These are the best apps I Sideelad on my pixel phone

Google Pixel users can access a world of apps beyond the Play Store. Not everyone Great Android -app will be found in the company’s store walls. Many apps I trust daily at Pixel 8, are located in third -party app stores and depots, and forcing me to embrace side load to install them. These apps are based on core girls features, utilize Google’s own design language better and offer an entrance gate to even more good tools. Below I detailed three of the best apps I always start with my pixel, and you should definitely consider installing them on your device as well.

If you use a Google Pixel phone And haven’t tried smartpacers, you have no idea what you missed. SmartSpacer improves the functionality of Googles on a look – widget – an inventory on Pixel Launcher. The tool allows more integration with third-party apps and Google services, making that information strip at the top of the Pixel screen even more useful.

While the standard on a moment experience allows you to switch different elements on and off, smart spacer goes on more steps. When activated through a reasonably complicated process involving ADB and ShizukuSmartSpacer expands my control in an instant, giving it a leg over a traditional replacement wide. Even more important is that the app’s changes extend to AOD, making it a universal information stitch if my pixel is locked or ready to rumble.

Considering what smart spacies are capable of, I am not surprised that it is not available in Google’s official store. However, it is quite easily found on Github. To fully use SmartSpacer, I suggest grabbing the various plugins, many of which are also built by the developer, to further improve the app’s tools.

One of the benefits of the Play Store is the seamless background update support, holding my peasant of downloaded apps fresh and functional. Those who regularly side load apps on their device know that it can be a huge pain to update them. We need a Play Store-like governor to seek out, alert and install app updates from different sources. Obtanium is one of the first apps I install on pixels, as it does just that.

Obtanium lets me search for apps across different online sources, select different downloads for download and updates, and list all the apps I have ever installed or monitored through the app itself. When an update is pending, I do not need to go directly to an app’s Github Depot via a browser; I simply jump to fry and update it that I would have done via the Play Store.

Obtanium is available on github and via F-Droid. Note that obtanium can also scour F-droid and its depots for apps, so installing both are no longer explicitly necessary.

Breezy Weather is my favorite free weather app at a mile. I am not sure how it is still free because it is packed for the brim with features and elegant design blooms. As a pixel user, I benefit from material design touches including a widget that melts perfectly with my carefully curated Pixel Launcher experience. Even more important, like a data nerd, I can choose between different weather suppliers for my region.

The app presents weather information in several customizable cards, and shows critical parameters such as in fact and relative temperature, wind, UV index and beyond. Forecasts extend far into the future, making it a great secondary weather app to support my primary tool, Meteogram.

If you are wondering why I don’t use the official Pixel Weather app instead, I can’t quite get around any of its quirks. The single -weather supplier is not as accurate for my region, making it less reliable than alternatives. I also do not appreciate the lack of a date that appears on the 10-day forecast card-it just doesn’t make sense as a quick reference tool. Finally, the lean widget offer is also abominable. This is especially true that Breezy Weather’s big widget looks like it was made by Google itself.

Breezy Weather is available on F-Droid and Github, but I keep it reliable (and smart spacer) updated using Obtanium.

That’s my short list of the best apps I side load on my pixel. Do you have a favorite app that is not available in the Play Store, but that fits perfectly with the valued Google phone? Let me know in the comments below.