This list uses the power of my advanced Google Play search engine to get some free, in-app-free and ad-free apps from it.

DISCLAIMER : these 3 criteria are the only one I use, so open source isn’t important in this list.

However, I sort these apps according to my own user experience.

Apps

• Internet

  • Web browsers
  • Download managers
  • Content blockers

• Multimedia

  • File explorers
  • Notes
  • Office suites
  • Music players
  • Video players
  • Cameras
  • Image gallery
  • Photo editors
  • Streaming
    • YouTube
    • YouTube Music
    • Spotify

• Communication

  • E-Mail
  • SMS
  • Social networks & co.

• Tools

  • Calculators
  • Dialers & Contacts

• Utilities

  • Device info
  • Firewalls
  • Cleaners
  • Password managers
  • Keyboards

• Developers

  • GitHub
  • Terminal & SSH
  • Code editors

• Launchers
• Calendars
• GPS
• Widgets
• Games

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Web browsers

• Kiwi — Based on Chrome, one of the few that supports extensions
• Iceraven — Based on Firefox, supports more extensions
• Firefox
• Via
• Focus
• Pure

Download managers

• ADM Holo (APKPure mirror) — Holo is the old one, the new one is material but contains ads and payments
• Navi (GitHub mirror) — Dead, last updated 2022-03-15

Content blockers

• Blockada — VPN mode
• AdAway — Root mode

File explorers

• MiXplorer — Many many features, especially for geeks. 👍
• Cx — Supports internal, external, network (last SMB version included) and cloud.
• Fossify

Notes

• Google Keep
• ColorNote
• Fossify

Office suites

Sorry I can’t find any for now. You have one ? Please comment !

Music players

• AIMP
• Pulsar
• Audify
• Fossify

Video players

• mpv
• VLC
• Pop (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2020-06-04
• EnjoyMobi

Cameras

• Google
• Google port hub — These versions may include Night Sight, HDR10+ and etc. (model-specific features)
• Open
• Motorola
• Asus (APKMirror mirror) — Dead, last updated 2022-05-07

Image gallery

• Cloud Innovation Studio Gallery — Dark theme, powerful image editor included
• AK Gallery (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2019-11-12
• Google
• Fossify

Photo editors

• Snapseed
• Adobe Photoshop Express

YouTube

• LibreTube — Uses Piped instances instead of frequently broken local scraping
• Tubular — Fork of NewPipe adding SponsorBlock
• NewPipe

YouTube Music

• RiMusic

Spotify

• Spotube

E-mail

• BlueMail — Many compatible accounts, dark mode, advanced spam filtering, tasks & priority management
• Spark Mail

SMS

• Fossify
• Google

Social networks

• Reddit
  • Infinity — Fork using user’s own API key, original became paid using proprietary API key
  • RedReader
  • Stealth

Others

• Signal
• Telegram
• Discord
• Meetup
• WhatsApp

Calculators

• Calculator++
• Fossify
• Google

Dialers & Contacts

• Google
• Fossify Dialer
• Fossify Contacts
• Simpler
• Dialpad (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2015-11-13

Device info

• General
  • Quixom Device Info (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2018-11-14
  • Andrey Efremov Device Info
  • Cellular-Z
• GPS
  • GPSTest
• Microphone
  • Decibel (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2019-09-24

Firewalls

• AFWall+
• NoRoot

Cleaners

• Norton

Password managers

• KeeWeb — Webapp
• KeePass DX
• AuthPass

Keyboards

• FlorisBoard
• HeliBoard
• Fossify
• Google
• Yandex

GitHub

• OctoDroid

Terminal & SSH

• TTerm (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2018-01-25
• Termux
• ConnectBot

Code editors

• 920 (GitHub mirror) — Dead, last updated 2017-08-30
• DeX (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2019-05-04, optimized for Samsung desktop but also compatible with smartphone format

Launchers

• Nova
• Lawnchair
• Evie
• Microsoft

Calendars

• Google
• Fossify
• Cal (APKMirror mirror) — Dead, last updated 2016-01-27
• One
• Etar

GPS

• Waze
• Google
• Here

Widgets

• Todo Agenda

Games

• Frozen Bubble
• 2048
• miniSweeper (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2019-01-26
• Mazes
  • The Maze - Infinite Challenges
  • Marker Maze (APKPure mirror) — Dead, last updated 2019-10-04

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Feel free to suggest your favourite apps in comments 😉