There’s a wealth of productivity apps available on Android, with almost all the big names you can probably think of accounted for, along with loads of lower profile options. But if you want to be productive then you definitely don’t want to be stressing over clunky, glitchy, or feature-light software that doesn’t suit your needs.
So — while there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity — I’ve listed five of my favorite such apps, which should serve you well if they suit your needs.
You’ll find all of these below, listed in no particular order, and covering various aspects of productivity, including to-do lists, research, creating and collaborating on documents, and backing data up.
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1. Perplexity
(Image credit: Perplexity)
AI while not without its flaws can be a major boon to productivity, as — among other things — it can answer questions and assist with research, finding details that might take you a lot longer to dig up on your own.
And while Gemini or ChatGPT would probably be most people’s first choice for this, I tend to favor Perplexity.
There are a few reasons for that, including that you’re not limited to one company’s AI model here. Instead you can choose from a number of them, depending on your needs and preferences.
For another, Perplexity cites sources for all of its answers, without having to be specifically asked to. This to me is vital, since AI often gets things wrong, so this makes it easy to check the information.
2. Google Docs
(Image credit: Google)
There’s a high chance you’re already using Google Docs, but if not — and if you ever need to create or edit documents — then you probably should.
It’s especially good for collaboration, allowing you to share documents and work on them alongside others, even with the ability to all view and edit the documents at the same time. It’s also possible to add and respond to comments on a document, so suggestions can be made allowing for in-document discussion before anything is changed.
And you can be reassured that a system crash won’t lead to lost work, as everything is saved to the cloud automatically, with changes saved as you type.
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Plus, while Google Docs works best online, you’re still able to create and edit documents without an internet connection — though you’ll have to ensure you’ve made the files you need available offline first.
3. Notion
(Image credit: Notion Labs, Inc.)
Notion is basically an all-in-one productivity app, capable of housing to-do lists, notes, documents, projects, and more.
It goes heavy on AI, with things like the ability to transcribe and summarize meeting notes, and ask its built-in AI for suggestions to improve your workflow.
Notion also has lots of tools for collaboration, so whether you’re looking for productivity tools as an individual or part of a team, this could be a good fit.
4. Microsoft To Do
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Notion is great if you want it all, but if all you really want is a to-do list app then Microsoft To Do is a very strong option.
This is an attractive, simple app that lets you create multiple lists, set reminders, star important tasks, and invite others to view and collaborate on lists.
It has a dark mode, the option to personalize individual lists with different themes, and there’s a daily planner, and like all good productivity apps it syncs across devices.
5. Proton Drive
(Image credit: Proton)
There’s nothing productive about losing files, so having a good backup system is vital, and Proton Drive is one of the strongest choices if you also care about privacy.
This is end-to-end encrypted, meaning that even Proton can’t view your content, and it uses open-source code, so people have checked and verified it.
Photos and videos can be set to automatically back up, and you can also back up other file types such as documents. You can secure the app with a PIN or biometric protection, and if you choose to share content, you can do so via secure links with passwords and expiration settings.
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