The internet was intended to be a leap into the future and connect the entire human population for the purpose of communication and education. Similarly, the Android OS did start off as merely a platform for mobile communication, but stands today as so much more. Thanks to the blooming Google Play Store, educational apps of all shapes and sizes have taken over the Android platform.

Whether you’re a parent looking to get your young one off Subway Surfers and addicted to more educational apps, for a teenager looking to boost your credit score with some online tutorials, there’s a learning app for everything. We’ve found the coolest educational apps for Android based on these two separate learning requirements, so you and your kids can do more with your Android device.

Best educational apps for kids

Elmo Loves 123s

Elmo Loves 123s is one of those very few applications that make learning a fun activity, proving that it doesn’t always have to be so hectic. This beloved Sesame Street character teaches your kid the art of quick and simple mathematics, tracing numbers, and problem-solving.

To make the experience even more engaging, Elmo Loves 123s hides little surprises — videos, puzzles, and more — for your young one to find. The only way to unlock is through tracing numbers. Finally, there’s also a tracker, which allows you to see your child’s progress.

Download: Elmo Loves 123s from Google Play

Fruits and Vegetables for Kids

While the former entry deals with numbers, this application is all about teaching your kids about the fruits and vegetables around them. Remembering names of even the common fruits and veggies can be a bit overwhelming for the little ones. However, now, with the help of this application, learning names is guaranteed to be a fun affair.

As you’d expect, the images are flashy enough to entice young minds, while a reward-based progression system makes sure they are getting the encouragement they need. There is also a quizzing system that tests their knowledge on the topics they learned.

Download: Fruits and Vegetables for Kids from Google Play

ClassDojo

A large part of the early education for kids needs the parents, teachers, and the children themselves to have an open channel of communication and interaction. Making the most of connected devices, ClassDojo brings an entire classroom virtual community to the table.

With over 180 countries already a part of the program, ClassDojo allows teachers to share photos, videos, and announcements directly with the parents, allows students to add their classwork to their digital portfolio, and lets the parents monitor their child’s progress.

Download: ClassDojo from Google Play

Photomath

We’ve all suffered through the tyrannical rule of numbers and the chaos of algebra as children, but our kids now have the power of the internet and the smartest apps such as Photomath that we never did.

Photomath is an ingenious app that uses the camera of your Android device to pick up mathematical problems and suggest a step-by-step solution almost instantly. Powered with additional features for Graphs, a built-in in Smart calculator, and even handwriting recognition, you’ll never have an unsolved problem on your hands ever again.

Download: Photomath from Google Play

Kids Learn Languages by Mondly

Learning a new language when they can barely keep up with the mother tongue can be overwhelming for the young minds, which is why Mondly has created a platform dedicated towards language-learning for kids, bringing all of its tried and tested features in a simpler and more palatable form.

The Kids Learning Languages by Mondly app comes with support for learning French, English, Spanish, Italian, and German. Designed to resemble a game more than a learning app, it comes with unique lessons to learn about animals, nature, parts of the body, colors, and numbers in various languages, while gradually progressing towards reading, writing, speaking, and listening new words and phrases.

Download: Kids Learn Languages by Mondly from Google Play

DragonBox Elements

The modern classroom of the 21st Century cannot simply be restricted to textbooks, and neither can the minds of kids who have grown up with smart devices by their side. This is why DragonBox Elements has created a learning platform that goes out of its way to make geometry fun and exciting.

The app/game comes packed with more than 100 skillfully crafted levels for the young ones to play and learn from, giving them bits of basic geometry at every step. From exploring the properties of Euclidian proof, to discovering the geometric arrangement of quadrilaterals, DragonBox Elements takes the boring element out of geometry.

Download: DragonBox Elements from Google Play

YouTube Kids

The largest free streaming platform in the world is also available in a lesser-known version called the YouTube Kids app, which is self-explanatory. Apart from filtering out the content that is not suited for younger audiences, YouTube Kids also organize educational content based on genre and interest.

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With the YouTube Kids app, you even get parental controls to block out cartoon shows during study hours, and create a profile based on your child’s interests. Form learning how to count and recognizing colors, to enjoying some of the coolest Science experiments from the comfort of your home, YouTube Kids alone is worth a dozen apps.

Download: YouTube Kids from Google Play

Best educational apps for teens and young adults

edX

There are many websites and apps that facilitate credible online education, with some even offering official diplomas for successfully completing the courses. edX, despite being a fundamentally similar app, offers something entirely different — gives you the opportunity of following the actual curriculum of some of the leading colleges in the world. The app, which was founded by Harvard University and MIT, has over 20 million active users and has over 2000 courses.

You won’t get a degree, of course, but getting the opportunity to learn so much for free is still something worth taking a hard look at.

Download: edX from Google Play

Quizlet

Quizlet is arguably one of the most popular quizzing apps on the Google Play Store, and we have no arguments in that regard. Curated specifically for students, Quizlet facilitates learning in the best possible way.

The app can be divided into three sections — Learn, Write, and Match. You can create your own flashcard for an upcoming exam and revise as many times as you want to memorize them completely. It’s also exceptionally helpful for big competitive exams, such as the SAT or ACT, which push your comprehension skills to the limit. Finally, the app has support for 18 foreign languages, making sure you’re not fumbling your way through the quizzes.

Download: Download Quizlet from Google Play

Duolingo: Learn Languages Free

Whether you’re losing your train of thought in Spanish class every week or simply want to learn a new language for your year abroad, there’s no app better than Duolingo to get you started. Duolingo comes packed with support for French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, English, Russian and so many more.

This free language learning app breaks down learning into small puzzles and lessons, and completing them brings you rewards and achievements. You start with basics and then progress to learning verbs, phrases, and then entire sentences, which makes 34 hours of Duolingo use worth a semester of university-level education.

Download: Duolingo from Google Play

Coursera

The modern classrooms are not limited to the whiteboard, which is why services like Coursera are taking over with their learning program. Offering thousands of courses, including specialized ones developed by actual scholars from the top universities in the world, you can literally learn anything you have your mind set on with Coursera.

From learning basic programming, engaging with the top minds in medicine, to discovering your calling for photography and art – there’s a course for everything. Complied in multiple languages and specialized certification programs, you even get live classes, recorded lecture videos, and one-to-one sessions with teachers to have a unique virtual learning experience.

Download: Coursera from Google Play

TED

Even before your classroom education ends, you will begin to realize that there’s a lot more out there to educate yourself than written books and dates practices. TED Talks has been a platform for some of the most innovative minds and unbreakable spirits to share their accomplishments, and help you learn from their experiences.

The TED app comprises the best content of more than 3,000 TED Talks in over 100 languages, all compiled in order for you viewing pleasure. You can even download TED Talks for viewing offline and start your day by learning something new every day with the TED Radio Hour Podcast directly from your mobile device.

Download: TED from Google Play

SoloLearn

The Android OS is an open-source platform, and this openness is half the reason we can enjoy the apps and services we do, so developing apps and learning to code should be the same. This is the mindset with which SoloLearn has been created by a community of coders and developers, hoping to help aspiring techies find their calling.

As the tech industry pushes forward, mastering one programming language simply isn’t enough, which is why SoloLearn brings you the ability to learn Python, C++, HTML, Java, Swift and many other coding languages from the single platform. You not only get all the interactive learning sessions you’ll ever need, but a Code Playground to put your knowledge to the test right from your phone.

Download: SoloLearn from Google Play

Khan Academy

This non-profit educational institute began a decade ago with the hope to help people, especially young minds learn more than their physical classrooms were able to teach, through the medium of the internet. Today Khan Academy offers more than 10,000 educational videos that span across the learning spectrum in unimaginable ways.

Unlike Coursera and Udemy that focus on a university or college-level education system, Khan Academy covers everything from the basics of math and history to the complexities of the science and economics. All of this comes with complete offline access and better learning ideas through step-by-step guides, more than 40,000 Common Core practice questions and flashcards.

Download: Khan Academy from Google Play

Is any of these smart and intuitive educational apps good enough to inspire you to go out and learn something new today?