Don’t waste your time and storage on installing rubbish, ad-stuffed mobile apps. Robert Irvine recommends 25 of the most useful free tools for your phone and tablet
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Stream and download thousands of radio stations and podcasts
• Use a free photo editor that doesn’t charge for premium tools
• Edit and sign PDF documents directly on your mobile device
• Share files instantly between your Android and iOS devices
• Download maps of entire countries to explore offline for free
• Encrypt your mobile internet connection with a single tap
• Compare your phone’s processing power with similar devices
The news that Microsoft is ditching the option to install Android apps in Windows 11 (see page 9) is neither surprising nor disappointing, partly because we use software differently on our PCs and mobile devices.
Free programs you download to your desktop can be tested once and then forgotten about – provided they don’t misbehave in the background. But the more limited storage and smaller screen space on your phone or tablet mean every app needs to count, and superfluous tools can be a nuisance, especially when you tap them accidentally and they open full screen.
For this reason, most of us uninstall Android and iOS apps we don’t like within minutes of trying them. They might be free, but there’s no point hanging on to apps you’ll never use again at the expense of valuable space on your device.
To save you the trouble of installing and removing rubbish apps, we’ve tested hundreds of new and updated tools in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to bring you the cream of the crop.
To refine our selection, we’ve focused on apps that are completely free to use, don’t lock premium features behind paid-for subscriptions and are free of annoying adverts.
We’ve avoided all the obvious choices that you probably use already so we can bring you 25 fantastic tools you may not have heard of, but won’t regret downloading.
AUDIO, PHOTO & VIDEO APPS
Audials Play
Android www.snipca.com/49631 iOS www.snipca.com/49632 Licensing restrictions in the UK limit the number of international stations you can listen to in radio-streaming apps, and the BBC now prevents third-party services from including its stations – encouraging you to use its BBC Sounds service instead.
So thank goodness for Audials Play, which delivers an enormous choice of audio entertainment for free – and with no ads littering its layout. It feat
