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The 10 most innovative apps in the world
If you live outside of China, it's unlikely that you use — or perhaps have even heard of – WeChat. But with more than 600 million users, it's one of the largest messaging apps in the world.
One of the keys to WeChat's success is that it's actually much more than just a messaging app.
You can use WeChat to do just about anything — play games, send money to people, make video calls, hail a taxi, order food, buy movie tickets, read the news, book a doctor appointment, and more. For millions of people in China, it's the first app they open in the morning and the last one they look at before bed.
—Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) October 28, 2015
WeChat is the all-in-one app experience done right, and it "points to where Facebook and other messaging apps could head," according to Connie Chan, a partner at the prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
With more than 100 million daily active users and a primary audience of 18 to 24-year-olds, Snapchat is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon.
The app’s premise (and Snapchat is just an app — there is no web interface) is the idea of ephemeral messaging: once a message, or “snap,” is viewed, it disappears forever.
Its 25-year-old CEO Evan Spiegel has a portrait of Steve Jobs hanging in his office, and he has a grand vision for his multi-billion dollar startup. In essence, “It’s all about talking with pictures and expressing yourself in the moment."
But Snapchat is also about consuming media. The app’s Discover section features interactive content from a range of publishers, including BuzzFeed, Mashable, CNN, People, and Vice. The goal seems to be keeping Snapchat’s users in the app as long as possible — and it’s working.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
No app exemplifies the burgeoning on-demand app economy more than Uber, which made hailing a ride with a smartphone app go mainstream. Tap a button to summon a car, type in where you want to go in the app, and pay for the ride with your credit card you have stored.
If the company has its way, Uber could eventually become the way we get everything from our packages to our groceries.
The app can get you a ride in 58 countries and 300 cities worldwide, but it's also experimenting with other services in a smaller number of cities.
UberEATS, the company's meal delivery service, is already delivering lunch in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto, and the UberRUSH delivery service works in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Shyp takes the hassle out of mailing stuff, and if it has the potential to upend the entire shipping industry.
Using the mobile app, you take a picture of whatever you want to mail, and a Shyp courier comes to your door and takes it to a nearby facility where it's expertly packaged and sent on its way.
The app's most recent update lets you associate an address with a username, so people can send you things by entering only your name. There's also a built-in package tracker that works for senders and Shyp recipients.
By taking your interactions with the post office out of the equation, Shyp has proven that it delivers an experience people want. If it ever controls how items are transported (right now it relies on carriers like UPS and FedEx) and delivered (Shyp's couriers only do pickups), it could change an industry, just like Uber has done for transportation.
So far, the startup is only operational in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco, but the company told Tech Insider that it's seeing 20% growth in new customers every month.
Price: Free to download, with a flat $5 fee on all shipments plus the normal shipping rate
Available on: iOS, Android
Slack may not actually kill email, but the multi-billion dollar startup is certainly making it easier to communicate without it.
If you're unfamiliar with the app that's quickly revolutionizing how businesses operate, think of Slack like the modern equivalent of an internet chat room for teams. Log in to communicate with your colleagues in public channels or private groups, share files, and more.
The app is geared toward businesses large and small that need a way for their employees to communicate internally, and it’s hugely popular. Other apps and services can integrate directly with Slack too, which makes it kind of like a command center for getting stuff done at work.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android, web
Lark uses a mix of artificial intelligence and human experts to help people lose weight and get fitter. The app helps you track your workouts and meals, and has a texting interface to make it seem like you’re communicating one-on-one with a personal health coach.
The idea is to take the complexity out of tracking meals and exercises. Just tell Lark what you had to eat and it will give you nutrition coaching based on your goals and past eating habits.
The app also uses your smartphone and Apple Watch’s sensors to track your workouts for you.
Lark was named Forrester Research’s most innovative digital health product of the year. The app is free to use and offers enterprise pricing for coaching teams or patients and working with health care providers.
“We use artificial intelligence to clone some of the world’s best health experts," Lark founder Julia Hu told Tech Insider, referencing MBA coaches and behavior change experts from Harvard and Stanford that work at her startup. "The idea is to make those people your personal coach. We really make it personal.”
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Duolingo tries to make learning another language more of an approachable process with game-like lessons.
The app breaks down the language learning process into easily digestible exercises that are designed to motive you with points and unlockable power-ups. The service itself is completely free and doesn’t require you to drop cash as you learn.
The goal is to make you fluent in one of Duolingo's 13 supported languages, and the app will even remind you to brush up on lessons you didn’t score so well on the first time.
Last year, Duolingo launched its own certification test for schools to evaluate language proficiency. Proctors can access a phone's camera and microphone to monitor a student during the test, and the startup is offering its learning platform for entire classrooms to take advantage of.
"When you talk to people using Duolingo, they usually say 'I'm playing Duolingo,'" Duolingo creator Luis von Ahn told Business Insider last year. "If you ask people the main reason they're using Duolingo, it's not because they're learning something but because it's fun."
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Google Photos is the best app for managing and storing your photos in the cloud, period.
Its interface is super easy to understand, and it has features that your camera roll doesn't, like facial recognition and the ability to search for what's in a photo by simply describing it in a search box.
100 million people are using the app now, and for good reason: when available device storage is at an all-time low for many smartphone users, Google Photos offers cheap, flexible plans to keep your photos and videos stored on its servers.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Thanks to Airbnb, it's never been easier to find a cheap place to stay nearly anywhere in the world.
Don't believe us? Download the app and plug in where you want to go. You'll likely see all kinds of places from hosts renting out their guestrooms or entire homes. (You may even find a castle, farm, or tree house.)
The app has helpful search filters and in-app messaging for contacting hosts, and takes a lot of the stress out of finding a place to stay.
Traditional hotels are so worried by Airbnb, which is often much cheaper than a hotel room, that some are trying to make their rooms "feel more like residences rather than hotel suites."
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
Once the top app for checking into places and rating them with reviews, Foursquare almost faded into obscurity with the rise of Yelp.
But Foursquare is going through a renaissance. Since breaking its check-in-based social network out into a separate app called Swarm, the main app has become better than ever.
Not only does Foursquare have a wealth of community feedback on restaurants around the world (try searching "free WiFi" next time you're trying to find a coffee shop), but its use of push notifications to aid in the discovery of new places is unmatched.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS, Android
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