The year 2020 saw most of us spending more time at home than ever before. Fortunately, there were many new apps to help you spend your days crammed in. From exciting new tools for creatives to VR exercises and surreal AR fun that hit the target during global blockades, the past 12 months have left us some fantastic gems on our devices. But which apps impressed us the most?
We selected eight apps that made a memorable impression last year, whether for mobile, desktop, tablet or VR headsets. There are apps that helped us to work, apps that helped us play and others that were just well made and impressive to see.
For more of our favorite app choices, check out our top drawing apps, the best iPad apps for designers, as well as our favorite iOS app icons.
01. Artleap
- Price: Free. Starting at $ 5.99 per month / $ 59.99 on a one-time purchase
- Platform: Iphone
Just when it looked like there couldn’t be room for yet another photo editing app, Artleap, from Lightricks, the developer behind Facetune, came. Initially called Quickart when it launched in July, this impressive app managed to stand out in a crowded market, offering something more than the usual image touch-ups.
The adventurous filter options include some with impressive 3D effects. What really touched us was the dispersion filter, which allows for the creation of powerful creative effects without any editing knowledge.
A free mobile app won’t offer the versatility or subtleties of a program like Photoshop, but Artleap really was a leap forward to what can be achieved with a mere touch on the iPhone’s screen, ensuring both newbies and media users new possibilities for artistic expression.
02. Illustrator on iPad
- Price: Starting at £ 19.99 per month
- Platform: iPad
Another app that made us say wow is the one that kept us waiting. The designers’ favorite vector tool finally arrived for the iPad in October 2020 and it didn’t disappoint. Illustrator for iPad reinvents the design features of the original software for the iPad and Apple Pencil. Although there are some omissions in the range of tools available at the moment, the application is clean, powerful and intuitive.
The app can sync with the main Illustrator software, so sending files between Illustrator on the iPad and your desktop is easy. Best of all, the Apple Pencil integration works wonderfully and the app offers perhaps the best granular typography control for working on the go. There’s more to come with more brushes and effects, and Sensei features on the way.
03. Universe in a nutshell
- Price: £ 2.99
- Platform: Android / iPhone
Inspired by the book of the same name by Stephen Hawking, Universe in a Nutshell is a beautifully executed educational game that offers a fascinating view of the scale and sophistication of the universe, comparing the sizes of different natural and man-made objects.
Opening the app, you find an animated cartoon giraffe, an elephant, a human and other animals. The app lists their size and you can tap on them to see a number of interesting facts. But pinch the screen to zoom in or out and it will be truly epic as you discover layers of larger or smaller objects, from microscopic particles to machines, countries, planets, stars and more. Zoom out and you reach the entire known universe on your smartphone screen. The colorful cartoon style makes it look like an app for kids, but with the level of detail, adults can also get lost for hours in the app.
04. Super you
- Price: Free
- Platform: Iphone
Virtual reality and applications based on augmented reality multiplied in 2020. Many intend to go further with an increasingly convincing realism, but it was refreshing to find a proposal that aims at the surreal. Super You, described by its developer Universal Everything as a “costume arts experiment”, employs Apple ARKit 3 body tracking technology to allow you to film your friends in a variety of bizarre costumes.
Open the app, point your phone’s camera at a friend, slide to choose a fantasy of abstract shapes (bubbles, thorns, flowers, leaves, etc.) and film your target’s movement as it is transformed into a fantasy creature . The result is a new and slightly crazy app that made socializing at a distance a little more fun. Who knows? Perhaps some of the costumes will influence fashion trends in 2021.
05. Adobe Fresco for iPhone
- Price: Free. $ 9.99 premium per month
- Platform: Iphone
Less than a year after being released for the iPad, the popular Adobe Fresco painting and drawing app arrived on the iPhone, making it even more portable. The artists were delighted to discover that the app had not been watered down for the smaller device. Instead, we got the same engine, cloud libraries, UI and brush set from the iPad version reconfigured for the smaller screen.
In addition, Fresco introduced new features, such as Smudge brushes, which can be used to smooth out strokes, blend edges and blur lines, and Ribbon brushes, which allow the user to paint with textures and materials by turning photos into organic brushes. It is also possible to change the way the pen responds under different degrees of pressure, making it look even more like a real drawing.
Having such a powerful app on a device, we rarely have the potential to transform the creative process. Instead of drawing in a notebook when inspiration strikes and then copying the idea to a digital format, ideas can now be started directly in the iPhone app and then filled out on the iPad. This makes the workflow much faster and easier.
06. Google Look to Speak
- Price: Free
- Platform: Android
Look to Speak is an application that shows how technological advances can change the lives of people with disabilities. For people with motor and speech disabilities, the ability to communicate is severely limited without special hardware or software, but the experimental Google app launched in December allows communication using only an Android smartphone and a phone or arm support to keep it it in place.
Using the phone’s front camera to track eye movements, the app allows the user to communicate by selecting predefined words and phrases from two lists looking at them. The number of words and phrases is reduced after each selection and the final word is read aloud. It seems like a long and laborious process, but it is surprising how quickly the desired phrase can be achieved. Similar technology already existed in specialized devices, but Look to Speak is an advance in terms of cost and practicality, allowing communication in situations where heavier devices would be difficult to use.
07. Supernatural
- Price: $ 19 per month
- Platform: Oculus Quest, with complementary apps for Android and iPhone
Home exercise regimes were important during global blockades, and Apple recognized this when choosing Wakeout as its iPhone app of the year. However, Supernatural from Within solved not one, but two consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic: increased physical inactivity due to working at home and closing gyms and destroying travel plans.
While exercising in the same room every day following Instagram tutorials can soon get tedious, Supernatural uses virtual reality to turn home exercises into adventures by visiting some of the most impressive isolated places in the world. You put on your headset, choose from a variety of locations, like the Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu or Ethiopia’s Erta Ale volcano, and then attack objects that are attacking and evading others as the tempo of the music increases. Launched in April, Supernatural appeared to be an app designed specifically for 2020. Just make sure you are not too close to any mobile.
08. Loóna
- Price: Free subscription $ 39.99 per year
- Platform: Android and iPhone
Another app that hit the climate of 2020, Loóna aimed to take care of our mental well-being. It was initially advertised as a sleeping pill, of which there are many out there, but Loóna does things a little differently. Instead of offering guided meditation to listen, eyes closed, while trying to sleep, it provides nighttime “sleep landscapes” that are designed to be observed and interacted to help us relax.
Loóna says her coloring stories and activities offer a mood-changing experience that promotes relaxation and allows us to ward off negative emotions. Some questioned the price and the content is still in development, but the app’s function design is undeniably beautiful.
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