Apps. We all use them, lots of them. In 2019 alone, there were 204 billion apps downloaded (You can click here to see where I got that stat). Take a second to think about that. 204 Billion. That’s a lot of downloads. The fact of the matter is that we all exist in and around the apps that we use. But how do we know what apps to use? There are quite literally millions of apps out there, and many of them duplicate the same functionality, so how do you know which one is the one for you? For me, I go through one of three different methods in picking my apps.
1) Research the hell out of it – Usually, if I’m going to have to pay for the app upfront or the service it provides comes with some monthly fee, I will make damned sure that it’s an app I’m going to use. The kind of research that I do is reading the reviews that you can find on the internet. There are a few different digital magazines that I look at to see if they have any thoughts on an app that I’m looking into. The other thing that I like to do is look up “how-to” style videos on u-tube and see if how the experts are using the programs. It’s usually pretty easy to see if what I’m thinking about is what that program can do. If I were to buy a program, without researching, that is, it’s entirely possible that it wouldn’t work the way that I wanted to. This means that I would be wasting my money, which is not what I like to do. To be clear, I don’t do this level of research for EVERY program. It’s usually just for the kinds of programs that I use to make my life more efficient. I wouldn’t do this for games that you can download for free.
2) Ask friends and family – I do a lot of recommending of apps and programs, but every once and a while, even I get stumped for what program I should be using. I recently went through this. I was not sure what program I should use as my accounting software. I was talking with my family, and my mom made the recommendation to use Quicken. It was a program that she had used for a while, and it was a great decision to go with (WARNING LEGAL DISCLAIMER; I’m not affiliated with Quicken, and so I don’t get any monetary gain for promoting them) Quicken. If you are looking for a program to use, your friends or family will be a great resource to use. Everyone uses apps, so there is bound to be someone who uses the same app you’re looking at. Alternatively, you could always rely on (ahem) your favourite tech blog.
3) Throw a dart and see what happens – Yeah, I know, straight downloading apps and figuring it out from there isn’t the best solution. That being said, for some apps, there is only so much research that you can do before you download them and start playing around with how they function. This is not to say that you can’t research it once you have downloaded the app in question. I have used multiple apps where I got stuck on a problem, and I’ve been able to find a YouTube video with someone explaining how it is that I fix the issue. When I’m “throwing darts” or picking a program to use at random, I search the app store, and I usually can find something that I’m looking for.
Yes, I use a lot of apps. Frankly, as someone who lives the buck of his life digitally, I rely on the apps that I use to allow me to do my work. More and more people rely on apps to make sure that they keep in communication with loved ones, work, and manage their lives. Therefore, it should not be in anyways surprising that these programs are as popular as they are. From social media and MyFitnessPal to speedometer apps and apps that help you keep your cooking recipes, these helpful programs that have come to augment and improve our lives are here to stay.
What Apps do you like using?
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