7 Apps Every Student Should Have On Their Phones

If you have a smartphone, ever had a smartphone, or know anyone having one, then you’re eligible to read this, but hey, I’m 90% sure you’re even reading this article from a smartphone.

We all know how much the use of smartphones has exploded in the last decade. In the 21^st century it is already an unnegotiable essential, but more important than having it is what we have in it. A wise man once said: “You are the apps you use” (just kidding). Today I’m going to be showing you my personal top 7 app picks for students like you.

(PS: I’m a little bit biased towards android users. Sorry iPhone lovers)

1. WhatsApp

Well, quite obvious you might say. 5 years ago, WhatsApp was a new beautiful messaging app that everybody loves, but today, surviving in school without being an active WhatsApp user is like walking in a big market without your VR glasses like in the movie Valerian (spoiler alert!). Crucial information like lecture schedules, change of lecture schedules, assignments, assignment solutions (if you know what I mean), tests, exams, etc. all these are passed across via various WhatsApp groups. If you use WhatsApp, then congratulations, but if you don’t, well, you can come back to 2017 now.

2. Google Keep

Keep! My favourite. If you don’t know what Google keep is, then let me introduce you: Google keep is a very functional notes app where you can store ideas, quick notes, sketches, photos, or anything you need to put down fast, and the best part of it is that it all syncs with your Google drive, all in one place (if you don’t know what Google drive also is, well, Google it).

3. Alarm

Ding! Now before you super early birds that don’t use alarms come and eat me up, let me say my own: I am not a morning person. I have never been a morning person. A lecturer saying the words “7 am” and “lecture” together is a recipe for me disliking that lecturer throughout the semester. If you are like me and you enjoy working all through the night and waking up by 11 am, and you also never want to miss a test or an exam, then the alarm app should be on your home screen.

4. Camscanner

If there isn’t a smile on your face right now, then you are not a big Camscanner fan. I’m a pretty technology-first individual so I really don’t understand why we still get lecture notes and materials in hard copy instead of a PDF or PowerPoint document. I think it’s fairly ludicrous paying to get copies of a material when I can make snappy scans of each page with my phone in minutes and spend the money getting myself a glass of apple juice. Thank you so much Camscanner for helping me save since when we met. Open the PlayStore and you two can be friends too.

5. PDF reader

This is pretty much a no-brainer. For lecturers that have moved on to the present age and give out to students readable materials in PDF formats. I will just stop right here because I assume you know what I am saying and you have one sort of PDF reader on your phone already, and if not, please before you jump to number 6, just go the store and get yourself a PDF reader. See you soon.

6. Office documents editors

Welcome back. This one is sort of a 3 in 1 package. By that, I mean apps that can create, edit, and read Word, Spreadsheet, and Slide presentation documents. I was really surprised when I sent a girl I worked with an excel document and she said she could not open it. What?! And you call yourself an undergraduate without being able to use Excel or PowerPoint documents on the go. Popular ones are the WPS office, MS word, excel, and PowerPoint individual apps. Helps you get work done on the go.

7. UpNepa

If you had a strange face on after reading this app title, then you definitely haven’t used the UpNepa app, and I sincerely feel bad about that. Very briefly let me explain what this app can do for you: Right now I’m beside a beautiful pool writing this article while sipping my favourite apple juice far away from home, and I got a notification 6 minutes ago that power has been restored at home. I also get the same kind of notification whenever there is a power disruption. No more days of those incessantly annoying “Is there light at home” calls (if you know what I mean).

Hope you learned something or at least had a wonderful time reading this article. Always be productive, and remember to have fun while doing it.

You think you can do a better pick? Lets hear what apps make your day as a student.

• Saviour Okusenogu( Software Developer & Student at the Federal University of Technology, Akure)