or miss a payment deadline that triggers late fees. All your data is backed up with Google Drive, so information is safe within your account and synced across all your devices.

Aside from a prompt to purchase the Pro version for some features, the Cashew app is entirely ad-free. And with open-source code and a permissive license, tech-savvy users can grab the source code from GitHub and tinker with it all they want.

Ever held the urge to visit the restroom when watching a movie in the theater because you don’t want to miss the action? With RunPee, you know exactly the best times to pee for popular movies, without missing important scenes. When there’s a lull in the action, the built-in timer will alert you with a vibration that doesn’t disturb other moviegoers. It also tells you what you missed while you were gone, and informs you of any post-credit scenes, so you don’t leave the theater early.

In the nine years since its launch, the app has grown into a pseudo-review platform for 3D movies, featuring ratings and polls that show users’ opinions on the quality of its 3D implementation. With over 500K downloads, a 4.7 rating, and recommendations across multiple subreddits, RunPee has proved its usefulness among fans who are serious about their movie time.

The app is completely free to use with no ads or premium-locked features, and is regularly updated by its developers. RunPee’s database contains over 1300 movies and is constantly growing with new releases.

Your online activity is constantly being tracked, which is why Orbot takes privacy to the next level by connecting your Android device to the Tor network. It’s not a separate internet, but rather a network of volunteer-run servers scattered around the world. When you browse the internet with Orbot, your traffic is encrypted three times over and bounced between these servers, making it extremely difficult — if not impossible — to track your activity.

You can route your entire device through Tor using the VPN feature, or pick specific apps to protect individually. Setting it up is very simple. Install the app, open VPN mode, then choose which apps need the encrypted connection. Orbot also lets you host your own Onion Services, which are anonymous mini websites that can only be accessed through the browser. Anyone monitoring your network can only tell you’re using Tor, not what you’re actually doing.

Orbot is completely free with no ads or subscription and has a 4.0 rating. The code is open-source, so security researchers can verify it’s doing what it claims. It’s worth noting that the speeds are noticeably slower than standard VPNs because of all that encryption and routing, but that’s the trade-off for the strong anonymity the app provides.

Libby connects you with your local library’s digital collection so you can borrow eBooks, audiobooks, and magazines using your library card. OverDrive built this app to give you instant access to your library’s catalog without leaving home.

To borrow a book, find your library by name, city, or zip code, then sign in to your account with your library card number. If you don’t have a card, you may be in luck, as some libraries let you sign up for one right inside the Libby app. Once you’re all set up, you can browse your library’s collections, tap on any title to see details about the publication. The app lets you download books for offline reading, adjust the text size, zoom in and out, and bookmark pages. If you own an Amazon Kindle, you can also use Libby to push your favorite books to your device, which is why it’s one of the free apps that every Kindle owner needs.

Each loan period is set by your library, and books return automatically when time’s up — so you never have to worry about late fees. In August 2025, Libby added an optional AI-powered Inspire Me feature that suggests books based on your reading history or simple prompts. The app is completely free with no ads or subscription and has a 4.8-star rating.

It’s common to need basic photo editing software to resize images for email attachments, convert file formats, or compress photos without destroying quality. Image Toolbox handles these common tasks with pixel-perfect precision. The app supports conversions between most major file formats, including JPEG, PNG, WEBP, and even the newer JXL format, which matters when you’re dealing with different platforms that accept different file types.

Beyond the basics, Image Toolbox packs in over 160 filters that you can layer together for custom effects. The OCR feature extracts text from images in more than 120 languages with adjustable precision levels, useful for pulling text from screenshots or scanned documents. You can remove backgrounds automatically or by manually selecting an area, add watermarks, create image collages, and even encrypt files. Many of these features can be applied to multiple images in a batch.

Image Toolbox has a 4.7 rating, is completely free with no ads, and is one of the Android apps you should always install first on new phones. The developer relies on donations to keep it running, and users consistently praise the advanced feature set with no aggressive monetization.

Voice assistants can handle basic tasks like sending messages or setting reminders, but they can’t execute more specific automations. MacroDroid lets you build custom automation workflows, called macros, that respond to exactly the conditions you set. Want your phone to automatically switch to airplane mode when you arrive at the office, or turn off Bluetooth when your battery drops below 20%? MacroDroid offers over 80 triggers, including GPS location, battery level, app events, and timers, combined with more than 100 actions for volume control, Wi-Fi toggling, messaging, and notifications.

Each macro consists of a trigger that starts the automation, an action that executes when triggered, and optional constraints that control when the macro runs. For example, you could set your phone to send an auto-reply text when you miss calls — but only during work hours and only when you’re at the office. Setting it up is a little technical, which is why MacroDroid offers a Wizard that guides beginners through the configuration process. You can also use existing templates created by the developers and more experienced users.

The free version is rated at 4.4 stars and lets you create up to five macros with occasional ads while using the app interface — there is a Pro version that removes all ads and unlocks unlimited macros for a small one-time fee. The app even provides a Wear OS companion app, allowing you to run some macros and control your phone with the watch.

Hermit lets you turn websites into lightweight “Lite Apps” that function like regular Android apps but use almost no storage and don’t run in the background. Instead of installing the full app, which can be several megabytes in size, you create web-based versions that are just a few kilobytes while keeping almost all functionality. Each Lite App runs in its own window with custom icons and settings, not a browser tab like Google Chrome’s Install Web App feature.

Hermit includes built-in ad blocking, dark mode, and even a desktop mode that works on a per-app basis. Frameless mode lets you get rid of the top bar above the website, while the built-in malware protection blocks suspicious sites and loads web pages faster. The app even includes native integrations that make Lite Apps feel like Android apps, such as notifications and in-app search.

Most features work free with no ads or data collection, though premium unlocks advanced features like sandboxes, custom user agents and scripts, and reader mode. Some users have reported bugs with the interface and some websites, but the developer actively troubleshoots these issues when reported. If you’re tired of bloated apps draining resources and you want a lightweight alternative, then Hermit is the way to go. Hermit has a 4.6 rating and over a million downloads.

People tend to reuse the same passwords across dozens of accounts — but when one website gets breached, all other accounts become vulnerable. Even if you do use unique passwords, it’s one of the things you should never keep in cloud storage, which makes remembering them difficult. You don’t have to worry about any of that with Bitwarden, which allows you to easily create and use unique passwords without having to memorize any of them. It stores an unlimited amount of passwords, passkeys, and secure notes with end-to-end encryption, syncing everything across all your devices. 

The app uses AES-256-bit encryption with salted hashing to keep your data secure, which means even if Bitwarden is hacked, your passwords are secure. The built-in password generator creates long, complex passwords for every account, and autofill works across Android apps and websites so you’re not inputting anything manually. Bitwarden Send lets you share passwords or sensitive text with others through encrypted links that expire after a set time. It offers multiple two-factor authentication options to secure your login, including an authenticator app, emailed codes, and hardware security keys.

BitWarden supports over 50 languages and works cross-platform on Android, desktop, and the browser. It’s completely free with no ads and comes with a 4.8 rating. If you ever need encrypted file storage or security reports, you can opt for the premium version at just $10 per year.

Some eBook readers push you toward specific ecosystems or require accounts before you can read anything. Others interrupt your reading every few pages with unskippable ads. ReadEra is not only free, it comes with a high 4.8 rating and commits to never showing ads or locking you out of core features with in-app purchases. The app supports nearly all document formats, including PDF, EPUB, MOBI, DOC/DOCX, and TXT.

ReadEra automatically detects books and documents on your device (or in specific folders if you want faster scanning), organizing them by author, series, or format so you’re not hunting through folders. It can even look into zip archives to find books without you manually unzipping them. You can read multiple items simultaneously with a split-screen display, or switch between documents using the Android task manager. Customization options include adjustable font sizes, line spacing, margins, page modes, and themes.

The app supports bookmarks, text highlighting, notes, text-to-speech, and even translation for foreign languages. There’s no cloud storage or internet access required since it reads all books directly from your storage and remembers your position even if you move or delete files.

These apps were selected based on personal experience, recommendations from Reddit’s Android forums, and digging through the “Similar Apps” section of the Play Store. We set out to find tools that make your phone more useful, but don’t carry the complaints, cost, or performance issues of mainstream alternatives.

Each app presented here fixes a real, everyday problem that popular apps tend to overcomplicate, like automation, privacy, or UI navigation. Only free apps available on the Google Play Store were considered, though some have optional premium features. However, we ensured that the most useful functionalities are completely free to use.

We only included apps that had at least a 4.0 rating backed by thousands of reviews, or had over 500K downloads with lots of recommendations from user forums. These apps are still getting updates and bug fixes, and don’t flood you with ads or require invasive permissions. In short, they not only earned their place because they’re relatively unknown, but also because they do their job better than the big names.