widgets, productivity, music and more

2023 is coming to an end, a year full of big releases in the Android ecosystemhighlighting the importance placed by Google and many other manufacturers in bringing the artificial intelligence to our cell phones, each in their own way.

Additionally, as usual in Xataka Android, We have tested many apps over the past 12 monthsperhaps too much, although we are not complaining, because we appreciate every time we discover a gem in the Google Play Store, no matter if it is a completely new application or one that we perhaps had forgot existence.

So this year again The Xataka Android team has compiled their favorite apps. These are the apps that we used the most, or that surprised us the most in 2023. We recommend them, and at the same time we look forward to discovering even more apps in 2024.

The best app of 2023 for Iván Ramírez

My favorite app has been around for a long time, so much so that I bought it many years ago, forgot about it, and then rediscovered it: KWGT or Kustom Widget Maker. For those who don’t know yet, it is an application with which you can create your own widgets in your image and likeness.

KWGT is so powerful that it can be overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s the best way to create the perfect widget that you can’t find after searching Google Play for hours. This requires a little patience, but it’s worth it.

The best app of 2023 for Alejandro Alcolea

There are several apps I discovered this year that I love, but the one I use the most is Notion. You probably already know it, but The notion is like a blank sheet of paper on which you can do whatever you want. You can set up an entire database, a calendar and a very complex automation system, or just something as simple and useful as a shopping list or home improvement projects, for example.

I use it for all that, but also as a notepad. I have some interconnected databases and I can link them so, when I write an article, it automatically goes into one database or another depending on the parameters I chose. Like I say, you can do whatever you want, control with the cell phone is excellent and even allows teamwork. It’s free, but if you pay you have access to additional AI which isn’t bad at all.

The best app of 2023 for Amparo Babiloni

For me, the app of the year is India | Sports nutrition. I signed up for their service a few months ago and the app was one of the key points that made me decide. It’s really good. It has a very well designed interface and everything is very friendly.

The best for me is flexibility offered when changing recipes on the fly. This is good if, for example, you don’t have an ingredient (or don’t want it); You hit the Edit button and it gives you a pretty comprehensive list of recipes that match the macros you have for that meal. In addition, the recipes are accompanied by very appetizing photos and are well structured to make them very easy to follow. To top it off, you chat directly with your nutritionist to answer all your questions. A perfect combination of good service and a good app.

The best app of 2023 for Iván Linares

Although Bluesky is a very good application and a very good service, even if I prefer Megalodon and its access to Mastodon. This is one of the recent applications that surprised me the most; although its qualities are not only the merit of the application.

Megalodon provides the basics of Mastodon, offers advanced features, the design is quite attractive and allows me keep me up to date with everything that’s happening on my favorite servers from any Android. Plus, it’s free, There are no in-app purchases or ads: For me, this is one of the best Mastodon clients for Android devices. A must-have for any Fediverso fan.

The best app of 2023 for Pepu Ricca

If there is an application for our favorite operating system that this year has gained a place in the internal memory of my mobile, it is good Widget. It is a simple collection of widgetsas the name suggests, but it’s totally free and without advertising. Not only for this it is worth mentioning, but also because it brings together widgets that fit perfectly into the design of Android 14.

Google’s native widgets are very nice, but they lack more variety and especially versatility. All this is accomplished by Widgeet, who will beautify your home screenwhile providing us with quick access to information that is of interest to our daily lives.

I use it to have a beautiful calendar widget, an ever-present music player and now it has managed to replace the clock included in my Pixel. And if that wasn’t enough, each widget is customizable in detail: color, shape, size, transparency… and everything adapted to the design lines of Material You. That’s why it’s my discovery and deserves to be on this list.

The best app of 2023 for Eduardo Marín

My favorite app of 2023 is one that I consider perfect for Hi-Fi audio enthusiasts. Those of us who are passionate about high quality audio We’re constantly looking for the best way to listen to our favorite artistswhether at home or on the go, and USB PRO audio player It has become my favorite application for listening to music from my mobile.

Among its advantages, it allows us to unify the streaming services we use in one place (for example Tidal and Qobuz), and it can also play files up to 32-bit/768 kHz natively, bypassing the limitations that, until now, the Android Operating System in terms of audio.

It’s a excellent music player for the most demanding, those of us who consider ourselves audiophiles or music lovers, and is compatible with the use of external DACs (also known as “USB dongles”). It’s not a free app, but after many hours of using it to stream music or files stored on my phone, I find it worth every penny.

The best app of 2023 for Laura Sacristán

The application that I discovered this year and that I use quite often is “Transport Card”, from the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium. It has a very archaic interface, but I find it very practical to know how many trips are left in the Transport cards for the Madrid metro and bus.

Simply bring the map closer to the top of your phone to connect and it instantly shows you the remaining routes. The best part is that you can recharge it easily. At the moment Madrid is testing another application to carry the virtual card on your cell phone, I hope that they will eventually integrate this function into the “Transport Card” to be able to access the metro and bus with the phone.

The best app of 2023 for Eva Rodríguez

My big discovery of the year was Otter.ai and it’s a productivity application that won me over. What exactly does this do? Transcribe audio to text, What comes from cinema to speed up work in an interview and the best part is that it does it with surprising know-how. The icing on the cake is that when you have it installed on your mobile, it even magically appears when you have a meeting scheduled on your calendar, to do it automatically. A jewel.

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