17 Apps That Keep Us Addicted to Our Smartphones

SaleCycle’s marketing team reveal the first and last apps they go to every day… 

LifeCake

“This isn’t an app I check first and last thing, but an app I really love to have on my phone is LifeCake. It’s a photo storage app produced by Canon for new parents, where they can quickly and easily create photo journals of their new bundles of joy.
The UI is simple and very easy to use. It uses the metadata stored in the tags within your photos to order them by date so you have a chronological stream with all your favourite memories. The app makes it really easy to share photos with friends and family, and allows me to share certain images with lots of people at once.

They can then order physical prints of the photos directly from within the app, putting an end to those painful trips to the photo print machine in Asda.”
Chris Gascoigne, Video Marketing Manager

I Love Hue / Memrise

“As I’m not an early bird at all, the first app I use in the morning is a text-less, colour-based game. ‘I Love Hue’ is the perfect commute companion: arrange mosaics of coloured tiles to create perfect spectrums. No shiny objects, no effects, no bonuses. Just tiles of colours an the opportunity to start your day by bringing order to chaos.

The last app I use (aside from the alarm clock and weather forecast apps!) is Memrise. A language learning app using a variety of media (words, sound, video, chatbots) and based on a strong community of native speakers.
Memrise isn’t just any language app: back in 2016, they embarked on a kickstarter-backed bus trip across Europe to film 20,000 micro-videos of locals speaking various European language from Finnish to Greek, French and Italian.”
Caroline Drain, Marketing Manager South EMEA

TED / Slack

“While not strictly the first app I open in the morning, one that I always seek out on my morning commute is TED. Under the ‘Surprise Me’ option, it gives you a choice of what type of videos you’d like to watch (‘inspiring’ is my usual choice), asks how long you have, then creates a playlist. It’s a great way to learn about new ideas, opinions, and perspectives before I get into my day.

Usually the last app I look at is Slack. As a marketing team we use this as our primary communication tool. A quick check before bed is an easy way for me to keep up with the team who are located in other areas of the world, and helps to prepare me for the next day.”
Katie Ash, Product Marketing Manager.

BBC News / Houzz

“Not very original but my first app of the day is BBC news. Don’t tell anyone but I don’t read a paper or watch the news on TV, so I keep up to speed with the Beeb’s daily morning roundup, before quickly skipping to the latest football rumours.

The last app of my day at the moment is Houzz. We’re doing some renovation work to our house so finding the “perfect” flooring/paint/kitchen units is pretty all-consuming at the moment.”
Jack Ford, Head of Marketing.

Strava

“As a keen runner and general fitness fanatic, Strava is the app I use to track and present my latest outing. It is effectively the social media of exercise with the 3 main sports being running, cycling and swimming. The main draw for me is the ‘segments’ feature, which allows you to name particular sections of pavements, loops, bits of alleyways and track your performance and compare it with others within these segments.

Knowing where the segments are on my planned route sure does speed my runs up and brings out my competitive side on what otherwise would be a casual run.
Whether you’re a beginner or a fitness enthusiast this app surely has a place on your phone.”
Nic Weschenfelder, Marketing Executive.

Europe 1 / Formula 1 App

“As everyone, I have some habits in the morning. Right after I get up, I put my radio app on to listen to the news while I drink a glass of lemon juice (#healthy). I get dressed listening to the news, to French humorists and press reviews. The only negatives are the numerous commercials broadcasts.

One of the apps I really like to open is the Formula 1 app. It provides a lot of information regarding car racing history, fun facts and biography of pilots. I’m looking forward to watch the results of the French GP which will be back in our country on June 24! Fingers crossed for Lewis Hamilton, of course :)”
Amélie Combe, Content Marketing Executive

Twitter / MindMeister

“Not going to lie, nine times out of ten I sleep through my alarm on a morning, meaning that my morning routine is pretty rushed, so I don’t have time to be on my phone. However, I do always have a quick check on Twitter, as this allows me to see news updates and trending topics. Although not the most original app, it’s a good way to get a quick update of the world!

At the minute, the last app that I use on a day has to be MindMeister, an app that allows you to create mind maps. It allows me to brainstorm, track and create  goals for the next day. To be honest I mainly like this app because it allows me to be organised at the same time as creating something nice to look at (it’s all about the aesthetics).”
Holly Dawson, Content Marketing Apprentice 

Pinterest

“I’ve got to say I don’t have a lot of time in the morning, I like a good lie-in. But one app I do love on a night time is Pinterest, a 5 minute look will turn into a 3 hour spree with the intention of making a thousand things.

I have gotten some great recipes from it (Mary Berry eat your heart out) right up to some great household tricks. (Sad right?).”
Lauren Stirling, Marketing Assistant

Podcasts / Snake

“The first app I use in the morning is Podcasts, which I’ve started listening to instead of the radio as I go about my routine and commute into work. Whether it’s movie podcasts like Skip to the End or Kermode & Mayo’s Film review, The West Wing Weekly which is an episode by episode recap of my favourite TV show, or cricketing podcasts like Tailenders, there’s always something entertaining to listen to.

At the moment, the last app of the day I use is Snake. And yes, I do mean the incredibly addictive/ more frustrating than a game of golf Nokia game, which I suppose could now be classed as ‘retro’. I have an iPhone 8, but you can still download an app which makes the screen of your phone look like your favorite Nokia edition (3210, 3310 etc). By playing it just before I go to sleep it does mean I have more serpent related dreams than the average person, but on the plus side it helps you to avoid walking into walls.”
Hazel Burton, Acquisition Marketing Manager.

Instagram

“I use it more than Facebook & Twitter and it’s definitely my favorite way to keep up to date with the world! I’m actually a bit worried about the upcoming update which tells you how long you spend on the app.

The places search let’s me check out places I’m eating out at or visiting without having to trawl through TripAdvisor for hours on end. Plus, the 1,000,000’s of photos of food – definitely the photos of food….”
Bethany McDermott, Customer Marketing Manager.

Reddit

“The front page of the internet! In helpful, handheld app format. News from every corner of the world, community interaction and makeshift forum, all in one nice package. All customisable (don’t like politics but love Origami? Just subscribe to the Origami subreddit and unsubscribe from politics) so I get the latest and greatest from all the things I care about.

Not only that, but due to the content being posted by real people, a lot of breaking news reaches Reddit’s front page before any other news vendor. All of these lead to possibly one of the most addictive sources of entertainment and information on the web, and definitely the app I open first thing and last thing each day.”
Scott Hewitson, Web Marketing Manager