We all love our apps. They seem to make our life a whole lot easier. There are a myriad of apps on the market for multiple platforms whether its for a browser like Chrome or a mobile phone. Today I would like to share some Android apps which have made my life more productive, allowing me to manage my time better. All of these apps have been used by me for over 6 months with very little issues with stability. Most of them would be available on the App Store as well.
1. Cal
We all love to hate our existing calendar apps on our mobile. While they do serve a purpose they sometimes seem to frustrate with their ‘multiple options’. Cal seeks to declutter this experience in a clean & unobtrusive interface.
This free app also allows you to link this with the task manager Any.do (parent company) which is also pretty neat.
2. Arc File Manager
We all love to be able to respond fast to our colleagues and clients with that famous footer ‘sent via mobile’.
Especially when it comes to clients you may have a specific folder you need to store your information in which cannot be browsed by the ‘Attach File’ function in email apps like Gmail.
This free app allows you to browse your folders and attach the files you need.
3. CamCard
Many people can attest to the fact that business cards need to reinvent themselves. Its not uncommon for us to accept business cards but lose it soon after.
CamCard helps by allowing you to store and convert your business cards to the digital format.
While it does have a free version the paid app allows you store and convert more than 200 cards.
4. CamScanner
CamScanner comes from the same company as the card scanner and it’s an indispensable tool to most busy execs who can forward their paper letters with a simple click.
While its not perfect it does offers a decent alternative to a scanner. The free version has a watermark which is removed in the paid version.
5. Clean Master
No matter how busy we get we need to realize that our smartphone has similar maintenance problems to a desktop computer like memory overload and junk files.
Clean Master makes it easy by their one touch method of cleaning up junk files and boosting memory.
It’s an overenthusiastic free app if their ever was one!
6. Clipper
Clipper allows me to store pieces of text that can be stored in an organised format. Copied text can be sorted into different categories which is great for day to day responses. I use it nearly every day as I am in charge of the IT side of my hospital’s transplant programme and do not have time to get on a desktop to bash out big emails.
The free version limits the amount of snippets you can store which is removed in the paid version. It also has a sync plugin.
7. Swipes
Swipes is a free task manager tool which I think seems to have the edge over Any.do, Todoist and Wunderlist in its simple design and objective. It simply has three sections to do things today, later, and what’s been completed.
While it still does lack team collaboration it just sticks to the most basic premise of task management, which is trying to get my tasks done.
8. Twilight
Twilight is an app that pleasantly surprised me. It claims to harmonize the screen brightness with the sun cycle allowing for better ‘dark room reading’ and helps you to gently adjust your eyes to the dark and sleep better.
There are already studies that link screen brightness with sleep so there is some truth to this app’s claim.
I certainly find it very easy on the eyes in the night. The free version limits some features like creating custom profiles which is available in the paid version.
9. Shush!
We all hate to disturb meetings. Some of us take this one step further and forget to turn on the ringer after the meeting resulting in missing the ‘ding’ of that important email notification or an important call.
Shush! is a free app that gives you the piece of mind of regulating how long you want your ringer to be turned off. Simply turn your phone to silent or vibrate and the lovely UI asks you to adjust when you want the ringer back on again.
I have found it a great help time and time again.
10. Image Shrink
We now live in a world where images are used to communicate a message more effectively. The irritating thing for many is when a co-worker sends a massive 13 megapixel image when all we need was a nice 1024 x 768 image.
Image Shrink seeks to solve this by building image resizing directly into the share button of the phone. It allows us to set a size, shrink and then the app automatically asks if you want to share it.
The free version shrinks images one at a time and in multiples in the paid version.
11. Pocket
Ever regretted finding some great information on the web which you wanted to blog about but forgot the link?
Pocket is a free app which seeks to resolve this dilemma by allowing an easy way to save your content whether on the web or on the phone. It works via the share button and be shared in a different categories for easy browsing on mobile or even desktop via getpocket.com
12. Wordpress
In today’s digital space sharing what you know via a blog is a great way to communicate and connect. When I blog I find the most important thing is keeping track of your comments, stats and being able to quickly jot down some thoughts on the blog.
Wordpress has an official free app which does just that with nearly every tool needed to keep those busy modern writers of our age updated and mobile.
13. WPS Office
I mostly use Polaris or Adobe to view my PDF, DOC and PPT files and use Google Docs and Sheets to do collaborative editing with Google Drive.
But there are those moments when a document just needs a little tweaking and will save you a hour of sitting on a desktop.
WPS Office has been a major time saver in this respect, allowing me to make minor edits on my smartphone. I would say it gives the most features for its price which is free!
So that was my list of Android apps which has made my life easier. Social media management is also another area I hope to ‘Pulse’ on later. Am I missing out on any good productivity apps? Please do comment.
Rikaz Sheriff is a freelance writer, who is writing about Health & Technology and also he is a Medical Officer in Health Informatics working for the Government of Sri Lanka