Essential Android Go Apps

[Gomoto]

I am currently using.

BW-Go (play on DGS)
BW-Joseki (Kogo's Joseki Dictionary)
Champion Go Crazystone (play versus AI)
Tsumego Pro
Pandanet Life-and-Death
Go4Go (replay Pro games)

Feel free to add your personal favourites.

[oren]

KGS
Tygem
Pandanet
Wbaduk

[Anzu]

Pachi and Steenvreter

[macelee]

It would be nice if there was an input style where you have to tap twice on the same spot to play a move, the first tap producing a transparent stone, the second tap confirming.

I've seen input styles where the first tap zooms the board and the second tap plays the move, but I find that still awkward.

This is a matter of personal preference. I've seen at least 5 different ways to precisely place a stone on a small screen:

1. long tap to activate a magnifier and use a ghost stone
2. long tap to activate horizontal and vertical guide lines (lines snap to grid lines)
3. two separate taps as you suggested
4. just a single tap (not for real-time play, but OK for an SGF editor, assuming an undo/delete button is easily available).
5. just a single tap to place a stone, then tap a confirm button (and additionally, with up/down, left/right arrows to adjust the position before confirmation).

It would be a big headache for app developers to implement all these.

[Anzu]

On a tablet, what is playing on a server like, compared to using a laptop/desktop client? Is it awkward?

Well, a tablet is about three times larger than a phone, and I remember being quite satisfied with playing on a phone.

[oren]

They have all implemented slightly different methods. KGS has two options and I use the tap and confirm. Tygem also. Pandanet and wbaduk use the tap twice in same spot which has occasionally gotten me a misclick.

In general I probably misclick less on tablet, since I tend to think I can be faster on mouse and make mistakes.

I played a lot more on my Nexus 7 than my PC. I found it more comfortable and easy. It was never difficult. Nowadays I just haven't had time.

[sybob]

Don't forget GoQuest.
Fun little app to play online games, 9x9 and 13x13. Recommended for children and beginners. Has many seriously strong players too, so continues to be challenging.

[daal]

I'll add two to this list: gridmaster and go joseki. I use gridmaster mostly to look at games I've downloaded from L19 (much more comfortable than looking in an android browser) and also to play an occasional game against the computer. Go joseki is a spaced repetition based joseki tutor. It's not the prettiest app, and the method is a bit awkward, but I like it anyway, and I haven't seen anything better.

As to some of the other mentioned apps, go4go and tsumego pro are both great resources and I use each of them daily. Both are well designed apps with high quality material that is updated regularly.

I don't enjoy playing go on my phone, so I've deleted those apps. The one I liked best was Wbaduk, but since its problem section broke it seems like abandonware.

[Jhyn]

The one I liked best was Wbaduk, but since its problem section broke it seems like abandonware.

Seconded on both points. The interface didn't work at all on some problems, but the variety, quality, and distribution of difficulty of the problems used to be the best among free applications (and the non-free I knew).

GoGrinder is a nice idea but doing your own problem collections was a big hassle and I didn't find a good way to streamline the process.

[daal]

I just discovered that on the day of the above post, the wbaduk app was finally updated to version 3.06, which as far as I can tell has fixed the problems that had been plaguing the previous version. Seems it again deserves a spot in the list of essential go apps.

[Sneegurd]

Gridmaster for playing vs. engine and also SGF review. Wonderful program.

I've seen input styles where the first tap zooms the board and the second tap plays the move, but I find that still awkward.

Exists, can't remember where...

There are already sophisticated methods. E.g. in Gridmaster (IIRC you have some choice there) I use the following:

Tap+Drag. You tap somewhere, drag to where you want to have the stone. The program helps with a) a crosshair and b) the stone lags at some user definable distance behind your finger, depending from where you drag. It works.

EDIT: OK I see you ask for server play... but hey

[Dragonstone]

i use:
this go app when i am "on the way" and want to play a game (it cost 2,79€):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... factory.go
and tsumengo pro (with all upgrades: 2840 problems for a few euros):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... o_workshop
and this chess clock for games with friends because i tried a lot of them and i think that this clock is the best
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .gameclock
OR do you use other clocks?

[daal]

I've seen input styles where the first tap zooms the board and the second tap plays the move, but I find that still awkward.

Exists, can't remember where...

That is how it works on WBaduk. I also find it a bit awkward, but there is also a button that zooms you back out if you feel unsure and want to re-evaluate.

[oren]

All of the apps can have zoom disabled. I don't like the zoom while playing.