The Android Apps That Will Make You Smarter

We're living in an era where information and knowledge are super accessible. There's no excuse today not to know how to do stuff, and to not acquire some extra skills, which may come in handy in your professional or personal life. But then again, who has the time or patience to stand in a classroom? Boooooring.

For that reason, and because today is the International Students Day, we'll be presenting the coolest learning apps for Android, so that you can learn stuff on the go. Let's go?

Let's start with the newest addition to this collection. Linkedin Learning has recently been launched to match the platforms' recent shift into the MOOC world - in case you don't know MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses, and it's a thing that started a few years ago, and has been going strong ever since, with more and more prestigious universities and companies offering free courses. On Likedin though, all the content is paid (you do get a free trial though). These are important courses that give you skills for your professional life - so it's understandable that everything is paid for. That said, the selection of content is truly amazing!

But hey, maybe you guys don't even have/want a Linkedin account. No biggie, keep reading.

Coursera is one of the most well established MOOC Platforms in the world. If you don't know Coursera yet, it's time to discover it I think. The amount of content is huge, and it's generally free (unless you want a certificate - yeah money talks). Some courses even allow you to see the content even when it is no longer active, but generally if you follow an active course you can even get help from college professors during the virtual office hours or from your colleagues. Simply download the app and start enrolling. Also, check the certifications - they're basically a bundle of courses that together make up a larger course. That's all very cool, you say, but what if if I only want to get the school work done? Let's see what's next.

Khan Academy is the pioneer of the MOOC thing, existing since 2006. It has recently also adopted a cool gamification system, where you can unlock avatars for your account. It's mostly focused on math, but it also has loads of cool stuff about Computer Science, Economics and Arts. Its different from Coursera, because instead of learning professional skills, you learn the basics of science I guess. It's useful, trust me. It helps you solve your math/economics homework.

Udemy is a bit different since it's an online learning platform, focused on connecting professionals and industry experts. In that sense, if you are or want to be an instructor about a certain subject, you can go there, register and start offering content to the users. The diversity of the content is astonishing, covering everything from Computer Science to Marketing, Photography, Music, you name it.

Lynda is one of Udemy's main competitors, and the main difference is the payment model. On Udemy you pay for individual courses, on Lynda you pay a subscription fee that gives you access to all the content. Other than that the model seems to be pretty similar. On Lynda you also have industry experts teaching video lectures in Software Development, Design, Business, Web Development and Photography.

Udacity is similar to Udemy - the difference is that its focused on technology related courses mainly. It includes all kinds of technology related courses - from Android Development to Data Analysis. Some people claim that you can build your entire career and training just from using Udacity! The fact is, most of the courses are really useful if you work in a technological field. There are some free introductory courses, but most of the content is paid.

edX is pretty much like Coursera, but founded by Harvard and MIT. They provide ad-hoc courses like Coursera, but also have MicroMasters, Professional Certificates and XSeries Certificates - similar to Coursera specializations.

Elevate is completly different from all the others above. This is an exciting brain training app, that is based on scientific educational knowledge, that keeps your attention and motivation high. It challenges you with several different minigames, that also allow you to learn stuff. This has become an essential part of our day here at Aptoide. Not only makes you smarter, it's also an addictive casual game.

Memrise is kinda like elevate but mainly for Languages. It uses an intense gamification system to help you memorize words, their meaning and their pronunciation. It allows you to study several different languages (including local variants) and even Literature, Math and Science.

Duolingo is one of the main language learning apps. It currently offers the possibility to learn 21 languages, with many new additions coming soon such as Klingon - which is cool if you happen to be a Trekkie.

Babbel is Duolingo's main competitor. The main difference is the model, which on Duolingo is free for the user. On Babbel you can have the first lesson in any language for free, but then you'll have to pay for the rest of the lessons. Another difference is that on Babbel you start with a more traditional approach of building conversational skills first, and then moving on to learning specific grammar and vocabulary. Two different approaches to the same problem I guess. If you like freebies though, Duolingo is the app for you.

Well, TED is not really a learning app per se. We would consider it more of a motivational app. But at the end of the day, this is an app that encapsulates a huge amount of knowledge. If you don't know it already, TED is about delivering cool lectures by the brightest minds alive in science, technology, and culture. It's a huge amount of inspirational quotes. It also helps you score intelligence points if you post this stuff on social media. Try it.

We hope this selection of apps can get you started on improving your skills, either by training your brain, learning new stuff - or simply by finding inspirational ideas to become a real life cunning Tyrion Lannister.