I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2021
photo credit: @dkfra19 via Unsplash
I am sure many of us use a lot of the same apps every day. Email, Calendar, Weather, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. We use Kindle, Spotify, Podcasts, and not to forget Starbucks. And then I am also using the Garmin, Peloton, and My Fitness Pal apps on a daily basis.
I will say, I’m still a little bit old-school. I don’t own an iPad/tablet and I do like to do things on my laptop, but of course I also do a lot of things on my phone. Don’t tell me that you’re not doing a gazillion things on your phone on a daily basis. I don’t won’t believe you.
Today I thought I’d share some apps that I frequently use and that might not be so well-known as some others, but that I find very useful. And maybe you do too?
If you’re sharing photos on social media, I am sure you’ve often seen – and had the need to create – collages and Diptic is an easy-to-use collage maker. It has a ton of different layouts for the square format on Instagram and you can easily pick the photos right out of your photo library on your phone.
Pixlr is a free photo editor (which is also available as a web-based service (pixlr.com)) and it’s my go-to app when I need to resize or crop images. Since I use a lot of my iPhone images on this blog, I do a lot of resizing and uploading on my phone without bothering transferring photos to the computer.
If you have seen any photos or collages (with white background) with text here on my blog (e.g. my favorites posts), there’s a good chance they were created with Phonto. I’d usually find it cumbersome to do any type of design work on your phone, but this app is really easy to navigate and I haven’t found any other app that works better for this type of work. (I should mention that I also do like – and occasionally use Canva, which might be more popular).
The Pocket app is such a life saver (it also works as a browser add-on, too!). Whenever I come across an article, recipe, or other website that I would like to bookmark for later, I save it to this app. You can organize your saved bookmarks by using (multiple) tags and it’s easy to search by keywords.
Think Dirty is the easiest way to learn about the potentially toxic ingredients in your cosmetics and personal care products. It’s an independent source that allows you to compare products as you shop. Just scan the product barcode and Think Dirty will give you easy-to-understand info on the product and help you to shop for cleaner options.
If you’re looking to earn cashback on everyday purchases, Drop might be interesting to you. You link cards that you use for everyday purchases (like groceries, clothing, makeup, etc.) and you automatically earn reward points that you can exchange for gift cards for a ton of stores. If you are intrigued and want to give it a try *, we’ll both earn 1000 drop points when you sign up.
Scannable belongs to Evernote, an app that you might already know and use. It’s super-convenient and very easy to use to quickly scan any documents or receipts and save them (as *jpg or *pdf) or email them right from the app.
RunGo calls itself the running app that gives directions. It’s the only app that I have found that does that. It offers turn-by-turn voice navigation, with over 400,000 routes worldwide across 171 countries, including thousands of verified routes, like race courses, city tours, unique adventures, and virtual races. You can also create your own routes (depending on the distance you want to run or if you’re running in unfamiliar places) and it will navigate you through the run. No need to remember which turn to take or when to turn around.
Have you ever been frustrated when you search for stickers or animated GIFs on Instagram and you can’t find one that you previously used/liked because the search results keep constantly changing? Well, Giphy is where you want to go and search for – and then bookmark! – your favorite stickers/GIFs, which you can then import into Instagram, when you need them.
Do you use any of these apps? Share an app with me in the comments that you think I’d probably like but might not be aware of!
* The post contains a referral link. If you sign up for the Drop app (Invitation code: d6kb3) , we’ll both earn 1000 reward points.
Jenny
November 10, 2021 at 11:33 amI don’t use any of these, but clearly I should be using the photos apps! I’ll have to check them out. The running app sounds very cool as well.
The only app I use (besides the ordinary ones you mentioned) is currently MetroTimer, You can set it to beep at any tempo, and I’ve been using it to work on cadence. It really is amazing all the things we can do with our phones!
San
November 10, 2021 at 11:51 amThank you for the recommendation. I have never used a metronom app, but of course they’re great for cadence work! I’ve usually tried to work on cadence by using specific BPM music playlists.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
November 10, 2021 at 2:23 pmIts so fun to read about your favorite apps. I have not one of them on my phone. So funny. I have a ton of photo and video editing apps because I keep experimenting with them but then I can never quite remember what feature was in what app. I think my favorite app as of now apart from the normal ones is Duolingo for learning Spanish. It is really good and just learning an new language through this app is cool. and I can even say a few things by now.
San
November 10, 2021 at 2:39 pmHa, I was wondering if this post was going to be a moot point because everybody knows these apps already, but apparently not!
I have a ton of other photo editing apps (that other people recommended or that I tried out), but I also can never remember which feature I liked in which app, so I stick with the ones I now know :)
I should download Duolingo and refresh my Spanish! ;)
Stephany
November 10, 2021 at 2:25 pmI don’t use any of these apps! I might need to check out the photo editing one.
I think my favorite app is Happy Color, which is just a coloring app. But there’s just something so soothing about coloring a random page on my phone!
San
November 10, 2021 at 2:40 pmI was wondering if this post was going to be a moot point because everybody knows these apps already, but apparently not! :)
Thanks for suggesting the Happy Color app, I hadn’t heard of it. I don’t play a ton of games on my phone, but this sounds like a fun activity.
Elisabeth
November 10, 2021 at 4:29 pmI didn’t have any of these apps either; I’ve just gone ahead and downloaded three of them already!
I’m not a heavy user of apps, but have a few that I really enjoy that haven’t been mentioned yet.
1. AnyList – this is my favourite app (I’m going to blog about it again soon). I do weekly grocery lists, but also keep running lists for things like gifts, and for items I want to get from stores I don’t go to very often (e.g. the Dollar Store, IKEA, Walmart).
2. I second the vote for Happy Colour. I don’t use it, but my daughter does and LOVES it. It is very relaxing and there are so many colouring pages to chose from.
3. We also use Hoopla a lot for audiobooks (for the kids; I listen to podcasts instead). It connects to your library account; in addition to audiobooks, you can also get movies I think?
4. I use Relax Melodies for white noise when we’re traveling (I always sleep with white noise at home, but don’t take my machine with me on vacation).
5. Picture This is a plant identification app; it’s what allowed me to determine that my son had been PLAYING in POISON IVY for 30 minutes this summer (and yes, he ended up having a terrible reaction). I didn’t have the app before that afternoon, but now I have it and hope to never have a repeat experience!
6. This comes cooked in to iPhone’s, but I love the Apple Fitness app. I record all my workouts on my Apple Watch which syncs automatically with my phone. For anyone using an Apple Watch/iPhone combo, it’s really great.
San
November 11, 2021 at 11:15 amIt’s so interesting that here I thought most people know these apps, but everybody has said that they don’t have them on their phones LOL
Thanks so much for the recommendations! I have heard of AnyList (and feel like I’ve previously downloaded it but didn’t get into using it regularly). I’ll definitely check out the other ones as well :)
I wish I could use Apple Fitness but I am married to my Garmin (LOL) and won’t ever get an Apple Watch, so it’s not an option for me. I heard good things though.
Annie
November 11, 2021 at 7:51 amWell, you had me at Old School :-D I’m retired so I don’t use as many apps as I used to. I prefer Fitbit to MyFitnessPal, but for really accurate food info I prefer Cronometer. I use Hoopla because my local library uses it. It’s good! I used Happy Color, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic. If you like to cook, my favorite recipe app is Paprika – super easy to use an you can save recipes right into it from the Web!
San
November 11, 2021 at 11:16 amHi Annie, thanks for stopping by and for the recommendations. It’s so interesting how everyone uses different apps. I will definitely check out the Paprika app (just for the name alone – I love paprika and feel like it’s an underutilized spice here in the US!).
StefanIe
November 11, 2021 at 11:14 amI have Think Dirty but none of the others.
My go-to apps are Paprika 3 (recipes), Lightroom (photo editor), Lose It (calorie/macro tracking), and any kind of real estate apps (I love looking at houses!).
San
November 11, 2021 at 11:21 amOh, you’re also using Paprika – so I assume it’s worth it (as it’s a paid app)? I also have Lightroom on my phone but have to explore it more, and I am going to check out Lose It (never heard of it – is it similar to MFP?)
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
November 16, 2021 at 7:50 amI do not use any of these aps actually! My most-used aps besides email, messenger, and whatsapp are the kindle ap, fitbit, libby, pocketcasts, weight watchers, and a jigsaw puzzle ap! I do a puzzle every night at the end of the day. I love puzzles but doing them isn’t realistic with young kids around. Paul would take pieces and hide them probably! So for the time being, I do a puzzle on my phone and it’s surprisingly satisfying!
San
November 18, 2021 at 11:23 amSo funny that I thought most people would at least know of, if not use, these apps. Goes to show how differently people use their phones (and/or how many apps are actually out there). I am intrigued by the puzzle app. I’ve never been someone that plays a lot of games on their phone, but every once in a while, I’ll try one for a little while.
anne
November 23, 2021 at 4:13 pmOooh, Scannable sounds great. I use Evernote ALL THE TIME. So many recipes saved in there. Yikes. I have a work acct and a home acct, too. The problem is I hate their latest update so I’m still using an old version for my work acct. It is what it is – hopefully they’ll fix it soon since the update is not making people happy.