The best free Android apps for back to school

The arrival of October spells the definitive end of those hazy summer holidays in a lot of countries: back to school or back to the grind – whether its university or the office – for most of us. To make this transition a bit easier for you we’ve put together a selection of free Android apps – a long list with a wide variety of app categories that should cover the needs of kids and parents alike.

Alarms

No better way to start this list than with the first flicker of your eyelids in the morning. To help you get up and at ’em we’ve put together a few alarm options that are sure to bring you out from under the covers.

Timely

If you’re looking for ease of use, Timely is a great option thanks to its simplicity and pretty interface that makes quick work of setting alarms on your device. And we can’t leave out another one of its big attractions – how well it integrates with your other devices. [Download]

Alarmy

A fave trick of us who have a hard time dragging ourselves out of bed is to set a bunch of alarms to sound 5 minutes apart. But this isn’t always enough, which is why there are apps like Alarmy, an alarm that forces you to do some math or take a photo of a specific part of your house before it stops sounding. An essential in my life. [Download]

Alarmr: Wake up alarm clock

People who want to get up relaxed and chill have an option to keep in mind with Alarmr. With pleasant melodies and gradual light-up of the screen, this alarm should help you get up in the best possible mood. [Download]

Note-taking

Whether you’re making lists or jotting down an idea or important piece of info, apps that let you take notes quickly are always handy. There are tons of apps like this on Android, but we’ve picked out the ones we think are best for use in class.

Google Keep

A real treat when it comes to writing small snippets thanks to its tremendous fluidity and pretty graphics. Whether they’re images or notes, Google Keep is one of my go-to daily apps and is terrific for jotting things down. Plus its sharing options are great for moving your notes from one place to another. [Download]

ClevNote

A terrific, sober-looking tool that lets you manage all the notes you’ve taken very well. A good selection for people who want to take notes in an orderly way without any details escaping you. [Download]

Evernote

We probably don’t need to say much about Evernote, one of the most popular apps for getting organized and taking notes quickly and simply. While it may have gotten more complicated over time, what with its ever-increasing number of options, it remains one of the most popular apps of its kind, and with good reason. Its integration with devices remains its strength. [Download]

Organizers

It’s not always easy to stay clear on what you need to be doing and when, so it never hurts to have a good agenda app on your phone. We’ve made this selection taking into account the mayhem of student living, so you’ll no longer have any problems remembering when you’ve got a certain class or extracurricular meeting.

My Class Schedule

Organize your scholarly life using this helpful tool with an excellent schedule feature to ensure you never forget a single class. In addition, it’s got widgets of various sizes so you can see how your school day is organized at a glance. [Download]

Todait

Whether you’re making a shopping list or planning your study time, Todait is a good solution. As a positive point to highlight we’ve got to say that the interface is very clean and elegant, which is always nice. [Download]

Studious

If you don’t want to forget all the stuff you’ve got to do and when your deadlines are, Studious is a great choice. Plus it lets you save notes and set your class schedule so that your phone doesn’t buzz in the middle of a lecture. [Download]

Calculators

Though your Android devices have an integrated calculator, it’s always nice to look at other available options when they add features that make your life easier.

Xlythe Calculator

This calculator from Xlythe serves not just to do standard math operations, but also to make graphs in real time and convert measures. If you’ve got a smartwatch it’s sure to become one of your go-to apps thanks to its user interface. [Download]

RealCalc Scientific Calculator

One of the most popular Android calculator apps feels like a real calculator. You can do 1,001 things by tapping the buttons on the screen thanks to its many available options. If you need a scientific calculator, there’s no better choice than this app. [Download]

MalMath

If you need help with math, this is the right app. MalMath is a sort of super calculator that shows you step by step how to get to the solution. A perfect app for helping you understand math much better and learn what advanced users think about the subject, given how many things it can do. [Download]

eBook readers

Although smartphones and tablets maybe aren’t the best option for reading ebooks, the Android ecosystem has several apps that make it a bit easier. We’ve already made a collection of the best Android apps reading ebooks, but we’ve selected a few that we are think are perfect for back to school.

FBReader

This reader can read almost any ebook format you load on it (epub, rtf, doc, html, fb2, mobi, and plain text docs) and won’t bother you with any ads while you use the app. This is a proper, highly customizable classic in tons of fields, although its graphics are a wee bit old-school. [Download]

Aldiko Book Reader

We might be looking at one of the best Android ebook readers, which also works perfectly well as an organizer for your text files. Whether you’ve got got PDF or ePub files, Aldiko lets you read them in a simple way without giving you excessive problems. Plus it’s got the advantage of having a lot of titles in its catalogue. [Download]

EBookDroid

If you’re looking for an ebook reader that can read all files you throw at it, EBookDroid might be a good one to think about: DjVU, PDF, XPS, FB2, CBR, CBZ, EPUB, RTF, MOBI, AWZ3… Not many file types that this potent tool can’t handle, plus it’s customizable, allowing you to make shortcuts or change the app’s performance options. [Download]

Learn Languages

Whether you want to carry on learning your second language or learn a new one, language development is a major issue that you should never leave to the side. These apps will help you have a bit of fun while you’re doing it.

Duolingo

Nobody needs to say anything to introduce you to Duolingo, I’m sure. One of the most downloaded apps on the planet and the most popular language-learning tool. Its ease of use makes it easy for all people and age ranges, making it the perfect addition to keep improving your language chops or take your first steps in a new language. [Download]

Memrise

Lauded in 2017 as Google Play’s App of the Year, this learning platform has a superb design and a method based on content repetition for learning any of the 100 different languages included in it. The variety in its exercises is another of its virtues. [Download]

Busuu

We’re looking at a huge online community where you can interact with other users, plus learn languages with the standard exercises for this kind of app: vocab, grammar, level placement tests … Help you learn alongside other people who might motivate you to reach higher levels – that’s what this app aims to do. [Download]

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Whether you’re checking a word’s synonyms or spelling or finding its meaning, dictionaries and encyclopedias are crucial for helping you get your grounding in certain subjects.

Dictionary Linguee

This app lets you resolve any linguistic questions you have about most words in several different languages. A tremendously useful tool that also serves as a translator that’s particular strong on translating phrases within a specific context. [Download]

Wikipedia

Anybody ever not heard of Wikipedia? No, right? This tremendously popular app is a daily go-to resources for a lot of us and is also the most advanced encyclopedia in world that receives constant updates. [Download]

EveryWiki

If Wikipedia is essential, we’ve still got to admit that this app beats it on features. We’re talking about an app here, y’all, that’s based on Wikipedia itself as well as an endless number of wikis with information in a hodgepodge of different topics. If you’re still not convinced, we should mention it weighs just 2 MB, which amazingly makes it even more useful. [Download]

Audio recorders

It’s not always possible to take notes in class and this is exactly why audio recorders can be such lifesavers. They’re a terrific way to capture everything the professor has to say and then transcribe it word-for-word later on with no hassle.

Easy Voice Recorder

You often don’t need elaborate features in an app, just that it works in a simple and functional way. This is precisely how we’d describe this audio recorder, with which you can very easily record everything going on around you. [Download]

ListNote

If the idea of sitting down to transcribe everything you’ve recorded makes you tremendously listless, this app solves this problem. It automatically transcribes everything you’re hearing as its being recorded. Perfect for people who hate doing audio transcription. [Download]

Audio Recorder

This tool is the official Sony app for intuitive recording, even from devices that aren’t Sony branded. It boasts a super clean look so you can smoothly edit your recorded audio files. [Download]

Various utilities

We wrap up with a potpourri of different apps that would should prove super useful for back to school. They are tools with as much heft as the ones you’ve seen on this list – except that they’ve got unique features that we deem rather incomparable.

CamScanner – PDF Creator

Digitizing documents is on everybody’s mind these days and this app works as a simple portable scanner. Its main feature is that is supports OCR scanning, which lets you process printed text to convert unformatted plain text. [Download]

Google Translate

Having a translator on hand at all times is completely necessary and there’s no faster or simpler solution than Google’s official app. Whether it’s text or images, Google Translate helps you translate almost anything into almost any language. A proper marvel. [Download]

Remind

This is a terrifically useful app that allows for direct communication between teachers and their students (and parents). It doesn’t need a phone number, so your privacy is protected, and it lets you create notifications about projects, texts, grades, and more. A terrific app that does require active participation from all parties, but is great at what it does. [Download]

Google Drive

Storing files in the cloud can save you some headaches and there’s no better tool than Google’s for getting the job done. Whatever the file type, it’s always useful to have a shortcut to your files no matter where you are. [Download]