50 best apps for Windows Phone

Whether you’re a Windows Phone newbie or have owned a Lumia for a few years, be sure to get in on all the app action.

Whether you’re a Windows Phone newbie or have owned a Lumia for a few years, be sure to get in on all the app action.

With access to the Windows Phone Store, your Lumia 1020, Lumia 830, Lumia 735, Lumia 1520, or any other Windows Phone can be full of all the essential apps in no time.

How many apps do you need to get started? Well, we’ve gathered 50! Let’s start with a couple of preinstalled apps.

Microsoft Office

Stepping away from the desk doesn’t always mean we’re off the clock. It’s probably not unusual for a work document to land in your inbox just as you’re about to jump on the bus home.

Thankfully, with your Windows phone and Microsoft Office, you can review, edit, or even create new documents on the go.

OneNote

Preinstalled onto all Windows phones, OneNote is your digital notebook. You can add photos, videos, audio clips, as well as any text . Oh, it’s also great for creating to-do lists.

Transfer my Data

If you are new to Windows Phone and are coming from (almost) any other phone, this app is a must. It’ll copy all of your contacts from your old phone to your new one in no time.

Instagram

Taking photos on your Windows Phone is only half the fun. Next, you’ll probably want to add a filter, maybe a frame, and share it with your friends. For that, there’s Instagram.

Facebook

Everyone is on Facebook these days. If your friends are doing something interesting, you’ll learn about it on this social-media site. With Facebook on your Windows Phone, you can update your status, read what others are up to, and stay connected to the people who matter most to you.

Lumia Camera

Take charge of your camera to take photos like a pro. With Lumia Camera, you can alter exposure, shutter times, focus and create action shots with its advanced features.

Blue Skies

Is it going to rain today? How about in four minutes? Blue Skies shows hyper-local forecasts via a simple, clean interface.

Lumia Creative Studio

Use a range of filters to give a professional finish to your photos and blur the background to add depth–all without ever losing the original photo.

Twitter

Twitter is often the place where news breaks first. Remain up-to-date with your favourite celebs, brands, friends or family, with short, easy to digest 140-character updates with this official app.

Tweetit

If you prefer to stray from the official Twitter app, TweetIt is a great-looking app with beautiful animations and a clean user interface.

Netflix

If you love streaming movies or TV shows, you’ll love Netflix. As a subscription service, you can catch up with your favorite shows whether you’re on the bus, the couch, or wherever you have an Internet connection.

News

Read the day’s top stories and breaking news from the best news media sources. Plus, easily stay up to date on any topic you care about, from global events to local news.

Bing Translator

How do you say, “Marry me?” in French? What’s that word on this foreign language menu? What did the tour guide just say? Bing Translator has all the answers.

Xbox One SmartGlass

If you own an Xbox One, you’ll absolutely need this. With this app, you can navigate your Xbox One using your Windows Phone’s keyboard and touch interface, search, browse and pin content to play on your console, share and post activity feed items and more.

Skype

Make free Skype-to-Skype video and voice calls as well as send instant messages to friends and family around the world.

OneDrive

OneDrive is your cloud storage service where you can save photos, videos, and files, all accessible from PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone.

WeChat

Popular all over the world, WeChat helps connect people together via Instant Messaging. Whether you’re communicating one-to-one or to a group, you can send text-based, voice and video messages to all your friends.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Although this doesn’t have all features of Photoshop (it is a smartphone version, after all) this app is very useful nonetheless. Edit your photos on-the-go by cropping, rotating, or flipping, as well as removing red eye, adjusting shadows, contrast, vibrancy and much more.

Flipboard

Flipboard is your personal magazine and it’s the best way to catch up on news around the world or to dive deeply into specific topics. We even have our own Lumia Conversations magazine.

Vine

Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way then share them with your friends and family on Vine, Twitter and Facebook.

Afterlight

With 57 customizable filters and wide array of tools (such as “clarify,” “brightness,” “saturation,” “grain”), Afterlight is a powerful but easy-to-use photo editor that fits into the palm of your hand.

Spotify

Tune in to your favorite artists and albums or use your favorite songs to create your own playlists. Alternatively, you can listen to any one of ready-made playlists available.

miCoach Train & Run

If you’ve got a Lumia with new SensorCore technology, this app can collect personalized data such as GPS location, speed and even steps taken in a highly efficient, low-power way.

BBM

BBM is another popular instant-messaging app where you can send messages, pictures, voice notes and more to other BBM users across different platforms.

#1 ToolKit

Here’s quick access to a ruler, compass, protractor, level, flashlight, unit converter and more–all in one very useful app.

Uber

With support in more than 40 countries, Uber can order your very own private driver at a press of a button. Payments are all handled electronically within the app, so there’s no need to carry cash.

Office Lens

Use you smartphone’s camera to capture receipts, whiteboards, business cards, and other documents in a readable and accessible way. Images are saved to OneNote and can be converted to Word or PowerPoint files.

Video Tuner

Once you’ve filmed your video, edit it right on your Lumia. Apply filters, add music, trim, crop, rotate, flip, mirror, change speed, and adjust exposure, contrast, saturation and volume to make stunning videos.

Health & Fitness

Find more than 1,000 exercise and workout videos, a nutritional and medical reference, and trackers for diet and exercise to help you meet your health goals. This app also makes use of SensorCore technology.

Amazon App

Everybody uses Amazon to buy something: books, console games, PCs, clothing, new smartphones. Whatever you buy from Amazon, this app makes the process quicker and easier.

PayPal

Many people, even businesses, use PayPal to send and receive payments. PayPal on your Windows Phone means you can send and request money on the go.

Mint

Mint pulls in all your personal finance accounts into one place, helping you manage your money from anywhere. Track your spending, create a budget, and save more.

HERE Drive +

HERE Drive offers turn-by-turn voice guided navigation with offline maps, meaning you’ll always get to your destination without an Internet connection.

Wikipedia

Love Wikipedia? Is it your go-to place for learning everything? Try the Wikipedia app with offline mode, Cortana support, social and NFC sharing.

Dictionary

With more than 100,000 words and definitions, Dictionary is an interactive English Dictionary.

Metrotube

If you like nothing more than watching cats play piano or dogs skateboard down a street, you’ll need Metrotube.

Weave News Reader

Exclusive to Windows Phone, Weave is an RSS newsreader that delivers news from any website or blog.

Nextgen Reader

A fast, clean and beautiful RSS reader for both Windows and Windows Phone, NextGen provides offline support for reading articles and documents later. You can also save to OneNote.

Baconit

As a social-networking service, Reddit connects millions of people around the world to share news and entertainment. If you love Reddit, you’ll love Baconit. Pin all your favourite sub-reddits to your Start screen for easy access.

Readit

Another great Reddit client is Readit. Beautifully presented, Readit features Live Tiles, Lock Screen backgrounds, toast notifications and the ability to pin sub-reddits to your Start Screen.

Evernote

Evernote is another note-taking app that makes saving your thoughts and then finding them again a doddle.

All Recipes

With AllRecipes, your Windows Phone becomes a mouth-watering cookbook by connecting you with thousands of allrecipes.com members from the world’s number one (their words) food site.

Audible – Audiobooks

If you have no time to read a book or if you simply prefer listening to stories, plug into Audible–the premier provider of digital audiobooks.

TrueCaller

One of the best ways to block unwanted calls and identify ‘spammy’ callers is to use Truecaller. Works worldwide.

CycleTracks GPS

One great way to keep fit is to cycle, and millions of us do it daily. CycleTracks GPS tracks your route and provides real-time stats while connecting you with Strava, a community of athletes.

Cloudoh

SoundCloud is a community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music and audio. Cloudoh is simply a SoundCloud client.

Plex

With Plex, you can easily stream your videos, music, photos and home movies to your Windows Phone from your home computers running Plex Media Server (available for free at https://plex.tv/downloads).

Files

Manage the files on your Windows Phone. Browse, search and launch files, or create folders to better organize your content.

Microsoft Pocket Magnifier

Developed in collaboration with the Royal National Institute of Blind People, this app can help people with poor eyesight read books, posters, public transport timetables, etc. Let’s face it, we’re all going to need something like this one day!

JobLens

Not only can JobLens help you create your CV, discover a local job and guide you to the right place for your interview, it also offers detailed location demographics and employment trends in your field.

There you have it, 50 essential Windows Phone apps to get started.

10 Things Windows Phones Do Better Than Android Phones

Alright, alright, calm yourselves, keyboard warriors, we know this is something most of you would probably not agree with because let’s face it, with over 80 percent of smartphone market share in the world, the Android mobile operating system leads the rest of the competition by a mile.

Perhaps because it is the OS adopted by many leading brands of smartphones, fragmentation becomes an issue that plagues Android-powered phone. Here is a post by Azzief Khaliq that argues for and against the effects of Android OS fragmentation you should check out.

Here, the Windows Phone’s fast and user-friendly OS plus its integration with Microsoft-linked products has given many users, particularly who work a lot with Windows products, a reason to consider the integrated mobile platform. On the surface, it offers the same functionality (and perhaps a bit more) as do other platforms but these are 10 features that you may find better on a Windows Phone than on an Android.

1. Quality Build Phones With Exceptional Design For Everyone

The biggest ammo to join the arsenal of Windows phones has to be Nokia’s partnership. With phones ranging from $180 to $425, sporting screen sizes from 4″ to 6″, Nokia has plenty of choices not just for the budget-conscious but also those are looking for a powerful, sleek phone, for instance like Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41 megapixel camera sensor and Full HD video. You definitely can get good value for your money if you just keep your eyes open for a good alternative phone, rather than stop looking once it isn’t on a “popular” OS.

2. Gorgeous Apps

Although the Windows App Store lags behind the Play Store in terms of quantity, what counts with apps is the quality and so far Windows phones have the basic necessities covered. Windows Phone is not an open source platform and Microsoft has a stricter criteria set than Google about which apps and games can populate their respective marketplaces.

As a result, the app store responds with superior and better apps, and cleaner options, than what Android apps can offer. They are consistent, gorgeous, minimalistic and in many cases, look better than they do on Android. I’d suggest you take a look at 6tag (3rd party app for Instagram), Spotify, Skype, and Facebook.

3. Seamless Email And Social Media Integration

Windows Phone with its mission to build an end-to-end product experience for its customers, has a soild built-in social media integrated hub that they use; it’s very smooth and fluid. The People Hub gets updates from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Rather than opening individual apps one by one, all your friends’ status updates and notifications can be viewed within the People Hub.

Facebook integration on Windows Phone also makes it better than Android when it comes to tagging pictures. It also allows you to use your phone contacts as tags. You can switch between Facebook chat and normal text messaging with your contacts on Windows Phone.

4. Microsoft Integration and Support

Those who are used to Microsoft’s service and software would be glad to know Windows Phone works well with Microsoft products like Outlook.com. OneDrive Skype, Xbox, and OneNote. Unlike Android, Windows Phone comes with free Office in the OS itself. The mobile version is handy for on-the-go professionals. You can view and edit, Excel, PowerPoint and Word documents straight on your Windows Phone. It also integrates with OneDrive and users can save their compatible files on Microsoft’s cloud storage service.

5. Consistency Across All Devices

Android comes in so many shapes and sizes, so performance and quality are always a question. Windows Phone however works well on all levels of devices from the entry-level Lumia 520 to the high-end Lumia 1020 without any noticeable lag whatsoever. The minimalist design approach is applied at all Nokia’s Lumia range of devices and known for best build quality.

6. Customizations on Lockscreen

Windows Phone allows you to check out your notifications from your lockscreen. Not only you can change Background pictures in Lock screen settings, but Windows Phones also allow the integration of live apps on the lockscreen. Some of the better app integrations are Bing and Facebook. Bing displays the Bing Picture of the Day while Facebook displays photos from your albums.

You can also choose from photos of yourself or create a selection of photos to be shown on your lockscreen. Another cool thing that you could do is to configure the lock screen to display artist information when playing music.

7. Play your XBox games on Windows Phone

If you own an XBox, Windows Phone has the perfect XBox integration to help you get the most out of your games, even on low-RAM devices. Microsoft has worked hard to integrate Xbox functionality, meaning you can work with your console avatar to gain points, check your Gamerscore, message your friends and see your avatar.

Despite Android having more games, Windows Phones get Xbox games such as Asphalt 8: Airborne, Jetpack Joyride, Six Guns and FIFA 14 for free. All of the games run smoothly; even on the low end Nokia Lumia Phones, playing games is a breeze.

8. Versatility of Live Tiles

Windows Phones allow users to pin whatever they want and how they want. Instead of widgets, each app on your home screen acts as a Live Tile. They give you a quick glimpse of what’s going on in each individual app. We can see the time and weather via the weather tile and notifications from Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS and email all from the main screen.

Widgets on Android are their own separate entities and their customized looks as designed by their developers. These designs thus can hardly mesh together aesthetically, especially without any form of standardization. Tiles, on the other hand, blend in and complement the overall aesthetic perfectly and they also change dynamically.

9. Offline Maps Integration

Windows Phone have HERE Maps and HERE Drive integrated to its Lumia range, basically Nokia’s alternative to Android’s Google Maps. It comes with full offline capabilities. Some Android smartphones such as Galaxy S4 also has offline navigation in Google Maps, but while Google Maps only allows you to download small areas of offline maps, you can download maps of countries with the Nokia Lumia Phones and navigate across the country without a data connection while driving.

10. Ever Expandable Storage

Most Windows Phone, even the entry level ones have 8GB of internal storage and supports a microSD card of up to 64 GB. The free 7 GB cloud storage from Onedrive makes it even better. This reduces the need to fall back on third-party online storage solutions, which may come with compatibility issues. OneDrive lets you backup content to the cloud, Windows tablets, PCs, and of course the Windows Phone.

Conclusion

While Android offers greater app flexibility, Windows Phone offers great potential, better integration over more platforms and fluidity. With the changing smartphone market, the world needs a solid platform that has quality and the potential to develop into a full range solution, that spans across mobile, desktop and the cloud. The strategies are already in place, and if Nokia and Windows Phone can weather the storm, they may one day be able to unseat Android from its iron grip of the smartphone OS market.