Want to track your packages with the swipe of your finger? Now you can. Need to split a complicated dinner bill? It's no longer a 10-minute math problem.
Lifestyle apps constanly appear in the Apple App Store and Google Marketplace and at least attempt to make our lives easier. Not only have some of our favorites gone through redesigns and similar changes, but a ton of new apps have been created since we last looked.
What Are the Best Lifestye Apps?
- Get the Flight Out
- IFTTT
- Yahoo! Weather
- Swarm
- Foursquare City Guide
- Divvy
- Slice
- Moovit
- Outlook
- SwiftKey
- Snapguide
- Splitwise
- Edison Mail
- AnyList
- Venmo
Here are some of the best lifestyle apps that have made a difference in my life, whether through better organization, helpful tips, or teaching me something new.
15 of the Best Lifestyle Mobile Apps You Need in Your Pocket
1. Get The Flight Out
Category: Travel
Whether you need to fly home for a family emergency or you're just plain spontaneous, you've probably needed to book a last-minute flight at some point in your life. Affectionately nicknamed "GTFO" (which usually means something, well, a bit more aggressive), Get the Flight Out allows you to type in an airport name and see the available upcoming flights to destinations all over the world. It's a way to quickly see and assess all your options in one place.
Here's what the it looks like once you've plugged in your home airport:
And here's what a list of available flights to different cities looks like:
(Download GTFO for iOS, or its parent company's app, Hopper, for Android.)
2. IFTTT
Category: Productivity
Ever wished you could tell your computer or mobile device to do something really, really specific? Like email you when there's a new file in your Dropbox, or text you the local weather forecast every morning at 6:00 a.m.?
Good news, folks: You can do almost any command of this nature you can think of using an app called IFTTT, or "If This, Then That." In a nutshell, IFTTT lets you set up triggers for different events. For example, instead of spending all of your time manually going through the news or your social media accounts, you can get alerted by the things that are really important to you.
The crazy thing about this app is how easy it is to set up. The main screen walks you through the setup by letting you choose the first part of your "if" statement, and then allowing you to choose the "then" statement -- a.k.a. what happens after a trigger is set off.
Here's the "if" statement:
And the "then" statement:
(Download IFTTT for iOS or download IFTTT for Android.)
3. Yahoo! Weather
Category: Weather
There are dozens of weather apps out there; iPhones even have a default weather app. So why take the extra time to download Yahoo! Weather?
Yahoo! Weather is one of the most beautifully designed and easy-to-use apps I've ever, ever seen. It provides more information than your typical weather app, but understands the order in which the information will be the most valuable to the user.
The app shows off a gorgeous picture of the area (pulled in from Flickr) and displays hourly weather, the forecast for the week, a map, the chance of precipitation, wind and pressure rates, the sunrise and sunset times, and more. You can easily add more locations and then swipe from location to location. This is one of those apps that anyone can use without instruction.
(Download Yahoo Weather for iOS or download Yahoo Weather for Android.)
4. Swarm
Category: Travel
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm all about checking in to different places on my phone. When Foursquare split into Swarm & Foursquare back in 2014, I was pretty torn at first -- until I realized both of these apps significantly improved my experience of checking in (Swarm) and exploring new places (Foursquare).
Swarm is a "lifelogging" app that allows you to connect with friends and family and log the places you routinely visit. Whereas Foursquare focuses on checking in to certain locations you and your friends like, Swarm gives you opportunities to check in to the types of places your friends like.
For example, if I find my friends have checked into the gym more times than I have, Swarm might tally checkins to any fitness facility. It'll give me the same information for restaurants and bars in general, rather than specific restaurants and bars we always go to. (Warning: May increase FOMO.)
Swarm recently launched Swarm 5.0, showing us they're always improving on how much we can know about our friends' typical routines. Here, I'm adding a status update and tagging my friends:
And here, I can see a friend's profile with a map of total checkins and trends based on the types of places he commonly visits:
Image by Mark Krynsky
( Download Swarm for iOS or download Swarm for Android.)5. Foursquare City Guide
Category: Food & Drink
Foursquare is no longer used to check in and share your location with friends. The newest version of Foursquare is meant to help you explore new places in your current location.
Foursquare City Guide provides recommendations for new places to try out based on other people you follow or topics you've said you're interested in. For example, if you specify that you like Thai food, Foursquare always lets you know when there is a Thai food restaurant nearby.
And if you want to check in to one of the locations you've just learned about through Foursquare, it will bring you into Swarm -- making the experience between the two apps seamless.
(Download Foursquare for iOS or download Foursquare for Android.)
6. Divvy
Category: Food & Drink
We've all been there: You're enjoying a delicious meal with a great group of friends. Then the bill arrives. The conversation comes to a screetching halt as everyone scrambles to figure out how much they owe. Maybe you have an accountant friend who splits the bill for you, or maybe you have Divvy.
Divvy allows you to split a check based on its picture. You read that right: Snap a photo of the check with your phone, and Divvy itemizes it for you. Did five of your friends share an appetizer? No problem -- you can easily split courses by dragging orders from the check to each person you pull from your phone's contact list. You can even include tax and tip.
Here's what the app looks like as it processes the picture you take:
Once you drag each order to its respective person, your final result will look something like this:
Image via iMore
7. Slice
Category: Shopping
Whenever I order something online, I obsess over the tracking number to see when I will receive the package. If you've ever ordered a new phone online, you know what I'm talking about. Slice makes this so much easier.
Slice, an app by Rakuten, will search through your emails for any order confirmations or tracking codes. It will then populate with information on when you should expect your packages, when they are out for delivery, and when they have been delivered. No need to type in long tracking numbers -- all you have to do is connect your emails, and you're set.
Here's what your list of pending orders looks like:
And the details of an individual order:
(Download Slice for iOS or download Slice for Android.)
8. Moovit
Category: Navigation
Let's be honest, public transportation may be an easy alternative to driving and parking, but it's no picnic. Disabled trains, schedule changes, and that one bus line that's always late can make your morning commute the last thing you want to do when you wake up.
This is why we Moovit.
Moovit pulls together all of the train, bus, and subway schedules near you, and shows you where they are and where they're going -- even if there are delays on a particular route. It'll also show you where they are on a map, how far away they are (in minutes), and how many stops it would take to reach a set destination.
Is there a faster way to get somewhere? Moovit can suggest it and show you where to go. The app adapts to whichever city you're in, and is only getting better at it: It syncs with a new city around the world every 15 hours.
Here's what a commuter in Boston might see when following a set of directions:
Here's what they'd see when simply checking on a station's schedule:
(Download Moovit for iOS or download Moovit for Android.)
9. Outlook
Category: Productivity
I know, this likely isn't a lifestyle app you expected me to include. But when Microsoft acquired a small calendar app called Sunrise in 2015, it slowly merged everything it loved about this tool with its own mail and calendar tool. The result? A new and definitely improved Outlook.
Outlook is a mobile app by Microsoft that combines an inbox with a beautifully designed calendar that helps you craft your schedule based on the mail you send and receive. From the main calendar view, you can see when all of your meetings are, whom they're with (with nice, handy headshots of the people you're meeting with), where the meeting is located, and even who's accepted the meeting.
It also offers icons that match keywords you'd normally use to describe the type of event you're setting -- making it easier than ever to know what your week looks like at a literal glance.
Image by Casey Newton
(Download Outlook for iOS or download Outlook for Android.)
10. SwiftKey
Category: Utilities / Productivity
By now, you might have seen touchscreen keyboards where you drag your finger to each key to form each word, rather than tap the letters you want individually. Combine that with a dose of artificial intelligence (AI), and you get SwiftKey.
SwiftKey offers both tap- and swipe-based keyboards that actually learn how you talk and suggest your next word. Believe it or not, it helps you type way less. You'd be amazed by what the app learns: If you often type "Karla" and "Sophia," for example, it would eventually reveal the word "Sophia" after you simply type "Karla and."
Image by Allyson Kazmucha
(Download SwiftKey for iOS or download SwiftKey for Android.)
11. Snapguide
Category: Lifestyle
Snapguide is kind of like Pinterest, except it includes how-to steps with each item. Basically, it lets you explore anything you may want to learn how to do yourself. This could be a new recipe, decorations for your house, an arts and crafts project, or even new games and tricks.
Once you click into a category, the mobile app brings you to how-to guides for that particular category. You can choose to learn anything you want, while swiping through step-by-step instructions with large images on how to complete the project.
12. Splitwise
Category: Finance
Do you share expenses with someone? Maybe a roommate, or a few friends you went away with for a weekend? It can be complicated to keep track of who paid for what and who owes whom. Enter Splitwise.
Splitwise lets you keep track of all of your expenses that you share with others. All you have to do is enter the name of your expense, the dollar amount, how much you paid versus your friends, and then categorize the expenses. Splitwise will automatically calculate who owes whom what after each person logs their expense.
Here's what your home page might look like:
And here is a history or "feed" of what you and another individual have paid and owed each other:
(Download Splitwise for iOS or download Splitwise for Android.)
13. Edison Assistant
Category: Productivity
Similar to the new Outlook, Edison Assistant is a task-management app that makes it easier to book meetings, check your schedule, and even get directions to meetings in your calendar. You might know it by its original name, EasilyDo.
One of the great features of this app is that it will alert you if you have duplicate contacts on your phone and help you de-dupe to ensure you have the most up-to-date information. It will even pull in information from your email about package deliveries and flight itineraries.
The best part about this app is how it intelligently pulls in important information from other apps on your device to make sure you're as organized as possible.
(Download Edison for iOS or download EasilyDo (soon to be Edison) for Android.)
14. AnyList
Category: Productivity
AnyList is the dream app for anyone who cooks a lot and likes to coordinate grocery lists with other people. You can share grocery lists with other people who are using the app to help communicate what you've picked up at the store for your household.
In the app, you can store your favorite recipes including a picture of the dish, ingredients you need to make the dish, and any notes you want to remember. But the best part is you can quickly add the ingredients from any recipe to your grocery list with literally the tap of a button. So once you add a recipe into your app, adding the ingredients is easy peasy.
But wait ... it gets better. (Can you tell I like this one?) Once you're on the main grocery list part of the app, AnyList will actually organize the items you need to purchase into categories based on where items are around the grocery store. The categories include bakery, beverages, dairy, deli, frozen foods, grains, pasta and sides, household and cleaning, produce, snacks, and more.
This makes it easy for you to navigate the grocery store, check items off your list, and see in real time what you versus your roommates are purchasing.
Image via TechSolvers
15. Venmo
Category: Finance
One time, I was at a restaurant with a friend who had never heard of Venmo. When it came time to split the bill and she had no cash, she said, "I wish there was a way to text people money!" Well, that's in essence what Venmo does.
Venmo allows you to transfer money to friends quickly, easily, and securely. Simply connect your bank account to the app or transfer money into a Venmo account, and you will be able to send money back and forth with your friends with only a few clicks.
You may be thinking: Doesn't PayPal do that? Yes, you're right -- there are definitely other similar apps out there, but Venmo's popularity has grown because of how easy it is to use and how easy it is to keep track of your expenses on the main screen.
(Download Venmo for iOS or download Venmo for Android.)
P.S. -- Try out the HubSpot app on any Apple device or Android device to stay up to date with everything going on in your HubSpot account, from your social media accounts, to your analytics, to everything you need to know about your contacts and leads.
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