Summary
If you are a Samsung power user, Good Lock is likely the first app you install on your new phone. Good Lock lets you customize your Galaxy phone beyond what’s allowed in One UI by default and adds tons of additional features. But it’s not the only app I install on my Galaxy. I also have some favorites that take care of file sharing, music, passwords, and shortcuts, and I think they are a must-have for anyone with a Samsung or even an Android phone in general. Bitwarden An open-source password manager that works everywhere While Samsung has its own Pass app for managing passwords, it’s not truly cross-platform. I use a Windows PC, a Mac Mini, and my Samsung phone daily, so I need my passwords on all of them. That’s why I use Bitwarden instead. Bitwarden is an open-source password manager with a generous free tier. You get unlimited password and passkey storage across all your devices at no cost. I have it on my PC, my Mac Mini, and my Galaxy phone, and everything stays in sync without me thinking about it. One of the reasons why I recommend Bitwarden so easily is its free plan. Advanced features like username breach scanning and encrypted text sharing via Send come standard with the app. It also supports the longest list of browser extensions I’ve seen in a password manager, so you’re covered even if you’re not using Chrome, Safari, or Edge. If you want more control over your data, you can self-host Bitwarden on your own server, though you’ll be responsible for your vault’s security at that point. Bitwarden uses end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption, and the company has never been at the center of a breach controversy, unlike some of its competitors. The premium plan has gotten a bit expensive at $19.80 a year after the recent price hike, but it’s still cheaper than most popular alternatives like 1Password or Dashlane. Poweramp A local music player that still holds up after 16 years While I do use YouTube Music for streaming, I also have a large collection of music stored on my phone. Samsung’s built-in music player is not the best, and it exists only as an emergency option. Instead, I use Poweramp, a local music player that’s still impressive after 16 years since its first release. The app is free to use, so there’s no subscription to worry about. The interface is clean, shows album art properly, and the navigation feels natural. Playback controls are thoughtfully laid out, too. Out of the box, Poweramp supports most major audio formats, including MP3, FLAC, and WAV. Since most of my collection is in one of these formats, it plays everything without needing a codec pack or conversion. More importantly, it keeps my existing folder structure intact. I organize my music into folders by artist and album, and Poweramp respects that instead of trying to reorganize everything into its own library system. The real reason Poweramp has stayed popular for so long is its equalizer, and that continues to be the highlight still. It offers both graphic and parametric EQs, bass and treble controls, and custom presets. If you care about how your music sounds through your specific headphones or earbuds, Poweramp gives you the controls to fine-tune it. LocalSend A cross-platform file sharing app that doesn’t need the internet QuickShare is the default file sharing app on most Android phones, and it even works on PCs. But it’s not the most reliable option. It works fine most of the time, but when it decides not to work, you’d need a complete restart on your PC to get it going again. I also use a Mac without an iPhone, so I needed a good replacement for AirDrop. LocalSend is an open-source file sharing app that works on Android, macOS, and Windows. It connects to devices on the same network, and the transfer speed is fast enough for most files. If you’re trying to move something large, like a video project, a wired LAN connection would make more sense, but for everyday transfers it’s quick. You can share files with multiple people at the same time, and even share with someone who doesn’t have LocalSend installed through a temporary link. By default, the receiving device has to accept each transfer, which is a good privacy measure. If you want to skip that step for devices you trust, you can turn on automatic acceptance in the settings. Hush Skip Spotify ads without paying for Premium Spotify is a great music streaming service, but if you use the free version, you might find yourself subscribing to Premium to get rid of the ads. Or you can use Hush. It’s an open-source Android app that lets you stream Spotify without the ad interruptions. Hush works alongside the official Spotify app. The moment Spotify starts playing an ad, Hush detects it and restarts Spotify in the background, removing the ad entirely. Music continues after a short delay of about one to two seconds. It’s not the cleanest solution, and you will notice a brief pause when it skips, but it’s better than sitting through a 30-second ad about a podcast you’ll never listen to. An optional on-device DNS filter also blocks video ads from showing up in the app. If you like Spotify but hate the ads, Hush is worth trying out. Do keep in mind that it’s a workaround, not an official feature, so it could stop working if Spotify changes how it serves ads. Tapbar Turn any part of your screen into a shortcut Tapbar is a newer app, but it’s already one of my favorites. It lets you turn any part of your screen into a tappable shortcut. You can tap the clock on your phone’s status bar to open the Clock app and set a timer, tap the battery icon to open Settings, or double-tap the camera punch hole to launch the Camera app. Tapbar lets you create up to four custom tap zones anywhere on your screen, and each zone supports five gestures: single tap, double tap, triple tap, long press, and swipe. Each gesture can launch an app, a shortcut, or one of 75+ quick actions like toggling the flashlight or Wi-Fi. I find it to be a better alternative to the built-in gesture shortcuts, and it’s even more useful for triggering automations using apps like MacroDroid and Tasker. The app is open-source and free to use, but since it’s not on the Play Store, you’ll need to download it from GitHub, F-Droid, or OpenAPK. These apps fill the gaps that Good Lock doesn’t Beyond being a customization wizard with dozens of modules, Good Lock doesn’t solve everything on its own. These apps handle the other side of things: securing your passwords across devices with Bitwarden, keeping your local music collection sounding its best with Poweramp, sharing files reliably with LocalSend, skipping ads on Spotify with Hush, and adding useful shortcuts with Tapbar. Between Good Lock and these five apps, my Galaxy phone does pretty much everything I need it to without reaching for a third-party launcher or a paid subscription.