Y'all just got your hands on a new telephone. Naturally, your kickoff inclination is to caput to the App Store or the Google Play Store to download your favorite apps to your shiny new device. While the Engadget squad tries to keep our phones relatively unencumbered, there are some apps we can't live without considering they make our work and daily lives easier. Below y'all'll detect a dozen of the best we retrieve you should try.

1Password

1Password for iOS

1Password

If you only accept one slice of communication away from this article, it's that you lot should download a password manager. It doesn't have to be the one we recommend here. All the same, we like 1Password for a scattering of reasons. Not only will information technology allow yous generate potent passwords for all your online accounts, but it also has congenital-in support for two-factor authentication. That ways you lot don't need to download a separate app similar Authy to make your logins every bit secure every bit possible. If you have access to a Fastmail account, yous can also use 1Password to generate random emails for your logins, giving you another manner to protect your privacy. It's also but a well-designed app that's a pleasure to apply.

FireFox

Firefox

Firefox

If it's been a few years since you last used Firefox, now is a keen time to revisit it. Partway through terminal yr, Mozilla overhauled the Android version of its browser to bring over many of its all-time desktop features to mobile. That release saw Mozilla add together more robust support for third-political party add-ons. It also brought over its Enhanced Tracking Protection characteristic, which stops trackers from misusing your browsing data. Separately, with Apple allowing you lot to change your default browser since the release of iOS 14, there's never been a better time for iPhone users to liberate themselves from Safari.

Headspace

Headspace

Headspace

I subscribed to Headspace at the commencement of the pandemic. Since then, it'southward get 1 of the few apps I use every day. Yeah, Headspace is a meditation and mindfulness app, but it'due south too and so much more than that. Y'all'll find it also has a mix of music designed to help you lot focus and workouts for unwinding at the end of a long twenty-four hour period. Across the board, everything it offers is excellent, and y'all'll find yourself turning to information technology for more than than just peace of heed.

Hopper

Hopper app

Hopper

If you lot plan to fly somewhere presently, install Hopper on your telephone. While it has grown over the years to include a variety of features, at its cadre, Hopper is 1 of the all-time ways to save coin on plane tickets. One time you tell the app where and when you want to fly, information technology'll tell you whether you should book your flight now or wait. In the latter case, it'll notify y'all when it estimates you'll become the best bargain. The dazzler of Hopper is it will save you lot from constantly checking websites like Google Flights and Kayak.

Libby

Libby

Libby

If you want to do more reading in 2022, forget about buying books through Amazon and download Libby instead. If you're non familiar with the app, it allows you lot to borrow ebooks, digital magazines and graphic novels from your local library. All you lot need is a library card, which most systems across the US offer for free. Sometimes y'all have to wait to borrow the books you lot desire to read most, but you'll find Libby volition dramatically aggrandize your reading listing.

Open up Table

Open Table

Open Table

With restaurants reopening in cities throughout the Usa and the rest of the world, there's a good take chances you plan to eat out old soon — and so does nearly anybody else. That means you lot'll probable demand a reservation to dine at some of the most popular spots in your city. In N America, the closest you'll find to a single platform that nigh every eating house uses is Open Tabular array. For that reason lonely, it'due south a must-download if you eat out a lot. It's too a handy tool for discovering new spots to visit since you can filter past cuisine and expanse.

Transit

Transit app

Transit

At that place's cypher worse than waiting for a bus on a cold wintertime'south day or watching iii go by i afterward another. Avoid both situations with one of the all-time public transit planning apps on Android and iOS. Transit excels where other apps in the category neglect thank you to its clean, easy-to-use interface that highlights all the options most you. It likewise has one of the better algorithms for predicting departure times, so you'll know exactly when you demand to run out of your house or apartment to catch the side by side autobus, train or streetcar.

Paprika

Paprika recipe app

Paprika

Paprika is the all-time $five you can spend to make feeding yourself even easier. At its core, information technology allows you to download recipes from your favorite websites and make them accessible on all your devices. You can as well apply it to scale the size of the meal you're about to melt and convert between metric and imperial measurements. Add to that a meal planner, shopping lists and a tool for tracking the ingredients in your pantry, and you accept an indispensable app for abode cooks.

Pocket Casts

Pocket Casts app

Pocket Casts

With podcasts becoming ever more than popular with each passing twelvemonth, there'south a good chance you already have a handful of favorite shows yous mind to every calendar week. As much as Spotify would similar to convince you it has the best podcast app, that distinction goes to Pocket Casts. We like information technology because it offers a consistently great experience across every system it supports. And if y'all use a mix of platforms from Apple, Google and Microsoft, you don't take to worry most syncing, either. It's also squeamish to use software that doesn't feel caught between two worlds in the way that Spotify does. Pocket Casts isn't trying to be anything more than than an app for listening to podcasts. That'south not something yous can say of Spotify, and it's often a source of frustration for those who turn to it for music.

Pocket

Pocket app

Pocket

Some other style to read more than in 2022 is to download Pocket. It's amidst the nigh popular read-it-later apps out in that location, allowing yous to save manufactures yous discover online. Much similar Pocket Casts, what makes this app compelling is that it offers a consistently excellent device-agnostic experience, making it a great option for those who haven't gone all-in on one ecosystem. Whether you lot use Chrome, Safari or Edge, you can install a browser extension to save articles you stumble upon. You can then read them afterwards without distractions on your phone or tablet. Just don't forget to make a dent in your Pocket reading list occasionally.

Telegram / Signal

Telegram app

Telegram

We understand, asking your friends and family to install some other messaging app on their telephone can sometimes experience similar a Sisyphean task, but the endeavour has besides never been more worth it. In Telegram and Signal, you lot'll find two of the most secure chat apps on the market. We especially like Telegram here at Engadget because of how consummate it feels from a feature standpoint. For example, information technology includes an edit feature that comes in handy when you lot make a typo, and a Secret Conversation tool for when you want messages to disappear. If you do make the switch to Telegram or Signal, you'll also gratis yourself of the Meta ecosystem. That might not seem like much, only when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went downward earlier this yr, information technology left many people without a manner to communicate with their friends and loved ones.

Tunnelbear

Tunnelbear for Android

Tunnelbear

Afterward a Countersign manager, one of the best tools you tin can utilize to safeguard your online privacy is a VPN. Again, there are many options out there, only we like TunnelBear for its simplicity and whimsical ursine theme. A VPN isn't every bit essential as a password managing director, merely you'll want to get one if you frequently observe yourself traveling or using the public WiFi at places like cafes and libraries. Using a VPN in those contexts will ensure your connexion is protected with encryption so that whatever information yous send over remains condom and private.

Snapseed

Snapseed

Snapseed

Most recent phones come with great cameras. Still, even with the latest iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel, most every photograph can benefit from an edit before you share it. The options you accept for photo editing apps are near endless, but if you want something that works well, await no further than Snapseed. It'southward an one-time favorite that offers a comprehensive suite of editing options merely never gets bogged downward in likewise many sliders and dials. Best of all, it makes it easy to save edits to your camera roll and upload them to apps like Instagram.