It’s time: 5 major services that desperately need an Android app

You’d think that all the popular major online tools, especially those from big companies like Google, would have a dedicated mobile app. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. While the Play Store is home to millions of apps, it’s missing a few crucial ones if you ask me.

There are several online tools I use regularly that don’t have a mobile app for various reasons. That means I have to open them in a browser on my phone to use them, which is less than ideal. It’s not as convenient, and I lose the option of getting notifications that would provide value to my life.

I’m really into all things finance-related, especially the stock market. I’ve been investing for years now and always pay attention to what’s happening in the world of stocks, bonds, and crypto.

The tool doesn’t offer as much data as something like Koyfin or Yahoo Finance, but it has all the main features someone who just wants to keep up with the latest needs. I can see exactly how the main indexes are doing, not only in the US but across other regions as well. I can also create a watchlist with my favorite companies, view pricing charts, see related news, and access basic financial data for each business. I can even set up my portfolio, so I can always see how much money I’m making — or losing — on a specific day.

Google Finance is also free and doesn’t have any ads, but it’s missing a mobile app for some reason. It was available back in the day but was killed off in 2015. So, to use the tool on my phone, I have to visit the site via a browser, which is a pain since this is an app I’d use more or less daily, as the market is constantly moving.

I do a lot of shopping on Amazon, and since I consider myself a smart consumer, I frequently use CamelCamelCamel. The problem with retailers — not just Amazon — is that the discounts they are offering can be misleading. Sometimes they raise the price just so they can lower it a week later and put a “sale” sign next to the product. And even if that sale is genuine (without a markup a few days before), it’s not necessarily the lowest price the product has ever been sold for.

That’s where CamelCamelCamel comes in. It’s basically a free Amazon price tracker that lets me see exactly how the price of a specific product has changed over a certain period. So, whenever I want to buy something from Amazon, regardless if it’s on sale or not, I just paste the link into CamelCamelCamel and see if the purchase makes sense at that specific point.

I have saved money in a lot of cases just by spotting a price fluctuation trend that implied I should wait a bit, as a sale might be right around the corner. The great thing is that I can set up price alerts to get notified when the price drops below a certain amount, so I don’t have to check the sales page every day.

The experience is great on a desktop computer, as there’s even an extension I can click to see the price chart without opening the website. On mobile, the experience is bad since there’s no app, and I have to open the website in a browser and then paste in the link. Having a dedicated app would be that much easier. Ideally, I could just tap Android’s “Share” button within the Amazon app and select the CamelCamelCamel icon to see a price chart immediately. One can dream.

Created by a web security expert, this website lets me check if my data was exposed during a hack. For example, if a website like Facebook gets hacked, I can check on HIBP to see if anyone has gained unauthorized access to my email address, username, and other personal information.

It’s simple to use, really. I just type in my email address and see exactly which data breaches my accounts were a part of. There’s a nice timeline that shows everything on one page, going back years. Unfortunately, my accounts have been part of multiple hacks over the years, which lets me know how important it is that I have a different password for every account and that I change them as soon as a breach happens.

This isn’t something I use daily, but an Android app would still make sense. While the service does send me an email whenever a breach happens, it’s easy to overlook it. With an app, I could just get a push notification, which I’ll be less likely to miss and would enable me to react to these hacks more quickly.

Google’s Travel page is brilliant. I can search for hotels, flights, and vacation rentals, covering all my essential travel needs. I really like the “Explore” tab, as I can see general pricing overviews for both flights and hotels, giving me a rough idea of how much a trip may cost. There’s even a section on when the best time to visit a specific city is, alongside the general weather overview for each month and a few popular FAQs about the destination.

The flight search is great. Very Google-like with its simple interface, which makes it easy to quickly get the info you need. There are a bunch of filters available up top to narrow down my options — stops, price, times, etc. Once I find my flight, I’m given a few different booking options, so I can find the best deal. The hotel booking site works in a similar way, offering a bunch of filters and offers by different providers. This often makes it a better choice than something like Booking.com, as you can actually get a better deal.

Google used to have a Trips app that pulled in all my travel-related documents from Gmail and provided info about specific destinations, although there was no option to book flights or hotels. The app was killed off in 2019, with Google integrating the functionality into its other services. In addition to using it via google.com/travel, you can also do things like book hotels directly from Search. I’d much rather see Google make a dedicated app with everything in one place again, as that is the more streamlined approach, in my opinion.

I used to be a fan of SeatGuru before TripAdvisor bought and killed it. Surprisingly, the online tool didn’t have an app. I have now moved on to AeroLOPA, which is a similar service that gives me all the data I need, and like SeatGuru, it also doesn’t have an app.

AeroLOPA basically shows me diagrams of the seating arrangements of airplanes by airline. This makes it easy to find the right seat for me, making sure I can grab a seat that has more legroom and a great view out the window, for example.

It’s a must-use tool for anyone who travels, even if just a few times per year. It’s a great replacement for SeatGuru, although it doesn’t have the seat coloring that lets you know which seats are technically “bad” or worse than the others. You have to figure that out yourself based on the legroom, window position, and other details. While this is an app I don’t use that many times per year, having it saved on my phone as an app would make more sense, as the experience is always better than opening the website in a browser.

These are the five online tools that still lack a mobile app, but there are plenty of others that could make this list. Which ones did I miss? Let me know in the comments.