The right apps can transform your Android or iPhone—helping you stay organized, find your way, and enjoy your downtime. We test numerous apps each month to find the latest and greatest for your device, saving you time and storage space.
Below, we've compiled our top recommendations of the best new apps for iPhone and Android from across the year to help you get the most out of your phone. Read on to see which apps we loved in our hands-on testing.
Looking for an oldie but a goodie? Check out what apps we discovered in 2025.
Best Entertainment Apps
Deezer
A serious Spotify rival that costs less—if you're willing to pay for premium.
- Free with ads on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
- Premium is $11.99/month. Note: subscribing through Apple costs $14.99/month.
Deezer is a music streaming app with an impressive library, smart AI-built playlists, a podcast section, and a social feature for co-creating playlists with friends. The paid premium experience is a direct competitor to Spotify and Apple Music—and at $11.99/month, it undercuts both. Setup is slick: the app lets you import your existing library from Spotify or Apple Music so you're not starting from scratch.
The free tier, though, is another story. You can't choose specific tracks from your own playlists, the repeat function is disabled, and you get a limited number of skips per hour. Skip the free tier and go straight for the one-month trial to see if it's worth switching—if you're already paying for a streaming service through a bundle, it probably isn't. But on its own merits, the paid Deezer experience holds up well against anything else out there. Check out the full review for more details.
"With the paid version, I'd absolutely pick Deezer over Spotify—it's cheaper and just as good. The free tier, though, is borderline unusable if you actually want to pick your own songs."
Max McCaskill, Senior Staff Writer
Best of June 2026
Recommended by Max McCaskill
Stop Motion Studio
The stop motion app that makes serious filmmaking as easy as tapping your phone screen.
- Free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
- Premium one-time purchase costs $5.99. No account required.
Stop motion videos have always looked impossibly hard to make. Stop Motion Studio removes almost every barrier—you open the app, point your camera, and start shooting frames within ten seconds. The ghost overlay shows a faded version of your previous shot so you can line up movements precisely, and the whole thing is intuitive enough that a five-year-old can figure it out without any help.
The free version is shockingly full-featured, and the $5.99 one-time upgrade unlocks audio recording, 4K export, chroma key, and visual effects for anyone who wants to take it further. The app collects no data and requires no account—in 2026, that feels almost radical. One hardware note: on a Galaxy Z Fold5, the export button doesn't appear unless the phone is fully unfolded. Check out the full review for more details.
"This is by far the best app I've tested since joining WhistleOut. The free version alone gives you everything you need to make something genuinely impressive—and the $5.99 upgrade is one of the easiest purchases I've made."
Scott Houghton, Staff Writer
Best of June 2026
Recommended by Scott Houghton
Letterboxd
The movie lover's diary that doubles as a social network for film.
- Free with ads on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
- Pro costs $18.99/year and Patron costs $48.99/year.
Letterboxd is a social movie-logging app where you rate, review, and catalog every film you watch. The film logging feature alone is worth the download—quick star ratings, optional reviews, a watchlist for films you want to see, and a diary tracking everything you've watched over time. The more you use it and follow people with similar taste, the more the social features start to pay off.
There's a learning curve, and the initial screen can feel overwhelming with no tutorial to point you in the right direction. All watch history and reviews are fully public with no option to make them private, which is a real limitation worth knowing about before you start logging. The free version gets the job done, and at $18.99/year, Pro is a reasonable step up for anyone who uses it regularly. Check out the full review for more details.
"The more you log movies and follow friends, the richer the experience gets. But you have to accept that your watch history and reviews are fully public—there's no way around that."
Daphne Kelly, Staff Writer
Best of June 2026
Recommended by Daphne Kelly
Best Game Apps
NYT Crossplay: Play and Spell
Try this new online multiplayer word game from the New York Times.
- Free from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
With games like Wordle, Connections, Strands, and Pips, the New York Times has steadily built an impressive suite of online games. Crossplay is their newest release—a Scrabble-like online multiplayer game that finally makes NYT Games a social experience. It pits players against each other in one-on-one matchups with a redesigned board, different tile point values, and a unique endgame rule that gives both players one last scoring chance after the tile bag runs out.
You need a free NYT account to play, but no paid subscription is required. In the app, you can play friends, randomly selected opponents, or a bot, and there's a chat feature for talking trash or making new ones. It's the most social thing the Times has built, and it's completely free. Check out the full review for more details.
Best of February 2026
Recommended by Max McCaskill
Best Productivity Apps
One Sec
A screen time app that interrupts your muscle memory with a deep breath before opening distracting apps.
- Free with a premium add-on on the Google Play Store and the App Store.
- Android devices need Android 10.0 or later. iPhones need iOS 15.0 or later.
Like a lot of people, I've tried every digital-detox app under the sun. They all start with high hopes and strict barriers, and they always end the same way: with me deleting the app in a moment of weakness so I can scroll for five more minutes. One Sec works differently—instead of a hard block, it interrupts your muscle memory with a forced breath before you can open a distracting app.
After that pause, it shows you how many times you've already tried to open that specific app in the last 24 hours and asks: "Do you really want to open this?" Seeing that number is enough to make most impulses evaporate. The free version is limited to one app at a time. The annual subscription at $19.99 is where One Sec earns its keep—my advice is to test one month first, then commit if it's working. Check out the full review for more details.
Best of February 2026
Recommended by Scott Houghton
Cue
Is Cue the cure for your info overload?
- 3-day free trial available.
- Subscriptions for Pro start at $7.99/week on the Google Play Store and the App Store.
Think of Cue as a voice memo app that went to an Ivy League school. It doesn't just record audio—it listens. Cue uses AI to transcribe meetings into a word-for-word transcript, then generates a summary of key points, action items, and speaker labels. The standout feature is "Ask Cue," which lets you query your own recordings like a chatbot, turning hours of audio into a searchable database.
The 3-day trial is short, so set a reminder before you sign up. For professionals where missing a meeting detail costs money or reputation, the subscription pays for itself in time saved on typing minutes alone. Check out the full review for more details.
Best of February 2026
Recommended by Aaron Gates
Best Social Apps
Roost Social
A messaging app where your messages travel like real birds—slowly, intentionally, and beautifully.
- Free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Roost Social is one of the most clever app concepts I've come across in years. You have a rookery of birds that each travel at their real-world speed—so a message sent from Utah to Rhode Island could take three or four days to arrive, just as the bird would fly it. The result is a messaging app that forces you to be intentional about what you send, because once you release the bird, there's no taking it back.
The design is minimal and beautiful, with the focus squarely on the birds themselves—and whoever illustrated them clearly knows their ornithology. The app keeps permissions as lean as possible, requests no more than it needs, and doesn't sell any user data. If the relentless pace of group chats and instant replies has ever exhausted you, Roost Social is the antidote.
"I really enjoyed that it forced me to slow down and be intentional about what messages I'm sending. It was truly a lot of fun—and the birds are genuinely impressive."
Scott Houghton, Staff Writer
Best of June 2026
Recommended by Scott Houghton
Best Lifestyle Apps
Stompers: Step Counter & Friends
A step-tracking app that gamifies your daily movement with customizable little avatars.
- Free on the Apple App Store.
- iPhone only.
Stompers is a step counter that makes getting active much more competitive. Your steps fuel a little avatar (customizable and surprisingly charming), and a social aspect lets you track movement alongside friends. The app requires minimal permissions, only needing access to your health stats and location while using it. The app is addictive in the short term and fun to poke around in.
If you already stay on top of your steps without a reminder, Stompers probably won't add much to your routine. But for anyone who needs a little extra motivation to get moving, the avatar gamification is an effective nudge. It's available for iPhone only at the moment, though an Android version may be on the way.
"Fun and addictive—but probably not something I'd use long term. If you need a little extra push to get active, the little avatars are certainly worth a try."
Jessica Santero, Staff Writer
Best of June 2026
Recommended by Jessica Santero
BitePal
AI-powered calorie tracking that makes nutrition fun with your very own raccoon companion.
- Free to download with basic calorie tracking. BitePal Plus costs $3.99/week on the Google Play Store and the App Store.
BitePal makes calorie counting actually enjoyable, and that's saying something. Instead of manually entering every ingredient, you scan your plate and the app's AI identifies what you're eating and estimates calories and nutrients—all while feeding a virtual raccoon companion that responds to your eating habits.
I've always eaten well but never understood why I wasn't losing weight. BitePal opened my eyes to portion sizes and caloric density in a way that generic advice never could. The free version is generous enough to start building real awareness around your food choices. BitePal Plus at $3.99/week adds macro and micronutrient breakdowns plus personalized meal plans for the full picture. Check out the full review for more details.
Best of February 2026
Recommended by Jessica Santero
Board Game Stats
Track your board game plays and discover insights into your gaming habits.
- $5.99 on the Google Play Store and the App Store. Android devices need Android 6.0 or later, and iPhones need iOS 14 or later.
My wife and I had a long-running debate about who wins more at board games. I downloaded Board Game Stats to settle it—and learned my perception was completely wrong. But that turned out to be the least interesting part. What it really became was a running record of our game nights: patterns, late sessions, which friends kept coming back, and how our habits changed across the year.
Adding games is fast because the app pulls directly from BoardGameGeek, and there's a built-in score tracker so you can ditch the paper. The year-in-review feature is essentially Spotify Wrapped for board games. To unlock deeper filtering, you'll need the Challenges Expansion for an extra $5.99—slightly annoying, but reasonable in a hobby where a single game can run $80. Check out the full review for more details.
Best of January 2026
Recommended by Scott Houghton
Best Utility Apps
Seekee Ai Search and Assistant
An all-in-one AI utility featuring search, translation, document editing, and more.
- 7-day free trial available. Subscriptions are $6.99/month for Seekee Plus or $9.99/month for Seekee Pro. Available on Android and iPhone.
Seekee packs a lot into one app: AI-powered search, content writing, image editing, PDF conversion, document scanning, multilingual translation, and voice-to-text transcription. Having all these tools under one roof saves time and cuts down on how many separate subscriptions you're managing. The audio transcription and translation features are highlights, and the AI horoscope and tarot readings are a quirky bonus you won't find anywhere else.
For serious AI work, a premium ChatGPT subscription is still the stronger call. But for casual users who want simplicity over raw power, Seekee is a surprisingly capable Swiss Army knife. Give the 7-day trial a go and see if the all-in-one approach fits your routine. Check out the full review for more details.
Best of January 2026
Recommended by Jessica Santero
Best Finance Apps
Origin
An AI-powered budgeting app that can answer questions about your finances.
- Free 7-day trial from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. After the trial, it's $12.99/month or $99/year.
Origin is an AI-powered budgeting app that connects to your financial accounts via Plaid and automatically tracks your spending, predicts monthly bills, categorizes expenses, and calculates your net worth. Origin gets read-only access to your accounts—it can view the numbers but can't move or adjust anything.
The AI financial advisor is the standout feature. I asked it to find ways to pay off my car loan faster, then challenged it to build a budget for moving to a more expensive city while keeping my retirement strategy intact—it built one instantly and flagged exactly where I'd struggle. According to its FAQs, the app uses AES 256-bit encryption, the same standard most banks use. If you just need a crash course on your budget, you can probably get what you need from the 7-day free trial. Check out the full review for more details.
Best of January 2026
Recommended by Max McCaskill
Best Travel Apps
GoPaddling
A crowdsourced map of paddling locations that makes it easy to find your next launch spot.
- Free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
GoPaddling is a crowdsourced map of kayaking, canoeing, and paddleboarding launch points across the country—and it's completely free with no premium tier. Instead of cross-referencing multiple websites and local Facebook groups, you get a single map of every paddling location in your area. I used it to plan a trip through the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina and found a launch point several miles inside the refuge that had no signage at all—something I never would have found any other way.
Since locations are user-submitted, some entries are missing details that make it hard to tell whether a spot is an official launch or just someone's informal pull-off on the side of the road. The app does include ads, but they're not intrusive and there are no pop-ups that temporarily disable the app. No account is needed to browse, and you only need to create one (free) to submit or edit locations.
"GoPaddling is the perfect app for kayakers to find new locations in their area. I've already recommended it to several people I kayak with, and they've all added it to their devices."
Max McCaskill, Senior Staff Writer
Best of June 2026
Recommended by Max McCaskill
Jessica Santero
Staff Writer
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