Survey says this is our readers’ most cherished Google app

Google makes plenty of great Android apps, but that’s largely expected. After all, it is the de facto custodian of Android, and it really should lead by example in that regard. There’s a good chance, then, that many of your apps on your phone are made by Google. But can you pinpoint which one of these is your favorite?

For me, it’s Android Auto. I simply couldn’t live without the car mirroring app while driving. For my colleague Rita, it’s Google Wallet. In a recent opinion piece, she argues that Wallet has grown from a “nice to have” to indispensable. “Without it, I would have to figure out another way to centralize all my cards and tickets, and I really don’t want to do that,” she writes.

As we’re all different creatures, we wanted to know which Google app is your favorite. We listed a few of the popular options in a poll and asked readers to vote. See the Google app popularity hierarchy below.

This poll received just under 1,900 votes, but only one option received over a third of the ballots. Your favorite Android app, with 36.2% of the vote, is Google Maps.

Maps is certainly the most utilitarian app on this list, allowing users to check restaurant opening times and menus, plot routes and plan road trips, check gas prices, and survey live traffic data. I’m barely even skimming the surface, too. Maps has grown into an all-encompassing road travel tool that I’d certainly feel empty without on Android Auto.

What makes Google Maps a titan in its genre is its lack of a direct competitor. Apple Maps doesn’t have an Android app, and many of its features are not really up to snuff. Third-party alternatives, like OsmAnd, CoMaps, and Organic Maps, lack the data Google garners from its users. Yes, some of these are certainly better than Maps in some aspects, but Google’s solution just covers more bases.

So what about Rita’s pick? Surprisingly, Google Wallet appears to be more popular than Google Photos. In the race for second place, the former received 18.2% of the vote, while the latter received 17.8%. That’s a slim margin of just a handful of votes, but it does highlight how integral Wallet’s various skills have become to our readers. Both of these products beat Gmail, which is perhaps the most used product in our poll. It garnered just 10.3% of the vote, while the other stalwart product, Calendar, trailed slightly with 8.3%.

As for the least popular Google app, our readers awarded Meet that inauspicious title. The communications app received just 2% of the vote, even less than the 3.3% garnered by the sundry option.

Notably, we left out several Google apps in this poll, but the results highlight where Google excels — offering consumers convenient, reliable solutions for mundane tasks, like navigation, payments, and background photo backups.

Of course, if there is a Google app that you believe is better than Maps, Wallet, Photos, or any other product we’ve listed here, drop a mention in the comments and explain why it receives your nod of approval above all else.