Smartphones include several built-in applications, and countless free and paid apps are available from their respective online stores. Tablets are essentially smartphones with larger screens, but cellular service is an option. See
smartphone,
tablet and
how to select a mobile device.
Generally Built-In
1. Phone and contacts
2. Texting
3. Video calling
(Apple FaceTime/Google Meet)
4. Web browser
5. Email
6. Weather
7. Predictive typing (see predictive text).
8. Voice dictation
9. Voice-activated virtual assistant
(see Siri, Google Voice Search and Cortana).
10. Alarm clock, stopwatch, timer
11. Calculator
12. Calendar
13. Note taker
14. Music player
15. Photo album
16. Camera (still and video)
17. GPS navigation
18. Flashlight
19. App store search
Available for Download
Following are handy program categories out of the thousands of free and paid apps (see
online app store). Read the reviews on the Web, not just in the app store.
1. Wikipedia
2. Dictionaries, encyclopedias
3. News, weather and stock markets
4. Video calling (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.)
5. Games and entertainment
6. E-book reader
7. Language translators
8. Retail store finders
9. Mobile tag readers (see QR code)
10. Converters (money, measurements)
11. Magnifying glass and mirror
12. Internet radio
13. Music streaming (see Pandora)
14. YouTube (see YouTube)
15. Voice recorder
16. Emergency message sender
17. Compass