IMO Instant Messenger
Free
Multi-purpose instant message apps can falter on mobile phones, crashing frequently or draining the phone's battery. While it's not perfect, IMO Instant Messenger is by far one of the lesser offenders. Another reason it's better than some others is it supports instant messaging across an impressive 11 networks (both popular and relatively obscure) including MSN, Yahoo!, AIM/ICQ, Google Talk, Myspace, Skype, Facebook, Jabber, imo, VKontakte, and Hyves.
ooVoo Video Calls
Free
Stable and reliable video chat apps for Android aren't easy to come by, but ooVoo is terrific. The Android video chat app supports group video, voice calls, and instant messaging—across iOS, OSX, Android, and Windows! Not only do you get solid Android video calling, but you can practically video chat with anyone.
Skype
Free
It's hard to beat a free, extensive communications network. Skype uses your phone's front- and rear-facing cameras to place free video and voice calls over 3G or Wi-Fi. I don't think Skype is "the best" communication app for Android, but it's one of those tools that I will continue to use because other people use it, too, and so it's often the quickest way to get in touch with certain people.
WhatsApp Messenger
Free
Send unlimited text, photo, audio messages to anyone in the world, as long as both of you are connected to the Internet. Its UI may not be as slick as KakaoTalk, but it's hugely popular and multi-platform (talks to your iOS and BlackBerry friends).
Social
Badoo
Free
Badoo isn't known as the "flirting app" for nothing. Badoo uses your phone's GPS to locate other members in your area, displaying their Badoo profiles which contain likes, dislikes, and photos. You can use the app to chat with other members and arrange offline meetings. Badoo boasts more than 140 million members around the world.
Facebook for Android
Free
Social networks thrive with a reliable app, and Facebook's for Android is solid. The Android app has the quintessential Facebook-branded interface but some unique functionality that's absent in Facebook's iPhone app, such as a side-scrolling preview pane of recently shared photos in the dashboard area.
Gibberbot
Free
Armed with the right software, it's pretty easy for someone to tap into your cell-phone network and read all the text messages and chatting you're doing over your device. Gibberbot obscures all this data so that it looks like "gibberish" to a hacker. This free, open-source chat client offers fully encrypted chatting over Gchat, Facebook, and Jabber. Must be used in conjunction with Orbot, the official Tor client for Android.
Google+
FreeSocial networks need mobile apps to thrive, and Google+'s is a fine start for the platform that arrived in July 2011. The app taps into conventions established by other online social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, while finding some of its own strengths at the same time. Google+ Mobile works fairly well, due to a smart design and comprehensible interface.
Instagram
Free
The most robust photo sharing social network, recently acquired by Facebook for $1 billion, finally came to Android after a two years of iPhone-only love. Instagram for Android lets you put folksy filters on dull photos with a single tap, and quickly share them on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.
Snapseed
Free
While Instagram may have cornered the market for filtered photo-sharing on the fly, Snapseed offers much deeper photo editing tools for free. While not quite as powerful as Photoshop, Snapseed can bring a whole new level to pictures on your mobile device.
Pinterest
Free
Social corkboard site Pinterest landed on Android and iOS devices this month, so you can access your account on the go. For the uninitiated, Pinterest is another popular network of ways to discover, collect, and share "beautiful things you find on the Web."
Plume
Free
Plume is, hands-down, the best Twitter client for Android. Recently updated for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sand
wich, Plume uses the horizontal, column-based stream seen in many Twitter clients. However it adds a home tab with widgets to access Trends, Lists, Favorites, and Search bar. There's also plenty of room for customizing your interface, from font size to the color of your timeline.
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