Apps that make us go ooooh
Depending on whether you pin your colours to the Android or Apple mast, there’s around 2 million apps at your fingertips, just begging for that coveted place on your home screen.
From the downright bizarre to the weirdly brilliant, via the ones we just take for granted, it’s fair to say that if you’ve thought of it, there’s probably an app for it.
But which ones make an eclectic team of discerning creatives sit up and take notice?
This week, I asked some of the Huddlers to share the apps that make them go ‘ooooh’, both for work and play, and to quickly explain what makes them so good.
Danny (aka yours truly) Brand & Digital Strategy
Rev
Why write when you can talk? Rev turn around transcriptions in half a day or less, they use real people not voice recognition software and it’s super-affordable.
RealtimeBoard
All the best bits of working with a physical whiteboard, made digital. A great way to collaborate and visualise when your team are distributed and getting everyone together in-person is tricky.
Mindly
I’ve often got what feels like 10 million thoughts buzzing around my head, with different things constantly branching off them. Mindly gives me a way to capture, organise and develop them. I doubt I’d get anything done without it!
Adam, Designer
Transmit
A file transfer tool developed by Panic, makers of ‘super nice apps for Macs, iPhones and iPads. Connects seamlessly to every cloud service I’ve ever had cause to use, syncs everywhere and has a beautifully clean interface.
Sketch
The best design toolkit for Mac. I particularly like the new dark mode and the huge amount of third-party extensions available.
MyFitnessPal
I use this to track weight and macros (so not just food, but a breakdown of protein, carbs and fat) It has all the features I could possibly need and then some, plus it’s free and has gamification elements that help with motivation.
Flowkey
As someone learning to play the piano from scratch this is ridiculously simple to use and has helped me massively with the basics.
Deliveroo
We all have moments when we just don’t want to cook, and deliveroo has helped me out of a hungry hole many a time!
Sophie, Product Strategy
Allows me to save articles, pages, urls… pretty well anything really, into one single repository that I can then access later or offline.
Information is synced across all devices which is great, and the ‘read later’ functionality is really useful in order to save favourite pieces of content to access at a later point. Additional functionalities such as ‘explore similar content types’ or ‘what’s trending’ just add to the experience.
Songkick
Not only is this awesome for finding gigs to attend (with the ability to search by artist, preferred date and location), but it means I never miss my favourite artists as it’s integrated with my spotify account.
Monzo
I use this one to track my finances and receive real times notifications of my spending. What I like most, as a frequent traveller/expat, is that everytime I come back from travelling to another country, Monzo sends a recap of the total I spent whilst away, the currency exchange, classifying all these transactions a clear overview of how and where I’ve spent my money.
Being able to customise the app icon via the app itself is a neat extra feature!
Philips Hue
I control my connected lightbulbs at home via this app. I can dim them, turn them on/off, choose which ‘ambience’ I prefer, set lights for the morning…there’s loads of options!
MindBody
This app allows me to select my gym studio, access the class schedule, browse and book classes via the app. It’s all really quick and seamless which is a definite plus.
Giphy
Everyone needs a way to quickly find stupid gifs to send to friends, right?
CleanBeauty
I use this one for analysing the ingredients in skincare products to find which ones could potentially be harmful/controversial and make more conscious decisions.
It’s really easy to use, you just scan the list of ingredients on the products packaging and the results appear.
Camille, Designer
Revolut
The simplest and quickest way to change euros to pounds for free - as a French ex-pat in London this is priceless!
Everyone probably uses this already, but it’s another one that helps with ex-pat life. Keeping in touch would be much harder (and more expensive) without it.
Instagram
Another one that’s universally known, but I love to see other agencies/studios work for inspiration, as well as following some celebs for amusement value. I love that it’s more visually focused than Facebook.
Strava
The best way to track my sports progress. There’s a social element too, but even if you don’t use that side, it’s really encouraging to see yourself going faster and further.
Dojo
If you want to discover tourist-free secret and cool places in London, this is the way to do it. (I almost don’t want too many people to find out about it though…)
Yuka
A French app that gives you all the information about food products in the supermarket with a simple barcode scan. So handy for making more healthy and ethical choices.
Slack
It’s true, ‘slack is the new email’. This is definitely the most simple, least distracting and time-consuming way to collaborate on projects.
Adobe Creative Suite
I’m a graphic designer, this one is a no-brainer! 😉
Ian, Messaging and Creative Strategy
Evernote
I make notes ALL the time. At the last count I was up to 1,000 on one subject alone. Evernote does it all, allowing you clip entire web pages, scan documents, save video, photos and of course take notes (including dictation). Where its power lies is in giving contextual recommendations based on your existing notes, so if you are deep diving into a subject you can tie everything together very quickly. It can also make recommendations from the web, but you can get some pretty random results.
BBC iPlayer Radio
Not BBC Sounds. That sucks battery like a toddler on a Capri Sun. I’m a radio junkie and because the speakers are so good on the iPhone I tend to move around the house using just the app, instead of turning on radios (no I don’t have a smart speaker - too many horror stories around the data they collect on you).
RealtimeBoard
Like Danny, I’m a big fan. When I’m ready to start marshalling thoughts and plan the shape of any activity I use RealTime like a huge whiteboard I can stick post-it notes all over.
You can build an entire business, even a B2B one, using Facebook alone. I don’t really spend any time on it for social purposes but to understand audiences better. When I feel I know about them to start building persona-based audience profiles, I can target use Facebook’s extremely powerful advertising tools to reach through to them with minimal spend waste. I then monitor the activity through the Facebook Page Manager app on my iPhone.
So there you have it, a real mixed bag of top picks!
Do let me know if we’ve missed out on any life-enhancing (or even just mildly entertaining) apps that make YOU go oooh.
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