Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
We have Android app lists for many, many topics. After all, people use their Android devices for a ton of different things. A lot of these apps are pretty mainstream while others are very niche. These niche apps work exceptionally well, but only for the few people who actually need them.
Anyone can write a list of weird apps that do nothing. This list is an ode to the wonderful niche apps that work really well if you’ve ever needed them. We will potentially create a lot more such apps as we come across about ten more in our adventures. You can also submit ideas in the comments.
With all of that out of the way, here are some fun, weird, niche apps for Android that are actually pretty good.
See also: Best Android apps
10 fun niche Android apps
Are you looking for quirkier or more unique apps? For more information, see the following best lists:
Easter egg collection in Android
Price: Free
As it is said, this is a collection of all of Android’s Easter eggs over the years. The app has every Easter egg from Android Gingerbread (the first one) to Android 11. It’s a fun little app to see what all of the Easter eggs looked like and how they worked. That’s basically all this app does. You select the one you want, view it and you’re done. You will likely only use this app for every 15 minutes every few years, but it exists and works fine.
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Embiggen
Price: Free
Embiggen is a solid app that does one thing too: you enter text and the text grows larger. While it sounds useless at first glance, there are actually use cases for this app. You can type short messages in noisy places and show them to someone near you. The screenshots show that you can use it in a bar and get a person’s attention without walking towards them. Great niche, right? However, it works very well and does what it says it does.
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Fly with Gauss
Price: Free
Flying With Gauss is a developer on the Google Play Store with a collection of excellent super niche apps. Some of the apps include Xash3D FWGS, Husky for Pleroma, CS16Client, and a few others. Most of the apps are engines that allow you to run Half-Life or Counter-Strike on your phone with a choice of mods and game modes. The engine and mods work surprisingly well as long as you provide your own game data. It’s very specific, but people really seem to like it when they find a situation to use it.
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
InstaMocks
Price: Free
InstaMocks is a nice little app that can take screenshots and then paste them into the frame of any phone. There are 40 devices to choose from, and you can edit up to ten screenshots at a time. This can only be used if you are an app developer, YouTuber, or someone who posts on forums. However, the app works and the screenshot editing is very good. There’s no real reason for this to exist for the general audience just yet, but it does exist if you ever need it.
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
PhotoPills and SunSurveyor
Price: $ 9.99 and $ 7.99, respectively
PhotoPills and SunSurveyor basically do the same thing. They allow photographers to explore places based on when the sun goes down or rises. PhotoPills has a planner for the sun, moon and Milky Way as well as 2D, augmented reality and 3D modes. SunSurveyor basically has the same functions. Both have a few things that set them apart, but they work wonderfully when you’re planning a photo shoot around a sunset or a sunrise.
More app lists here:
RunPee
Price: Free with in-app purchases
RunPee is an app for moviegoers. It shows you the best time to take a pee break while watching a movie. It will then give you information about what you missed on your return. Obviously, it is designed for watching movies in a theater since you can easily take a break at home. However, RunPee can also tell you if there are any additional scenes at the end of the movie so you know if you need to hang around and wait or leave the theater early. The app itself is in the middle of a major overhaul as previous versions definitely needed some work.
Shark Tracker from Ocearch
Price: Free
Did you know that you can track shark migration patterns through an Android app? It turns out that you can do just that with this one. Researchers tagged a few sharks, and the app will show you where they are. It’s really only useful to biologists, but it’s fun to play with and it’s super educational. In fact, there are a number of uses that keep track of random things. For example, lightning detection tracks lightning strikes.
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
SpotAngels
Price: Free
SpotAngels is a parking app. Crowdsourcing tells you where to find parking, how much it costs, and other potential parking barriers. For example, some people use the app to remind them to move their cars before a street cleaner shows up. You can also book parking offers and pay some parking meters. This is obviously for a specific type of person, but is useful almost anywhere. You can also make a contribution if there is not enough data in your region.
Web Alert
Price: Free
Web Alert is a different type of reminder app. You tell it to monitor a website and it notifies you when the website changes. You can use it for all kinds of things. It can notify you when new articles are published on a website of your choice, when a price for a desired product changes, or when you receive a response in a forum. Most of the websites now have official apps, but it’s cool to know there is such an app.
Win 98 simulator
Price: Free
Always wanted to use Windows 98 for something? With this emulator, you can do just that. Not only does it boot into a Windows 98 environment, but you can also use many of the genuine Windows 98 apps. Tools include old school Internet Explorer, Minesweeper, Solitaire, Windows Media Player, Notepad, and more. It also supports a mouse and keyboard if you need them. We don’t know who would need something like this, but it’s here if you ever want it.
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If you want to see fun, niche, weird apps on our next list, leave us a comment with your suggestions!