This past October, the site listed five must-have Android apps, from messaging and file sharing to gaming. It was a broad look at some essential apps for the regular mobile user, and while one could clearly make a far longer list, it can be nice to focus on a smaller sample size now and then. The world of apps is big and varied enough as it is!
This will be a similar post, except instead of looking at specific, existing apps, I’m going to do some projection and list some general types of apps that will be must-haves for huge portions of the population in the near future. In other words, these aren’t exact apps, but don’t be surprised if you have something like them on your phone before too much longer.
Podcasting Apps
If you’re a regular mobile phone user, you’ve likely realized that we’re in the age of podcasts. Podcasting has replaced many other forms of news and entertainment for a lot of people and is now an extraordinarily popular medium. This fall, one analysis pegged the number of podcasts at 550,000, and that number is only growing, even if it includes plenty of pods that have gradually become inactive. And one thing the number demonstrates is that there are tons of individual people – not just companies or media professionals – who have launched podcasts, or might want to. It’s for this reason that we can expect to see podcasting apps – for recording as well as listening – becoming popular. That isn’t to say there aren’t recording tools already in app stores, but don’t be surprised if in another year or two there is a particular app that gains popularity for this purpose.
Smart Hubs
Here too we have a similar situation to the podcasting app concept, in a way. That is to say there are already tons of apps that deal with smart technology in one way or another, but the expectation is that there could be a few prevailing smart “hubs” that wind up rising to the top of the heap. Basically, in a few years’ time, we’ll likely be engaging a great deal more with smart tech in our homes and everyday lives, but we’ll still need apps on our phones to help us do it. Expect three to five main smart hub apps to emerge and become favorable.
AR Games For Devices
Right now you can navigate to a specific augmented reality section in your mobile app store, and find some interesting and enjoyable experiences there. However, most if not all of them will be meant for use through your phone. In the current state of mobile AR you more or less have to use your phone as a looking device, aiming your camera wherever you’d like the AR to play out. There are however glasses that are meant to make augmented reality somewhat more flexible, and while they’re nowhere near ubiquitous just yet, they will be soon. Apple and its tech rivals are working hard (if not fast) to bring popular AR glasses to the masses, and it’s an inevitable change. Accordingly, expect to see more AR games built specifically to be used with these devices.
Casino Games
Casino games are seen by many as appealing only to certain audiences, but great strides have been made to make the more popular. On the internet, casino gaming sites have embraced good graphics, interactive gaming, and live gaming. They also entice new players with a lot of different perks: there are free spins after signup on slot games, matched deposit bonuses, etc. This doesn’t mean all of these exact perks will translate to mobile, but it does mean the change is working, and casino gaming is becoming a lot more popular. Quality and outreach are only going to increase moving forward, so it’s certainly fair to expect a few more casino games in prominent places in your app store.
Social News Apps
This is a little vague, but it’s clear that social activity and news are beginning to blend together. There’s actually an effort to stop this change and to make news its own, verified concept in apps. However, it would be foolish to think we won’t also see more apps that combine our social feeds with what we want in news. There are already some programs that have experimented with this concept, and one can argue that Twitter mastered it years ago, but this won’t stop experimentation. Social news could conceivably even become its own category featuring apps in which you can build a network and browse and share news together in groups of friends.
