12 iPhone Apps You Aren't Using (But Definitely Should Be)

With millions upon millions of apps polluting the vast digital landscape of the Internet, how can you be sure you're downloading the absolute best of the best of the best? These 12 deep cuts are generally under the radar for the average iOs user, many of them gaining our undivided attention via this stellar Reddit thread—so you know they pass the Internet's standards, and are at least as interesting as a basement safe. Dig into the depths of the app store, and never feel the need to touch Candy Crush, again. 

Get a wake-up call...from an eager stranger 

Are you tired of waking up to the jolting iPhone alarm sound that makes you feel like you're being rapidly evacuated from a tornado/Africanized bees zone? For a breath of fresh air check out Wakie—a self described social-alarm clock, using strangers around the world that volunteer to hit you up when you need to drag yourself out of bed. Its creators claim that waking up to someone telling a joke, asking a question, or just introducing themselves is the quickest way to knock off your morning sludge, and it will make you happier in the long run.

Find the cheapest gas wherever you are

Filling up doesn't have to empty your bank account. With GasBuddy, a crowd-sourced app that maps out the prices of gas at basically every station in America, you can make sure you never fuel up only to discover a cheaper option 30 feet down the road. Cheap gas = more life-changing road-trips featuring your favorite indie bands and possibly Zach Braff. You'd be a fool not to do it. 

Get in shape by running from zombies

Do you need a little bit of extra motivation on your morning run? You've probably noticed the cast of The Walking Dead are in stellar physical shape, mainly because they spend the majority of their time running for their literal lives. You too can experience the motivational fear of being eaten alive with Zombies, Run!, an immersive workout app that mixes narratives and standard exercise tracking to inspire you to sweat. Every time you run, you play a different "mission," including checkpoints, collectibles, and ambient zombie sounds that increase when you slow your pace down. 

Double up your screens

Two things are always better than one, just look at Tia and Tamara Mowry! Duet Display allows you to turn your iPhone (or iPad, in this case) into a dual display for your Mac. It's creators claim that using two-screens can boost your productivity up to 48%. As someone who personally uses two screens at work, I can tell you that watching two simultaneous streams of baby goat gifs is a superior experience, all around. 

Know exactly when to take that mid-movie bathroom break

What's a trip to the movies without an extra large Mountain Dew Baja Blast and 12 cups of smuggled tap water? But inevitably, all that liquid will lead you straight to urinal town. To ensure you don't take a whiz while Mufasa dies, Newman gets dino-sprayed, or Mrs. Doubtfire sets her fake floppers ablaze, download RunPee, a crowdsourced guide that alerts you when you should pee during a movie. Following the guide, you'll never miss important plot points, steamy love scenes, or high octane action. 

Never get stuck on "hold" again. Ever.

We all love talking to customer service reps, but I for one simply can't stand being put on hold for extended periods of time, wasting my life waiting for Jake from State Farm to pick up. FastCustomer is a miraculous phone app that takes over your stagnant call, navigating through complicated phone webs, and alerting you when an actual person is on the line. It's a godsend. Unless, of course, you're into hold music.

Take control of your personal safety

We live in a scary world, filled with thugs, thieves, and people who have no qualms about throwing shoes at your face. And because you can't just dial 911 whenever you feel a little uneasy, the SafeTrek app makes calling emergency services ridiculously accessible when needed. If you are feeling uncomfortable in a situation, you can open the app, putting an emergency contact on standby, till you confirm you are okay. If you don't confirm, police are dispatched to your phone's location. 

Perfect your sleep cycle

Going to sleep is easy. You simply down a fifth of whisky and put on The Golden Girls to drown out your problems. Getting healthy sleep on the other hand, is something that eludes most functional adults. The Sleep Cycle alarm clock not only monitors your sleep patterns in digestible chart-form, it also detects when you are in the lightest stage of sleep and gradually wakes you up, ensuring that you aren't snapped out of your deepest REM. This leads to higher alertness all day and a virtual guarantee that you won't pass out on the school bus and have to call your Mom to pick you up at the bus depot while all the drivers laugh at you. Because that definitely never happened... 

Get help un-filthing your place

Finding time to clean your abode in between your busy work-life, sputtering social-life, and burgeoning Netflix queue can be tough, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask for help from an unlikely source. Unf*ck Your Habitat uses crass language, timed tasks (including breaks) and surprisingly fun cleaning challenges to whip your pad into shape and motivate you to not dwell in your own filth. 

Own all the tools a musician needs

The main problems with learning an instrument are A): you suck pretty badly at first, and B): no one wants to play with you because you suck pretty badly. Practice +  is a tuner, looper, setlist, recorder, and metronome—basically, everything you need to become a competent musician. Your only step after this is to learn "Wonderwall" and play it whenever other people are around, no matter the setting and/or consequences. 

Receive automatic alerts or actions for everything you care about

IFTT (If This Than That) is one of the most beautiful operations running on the interwebs and a personal favorite of mine. So naturally, their stellar iPhone app is an easy choice for this list. By creating "recipes," you link things that happen online together (like, "tell me whenever someone advertises 'free cats' on Craigslist", or "change my background whenever I post a new Instagram photo"). Sound complicated? It's not. Try it out, you'll be swimming in free cats within hours.

Help the blind see

The most altruistic option on this list, Be My Eyes allows volunteers to connect with vision-impaired people around the world via video, and assist them in executing tasks, or simply getting around. Earn points, level up, and help the world—without ever taking your eyes off your smartphone.


Wil Fulton is a Staff Writer for Supercompressor. He would download all of these apps, but they don't work on his Razr. Follow him @WilFulton.

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