Phone Apps and Organization - Plus Retail or Other App Favorites

Parent Cafe
21

The apps I find most useful are the airline apps. Being able to check in, grab a boarding pass, etc. using my phone is a timesaver when away from my laptop/desktop. I also love the public transportation and currency exchange apps when I travel. The Tube and Bus London apps were a godsend when I was in London. I usually set up a folder with the location I’m traveling to and toss all related apps into it, including the airline(s) I’ll be using - I then move the airline(s) back into the “airlines” folder I’ve created after my trip.

Speaking of trip…TripIt (the free version, I don’t pay for apps) is handy for organizing all the little trip details in one place.

Yelp is a good app, easy to use.

My friends and I love to stargaze (and have zero idea what we’re looking at) and SkyView is very interesting, we’ve even “seen” the international space station!

My Regal (movies) app is great and of course it has my all access pass attached to it.

Lyft and Uber (I prefer Lyft) are musts especially when I’m away from home.

I love the museum apps that give me info as I stroll through exhibits (sometimes I’ll download one just to see/listen to what they’ve got going on).

Wheels for scooter rental & Biki for bike rental when I’m in Oahu.

Pacer is my go-to pedometer, which I use daily.

For fun, my go-tos are
Scrabble (I play daily with family and friends all around the world)
Yatzy (fun for times when I have a few minutes of waiting around)
WordStacks
Podcasts (I listen to several on a regular basis)
Scribd (books on “tape”)
Bitmoji (for super fun emojis that change daily, with an avatar I create of “myself”)
Facebook
and some drawing apps like PS Express and Juxtaposer

For travel (other than airlines and transport) I love
Hopper (compare flight costs)
Airbnb
VRBO
Trivago

I don’t use my phone for shopping - of course now I wonder what I’m missing!

22

As a NYC pubic transit user, I use MTA BusTime and MTA TrainTime all the time. The MTA has a consolidated app now but I’m used to the separate ones.

23

So if you use Google and their calendar when having boarding passes and you put the information in there… They will pop up with information like tracking etc automatically. Kinda scary but kinda cool.

24

Apple user.

The Wells Fargo app isnt as user friendly as the website. Ditto for one of our supermarkets (Kroger). There’s another that I prefer the website, but am forgetting what it is at the moment.

25

Ah-- silly me… its CC!!! I have the app, but its not terribly user friendly. The website is easier (relatively speaking) to navigate, and doesn’t jump around all over the place when you try to type.

26

I agree that the Kroger app is not worthwhile for me.

27

I have a minimal number of apps on my phone (not counting the pre-installed ones). Of the apps I’ve installed, I find airline and public transportation apps the most useful. For shopping, I usually prefer websites to apps.

28

@jym626. That is so funny. Of all the apps I put down I forgot about CC ?. That is what I mainly use. Rarely do I use the website… Lol…

For those using bus apps, train or planes just use Google maps. Even for our mass transit in Chicago either the “El” train locally or Metra to the suburbs or Amtrack to local busses and combinations there of
Google maps works great

29

The local bus & metro/subway apps can often give estimated wait times. Plane apps allow you to check into your flight & download your boarding pass.

30

Can’t get a boarding pass on Google maps but I can get the estimated wait times for buses and trains./subway. At least in Chicago I can.

31

Here in Seattle I just google the bus route and can instantly see the next departure times from my stop. No apps needed. :slight_smile:

I can get by with just one screenful of apps. The only outside app I have on my phone is Google Maps.

32

Android. I use several but uninstall them if not using regularly then add them back as needed, for example travel booking apps like hotels.com, booking.com, airline apps, skyscanner, public transit/parking or toll calculators while traveling. I put them into a folder (“travel” or whatever) when using them to save screen space.

Lastpass I can’t live without - it remembers all my passwords for web sites AND apps, so when I reinstall an app, there is the login info, ready to go.

Google maps for walking and driving nav (I download areas to the phone before traveling in case I don’t have data service), public transit routing, restaurant and attraction reviews.

I prefer to use Facebook in my browser where I can control ads/tracking and deny location service, so I never install that app.

I pay for just a few. Dark Sky is the only weather app that I’ve found that doesn’t sell location info to data brokers. Well worth a couple of $ a year.

See https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html - many apps track you and sell the data. Weather/news apps, but also coupon clipping apps, drugstore apps, and many more.

Google has my location (and lots more) data because I just can’t live without the service provided there (including android itself). They target ads to me with that, but they don’t sell it. I block their trackers (and all trackers) with various extensions to my mobile browser (Firefox).