We surveyed our team about their mobile app use, asking everyone to pick their top three (intentionally excluding client apps from consideration).
It was a fun exercise, as there was much variety in the answers (no one picked the same ones, in fact there was very little overlap) and I learned about a few new apps in the process.
I also learned about new uses for existing apps, and more about the interests of some of our team members. Some were surprising – I did not know that Nicole is a sports nut, Annie loves podcasts, and Mark wakes up with a different ring tone every day!
Here are a few takeaways:
- Several listed WhatsApp
- Unsurprisingly, some of the L.A. team’s choices relate to auto navigation (Waze, Google Maps)
- Other apps were for navigating issues in daily life, e.g. a restaurant/bar tab splitter, food delivery app and Bible verses
- Quite a few related to media: e.g. Flipboard, Spotify (who knew that you can use it to learn a new language?), Zedge, SoundHound, and Shazam.
- Many of the apps were for communications, social media and food/entertainment/travel
Please see below for the responses from some of the team members:
Annie
- Waze is my lifeline for getting through tricky L.A. traffic during rush hour
- Stitcher has all of my favorite podcasts to keep me entertained (and sane) while maneuvering through LA traffic
- Postmates, a great food delivery app
Sara
- Flipboard is my go-to news source
- Tab is a great to help with splitting the bill between friends
- Spotify stores my favorite albums, artists and songs plus you can learn a new language or choose a playlist depending on your mood.
Mark
- Zedge lets me download a ton of ringtones so I can wake up to a different song every day
- Timehop shows me what I posted on Facebook on this date for the past five years. It’s fun to revisit my recent past
- Soundhound and Shazam – when I hear a song that interests me, I open one of these apps and hold my phone up in the air… ten seconds later, I know what song it is, who it’s by – and sometimes even how bad the lyrics are.
Fehmida
- Google Maps: Probably the one and only app I would be completely lost without
- Snapchat: a fun and easy way for me to stay in touch with friends and family… it also helps perfect my caption and finger drawing skills.
- WhatsApp: I use this app exclusively for group conversations; it is a great platform when making plans.
Nicole
- The Bible app provides a daily verse, it is a great, positive way to start my day and gets some motivation going.
- Bleacher Report notifies me whenever there’s news about all the sports teams I follow and my favorite players… it incorporates social media buzz about topics related to these teams and players as well.
- Echofon is a lot better than the Twitter app for Droid… It syncs with the Echofon app for Mac
Laura
- Waze: I’m not sure I could handle Los Angeles driving without this app that I use at least twice a day every single day.
- Yelp: Since I moved to a new city, I haven’t had a bad meal or service experience, and it’s all because of this app!
- Mobile Banking Apps: I can deposit checks, transfer money, and pay my bills from wherever I am.
Bob
- Facebook, Twitter and then a tie between LinkedIn and Evernote (the latter for note taking).
- Buffer App for scheduling Tweets
Chris
- Google Wallet
- White Noise – Perfect for travelers
- Google Voice
Ross
- Spotify
- Yahoo! Fantasy Football (5 months out of the year)
Nirav
- Newsstand – WSJ App
