Free, legal TV and movie streaming apps on Android

Hulu

Hulu lets users watch premium TV shows and movies on their smartphones or tablets without paying a subscription fee. It's packed with current and classic shows, Hulu originals, movies and plenty of kids' shows, making it a perfect family tablet companion.

If you want full access to the Hulu library you will need to pay $5.99 a month with limited commercials and $11.99 without commercials, but there are plenty of gems in the free version too. If you're willing to be patient then you'll be able to find some great shows for free.

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Crackle

Crackle is a popular free app, which is updated monthly with new TV shows and movies. Created by Grouper but later bought by Sony, the app features ads which run at regular intervals throughout the content, the trade-off for which is that you get an excellent selection of media and an app that functions far better than some of the other TV service ports on the list.

Crackle, like Netflix or Amazon, has picked up some original content that's getting more popular. The most famous of these is 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' starring Jerry Seinfeld. It's on its eighth season and has featured some major guests like Will Ferrell, Ricky Gervais and Barack Obama.

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CBS

With the CBS app, you can stream as much as you want without having to verify your cable TV subscription credentials. It comes with episodes of shows like The Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds, Elementary, The Good Wife and Two and a Half Men, plus late night hits like The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. 

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The CW Network

With shows like America's Next Top Model, Arrow, Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries, the CW doesn't disappoint with fun content. You don't have to verify your cable TV subscription credentials, but you do have to sit through ads. All in all, this is a good app (if you like the content) that runs smoothly.

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History

The History Channel's app offers some fun reality shows like American Pickers, Gangland, Mountain Men, Ice Road Trucker and old episodes of Top Gear (which recently moved to Amazon Prime under the name The Grand Tour). The History app allows you to search shows by topic, like WWII or Ancient History, which is a neat feature. The only downside is that there are several ads shown per episode. 

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SPB TV

The Android SPB TV app is not region-specific and offers content from around the world via a selection of weird and wonderful stations. From the NASA channel to Comedy for Women, this app gives you a pretty healthy mix of content. 

You won't find the latest Hollywood blockbuster, NBC or Showtime on SPB TV, but if you want to take a chance on a wild card, this is the app to use. A few of the stations definitely appear to be of a more adult nature (how you choose to use that information is up to you).

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Crunchyroll

Another excellent Anime streaming app is Crunchyroll. And this one is available through Google Play. It has a huge selection of the best anime available for free. The app is quite popular, with over ten million downloads and has gotten a decent rating.

Running the app is quite simple. Just browse through your favorite shows and they will run with subtitles. The default is English so you won't have to mess with the language settings. You'll have to watch some advertisements but mostly for the premium service it offers. Basically, you can pay $4.99 so you won't have to watch Crunchyroll advertisements.

Those are just a few suggestions for how to stream free movies and TV shows on your smartphone. If you tried any of these apps, what did you think of them? Are there any of your favorite apps we've left off this list? Share them with us in the comments.

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