Here they are: Our top 5 Android and iOS apps of the week

Every week I try to bring you the best possible apps that are not data traps or microtransaction nests. In addition to my own finds, I also add the gems unearthed by the NextPit community and shared on our forum.

From mobile games to productivity apps, here are the 5 free and paid Android/iOS apps from NextPit this week. We publish this selection every week, you can actually check out last week's selection here.

Get a 30-day Free Amazon Prime Trial

Bathtimer - Shorter Showers (Android)

"I turn off the water in the sink when I brush my teeth". You too love to ease your conscience by doing a small individual act to save the environment and which, even if replicated on a national scale, would only represent a tiny hundredth of a percent of the daily pollution caused by any company or industry?

Bathtimer is a new opportunity to shine in society while judging those who are less eco-conscious than you. You can estimate how much time you spend showering and set a goal to reduce the time you spend wasting drinking water. The interface is fun with a gamified feel that tracks your progress from one goal to the next. Let's go and change the world with this application. Long live tech solutionism!

Despite its limited interest, this application will appeal to bio-hackers and other technophiles who want to track their every activity to extract data. The app is free, does not require an account, and does not contain ads or in-app purchases.

• Price: Free / Ads: No / In-app purchases: No / Account: Not required

• Download the Bathtimer app from the Google Play Store

Pickbit - Record Audio & Share (iOS)

Pickbit is an application that looks like an unnatural mix between TikTok and Clubhouse. Basically, the idea is to be able to create audio clips of up to 60 seconds by recording yourself directly or from a video and embellish this clip with images and annotations.

The app's homepage looks like a very TikTokesque news feed and you can share your clips on social networks. I had to create an account with the "Sign in with Apple" function that hides my email address but I didn't find any possibility to delete my account or even delete my posts, which is very unconvincing.

The application is free and does not contain any in-app purchases and I did not see any ads either.

• Price: Free / Ads: No / In-app purchases: No / Account: Required

• Download the Pickbit application from the Apple App Store

Edge Card Launcher: Side Panel (Android)

This alternative launcher for Android allows you to have a kind of condensed widgets and shortcuts in a floating window hidden on the edges of your screen.

Just double-tap or swipe left or right on your screen and the window appears with your favorite apps and several settings for volume etc...

Several Android overlays like OneUI or ColorOS offer quite similar side panels. But this one is universal and above all more customizable. The app is free, without ads and the only in-app purchase is the Pro version which can be unlocked for $1.99.

• Price: Free / Ads: No / In-app purchases: No / Account: Not required

• Download the Edge Card Launcher application from the Google Play Store

FloatingPlayer: Music Player (iOS)

This music player features a windowed or picture-in-picture (PiP) mode and allows you to move the playback controls into a floating widget on your home screen.

The app syncs to your Spotify or Apple Music account and you can resize the window at will. The app is free, with no ads or in-app purchases and the developer says, via the App Store, that it doesn't collect any data.

• Price: Free / Ads: No / In-app purchases: No / Account: Required (Spotify or Apple Music)

• Download the FloatingPlayer application from the Apple App Store

Get a Free Apple Music Trial

Lost Light (Android)

I know for sure that this game will not appeal to everyone. But if you like shooting games, Lost Light is a clone of the well known Escape from Tarkov and offers a third-person shooter (TPS) experience with survival and battle royale mechanics.

You play as a member of the Fireflies (no, not the ones from The Last of Us) and have to explore several regions in a dystopian and militaristic world to acquire resources, equipment, weapons, all while fighting against other players and bots.

The game is free to play and has not implemented any microtransactions yet, which is quite surprising. I play it on the ROG Phone 5 and I find the graphics impressive, especially at 60 FPS. The gameplay is very tactical, it's not an arcade shooter like Call of Duty, and the atmosphere which plays a lot on the noise, the footsteps of the enemies etc, can sometimes be very tense.

It's really a nice touch. I hope it won't disappear like the excellent Area F2 which cloned the Rainbow Six Siege game and whose developers were sued by Ubisoft several months ago.

• Price: Free / Ads: No / In-app purchases: No / Account: Required

• Download the game Lost Light from the Google Play Store

---

NextPit's app central

Best Android apps	Best iPhone apps
Best free Android Apps
Best messaging apps	Best free music download apps
Best music streaming apps	Best movie and video streaming apps
Best camera apps	Best photo editors
Best fitness apps	Best dating apps
Best calorie counting apps	Best pedometer apps
Best Android customization apps	Best Android launchers
Best Android keyboards	Best Android file managers
Best Android browsers	Best Android lock screen apps
Best calendar apps	Best e-mail apps
Best note-taking apps	Best cloud storage apps
Best weather apps	Best Android offline maps apps
Best Android food ordering apps	Best Android grocery apps
How to find free apps for Android or iOS without being scammed

---

What do you think of this selection? Have you already tested some of the apps on this list? What would be your Android and/or iOS apps of the week?