The Not-So-Mainstream App & Extensions List

Discover unknown apps that can take you out of your comfort zone in exchange for adding value to your daily life

Obviously, the applications you as a user choose to download and actively incorporate into your life varies from day-to-day and situation-to-situation. To fully encompass the “application” nature of answering this question, I will include my preferential apps for mobile, and desktop. Daily, I use a mixture of my Nexus 6P, iPhone 5, and Chrome internet browser (consisting of mobile/desktop/laptop). Each platform serves a different purpose of adding what I feel to be an essential value to my life.

For myself, I rely on both of my smartphones for basic communication, social media, note keeping, work, scheduling, education, and alternative methods of entertainment (ie: I don’t play games on either of my phones, but I might browse the web), whereas my computer and laptop are more geared towards the heavy and more labour intensive portions of my life. This includes school papers, organization, social media, work, storage, editing, and so forth. I will categorize my response accordingly.

(Keep in mind, I am a 4th year marketing student, at 20 years old. So through this, my tastes may be different. I am very passionate about technology, connectivity, and social media.)

Anyways, the following list consists of apps that I find useful and valuable to my personal needs. As a heads-up, I will be linking to the app version that I have. This may be confusing to differentiate between the proper version for your device. The app store and google play store, aka the Android vs iPhone struggle, never ends. If the link doesn’t work for you, a quick google search, or app/play store search should hold the same results (but with more effort to find them).

(Apps / Browser Extensions):

Fire List: These add insane value to my daily life.

• PushBullet — Your devices working better together: If you do not already have this, please, please, please, go download it now. It is without a doubt the most useful app I have for translating content between my laptop, iPhone, android, and computer. This app doubles in value as it is a mobile application, and a chrome extension.
• Grammarly | Instant Grammar Check — Plagiarism Checker — Online Proofreader: Get this extension, now. It allows you a platform to review all of your written work and ensure it is grammatically and structurally correct. Never make a blunder again (ironically I’m sure I will have a few in this post).

The not-so-mainstream must have applications / extensions.

• Slack — Be less busy: This app is truly amazing. Quite simply it is a messaging app for teams of all natures. It offers the best approach for me to stay relevant and up-to-date with my coworkers. It is great at providing an online platform for communicating in a group, or individually among coworkers. Again, Slack doubles as an app and extension, but will not be relevant for all users.
• Reddit is Fun: Seriously, I use this app every day. Reddit is addicting, and a very awesome source for news, relevant content, community discussion, sharing, and all things media. Be forewarned, this app will consumer your life — once you get over the interestingly non-user friendly layout and algorithmic systems. Also, there are a number of alternative apps, and even an official app that was released recently. Toy around and find your favourite of the grouping, this was mine.
• TicTalking — Connecting Interesting People Everywhere: You’re telling me I can connect with like-minded individuals from all over the globe without having to worry about language barriers? Sign me up. The app is great at providing an interactive view of the world, being able to communicate, connect, share, and learn from places all over. Not to mention the seamless in-app translation feature is pretty cool.
• SleepyTime: Bedtime Calculator: Sleep is a critical component of all our lives, whether you get a lot or none. SleepyTime allows you three paths, “When should I wake up”, “When should I sleep”, or “Sleep now”. Each of these options will give you the ideal situation and time to go to bed, according to scientific sleep data, in order to wake up feeling like a normal happy human.
• MyFitnessPal — Free Calorie Counter, Diet & Exercise Journal: Because if I log my daily diet I realize I don’t eat nearly enough, don’t drink nearly enough (water), and it helps me steer away from unhealthy consumption habits. Truly a great app for trying to build a healthier you. The link steers you to their website, the apps can be downloaded, however.
• Shazam: I seriously love music. So if you are as passionate as I am, this is a great tool to keep up-to-date on discovery, and also doubles as a list of future downloads. If I overhear a song that I love, tap that Shazam icon, and boom, stored for later.
• Yik Yak — Find Your Herd: Only because I live near a booming university with an active residency, and its a great way to get a quick laugh, answer, or see what is going on around me. The app doesn’t really hold much value to the majority of consumers, and to be honest, is catered to students. Lots of fun if used in the right location, however.
• Work Log: Because I’m not cool enough to be on salary or in a contract, so, I log my hours to ensure that the system isn’t out to get me. This is a good way of ensuring you are being paid properly, keeping track of work periods, and all that other fun stuff.
• uBlock Origin: Goodbye annoying advertisements. This is probably the best alternative for removing unwanted spam, clutter, and promotions. I mainly use it as an extension on Chrome. Ensure that you are downloading the origin version.
• Imagus: Simply hover over an image and it will enlarge it for you, without having to redirect your browser. Great / annoying extension depending on how you utilize it.
• Honey: Automatically find and apply coupons when you are checking out of an online store. Hey, it saved me $10 on a textbook, I’ll endorse it. A great extension to have in the background, especially if you do a lot of online shopping. Don’t panic, it will literally do all the work for you.
• Momentum: This beautifully integrated Chrome extension adds a personalized dashboard that is designed to eliminate distraction, while promoting inspiration, creativity, focus, and productivity. It provides stunning background visuals, inspiration quotes, task management capabilities, and a number of other useful but often overlooked tools.
• Tinder: Just kidding. Kind of.

All of these apps are pretty incredible in their own unique way. They add value to my life across a number of different platforms. I am always connected and have a good amount of experience inside each of these apps. I hope that this list will provide some insight or inspiration for increasing the efficiency of your daily life. I may have left a few that you find valuable out of this list, so feel free to comment and send your suggestions in my direction. I am always looking to expand what value I get in return for my time on my mobile and desktop platforms.

I try my hardest to not waste time on apps that I don’t find necessary, or that add no value to my daily activity. I decided to remove all the mainstream apps that I use such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, as those are contradictory to the title, and obvious value-added choices.

Thanks for reading!