Best Android apps 2016: The apps you NEED on your Android handset

There's a lot to sort through on Google Play. Thankfully, we're here to alleviate the pain and deliver a definitive list of the best Android apps you can stuff onto your phone's internal memory or microSD card. We've listed the essential apps your phone just has to have, as well as the best social, entertainment, fitness, travel, and productivity apps.
If you have any suggestions for apps we’ve missed, get in touch through the comments below or reach us on samiullah1023@gmail.com

Best Android apps 2016: Essential apps

1. Avast Antivirus & Security (free; with in-app purchases)

Avast Antivirus & Security is a powerful antivirus app that you can trust; its PC counterpart is one of the best free antiviruses of 2015. For those who want comprehensive cover, plenty of additional features are available as in-app purchases, including geofencing and remote data recovery. For those who just want basic protection, however, you’ll find this does everything you need for free.

2. Greenify (free)

Getting the most from your phone’s battery is always key. Lollipop may have its own set of battery-saving tools, and many phones now offer power-saving modes, but these should be seen as a last resort.

Greenify sits in the background helping to regulate how much battery various apps are using. It freezes the apps you tell it to when you’re not using them, and instantly defrosts them when you need to gain access.

3. Clean Master (free)

Nobody likes having a slow device, and Android somehow manages to grab digital detritus like a magnet in a junkyard. Clean Master is the mop and bucket you need to scrub your phone or tablet clean.

Clean Master’s Junk File Cleaning feature scans your Android device and chucks out any unwanted cache and residual files. 

4. Tasker (£2.99)

If you really want to tinker with Android, Tasker is a brilliant way of automating much of the functions you'd normally do manually. It takes a little getting your head around, but the scope here is enormous - especially if you have root access on your phone. 

You can train your phone to open Spotify when you put your headphones in, for example, or automatically respond to texts with your street address. If you can feed it the instructions, Tasker can automate the rest.

5. Opera Max (free)

Unless you’re lucky enough to have unlimited data on your phone, or a bottomless wallet, you’ll want to get the most out of your data package.

This is where Opera Max comes in. It crunches down the size of images and videos, speeds up website load times, and typically saves you from around a third to almost half of your general data use. You can restrict some apps to only ever connect via Wi-Fi, and temporarily turn off connections if you want to save some data for the end of the month.

6. Pocket (free)

Found an article you like but want to read it later, when you may not have an internet connection? Pocket is the solution to your problem.

Allowing you to save articles and videos to read and watch later across any Pocket-enabled device, you’ll never be short of something to read or share again. It’s the perfect distraction for Tube journeys, flights and those long train trips in signal black holes.