What are Google’s best and worst-rated Android apps?

For most people, a lot of the apps they use on their Android phones are made directly by Google. Here’s an informal look at how Android users rate the top Google apps, with the highest-rated apps being somewhat surprising.

For this review of reviews, we’re just looking at the “Phone” category rating in the US, with Google several years ago having made the aggregate 1-5 score specific to every country and form factor.

Worst Google apps

Starting with the worst, the lowest-rated app is “Device Utility,” at 2.1 stars out of over 2,500 reviews. This app was born out of the Sonos lawsuit, allowing you to pair Google Home devices running older firmware.

• Classroom — 2.4 with 2 million reviews 
• Camera — 2.6 with 468,000 — Some owners have a lot of issues with the Pixel Camera, especially as the hardware ages.
• Health Connect — 2.8 with 4960 
• Pixel Buds — 3.1 with 15,600 
• Blogger — 3.3 with 162,000 –  The app/service has not been significantly updated in ages, but Google cannot easily kill it.
• Chrome Remote Desktop — 3.5 with 220,000 — The PWA is not good.
• Authenticator — 3.6 with 455,000 — It finally added sync capabilities and a new icon in April but is still barebones compared to other 2FA apps.
• Wear OS — 3.6 with 271,000 — Presumably in maintenance mode
• Pixel Watch — 3.6 with 2,230

Best Google apps

Google’s most popular apps and services sit at 4.0 and above. However, some major applications come in just below that, at 3.9: Google TV and Recorder.

The top-rated Google-made apps come in at 4.7. There are two of them for phones, starting with Play Books at 2.26 million reviews. This app is fundamentally solid and reliable for reading as well as listening to audiobooks. It just got a new icon and better library management when long-pressing on covers. While it has a Material You homescreen widget, it otherwise lacks an M3 design and is still firmly in the Google Material Theme era. It was updated for the Pixel Tablet with a navigation rail, and hopefully, a new bottom bar, search field, and Dynamic Color are on the way soon. 

Next is Socratic, which is a homework helper that Google acquired in 2018 and updated in 2019/20. Some of those capabilities are now integrated into the Google Lens Homework filter.