Asklemmy

Buzzkill is good if you have one of those

MiXplorer - https://mixplorer.com/

A file explorer allowing for me to transfer files over the network. When Solid Explorer suddenly didn't seem to want to do network transfers anymore (likely because Windows updated something), I waited for that app to update to fix the issue. It never did. I found that MiXplorer was a good alternative that transfers files over the network just fine and works nice and fast as well. The interface takes a bit to get used to (meaning it isn't the same as Solid Explorer) but the app is certainly worth using. Importantly, I can transfer files over the network without issue again.

Notably, this app is free to download (from XDA) however the Google Play version is not free. The Google Play version (which supports development) is a one time paid fee.

Power amp music player

Novalauncher Tasker Automate Fairmail

Slay the Spire

Square Home.

I know the Windows Phone experiment failed but it was my first smartphone that I bought and not just inherited my dad's work-iPhone when it became deprecated. I really love the "live tile" type home screen and Square Home improves on it as well, instead of just carbon copying it.

Other than that, the FUTO keyboard / voice input and Grayjay, although these three technically offer a lifelong free testing period, similar to WinRAR, but even less obnoxious because they don't even remind you that they want you to pay for them.

Fx file manager. if you do file management locally or want to access SMB share content , cloud, bluetooth etc, this app ia awesome.

Threema.

Neutron music player.

FairEmail.

Fair Email. I grabbed it from F Droid and paid direct though.

Balatro

Tasker. Basically an interface for writing scripts for your phone. Even if you don't have a use case in the beginning you'll start finding things to do with it.

Solid Explorer

I use Paprika 3 extensively.

I find recipes online, download them to the app stripped of all the online recipe bloat. It sorts all the information automatically, including notes and nutritional info. I can check off ingredients and highlight directions, edit tags, compile menus, add my own notes and write my own recipes, it automatically provides a grocery checklist, has a serving calculator to adjust amounts for whole recipes, built in timers, and that's just the basics off the top of my head.

It's free up to a certain amount of storage but I think all the features are available.

the Niagara launcher is still the only app I've bought on Play Store, and I've been very happy with it for maybe 5-6 years now

Sleep as Android

It's just a really great alarm clock app, but with tons of other sleep tracking functionality. I've always had trouble sleeping through my alarms, but I never do with this.

Macrodroid. It is like Tasker, but with a much much better UI.

Torque and a $5 BT car computer dongle. It tells you everything about your car. You can see what warning lights mean and clear the codes.

Read Era is technically free, but I paid for premium years ago and have never regretted it. I can open any kind of uncorrupted book file, from the Amazon reader format to PDF to epub, and everything else I've ever come across. It has a great search function, and the ability to file a book into a custom 'Collection'. You can edit the details of a book, like adding Author or pusblisher info, add your own personal notes to a page or highlighted quote, see an aggregate of all your highlights in a particular file, and adjust the font, background color, and contrast to your hearts content.

I make my whole family use it now, cause I love it so much and Premium works on Family share.

Monument Valley. Got the first one for free during a promotion but loved it enough to pay for the sequel and extra levels.

• OSMAnd+
• Symfonium

Slice and Dice is a very entertaining one time buy game. No bullshit in game purchases, no ads, I think developed by a singular guy.

Symfonium is an awesome music player that's a one-time $5 purchase.

Great question, btw.

1. Password Safe Pro
2. My Expenses
3. FL Studio, formerly Fruity Loops (also: Desktop)
4. Threema
5. Through the Ages (boardgame adaption)

Otherwise, I usually prefer free open source solutions (FDroid), but I regularly donate to keep the projects alive. 1 and 2 are small dev studios that I am happy to support.