Although Google’s Android One is a good addition, I feel that there are certain things that it lacks and it’s not really cut out for advanced users. While using this phone I have tested, rejected and accepted a few apps over time that go perfectly well with the Xiaomi Mi A1. These apps have helped me unleash the full potential of my phone and I do believe that they will definitely help you as well. Cutting it short, here are 5 best apps for Xiaomi Mi A1 that I personally admire and would suggest you start using them too on your personal Mi A1.
1. drupe
A dialer is the first and the most basic thing anyone would use on a phone. Sadly, the default dialer app on the Mi A1 is a bit of a drab. Therefore, I use a third-party app called drupe. It’s a goldmine of features and has all that one can expect from a dialer. It comes with an amazing design and offers some great features, using which you can interact with your contacts and communication apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and others seamlessly. You can replace your dialer and Truecaller with this one. It has all the features baked in. Also, if you like to keep a record of your conversations, this app is sure to please you with the automatic call recorder. One cool feature of this app is that if you are unable to contact a person for any reason, drupe will automatically give you a floating window where you can set a reminder to call again after a while or to redial.
2. Apex Launcher
Android One is good and pretty lightweight, however, it’s too basic and there can be so much more that an app launcher can offer. That’s the reason why I use Apex Launcher. It is a well-known Android launcher app that has been there for quite some time. Similar to Nova Launcher, Apex offers a diverse range of customization options. The basic version comes with Google folder, Apex settings, and menu icons with five scroll-able screens. This app lets you customize most of the GUI. You can sort and style the app icons, set the number of dock pages, home screen grids, and so much more. Another feature is setting the action for the home button, which again is fully customizable. If you wish, you can also hide apps using this launcher.
3. Pulsar Music Player
The Xiaomi Mi A1 has a brilliant audio amplifier and it is meant for audiophiles. However, the stock music app is not good enough to play FLAC files. For that, I prefer the Pulsar Music Player. It’s a great ad-free audio player that fully supports uncompressed, lossless music playback. The amount of features it offers is very similar to those offered by other paid apps like Poweramp. While playing music, it can automatically download missing album arts. With a user interface based on material design, it’s very simple to use. It comes with support for Android auto, which means that if your car player supports it, this becomes the native music playback app. Also, if you use Google Chromecast, you can easily stream your music to your TV or music player connected to one. Another interesting feature of Pulsar is its integrated sleep timer. Using this, you can easily tell the player to turn the music playback off after a certain period of time. Very useful if you have a habit of listening to music before going to bed.
4. Bacon Camera
Okay, the dual cameras on the Mi A1 would have been a bliss only if the default camera app was any good for it. Sadly, it is not. Hence, I have shifted to the Bacon Camera app. The Mi A1 doesn’t have support for the manual mode (or pro mode) so I trust the Bacon Camera app for this. The best feature of this app is that it lets you save a picture in RAW mode even if my phone doesn’t support it. It packs many pro-level features that provide DSLR-like manual control. Bacon Camera has a simple and easy-to-use layout. It includes modes such as Video and Panorama, easily located on its home screen along with a timer and an HDR mode. A free camera app cannot get any better than this.
5. Files Go by Google
While the default file manager is good enough for daily tasks, Google’s Files Go is a swiss-army knife that everyone must use. Files Go sports a multitude of handy features right from freeing up memory to transferring files in a jiffy. As one of its highlight features, it makes sharing files with nearby devices easy. Similar to ShareIt, this app lets you share files with the help of Wi-Fi Direct. Like me, if you also have the habit of capturing shots in the burst mode, you must be aware of the problem that a lot of duplicate files get created in the process. Using FIles Go, you can get rid of the duplicate shots easily. From time to time, the app will also scan your phone and let you know about all the apps that you haven’t been using. What’s interesting is that this whole package is available in less than 10MB.
Sky is the Limit
Yes, I agree with you when you say that there are so many useful apps out there. However, as I said earlier, these are apps that I personally use on my phone and I am pretty happy about it. If you have more such apps to share then do share a line or two in the comments section below and let other’s also know about your brilliant find.
