Types of Samsung TV Apps

Samsung smart TVs offer a huge variety of apps similar those found on Android mobile devices. In the Samsung app store, you'll find more than a thousand apps separated by category, including video, sports, games, lifestyle, information, and education. You'll find commonly available apps like Pandora and Netflix, and ones you've never heard of but may soon be on your list of the best Samsung smart TV apps.

Video Apps: Free & Subscription Based

Samsung has included just about every online video content app you could want on your TV; over 400 in total. You can stream you own media files with an app like Plex, and watch free TV with Pluto TV.

Some of the more popular movie apps for Samsung TV include Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, Amazon Video, Redbox Instant, TED, YouTube, Vimeo, Discovery Channel, DIRECTV NOW, UltraFlix, and TechCrunch.

Lifestyle Apps: Music, Photos, and More

The lifestyle category includes over 200 apps related to music, travel, how-to, art, and more, including a number of unique apps.

When it comes to music, Samsung TV offers apps for popular services like Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Napster, VTuner Internet Radio, TuneIn, SHOUTcast, and Deezer.

To see 3D images on your TV, you might appreciate the 3D Gallery Top 100, which is an app that loops 100 high-def, 3D photos from around the world. NatGeo Images is another app in this category that showcases dozens of photos from National Geographic.

You can adjust your smart home appliances with Smart Home, get health tips with HealthSmart, see instructions for tying a tie with the aptly named How to Tie app, see astronomical information with Skyview, get easy access to online shopping with ShopTV or HSN Shop By Remote, get a live compilation of photos from a party with the Party Shots! app, raise fish in your living room with Fishbowl, and provide company for your pet when you're away with SmilePet.

Games: Classics & Multiplayer

A growing list of game apps available in the Samsung app store includes classics like UNO, Darts!, Blackjack Party an the Sudoku inspired Samsoku app. Some brain games are available, too, like BrainTraining and Brain Challenge.

Games often seen on mobile devices are available for Samsung smart TVs as well, such as Angry Birds and Castle of Magic. Some other games that are arguably more useful on a big screen (but are often still paired with a smartphone) are ones that involve groups, such as WeDraw and trivia games like Trivvy and VH1's I Love the 80s Trivia.

Sports: Live Games & Healthy Habits

There aren't a lot of options to choose from, but also included in Samsung's app store for smart TVs are sports apps. These are useful for everything from following professional sports to learning about health and fitness.

There's an app for every sports lover: baseball, football, basketball, golf, fishing... You name it. For example, MLB.TV lets you watch baseball games directly from your TV, Willow TV includes live cricket video, NBA is the official Samsung TV app from NBA.com, where you can find basketball scores and schedules, and UFC.TV is all you need to stay current with pay-per-view content from the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

If you want more than just passive sports information, try Golf Digest for instructional video tips, CoachClub TV for a personalized sports program based on your specific body and goals, Dance Dance for techniques on social dances like the waltz and rumba, or Cyberbike to bike through races directly on your TV (it requires the Cyberbike).

Information: News & Weather

Having a Samsung TV makes staying on top of severe weather and breaking news a breeze. You can install an information app on your TV to have quick access to local and world news, current weather updates, and more.

Samsung has several options for TV apps that can give you weather updates. Some of the more well-known and top-used weather apps include AccuWeather, The Weather Channel, and WeatherNation, which provide both live weather and short-term forecasts, plus severe weather alerts and radar maps.

If you like to get breaking news as soon as it happens, there are apps for that, too. Yahoo, Newsy, and USA Today are a few examples, but there are also location-specific news apps like Bay Area News & Weather, New York News & Weather, etc.

Another related Samsung TV app is Dashwhoa which provides not only the time and the weather on one screen but even live traffic and a stream of top-rated photos from Flickr.

Two other notable examples of informational Samsung TV apps include CNBC Real-Time for providing current stock quotes from NYSE and NASDAQ right on your TV, and Google Calendar which puts your calendar events on the big screen.

Education: Learning Games for Kids

The final category of Samsung apps is called Education, and while it does have the smallest selection of apps compared with other categories, there are some fun and useful apps here, especially for children.

Dibo's Stickerbook is one example of a kid's app where the purpose is to spur creativity by walking you through various jigsaw puzzles that follow a particular story. Kids can also learn about the solar system with Solar System Planets, complete math problems with the Maths in Real Life app or the Math Magic game, and learn pronunciation with Giggly Phonics.

MorseCode is a Samsung TV app for all ages where you can learn Morse code. Tangram is a puzzle-solving game where the objective is to move shapes on top of the puzzle to complete the image. Another app for adults and kids alike is Point to Point where you have to pass a line through various dots on the screen to complete each puzzle.

More Information on Samsung Apps

If you're looking for what's new on the Samsung app store, use Samsung's Appstore Browse page from a web browser. It's there that you can also look through all the categories mentioned above, and sort the apps by Top Rated and Most Popular.

Some apps for Samsung TVs are for an international audience, such as Yupp TV for Indian TV; others are made specifically for other areas like Korea. Be sure to read the details about the app before you buy to be sure that you're getting what's right for where you live, and that it's in the language you want.

Not every app in the Samsung app store is available for every TV. If you're on a computer when you're browsing for apps, click Check your device on the app's description page to select your specific TV from the list to make sure it's compatible.

Samsung apps also work on Samsung's line of network-enabled Blu-ray Disc Players. However, only the following model numbers support Samsung apps: BD-J5700, BD-J5900, BD-J6300, BD-J7500, and UBD-K8500.