15 Apps Every Woman Should Download

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Between managing birth control, looking out for your personal safety, handling periods, and making sure we aren’t nipping out in the freezer aisle of the grocery store, there are a lot of particular inconveniences and concerns that come with being a woman. Is it fair? No way. When will men start taking more control over pregnancy prevention in our relationships? They haven’t got a clue what it’s like to remember to take the pill each day. When will the world just be a place that’s safe for women so we don’t need to take preventative measures? And when will the nipple truly be free, so it doesn’t elicit aggressive and unsolicited attention?

Nope, none of it is fair. But we have to operate with the understanding of the way the world is, rather than the way we wish it were, while simultaneously working to improve it. And in the meantime, women can use all the help they can get managing all their particular concerns. And wouldn’t it be nice if, instead of just being a place where men slide into your DMs unprompted, our smartphones became powerful tools that make being a woman a bit easier? On that note, here are apps every woman should have.

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For mood: Aura

As caretakers and wearers of many hats, women can often forget to stop and take a break and take time for themselves. The Aura app can help with that. It has guided meditations, as well as personal stories, music, and nature sounds that you pick out depending on what mood you’re in – or what mood you’d like to be in. It will also send you regular reminders to pause and do some breathing exercises and even helps you track your moods over time.

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For better sleep: Slumber

Women are 40 percent more likely to develop insomnia than men are. Could it be worrying about raising kids/fighting off inappropriate male coworkers/worrying about our personal safety that’s keeping us up? Whatever it is for you, the Slumber app offers a combination of recordings to help you doze off, including bedtime stories, meditations, or simple white noises to drown out a snoring partner.

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For tracking sleep: Sleep Cycle

If you’d like to get a better understanding of your sleep patterns like how long you sleep and how deeply, this app can help. In addition to tracking sleep behaviors, it also offers tips for better sleep, and has a gentle alarm that intentionally wakes you up in your lightest phase of sleep so you wake up feeling rested.

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For soothing a baby: White Noise Baby

Whether you need to help a baby fall asleep, stay asleep, or remain happy and entertained (read: prevent tantrums) when she’s awake, this app can be of assistance. It has recordings of sounds that are traditionally soothing to babies like car ride noises or a vacuum cleaner. When put in Baby mode, it will ensure no notifications disrupt your baby’s slumber. It also plays fun noises like a rattle to entertain a baby when you’re out and about.

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For breastfeeding tracking: Baby Tracker Breastfeeding

The Baby Tracker Breastfeeding app helps you log all things related to nursing, which can be particularly helpful when updating your baby’s doctor on her progress. It logs things like feeding times, how much milk was expressed during pumping, when formula was given, when solid foods were given, and even when diapers were changed. You can also set reminders for each of these events, and log your baby’s weight and height changes.

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For period and fertility tracking: Clue

Whether you want to get pregnant, want to make sure you don’t get pregnant, or want to better track menstrual symptoms to report to your doctor, the Clue app can help. It aids you in logging in things like, during what part of your cycle your cramps are worse or your moods are the lowest. It also offers predictions for your fertility and PMS, and has a place where you can ask questions about all things fertility, menstruation, and sexual health, and medical experts will respond.

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For managing your family’s health: Practo

If you have to keep up with not only your doctor’s appointments and prescriptions but also those of your spouse and children, this is a very helpful app. It helps you quickly look up specialists in your area, book telehealth appointments, get digital prescriptions, and even keep track of all your (or your family’s) past appointments, and what the purpose of the visit was.

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For saving money in-store: SnipSnap

Shopping in stores can be fun, and many enjoy that in-person experience. The only problem is that it’s difficult to know if you could get a better deal elsewhere. That’s where SnipSnap comes in. Simply take a photo of the item you’re interested in, and SnipSnap will bring up available coupons or sales running for the item, and even show you if you can get a better price for it elsewhere.

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For saving money online: Honey

If you haven’t yet installed the Honey app, it’s time to do so. Once you’ve added it to your browser or smartphone, it will automatically scan the entire web for coupon codes for the items you’re buying at checkout. If it finds one, it will also automatically apply it. So it does the work of looking at all of those coupon code sites for you, punching in all of the codes, and finding out which ones work and which one is best for this purchase. It makes saving money so much easier.

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For all things women’s health: Flo

While Flo sounds like it’s all about your period, it’s not (though it is also a period and ovulation tracker). Users like Flo because it regularly uploads expert-created articles on women’s health topics, has online forums where you can discuss important women’s health issues, and allows you to anonymously ask intimate questions about your health concerns, and get expert answers. If you do have a baby, its parenting features help you track your baby’s development and provides important guides and articles on new parenthood.

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For safety (yours and others): Hollaback

The Hollaback app is working to make the streets less hospitable to those who’ve made them less-than-hospitable to women. Using the digital map, you can click on an area and find user-submitted stories of personal safety issues they’ve experienced there. You can also submit your own, choosing from a menu covering a range of natures of incidents from sexual harassment to racism. When you see a user had a similar experience you did, you can click on their icon to “Hollaback” and let them know they’re not alone. This app made our list of best personal safety apps, which you can find here.

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For safe online dating: Circle of 6

We like Circle of 6 because it covers a range of scenarios women experience, from being just a bit creeped out to truly fearing for our lives. Unfortunately, many women experience some of those, each day. You add six people you trust to your network, and when you’re in a crisis, you can tap either the call, chat, or GPS icon. The call icon tells your network you need someone to call you, which can be useful when you need an “interruption” call for a bad first date. The chat icon says you need to DM with someone, which can come in handy when you need to discreetly communicate to someone that you need assistance. And the GPS icon tells your network that you need someone to come pick you up, sending them your location.

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For peeing during a movie: RunPee

Yes, you read that correctly. It’s been scientifically proven that women pee more frequently than men do, and make more runs to the bathroom for every liter of fluid than men do. That makes sitting through an entire movie a bit difficult for us, especially when we’re at the theaters and can’t hit pause. RunPee tells you when a good time is to use the bathroom during a movie (like a drawn-out fight scene).

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For finding a match: BLK

BLK is a dating app designed for Black singles that operates in some of the ways you may be used to, with features like swiping right or left depending on your interest and receiving daily matches based on your profile and mutual interests. There’s also a chat feature that’s activated when you match with someone, and with the premium subscription, you can have your profile “boosted” to be a top profile in your area for higher visibility.

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For fitness: Workout for Women

This app provides workouts designed for women’s bodies, and has a nice variety too, between seven minute fat-burning workouts and yoga sessions to weekly customized programs designed by personal trainers. It also lets you track your calories and weight, and has beginner-friendly workouts. There is absolutely no equipment required, so you can work out anywhere, anytime.