What small tiny app have you found that not many people know about
I'm curious to discover more stuff that exists in the App realm, there must be some small indie apps we don't know about everywhere
Web Video Caster is probably my most used app. It casts just about anything to just about anything. It's worked better than anything else on my Chromecast and when I've needed to connect to Roku.
It supports IPTV, playlist creation, bookmarks, watch history, recent played, resume from last position, and a ton more.
The dev has been great whenever I've reported bugs and has added a few requests over the years.
Too Good To Go has been awesome since I heard about it on How I Built This. It's designed to reduce food waste, but I think that makes it sound less appealing than it is.
Participating eateries estimate how much product they will have to throw out at the end of the day. It's not bad stuff, but stuff they made too much of. Instead of tossing it, they set it aside, and you come take it for pennies on the dollar. No extra work for them, cheap mystery box of eats for you.
We've tried many fancy local bakeries we couldn't really afford, tried new local pizza places, got some great frozen treats and an ice cream cake from the premium ice cream place, and some great Jamaican takeout from a place near my work that'd normally be out of the way.
We also stock up on bagels from the Manhattan Bagel. They're normally around a dollar each, but we get 15-18 for $5 and then we freeze them. Been doing that for months now, saving a ton of money. Sometimes we get misshapen ones, it flavors we don't really like, but we still come out way ahead, or we learn different ways to use things, like the salt bagels we didn't originally like.
+1 for too good to go. It depends on where you go, but I have had good experiences.
It does vary by day and location, but the surprise is part of the fun. I'm between suburb and rural and there's a decent number of choices, and new things get added with some regularity. It also makes it fun to use while traveling.
I thought this is also a nice one to recommend here as it actually started as a European app, so it's nice that it's not US only, so non-Americans may actually have better luck for a change.
Too good to go sounds like a wonderful idea that will shortly get ruined by businesses trying to cheat the system
In my rural area’s 50 mile radius, there are just gas stations with to-go bags. The gas stations are, at best, convenience stores.
I uninstalled the app after seeing it was just an advertising opportunity for those gas stations.
I wish Too Good To Go was in use in my city. My friend lives in Oakland and she uses it all the time. She said it's a bit hit-or-miss, though. She's shown up at some places and they're like, "here's a bag, fit it up with whatever and we'll charge you $n for it." Once it was a shelf of stuff and they said she could as much stuff as she wanted from the shelf for the same price. Once when I was visiting her, we got a huge bag of baked goods. If nothing else, it can help familiarize you with areas and businesses you may not have come across otherwise.
The bagel place is like that sometimes where they haven't made the buzz yet and they let us pick. The Jamaican place has seemed the same every time, but it's a great portion of assorted items. We also got good stuff from a vegan, non-every allergen place. The prices were premium, but the stuff was really tasty, and even though we didn't have special diet restrictions, other family members do, do we could promote it to them. We've also gotten to try different things we don't normally order, like we get a big bag of pepperoni rolls from a pizza place, and the other place is the sausage food truck thing outside Home Depot which was actually really tasty.
Only once did we feel a place was a little less generous, but it still wasn't a bad deal for the price, just in comparison to other grab bags.
It's got us to try both local stuff we've never gotten to check out, and also things a little further away than we'd normally go to because it's a cheap adventure with really nothing to lose.
For me it's StreetComplete. It's like Pokémon Go, but you're doing actual map quests that help verify or correct information in Open Street Maps.
And if you do enough per month, you get free map downloads without a subscription if you use OSM the app.
I think it's only on Android though.
This is the most addictive thing I've done in a while. It's rare to find something where just two clicks can help in a bigger project, and at least where I live there are thousands on tiny dots to check
Glad you're enjoying it. Have fun unlocking badges!
There's also a more powerful version of it called SCEE
Though that's more for advanced users. If people don't already know about street complete, they should use the regular version.
I wish they'd get people to verify transit schedules literally the only reason Google maps finds itself on my phone
Hah, bold of you to assume my local public transport actually has a schedule.
The Transit app has been quite helpful for me to replace Google Maps!
Wooow! Now that's a fun and useful game like I've been searching for a while! Downloaded count me in!!!
Same I use it so much. Really fun to fill in info
O7
Traffick Cam: Help combat sex trafficking by uploading photos of hotel rooms from your travels
Traffickers regularly post photographs of their victims posed in hotel rooms for online advertisements. These photographs are evidence that can be used to find and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes. In order to use these photos, however, investigators must be able to determine where the photos were taken.
Wow, I am, impressed to see something like this exists
This apps seems to be poorly rated. What has your experience been?
There seems to be little information online about the organization who runs it, Exchange Initiative. They have an inactive Facebook account and an abandoned website. I don't see myself using this without having more assurance on its efficacy and privacy policies
Syncthing, its not a recent discovery.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.nutomic.syncthingandroid/
(written by one of our own!)
A daily use of me, it's perfect as it is
Pocket Bard is great for setting adaptive music in D&D sessions. Pick a setting (town, cave, woods, dungeon, etc.), choose the activity the party is doing (exploration or battle), choose an intensity. The music will automatically adapt and fluidly change to match the situation.
Do you know of an alternative that allows custom music and sounds? I haven't found anything that works well.
Thank you for this. This is just what I've been looking for.
Not an app, a site:
Free Photoshop clone. For my needs, it's over the top perfect.
It works really well and has been my go too for studies last year
Replying to save for later
I'm recently enjoying walkscape, which is an RPG where you have to walk in real life to progress in game activities, such as crafting or fighting.
It's in closed beta, but you can sign up for the next wave of beta invites and I got in pretty fast
Also, I downloaded streetcomplete but haven't really gotten around to it. It's an app where you map out your surroundings for open source maps with Infos, like opening times at a bank or the width of the street or the type of road, etc. A cool concept, but I always forget about it
I have been using walkscape as well. My walks with the dogs have almost doubled in length, just because I have a little incentive to achieve a goal in the game.
I've been eyeing walkspace since I discovered it on lemmy, it's just that because it's in Beta waves, I know when I'll get access to it, my hype to try it out will be gone. And I won't use it :/ so I'm waiting
Haha I was gonna suggest it too, it's been a lot of fun! Helps get me walking and the community are nice :-)
I geocache and some people don't know about c:geo. It's a really good app for geocaching because it has so many tools.
c:geo is great! The official app won't show you caches over a certain difficulty (don't remember the exact number) unless you're premium. They're not actually premium only, you can see them on the website, it's just a bullshit restriction on the app.
c:geo is a lifesaver for that reason alone, imo.
Walkscape. It's like Pokémon go and runescape but without the emptional manipulation.
Or
Streetcomplete - gamify openstreetmap and help fill out the map.
I've just finished making my Streetcomplete account! And I've got some work around me it's gonna be fun
I just got accepted into the beta for walkscapes. It's such a relaxing game and using steps vs distance is super nice to have as a tracking system.
I've been enjoying using both of these, and they make a great pairing. Go for a walk, check out the streets!
URL Check It acts like an intermediary to open in browser when you click on a URL. Its useful to kinda look at the URL before it opens and choose browser.
Audio Share Relays audio from PC to mobile through network
PCAPDroid Packet capture for Android
edit: typo
starred this comment, great recommendations
I'd also like to add:
WiFiAnalyzer: Find empty channels to put your network into, and also scan hotel rooms for hidden wifi cameras
GPSTest: Debug your GPS signal to see why its taking so long to lock on.
My partner introduced me to the Dutch "112" app (112 is the emergency telephone number in Europe).
I hope I never need it of course, but if I do it automatically shares my location and it allows me to chat instead of call if I would be in a situation that requires that.
Also, I really enjoy Jepster as my biking computer when cycling. The guy that built it is also very approachable when you find a problem, which is great.
And when you're planning to get kids have a look at "Kinder"...
I've been using Daylio for years.
It's designed to track moods and the activities associated with them, but it's adaptable, so I use it to track my headaches. It's very easy to use and it doesn't feel onerous to record the information.
I used to use it a few years ago! Then I forgot about it, and now I'm just using Obsidian, but it's a fun way to think about our days
Daylio is great.
Daylio has 10M+ downloads on Google Play
I got a couple of apps I'd recommend in a heartbeat.
Spectdroid is a spectrogram app. Its unreasonable how often I'm using this app. I got some mild tinnitus that comes and goes and this app allows me to find out if I got some actual weird buzzing I'm the house or if it's just in my head.
And LocalSend is an amazing app for sending files between various devices and OSes over a local network. I no longer need to set up file shares, plug in my phone to a computer, or use cloud storage just to transfer over some files.
LocalSend
I've been using TrebleShot for that for a years now, but maybe I'll try LocalSend
Yidio to find movies and shows and where they are cheapest.
Transit to take public transit to get somewhere. It’s not designed like a typical map app.
Db meter to see if the audio around you is too loud. I use this a lot when at bars.
Onx/gaia for mapping/nav when off-roading and other recreational activities where youll be off network.
Could you explain more about transit?
It’s designed specifically to take public transit. It also uses your location data when on a bus/train to let other people know if there are delays.
During route planning you see the type of transit and what your connections look like. It also tells you when the next bus/train is arriving. Knowing the next bus is 10mins away vs 45mins is important.
PianOli: A little toy piano for your kids to play without being able to swipe out and mess with your other apps.
Flashlight: Flashlight from the Simple suite, that allows you to pulse or strobe your phone's torch. It can even pulse SOS messages.
Moonlight: Stream your entire desktop (e.g. gaming PC) to your phone using the sunshine (previously nvidia gamestream) protocol. Works fantastic.
If you travel a lot, Toilet finder.
Edit: and not an app, but a website: Pairdrop - really useful for cross-platform file sharing, especially when you just need to email to colleagues something you snapped with your personal phone, but yoe have overly tight IT systems in place at work that stop you from connecting your personal phone to your email or OneDrive.
This reminds me of tinyapps.org . I loved this resource in the early aughts.
For anyone looking to play Super Mario Sunshine and wants to consider 100%, there's "Blue Coin Tracker".
Not only can you check off what you've found, but it's got screenshots, descriptions, and strategies to help you find it. Even links to YouTube clips if you're still stuck!
It's invaluable. The blue coins are pretty evil in that game.
Léon URL Cleaner
It's a simple app that strips extra unnecessary details like tracking tags from copied URL links. Highly recommended for sake of privacy, plus the cleaned links are shorter and tidier.
I wanted so badly for the app icon to be a potted plant.
Trail Sense, it's all the "survival" tools in one great package. Do I use it often? No. Does it feel like unwrapping my favourite toy every time I open it? Absolutely.
sshuttle, the poor man's VPN. It creates an SSH tunnel to a remote host, and routes all traffic to a specific address or subnet through it.
kinder world, it's a plant-watering emotions-thinking about game that's a cover for a mindfulness app. really effective because cute animal characters.
I make an email app called Port87. It’s better than any other email apps (imo), because it organizes all your email for you.
It’s still behind a waitlist, because I’m working out the kinks (damn kinky software).
How is the labeling feature different from plus sub addressing (ex: johndoe+spam@email.com) and what platform(s) is the app for? If it says on your site, I missed it
Well, it is subaddressing, but has more related features on top of that. It automatically labels emails based on the address, and allows you to set some settings for that label, like mark as read, send push notifications, show in the “Aggbox” (the equivalent of the inbox), and screen new senders. That last one is important, because it means you can use labels for communicating with real people, and labels for getting email from automated senders (like your account email).
Right now, it’s a progressive web app. I’m working on a mobile app and IMAP support (so it will work with any email client). I’m also working on custom domain support, so you can bring your own domain and if you end up wanting to move somewhere else, you can keep all the same addresses you set up.
Grainstorm
It's a ridiculously versatile granular sampler synthesizer. Obviously not for everyone, but it's super fun to just make weird soundscapes with. Even with just your phone mic.
For iOS/mac, I love the Vinegar extension. It’s great for stripping YouTube down to just the video, provided you use Safari instead of the YouTube app. It also regularly updates. Yes, I know there are free ways to do this (it’s $1.99), but this is more about convenience and supporting a dev.
It’s been absolutely fantastic for me, I keep recommending it to friends but they don’t like the $1.99 price and yet keep getting upset when ads play. I’ve started replacing apps with safari links on my home page and YouTube is one of them thanks to vinegar.
FYI you can get ad-free youtube in safari for free with AdGuard
Unified Remote. It's a little janky, but it does you to turn your phone into a trackpad and/or keyboard for your phone. It works with swipe typing, and allows you to use keyboard shortcuts such as Alt+Tab or Win+Shift+Arrow.
Truly the best way I've found of using my PC from my couch.
(>!Working on a similar app these days, but for game controllers 👀!<)
Insight Timer is a meditation timer with the features I like:
it’s also got a huge marketplace of guided meditations, though I don’t use them
On Google Play, Insight Timer has 5M+ downloads and is Editors' Choice. It is not a small app, and it's constantly trying to get you to pay for premium. I have never cared about or noticed low quality audio until trying to use this app. It's been a very weird experience trying to relax and noticing how poor the recordings sound. I assume this is another upsell thing
ShareWaste. You can sign up that you have a compost pile or chicken to feed, etc, and people with food scraps can find places to "donate" to! I have 3 or 4 regular contributers to my compost pile!
Easily Converter Now. So darn handy.
ChildIDFile. Creates a secure file of your kid's information that lives only on your personal device but can be shared with police quickly. Hopefully you never need it
Lemmy Boost
Chafa - I can turn pictures in ANSI art for my terminal
Syncthing - A godsend for me and I can't believe how easy it is to set up and have it just work, I was almost disappointed when I was setting it up expecting issues and then the mf just works perfectly fine without issue
Tailscale - Very useful to remotely ssh to my computer(s) even from my phone
Termux - terminal on android
This one you may have heard of and it's not exactly niche, indie or small but I'll add it anyways just in case: Too Good To Go - allows you to get cheap food and save it from going to waste. I use it a lot when I can't go to the university cafeteria and don't feel like cooking
These have been around for quite a while, but I recently learned about clipboard managers. I haven't met someone who uses one, perhaps because it is an inconspicuous tool. Regardless, I love being able to quickly paste text that I use frequently!
I'm still testing them, so I can't really say "this one's the best", but here's one: https://hluk.github.io/CopyQ/
Brain Waves for binaural beats
Data Jar: When you use iOS Shortcuts this is a great way to store persistent simple data with iCloud Sync
Lots.
I'm not sure whether they fit the "indie" category, tho.
I use YouCut to condense short porn vids into very short highlight loops
drivvo if you do your own car maintenance or want to track mileage.