Not sure how many apps you have on your phone but plenty of people have so many that the idea of downloading more creates anxiety, so a great idea is to sit back and think about what apps you need to have, the Must Have apps for your smartphone.
Now of course, there are hundreds of great apps for each person, out of the hundreds of thousands of apps you’ll find in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
What I’ve done here is look at the apps I basically can’t live without.
JustWatch
Honestly, I can’t imagine not having JustWatch installed on my phone. You’re chatting about a TV show with mates, or someone remembers a great movie they saw and recommend it to you – but where can you watch it?
Open up JustWatch, search for the show or Movie, and it will tell you on which streaming services it’s available.
Let the app know which services you’re subscribed to, and where you rent or buy content from and it will customise the results to suit you.
Extremely powerful, outstanding app.
Waze
We’ve all got the maps in the palm of our hands, Apple Maps and Google Maps installed by default on smartphones of different flavours.
But which one is best?
In my opinion – no doubt you should be using Waze.
It’s never let me down. It knows about things happening on the roads because of other “wazers” around you.
I learned the hard way never to question Waze. I use it when driving to places I’ve driven to hundreds of times – so when it suggested an different route, I ignored it – to my peril, because there was a traffic jam. Waze knew, I didn’t.
Always trust in Waze.
Petty
Built by a young Aussie app developer, Petty brings together live fuel price data in the many states that offer it, and allows you to set your car and fuel preferences to manage your next fill-up for the best price.
Simple, but in this day and age with prices the way they are, you need all the help you can get to ensure you’re getting the best price.
Download: Apple (only)
7/11 Fuel Lock
If that best price is at a 7/11 store – use the 7/11 app to lock the price in.
Whatever that price is today, is the price you pay at any 7/11 store for the next 7 days. Genius stuff, and could save you plenty.
Google Photos
There’s no better photo app, or photo storage service. Simple.
On an iPhone or Android phone, use Google Photos to sync everything to the cloud for a solid backup. But the real power is in what else it can do.
Facial recognition so you can search for people, and also powerful object recognition – honestly, it’s just so powerful there’s no better way to access your photo library.
Google Photo Scan
Independent of that, the Google Photo Scan app allows you to point your camera at a printed photo and “scan” digitally.
It doesn’t take just one photo, it takes five, and combines them to create one very high quality image you can then keep in your digital library.
Stocard
Throw away your wallet, digitise all your cards now!
This Aussie app allows you to snap photos of loyalty cards, the barcodes and import them into your app.
They can then be stored in your Apple Wallet too.
1 Wallet
Likewise, 1 Wallet does a similar job, but just allows a touch more customisation of each “card” and how they appear in the Apple Wallet.
EFTM
What? You don’t have the EFTM app?
Come on folks.
Download now, for Apple or Android Phones.
Trev is a Technology Commentator, Dad, Speaker and Rev Head.
He produces and hosts two popular podcasts, EFTM and Two Blokes Talking Tech. He also appears on over 50 radio stations across Australia weekly, and is the resident Tech Expert on Channel 9’s Today Show each day and appears regularly on A Current Affair.
Father of three, he is often found down in his Man Cave.
