Google Play has revealed its best apps of 2018

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By James Rogerson
last updated

And the winner is…

Lots of new apps have landed on Google Play over 2018 and we've highlighted many of the best in our best Android apps and best free Android apps guides, but only one can be the very best, and if you ask Google it's Drops: Learn 31 new languages.

This is an app which, as the name suggests, aims to teach you a foreign language, but it does so in bite-sized chunks using pictures and games to help you learn and remember the basics.

While that won Google's 'Best App of 2018' award, a number of other apps were also highlighted.

For 'Most Entertaining', Google selected five apps, namely VIMAGE (a cinemagraph app), No.Draw (an app for coloring by numbers), Neverthink (an app full of hand-picked web videos), TikTok (an app for creating and sharing 15-second videos), and Scout FM (a podcast player).

The best of the rest

There's also a 'Best Self Improvement' category, where Google highlighted Mimo (an app for learning to code), Drops, 10% Happier (a meditation app), Keep Trainer (a workout app), and MasterClass (an app for learning various skills).

For 'Best Daily Helper' meanwhile, Google chose Tasty (a recipe app), Otter Voice Notes (a voice memo app), Sift (an app for tracking purchases and getting automatic refunds when prices drop), Canva (a graphic design app), Notion (a notes and tasks app), and Woebot (designed to track and improve your mental health).

Then there's 'Best Hidden Gems' category, which highlighted Luci (a lucid dream journal), Just A Line (an AR drawing app), Unfold (an app for creating story collages), Slowly (a messaging app that makes you wait between messages), and Learn Spanish With Lirica (which teaches you Spanish through songs).

Google has also let users choose their 'Fan Favorites', with YouTube TV and PUBG Mobile being selected in the US, while Reddit and PUBG Mobile were selected in the UK. So if you're looking for new apps to keep yourself entertained over the holidays, these should make for a good start.

James Rogerson
James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.