Blogging has always been about expressing yourself and sharing what you know on the Internet. Android as an operating system is growing fast thanks to its availability on a wide range of smartphones and tablet devices as well as the fast growing number of applications that are available in Google Play. With huge amounts of innovation spurring the technological advancement of mobile phones and the landscape of mobile apps, bloggers these days are offered the opportunity to not only blog on-the-go, but also to conduct many blogging-related tasks on their smartphones when they are away from their computer.
The following are 15 free Android apps that you should check out and download if you are an avid blogger who update multiple blogs regularly. They cost nothing so feel free to try them out on your phone.
1. WordPress
WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular blogging platform on the Internet. This app, made compatible with self-hosted WordPress blogs as well as blogs hosted on WordPress.com, allows you to perform many essential tasks such as creating, editing and publishing blog posts, moderating comments, checking on analytics data as well as publishing photos or videos taken with the camera on your mobile phone.
2. Blogger
Blogger is another popular platform that many personal bloggers use. If you have a blog on Blogger, then you should definitely give this app a try. However, the functionality of this app is still very limited as compared to the WordPress app, which is surprising as Google itself is behind this official app of their blogging service.
3. Tumblr
Many bloggers prefer to maintain a Tumblr blog, also known as a microblog, rather than a full blown blog. This is because posting short blurbs of interesting content such as quotes, videos and photos are less taxing. This app, made for Tumblr bloggers, has useful features for posting content, scheduling posts, viewing and replying to messages, and you can even manage multiple Tumblr blogs with the app. It will also show you Tumblr blogs of Contacts in your address book, so you can start following them.
4. Writer
Blogging and getting things done using your smartphone is not easy, especially when there are so many distractions on the screen itself. Apps and incoming notifications are the most common productivity killers. Writer is a stripped-down word processor that aims to solve this problem by providing a distraction-free writing environment within your smartphone or tablet so that you can focus solely on creating text content with peace of mind.
5. Google Drive
Google Drive allows bloggers to store all kinds of documents including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, images, audio, videos and many others in the Cloud. Apart from just storing them, the app will sync these documents across multiple devices linked to your Google account. Once synchronized, bloggers can access their files wherever they are. If you have a blog post that is halfway done on your laptop, you can continue to work on it using your phone while commuting to work.
6. Dictionary.Com
Not sure about the exact meaning of a word that you are going to put into your blog post? Eager to find an alternative word to use in your post? Want to know the meaning of a word or phrase used in comments posted by your readers? Well, Dictionary.com is the solution for all the above problems. The app is especially useful for bloggers that don’t speak English natively and the ad-free version only costs $2.99.
7. SwiftKey Keyboard
This is a dream-come-true app for those who are tired of typos and the small keyboard buttons on your tablets or smartphones. SwiftKey Keyboard does not only auto-correct your typos, it also offers word predictions based on your past typing activities. You can even personalize the word predictions by asking the keyboard to learn your choice of words on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and blog posts.
8. Photo Editor
With a smartphone, we can snap photos on-the-go and attach them to our blog posts either immediately or in the near future. From time to time, we might need to do some minor touch-ups on the photos that we’ve taken and this is where Photo Editor comes in. With this app, you can crop, edit, and resize your photos as well as add effects, texts and drawings onto them.
9. Disqus
Many bloggers are integrating the Disqus commenting system onto their blogs because of the community features that bring blog commenters back and keep them engaged. With the Disqus Android app, you can moderate your comments, publish responses to comments that you receive and keep the engagement levels high despite being away from your computer.
10. Flipboard
Flipboard only launched its Android app recently. The app allows users to browse through their Facebook, Twitter and Google+ streams, as well as Google Reader feeds in a beautiful flipping manner. It also consolidates and curates a stream of important stories for those who are too busy to go through everything. As a blogger, using this app and browsing through interesting news content daily will give you fresh ideas on what to write about in your next blog post.
11. BeyondPod Podcast Manager
Bloggers who don’t have time or don’t like to read may prefer to listen to audio content or watch videos. BeyondPod allows you to subscribe, download, listen to audio podcasts and watch video podcasts on-the-go. This app is extremely useful for bloggers who are driving a lot because for them, there is very little reading time.
12. Pocket
As bloggers, we tend to browse the Internet a lot on smartphones, and will come across insightful articles and blog posts that we would love to read but cannot due to limited time. Pocket solves this problem by letting us save links that we wish to read later. The app will download a minimalist version of an article, blog post, video or just about everything so that we can come back to them later.
13. Evernote
Evernote is a very useful app to capture ideas that come to mind when you are out and about. You can capture an image, write text, do sketches (with Skitch), record an audio clip or create a to-do list with Evernote. All these materials will then synchronized across all your devices so you can be sure that all your notes are easily accessed via your phone, desktop and browser.
14. Tape-A-Talk Voice Recorder
An app that records audio is very important for bloggers. You can use this app to record an interview with an authority figure in your industry, or make note-to-self reminders. Apart from recording,Tape-a-Talk has the functionality of uploading your recording to several services once the recording is completed. The paid version, which costs $4.99, comes with basic editing features such as cut, repair and rename.
15. GAnalytics
The amount of traffic that you receive together with other site metrics like bounce rates are crucial if you are making any form of income from your blog. gAnalytics is like the mobile version of Google Analytics which basically allows you to bring site usage statistics wherever you go. With this app, you can stop worrying about the traffic performance of your blog the next time you travel.
Did I Miss Out Any Useful Apps?
Fellow bloggers, were there any apps other than the ones mentioned above that you use on a daily basis? Do you have experience using the above apps or with any other apps outside of this list that you’d like to share with me? Leave your two cents in the comments below.
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