The Best Mobile Apps of 2012

With the ever-rising popularity of smartphones, apps have become an integral part of the way that many of us handle our day-to-day tasks. We at Enventys Partners have polled some heavy app users to compile a list of the most popular, most useful, and most fun apps from 2012.

At Enventys Partners, we keep up with the latest technology to provide you and your app with the best mobile marketing solutions. If you need help developing or marketing your app so that you can make the best-of list in 2013, feel free to contact us.

Productivity

• Bump –  While created to share photos and contact information between two phones, Bump’s update has allowed iPhone users to batch share photos to their computer simply by visiting bump’s website, loading the app, and bumping the spacebar with the phone. Great for anyone who needs to move a large amount of photos to their computer without plugging in and syncing.
• Slice – Automatically scans your GMail inbox for shipping notifications, compiles them from multiple merchants, and sends you push notifications when they are shipped, when they are out for delivery, and when they are delivered.
• Flight track – Easily the most robust flight-tracking app on the market, this app is able to sync data across devices and pull itineraries from TripIt and your calendar. It also integrates with SeatGuru to give you the layout of the plane that you’ll be flying on. At $9.99 it’s not cheap, but a must-have for frequent travellers.
• Waze – The most popular social driving app, Waze crowdsources traffic speed and road hazard data from its large user base. The app also provides turn-by-turn navigation and has a nice gamification feature that lets drivers earn points and rewards by using the app. All told, it’s a great free turn-by-turn navigation app with several added bonuses.
• Evernote – Although not technically a 2012 app, their recent update and the release of their moleskine notebook make Evernote worth mentioning. We use Evernote for meeting notes, bills receipts, learning resources, and keeping track of anything. It integrates with a large number of third party services (like IFTTT) to make its uses almost infinite, and has plugins for every OS and every browser. It’s a great way to stay organized, and also works as a good GTD platform.
• Snap guide  – Crowdsourced how-to’s. There are hundreds of guides covering cooking, crafts, drinks, and some outdoor living guides.
• Wunderlist – After upgrading to version 2 and announcing the death of Wunderkit, Wunderlist has continued to provide a great free cross-platform task management and list making app which includes cloud sync. Lists are shareable among coworkers, roommates, or families so that to-do lists, chore lists, and grocery lists are always up-to-date and in sync. The native Reminders app on iOS is strong as well, but Wunderlist works anywhere for free.

Social Media

• Tweetbot – a strong contender to unseat the native Twitter app for usability and display. Provides easier access to multiple accounts and lists with minimal clutter, although it comes with a $2.99 price tag.
• Facebook Pages Manager – A must-have for any social media professional or community manager, the Pages manager app allows users to monitor engagement through push notifications and allows posting to the pages on-the-go. Also displays insights for the pages (which the regular Facebook app does not) and allows admin management.

Fun

• Full Color ® Solitaire – Trending to be one of the most popular games of 2013, this app unveils a completely reinvented deck of cards. Free to try and easy to upgrade through in-app purchases. Highly recommended as a good way to pass the time. [Disclosure – Full Color ® Solitaire is a client of Enventys Partners]
• Yahoo sportacular  – A great app for keeping up with sports news, stats, standings, etc. While there are many apps on the market for sports news, this is our favorite.
• PicFrame: Helps you combine multiple photos into awesome looking frames and share them with your friends through social networks. Features 67 fully adjustable frames and many other customizable options.

What are your favorite apps from 2012? Let us know in the comments, we’re always eager to try new ones!