10 best utility apps that I use, you should too.
This is the list of apps that I use, you should also start using them. And hey…these are FREE ;)
1. Bitwarden
Let’s kick things off with a password manager. Everybody in this internet world maintains a lot of accounts online, it becomes a pain to remember passwords for all those accounts. That makes a lot of people reuse their passwords for multiple accounts which is a big threat to the security of their accounts. This is why one must use a password manager.
For someone, who wants to use a password manager but does not want to spend bucks on it, Bitwarden is a great choice. It is an open-source password manager. Which means it is completely free to use. Also as it is open source it is very secure to use. All the passwords were stored securely using AES 256bit encryption, sync across all your devices.
Bitwarden can also autofill your passwords. So you need not copy and paste your passwords. So Bitwarden is a great choice to get started with password managers. Give it a try.
2. Authy
As we are talking about online security, let’s talk about another most important app everyone should be using i.e Authenticator app.
If your password got compromised by the hacker, adding a 2-factor authentication will restrict the hacker from getting access to your account by adding an additional layer of security. It provides 2FA tokens that change once every 30 seconds. So only the person who has access to the 2FA token can get access to the account.
The best and cheap way to add a 2FA to your account is to use an Authenticator app. My app of choice is Authy. It does everything an authenticator app should do. Also, it backs up all the 2FA tokens to the cloud using E2E encryption, so your tokens are so safe in the cloud, ready to get synced across your devices.
3. ProtonVPN
You can find a plethora of free VPN apps on the play store but not all of them are secure. Some VPNs come with a very shady privacy policy. Some VPNs keep logs of their users which clearly damages the motto of using a VPN. But there are a few VPN apps that are free and secure. The one that stands out for me is ProtonVPN.
ProtonVPN is an open-source VPN app based in Switzerland(which has a very transparent privacy policy). It does not keep any logs of its users, offers unlimited bandwidth which is unlikely. In the free tier, it has only three countries (United States, Japan, and the Netherlands), which is good enough for most users.
4. Blokada
Let’s just face it, everybody hates ads. Even though they are the main source of revenue for most creators, we just hate them. Blokada is an app that blocks these annoying ads, trackers on your browser. It does not block ads on Youtube but blocks most of the ads on the browser. Also, it’s open-source soo hey it’s a win there.
5. Glasswire
Glasswire is a network monitoring app that enables you to monitor which apps are connected to the internet and the bandwidth they are using. This will be extremely useful in situations when the network meter on your smartphone is ramping up like crazy and you don’t know which app is using all that bandwidth.
All the basic functionality on this app is completely free to use. So that’s a win.
6. Microsoft Todo
Todo apps help us not forget things by reminding us of them. They need to be as simple as possible to become a part of our daily life. One such simple Todo that I found is Microsoft Todo. It has a very simple UI that just gets the work done. Also creating tasks is very easy, gets synced across devices.
It is really very good choice for those looking for a Todo app that is not overwhelming.
7. Feedly
We surely have a bunch of news sites that we visit daily to be updated in our niche. Opening each and every website can be a bit of a pain. Well... Feedly is here to remove the pain for you. It is a news aggregator app that aggregates articles from all your favorite websites and organizes them in one place, so you don’t need to keep switching between tabs. It is a free app so feel free to check it out.
8. Adobe Scan
Scanning documents has become very important for students nowadays. Adobe scan is the document scanner app that I always find myself coming back to. It is a free app, has no ads in the interface. It automatically detects the pages and scans them. All the scans will be automatically backed up to the Adobe Document Cloud. It can also perform OCR(Optical Character Recognition).
9. Deepstash
For people who love reading books but are lazy enough, Deepstash provides motivational ideas and summaries from a lot of various books, articles, and podcasts. You can set a target for n ideas every day so that the app will remind you if you ever forget to take your motivational dose. Also, you maintain a motivational streak by reaching your target dose every day. It is just a great way to be motivated every day. So definitely give this app a try.
10. Medium
And finally… if you want to write blogs as I did, Medium is a great platform for that. It provides a very good interface and tools for customizing your blog. Plus… if you are in an eligible country, you can even monetize your blogs.
