20 apps and games to download this month

Our pick of the top 10 apps for smartphones and tablets this month. Photograph: incamerastock / Alamy

GOOGLE PHOTOS

iOS/Android

If you’re looking for a new way to store and access your photos in the cloud, Google’s new service is worth a look. You won’t run out of space easily and it has clever search, editing and sharing features for your collection.

MIXRADIO

iOS/Android

This streaming radio service started on Windows Phone smartphones, but is now widely available. It focuses on curated playlists of themes and genres, as well as whipping up playlists if you tell it which artists you like.

INBOX BY GMAIL

iOS/Android

Email overload is a 21st-century problem. Apps such as Gmail offshoot Inbox are trying to solve it with filters and gestural controls to ensure you don’t miss important emails – and delete irrelevant ones.

CAMERA51

iOS/Android

Available for some time on Android, this is now on Apple devices: a photography app that promises to help you take better shots. That includes detecting faces in your shots and helping you frame the best snaps.

FROZEN: EARLY DAYS IN SCIENCE

iOS

Frozen fever shows no signs of abating among children and this latest app from Disney looks set to capitalise on all the hullabaloo. What’s more, it gets kids learning about cookery and reindeer care: one of which is likely to be more useful than the other in their day-to-day lives.

MAKE MY DAY

iOS/Android

This is a travel app from Lonely Planet, initially focusing on six cities:London, Paris, Barcelona, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. It plans your holiday with suggestions for morning, afternoon and evening activities and venues.

VIMO FITNESS

iOS/Android

Smartwatches are giving health and fitness apps a new lease of life with the release of Apple and Android smartwatches. Vimo Fitness uses those devices to guide your workouts in the gym, communicating with its parent app on your smartphone to track everything.

MOLESKINE TIMEPAGE

iOS/Android

Moleskine is best known for its luxury notebooks, but the company is also moving into apps. This is a stylish calendar app that keeps track of your diary dates, pulling in travel times and weatherforecasts and directions plus an Apple Watch version.

SAGO MINI MONSTERS

iOS/Android

Sago makes delightful children’s apps, usually only for Apple devices. It’s just started porting them to Android though: Sago Mini Monsters is a good introduction: a colourful, creative app for kids to create their own monsters.

DEEME

iOS/Android

You might think that WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat have got photo-sharing and messaging tied up between them. DeeMe hopes not: it’s a fun instant messaging app that gets people adding text to their photos before sending them.

Knights of Pen and Paper.

GAMES

KNIGHTS OF PEN & PAPER 2

iOS/Android

The original Knights of Pen & Paper was an entertaining RPG that played with the genre’s conventions – including spoofing tabletop role-playing. This sequel follows that pattern but expands on everything, with a welcome dash of humour.

FRUIT NINJA: MATH MASTER

iOS/Android

Fruit Ninja was a big hit as a mobile game for grownups – and a fair few children. This spinoff is just for the kids: still about slashing fruit in half, but teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication and other maths skills too.

CAPITALS

iOS

Multiplayer word games such as Words With Friends have been popular on smartphones and Capitals fits neatly into the genre. You have to pick words out of a grid of letters, with the aim of defending your own base and attacking your opponent’s.

SEABEARD

iOS/Android

One of the best games for Nintendo 3DS is Animal Crossing, but it’s not available on smartphones or tablets. Seabeard is the best attempt yet to recapture its charms.

MARVEL FUTURE FIGHT

iOS/Android

If you’re a fan of the Marvel universe, this is an essential download: an impressive fighting game with pretty much all the key superheroes and villains. It’s got brains as well as brawn.

SKIING YETI MOUNTAIN

iOS/Android

In this marvellously fun action game, you swoop down the slopes searching for abominable snowmen, with controls that get the momentum of skiing just right.

GOATZ

iOS/Android

Goat Simulator was a ridiculous animal game that went viral. Now it has a follow-up that gets more ridiculous through the addition of zombies – but thankfully it’s also really fun. Fire-breathing elephants are thrown in for good measure.

LARA CROFT: RELIC RUN

iOS/Android

There was more than a touch of Tomb Raider in mobile hit Temple Run. Now the favour is being returned, as the former’s star Lara Croft gets her own endless-runner game. It’s polished and accessible, with vehicles adding a twist of originality.

GEOMETRY WARS 3: DIMENSIONS

iOS (£3.99)

The Geometry Wars games are eye-popping shoot-‘em ups that have translated beautifully to touchscreen devices in this new game. You have to blast through 50 levels, with lots of separate battle modes to give the action variety.

DESKTOP DUNGEONS

iOS / Android

The “roguelike” genre of RPGs can seem daunting to newcomers, but they’re a lot of fun once you dive into their procedurally-generated dungeons to fight and loot. Desktop Dungeons is one of the best: designed to suit quick mobile sessions.