Social Apps to Better Our World
If you haven’t yet embraced smartphones and the fuel that powers them – apps, it’s never been cheaper to obtain a high-quality mobile device that can supercharge your daily routine while also making the world a better place. Addiction is a major downside of adopting the mobile lifestyle but in these cases, it’s totally worth it.
Apps CAN change the world
We now know for certain that technology is a powerful tool, which has the full potential of transforming our societies for the better. Smartphone prices keep falling, commoditsing the lifeline devices even in the farthest corners of the world, on developing continents like Africa and Southeast Asia. Apps are one way to enable this change and give millions of people access to previously inaccessible and unaffordable resources, including mobile health providers, online education, support, and financial resources through charities and other non-profit organisations.
Social cause apps
Apps like SpotFund, One Today, CharityBox, Givelify and ShareTheMeal allow users to donate small amounts to trending causes, projects and events anywhere in the world. Feedie turns your passion for food into donations for LunchBox, a non-profit organization that provides meals to school children in South Africa.
Apps for wellness
Beyond social entrepreneurships and the apps to go with these ventures, the wellness category of apps continues to grow in contenders and usage, improving our world one user at a time. Stressed out? Meditation and self-suggestion apps aplenty to the rescue! They can help you relax, sleep better, overcome chronic stress, get motivated to work out or lose weight, or improve your overall self-esteem. Complementary to those, apps like the GoodGuide app instantly reveal which products are safe, healthy, green or socially responsible.
Apps for fitness
Not a fan of fitness trackers, requiring you to constantly wear yet another gadget on your body? Health apps, like one built into iOS, track your steps and physical activity with the help of your smartphone’s GPS, accelerometer, cell towers, wifi and barometer, to accurately display your metrics and progress over time. The Apple Watch does the same without having to carry your phone on runs or other sport activities.
Taking wellness a step further, why not let your runs count towards a greater good? Charity Miles is an app that allows you to earn money and raise awareness for charities by walking, running or biking, courtesy of their corporate sponsors.
Conscientious apps
The average European household wastes 16% of purchased food annually; their American counterparts waste even more. This trend is disturbing to say the least, given that food supplies are scarce in many parts of Africa and the Middle East. Bulgarian startup CogZum’s iOS app aims to reduce household food waste by closely tracking and comparing your grocery list, the contents of your fridge, their expiration dates and how much produce you end up throwing away.
Make your own app
Inspired by all the apps that aim to improve people’s lives in both the developing and developed worlds? Why not develop your own? The only thing you need is an idea or a vision for solving a societal challenge that can be helped through technology.
Building a web-based mobile app isn’t difficult for those with some programming skills, yet for the more complex, native apps for iOS and Android, development is best left to the pros – like the guys at PegusApps who aren’t just passionate about coding but also about the issues of today: sustainability, personal freedom, social entrepreneurship, and bettering our world through technology.
Copywriter: Ina Danova
