Tag: apps

Some Helpful Apps to use during Quarantine

As a result of the outbreak of the Covid-19, students are required to take online schooling at least until April 10th. In addition, we are currently in a lock down in which we can’t leave our house unless really needed to, such as grocery shopping. As a result, I have been spending over a week at just my house without leaving even once. The only time I got a breath of fresh air was for 30 minutes in front of my garage. This makes it incredibly easy for us to constantly want to go outside and socialize with people. In order to relieve some desire to go outside, I have some apps that I want to recommend.

1. Houseparty

This is a very famous app already, but it seems to be necessary in a time like this. Houseparty is a very fun videocalling app. Although many people use FaceTime, FaceTime is limited to only Apple users. Houseparty, on the other hand, is available for all mobile devices. This app notifies you when someone that you added is “in the House” so that if you know that someone is active and you want to talk to them, you can join their conversation, similarly to when you talk to people in real life. If you want your conversation to be private, however, you can lock the room so that people can’t randomly join. There are fun additions to the app, such as games, which is fun for friends to use. Some negatives is that the quality of the camera is often bad (there are lots of visible pixels) and that the device’s battery runs out quickly when Houseparty is being used.

2. Google News

I have never read or kept up with news as much as I have been this past week. Since I know that we are not just having a break, I want to make sure I know what is happening in the world in terms of the progress of the Covid-19. In addition, since many things are happening at once in the US, it is good to be more knowledgeable. Not only that, but many people are bored at home without any more things to watch or Instagram posts to look at. This is a good reason why people should try keeping up with the virus so that we can prepare for what ends up happening.

3. Pinterest

I’m sure everyone’s heard of this app at least once in their lives. However, this app comes in very handy while quarantined because it is very easy to lose motivation when home alone. As a result, it is much easier to be more productive at home while seeing the posts that are interesting. Not only this, but if you are willing to do something productive but cannot think of any ideas, Pinterest is a great start. Starting off with the ideas that are presented in Pinterest, a person can expand on them and create what is unique. “Create” does not particularly refer to just artworks – it refers to anything a person is passionate about that they want to improve on.

Apps I recommend

Although I changed my phone multiple times, I’ve owned a smartphone since 8th grade (so for around 3-4 years). Honestly, smartphones are mostly used as time killers, but there were a few apps that I used that I truly enjoyed using. They are not very relevant to education and being productive, but these apps are ones I really wanted to recommend to others.

1. Questions Diary

The reason I placed this app first is because it is definitely not very widely-known. I just recently discovered this app and I fell in love. What this app is that it asks you a question daily for 365 days. You type your answer to each respective question down every day. Then, a year later, it will ask you the same question again and you’ll be able to see how much you’ve changed over the year (for the better or for worse). The questions are based on your views and thoughts on certain scenarios. I think this is a great app to express your true feelings – ones that are hidden from other people – because letting it all out actually helps with relieving stress and sadness.

2. Google Opinion Rewards

This app isn’t related to psychology, but it’s related to money. Majority of the apps in the play store and the app store is free. However, the better-quality, more “pro”-like apps are not free and require money to be downloaded. However, I personally don’t have a card to input into my phone so I am unable to purchase anything that requires money (including movies, songs, and apps that cost money). As for this app, answering some questions in surveys that Google provides gives you money that is added to your Google Play account. So far, I was able to earn up to around $1 which opens up to a lot of apps that I could purchase now. Since the surveys are quick and easy, I think this is a great app to have.

3. VSCO

This is a very popular photo editing app that many, many people use. The reason I’m recommending this is because it is capable of changing the photos to match any mood and theme. For example, if you want your photo to be more calm and moody (?), then you can use the editing tools to adjust the brightness and contrast, etc., to make your photo that way. This is the only photo editing app that I use since it fits so perfectly with what I desire in a editing app. I know this app is popular, but if you love editing photos and don’t have this app, it’s a must-get.

4. Google Photos

This is another super popular app that a lot of people use as their photo backup. The reason why I use this, however, is different from many other’s usage of this app. If you own all apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, AirPods, etc., there is airdrop which is extremely convenient when sharing documents between each device. However, if you’re like me and you own an iPad (Apple device) and a Note 9 (Samsung device), it is extremely difficult to share files such as photos and videos. I found that Google Photos is the most convenient to use since you can back up all of the photos and videos to your account and then download those into your other device. For example, if I took photos on my phone and I want them on my iPad, I back up all of my photos from my phone into my Google account using Google photos. Then, I go on my iPad and download those backed-up photos from the app to my Gallery. This is still a very gruesome process, but this is the most convenient way I know. If you by any chance know a more effective way, please teach me!