Favourite apps

My phone means everything to me - not for keeping contact with people, but for the wonderful apps and services a smartphone provides.  Having a smartphone has made my life so much easier and has assisted me with some of my day-to-day difficulties

So as a lighthearted thread I was wondering if you have any apps that you absolutely love or have recently discovered and would like to discuss?

Some wonderful apps I have recently come across are:

This app and website is all about recording your observations on nature and wildlife and then sharing them with a community.  It can be used to identify species of plants, mammals, reptiles etc. as well as learn about what species are living in your local area.  For me, this is like a real life Pokemon and it combines my love of nature and walking, with actively seeking out wildlife and learning more about it.  The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

JouleBug is a sustainability app that lists many ways you can help to reduce your impact on the planet.  This can be from small things like turning lights off when you leave a room, to much larger things such as organising or attending a sustainability event.  I like this app as it showed me what I am currently doing to reduce my impact and what other steps I can take to build on it.  You can tell in some sections that it was originally designed for a US market, but is still applicable for the rest of the world.  The app can also work as a social media feed, where you can see what others are doing to minimise their impact and adopting new routines.  I am not a big fan of social media platforms as there is a lot of hatred and negativity, but this seems to be positive and everyone is there for the same agenda.  You also don't have to interact with others if you don't want to and is completely optional.  The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Calm is a meditation/relaxation app and website aimed at helping users to adopted meditation and mindfulness into their day-today lives.  I have used the free version of this app for some time and was sad to see that some of the features switched to pay for only.  Saying that I decided to pay for the membership and haven't been disappointed.  There are a number of sessions to choose from which can help with anxiety, guilt, sleep and much more.  They have also introduced some masterclasses as well and the one on rest I found interesting.  The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

There are a couple of other apps I am trying at the moment which may be added to this list, but I was wondering if you have stumbled on any good apps lately or whether you use one regularly that you want to share with others?

  • Wow, there are so many useful applications that I didn't know. A smartphone is a vital thing in our time. You can download any program and make your life easier.

  • I understand you so freaking much. I guess it's a problem for all of us, and we cannot live without our phones. Actually, I don't consider this "addiction" something normal, but still, it's something that we're facing nowadays. I also use the apps listed by you above, but I don't consider them so great, especially JouleBug. I've been using it for the past couple of months, and I think other apps could do the same things but a bit better. Right now, I'm also working on a similar application based on a [Link removed by moderator] I hope it will be a great competitor for the older apps.

    Edited by Moderator

  • hahaha very true, same!

  • cool! i think i might try ColorNote. i'm so bad at organisation. i'm hoping to start keeping a diary in 2022 but tbh i always give up on diaries lol

  • I can say with confidence that it's spotify. It's 60%-70% more active than all the other apps on my iPhone! On top of that, I also spend a lot of time on social networks. If we talk about mobile games, I have exactly zero of them on my smartphone. If I had found this thread about a year ago, I would have had to write a huge comment, because at that time I never deleted apps from my iPhone. They were just piling up and I wasn't using them. I don't know why I did that, but one day my phone decided to punish me and completely shut down. I had to look for a place where [link removed by moderator], and urgently. Because in addition to my personal life, the smartphone is very important in my work.

    Edited by Moderator

  • I dont really like to spend much time on my phone as it is a bit of a sensory overload for me but I love instagram and find it really helps. I never had it before cos i thought i would hate it but I have turned it into a bit of a happy place to calm me down at work. I only follow cute animals, comedy clips and my favourite singers that way it is a bit of a safe space 

  • Garden radio is also a good app tune into radio stations all around the world 

  • Spotify and that's more or less it for me 

  • I don't have any particular application that i like most, all i'm using are just app about music fashion and economy. For me happens often to hear songs that are unknown for me, thanks to shazam I can find out all the song by listening to them. If the songs are on my tastes, I add them to soundcloud. Here i listen music every time I have a walk. What I like about asos, is that I can order clothes of highest quality on good prices, the shipment being fast. And finally, binance, a platform where I can trade with cryptocurrencies and make a solid profit. Also as a mac user, of great help for me is Oka To Do for Mac, by making my days smoother.

  • Well, my favourite application that I have on my phone are binance, soundcloud, shazam and asos.

    • Hey, this post was a long time back but another great free meditation app is insight timer, really amazing amount of variety in terms of meditations and about 90-99% of them free 
  • Am I the only one who likes to use spyware on my iPhone ?

  • Hi Starbuck... good suggestions x I particularly like the sound of iNaturalist

  • Yes I think so. It’s just something I got into. I don’t suppose podcasts suit everyone. I think the bee count itself might just be til June from what I heard on gardeners question time. I haven’t tried it out yet . It’s hard to tell what an app will be like til you’ve downloaded it so choosing is difficult! 

  • Loving the list of apps and I am the same, my phone is my office, entertainment and day to day life saver.  I don't know what I did before having one!

    The British Tree Bee Count and Butterfly Count seem very interesting - I will have to look into those.

    Is the Thrive with Aspergers a weekly podcast?  I don't listen to a lot of podcasts to be honest, but I want to start listening to more.

  • My iPhone is my home office. I have each section grouped and adapt from time to time and each section is important for different reasons. 

    Navigation: weather! I like to know what to expect and see what it’s like elsewhere. Maps, clocks and alarms, compass etc 

    word processing, notes, documents, calendar 

     camera and photos

    radio and music library apps and audiobooks (Libby and Overdrive) 

    podcasts.. essential ( countryside ones and  health and exercise ones ( including Thrive with Aspergers and The adult Chair , adhd rewired and adhd support talk radio )  couch to 5k.. mainly had to delete the radio programme ones to make room on my phone) 

    entertainment, tv catch up, films, news

    information I have Pocket Birds ( I looked at Inaturalist so now you’ve recommend it may look again ) but I downloaded British Trees Bee Count and Butterfly count instead but haven’t used them yet. ( I did have yha/National Trust/english Heritage but had to delete for more room) 

    Games! 

    Health and exercise; exercise;MapMyWalk, walkathome , meditation/getting to sleep ( and podcasts) Breathe2Relax,insight timer, SleepStream 2; recording health Cara, sleep cycle, ; CoeliacUK ( just got this so still learning) 

    My phone is full! 

  • I use Evernote for keeping track of things and it is great for taking images of documents so I can keep everything in one place for when I need it.

    Quantum sounds interesting and I shall have a look into that one.