One of the best things about Android is that apps have a lot more freedom compared to those found on iPhones.
Today, most apps launch on both Android and iOS, but the most interesting Android apps are exclusive to Android because they do something Apple wouldn't allow.
From an app that lets you message your friends while still watching Netflix to an app that lets you hack your smartphone's LED lights for custom notifications, you're guaranteed to find something new. Here's our pick of Android apps that will make your iPhone-owning friends jealous.
1. Muzei
Muzei turns your Android phone's home screen into a "living museum." It is a live wallpaper app that changes your home screen into a different famous work of art each day.
Price: Free
2. HoverChat
HoverChat is a messaging app that lets you continue your conversations even while you're using another app or watching a movie. By resizing and deciding how transparent you want the messaging window to be, you can customize your messaging to fit what you're up to.
Price: Free
3. Google Keep
Google Keep is a flexible note-taking and reminders app. You can colour-code your notes and take pictures from within the app, and if you record a voice memos on the go, the app will automatically transcribe it for you.
Price: Free
4. Cover
Cover removes the hassle of searching through pages of apps to find what you're looking for. Instead, Cover senses whether you're at home, work or driving, and puts the apps you use most during those times right on your lockscreen.
Price: Free
5. Light Flow
If your phone has an LED light for notifications, Light Flow will let you assign a custom colour for when you receive a text, email, phone call, calendar reminder or even when you're running low on battery.
Price: Free
6. Cerberus Anti-Theft
Cerberus does a lot more than just let you track your stolen device. You can control it remotely using the website or via text message, sound an alarm even in silent mode, wipe everything, lock the device with a code, record audio from the mic, see a list of sent and recieved calls and even hide the Cerberus app so the thief doesn't notice it.
Price: Free trial, 2.99 one-time upgrade
7. Lux Auto Brightness
Lux lets you tweak your phone's brightness settings. You can lower the screen's brightness below zero for reading at night, and there's Night Mode that can be turned on automatically at sunset.
Price: $3.80
8. Locale
Locale is an automation app, meaning you can customize how your phone behaves based on where you are, who calls, how much the battery life is, the orientation of your phone or the time. For example, you can set it up so you silence your phone by turning it over or turn down the brightness automatically when your battery life hits 20%.
Price: $9.99
9. Google's Sky Map
Sky Map was created by Google to help people learn more the stars above them. By pointing your phone up to the sky, you can see what constellation you're looking at.
Price: Free
10. Link Bubble Browser
Link Bubble Browser is all about saving time. When you click on a link online, the app will load it in the background, leaving you free to continue browsing. Once it's done loading, just tap the link bubble and you'll see the fully-loaded page.
Price: Free
11. VLC
VLC media player is the best way to watch video without worrying if your phone or browser supports that particular file format.
Price: Free
12. TTorrent
tTorrent is a peer-to-peer app that makes browsing and downloading torrents easy and it comes with all the bells and whistles of other popular torrenting programs.
Price: Free
13. Mighty Text
Mighty Text allows you to send and receive SMS text messages with your computer or tablet, which is great when you're in work mode and can't glance at your phone. It also works from within Gmail.
Price: Free
14. Tasker
With over 200 built-in actions, Tasker is another great app for deciding what your phone will do when a certain "action" occurs. You can create custom actions based on the app, time, day, location, event, widget, or shortcut, and there's even an built-in platform for creating and selling your own app.
Price: $2.99
15. UCCW
UCCW allows you to design your own widget for your homescreen. You simply choose from one of the many skins to create your own look and then choose what the widget displays, with options for text, images, weather, clocks, calendar, battery info, missed calls, Gmail and more.
Price: Free
