Utility Apps aren’t the flashiest of the apps in the App Store, but they sure are useful. Developers have been pushing boundaries of what’s possible in the App world for as long as the App Store has been around. And utility apps, the iPhone equivalent of tools on a Swiss Army Knife have, in many cases, been leading the charge.
So, if you just picked up a new phone or have an afternoon to burn (lucky you!), here’s a list of 6 essential apps that deserve ‘screen time’. Getit? Getit? Screen time … cos it’s on your phone’s screen. No? Let’s just move on
VLC
The famous video player brings back so many memories! Watching the Harry Potter series on a school night, playing movie after movie during sleepovers… Those were the good times. In short, VLC already rules our hearts and the world of desktops. And VLC’s iOS app is pretty cool too! The best feature of this magical third party app is that you can play videos of any formats without having to convert and multiple codecs can be played without downloading external codec packs. Other awe-worthy features are file synchronization with iCloud Drive, Dropbox, iTunes and Wi-Fi transfer that, as the name suggests, lets you transfer files from another iOS separately.
Download from here
Google Photos
Apple has come a long way with its photo app, but it still lags behind the one built by its biggest competitor – Google Photos. It is a super-smart photo assistant that stores all your images in the Cloud. (A less frustrating version of iCloud) Now, before you go all OCD on us, the app also intelligently organizes photos using the machine vision, so all your adorable memories are easily searchable. Also, it creates mini-films the moment it notices a lot of pictures from the same day or location. It’s simply the best out there.
Download from here
Shortcuts
With the launch of iOS 12, Apple introduced a new App called ‘Shortcuts’ that makes your phone work for you. Well, technically, the App isn’t new. Remember Workflow? ‘Shortcuts’ is just a rebranded and a more capable version of that. This nifty little thing allows you to create…wait for it…shortcuts so that you can automate your daily tasks and since the app is integrated with Siri, you can order him / her around to carry out your tasks. But in short, this app helps automate the ins and outs of your smartphone life. TTYL, gonna go live that thug life!
Download from here
World Clock – Time Zones
There are quite a few apps out there that do what Zones does, but no free ones do it quite as well. Zones App takes the ever-confusing concept of time conversion and changes it to present it in a much easier way. So as you keep adding the cities and their respective time zones, you’ll see a list of cities with the time. And if you alter the time for one city, it is automatically reflected in the time shown in other cities.
Okay, I’ll agree that it probably doesn’t sound too exciting now, but we promise you that it is quite handy. Especially when someone asks you questions like what’s the time in London right now or how much is the time difference between Delhi and Germany. And even if you are not that crazy about time zones, throw this app on your iPhone coz it’s gonna help, sooner or later.
Download from here
G-board
Let’s face it. You use Google Search. In fact, you probably found this article while searching on Google Search, so it makes sense to use a keyboard that also utilizes the power of the world’s most powerful search engine. Of course, Google’s Gboard has other tricks up its sleeve—like fast GIF search, glide typing, auto-complete, emoji suggestion. So, instead of firing up Chrome or Safari to search for something, you can use G-board without pausing your conversations or having to switch windows.
Download from here
Documents
I never thought that there would be a day when I’d be excited about a file app on my iPhone, let alone rank it as number 5 in the list of best utility apps. But, here I am, telling you that if you don’t have this one, then you are missing out on a lot. ‘Documents by Readdle’ helps you organize your files, read, listen and view all your stored data without having to deal with creepy ads. What more can you ask for!
Download from here
Okay folks, these are few of the apps that can help you master your workday, apps that can make the world a better place, the ones that make the iPhone feel a whole lot more useful!
Well, that’s it for now, but we’ll be back with more. And, if you have some iPhone utility Apps in mind you want us to talk about, let us know in the comments below.
