All You Need To Know about Apple and Google’s Best Apps Of 2019

2019’s Best Apps and Games from Apple

2019 has been an interesting year for Apple as it took big strides into TV services and subscription gaming this year. Needless to say, some of Apple’s best apps in 2019 were built around bringing these new services for the company’s huge consumer base.

Other major winners from Apple include some apps that received a whole new edge through updates and some that finally took off in a big way after hanging around in the shadows for a while. All in all, the list is amazing, let’s go through it:

1. Spectre Camera

The iPhone App of the Year winner is a camera app that uses Artificial Intelligence to capture long exposure images that can rival a DSLR. Mind you, neither winning the title nor matching a DSLR’s quality is a mean feat! The AI photography app allows users to capture simulated long exposure photographs that previously required mirrorless cameras or DSLRs.

Have a look at how it transforms photography:

Spectre captures hundreds of photographs during the short span of 3 to 9 seconds; creating effects like making flowing water appear smooth like in painting and removing a crowd from a particular spot. It also includes ultrawide camera support for Apple’s newest phones iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

Spectre effortlessly succeeds at something that no camera app before has managed with this level of efficiency – bringing professional cameramen’s tech into the hands of casual photographers.

2. Flow

Flow – the beautiful digital notebook app is the winner of the 2019 iPad App of the Year award. The app works with both iPhone and iPad, with numerous handy accessories such as chisel tip markers and graphite pencils that succeed at creating the same sensation you get when working with an actual marker or a pencil.

The app keeps it simple and elegant with a minimalist setup of tools, touch and gesture functions. It offers an amazing degree of customization so users can make the app work according to them instead of learning how the app works (which itself is pretty quick and easy to get a hang of). There have been other apps in the past that have tried and accomplished replicating the functions of actual notebooks and sketchbooks. Flow definitely ranks among the top of that bunch – a worthy virtual replacement for a real notebook or sketchbook.

3. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

One of the recent years’ most exciting action-adventure title and the award of Apple TV Game of the Year 2019 go to Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap – it is a remake of the 1989 game of the same name. It’s a wonderful nostalgia-inducing title for fans of the original game, and a breathtaking, thoroughly enjoyable, experience for the new generation of gamers.

The remake was reverse-engineered from the original game’s code, so the overall design and music is similar to the original. This gives the game a distinct aesthetic appeal and sets it apart from other popular action-adventure titles. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap holds a score of 79/100 on Metacritic. Critics have lauded its retro aesthetics, simple yet solid storyline, and engaging gameplay.

Also Read: How Do Apps Make Money? Mobile App Monetization Models Revealed

4. The Explorers

The Explorers is an app designed to reveal the most breathtaking and magical places on the planet to diehard travelers, photographers, scientists, students, artists, occasional and casual wanderers. The app won 2019’s Apple TV App of the Year award and is, without doubt, one of the best travel apps ever.

Users can search location-specific content on a global map and are treated with relevant suggestions to help continue their explorations. They can also connect to other explorers, see their stories and discoveries and exchange their adventures with the community.

The ad-free app allows users to upload their photographs in their original size. Its incredible zoom-in feature enables users to observe the tiniest details in the images. Users also have the ability to converse with their friends and other explorers via private messaging.

5. Hyper Light Drifter

Another 16-bit classic remade for the new lot of gamers, Hyper Light Drifter wowed critics and players alike to win the iPad Game of the Year award. The game features gorgeous dreamlike visuals and combines key elements of acclaimed titles like Diablo and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The action-adventure survival game has a distinctive pixelated style and both traditional and modern weaponry.

There is no dialogue in Hyper Light Drifter – the gameplay is solely and wonderfully driven by its amazing visuals and memorable musical track. The game holds a score of 84/100 on Metacritic and has been lauded for its thoughtful artwork and fair and demanding combat system.

Best Apps of 2019 From Google

Unlike Apple, Google doesn’t like announcing a comprehensive award winners’ list. This year too, the company only namedropped a best mobile app and a best game. But that doesn’t mean Google didn’t come up with some absolute gems this year. The following are some of the best apps and games from Google in 2019.

1. Ablo

Google’s App of the Year award winner is one of the dozens of new social networking apps that launched in 2019. To its credit, it’s not just the best of that lot, but one of the best social networking apps ever created. Ablo is a wonderful virtual way of exploring the world. It allows users to connect and make friends with people from around the world and engage in one on one conversation with them.

One of the app’s primary appeals lies in its ability to help users discover the diverse cultures, places, and people and communicate with their new and existing friends in their own local language. Ablo offers real-time translation for text-based chats as well as video calls. There is no limit to the volume of conversations and translation. It’s also all free of charge!

Ablo is a location-based app that requires users to share their geographical location. Users can also upload and share videos with their friends and participate in fun challenges.

2. Call of Duty Mobile

2019’s Call of Duty Mobile Game brought the beloved multiplayer RPG shooter to Android in a way that delighted even the hardest to please gamers! The game delivers a console-like gaming experience on hand-held devices, with in-game controls cleverly translated for the smaller touch screens. It also includes some of the console game’s most popular game maps, along with an epic new Zombie Survival Mode.

The online game is free to play on Android devices and brings multiplayer modes such as 100 player battle royale, sniper vs sniper and the fast 5v5 deathmatch mode. There are vast customization options, including dozens of popular characters, weapons, and gear. The mobile game’s social media sharing features and player rankings will appeal to both old and new Call of Duty players.

3. Boosted – Time Tracker & Productivity Tracker

An app to help boost productivity – that’s a big wall to scale. But Boosted manages it with simplicity and level of efficiency that delighted users and critics alike. The app allows users to organize their day to day activities into small tasks and track these individual tasks by a simple, single click.

The app maintains a record of the user’s past activities so they can go back and review the time spent on particular tasks, isolate their most productive days, compare and utilize that data to do the same tasks in a more efficient manner in the future. Users can view their tracked activities on the calendar and backup the tracked data to Google Drive.

Also Read: 10 Successful Apps Built with Flutter Framework

4. Appy Weather

When it comes to personalization, Appy Weather is hands down the best weather app in recent memory. Designed for people who check the weather on a regular basis, Appy Weather uses a user-friendly approach to present accurate, up-to-date weather information.

The UI is simple and pleasing to the eye, without the often-irritating endless scrolling that’s become a standard feature of modern weather apps. With Appy Weather, a user can access weather information customized to his/her needs through a short summary of the current and near future’s weather forecast presented in plain jargon-free language.

Appy Weather isn’t a brand-new innovation – it’s an updated version of a years’ old windows app. The new transformation, however, has made it one of the most relevant and easy to use weather apps of the day. Quick access to trustworthy hyper-local weather data is something most users actually require of a weather app and Appy Weather performs that task better, more efficiently than most popular weather apps of the day.

5. Brawl Stars

Brawl Stars is a delightful multiplayer game that lets users engage in fast-paced battles with their friends or in solo mode. The playable characters or brawlers all have their distinctive styles and abilities and the battle is under three minutes in duration. As the game continues, players can unlock new brawlers and upgrade their brawlers with special abilities and unique character skins. Brawl Stars is free to download and play at Google Play and keeps the players engaged with new events and game modes added on a daily basis.

The game’s eye-popping visual style, unique and fun-filled battle modes and frequent new events have made it one of the most engaging and recommended mobile gaming titles in recent years.

Final Words

2019 has seen Apple and Google – the biggest names in modern mobile technology carry on in their competitive ways trying to outdo each other. While it’s debatable which company beat the other this year, the consumers have been the clear winners. The rich wealth of apps that Apple and Google have dished out in 2019 has made our real and virtual existence more fun-filled and comfortable. And, with no signs of the rivalry losing its competitive edge in the near future, we can safely look forward to plenty more brilliant mobile apps and games in the coming year!