9 little-known Google apps you should try

There's perhaps a prevalent misconception that the the usual suite of Google apps that most Android devices come pre-loaded with are the only apps by the tech giant. Google has many other apps which go beyond the usual suspects like Gmail and Youtube. While the other apps might not be as popular, they have their own utility and purpose. We list down such apps that will prove to be useful to you:

Find My Device

Earlier known as Android Device Manager, the app lets you locate your smartphone, Android wearable, or tablet if you ever happen to lose it. The app can come in really handy in tracking and getting back lost or stolen Android devices. It can even be used to factory reset devices remotely, provide the functionality has been configured properly beforehand.

Google Opinion Rewards

This app by Google is an interesting one. Google opinion rewards requires users to answer some surveys and in return, rewards them with credits that can be used to make Google Play Store purchases. Once you sign up, you'll be asked to complete surveys every now and then. Once a survey is successfully completed, you are rewarded with Google Play Store credits that can be used to purchase premium and other paid content. However, users only get 24 hours to complete a survey.

Google Trips

As the name suggests, this app will make your travel easier. It is a platform where people can keep track of their accommodations and bookings. The app uses data from Google Maps and crowdsources other information to create personalised travel guides for its users. So, you can have all information about your travel like flight, hotel, car, and restaurant reservations in one place. The app also gives users location based suggestions about various things you can do. The best part is that all this information is also available offline.

Trusted Contacts

Trusted Contacts is one safety app that we believe everyone should have on their phones. It lets you add your closest friends and family as trusted contacts. These contacts can request for your location. If all is well, you can deny the request. However, if you don't, then your information is sent out to them automatically after a certain time frame, even if your phone is offline or out of battery. If you are in a situation of emergency, you can send the location to them yourself.
Google Authenticator

If you use two-factor authentication, Google Authenticator is a must-have app. The app makes it easy to get time-bound authentication codes for logging into accounts where two-factor authentication is enabled. Google Authenticator works offline and even for some non-Google services.

Gesture Search

Google's Gesture Search app lets you access everything from apps to settings by just drawing gestures on the screen. The app refines search results as you keep on adding more gestures. If you hate searching for apps, settings etc. by typing, Gesture Search is just what you need.

Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking app which makes jotting down quick notes extremely easy. The app includes features like colour-coded notes, quick to-do lists and reminders. Since all the notes are synced to your Google account, they are available across all the devices that you use Google Keep on.

Inbox

Gmail surely works great for handling email, but Google's Inbox isn't half bad either.

Apart from having almost all of Gmail app's functionality, Inbox has features like automatic highlighting of emails having information like flight check-ins and transaction receipts. The app also can also bundle similar messages together and includes the option to snooze email messages so they can be acted upon later.

Snapseed

Do you love smartphone photography? If the answer is in the affirmative, then having a photo editing app would also be a must. Snapseed is exactly the app you're looking for as it has 29 filters that can be applied on pictures. It comes with all the basic editing tools and can be used to crop photos, rotate them, adjust colours, add text to pictures, resize them, add various effects on them. The app lets you get creative with your photos till they look exactly like you want them to.