The App 100: The World’s Greatest Apps
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
We’ve put together the definitive list of the best mobile apps out right now.
There are over 1.3 million apps in Apple’s App Store, and another 1.3 million in Google’s Play store, so finding your next app can be overwhelming. We live and breath apps for a living, so we’ve sifted through them to tell you which are the best.
How did we come up with the list?
Just like last year’s App 100 list, a lot of these apps are some of our favorites that we use every day. We also took nominations from readers, and had a careful look at some of the best and most popular apps that launched over the past year.
The best apps are eye-catching in their design, intuitive and speedy in their execution, and at the end of the day, they make our lives more enjoyable.
The apps listed here aren’t ranked. Instead, we broke everything up by categories.
PRODUCTIVITY
Humin acts like your digital butler.
Humin is an app that remembers all the tiny details about how and where you met someone, so you can focus on the moment instead of remembering. All you need is someone’s number, and Humin will do the rest. You’ll then be able to search through your contact using familiar phrases like “met last week” or “lives in Brooklyn.”
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Paper by Fifty Three wants to become your virtual sketchbook.
Paper is just as useful as it is beautiful. The app lets you draw out ideas and sketches on your iPad, and you can store them away in various virtual notebooks. It comes packed with a variety of brushes and pens for your ideas, and there’s even an official Pencil stylus that responds to the pressure of your input. If you’re looking for inspiration, you can check out the Mix ecosystem within the app, which is a creative commons space for remixing ideas.
Price: Free, but you’ll have to pay extra for more brushes and tools.
Available on: iPad
Evernote is your online notebook for everything.
Evernote is an online collection of everything you want to remember. It’s like digital notebook that stores photos, web pages, notes, PDF files, audio clips, and to-do lists. What’s great about Evernote is its indexing feature. Once you add things to your notebook they’re completely searchable and can be accessed on your desktop, the Web, or your mobile device.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, iOS, Windows Phone, PC, Mac, Google Chrome, and the Web
Mailbox will help get your inbox down to zero.
Mailbox is a clean and minimalistic take on mobile email that uses gestures to help you quickly get your inbox to zero. It works in tandem with Mailbox for Mac, and one of the coolest features is the ability to “Snooze” an email with just one swipe, which will send it to the top of your inbox at a designated time like “Later today,” “This evening,” and “Next week.”
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Vesper is an elegant way to record your thoughts.
Vesper is a note-taking app that takes a lot of the hassle out of organizing your thoughts. You can easily tag each entry so you can search for a specific thought by keyword later, and all your notes will be synced to your Vesper account, free of charge. Reorganizing your notes is made simple with a hold-and-drag motion, and if you want to prevent a cluttered collection, a simple swipe archives your entry, storing it behind the scenes until you need to search for it.
Price: $2.99
Available on: iOS
Timeful learns your behaviors in order to help you change your habits.
Timeful is an intelligent calendar app mixed with a to-do list. The app’s algorithm learns how you get stuff done and smartly suggests ways to build new habits and get things taken care of, all on your own terms.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Sunrise is a calendar app that performs flawlessly.
Sunrise is another gorgeous calendar app that pulls directly from LinkedIn so you can see the picture and profile of who you’re meeting with. It supports multiple Google Calendars in addition to iCloud and Exchange, and its Quick Add Event works just like Fantastical for quickly adding events as you type them in.
Price: Free
Available for: Android and iOS
BONUS: A close second is Fantastical, which is an iPhone calendar app that’s ridiculously easy to use. Besides keeping you organized, the app’s best feature lets you enter simple phrases, which it will then translate into a calendar appointment automatically. For example you can type, “Meet with Steven for lunch at Chipotle at 3pm” and Fantastical will handle the rest.
Price: $4.99 (iPhone) and $14.99 (Mac)
Quip is an alternative to Microsoft Office for iPad.
Quip is a mobile word processing app created by Facebook’s former chief technology officer. Quip infuses a messaging element into the app to make collaboration a breeze. You can use the app to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can also use the app to collaborate on blog posts, manage projects, or even share a grocery list.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Gmail is still one of the best ways to check email on the go.
Gmail’s app gives you access to the arguably the most popular email service around, and it’s lightning fast. The app supports up to five Gmail accounts, and searching through your mail is easier than ever with Google’s predictions that fill in as you type. With a Gmail account, you get plenty of storage for free, meaning you likely never have to delete an email again. (You can always purchase extra storage just in case).
Price: Free
Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive are your best bets for storing files online.
Dropbox lives on your desktop as a virtual folder. You can drag and drop files into your Dropbox and they’ll appear on all of your devices. You also have the option to store files in a public folder so you can easily share them with a simple download link.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, Mac & PC, Web
Google Drive is an online productivity suite that can be accessed with any device that’s connected to the internet, either through an app or on the web. You can share and collaborate on documents and presentations, and it’s great when multiple people need to poke around a file at the same time, as you can always see who else is viewing or editing a document.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, Web
OneDrive is a great place to store all of your documents, photos, and videos, and you get 15 GB of free storage when you sign up. Since OneDrive is a Microsoft service, you’ll always know that your files will play nicely with other Office apps, so you don’t have to worry about if a document will open in Word or not.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Web
Clear is a simple, well-designed, to-do list to help you stay on track.
Clear is one of the simplest ways to keep track of what you need to do. You can easily drag and re-order your to-dos, and adding a new item is as easy as pulling down your list and typing it in. When you’re done with a task, just swipe right. Clear makes it easy to jot down a thing you need to do and pull it up on either your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, and it all syncs over iCloud.
Price: $4.99
Day One is a classy app for keeping a journal.
Day One brings the daily journal into the modern age, and it’s great for micro-journaling or whatever you want your daily writing to look like. The app can record the weather conditions and location of your entry, and if you’re particularly proud of a day’s journal, you can upload it easily to Facebook in a gorgeous webpage format. Since you don’t always know which device you’ll be around when the urge to write hits, you can use Day One with your Mac, iPad, or iPhone.
Price: $4.99
Slack revolutionizes team communication by doing away with email.
Slack is a great way for keeping in touch with your team at work without sifting through dozens of emails. It is a chat room of sorts, and you can tag users and create multiple channels for smaller team projects. The desktop client sends non-intrusive desktop notifications to the corner of your screen, allowing you to stay on top of what’s happening while keeping your eyes on your work.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Mac, Android, Web
NotesPlus is note-taking app with an emphasis on natural gestures.
If you’re a fan of old-fashioned, pencil-on-paper notes, NotesPlus is as close as you’ll get to the real thing. The app’s intuitive vector-based system turns your handwritten notes into text, and you can select multiple drawings and notes together by simply drawing a circle around them. There’s a built-in web browser that you can swipe right to access, which makes grabbing images and details a cinch.
Price: $4.99
Available on: iOS
GoodReader is your trusty app for reading virtually any file.
You never know when you’ll need to open up a random PDF or annotate a text file, and GoodReader is meant to process them all, and quickly. With the ability to add annotations, text boxes, sticky notes, highlights, and drawings, you’ll never be caught with a file you can’t fiddle with.
Price: $2.99
Available on: iOS
NEWS/READING
Alternative Twitter apps Tweetbot and Twitterific offer more features than the official Twitter app.
Tweetbot and Twitterrific are two awesome alternatives to Twitter’s official iOS app that allow you to completely customize your experience. Both are full-featured clients that offer sounds, multi-account management, gestures, and more.
Price:
Tweetbot:$2.99 (iPad), $4.99 (iOS), $19.99 (Mac)
Twitterrific: Free (iOS), $4.99 (Mac)
Available for:
Kindle, iBooks, and Nook are great for keeping the bookworm in you alive.
The Kindle app gives you access to Amazon’s extensive ecosystem of over 1,000,000 ebooks. There are plenty of magazines, newspapers, and textbooks as well, and the app will keep track of your place when you’re reading, making it easy to switch between devices. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you’ll get access to Kindle’s Lending Library, which lets you borrow one book at a time from a selection of titles, and there’s always Kindle Unlimited if you want a Netflix-esque service, but for books.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
Apple iBooks is always bound to have the latest bestseller, and there are also plenty of interactive ebooks and textbooks that will take advantage of your iPad or iPhone’s touchscreen. Another great feature is the ability to open ePub and PDFs, and your page is always saved when you sync over iCloud.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Nook is a fan-favorite for being flexible in the ebook formats it reads. You can open ePub and PDFs, and there’s over 1 million free titles in the Nook store, and you can try over 1,000 magazines and newspapers free of charge for 14 days. There’s also a great Nook LendMe feature that let’s you loan out a book once to any of your friends.
Price: Free
Never miss another of Reddit’s famous AMA interviews with the Ask Me Anything app.
Everyone from Woody Harrelson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and President Obama have participated in Reddit’s popular AMA interviews, where commenters can submit questions for the chance for a direct answer. Since Reddit can appear cluttered and confusing for new users, Ask Me Anything organizes the interviews in an easy-to-peruse format, even alerting you to new AMAs and allowing you to explore past ones too.
Price: Free
Yahoo News Digest turns browsing the news into a beautiful experience.
Yahoo News Digest sends you two curated digests of 7-10 articles each day: once in the morning and once in the evening. The articles pull from multiple sources, including essential factual nuggets called “atoms” that give you all you need to know in a beautiful format. It’s arguably the best-looking news app out there.
Price: Free
Circa News distills the world’s news down to the facts so you can stay informed on the go.
Circa News keeps it brief, making it the perfect app to stay on top of the news on the go. Circa’s editorial team artfully condenses long articles into quick reads, and you can read its articles offline too. If you’ve been following a particular story, you can choose to be updated if it develops further.
Price: Free
Paper by Facebook turns combines your Newsfeed and current events in an elegant way.
Paper by Facebook is a new way to ingest all of the stories you see on Facebook, whether they be from your friends or a newspaper. Paper features an incredible attention to detail, getting rid of the clutter of your Facebook Newsfeed and instead focusing on the pictures and words of each post. You can post directly to Facebook from within the app, or customize the topics you’ll see with a nifty carousel that lets you mix culture, science, news, and whatever other topics are up your alley.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Alien Blue is the best app out there for browsing Reddit on the go.
Reddit, the so-called “front page of the internet,” is an ever-changing ecosystem of interesting articles, pictures, and discussions, but it’s notoriously messy to browse on your smartphone. Alien Blue fixes that, wrapping Reddit’s content into an eye-catching design that brings to focus the essentials information like photos, post titles, and comments.
Price: Free (iOS), $3.99 (iPad)
AP Mobile is still the best app for keeping up with breaking news.
The Associated Press claims to be “where the News gets its news,” and there’s no better place to stay up to date on the latest breaking local and national news. You can customize what kind of stories are in your feed, and the app constantly refreshes so you don’t miss any new developments.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, iOS, Windows Phone
Digg is the best app for staying on top of your RSS feed.
After the death of Google Reader, the world now relies on Digg’s reader app to wrangle what’s happening on the internet into a tidy, readable format. Digg does all of this and more, allowing you to import feeds from any news site and view them in a clean interface, now with video. The app even has a section full of stories curated by Digg’s editorial staff.
Price: Free
If you see something on the internet and want to read it later, use Pocket.
When you find something interesting, you tuck it into your pocket, and the same holds true with the internet and Pocket’s mobile and web app. You can save practically anything you see for later viewing (even when you’re offline), and the app works with iOS 8′s new extensions feature so you can save things directly from Safari and keep browsing.
Price: Free
SOCIAL NETWORKING
WhatsApp is a simple way to message for free.
There’s a reason Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion earlier this year, and that’s because WhatsApp is exactly what every messaging app should aim to be. It’s designed well, free to use (even for international messaging), has a thriving user base, and lets you send texts, voice messages, pictures, and videos.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Snapchat is the best photo messaging app out there.
Snapchat began as just an app for sharing self-destructing photos and videos to your friends, but it’s quickly evolved into the No. 1 app for visual communication. With its new Stories feature, you can now weave together photos and videos into a visual status of sorts, and you can also send texts from directly within the app.
Price: Free
Available on: iPhone and Android
There’s no better place to share photos than Instagram.
Instagram is one of our favorite iPhone apps of all time. With over 200 million users and host of photo editing filters, it’s a great place to show off your artistic side and share some photos of your own.
Price: Free
Available on: iPhone and Android
Hinge/Tinder/Grindr/OkCupid are the next generation of dating apps.
Meeting people has never been easier with these four apps.
Hinge: Hinge helps you discover people that your Facebook friends already know, requiring a Facebook account so you can view the interesting details about a person while removing the “random” aspect of other dating apps. You get to see a curated list of potential matches, and select those you’re interested in. If someone “likes” you back, Hinge introduces the two of you to help get the conversation started.
Price: Free
Tinder: Tinder is best known for its swiping system, which lets you swipe right if you’re interested in someone or left to move on to your next potential match. If two people both swipe right on each other, Tinder lets you know you have a match, and you can message your match from right within the app.
Price: Free
Grindr: Grindr is a location-based dating app targeted towards gay and bisexual men. The app lets you know what singles are nearby so you can meet up with them, and with over 7 million users, there are plenty of choices.
Price: Free
OkCupid: OkCupid has most of the same features as other social networks. Users can chat, send status updates, message potential matches, and let the service match you up using its algorithms. The mobile app also lets you know what singles are nearby for impromptu meetups.
Price: Free
Vine is a creative way to share six-second looping videos.
Vine lets you splice together clips that play on a loop and share them with your friends. You can edit videos on the spot and post to Twitter and Facebook, and you can now import videos from your phone too. The community also allows you to find, follow, and interact with other Vine users.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Windows Phone, Android
The official Twitter app is a great way to keep up with your tweets on the go.
Twitter’s official app lets you stay on top of your tweets from your phone. Besides that, it offers some unique features that aren’t found in third-party apps. For example, you can set specific push notifications for individual accounts so you’ll never miss an important bit of news.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone
Update your blog on the go with Tumblr.
Tumblr lets you follow blogs and create simple updates via text, audio, photos, quotes, and video. It’s a great way to seamlessly manage your blog while also seeing what other people are interested in.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, Windows Phone, iOS
LinkedIn is the best network out there for managing your professional connections.
With over 300 million users, LinkedIn is a great place to network and connect with other professionals. The app is well-designed, syncs with your phone’s calendar to help stay on top of meetings, and even lets you view and save recommended jobs. If you’re a Premium subscriber, you can also see who has viewed your profile every day, right from your phone’s Notification Center.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.
Stay in touch with your friends and family wherever you are with Facebook.
Facebook is still the best social network out there for staying in contact with those you care about. Besides letting you see what your friends are up to, you can share updates, photos, and videos on the go, and push notifications quickly alert you to any activity that involves you. You can also play games and use your favorite Facebook apps.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
TapTalk makes it easy to send photos and videos to your friends with a lightning-fast interface.
TapTalk is a personal messaging app that’s all about speed. By arranging your friend icons in a grid-like layout, you can quickly tap their picture to capture a photo. To send a video, just hold down their icon to record, and release when you’re done.
Price: Free
Secret is a social message for saying what’s really on your mind.
Secret lets you and your friends speak freely with each other and the world, but you’ll never know whose secret you’re reading. People post and comment anonymously, and you can now easily ask “Yes or No” questions that people can respond to. To help make the text-based posts more beautiful, Secret now gives you access to Flickr’s photo library for background images.
Price: Free
Facebook Messenger is great for reaching out to your Facebook friends.
Facebook Messenger handles all your real-time communications on Facebook. You can message your friends, send pictures and videos, and even call them over WiFi or your data plan when you’re out and about.
Facebook is in the process of spinning out Messenger from the regular Facebook app. Soon, it’ll be the only way you can send Facebook messages on mobile.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Pinterest is perfect for sharing photos of your interests with your friends.
Pinterest encourages you to find things you’re interested in and “pin” them to your virtual pinboard, which acts like your own creative collage. Friends and those who follow you can then comment on your pinboard or re-pin a photo, and if you’re using an iPhone, you can pin an item directly from within the Safari web browser.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, Windows Phone, iOS
ENTERTAINMENT
Twitch is the best place to watch and livestream your favorite games.
Twitch makes it easy to livestream a game session or watch the world’s top players as they battle their way to a world-first achievement. You can chat with others while watching a stream, browse different game channels and genres, and the app will even notify you when your favorite stream is broadcasting.
Price: Free
YouTube is hands-down the best way to watch web videos.
YouTube is where viral videos are born. From movie trailers to web series to feature-length films, there’s always something new to watch. Google’s taken its time developing the app, and it shows. You can save videos to your “Watch Later” list, subscribe to your favorite channels, and now you can even watch a YouTube video in the corner of the app while browsing.
Price: Free
Use Netflix, HBO Go, and Amazon Prime Instant Video to stream movies and TV shows.
Netflix, HBO Go, and Amazon Prime Instant Video all offer access to your favorite TV shows and movies on-demand.
Netflix costs $7.99 per month and has its own original series like “Orange is the New Black,” “House of Cards,” and “Arrested Development.” Besides its own series, Netflix has a ton of popular content that will satisfy the entire family. Netflix is available on the Web, streaming boxes like Roku and Apple TV, video game consoles like the PS3, and several TVs with built-in WiFi.
Price: Free (with subscription, staring at $7.99 per month)
Available on: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone
HBO Go is great for watching “Game of Thrones” and other HBO shows like “True Detective.” You’ll need to already be an HBO subscriber to sign into the app, but you’ll get access to the network’s entire original series TV catalog and a ton of movies. You can access it via iOS, Android, Kindle fire, Roku, some Samsung TVs, Xbox 360, and Apple TV.
Price: Free (with an HBO subscription)
Amazon Prime Instant Video is included with an Amazon Prime Membership ($79/year). With Prime Instant you’ll be able to stream thousands of popular movies and TV shows. You can watch Prime Instant videos on iOS, Kindle Fire, PS3, Xbox, Wii, Roku, and a ton of TVs and DVD players.
Price: Free with a $79/year Amazon Prime Subscription
Available on: iOS, Kindle Fire (included)
Spotify is the best music app out there.
Spotify is our favorite music app. For $9.99/month, you can listen to millions of songs, from small indie bands to major record label releases. You can search for specific tracks, build playlists, stream curated radio stations, listen offline, and discover new music with Spotify’s clever Discover feature. Both the desktop and mobile app are smartly designed, and since Spotify has deals with most major record labels, you can usually enjoy your favorite band’s new album the same day it hits the shelves.
Price: Free (Premium subscription is $9.99/month)
Available on: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone
SoundCloud is where modern artists share their music.
SoundCloud started as a destination for you to share the sounds you’ve created, and the platform has quickly evolved into a diverse ecosystem of free music from both established and up-and-coming artists. It’s great for finding new music, comedy, and podcasts, and SoundCloud’s new look for its app is simple and stunning. If you’re looking to discover new music, SoundCloud’s algorithm is great at making suggestions.
Price: Free
Bandsintown is the best way to see when your favorite artist is coming to town.
Bandsintown scans your iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, or Pandora account to get a sense of who your favorite bands and artists are, and then it keeps you informed if they’re playing nearby. You can browse upcoming tour dates, set up notifications from your favorite artists, and even buy tickets using the app.
Price: Free
Pandora is the best app out there for listening to internet radio.
Pandora lets you create music stations based on a genre, band, or song you like, and over 400 music characteristics are taken into account when it chooses your next song. Pandora’s a great way to discover new music that’s rooted in a style you already enjoy, and if you hear a song you like, you can buy it right from within the app. You can listen for free if you’re willing to put up with ads, or you can pay $4.99/month for Pandora One, which is ad-free and streams music at a higher quality bitrate.
Price: Free to download ($4.99 for Pandora One, a premium subscription)
Available on: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Pocket Casts is a beautiful way to listen to your podcasts.
Pocket Casts is the best podcast app around. The app is straightforward and simple, and with automatic downloads, you’ll only have to open the app when you’re looking to listen. There’s a smart filtering system for seeing the podcasts you haven’t listened to yet, and if you’re watching a video podcast, you can quickly switch to audio-only if you’re headed out and about.
Price: $3.99
Available on: iOS
IMDB is a full database of the actors, movies, directors, and everything else in the entertainment world.
IMDB, which stands for Internet Movie Database, is arguably the most comprehensive resource for finding information on movies, TV shows, and actors. The app is no different, and should be on every movie buff’s phone. Besides being the perfect place to look up movie facts and settle debates, IMDB also lets you watch movie and TV trailers, browse photos from events, read reviews, and see what films are playing near you too.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Loopy HD is an easy way to create music on your own by layering looped recordings.
You might remember Loopy HD from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where Fallon teamed up with Billy Joel to sing “The Lions Sleeps Tonight” with the help of the app. With an easy-to-use interface, Loopy HD lets you layer beat boxing, instruments, and singing to create vibrant songs all by yourself.
Price: $3.99
Available on: iOS
TuneIn lets you listen to real radio stations right on your phone.
Sometimes you want to listen to the traditional over-the-air radio. Luckily, TuneIn Radio has over 100,000 real radio stations covering everything from music, sports, news, and talk radio, and the app’s customizable Newsfeed shows you what stations are currently on-air. If podcasts are more to your liking, you’re in luck. TuneIn has over 4 million.
Price: Free
GAMES
Hearthstone is a fun and addictive card game for your iPad.
From “World of Warcraft” creators Blizzard, “Hearthstone” is a card-battling game that takes place in the Warcraft universe. It’s easy for beginners to learn and start building up their own deck, but the real fun starts once you start competing against other players online.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS (iPad only)
Bioshock is a masterful first-person shooter that’s both eerie and unforgettable.
Bioshock makes the move to mobile with this full port of the classic PC shooter. You’ll be able to explore the underwater dystopia of Rapture, battle the silent Big Daddies, and choose your own path as you solve the mystery of the eerie city. Better yet, it works with Bluetooth controllers, so you don’t have to use the wonky touch controls.
Price: $14.99
Available on: iOS
Broken Age is stunning fantasy story from legendary game developer Tim Schafer.
Broken Age is a hand-painted adventure game that features voice acting from Elijah Wood and Jack Black. There’s a full orchestral soundtrack, gorgeous graphics, and a lovely coming-of-age story that tells the tale of teenagers Vella and Shay who live in different worlds. As you follow their stories, you can switch between their worlds and characters.
Price: $9.99
Available on: iOS (iPad only)
Leo’s Fortune is the most beautiful platform adventure game we’ve ever seen.
Leo’s Fortune puts you in control of Leo as he bounces, slides, and soars through luscious hand-crafted levels in pursuit of his stolen gold. Leo’s Fortune’s gameplay is intuitive and downright fun, and the app won an Apple Design Award this year for its stellar overall design.
Price: $4.99 (for iOS), $2.99 (for Android)
Device6 might be the most unusual game out there.
Device6 is a narrative experience that combines puzzles, thrillers, and literature to create one of the most experimental apps we’ve ever seen. This text-based mystery lets you play detective as you sift through audio clips, entries, and pictures to uncover new clues.
Price: $3.99
Available on: iOS
Dots Two is the perfect puzzle game if you need to kill a minute.
TwoDots is a simple but addictive puzzle game from Betaworks, and the sequel to the wildly popular original Dots game. The same connect-the-dots strategy returns, but there’s 137 new levels and some interesting new abilities when you connect two dots together.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS
Badland is a sidescroller game with haunting and beautiful graphics.
Badland is an award-winning action adventure game with 80 unique single-player levels, and the game’s gorgeous graphics might be the best we’ve ever seen. Your objective is to guide a creature through creepy environments and beat objectives and challenges, and a multiplayer mode lets up to four players play with he same device.
Price: $3.99 (iOS), Free (Android)
GTA: Vice City is just like the original game except with touch controls.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a blast of nostalgia that will quickly bring back fond memories of the original PlayStation game. The campaign mode will take you hours to get through, and with great graphics, easy game play, and support for your own customized iTunes playlist, it feels just like the original.
Price: $4.99
Tiny Wings is an addicting arcade-style game with top-notch physics.
Tiny Wings is a physics-based game where you guide your character up and down a series of hills in a race against time. It’s nothing like Angry Birds, but it’s still just as addicting. Tiny Wings is all about timing and anticipating where you’ll drop so you can maximize your distance and stay alive a little longer.
Price: $0.99
Available on: iOS
The Room Two is a smart and foreboding sequel to The Room.
The Room Two continues the tone of the original with another dark and eerie set of objects and rooms to explore. To solve the mystery of why you’re trapped, The Room Two has you tinker and physically explore the objects around you. The game’s atmosphere and soundtrack only add to the realism of the experience, making it a great game to play with headphones.
Price: $2.99
Flappy Bird and Swing Copter are great for passing time but almost impossible to master.
Flappy Bird might just be the most viral app of all time. The arcade game’s concept was simple: Fly through a series of Mario-esque pipes and avoid touching them. Unfortunately, Flappy Bird was so addicting that its creator pulled the app from the App Store, but if you grabbed the app beforehand, you can still play.
The frustrating fun is back with its sequel, Swing Copters, which is a physics-based flying game that asks you to fly skywards while dodging the swing the hammers. Curiously enough, its tricky physics might make Swing Copters even harder than Flappy Birds, even though you just navigate with a tap.
Price: Free
Timberman is a fast-paced arcade game where timing is everything.
Timberman asks you to chop as fast as you can through four different levels. The faster you chop, the longer you stay alive, just make sure to swap sides to avoid the descending branches.
Price: Free
“The Walking Dead” is like an interactive comic book, but you decide how the story goes.
“Walking Dead: The Game” draws inspiration from the same mold as the “Walking Dead” comics and the hit AMC TV show. The interactive game isn’t just another shooter, you make decisions in the game that affect different outcomes, but there’s still tons of action and strategy that’ll keep you coming back for more. The best part is that the story will continue to grow, and you can experience new adventures by buying new episodes.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS
Minecraft – Pocket Edition is the perfect game for building whatever you imagine.
Minecraft is a game that’s all about building your own world, using blocks. You can build detailed recreations of your favorite fictional environment, check out other people’s creations, or just try to create something completely new. The pocket edition randomly generates worlds and also has an expansive multi-player mode so you can play with friends.
Price: $6.99
“Blackwell 1: Legacy” is a modern mystery adventure game with a classic art style.
In the first episode of the “Blackwell” mystery series, you follow spirit medium Rosa Blackwell as she treks through New York City guided by the family ghost, jokester Joey Mallone. The game features a compelling storyline that keeps you interested, and the game’s charming 8-bit graphics feel right at home. The story continues with two other available episodes, and more are on the way.
Price: $2.99
Available on: iOS
Threes is a smart and simple game that quickly grows on you.
Threes is all about adding tiles together that add up to three or a multiple of three. Combing blocks frees up space, and keeps you in the game.
Price: Free
Monument Valley lets you explore fantastical environments with impossible geometry
Monument Valley is brimming with surreal environments featuring complex structures with impossible geometry. By rotating each map, you can help guide Princess Ida through the maize of hidden paths and optical illusions.
Price: $3.99
HEALTH/FOOD/FITNESS
Pedometer++ is a great way to keep track of your daily fitness.
Pedometer++ is perfect for viewing your daily activity and fitness goals with a quick glance. The app’s clean interface is simple and its graphs are tidy, and there’s two quick ways to check your daily progress: You can swipe down and see the Pedometer++ widget in your iPhone’s Notification Center, or you can check the tiny red badge on the app icon, which displays your current steps.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS
MapMyRide is the ultimate biking companion.
Map My Ride uses your phone’s GPS to give you detailed information on your speed, calories burned, and distance traveled. You can also see a map of your route, and the app operates in the background so you can still use your phone for music or messaging.
Price: Free
RunKeeper is the best running app out there.
RunKeeper is like your own personal trainer, and it’s great for runners. The app tracks your running pace, route, distance, elevation, and calories burned. RunKeeper is also perfect for setting goals, and it integrates with your music app too.
Price: Free
OpenTable is your go-to app for making reservations ahead of time.
It’s easy to make a reservation with OpenTable. You simply input the time and number of people in your party, select a restaurant, and tap an open table. There’s over 20,000 participating restaurants, and you can even include notes to let a restaurant know about a special need.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Yelp is still the best way to discover new restaurants and places to visit.
Yelp is what you check before you head somewhere for the first time. Yelp’s incredible network of restaurants, bars, shops, merchants, and more helps you discover businesses around you wherever you are. But the best part of Yelp is its reviews, which lets you get a sense of a place from people who already tried it out.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Seamless is the best way to order food from anywhere online.
Seamless allows you to quickly order delivery or takeout from more than 12,000 restaurants in 40+ cities. With just a few taps you can order from over 100 different cuisines. You pay the bill and tip with your credit card, so even if you don’t have cash on hand you can still get the food you want.
Price: Free
ZocDoc makes it simple to find and book doctor’s appointments.
With ZocDoc all you have to do is enter your zip code and insurance information and it will give you back a list of doctors nearby. Since the app also lists the doctor’s availability, it makes it easy to get a same-day appointment. Besides doctor’s appointments, you can also find dentists, therapists, and other specialists.
Price: Free
SPORTS
WatchESPN and TheScore are two essential apps for any sports fan.
TheScore is a must-have for any sports fanatic. It keeps you informed with breaking sports news, scores, stats, and coverage of the top events of the day. The app’s handy push notifications will keep you in the know about the big game, even when you’re on the go.
WatchESPN lets you stream live games from major ESPN networks, including major events like college football and basketball games, The Masters, US Open, NBA games and playoffs, and more. You’ll have to sign in with your cable provider, however, and you’ll need to already have an ESPN subscription.
Price: Free
TheScore, Available for: iOS, Android
WatchESPN, Available for: iOS, Android
The official BBC Sports app is curated by BBC’s team of sports journalists.
BBC’s Sports app is perfect for soccer fans. With this app you’ll get up-to-date information on Football, Formula 1, Cricket, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Tennis, Golf, and all the other main sports. Besides just being able to read, you can watch video highlights and there are dedicated pages for every English and Scottish football league club.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS and Android
120 Sports is a great place to get expert commentary on trending sports topics.
120 Sports is a great way to see what’s buzzing in the sports world. The app features real-time highlights and expert commentary from in-house experts, and there’s over 10 hours of live programming each day. The best part? You don’t need any cable subscription.
Price: Free
PHOTO/VIDEO
Hyperlapse from Instagram transforms your shaky footage into a stunning time-lapse.
Usually, to create smooth time-lapse videos, you needed expensive tripods and stabilization gear. Luckily, Hyperlapse from Instagram uses its image stabilization techniques to smooth out shaky footage, and the results are impressive. It’s great for capturing sports, car rides, weather, crowds, and journeys on foot.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Storehouse turns your photos into vivid visual narratives.
Storehouse makes it easy to snap pictures and format them into a beautiful and smart layout that lets you tell a story. You can add text, titles, and format things how you like, but if you’re in a hurry Storehouse will automatically choose a format so you can upload and keep snapping. The Storehouse Newsfeed also features great curated content, and it’s a great place to discover picture-based narratives from talented photographers.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Camera+, VSCO Cam, and Litely are the best photo apps out there.
Camera+ is one of the best alternatives to Apple’s stock camera app. The app features three focus modes, a handy “Lumy” feature for perfect lighting, and plenty of photo filters. You can also pair two iOS devices together with “AirSnap” to take photos from afar by turning one device into a remote shutter and preview screen.
VSCO Cam is a beautifully designed photo app that integrates with the photo publishing platform, VSCO Grid, where you can share your photos and see gorgeous, curated photos from other photographers. VSCO Cam features stunning presets, manual focus, adjustable shutter speed, white balance, and exposure compensation.
Litely is powerful photo app for adding subtle filters to your photos, giving them a film-like tone. You can tap the screen with two fingers to see what your photo looked like before adding any presets, and the app’s non-destructive editing features means you never have to worry about losing your original.
Camera + ($1.99), Available for:iOS, Android
VSCO Cam (Free), Available for: iOS, Android
Litely (Free), Available on: iOS
MyRoll organizes your photos better than your phone’s photo app can.
MyRoll organizes your phone’s photos and videos automatically in a gorgeous layout, grouping photos taken at a specific event or time together into Moments. MyRoll’s smart algorithm will even recognize which photos are your favorites according to your views and feature them more prominently, and you can always choose the gallery view to see a more traditional layout.
Price: Free
Shopping: The best apps for finding your next purchase.
Fancy is a beautiful user-curated online boutique.
Fancy is an online e-commerce platform with items curated by its users. It lets you curate the items you’d like to buy in a pretty magazine-like format, and it’s a great place to find new things to add to your wish list.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
FastCustomer lets you avoid waiting on hold for customer service.
FastCustomer takes the hassle out of waiting on hold. With a few taps, the app lets you quickly choose which company and department you need to talk to. You’re then free to do whatever you’d like, as FastCustomer will ring you directly when they get a customer service representative on the line.
Price: Free
Postmates and TaskRabbit help with your hassles so you more free time.
Postmates is great for getting whatever you’d like delivered, whether it be a meal, coffee, groceries, prescriptions, electronics, or clothing. Since Postmates delivers 24/7 and under an hour, it’s perfect for lazy days or late nights.
TaskRabbit helps you find a helper for any chore you can think of. You can get someone to deliver your groceries, clean your house, wait in line, assemble your furniture, run errands, or help you move. Since all task are insured up to $1 million and every helper is background checked, you can rest easy and work less.
Postmates (Free, hourly rate), Available on: iOS, Android
TaskRabbit (Free, hourly rate), Available on: iOS, Android
eBay is still the best place to buy and sell items.
eBay’s mobile app is great. To sell an item, you can snap a picture with your phone, scan the item’s barcode with your camera to get pricing and product details, and set up the entire auction on the go. It’s great for browsing and buying too, with a customized home screen that lets you window shop and notifications so you never miss a bid.
Price: Free
Etsy is the best app out there for finding unique items and gifts.
Etsy is an e-commerce marketplace that only sells unique and vintage items. With over 800,000 sellers, it’s a great place to find hand-made art and one-of-a-kind items.
Price: Free
Square lets you accept credit card payments anywhere.
Square is the best way to accept credit card payments on the go through your smartphone or tablet, using a small square reader that plugs into your device’s headphone port. It’s a great option for small businesses who don’t want to work directly with credit card companies, and the service charges you 2.75% to process transactions for Visa, American Express, MasterCard and Discover. The best part is that you can sign up for free and Square will send you one of its credit card readers free of charge.
Price: Free
TRAVEL
Hipmunk and TripAdvisor are two great apps that help you get the best deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars.
Hipmunk is a great way to plan out your travels. The app sifts through all of the travel, hotel, and rental car services to get you the best deals. You can sort the results by the “agony” to find flights without a layover, and if you need to book a last-minute hotel room, you can save up to 60%.
Price: Free
TripAdvisor is another great travel app that helps you get the best deals around on every aspect of your trip. With over 150 million reviews, you can find out what you can expect as you find the best deals on your hotel, flight, restaurants, and your night out on the town.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Hotel Tonight is the fastest way to book a last-minute hotel at a discount.
Hotel Tonight lets you book last-minute hotel rooms in 12 countries and over 100 destinations. The app is available up until 2 a.m. each night, and once you’ve made an account, you can literally book a room in three taps and a swipe.
Price: Free
Uber and Lyft are the best apps out there for requesting a taxi right from your phone.
Uber’s mobile app lets you request a private driver or taxi right from your smartphone, and you can even see where how far away your ride is at any point. You don’t have to worry about cash because Uber will charge your credit card and email you a receipt, and the tip is included. You really can just hop in, go to your destination, and hop out.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone
Lyft is similar to Uber: You can see what cars are nearby, and then request a ride with just a tap. You can then see a picture of your driver and car, and since Lyft uses your credit card, there’s no need for cash. When you first try out the app, your first ride is free, just use the code APPSTORE in the payments menu.
Price: Free
Google Maps is hands-down the best maps app out there.
Google Maps is the best mobile mapping application. Period. It has the best and most accurate location data along with handy turn-by-turn navigation and public transit directions. It’s well designed, easy to use, and reliable, and it’s a great way to never get lost again.
Price: Free
UTILITIES
Dark Sky tells you exactly when it’s about to rain (or snow).
Dark Sky does one thing very well: It tells you exactly when it’s going to rain or snow. The app is beautifully designed and features a precipitation timeline that lets you know down to the minute when you can expect rain.
Price: $3.99
Available for: iOS
Sky Guide is a beautiful astronomy app that works like magic.
You don’t have to know anything about astronomy to use Sky Guide. You just aim your phone or tablet at the sky and Sky Guide will highlight the constellations, stars, and planets high above you, displaying details about each. If you want to try locating things on your own, you can use the app’s built-in compass to guide you.
Price: $1.99
Available on: iOS
Level Money helps you budget your spending in an easy and elegant way.
Level Money links to your bank account to help you know how much you can spend today, meaning you never have to manually input your purchases. It takes into account your income, monthly spending habits, and how much you’re trying to save. If you spend more than you should on a given day, the app will adjust and tell you to spend less the following day.
Price: Free
FlyCleaners lets you choose when to have your laundry picked up and dropped off.
FlyCleaners is great for when you’re just too busy to find time to do your laundry. The app lets you choose when to have you laundry picked up, and your first time they provide free bags. Your laundry is then whisked away, and you can set a time on the app to have it dropped off when it’s finished.
Price: Free
Venmo makes it easy to instantly pay people quickly and securely.
Venmo is an app that lets you pay your friends using your smartphone. It’s a great tool to have if you need to split a check or you just owe someone money. The app connects to your bank account, and the Venmo’s secure 256-bit encryption and Verisign certification means you don’t have to worry about your money getting lost in transaction.
Price: Free
1Password and LastPass will make sure you never have to remember a password again.
1Password and LastPass are two competing services that remember all your passwords for you across all your computing devices. With a special browser extension, you just have to remember one “master password” and the apps will do the rest, helping you fill in your login and password details. It’s a hassle-free way to keep all your passwords safe and secure.
1Password available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android
Price: $7.99 (iOS), Free (Android), $49.99 (Mac and Windows)
LastPass available for: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Price: Free
Yahoo Weather is the best looking weather app out there.
Yahoo Weather is an award-winning weather app that is elegant, informative, and plenty useful. The app is packed with gestures, and displays photos that match your location, time of day, and current weather conditions.
Price: Free
Google Chrome is the best mobile browser.
Google Chrome for mobile is great because it’s lightning fast, easy to use, and syncs with your Chrome web browser on your laptop or home computer. It also lets you keep open an infinite number of tabs, and it can reduce your data usage by up to 50%.
Price:Free
Skype is an easy and free way to video message.
Skype is still the best way to video message people, and voice calls and video calls to other Skype users are free. And since Skype works on multiple platforms, it’s an easy way to IM or video conference without having to worry about what device everyone is using.
Price: Free
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