Your Android smartphone may be the best learning tool ever created.
While smartphones can be used to mindlessly scroll through highly-distracting content like news and social media feeds, they can also be used mindfully for mobile learning and upgrading your skills.
In today’s rapidly changing world, your Android smartphone gives you access to the online resources you need to educate yourself and make self-directed learning a daily habit that fits into your busy routine.
But where do you begin? This guide covers the best educational apps for your Android smartphone.
Make Mindful Learning A Habit
One of the thing I help people do in our Mindful Habits Community is to replace mindless habits that drain their time, energy attention with mindful habits that boost their focus, energy and mood.
One of the easiest ways to do this is remove highly-distracting apps like Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok from your notifications and homescreen so you don’t instantly see them every time you unlock your iPhone.
Instead of getting your dopamine hit from these apps that facilitate mindless scrolling and shallow learning, I recommend creating a specific folder on your homescreen with 9 of your favorite educational apps from the list below.
This way, when you feel the urge to check social media or open a gaming app to mindlessly waste your time, make a conscious effort to productively procrastinate by learning with those educational apps instead.
Online Courses:
1. Coursera – The world’s largest massive open online course (MOOC) platform with over 10 million students taking courses from the best professors at 140+ of the best colleges and universities in the world.
2. EdX – Take free online courses from Ivy League Universities in computer science, engineering, history, psychology, nutrition, big data, statistics and hundreds more.
3. Khan Academy – Catch up on all the stuff you missed (or forgot) from high school (and University) in subjects like biology, history, physics, mathematics, economics and computer science.
4. Skillshare – Learn in-demand web, business, tech and creative skills with courses taught by industry experts.
Get Organized:
Get better organized, schedule your learning sessions each week and create a structure for your self-directed learning.
1. My Study Life – Everything your paper planner is and more. The ultimate tool for creating a learning schedule and making sure you stay on top of assignments, exams, important deadlines and collaborative group work.
2. StudyBlue – Find and study online flashcards and class notes. StudyBlue is a massive crowdsourced platform for learning guides and sharing your notes.
3. UnLockYourBrain – A micro-learning app that helps you learn languages, math and trivia.
Innovative Learning Tools:
1. Socratic – An indispensable app for high school and University students that helps you find the best online resources for you to learn new concepts and getting help on any subject.
2. Nearpod – a student engagement platform built to make teaching with technology easy with VR Field Trips, game-based activities and collaboration boards.
3. Brainscape – A clever mobile education platform that helps you learn anything as efficiently as possible, based on solid cognitive science.
4. Brilliant – Brilliant creates inspiring, interactive learning experiences for ages 10 through 110.
5. Imprint – The world’s most important knowledge, visualized. Understand complex topics quickly with elegant visuals that clarify key ideas and help you stay focused.
Educational AI:
Improve your learning, research and creative ideation process with artificial intelligence apps.
1. ChatGPT – The ultimate creative assistant. Use ChatGPT to come up with new ideas, ask questions, write emails and make yourself a lot more productive.
2. Character.ai – Let’s you create characters and chat with them. Chat with historical figures like Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Issac Newton and 1000s of user generated chatbots.
3. Perplexity – An AI-powered curiosity and discovery engine. Get answers for your most important questions with cited sources for every answer. Learn new things from their massive community.
Microlearning:
Replace mindless social media with micro-learning sessions that make you more intelligent.
1. Blinkist – Get 15 minute audio summaries of the most popular non-fiction books as well as details on their key ideas.
2. DeepStash – Get access to 200,000+ powerful ideas from top books, podcasts, documentaries and more.
3. Uptime – Listen, read or watch bite-sized summaries of the world’s best books, podcast, documentaries and courses.
Ebooks:
Store your ebook collection in the cloud and read them anywhere.
1. Free Books – Browse more than 50,000 free ebooks in this app export to read them in the Kindle app.
2. Speed Reader – The best speed reading app that I’ve found for Android. Use this app to read more efficiently on the smaller Android phone screen.
3. Overdrive – Borrow ebooks, audiobooks, and streaming video from your local library using OverDrive. They support more than 30,000 libraries worldwide.
Audiobooks:
Listen to audiobooks from your favorite authors while you’re on-the-go.
1 Free Audiobooks – Browse 0ver 2,800 audiobook classics that you can download and listen to for free.
2. Audible – Amazon’s popular audiobook subscription service for listening the latest books releases. Get a 1-month trial with a free audiobook, then $14.95/month.
3. LibriVox – Browse over 15,000 free audiobooks in the LibriVox catalog.
Podcasts:
Learn from listening to interviews and informative talks with entrepreneurs, authors and all kinds of interesting people.
1. Podcast Addict – The best free podcast player for Android.
2. Pocket Casts – The podcast app that I use because the UI rocks and it’s jam-packed with amazing features. $3.99
3. BeyondPod Podcast Manager – Another popular choice for finding and listening to podcasts.
Note Taking:
Collect your ideas and take notes that are stored in the cloud and accessible on every device you use.
1. Notion – An all-in-one workspace for your notes, wikis and databases. This app is a game-changer.
2. Evernote – Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and move your important projects forward. Hands down the most versatile note taking tool.
3. Google Keep – Keep is simply the quickest way to offload ideas, thoughts, and to-dos without losing focus.
4. Omni Notes -An open-source note taking app that is designed to be lightweight and simple.
5. Lecture Notes – An Android app for note-taking by handwriting on the screen, in particular with a stylus.
Learn To Code:
1. SoloLearn – A free app for people interested in learning the basics of software programming and coding. Start with any of 12 programming languages supported, including Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP.
2. Encode – Learn to code or make webpages with bite-sized lessons in HTML, CSS and Javascript.
3. Lightbot – A fun way to get kids programming by solving puzzles in a videogame.
4. Mimo – Mimo makes learning to code and diving into computer science as fun and easy as possible.
Virtual Reality:
Take your experience to the next level with a virtual reality headset or an inexpensive tool like Google Cardboard.
1. Titans of Space – A short guided tour of our planets and a few stars in virtual reality.
2. In Mind VR – Take a journey into a patient’s brain in search of the neurons that cause mental disorder. Submerge into the microworld and experience the miracles of the human mind.
3. Mars Is A Real Place – A musical slideshow of over 50 stereoscopic 3D photos of the surface of Mars.
4. Sites In 3D – Take virtual tour experiences of famous landmarks on every continent.
5. Google Expeditions – A world expeditions app that takes on immersive, virtual reality learning journeys.
6. Google Arts & Culture VR – Step inside a virtual gallery to see works by artists like Van Gogh or Rembrandt. You can zoom in to see every brushstroke, and hear audio guides from expert museum curators.
Augmented Reality:
Learning experiences designed with augmented reality are soon going to be available everywhere.
1. Augment – A window into future possibilities for augmented reality. It allows you to visualize your 3D models in augmented reality, integrated in real-time in their actual size and environment.
The News:
The best Android apps to get your daily scoop on what’s happening in the world.
1. Flipboard – Find interactive content from the web’s best sources and curate your own digital magazine of the websites, articles, videos, and photos that inspire you.
2. News360 – A personalized news reader. It tailors a unique news feed and uncovers quality content from around the web.
3. Feedly – Subscribe to your favorite blogs and read them offline in this RSS feed reader.
4. Pocket – Quickly save, discover, and recommend the best, most interesting stories on the Web.
5. Relay For Reddit – The best Android app for reading Reddit, the frontpage of the Internet.
Language Learning:
There are few better ways to exercise your memory recall than by learning a new language.
1. Duolingo – Duolingo is my favorite tool for language learning. They make the process fun and engaging using learning gamification. They currently support English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.
2. Memrise – Use “mems”, which are fun and imaginative ways to remember a word or phrase to learn whatever your heart desires and make it stick in your memory banks.
3. Learn Chinese (Mandarin) – Want a real challenge? Try learning Mandarin. A billion people can’t be wrong!
4. Learn English, Speak English – One of the better Android apps for learning English.
Astronomy:
Increase the awe and wonder in your life by getting away from the city lights and exploring the stars in their full sparkling glory.
1. Star Walk – A star and constellation guide has never been more beautiful and easy to use. Just hold it to the sky to automatically find stars, constellations, planets, satellites and more. $2.99
2. Google SkyMap – Use SkyMap to identify stars, constellations, satellites, and more.
3. NASA App – Few things stimulate our sense of wonder and awe more than studying our cosmos. The NASA app has over 11,700 incredible images of outer space and 9,200 videos from NASA’s exploration missions.
4. Exoplanets – Exoplanets are planets orbiting stars beyond our own Solar System. Explore what we know about these mysterious planets and whether they may have life like on Earth.
5. ISS onLive – Watch realtime video of earth from International Space Station.
6. Hubble Space Center – Browse through the Hubble photo gallery, read the latest Hubble news, learn some interesting facts about Hubble Space Telescope.
7. Heavens Above – Provides you with precise location predictions for the ISS, visible satellites, Iridium flares and radio satellites.
8. Star Tracker – Just hold up and point the device to the sky and have fun! You can see any stars, constellations and deep sky objects you are watching in real-time.
Science:
1. Complete Biology – An advanced biology app that covers 35 important topics with tutorials, formula, possible exam questions, biology practical and a useful dictionary.
2. Chemistry Lab – A fun game where you learn about organic chemistry as you play your way through actual reactions.
3. Pocket Physics – Covers most of the physical formulas you will need to learn with great descriptions and images.
Math:
1. Photomath – Simply point your camera toward a math problem and Photomath will magically show you the result with a detailed step-by-step solution.
2. Brilliant – Brilliant helps you understand concepts through examples and problems contributed by a community of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers.
3. Brainly – A mega-popular homework math problem solver for problems in Algebra, Trigonometry and Geometry with expert-verified answers.
4. Math Tricks – This genius app is designed to help you learn interesting mathematical tricks to speed up your mental calculating skills.
5. Math Workout – Do their 7-day challenge, which uses an advanced training heuristics algorithm to train your brain through solving math problems.
5. Math Duel – A two-player math game that tests the speed of math processing skills.
6. Pocket Mathematics – Covers most mathematical formulas you will need to know with good descriptions and images.
7. Mathway – This handy app will solve problems for you in basic math, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, statistics and finite.
Explore The World:
Learn more about geography and the world’s different countries, ecosystems and animals.
1. Google Earth – Fly around the planet with a swipe of your finger with Google Earth.
2. Verne: The Himalayas – Explore Google Maps’ beautiful 3D imagery of the
Himalayas alongside a 500-foot Yeti named Verne.
3. World Factbook – And Android mobile version of the popular CIA World Factbook. Browse an extensive database of maps and information on the world’s 250 countries and territories.
Arts and Culture:
1. Google Arts & Culture – visit top exhibits, zoom in on artworks in mind-blowing detail and browse thousands of stories, photos, videos, and manuscripts.
2. WikiArt – WikiArt already features some 250.000 artworks by 3.000 artists, localized on 7 languages.
3. WattPad – Wattpad connects a global community of 70 million readers and writers through the power of story.
Music:
Learning to play a musical instrument like a guitar is one of the best ways to improve your sense of learning mastery.
1. Justin Guitar – A fully interactive guitar app featuring a standard and traditional chromatic tuner, metronome, chord chart and plenty of guitar lessons
2. Yousician – A fun way to learn, play and master the Piano, Guitar, Bass or Ukulele.
Edutainment:
Watch inspiring talks, find educational documentaries and test your knowledge in an interactive trivia game.
1. TED Talks – The annual conference that brings leading academics, business leaders and innovators together under the banner of “Idea Worth Spreading”.
2. 3D Brain – Visually explore each brain region and its functions and what happens when it’s injured or affected by mental illness.
3. YouTube – You can waste a lot of time on YouTube but you can also learn a lot of useful things too.
4. Chess – Play chess with more than 10 million people around the world.
5. Sudoku – Solve Sudoku challenges on your Android at 4 difficulty levels.
Solve Puzzles:
Increase your brain’s gray matter and exercise your pattern recognition skills by solving complex puzzles.
1. Elevate – A personalized brain training app designed to improve focus, speaking skills, processing speed, and more.
2. Peak – Improve your cognitive skills and build healthy training habits with fun but challenging games, goals and mental workouts.
3. NeuroNation – Another excellent brain training system that is exclusively on Android.
4. Monument Valley – A surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. $3.99
5. The Room Two – An award-winning puzzle game where you follow a cryptical trail of mystery and exploration inside a beautifully tactile 3D world. $2.99
6. 80 Days – Choose your own route around a 3D globe, traveling by airship, submarine, mechanical camel, steam-train and more, racing other players and a clock that never stops. $4.99
7. Aptitude & Logical Reasoning – Helps in improving problem-solving skills by focusing on logical reasoning questions.
8. Dreii – A puzzling game about skill, logic, and friendship. It subtly connects players in real-time across the world, to help one another in a battle against gravity.
Quick Reference:
Access all the reference information you need at your fingertips using these essential reference apps for Android.
1. Wolfram Alpha – A computational search engine. Wolfram Alpha’s excellent app gives you access to the world’s facts and data and calculates answers across a wide range of topics. $2.99
2. Dictionary.com – The best English dictionary and thesaurus with over 2,000,000 definitions, synonyms and antonyms. Most content works with offline access and there are great features like audio pronunciations, example sentences, word origin and history.
3. RealCalc – The best scientific calculator app hands down. $9.99
4. Wikipedia – Explore Wikipedia’s massive human-powered encyclopedia on your Android.
Outdoor Learning:
Play more outside and bring your Android with you to use its augmented reality, GPS, optical image recognition capabilities.
1. Geocaching – Go on treasure hunts with your friends. You’ll be amazed that there are geocaching hidden everywhere around you.
2. iNaturalist – Learn about the plants, trees, and fungi in your local ecosystem and all over the world.
3. AllTrails – Discover the best local hiking and biking trails near your community.
4. PlantNet – Identify plant species using your Android camera and this app’s visual recognition software.
These educational apps should help you turn your Android device into the ultimate mobile learning tool in 2023.
