Some apps help us. Others entertain us. Some have no apparent purpose! Weird, funny, or useful…whatever it is, there’s an app for that.
Some of the apps that follow may appear odd at first. A couple of them are new takes on old utilities. Another seems worthless, but the rest are very useful and offer needed help. In each case, the developers saw a niche in the market and built an app around it.
Be brave. Give these apps a try and see how you like them. It might be just what you’re looking for.
#1. Carrot helps you get productive.
Carrot is one of the oddest productivity/lifehacking apps out there. It has five apps to help you get through your day: To-Do, Alarm, Fit, Hunger, and Weather.
“Carrot” in the app’s name has two meanings: The game unlocks when you complete a task, symbolizing the incentive system used by these apps to motivate users to complete tasks.
However, Carrot is also the name of the wicked robot advisor in each app. In her daily “7 Minutes in Hell,” Fit guides you through strength and aerobic routines like “The Celebrity Face Punch.” If you use Carrot to track your food consumption, she will publicly embarrass you when you overeat by posting to your social media accounts.
All of the Carrot apps’ features may be accessed elsewhere, usually for free. However, the Carrot figure has so much personality — a “What will she say next?” sort of mystery — that it lifts users out of ordinary routine.
#2. Let Period Plus help you be less “productive.”
This app is a fully-featured monthly calendar. Approximately half of our readers can now skip to No. 3.
To be blunt, everyone is responsible for family planning. For those who are more sensitive, this is the app for you. Period Plus tracks your cycle and ovulation time. In addition, it tracks cramp intensity, body temperature, migraines, stressors, and more. It’s long and personal, which makes Period Plus all the more fun.
Only in this app can you rate deeply personal body functions while an animated pink bunny with a goofy voice gives you motivational advice. It’s a feature so out of the app’s scope that it should be jarring, but it works. When the bunny just spews out clichés, you can’t help but giggle. So they say.
#3. Hold the Button
Hold the Button isn’t much of a game. In addition, it’s not a difficult game. Hold the Button requires you to perform only one thing…hold the button. Hold on tight!
So, what happens when you let go? The game ends, and you can see how long you held the button. If you’re among the top 25, take a moment to remember that at least 24 other individuals were also playing. It’s nice to know you’re not alone in your quest for meaninglessness.
That’s perhaps the magic of Hold the Button.
People all throughout the world are holding the button for longer than is safe. To hold the record for the last seven days, you would need to hold the button for 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59.05 seconds. Even if you built a contraption to fool the game into thinking you held the button, that’s a lot of time spent “winning” this game.
In addition, it makes you wonder whether there are more essential things we could accomplish with our passion, determination, and will than just holding the button.
#4 Run Pee will help you go at the right time!
Run Pee is a fantastic idea. This is the kind of one-off usage for mobile technology that makes you wonder if this wasn’t the real reason for the smartphone.
The concept is simple: you’re at the movies and need to pee.
So you don’t miss any of the good bits, Run Pee notifies you which ones are slow or don’t advance the plot. You just enter the title of the film and the software starts the timer. Run Pee takes over. You feel vibrations when you get close to a setting that calls for a restroom break. The app gives you the scene’s first line so you can leave.
What’s the best thing about it? You can read a scene synopsis while peeing so you don’t miss anything. The app also notifies you when it’s time to return to your seat.
Apps Both Silly and Sublime
With just one unique idea, any software might become a must-have on customers’ devices.
Both Carrot and Period Plus are as elegant and effective as their competitors’ designs, and both perform similar functions. But by adding one quirky feature, they made something unique.
You should never underestimate the app consumer’s obsession with the meaningless. Not to be insulting, but the charm of Hold the Button is its basic humanness.
Meanwhile, apps like Run Pee provide services to help you that you didn’t realize you needed. Apart from the single brilliant idea underlying each app, there’s nothing fancy about them. They all have distinct selling features and execute them well. Turns out this is also terrific advice for anyone trying to build an app.
