In the past, I’ve written a blog post for reviews for App Reviews or App of the Day apps on the iOS app store. That was around the time I was still using an iOS device, an iTouch in particular. Here’s a similar review for App of the Day apps on Google Play:
AppsFree – Paid apps and games for free
Developed by ts-apps
AppsFree is a simple, lightweight app that lists premium apps that have gone free for the day.
What I liked about this app
- UI/UX is neat and minimal, and there are lots of customizable features like basic filters (downloads, ratings, monetization options), categories, keywords, and even developers. It’s pretty straightforward to use.
What I don’t like about this app
See below
My overall rating
See below
AppSales – Paid Apps Gone Free & On Sale
AppSales is a similar app that lists premium apps that have gone free for the day, as well as premium apps that are currently on sale. It is basically the above app, plus extra new features. Both apps (this one and the former) are from the same developer.
What I liked about this app
- Aside from the many similarities AppSales has with the former, it also features premium apps that are currently on sale.
- You can also add apps to your watchlist so you’ll get notified when they go free or go on sale.
- There is also a charts feature, which is basically just similar to Google Play’s charts.
What I don’t like about this app
- Both apps (AppsFree and AppSales), both from the same developer, are exactly like clones of one another, except the latter has an additional set of features. Both apps are even being updated simultaneously for that matter: this means that the developer doesn’t intend on phasing out one or the other, for purposes of keeping all updates and features in a single app.
My overall rating
Seeing, and experiencing it firsthand, that both apps are almost similar, with AppsFree (1 of 5) just being a smaller version of AppSales. There’s really no reason to keep both apps installed on your device as you could already get your daily app fix from AppSales (3 of 5) alone.
If these were from different developers and if their UI/UX and if their features were obviously different, on the other hand, I would have probably given a more fair rating for each app.
App of The Day – Free
The third contender is App of The Day, from developer Perfect tools. App of The Day is a much simpler app that features a single app each day.
What I like about this app
- It is unique. Unlike the previous apps mentioned, this is a bit more similar to the iOS app of the day apps I used and reviewed in the past.
What I don’t like about this app
- The UI is so simple that it just says the app category, the app name and there’s a button that takes you to the app store listing. That’s it. My description of what I don’t like about the app is probably even longer or more detailed than the actual UI itself.
My overall rating
Despite AppsFree and AppSales are basically just the same apps packaged as apps with different features, and that App of The Day is a much more unique app than the two, being an app with basically no extra features, I only give App of The Day a rating of 2 out of 5. There’s definitely a lot of room for App of The Day to improve on and I would be looking forward to these in the future, if the developer plans on doing so, that is.
Takeaways
In general, it is much easier to find low-quality apps on Google Play, with Google Play having a one-time fee of only $25 for you to submit your apps into their app store, as compared to the annual fee of $99 for the Apple Developer program. This makes it easier for copycats/clones, crapware and shovelware to be uploaded into Google Play, despite Google supposedly burying low-quality apps from its store. Because of this, it will be very hard to come by really good apps, and by good, I mean high-quality apps like those in the iOS app store.
It’s basically unfair for me to rate these copycat, crapware apps as low as I could since Google Play has allowed them to be in the store in the first place, while especially I know it’s hard to develop apps as I’ve experienced it firsthand, so respect, still, to developers out there!
In the end, these app-of-the-day Android apps and Android apps that feature other apps are technically already useless as the Google Play store (and the new iOS app store) could already accommodate these queries by itself. So instead of relying on these apps, I might as well explore Google Play and all features to its extent and give you my recommendations and app reviews, without the help of these app-of-the-day apps.