Today, hardly anyone can imagine life without a phone. They are becoming “smarter”, offering more and more advanced functions. If we still carry them in our pockets, it is worth taking advantage of their features.
Here are ten examples of useful applications that can help us in our daily lives.
An average owner of a smartphone uses it for 3 hours and 15 minutes every day, according to RescueTime application statistics. Moreover, 20% of the most active phone users spend more than 4.5 hours a day with them.
It seems that we use mobile devices most intensively during the weekend. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The statistics show the opposite. During our free time, we spend a little less time with our phones than during the week.
Today, the telephones are not only used for communication. It's also a way for quick entertainment, checking what's going on with our friends or even watching an episode of your favourite TV show. We're used to having smartphones that provide us with plenty of entertainment and news in the form of notifications. That is why we reach for them so often — on average 58 times a day, of which about 30 times during working hours (between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.).
Modern cell phones are an inseparable part of our lives. They have become an integral element of our habits. Contrary to common beliefs, they do not have to be just a distraction and another occasion to waste time. Thanks to useful apps, they can be beneficial!
Weather reports applications
Cloudy sky and sunshine, or maybe a heavy rain? When you leave home, it's worth checking the current weather forecast to avoid unpleasant surprises. You don't necessarily need to watch the weather report to find out about possible weather conditions for the next few hours. Just grab your smartphone and use one of the many apps.
In addition to the relatively precise forecast for the whole day, the weather applications offer several other features. Thanks to them, we can check the current air pressure, the long-term prognosis for any place, air humidity, wind strength or the exact time of sunrise and sunset.
They can also warn us about sudden weather changes and dangerous atmospheric conditions. With attractive widgets, the current weather information can be “pinned” to your smartphone's start screen to keep it always available.
The most advanced and popular weather apps include AccuWeather, Today Weather, The Weather Channel, Weather & Radar and Windy.com.
Navigation in your pocket
Several years ago, reaching an unknown place was quite troublesome. It was necessary to study the maps and plan the destination route, which did not always turn out to be optimal due to detours and events on the road.
Today, it is enough to enter the destination in one of the many available smartphone navigation systems. Modern apps are not only able to show the right way, but also inform us about possible delays — roadworks, accidents or even traffic jams. They can also suggest an alternative route, which will shorten the way to the destination and avoid obstacles.
Interactive maps will also help us move on foot in an unknown area. They show us the shortest way to the final point as well as the optimal public transport connection for us.
The most complex, free smartphone navigation services include Google Maps, Here WeGo, Yanosik and Waze.
Language at hand
In today's world, which is a global village, knowledge of foreign languages is fundamental, as we meet them in many places — not only when travelling abroad. However, it is impossible to remember all the phrases and expressions — in such situations, mobile translators come to our aid.
Among translation apps, the most popular is Google Translator. It supports more than 100 languages, 50 of which can be saved in the phone's memory and used even without an Internet connection.
Google Translator will also assist us in decoding graphic symbols written in a foreign language. In this case, all you have to do is take a picture of it.
The application is characterized by relatively high efficiency and accuracy of text translation. However, it can occasionally confuse the context of the speech, so it is worth having your double-checking and analysing the translated text.
Currency exchange everywhere
People who travel a lot or shop frequently in foreign online shops certainly use exchange bureaux offices regularly, exchanging currency. In order to improve this process, it is worth using dedicated mobile applications, thanks to which we will avoid visiting a stationary exchange office and save on better exchange rates.
The application Currency Exchange Conotoxia.com offers easy and quick access to 27 currencies available on the financial portal.
The user can exchange currency at any time, check current exchange rates, manage his currency wallet, analyse quotations, use a convenient currency calculator and other tools supporting currency exchange.
The ordered transactions can be paid for from the bank account or the funds in the currency wallet. Fast payment methods are also available, including the possibility to pay by card.
Radio plays and podcasts
When travelling by public transport, for example, we do not always feel like listening to music. An alternative can be podcasts and radio plays, which not only provide engaging entertainment but can also broaden our knowledge and horizons.
If we don't have our favourite podcasts, apps that collect various radio plays, divided not only by language but also by subject and interests, are helpful. Select a category that interests us to start exploring the chosen broadcasts. We can subscribe to podcasts that we like to be notified when the next episode appears.
The podcast apps also offer a lot of features for the comfortable listening experience. You can change the pace of your listening, skip fragments of silence or boost the volume of vocals.
The podcast apps that offer the most features and functions are Google Podcasts, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict and CastBox.
Password manager
A smartphone can also be used to keep our passwords secure online. In the era of numerous portals to which we log in, it is worth paying attention to how we do it and whether access data is unique. The general rule is to provide a separate password for every portal. But who would manage to remember them all?
At this point, the password managers get into action and do it for us. With their help, we can generate a unique password, consisting of a sequence of complicated characters, which will be difficult to break by algorithms. Applications of this type automatically complete the login data to our sites, so we get rid of the problem associated with remembering passwords.
They also take care of the security of the stored data. Most of such apps use advanced encryption of stored passwords. To get to them, you need to enter the main password — the only one you have to memorize.
Among the best managers of passwords on Android are LastPass, Keeper, 1Password or RoboForm.
Plan your day
The high speed of life and the busy schedule often makes us forget about something. In such situations, special applications that organize our day can assist us. Thanks to them, we can write down the most important things to do and receive notifications reminding about the tasks we need to complete.
You can categorize tasks by priority, assign other people to them, add your own notes, comments, and even files. Thanks to this, we can not only plan our duties but also coordinate a larger group project.
Those who need to help organize their duties should check out apps such as Todoist, Wunderlist or Any.do.
Nutrition assistant
The rush we are in is not beneficial to a healthy and balanced diet. Also, in this aspect, applications can come to our aid. They will inform us, among other things, about how many calories we eat and how much nutritional value they contain.
They allow us to set our own nutritional goals and stick to them, precisely recording everything we have eaten throughout the day. The introduction of meals is facilitated by the option to scan product barcodes. In this case, the nutritional values of the portions we have eaten will be displayed automatically.
Regular monitoring of what we eat allows us to balance our diet and develop healthier eating habits. Applications that can help us do this include MyFitnessPal and Phytate.
The News aggregators
Every day the internet is overwhelmed by countless news. How do you sort them out to get to the information that is interesting or important to us? It would be a good idea to use news aggregators.
They allow us to identify our interests and read information related to them. Nothing stands in the way of excluding a category, such as politics. Based on our activity, aggregators learn what we like to do to serve us even better content.
This type of apps also has built-in tools to make reading easier. Some of them offer a special mode, focused on the text and without additional distractions. You can also mark your chosen article for later reading to come back to it at a more convenient time.
Recommended news aggregators include Squid, Google News, Microsoft News and Feedly, and Flipboard for English language resources.
Where's my phone?
The phone is a device where we store a lot of valuable and often private information. It is, therefore, worth securing it properly in case of possible theft or loss. One such possibility is to install an application to locate the device.
After activation, we can check the current location of your phone directly from your web browser. There is a possibility to call a loud alarm to find the device, e.g., at home. If we have a suspicion that the phone has been lost or stolen — we can remotely display information on the screen for the person who finds it, block the system or even clean it all private data, so it doesn't get into the wrong hands.
An application that's ideally suited for this purpose is Google Find My Device.