It seems as though every web publication and YouTuber wants to let everyone know what's on their smartphone. This of course is a cool way to recommend those in mobile tech community the most impressive applications used on the daily basis. Applications on both iOS and Android are indeed plentiful, literally by the millions. Admittedly, I'm guilty of having the itchy swipe finger where I unnecessarily install apps I end up not using, valuable storage space wasted. Since acquiring my Note 8 six months back, I have matured ans stayed away from installing a bevy of apps just because I can, instead I only install apps I know will get full usage.
First off how do I have my apps arranged on my smartphone
I try not to clutter my home screen with every single app I've installed. Taking the minimal approach, I only place apps on my home screen that serves a valuable purpose. In using this method I'm able to easily access my most used apps. As you can see in the screenshot below this paragraph, this is my actual home screen setup. I have all of my streaming apps listed in the first row, then there's my social media and messenger apps in the second row. In the last row I call this my default apps which includes Gmail, camera, the Chrome web browser, and the phone icon. Then there's the app drawer icon situated in the middle, we'll discuss what that is later on in this post.
So with that said, what's on my Android? (Note 8) Read on.
Music Stream
Spotify is probably everyone's music stream service by default, its definitely my first choice amongst the other service I have installed on my smartphone. I'm a go out on a limb and say the Sweden base music service has definitely impacted the way we all access and listen to music on the go. There is the honorable mentioned services such as Tidal and Apple Music, but for me, Spotify have features that make it much easier to create playlist and sync music offline.
The other streaming music I constantly use on the go is SoundCloud. What Google is to search, SoundCloud is to music search. You find just about any song on the planet on this stream service, no matter the genre or artist. You'll also find a whole catalog of podcast on SoundCloud.
Social Media
Instagram and FaceBook have become ingrained into our daily lives despite its underlying use of your personal data (cough! cough! can you say Cambridge Analytical? ), to say that they're my favorite social media apps is an under statement, for the most part I use both apps to conduct business and post random goofball foolery. But there is no third party solution for both the gram and FB, at least none that I know of that leaves me impressed. There is though a bevy of third party Twitter apps on both iOS and Android platforms. By far the best Twitter app for Android is Fenix and Flamingo. Often times I don't know which app to engage in during my round of tweets. Importantly, both Fenix and Flamingo have a fluid clean interface.
Note Taking
Evernote takes the lead here and needs no warranted praise, its by far the best and only note taking app I use daily. Here's an admission, without Evernote the feeling of emptiness subsides in my mind, seriously it does. Bit over dramatic I know, but I think you get the point on how important this app is to me. Not only do I use it for note jotting, you can also clip articles from websites, uploaded images, record audio and video and much more. Evernote multifaceted capabilities are limitless. Here's another admission, I pen this entire article on Evernote.
Photo Editing
All Samsung Galaxy series smartphones have a built-in photo editing app created by default made by Samsung. But the features are minimal and at best lackluster. For me the photo editing app I almost always resort to using is Adobe's Lightroom CC. Its loaded with features I like and it gets the job done.
Cloud Storage
Everyone cloud base storage of choice is DropBox, the go to app I myself use on the constant. I store just about everything on Dropbox, from music and video files to pictures and documents. The beauty of Dropbox is you can seamlessly share files with other Dropbox users. My other cloud base storage app I use as a backup because you can never have enough sources of storage backup, that would be Google Drive. Both these apps can also be used on a PC or Mac.
Weather
The best weather app for both Android and iOS platform hands down its Dark Sky. The app accurately gives hyperlocal weather data with down to the minute forecast. Loves how it blasts rain notification and alerts, keeping you abreast to any changes in current weather conditions in your local area.
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Other noted apps that gets daily usage are stored in the app drawer, for those who aren't familiar with that Android terminology, the app drawer is a icon present on your home screen that opens up a list of every single you have installed on your smartphone. The beauty of this feature is it thwarts clutter on your home screen, any app you install onto your smartphone goes directly into the app drawer by default.
The most used app have in the app drawer is the Amazon app, I mean who doesn't shop at Amazon nowadays, then there's ClearFocus which is a time management app that keeps you productive within a 25 min time frame, allowing users to alternate work sessions with minimal breaks. For movie tickets, Fandingo has me covered when I want to reserve seats at a movie theater of my choice. I rely on the Bleacher Report for the latest scores and overall sports coverage and so on and on. That's just the gist on what apps I use from the app drawer.
Tell me what's on your smartphone, what is your go to app you use on the daily? Drop a comment in the box below or via social media.