MindStore.io, a popular online community by leading Chinese tech media ifanr, selected the top 10 apps of the week. Their choices are based on their freshness, fun ideas, and clever designs. The estimated 500 million Chinese millennials are major consumers of these apps.
1: Biaoqing Wangguo (The kingdom of emoji) | iOS, Android
Sometimes, mere words are not as expressive as ideograms, images and animated pictures.
Available on both iOS and Android devices, this app is a wonderland of emoji. It first guides users to install a “keyboard of emoji” – just like the keyboard of any language installed to your smartphone. Then, it’s time to build your emoji gallery.
The home page directs users to four columns: you can visit “the latest emoji” if you are tired of using the old ones or “the most popular emoji” to access the most trending ones. Visit “categories” to find your ideal emoji by searching categories like “funny”, “cute”, “from anime”, “from superstars”, etc. Visit “Weiguan” – literally, “onlookers” – to entertain yourself with Weibo-like posts that are made interesting using emoji.
In addition, the app allows users to not only collect, but also create their own emoji. You can either edit the emoji available on the app, or select photos from an album to make animated pictures.
2: Wei Wu (Materialism) | iOS
Different from apps that encourage you to make purchases with lists of commodities and items, this app provides articles that serve as a guide, or an encyclopedia, for everyday life.
Each day the app updates a new topic, under which are several articles guiding readers to do better. For example, in the volume entitled “a fun journey to Beijing”, there are eight articles, each covering one aspect of Beijing.
These sub topics may concern scenic spots like the Summer Palace, snacks in Beijing, or places worthy of special attention such as hutong (traditional beijing alleyways) and subway stations. The in-depth illustration of those aspects may make you an expert in that field.
As of Tuesday, the app has 91 volumes with a wide coverage of topics. To give you an idea, other topics include “planning to raise a cat”, a “a guide to singledom”, and “how to exterminate mites”.
3: Jieyou Zahuodian (The worries-free general store) | | iOS, Android
Do you know the novel Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Japanese author Keigo Higashino? If you write down your worries and anxiety and put it into the letter box at the general store, a reply will come to you the next day, and wonders follow.
This app accompanies you when you are sad, worried, or anxious. Users can write their negative feelings into a letter, telling their stories to the “grandpa” in the app, who will reply within 24 hours.
Additionally, you can join a pen-pal group to receive love and care from other users.
4: Shuidi Qingdan (Water drop to-do list) | iOS
Feel like you need a new reminder app? This one may serve just right.
Users first record their to do-list, by either texting or speaking. Then with a few slides, they can edit, delete, mark a task as completed, and rearrange the tasks in a preferred order.
That’s all – as simple as a drop of water.
5: Chuan Tianqi (Wear the weather) | iOS
Currently only available on iOS devices, this is also the only app among the 10 that is not for free, though charging at only RMB 12 (USD 1.7).
As its name “wear the weather” indicates, this app is more than an app for weather forecasts – it also suggests users what to wear and how to look good. Though Moji Weather is another app that gives suggestions on what to wear according to temperatures, this app offers more options for your choice of clothes.
Up till now, the app has weather forecasts for 218 cities, covering countries including China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
6: Rishiqing (Clear the Daily tasks) | All platforms
Do you know the time management grid by American educator Stephen Covey? The grid employs four quadrants to distinguish and organize the priorities in an efficient way.
This app, available on mobile devices, as well as on desktops and laptops, helps multi-tasking users improve efficiency while working in a team. Creating a working journey allows users, as well as their team members, to check and review their work.
7: Jiange Tongxunlu (Pigeon contacts) | iOS, Android
In the past, businesspeople merely relied on business cards to keep track of their contacts. Today, they have devices and apps that help retrieve the information they need.
This app is linked to WeChat, and users exchanging contact information can click the “friend radar” on WeChat to automatically save the others’ information into the contact list, which can be updated real-time. Users can also set a prioritized number if a contact person has two or more phone numbers.
With this app serving as a cloud contact list, users do not need to switch back to the same device to record or retrieve information.
8: Qiji (Cycling Diary) | iOS, Android
Cycling as a sport is gaining popularity, both for health and environmental reasons. Sharing the cycling experience becomes a need to be met as well.
This app is designed for cyclists, recording their routes, telling them data like heart rate, accumulated mileage, time used, average speed, and calories consumed.
As more cyclists join in, the app builds a community where users share their cycling experience via live-streaming, posts, discussions and more.
9: Jazz FM | iOS
Like many other music apps, users can use this to save their favorites and share with others on various social media platforms.
This app only plays Jazz and not any other types of music.
10: VoiceMash | iOS
Different from other karaoke apps, this app allows users to upload not a whole, a song but only 60 seconds of it.
The algorithm that VoiceMash employs ensures an equal chance for each audio to be listened to.
Users can listen to others’ works and evaluate with a score. You can also invite others to sing a chosen song and decide which one sounds best.
Create an alias or just publish your songs anonymously, and invite your friends to sing a song that you choose.
