Pimp My Android: The best replacements for Android’s default apps
The great thing about Android is that you're not forced into using anything; if you don't like the default SMS app, you can just delete it and download a different one. Here are a few of our favourite alternatives to Android's default apps.
By Alex Choros
The great thing about Android is that you're not forced into using anything; if you don't like the default SMS app, you can just delete it and download a different one. Here are a few of our favourite alternatives to Android's default apps.
Hello SMS
Free
Hello SMS is a streamlined messaging app that does away with the "inbox" and replaces it with a simple tabbed interface. The app makes messaging much faster, and it's striking minimalism looks great!
Camera FV-5
$3.75
Camera FV-5 is designed to give smartphone photographers DSLR-like manual controls. The app is design for enthusiasts and pros, and it shows: the amount of options FV-5 gives photographers is almost a little overwhelming! Users are able to manually set exposure time, exposure compensation, ISO and colour temperature; it's even possible to take time-lapses and long exposure shots. FV-5 is perfect for those who want to get a little more of out their smartphone cameras.
Minuum
$3.99
Minuum is a hyper-predictive, minimalistic keyboard reminiscent of the T9 days. The app shrinks down the keyboard to just one row, and actually encourages fast, sloppy typing. While there's a bit of a learning curve, Minuum is surprisingly good at predicting at what you want to write and can genuinely speed up the typing process. For those not quite sold on the idea, a 30 day free trial is available.
CloudMagic
Free
CloudMagic is a gesture based email client that supports Exchange, Outlook, Gmail, iCloud and IMAP accounts. The app looks great, gesture navigation is super simple and intuitive, and threaded conversation view is super useful. To top it off, CloudMagic is able to seamless integrate with other apps such as Evernote and OneNote, and works pretty well with Android Wear.
Poweramp
$4.45
Poweramp is one of the most powerful and flexible music players available for Android. The app rocks a 10-band equaliser, allows for bass and treble adjustments and supports custom themes. On top of this, Poweramp supports almost every type of music file you could ever want to play, whether it's mp3, m4a, ogg, flac or even aiff. A 15 day free trial is available.
Tidy
Free
Tidy makes organising photos a snap, or more appropriately, a swipe. Simple gesture based controls make it easy to group photos into albums and avoid the comparably messy default gallery. Tidy can group your photo by time, place or shapes, and will look good while doing it.
