Best Free Apps for Android Tablets: Ultimate 2023 Edition

We dived into the depths of the Google Play Store to bring you the best free apps for Android tablets. From cool drawing apps and powerful photo and video editors to entertaining games and practical health and fitness apps, you’ll find a little bit of everything that warms our hearts and brings a smile to our faces.

Our guide doesn’t claim to be exhaustive. Instead, we want to introduce you to the Android apps that accompany us in our daily lives, making it a bit more comfortable, entertaining, and creative. There are many more free apps deserving of mention in this guide, but, of course, we couldn’t review every single app in the Google Play Store. We have selected our favorites, the ones we vouch for.

One thing is for sure: all the free apps featured here offer a wide range of features and don’t hide behind paywalls.

We wish you lots of fun exploring and trying out our favorite Android tablet apps!

The Best Free Drawing Apps for Android Tablets

Ibis Paint X

Ibis Paint X offers over 15,000 brushes, 1,300 fonts, and 80 filters, among other features.

Additionally, you can utilize useful tools such as stroke stabilization and multiple ruler functions. The app also caters to professionals with various blending modes.

Ibis Paint X has been downloaded over 280 million times in total and is undoubtedly one of the best free drawing apps for your Android tablet.

If you want to access all brushes, you only need to watch a short video and then have the opportunity to use all brushes for the next 18 hours.

Furthermore, there’s some subtle advertising displayed at the bottom of the screen, which isn’t overly intrusive. You can also disable ads, which costs either 3.29 euros per month or 26.99 euros per year. This gives you access to additional premium features like “Premium Fonts” and 20 GB of cloud storage. Even in the free version with ads, Ibis Paint X feels complete, and you won’t miss out on anything essential.

One feature we particularly love is the ability to watch your individual drawing steps in video format after completing your artwork. This allows you to quickly review the creation of your “painting.” Furthermore, with Ibis Paint X, you can upload photos and then redraw them. Exciting for manga and anime fans, the app also offers a manga grid feature.

In the app, you also have the opportunity to see what other artists have created with the program, allowing for creative inspiration.

All in all, Ibis Paint X is an excellent choice for drawing enthusiasts who enjoy getting creative with a stylus. There’s even a developer’s YouTube channel where you can learn new drawing techniques and more.

Google Play Store: Ibis Paint X

PENUP

PENUP aims to awaken the inner artist within you. It is not just a powerful drawing app but also a social network for people who enjoy drawing and want to interact with other creatives.

In the app, you can share your completed artwork with the community, and others can comment, like, and share your work.

PENUP offers an impressive set of features as well. Similar to other professional drawing apps, you can create multiple layers and easily add new drawings on transparent layers over the original, resulting in impressive works in no time.

You can also insert your favorite photos into PENUP and then redraw them.

Another cool feature is that PENUP allows you to improve your drawing skills by tracing motifs through video clips. There are over 1,000 videos that you can use to gradually improve your drawing abilities. Alternatively, you can simply enjoy the drawing process of other artists and relax.

In PENUP, you can also participate in regular challenges, drawing predefined items like shoes or boots and competing with the community. The app even has a “Hall of Fame” where the best community pictures are showcased.

Samsung’s PENUP is available for free on Android tablets.

Google Play Store: PENUP

DrawNote: Drawing

DrawNote is a practical drawing and note-taking app rolled into one. You can add drawings, mind maps, handwritten notes, to-do lists, memos, and notes to your digital notepad.

With DrawNote, you can effortlessly capture your thoughts, jot down ideas, and get creative. Additionally, you can create checklists and to-do lists within the app and add images and graphics.

The fantastic combination of a drawing app and note-taking program works exceptionally well and is perfect for quickly jotting down ideas or memories, whether in text, handwriting, or as drawings.

One excellent feature is the ability to export your note as an image and share it with friends or family.

DrawNote is what you make of it – a diary, a sketchbook, a notebook – whatever you need it to be.

Google Play Store: DrawNote Drawing

The Best Free Photo Editing Apps for Android Tablets

Lightroom Photo & Video Editor

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is one of the best apps for editing your photos on an Android tablet. It allows you to give your photos, and now videos, a professional look. You can choose from a variety of presets and filters, and Lightroom also offers practical tools for retouching and enhancing your images.

With Lightroom, you can easily remove specific objects from the photo, mask people and backgrounds for individual editing, and more.

Even editing RAW photos is possible with the app. We particularly love using curves for detailed adjustments of light, shadows, and colors. You can also add clarity, structure, or remove haze from your images.

The app is also ideal for managing your photos. Thanks to cloud integration, you can access your images on different devices, such as a laptop, desktop PC, or tablet.

Opting for a premium membership grants you access to exclusive presets, masks, healing brushes, geometry tools, cloud storage, and more.

The premium version costs 5.49 euros per month. However, even with the free version, you can do a lot and give your photos a professional look. The one feature we miss the most in the free version is the masking tool, which allows you to selectively edit people, objects, or the sky.

We highly recommend Lightroom to all photo enthusiasts and creatives.

Google Play Store: Lightroom Photo & Video Editor

Snapseed

Snapseed is a comprehensive photo editor by Google.

In the app, you have access to 29 tools and filters, including retouching tools, brushes, structure, HDR, perspective, and more. You can edit both JPGs and RAW photos. It also features professional curve tools, and you can correct the white balance of your RAW photos. What’s cool is that you can save your own looks and apply them to photos later, similar to Lightroom.

The app is intuitive and delivers great results with just a few steps. Snapseed is completely free and a clear recommendation if you want to give your photos the finishing touch with minimal effort.

Google Play Store: Snapseed

Lumii

Lumii is also an excellent photo editing app that allows you to achieve great results without extensive expertise.

Of course, Lumii offers stylish filters and photo effects. The app also includes an HSL color mode, allowing you to adjust hue, saturation, and brightness. It supports 8 color channels and is suitable for editing RAW photos.

Lumii also provides powerful curve tools for professional photo editing. 

Basic features like adjusting brightness, contrast, highlights, warmth, shadows, sharpness, exposure, and more are naturally available in the app. You can also rotate and crop photos.

Lumii offers a wide range of features even in the free version. The pro version provides additional tools and removes ads. You can try the premium version for free for seven days and it costs either 4.99 euros annually or 12.99 euros as a one-time purchase.

Google Play Store: Lumii

The Best Free Video Editing Apps for Android Tablets

InShot

InShot is a powerful video editing program for your tablet with many useful features.

Like all video editing apps, the program allows you to trim and cut videos. You can also merge multiple clips into one. So far, so standard.

What’s interesting, for example, are the AI-based body effects. The app can identify bodies in the video, and you can apply AI effects to them. InShot also allows you to set keyframes, which enables you to animate text and graphics in your videos. Creating video collages is possible with InShot, and it also offers a Chroma Key feature, allowing you to change a selected color in the video, such as altering the color of a T-shirt.

InShot even supports creating masks and speed ramps, and you can add voice-overs and sound effects with the app.

InShot provides a wide range of features, typically found in professional editing programs like Adobe Premiere Pro. InShot is already extensive in the free version. The premium version gives you access to all paid transitions, effects, stickers, and more. Additionally, it removes the InShot watermark from your videos and disables ads.

The premium version of InShot costs 2.99 euros monthly, 14.99 euros annually, or a one-time purchase of 39.99 euros for a lifetime subscription.

InShot is user-friendly while offering numerous options for creative expression. It’s the perfect app for ambitious filmmakers and creatives looking to elevate their video skills to the next level.

Google Play Store: InShot

LightCut – AI video editor

LightCut is a free AI video editing program with numerous video templates and effects, making it easy to create stylish videos and vlogs.

Similar to InShot, you can trim video clips, merge them, and add text, music, stickers, effects, transitions, and everything you need for a creative video.

The app caters to both beginners and advanced users. With AI support, the app can quickly turn your video material into a finished video. While the results may not always be perfect, they can serve as a first draft or a short summary of your recent vacation, for example.

LightCut also provides video templates. All you need to do is select the template and the speed you like, and the app will automatically create an engaging video for you.

The video templates are divided into various categories such as Travel, Road Trip, Nature, Home & Living, Fashion, Lifestyle Vlog, Sports, and Aerial Shots.

Additionally, the app offers step-by-step guides to help you create high-quality videos.

LightCut is completely free, with no ads or watermarks. You also have access to hundreds of fully licensed songs for musical accompaniment in your videos.

Google Play Store: LightCut – AI video editor

YouCut

YouCut is also free and does not contain any ads during video editing. The app also doesn’t include a watermark.

You can trim, speed up, slow down, and perform various other actions on your videos.

The app offers a plethora of transitions and effects for your videos. You can also adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, and more for your video clips. Moreover, the app allows you to compress videos without any loss of quality.

YouCut offers a Pro version for 2.99 euros per month, 6.99 euros per year, or a one-time purchase of 16.99 euros. The premium version provides additional features such as more transitions, more licensed music, and removes ads completely.

The app is more suitable for beginners and is known for its user-friendly interface and straightforward operation.

Google Play Store: YouCut

The Best Free Games for Android Tablets

Alto’s Odyssey

Alto’s Odyssey stands out as one of the few games that impresses with its fantastic art design, fun gameplay, and a developer philosophy that truly shines. The game is entirely free, contains minimal advertising, and still offers a substantial gaming experience. It’s one of those games perfect for a quick round in between.

In Alto’s Odyssey, you surf through a beautiful and atmospherically rich desert world, collecting valuable items and avoiding obstacles and chasms. The gameplay is simple yet challenging and has a captivating appeal.

Unlike many other games for tablets and smartphones, this game has an almost calming effect on us due to its art and sound design. We highly recommend Alto’s Odyssey to anyone who appreciates games with a unique style and exceptional atmosphere.

Google Play Store: Alto’s Odyssey

Subway Surfers

Subway Surfers has been our favorite endless runner game for years.

The game’s story could fit on a beer coaster: Help Jake, Tricky, and Fresh escape from the nasty Inspector and his dog.

But let’s be honest, the story in an endless runner game is about as crucial as it is in Super Mario Bros.: It’s all about the gameplay!

In Subway Surfers, you run and grind on railway tracks and trains, avoiding obstacles and collecting items like coins and useful items such as a color-powered jetpack. With the jetpack, you move faster and become virtually invincible. It’s somewhat equivalent to the Star in Super Mario Bros.

The gameplay is fast, engaging, and addictive!

Subway Surfers features colorful graphics in a cartoon style. The art design is timeless, as it doesn’t rely on realistic textures or photorealistic lighting.

If you have even a slight interest in endless runners or jump ‘n’ run games, you’ll quickly fall in love with Subway Surfers.

Subway Surfers is free, but it offers in-app purchases to progress faster. However, these purchases are not necessary.

Google Play Store: Subway Surfers

Dead Trigger 2

Dead Trigger 2 is one of those fantastic games you enjoy playing on your tablet whenever you have some free time. This action first-person shooter shines with beautiful graphics, excellent gameplay, and plenty of missions.

In your hideout, which serves as a hub, you’ll find the weapon smith, scientist, smuggler, medic, and technician. These characters allow you to buy new weapons and upgrades, among other things. The more missions you complete successfully, the more useful items and upgrades you unlock.

The game offers 10 regions and 33 different battlefields. The story campaigns are motivating and fast-paced. There are also weekly tournaments.

In Dead Trigger 2, you have access to over 70 different weapons to wreak havoc on the zombies. These include pistols, rifles, submachine guns, miniguns, rocket launchers, shotguns, and even experimental weapons like explosive chickens. You can also use melee weapons like a wrench, bat, hammer, katana, chainsaw, swords, and machetes.

Thanks to the variety of weapons and items, you have plenty of creative ways to eliminate the undead.

The controls in Dead Trigger 2 are simple and enjoyable. You shoot automatically when aiming at an enemy and control the game either through touch controls or a virtual joystick.

The game is entirely free to play, but you can buy weapons and more to shorten the waiting time until the next mission by investing money.

Dead Trigger 2 feels like a console-level first-person shooter and invites you to dive into the virtual zombie world and “clean up” a bit thanks to its engaging gameplay, unlockable items, and fantastic graphics.

Google Play Store: Dead Trigger 2

The Best Free Health and Fitness Apps

GPS Running, Cycling & Fitness

GPS Running, Cycling & Fitness is a sports and fitness app for your physical activities such as running, jogging, hiking, cycling, mountain biking, and more. The app records your workouts, analyzes them, and helps you achieve your training goals.

The app is free and does not require registration. Moreover, it is almost ad-free. There are 28 indoor and outdoor activities to choose from. The program offers a configurable display for duration, speed, pace, elevation gained, heart rate, calories burned, and many other metrics.

The user interface is well-designed and easy to navigate.

You also have the option to set training goals with time, distance, energy consumption, and interval targets, as well as measure your heart rate using a Bluetooth sensor. Additionally, you have access to detailed statistical analysis of all your workouts.

The premium version costs 1.49 euros per month and provides features such as detailed training plans to help you achieve your goals, an automatic pause function, the display always-on feature, and several other exclusive features. However, the free version already offers a wide range of features.

If you own a small, lightweight tablet with integrated GPS and want to track activities like cycling, this app from sportractive.com is perfect for you.

Google Play Store: GPS Running, Jogging & Cycling

Home Workouts – No Equipment

Home Workouts provides daily training routines for major muscle groups. With just a few minutes a day, you can build muscle and stay fit at home without the need for gym equipment.

You won’t require dumbbells, machines, or a personal trainer since all exercises are bodyweight-based.

The app offers workouts for legs, arms, chest, and the entire body. According to the app, these training sessions were designed by experts to eliminate the need for any equipment.

Additionally, the warm-up and stretching exercises are scientifically validated, according to the developer.

There are video tutorials and animations for each exercise, allowing you to check the correct execution of each one.

Your training progress is automatically tracked within the app, and you have the option to share your achievements with friends on social media.

We find the calendar overview particularly motivating, as it provides insight into how many workouts you’ve completed in the current month. Over time, you’ll want to complete as many workouts as possible, partly to enjoy viewing your progress on the calendar.

The premium version costs 9.99 euros per month. If you opt for the pro version, banner ads are removed, and you gain access to unlimited training plans, more than 300 fat-burning workouts, and constantly updated routines. However, even with the free version, you can already do a lot and access many free workouts.

Google Play Store: Home Workouts – No Equipment

Medito: Meditation & Sleep

The free app Medito aims to support you in improving your mental well-being. The app provides guided meditations, breathing exercises, mindfulness practices, relaxing sounds, and much more.

Just a few minutes a day with the app are said to help improve your life and make you more relaxed throughout the day.

According to the Medito Foundation team, the app was developed with the goal of leading you to a happier and healthier life through various techniques. The app is also designed to help you consciously feel more gratitude, cope with fears and stress, relax, and develop a positive outlook on life.

Medito offers beginner and advanced courses.

The beginner course is for those who have little or no meditation experience.

In each session, you will gradually learn the basics of mindfulness and meditation, including topics such as mindfulness, Vipassana, “Non-Judgment,” mindful living, the science of meditation, negative emotions, and more.

The advanced course is for those who have already learned the basics of mindfulness meditation and want to further develop their practice. The course introduces concepts and philosophies that help deepen the meditation practice. This course includes sessions on topics such as the spontaneity of thoughts, awareness, anxiety and stress management, minimalism, ego dissolution, and more.

The app also offers daily meditations. You will receive a different meditation session every day to develop greater awareness of the present moment. You have the option to choose from different session lengths, background music, and more.

Also, if you have trouble falling asleep, the app provides sleep meditations, sleep sounds, and sleep stories.

As we know, good sleep is a cornerstone of well-being and contributes to maintaining physical and mental health. The guided sleep meditations with mindfulness breathing, visualization, body scan, sleep stories, and mantras for sleep meditation will definitely help you have a peaceful and restful sleep. These exercises will help calm your mind and stop the whirlwind of thoughts.

From experience, we can say that once you start meditating regularly and focus on mindfulness and gratitude, you will quickly notice how positively this affects all aspects of your life. The Medito app is a great way to explore these topics and helps you cope with stress and relax.

Also commendable is the Medito app’s sleek and user-friendly interface with lovely graphics and a well-structured layout.

The app is completely free. You only have the option to donate money voluntarily.

We can’t imagine giving up our daily meditation practice anymore.

Google Play Store: Medito: Meditation & Sleep

How to keep track of your active subscriptions in Play Store

To view your paid subscriptions on an Android tablet, you can follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Play Store on your tablet. You can usually find the Play Store icon on the home screen or in the app drawer.

2. Tap on the menu icon (three horizontal lines or dots) in the upper left corner of the screen to open the side menu.

3. Scroll down in the side menu and tap on “Subscriptions.” This will take you to the page displaying your subscriptions.

4. On the “Subscriptions” page, you will see all the paid subscriptions you have taken through your Google account. You can scroll through the list of subscriptions to view all entries.

5. Click on a subscription to see further details, such as the price, billing period, and next payment date.

6. If you wish to cancel a subscription, tap on “Cancel” or “Unsubscribe,” depending on the option displayed. Follow the further instructions to complete the cancellation process.

Please note that these steps apply to the Google Play Store app. If you have subscriptions through other platforms or services, you may need to visit the respective applications or websites to view or manage your subscriptions.