Best Android apps for building better habits 2023
Self-improvement starts right here.
It's always a great time to try and kick those nasty habits or build some healthy ones. Trying to stop biting your nails? Want to make time to meditate each day? Need to catch up on your reading? Whatever it may be, there's never a bad time to start working on building healthy habits and/or breaking bad ones. Luckily there are a lot of the best Android apps for building better habits to check out on the Play Store.
Doing this on your own can be pretty tricky, but with the help of these apps, you can put yourself in the best position possible to stick with your goals moving forward.
Grow
Our top pick, Grow, is a simple and beautiful app that you'll want to use each day. Adding a habit takes just a few seconds. You can set start and end dates for your goals, certain times during the day you want to complete them, and as you keep going, you'll see a tree gradually grow with each day that you successfully meet it.
Grow doesn't have as many features as some of the other apps on this list, but if you want something easy and enjoyable to use, this is one of our favorites. Being able to grow a tree, day by day, is unique. There's a reason why it's also one of the best New Year's resolution apps to get you started on the right foot.
Grow
Want a clean, easy-to-use app to help you build habits? Grow is a fantastic choice. It's not as complex as some of our other favorites, but this is a great fit for people who want to keep things as simple as possible. We also love the visualization of growing trees as you follow through with your habits.
Get from: Google Play Store
Fabulous
If you know you want to take better control of your life but aren't sure where to start, download Fabulous right now.
Not only is Fabulous one of the best-looking apps on Android, but it's also one of the most feature-rich habit trackers around. So whether you want to lose weight, sleep better, feel more energized, or something else in between, Fabulous has a life coaching plan for you to follow. For example, Fabulous teaches you how to take power naps, has built-in workout routines to follow and meditation sessions to help you calm down and focus on what matters.
You can start using Fabulous for free, but to take advantage of everything it has to offer, you'll need to pay up. After a seven-day free trial, the regular price is $11.89 per month or a little over $142 a year. Fabulous does often run sales and promotions to lower the cost of your first year, with one of the best offering a 72% discount that brings it down to just $3.33/month (billed as $39.99/year).
Fabulous
Fabulous is the most expensive and feature-rich habit builder on our list, but if you want to take things head-on with everything the Play Store has to offer, this is the app to get. Its methods are based on scientific studies and can better your life in many different ways.
Get from: Google Play Store
Habitica
Tracking habits on their own isn't the most exciting thing ever, but thanks to a nifty little app called Habitica, it can maybe be fun.
Habitica gamifies habit-tracking by turning it into an RPG, turning a great genre for the best Android games into something that will help you. You can create habits and to-dos that you want to stick to, and as you complete these, you'll earn experience points, mana, and more to level up your character.
Completing tasks allows you to earn points, and once you earn enough, you can redeem these for rewards such as health potions, cosmetics for your character, or something a bit more tangible, like allowing yourself to watch an episode of your favorite TV show.
Habitica is free to use, but you do have the option to buy Gems (used for buying cosmetics, app backgrounds, and more) or a subscription that includes exclusive monthly items, the ability to buy gems with gold you earn, and other perks.
Habitica
Habitica takes a unique approach to the habit-building process — it turns it into a video game! Habitica is designed to play like an RPG, featuring quests, unlockable armor, customizable characters, and more. You progress through the game and level up by completing your tasks/habits.
Get from: Google Play Store
Daily
For folks looking for a more conventional habit-tracking app, we recommend downloading Daily.
Daily is another well-designed app that's extremely easy to navigate and makes your habits the primary focus above all else. The Today page shows all habits you're currently tracking, and the built-in calendar will show which practices and tasks you need to complete for any given day.
You can track the progress of your habits at any time from the All Habits page, and when creating a habit, it can be customized with a schedule, reminders, card colors, and a badge that gives it a unique visual indicator.
Daily is another app that's free to use out of the box, but the $1.99 Premium version comes with a dark theme, the ability to add unlimited habits, and more.
Daily
Daily is one of the more straightforward habit trackers out there, but it does it all incredibly well. You can start tracking habits right out of the box for free or get the premium version for unlimited habits, color coding, more badge icons, a stunning dark theme, and much more.
Get from: Google Play Store
Google Calendar
Yes, Google Calendar can be used for tracking habits. When you tap on the + icon in the app, you can tap the Goal bubble to add a goal/habit you want to follow. For example, you can make goals for exercising, taking up a new hobby, getting chores done, and more.
Once you find a goal you'd like to stick with, you choose how often you want to do it, how long you want to do that particular thing, and the time of day you want to do it. Best of all, it's built into your phone and ties into your Google account so that you can use it anywhere.
Google Calendar
We all use and rely on Google Calendar for keeping track of doctor appointments and important meetings, but did you know it's also a pretty great tool for tracking habits?
Get from: Google Play Store
HabitShare
If you've tried all of the apps and all of the methods for building habits, but they just won't stick, maybe it's time to get your friends involved. HabitShare is the perfect app for those who want to create a little community of like-minded folks who you know will kick your butt into gear if you're not sticking to your habits.
The app is completely free to use, and all you need to do is create an account for syncing and the social aspect. You can easily create new habits, followed by multiple reminders, so your phone ends up bugging you before it's checked off the list. Those who want to get their friends involved can take advantage of individual chat threads in the app so you can get some words of encouragement at the right time.
HabitShare
With HabitShare, you can go the traditional route, but the real power comes with the social aspect, which you can use to get your friends to help build some new and healthy habits.
Get from: Google Play Store
HabitNow
Finding a habit tracker that can fit your regimen is extremely important, especially if you want a habit to stick. HabitNow gives you all the tools you need to successfully build a new practice, from custom habits to reminders and alarms.
It can be tough to motivate yourself, but HabitNow aims to reduce frustration by giving you all the tools you need for success. The app provides quite a few different options for each habit, including setting a priority, creating a category, or setting a goal date. And the app itself is customizable, so you can select the right color theme to fit your mood or personality.
There's a calendar built into the app, making it easy to track your progress, along with graphs and charts to view your progress at a glance. You can even add notes to your different habits if you want to give yourself an explanation (excuse) as to why you broke your habit streak. HabitNow also includes a few home screen widgets so you can constantly receive reminders, or you can get satisfaction in hitting the checkbox each day.
HabitNow
HabitNow is one of those apps that may seem overwhelming at first glance with all of the different customization options. However, this is one of the best features as you can fine-tune your habits to fit your needs instead of relying on "cookie-cutter" habits that don't precisely match what you're trying to do.
Get from: Google Play Store
TickTick
Finding the right task manager (or to-do list app) can be tricky enough since not every one will work with you, but when it comes to building habits, why not have an app that keeps everything housed together? TickTick has upped its game over the last few months and has added some extremely useful features, including habit tracking.
That's right — you can use TickTick to knock out your daily tasks, along with either starting a great habit or quitting a bad one. The app sports a simplistic interface while having much more power under the hood than you would expect. As for habit tracking, there are many already-created options for you to choose from, or you can create one from scratch.
Creating habits is as simple as tapping on the Habit toolbar icon and tapping Create a new habit. Then the app will guide you through creating a new habit to track, offering some fun icons to choose from, a quote to add, and setting goals or reminders. TickTick even includes an interactive widget so you can mark off your tracking as they are completed.
TickTick
TickTick already offers a fantastic experience for those looking to get more productive with its task management and Pomodoro features. But the app also makes it easy to start (or quit) habits, and they are customizable from top-to-bottom, including the ability to set reminders and pick goals.
Get from: Google Play Store
HabitHub
Although it's been a few years since Material Design was first introduced, there are still quite a few apps that take advantage of this gorgeous design with some minor updates. One app that falls in this category is HabitHub, which still sports the older design language with a few tweaks to keep things looking fresh.
HabitHub is based on the "streaks" productivity method, which involves building streaks for days on end. As the streak gets longer, you will be more inclined to keep it going instead of having to start over from zero. The app offers a few pre-built themes, along with a calendar view to keep track of all your habits and how you're doing. With this calendar, you can see the streaks building, as each successful day is connected, and each broken day stands alone.
There's a "habit strength progress" page for each habit you are trying to create and maintain, giving you an idea of just how well you are doing. This provides an alternative viewpoint than just looking at the calendar or the number of days completed by the habit/task. HabitHub also sports a few widgets so you can keep track of how you're doing at a glance.
HabitHub
Whether you're using a smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch, HabitHub has your habit tracking needs covered. The app provides flexible goals and a beautiful design to help you build your streaks to turn a menial and forgotten task into something you do without even thinking.
Get from: Google Play Store
What are the best Habit apps for Android?
Why you can trust Android Central
So many Android apps can help you build better and more consistent habits every day. In fact, the numbers are so huge it's hard to get lost in the lists. However, we think that the best app for building better habits is Grow, an app that is extremely easy to use without sacrificing features.
Fabulous is another excellent option that's got a myriad of features to get you started on better habits, with easy-to-use guides and tutorials on accomplishing individual tasks.
Habitica is another stand out here, an app which gamifies the tasks of habit-building by integrating RPG elements into the experience. It makes habit-forming fun! All of the apps on this list are excellent choices though, and will get you well on your way to forming better habits in no time.
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Andrew Myrick is a Senior Editor at Android Central. He enjoys everything to do with technology, including tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Perhaps his favorite past-time is collecting different headphones, even if they all end up in the same drawer.