How To: Get CyanogenMod Apps on Your Galaxy S4 Without Root

CyanogenMod is one of, if not the most popular, third-party operating system for Android devices. It's so popular in fact, that it is the standard, out-of-the-box operating system on the recently released OnePlus One. CM is a lightweight ROM built on top of AOSP (Android Open Source Project), which is the base for all Android builds.

If you've considered rooting and installing CM, or are just tantalized by the low price of the OnePlus One, you may be curious about what CM can contribute as an operating system.

Thankfully, app developer Maarten Dekkers has a non-rooted way to use some of the applications CyanogenMod has to offer with CM Apps - CyanogenMod apps, available for free on the Google Play Store.

Installing CM Applications

Open CM Apps to see the list of applications that you can install—simply tap one to install it. Note that some of the apps will either be glitchy or force-close because you're not running an official CyanogenMod ROM.

Let's go through and highlight some of the more functional and useful ones.

The Apollo Music Player

The Apollo music player is a great aesthetic change from the stock music player. Navigating through music is easy and highlight colors can be modified under the settings to reflect your mood.

The DSP Manager

Serving as your local equalizer, the DSP Manager gives enhanced sound processing capabilities. You can adjust sound based on input method and room type. Unfortunately, I did not detect any changes when enabling the Bass boost option.

The File Manager

If you're one that needs easy navigation and editing tools for your files, then try out CM's file manager. It's simple and convenient, and provides root-level browsing if you ever need it.

cLock, a Better Time & Weather Widget

The stock time and weather widget is pretty great looking—it's minimal and provides simple information, with the ability to easily edit the look as well as add Google calendar events. We've already shown you how to install cLock on the GS4, but this one is more up to date.

Other Apps That Help Complete the Experience

Other applications available that you may want to check out are Torch, Calculator (which we also showed off previously for the GS4), and Sound Recorder, which in my opinion all work better than their stock-GS4 counterparts.

Two other apps that help bring home the CM experience are the Launcher, which resembles the Google launcher, and CM Wallpapers.

Give these apps a shot, and see if they entice you to go the full CyanogenMod route.