Between deadlines, exams, bills and all the rest, student life can be hard sometimes (that is, besides the lie-ins, partying and limitless freedom, of course). Take some of the pressure of with our pick of some of the handiest student apps.
1. Bubble Student
Everyone dreams of the day they move into a privately rented student house. Living with your friends, no parents, no rules - what could be better, right? But when you’re lying in bed, staring at that insidious growth of mould pervading your ceiling, breathing in air filled with the stench of damp, you may think otherwise. Fear not, Bubble Student is here to help. Never miss out on your dream student property again while letting the app do the work for you. Bubble Student searches from over 30,000 properties using their super-fast AI technology, allowing you to compare properties from multiple letting agents on a single interface. When you discover somewhere you love, share it with your friends via their group messaging feature. Bubble student also allows you to book a viewing within the app so you won’t even have to leave your sofa to find the perfect home for you and your friends. This is Rightmove for students but with an extra oomph.
2. Lecture capture apps
Ever been in a lecture furiously scribbling or typing notes and you just can’t get them down in time? It’s infuriating, right? Lecture capture apps are here to do the work for you so you never miss a word again.
SoundNote (iOS) is a popular lecture capture app for iPad users, but can also be used with your phone to act as a notepad and audio recorder. This means you can store an entire lecture in both audio and visual form. And if it’s a whiteboard you need to capture with that all-important graph, Office Lens allows users to photograph a whiteboard, convert it to a PDF, Word or PowerPoint file and store it for revision purposes. And they can even ‘clean up’ the image for you to a clear, legible format.
Other ones include Lecture Capture and Notes Plus.
3. Circle of Six
Waking up the morning after with a banging headache and a hazy memory is unpleasant enough, let alone finding 14 missed calls from Katie, 26 distressed messages from Laura and 78 panicked voicemails from your mum. Great. With the Circle of Six your loved ones never have to fear for you again. Designed for university students to keep connected with close friends, as well as family, this app helps you locate lost friends on nights out and also allows users to send their circle of six friends an instant call for help at the touch of a button. The GPS tracker will mark your location on your friends’ devices, ensuring you’ll always be able to find one another if necessary.
4. Wriggle or City Munch for amazing food deals
Both Wriggle and CityMunch help you find food and drink offers in your local area for the perfect hangover cure. These apps allow you to venture beyond McDonalds and Subway to explore some of your area’s best eats on a budget.
5. StudyBlue or GoConqr
These revision apps will not only cut your stationery shop in half but will allow you to explore new revision techniques at the click of a button. StudyBlue is a student app which uses your course information to make a set of revision cards for related revision. You can also make your own flashcard via the app and test yourself. While GoConqr also offers a flashcard function, it can also use your course information to create revision charts, mind maps, notes and quizzes as well as enabling you to connect and collaborate with friends, classmates or students from around the world!
6. Mobile-pocket
Are you even a student if you don’t have fifty gazillion loyalty cards strewn about your purse or wallet? None of us wants to miss out on a loyalty reward. But keeping track of them all is hard. Mobile-pocket is an app which accumulates all your loyalty cards in one, digital space so you can enjoy all the bonuses of being a regular customer. It's as simple as it sounds: Scan Bar- or QR-Codes and save your digital loyalty cards. At the cashier desk just present your phone to scan the loyalty card code to collect points and get membership discounts. On top of this, Mobile-pocket offers you a collection of the best offers and coupons and let you pay with your mobile device.
7. Drunk Mode
This app is a revelation. Drunk Mode will spare you the blushes in the wake of a big night out by allowing you to block certain people for up to 12 hours. The app only lets you get in contact with said person if you’re sufficiently “within it” to answer a maths question. This means no more drunk texting your ex, or that boy who may or may not be into you. Users can also enter a list of “Drinking buddies” – also fellow Drunk Mode users – and track their whereabouts.
8. Dropbox
No student will ever have to fear losing their notes or coursework again! Thanks to Dropbox, you have a chance to upload different files (documents, photos, videos) in the cloud and get them online whenever you need, even if you forget your phone at home. The only thing needed to access your files is an Internet connection.
Store your files in Dropbox, and share them with friends without any fear of losing important and useful data.
9. Feed.ly
One thing many students struggle with is keeping on top of the news and current affairs while at university. In between constant deadlines, part-time jobs, (partying), overdue essays, exams it’s hard to feel clued up. Feed.ly is here to help you stay on the ball. It lets you consolidate all news into one feed. Just check the news you would like to receive, and get notifications every time something interesting appears. Nothing could be easier.
10. Fatbrain
Every student will have to buy books at some point. But these very often become redundant after the Very similar to WeBuyBooks.co.uk, Fatbrain is great for selling and buying textbooks. Unlike other sites, the app scans barcodes and ISBNs so you don’t have to enter them manually. Postage is also free of charge.
11. PayPal
Paying people has never been simpler. At uni you find yourself owing money left, right and centre, be that for bills or that jager bomb your mate bought you when you were too busy dancing off the last five. With PayPal’s person-to-person payment function, you can send your mates money at the click of a button. All you need is their phone number or email address and Paypal remembers these details for you. It’s as simple as that! No inputting sort codes, account numbers blah blah blah - just input their name and if they’re in your contacts they’ll pop right up and if not, all you need is their email or phone number. They’ll be no excuses for anyone to not pay you back!
12. mySupermarket.
mySupermarket compares prices of products across supermarkets to help you find the best shop for your shopping list. The app allows you to scan products and compare prices in real time. As well as this, the app allows you to turn on price alerts so won’t ever miss a price drop on your favourite items again! They’ll also tell you about the best deals as you enter the store with their mobile notifications.
13. BigOven
This app helps you find the ingredients needed for each of more than 350,000 recipes and adds the ingredients to your shopping list so you don’t buy unnecessary items and rack up a huge supermarket bill. One of the best features allows users to key in “leftover” items they already have in the fridge. The app will generate recipes that can be made by buying the least amount of ingredients. Some of the recipes are a tad American but this app will make sure even the barest cupboard owners can scrabble a meal together and save on the supermarket shop.
14. Quidco
This is one of the longest-standing cashback sites and very simple to use. Earn money from purchases you were going to buy anyway by searching for the retailer you want to buy from in the Quidco app and clicking through to their website and shopping as normal. By using the Quidco app, you will receive cash-back after your purchase. If you are a diligent shopper and always click on a brand through the Quidco marketplace your pot can soon add up. Some current offers on the site include 17% cashback at The Works, 4% cashback at Waterstones, £8 cashback for your first order over £25 at Asda and up to £30 cashback at Currys. A slow-burner but money for nothing.
15. BlaBlaCar
Creating trusted carpooling, BlaBlaCar enables travellers to split the costs of a car journey with other members of the community. The carpool platform connects members travelling to the same destination and lets you browse available ride shares. The app also has a women-only car share section where all riders and drivers will be female.
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