This year, more than ever, we have leaned on technology. It has helped us through difficult times and to connect with people around the world. Apps are a great way to access services at the tip of your fingers and utilise different methods of communication. We have rounded up our top apps 10 for this year (based on both personal and professional experience).
- Asana
As a business, we have LOVED Asana this year, we might even say it’s one of our top apps. Going through a rebrand has meant we have had lots of different aspects of a project to manage. Asana has given us the ability to do this effectively and collaborate as a team.
In particular, the ‘board’ feature allows us to prioritise the importance of tasks, set a due date and mark what stage of the project it is in (in progress, completed, etc.). This has been ideal for keeping all team members on track, giving managers the ability to check progress and highlight any gaps in a project.
It is an app we couldn’t have lived without this year and one which we will continue to use for all our future projects going forward! - Webex
This is a useful tool for keeping our team connected and can be downloaded as an app on desktop and mobile. You can call people through this (on both audio and video calls), as well as share editable files, create announcement spaces and more. This is our main form of communication and is the exact same whether you are at home or in the office, meaning people can communicate effectively wherever they are - Stocard
Disclaimer: This one is a bit of a guilty pleasure. If you don’t know it, it’s a way to store all of your loyalty cards in one place – meaning you don’t have to have hundreds spilling out of your purse. This is a fan favourite among everyone in the office, so it just had to make it onto our list! - Percentage calculator
This app does exactly what it says on the tin and is really effective for business calculations. You can use it for anything from calculating your profit margin, VAT, sales tax and much more. It can also be used for everyday life and is a seamless way to calculate whatever you need! - DUO
DUO is a multi-factor authentication method. This means people must use multiple forms of verification before they can be logged onto something or somewhere. This might be an email account, desktop, app, or anything else.
We use DUO across multiple platforms to add a second security measure to our accounts. This is something which puts our own minds at ease as well as our IT manager! It’s really easy to implement but also an effective way to improve your cyber-security measures. - Canva
As is the trend for every business using social media this year, Canva has been an absolute saviour this year! It’s a great tool for creating quick animations or graphics to jazz up a social media post. Most of their free features are also really good. They provide lot’s of great social media suggestions, so it’s a complete no-brainer for 2022. - Google Calendar
This is a really effective way to manage your time and schedule any events or meetings. This is particularly effective as you can share it with anyone, access it anywhere and make meeting amendments at any point. At Virtual First, we love being tech-savvy in both our personal and professional lives, and this one allows us to use it in both! - Spotify
Having Spotify in our top 10 list is a no-brainer. Once you start using Spotify, you don’t go back. Since we have had more and more people back in the office, the Spotify playlist has been a big morale boost. It’s great for any occasion – especially now we can put Christmas songs on too!
We find it really helps us focus but also creates a positive atmosphere for everyone in the office. - Waze
Since people have been back in the office, the amount of time travelling has felt longer than ever! Waze is a useful app for navigating on the fastest routes wherever you are going. One thing the pandemic has shown us is that time is not to be taken for granted, so anywhere travelling can be sped up is a win in our eyes! - Kaspersky
This is an app that generates passwords to be used when you create a new account. This is a good way to mix up your passwords to never have the same one used more than once, making it harder for hackers to break into your accounts. This app is great for protecting personal accounts, but for greater threats, it is worth delving into some more in-depth cyber-security measures.
