2018 seems to have fizzled by as we have subtly chewed through the first month of 2019 with the Christmas tree still up and the hangover from partying on new year’s day still strong.

With that being said, most of us are already back to work — battling the hardships of life and its shenanigans. During that time period, we’ve managed to cover important recommendations such as the best Chrome OS VPNs, as well as alternative email clients to Gmail for your Chromebook.

And why stop at that? True, life can be hard and working is even harder, but if you own a Chromebook and currently wondering “what tools do I need to make my life easier?” well, you are in luck because we’ve made a priceless list with some of the best tools we think you should consider getting this year for your Chromebook.

Files by Google

Files by Google is another amazingly crafted app by the mega search giant. With Google’s recent dysfunctional approach towards its app ecosystem, let’s just hope this one doesn’t get axed like those before it.

Files by Google tries to unify all your file management needs under one compact yet functional umbrella, perfect for anyone looking to get better handling of their device storage.

Its most interesting features includes sharing files between two devices without touching your data as well as personalized space clean-up suggestions for data deemed useless in your device.

Finding your files is a work in the park as the app utilizes smart filter to put together items relevant to each other.

If you are looking to save a lot of space in 2019, then look no further than this app and on the plus side, it is Chromebook compatible too.

Quik – Free Video Editor

GoPro, well known for their long line of camera-attached drone offerings is behind this amazing digital media editing app called .Quik

With just a few effortless taps, you can create an amazing presentation of your most beautiful moments by adding eyecatching effects and transitions.

This aims to make photo editing and fast and fun by allowing you to personalize your edits with either text or music which can easily shared with friends and family.

Firefox Focus

With torrent of breaches taken place around every corner of the internet, being more cautious online as never been so important.

There is no better time than now to start being more disciplined with how you decide to indulge in your daily online habits and that includes leveraging features offered by security-centric browsers like Firefox Focus.

Built from the ground up to be your “Night’s Watch” while you surf the internet, the privacy-focused browser automatically blocks a wide range of online trackers including those from third-party advertising firms.

The browser accomplishes this by using what is called e Disconnect block lists which not only blocks trackers, but also improves browsing speeds.

Snapseed

Initially created by NIK Software and now flying the Google banner, Snapseed has become a darling on the Android platform after being immensely revered on both the IPad and IPhone.

Using swiping gestures, users can edit their photos with the help of several effects and enhancements.

You can opt for the apps own preference by selecting the automatic adjustment feature that internally adjust both color and contrast.

To make going back to to your previous edits easier, the app saves your “edit history” and its list of  special effects and filters includes Drama, Grunge, Vintage, Center-focus, Frames, and a Tilt-shift.

VLC

Already a well known media player available on almost every platform, VLC has held a strong position as the “Swiss army knife” of media players due to its ability to play almost every audio/video file format.

The open-source cross platform media player comes with all the codecs baked within for every file format you could think including but not limited to MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV, Ogg, FLAC, TS, M2TS, Wv and AAC.

The Android version of the app uses almost all the technologies available for the desktop version and can even play network streams, see network shares and drives, and DVD ISOs, much like the desktop version of VLC.

Calmly Writer

With how distracting some of the most conventional writers can be — UI is usually cluttered with options though necessary for readjusting what you’re writing, they are distracting nonetheless.

Calmly Writer is a platform that is available as addon for Chrome whose main aim is to be a distraction-free zone for those looking to get more work done and focus on the most important aspect of writing which is writing itself.

Calmly Writer is plain and straightforward  but does feature several significant options like cloud save and synchronize, the ability to Import and Export in HTML, plain text, markdown, Microsoft Word™ .docx and PDF (print option) and so much more.

There is an option to add a typewriter sound but which I find to be counterproductive since hearing metallic clicking every time you hit a key can be distracting for some.

Office for Android

MIcrosoft reorganisation under its new management have resulted in the company’s shifting focus from being a competitor in every front to being a viable partner evident in the company’s recent push within the Android ecosystem.

The company has already made mobile versions of several of it’s classic platforms including office which harbors all ingredients of the desktop variant but designed exclusively for Android-based devices.

The office suite of Android apps contains all the known platforms like Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Onedrive, just to name a few.

Unclouded

The plethora of Cloud-storage services available have undoubtedly made life a little less stressful due to their ability to hold all our most important files for access everywhere and easy recovery in times of disaster — like your hard drive spontaneously dying.

Cloud services have become a bit rampant nowadays with several companies pitching their wares to the public.

Having several cloud-based accounts is no biggy if the data size is at manageable limits but as the gigs begin to add up, especially in a disorganised fashion, properly managing your data can be a stressful hussle.

And this is where Unclouded comes in. This program is like FIles for Google specifically made for cloud storage management.

Its features includes allowing you to see files or folders taking up the most space or through clever categorization, seeing which of the following you have the most –images, vidoes, music files, etc.

Unclouded can also search for duplicate files and is compatible with several cloud services like Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, and MEGA.

Slack

Slack has become the most sort after hub for project management teams to collaborate and share ideas like they would in person.

The platform has become well known around the world as the go-to online center for any organization (big or small) were information and  ideas are shared and important decisions are taken no matter where team members reside.

Slack can help smaller companies save big on travel cost by acting as a hub were your information and ideas are easily share and accessible to your employees.

Pocket Casts

Google’s Podcasts does it job pretty well as far as fetching and listening to podcast is concerned but if you are in the market for something similar but different, look no further than Pocket Casts.

This streamlined and feature-rich podcast player has all the bells and whistles to make it a worthy alternative to Podcasts by Google.

Some of its most interesting features includes episode search –which basically allows you to search for a specific episode rather than shuffle through a long list.

Additionally, Pocket Casts newest update added a revamped algorithm focus on discovery of new interesting shows and episodes.

Signal Private Messenger

IM messaging platforms are the most-used forms of communication through the internet and their growth have expanded  since the early days of instant messaging services like Yahoo Messenger or MSN.

The market is now saturated with many offerings as Messenger and Whatsapp sits comfortablly at the top of the list.

If you are someone cautious about how your private messages are treated online and don’t trust Facebook’s two big players in the game, you might want to take a long at Signal Private Messenger.

The privacy-centric platform isn’t as well-known as its competitors but the app provides a safe haven for your private messages by putting in place tools that provide end-to-end encryptions to everything you share on the platform.

Requiring only your phone number to sign in and phone book to fetch contacts, Signal Private Messenger doesn’t require any other log in details.

The app features all the basic tools of an instant messaging platform including allowing you to send high-quality group, text, picture, and video messages.

Getting Send high-quality group, text, picture, and video messages  requires no charges and it serves no ads.

Todoist

Life is an endless circle of finishing one task and moving on to the next and things do get extremely cluttered if one does not planned them out.

Having the right tools to manage what you do can be immensely helpful that is why I’d recommend Todoist, an app built for task management and errands.

Made to keep track of everything from your most simplest of tasks to the most ambitious of projects, Todoist helps you keep track of things by automatically adding reminders to tasks as soon as you write them down.

The app is also feasible within a project environment giving you the means to delegate tasks and errands to people in your shared projects.

Additionally, the app tries to keep you motivated by showing you a graph of task accomplished. The app is a most-have for anyone looking to get a little more organize with errands and tasks.

Adobe Spark

Looking for an easy-to-use graphic design app that puts professionally created templates right at your fingertips? Adobe Spark should be a no brainer for you.

Adobe, already a household name in the creative arts business have been responsible for some of the best creative design tools you could ever lay your hands on.

The company has already brought several of it’s well-known platforms to the Play Store, and the latest to join the list is Adobe Spark.

With just a few clicks, you can select an image, add some text, and with a huge repository of filters, the result is an catching design of your own making.

The app intends to make graphic design easy even if for non-professionals with its inbuilt layouts, color palettes, typography styles and filters.

Sketchpad

Another app for those in the creative arts business and though this one isn’t part of the Adobe creative suite of apps but holds its own with some interesting features.

Sketchpad can do anything from crafting images for social media posts,  creating digital ads, paper, or even for apparels, this program got you covered.

The drawing app supports over 14 different shapes with each  shape being customizable using slider options in the UI. Also, fill and outlines can be added with colors and you can decorate your artwork using hundreds of high quality stamps.

Telegram

There are very few instant messaging apps that are as reliable as Telegram. Relying on uniquely distributed data centers,

Telegram has rightly earn it’s place as one of the fastest messaging app available anywhere.

With privacy being the centerpiece of Telegram every message is sent or received is liable to receive an impenetrable end-to-end encryption detering anyone from gaining access to your private conversations.

Telegram is one of the few apps that allows you to create group chats for up to 100,000 members, share large videos, documents of any type and enjoy limitless security while online.

And there goes our selection of for the best apps for your Chromebook in 2019 but you can be rest-assured that we’ll be updating this list as time goes on. Also, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments below.