Newsletter
Google, not so long ago, introduced a new design language called “Material Design”. According to the company, this new design language mixes the known principles of good design with technology and science’s broad possibility of innovation. Material Design is basically a guide for visual motion and how the user interacts with design across different platforms and devices.
This new design has just begun to be adopted by developers, so there are not a whole lot of apps that correctly utilize material design. Here you can see some of the best apps that not only include material design, but also completely follow the guidelines set by Google.
Inbox by Gmail – (free with invite) Score: 4.2
The simplified email client, an alternative to the widely popular Gmail. Inbox automatically organizes your emails into bundles and makes browsing through them a lot easier. Inbox also includes a “remind me later” feature so you can get notified of that important email at the right time.
Telegram – (free) Score: 4.2
A more secure messaging app which features a well implemented material design look and feel. Among other great and useful features, like ‘groups’ with up to 200 people and sharing media with a size up to 1GB. Telegram features sync between multiple devices with cloud backup and secret chats, with mobile-to-mobile encryption.
Evernote – (free, $5 per month for premium subscription) Score: 4.6
Evernote, was one of the first major apps to adopt material design, users can write notes of all sorts, including lists and lengthy researches. All your notes are in all your devices with sync. The app includes a powerful search feature so you never lose any of your notes.
Nova Launcher – (free, $4 for prime version) Score: 4.6
Nova Launcher is one of the biggest launchers for Android, it offers users an alternative launcher which looks similar to the Google Now Launcher with enhanced features and gestures, along with lots of customizing available.
Giza (Material design Twitter) – (free) Score: 4.0
Giza is an alternative Twitter client and the main goal is to provide the user with a beautiful experience. Features multiple accounts support, stream via WiFi, and Fast Search among others.
Pocket Casts – ($3.99) Score: 4.6
A popular podcast player with some great features like audio effects, auto downloads, sync and full backup, filters and Chromecast support. This app fully utilizes material design (including subtle animations) and beautiful displays all of your podcasts. As the team behind the app says, “It. Just. Works.”
Whatsapp – (Free) Score: 4.4
One of the most popular messaging apps in the Play Store, recently updated with voice calling and a surprisingly beautiful implementation of Material Design. Also supports WhatsApp Web with Chrome on desktop. The material design update is not yet available through the Play Store, but users can download it from the official site.
Relay for Reddit – (free, $2.99 to remove ads) Score: 4.6
Previously known as Reddit News. This app is a fully featured reddit client, with support for notifications and many gestures to make navigating through the app an easier task. The app is fully materialized and has some nifty animations.
FeedlyReader – (free) Score: 4.3
FeedlyReader is basically an RSS reader for Feedly, with material design and several gestures. A great alternative to the Feedly app.
PaperBoy – (free) Score: 4.0
PaperBoy aims to “Make reading enjoyable” and with material design, magazine mode, Muzei support, custom recommendations and rich notification among other features, this app is another great Feedly reader client.
Imagine for Instagram – (free, $2.49 for more features) Score: 4.1
Imagine is an alternative Instagram client with a full material design, a great application for users waiting for the official app to be updated with the material design guidelines in mind. Currently, commenting is not supported within the client and will redirect you to the official app.
Google Translate – (free) Score: 4.3
Recently updated to completely follow the guidelines. You can translate up to 90 languages, translate spoken words or phrases and use the camera to translate what you see, in real time.
Snapseed – (free) Score: 4.4
Snapseed is a photo editing app owned by Google, it was recently updated with a full material design look, along with new features. Snapseed brings the ability to professionally edit any photo, the user can retouch, adjust perspective, re-edit and more.
Weather Timeline – ($0.99) Score:4.7
Weather Timeline is a simple weather forecast app that provides information in the form of a timeline, so the user can quickly see the information. The app includes notifications for weather warnings and features a complete material design look.
Buzzfeed – (free) Score: 4.2
Buzzfeed is one of the most known entertainment sites and the official app includes most of the main features of the webpage, with a look that follows material design guidelines and is optimized for mobile. Buzzfeed’s content ranges from funny posts all the way to technology news.
ESPN – (free) Score: 4.2
ESPN is the app to follow your favorite team’s scores, as well as video highlights and news. The app is beautifully optimized for your Android device with a recent material design makeover.
MyStocks – (free, $2.99 to remove ads) Score: 4.5
A beautiful and simple app to follow all of the stocks you are interested in. Features real time quotes of stocks, funds, currencies and more.
Asparagus My Cookbook – (free, $1.99 to remove ads) Score: 4.3
Asparagus is a digital cookbook and recipe manager. Features, seamless transitions between devices, thanks to cloud backups and the app can ne paired with an Android Wear device to display recipes on your wrist.
Simple Weather – (free, $1.99 to remove ads) Score: 4.2
This intuitive app lets the user rapidly glance at the beautifully laid out information. Designed so everyone is able to use it without a learning curve. “Weather has never been so beautiful”.
Cabinet – (free) Score: 4.6
Cabinet is a material file manager, currently supported by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and above. Cabinet uses a simple and user friendly layout that is easy on the eye. The simple file manager doesn’t require any configuration.
LastPass Password Manager – (free, $12 per year for service subscription) Score: 4.6
Award winning password manager with material design in mind. Features a built-in browser and a note creator app.
Textra SMS – (free) Score: 4.5
An alternative SMS app which features a gorgeous interface, along with scheduled SMS & MMS, delayed sending. Not to mention, the useful Quick Reply popup, among other features. Textra works with Pushbullet and Android Wear for SMS Quick Replying.
Messenger – (free) Score: 4.3
Google’s own alternative to your stock SMS client features some customization options for contacts and smooth transitions. Users can send group texts and media such as pictures, videos and audio messages.
Talon for Twitter Plus – ($3.99) Score: 4.6
Talon is a Twitter client fully rebuilt with Android 5.0 Lollipop and material design in mind, includes smooth animations and beautiful layouts. Features support for live streaming, two accounts and favorite users.
Falcon Pro 3 – ($4 for one account, $2 for each extra account) Score: 3.8
Falcon is a column-based Twitter client which features a dark material design theme. It is fast and smooth and also includes a side panel with an automatic refresh system.
Flyne, the Offline Reader – (free, $0.99 for more features) Score: 3.8
Flyne is a news reader app with integrated Twitter lists and Feedly categories, to make staying up to date with your favorite news sources a more enjoyable experience. Articles may be saved to the user’s device for later reading.
Palabre – (free,$2.47 to remove ads) Score: 4.1
RSS feed and Feddly client created by the developer of Plume, Beautiful Widgets and Bright Weather! This app features a fully fledged material design with FABs and subtle animations.
Yarn for Hacker News – (free, $2.99 to remove ads) Score: 4.3
Yarn for Hacker News is a reader that allows you to log in, vote, comment and submit content to the Hacker News site, the app includes features such as AMOLED themes and a full material design throughout the whole interface.
Pushbullet – (free) Score: 4.6
Pushbullet syncs your Android notifications between multiple devices, including desktops. The app also allows the user to transfer links, notes and files easily between all of your devices and to friends.
LocalCast for Chromecast/DLNA – (free, $3.49 to remove ads) Score: 4.1
LocalCast allows streaming of videos, music or pictures from your smartphone or tablet to any DLNA device such as Chromecast, Nexus Player, AppleTV, Sonos, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Material Newspaper – (free)Score: 4.0
Material Newspaper allows the user to read their favorite news sources including Blogs, YouTube, Flickr or browse social media ranging from Instagram to Twitter. Users can customize the look of the app to their liking and are able to save stories for later reading.
Action Launcher 3 – (free, $5 for more features) Score: 4.0
Action Launcher 3 was rebuilt from the ground up after Android 5.0 Lollipop was released, the launcher’s main feature is Quickdrawer, which offers instant access to all your apps with just a swipe from the left side of the screen. Action Launcher 3 also includes Quicktheme, where the colors of your wallpaper are extracted in order to create a true material design feel.
Minima Live Wallpaper – (free, $0.99 for the pro version) Score: 4.1
Material design live wallpapers that shift with the user’s interaction. The user can edit or create his own themes.
Matte – Material Calculator – (free) Score: 4.5
An app that focuses on providing a beautiful calculating experience, it is customizable with a material design color palette and features astounding animations throughout the app.
Google Keep – (free) Score: 4.4
Google owned note taking app, it’s simple but functional. Users can take voice memos, create lists, add labels and collaborate with others in real time. Google Keep is also able to set reminders so you have the right note at the right time.
Simplenote – (free) Score: 4.3
An easy way to keep all your notes organized. Features, sync between all your devices and note pinning, meaning notes that are important to you, will stay visible. Simplenote is about speed and efficiency.
Wunderlist – (free, $4.99 per month for pro subscription) Score: 4.4
Wunderlist has been reportedly praised as the best to-do list app on the Play Store. Sharing and collaborating on lists is fairly simple. You can also access your lists from any place that has an internet connection, as the app syncs your lists between all of your devices. Wunderlist recently implemented material design, which looks beautiful and complete with animations.
Wally – (free) Score: 4.2
Wally was one of the first apps to implement material design. The app is basically a wallpaper browser with beautiful subtle animations, and bright colors. You can filter wallpapers by categories, resolution or aspect ratio. Wallpapers come from the wallhaven.cc which has an extremely wide variety of wallpapers.
Material Weather Widget – (free) Score: 3.8
Material Weather Widget gives your homescreen a material makeover with five widgets (two 4×1, two 4×2 and one 4×3) which show information about the current weather, as well as the forecast.
Google Calendar – (free) Score: 4.0
Google Calendar comes packed with subtle material design animations and great functionality, recently updated to bring the monthly view back. This app is a great example of a well designed material app.
Today Calendar – (free, $4.49 for pro version) Score: 4.4
Jack Underwood’s Today Calendar, is one of the most popular alternatives to the stock Google Calendar. The app implements many useful features requested by users and is constantly updated.
Chrome Browser – (free) Score: 4.2
Google’s own browser, implements material design on the menus and on the address bar. Features sync with any device capable of running Chrome, voice search and input, web page translation and intuitive gestures.
AllCast – (free, $4.99 for premium version) Score: 3.9
AllCast lets you stream media directly to your TV or DLNA-enabled device from your smartphone and in a simple way. The app was recently updated to follow Google’s material design guidelines.
Google Play Newsstand – (free) Score: 3.9
Google’s news and magazines reader, features a complete material design with subtle animations and beautiful transitions. Includes bookmarking and saving articles to device along with a Read Now section which features recommended articles based on your taste.
Google Maps – (free) Score: 4.3
Google Maps will let you navigate through the streets of the world in an eye-pleasing experience with material design. Maps cover more than 220 countries and territories, so you’ll never get lost. Includes GPS navigation and precise voice guidance.
Filmstrip for Instagram – (BETA) (free) Score: 3.8
Alternative Instagram client which offers a customizable feed experience, with great animations and different themes. Filmstrip for Instagram (BETA) only limitations are not showing notifications and not being able to comment within the app.
QuickPic – (free) Score: 4.6
QuickPic was recently updated to follow material design guidelines and provides a great substitute, with immersive mode and colorful themes, QuickPic can certainly replace the stock app included on your device with added features, like support for online album services, Moments, and an internal picture editor.
Groupon – (free) Score: 4.5
The perfect app to help you find out what to do, eat, see, and buy. Features coupons for more than 500 cities around the world. You can buy coupons directly from your Android device and discover the best offers near you, all of this in a beautifully crafted app with material design.
Runtastic PRO – ($4.99) Score: 4.6
One of the best fitness apps in the market, utilizes your device’s GPS to keep track of your running, jogging or walking with precision. Recently implemented material design to the app and greatly improved the user experience.
Lantern Music Player – (free) Score: 4.0
An elegant music player for Android devices, complete with Chromecast support, folder browsing support, and a built-in search function (with audio search). One of the best looking free music players on the Play Store.