Here’s our list of top iOS and Android downloads for the first quarter of 2017.
DripApp
With so many fantastic independent coffee shops around, why always be seen with a Starbucks takeaway cup? Encourage yourself to try more local coffee joints by downloading the DripApp. It’s a speciality coffee wallet – think of it like an Oyster card, but for coffee in London. You buy a pre-paid drink plan which you can use at hundreds of participating cafes. You’ll save 20% per week if you shun high street chains in favour of DripApp, all the while discovering new coffee spots in your neighbourhood.
Available on iOS and Android
Swiftmoji
The only downside to an ever-expanding emoji library is having to search through a long list of options before finding that perfect one. The team behind Microsoft’s SwiftKey have created an app that brings its predictive superpowers to the world of emoji. Install the Swiftmoji keyboard and switch over whenever you want to add an emoji to spruce up your message. The keyboard will automatically suggest a set of characters it detects you’ll most likely want to use. For example: Can’t wait for Christmas! ?
Available on iOS and Android
Money Dashboard
Curse contactless payments for making us lose track of where we’re spending our hard-earned cash. Money dashboard is a must-have app for anyone trying to budget or avoid going into their overdraft towards the end of the month. This app connects all your bank accounts and credit cards, and uses a cool graph to show where your money is being spent. After all, who doesn’t love a good-looking pie chart? But perhaps its most useful feature is the budget. The app learns how you’re spending your money and helps you manage it more effectively.
Available on iOS and Android
Overcast
There are many podcast clients in the App Store, but Overcast is hands down the fan favourite. This iOS app is the brainchild of Marco Arment – the guy behind Tumblr and Instapaper. It started off as a paid service, but the freemium model has been scrapped for an optional patronage program. The app’s clean design coupled with a balance of automation and flexibility makes it a great user experience. Earlier this year, Overcast 2.5 was released – the update features a darker theme and the ability to upload audio files to Overcast’s cloud.
Available on iOS
Yr.no
London is a big city. Unsurprisingly, the weather in Finchley may not be the same as the weather in Brixton at any given time. That’s where yr.no has an edge over other weather apps. It has the most extensive location database we’ve seen in a weather application (and we’ve downloaded a tonne!). Yr.no automatically fetches the weather forecast for your nearest location. This is a joint service from the Norwegian Met Institute and Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, but it’s spot on with predictions here in the UK.
Available on iOS and Android
Prisma
At some point this summer, profile pictures on Facebook started looking like works of art. All thanks to Prisma, your personal Picasso. By using a combination of neural networks and AI, this app turns any image into a stylised artwork. It just doesn’t put an Instagram-esque filter over your entire image, it actually scans the data to apply the style in an impressive way. Less than a month after its official launch, Prisma was downloaded 10 million times in the Google Play Store.
Available on iOS and Android
This article first appeared in Issue 12 of our quarterly print magazine – The PropTech Edition.