Have you looked at app stores lately? They're getting insane. In 2020, the Google Play store hosted more than 2.5 million apps, while the iOS App Store had upwards of 1.8 million. With so many to choose from, finding decent apps has become a nightmare. Finding the best apps for caregivers is even harder.
Which apps are worth your while? Which ones actually make your life easier?
We wanted answers to those questions too, so we've been taking a close look at apps that can make your life easier as a caregiver. Some of these are designed for caregiving, while others have a more general focus.
Types of Apps for Caregivers
To-Do Apps
These apps are all designed to help you keep a to-list. Some of them aim for simplicity, while others are more complicated, but give you plenty of additional features.
Tusk
Tusk makes it easy to create ongoing and one-off tasks, with a broad array of settings. Even recurring tasks are easy and there's a widget to help you to keep track (although the widget is only available with the free version).
The paid version is inexpensive, averaging around $1.99/month or $38.99/year (depending on where you live). However, the free version contains enough features that you could easily just stick with that.
Personal Experience:
Tusk was the first to-do app that I played around with and I mostly enjoyed it.
I did have two issues. First, the app takes a little time to learn, as it isn't always intuitive.
Second, the widget is only available on the paid membership and is glitchy at times.
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Todoist
Todoist focuses on being practical, so there are no cutsy icons like Tusk. The app does, however, allow you to create projects and sub-projects (up to 3 on the free version).
Personal Experience:
Todoist is easy to use and I love that you can edit tasks on the PC as well as your phone (something Tusk doesn't allow).
I found the way it works with recurring tasks annoying, making the tool less useful than it could be for habit tracking.
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Other Options:
- Google Tasks. Google's version is incredibly simplistic, but does sync through to Google Calendar and is entirely free.
- Habitica. This app is designed as a way to promote healthy habits, but functions surprisingly well as a to-do list. It includes the ability to tag your various tasks, give them deadlines, and filter them. In fact, Habitica has more features than many dedicated to-do apps.
Habit Apps
These apps are designed to encourage you to practice healthy habits regularly. Most have the ability to add regular to-do tasks, but they often don't have all the to-do features seen in the previous selection.
Why highlight these as best apps for caregivers?
Because daily healthy habits are incredibly powerful. These help define your long-term health. And, it's very easy to skip them because you don't have the time or energy. The right app won't just help you to remember your daily goals. It will also encourage you.
Habitica
This unusual app aims to 'gameify' habits. It does so by giving you an avatar that you can gear up and send on quests. Your avatar gets experience points and items by completing tasks.
While the style might seem silly at first, the game style can help you to complete tasks as you're getting a small reward for doing so (even if the reward is just minor progression of an avatar).
The app itself is free, although there is a paid monthly membership and the ability to buy gems. Thankfully, you're mostly paying for things that help with the gaming side of the app.
The app is one of the few that includes the idea of healthy and unhealthy habits, ones that don't have a deadline. However, it does miss out some features found in other habit apps, like stats.
Personal Experience:
I wasn't expecting to enjoy Habitica, but I've actually found it to be very helpful. There's something emotionally satisfying about my character gaining experience, especially for habits that I know are good for me.
Silly as the app may seem, it is helping me to stick to habits (something I often struggle with).
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HabitYou
The habit part of HabitYou makes it easy to check off goals each day. There's a Habit Ideas section that provides ideas related to health, mindfulness, hobbies, social, chores, and career.
The paid version of the app allows for unlimited habits, journals, and bookmarks, along with story and link addons (the app doesn't make it clear what either of those are). The app isn't too expensive ($8.99/month, $49.99/year, or $59.99 lifetime), but it seems relatively expensive for the limited number of features.
Personal Experience:
I like the idea of HabitYou. It seems like a fantastic choice if you want to track daily or weekly habits.
However, the app doesn't work well for other types of goals and doesn't have much flexibility.
It's only a good choice if your needs exactly match what the app provides.
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Other Options:
- Do It Now. Follows a similar idea as Habitica, where you are leveling an avatar, although there are fewer other game-related elements. Interestingly, your avatar levels skills as well, based on the actual skills involved in the activities you choose (like cleaning, cooking, and the like).
- Loop Habit Tracker. This simple app lets you create and track a range of daily habits, providing you charts and stats to track your performance. It looks modern, works well, and is entirely free (no ads either).
Apps for Planning
Planning apps follow a few different styles. Some focus on note keeping (which can include to-do lists, but often go beyond that). The best of these make it easy to share notes between people and allow you to add important images and files.
Others have a stronger focus on scheduling and calendars. These help you to plan tasks over time. They’re particularly useful when you need to coordinate people or have multiple sets of needs to consider.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar mightn't be the most exciting app, but it functions well, is entirely free, and is already installed by default on many types of devices. You can also create reminders within the app, which function a little like to-dos.
It’s probably already familiar too, as many people use Google Calendar. The widget makes it easy to see what you have coming up each day, especially if you use the schedule feature.
Personal Experience:
I use Google Calendar for the bulk of my day-to-day organizing, partly because it's so easy to create personal and shared calendars.
While there are probably better apps out there, it's hard to go past such a classic.
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Time Planner - Schedule, To-Do List, Time Tracker
This app easily fits into a few different categories, as it has a calendar, to-do, and time tracking functions. The to-do list can be spit into categories and subcategories.
The free version is surprisingly robust and is even completely free from ads. The pro version adds further levels of subcategories and subtasks, along with the ability to record whatever you like and detailed statistics.
There are, however, two big limitations.
- There is no web browser version, so you can’t make changes from your computer
- You can’t share anything with other people
Personal Experience:
The app takes a little to get used to, as there are quite a few different functions and they overlap. Thankfully, there’s a tutorial, which helps.
I’m impressed with the value too. You get a lot of features in the free version – and the paid version adds quite a few more, without charging you too much (around $3 for 3 months or $9 for a year).
The app is fantastic if you’re just trying to organize yourself. However, if you’re coordinating with other family members, you may need something more collaborative, like Google Calendar.
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Note Taking Apps:
- Microsoft OneNote. This is a paid app, but you might already have access to it if you use Microsoft Office. It allows you to create notebooks filled with information (including images), which can be tagged, searched, and shared. OneNote is a fantastic tool for compiling and storing information digitally, especially as you can use the service on a PC as well.
- Evernote. This service functions in a similar way to Microsoft OneNote. However, it does have a free version and performs better in some areas. I’ve used the service myself and found it useful. Current reviews suggest that the app has gone downhill, so you might need to wait for some updates before trying it out for yourself.
- Google Keep. Google’s note keeping app is simplistic, but sometimes this is all you need (plus, it's entirely free and easily syncs across devices). You can create notes and checklists, color them, tag them by categories, and search them. Important notes can be pinned and you can change the order as you need to.
Guided Personal Growth
These apps take you on a personal growth journey, often using a combination of healthy habits and mental health approaches. They're interesting if you want to do better, but don't know where to start. Some also have basic to-do, journaling, or mood tracking functions.
Such apps are broadly designed, so some of their advice will apply to you more than others.
This is particularly important for caregivers, as many personal growth apps assume a level of control over your day and life that you may not have (this is something to watch out for with self-help books as well).
Also please, be cautious. It's easy to beat yourself up because you don't hit whatever target an app proposes - but being hard on yourself rarely helps. Some of the goals won't be realistic for caregivers anyway.
Fabulous Daily Routine Planner
This app was nominated for Google Play's Best App Award and is incredibly popular. It's easy to see why too, as the app is charming. The goal is help you develop habits that improve your health, making this a perfect addition to our best apps for caregivers.
The app has a strong personalization focus, perhaps partly because it can teach you so many different things. This could be useful, as it increases the chance that your learning matches your needs.
Personal Experience:
This might seem odd, but I don't like Fabulous - at all. I'm including it on the list because it is a fantastic app that should work well for many people. It just doesn't suit me at all.
Most of my issues come from one of the main features, the personalization. Fabulous uses questions to personalize the app and generate recommendations about habits and routines.
But, I know myself well enough to know that most of the suggestions it gives me aren't a good fit.
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Intellect
A key feature of Intellect is Learning Paths. These involve multiple sessions that are designed to teach you specific things. For example, the Emotional Regulation path involves six sessions (5 to 10 minutes each). These are spaced across three weeks.
- Week 1: Understanding your Emotions
- Week 2: Learning to Keep Cool
- Week 3: Building Emotional Resilience
The various features all aim to help with your mental health, often using CBT principles.
Personal Experience:
I didn’t have much luck with the personality testing side of Intellect, as some of the app’s conclusions were a poor fit for me. The rest, however, I liked. Users can choose which learning journey they follow, which helps you to make the most of out the app.
That said, this app is best if you’re right at the beginning of your mental health journey or are looking for something fast and easy. I say that because the lessons taught are simplistic. But, this is to be expected from an app. If you want something more in-depth, you’ll need to look for good books or a therapist.
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Other Options
- CBT Companion. This app aims to teach CBT skills. It includes a mood check-in and multiple journaling options, including a gratitude journal. There’s also a section that focuses on challenging automatic thoughts and has you following prompts. The approach could work well if you want to learn CBT techniques without a therapist.
- Amaru. Like Habitica, Amaru uses the structure of a game to promote healthy habits. This time, the focus is on self-care and the game has you caring for a virtual pet. There are some interesting features, like a gratitude journal, regular goals, and guided medication practices. However, as games go, the app isn’t that entertaining. It’s also a paid app, with limited free features.
Mood Trackers & Journaling Apps
Mood tracking and journaling are two distinct tasks, but we're combining them because so many apps offer both.
Mood tracking apps do what the name suggests – help you track your moods. You’re often recording other information at the same time, like details about where you are and what’s going on.
As you start to record information, the apps provide insights about patterns, giving you details about where you could start making changes.
Note: I recommend caution with any mood tracking apps. They can be useful for seeing patterns in your life and encouraging personal growth, but they also make it easy to get overly focused on your mind and emotions - and risk throwing you headlong into the happiness trap.
MyPossibleSelf
For each check in, you first rate your mood, then answer a series of questions, including specifics of how you’re feeling (calm, relaxed, tense etc.), what you’re doing, who you’re with, and where you are. You can also add a note or a picture.
Available insights focus on how your mood has changed over time and which moods and events are commonly together.
Personal Experience:
The mood tracking feature of MyPossibleSelf is easy-to-use. It’s perfect if you need to record moods quickly.
The insights are on the basic side, but there’s enough information to be useful. Plus, this is a free app with little advertising. It’s rare to find even this many features with a free app.
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Daylio
This app functions much like MyPossibleSelf, with the same idea of checking in regularly. This time, however, you have much more control and can edit the moods and activities to make them suit you.
There’s also the ability to set and monitor goals. This should make it possible to track how your progress towards goals influences your mood over time.
The catch is that this is a paid app. You get access to basic insights on the free version, but need to pay to get access to information like mood stability.
Personal Experience:
I like the look and feel of Daylio, except for the persistent promotion of the paid version, which gets old fast.
The app comes it at $4.99 per month. At the time of writing, the yearly price is $20.28, although that is a sale price, so it’s likely to increase.
If you find mood tracking useful, then the app could certainly be worth the price. You’re not likely to find detailed insights for much less.
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Other Options
- Moodflow. This one allows you to record emotions, activities, sleep, physical activity, location, and more, along with making journal entries. There are a lot of insights available (more than usual), but only with the paid version. The app is also quite laggy, so it could get frustrating fast.
- Sparkle. This is a self-care tracker, but it works a little differently than normal. Rather than focusing on specific habits that you should keep or avoid, this app allows you to record things that make you feel good. You can record simple journal entries at the same time. The approach could work really well for caregivers, as it makes it easy to hold onto the little things.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Medito
Medito isn't as well-known as other meditation and mindfulness apps, but it's one of the few that's designed to be entirely free (it even avoids that ads that plague most free apps).
While there are fewer features than many other apps, this one is the perfect place to begin. If you find that you use it regularly, you might switch to a different app, one that has more features and comes with a monthly fee or ads.
Personal Experience:
Medito is the only meditation-focused app that I've been able to get into. I loved the introduction to mindfulness course, while some of the others are interesting too.
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Other Options:
- Calm. As one of the big players in this field, Calm has plenty going for it, including a beautiful interface and many features. The problem? It costs more than $80 per year. That's up there, especially if you don't keep to the habit of using it each day.
- Headspace. Like Calm, Headspace has many features. It looks amazing too. It's not cheap though, costing close to $20 per month or almost $140 if you get it billed yearly.
- Let’s Meditate. This free app focuses on meditation, with sessions ranging from 2 to 42 minutes. There aren’t many features, aside from the fact that you can download the meditations.
- Atom. This app is designed to help you develop a meditation habit – and uses some game elements to do so. While the meditation exercises are simple, they could be perfect for beginners. Plus, the app is entirely free (there aren’t even any ads).
- Timecap. This app tracks habits and to-dos. Paid members get access to statistics as well (for around $5 per month).
Caregiving-Specific Apps
The previous apps all aim to help you in some way, whether that’s by promoting your mental health, helping you to be more active, or making it easier to be organized.
The apps in this section are a little different. They help with some of the tasks of caregiving itself, including coordinating care with other family members. Some of the apps, like Caring Village, are even designed with caregivers in mind.
These apps can be powerful, giving you many important features all in one place. There is a catch though. Because these apps are designed for a limited audience, they often don’t have a big company behind them (especially when compared to power players like Google and Microsoft). As such, there’s always the risk that the app will be discontinued in the future.
Still… don’t let that risk stop you from playing around with the apps. Some of them can make a huge difference to your caregiving experience.
Caring Village
Caring Village allows you to store details of the care team (which they call a village), including people’s roles and how involved they are. Important events can be shared using the calendar feature and the app can be used to ask who wants to do what task.
Personal Experience:
I love the coordinating activities feature. This makes it easier for caregivers to ask for help and for family members to find activities they can actually assist with.
There’s a decent range of features to play around with, although these aren’t all as good as they could be. The app hasn’t been updated for a while either (since 2019), so it doesn’t seem to be a high priority for the company who created it.
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Backpack Health
Backpack Health offers a place to store important health information, including details about health conditions, surgeries, and medications. There are plenty of sections for you to work with and you can even upload files.
The app doesn’t just make it easy to store health information either, it also means you can easily share it with other people.
Personal Experience:
I love the concept of Backpack Health, but did find it quite laggy. You also need to create an account and provide a decent amount of personal information before you can do anything, which is irritating if you just want to check it out.
Still, for a free app, Backpack Health as a lot going for it.
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Carely
Carely focuses on care coordination. With it, you create a Care Circle, which can include multiple app users. As part of doing so, you provide information about the care recipient (as much or as little as you like).
Members of the Care Circle can then communicate through the app. This includes leaving messages and providing details about any visits.
Personal Experience:
Carely has a decent range of features for a free app. However, it mostly focuses on organizing visits and basic communication, so there are gaps.
One such gap is that the calendar feature can only be used to plan or report on visits. Ideally, you’d be able to record any appointments that the care recipient has too, but that’s not an option.
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Other Helpful Apps
There are some gaps in this list of best apps for caregivers. Not surprising, right? There’s an almost endless selection of apps out there, not to mention all the online tools.
If we’re missed any of your favorites, please leave a comment at the end of this post or shoot us an email. We’d love to hear your experiences.
Before we round off though, here are a few other app types to consider.
- Medication management apps. These apps make it easy to keep track of medications and often provide reminders. The best apps support complex medication schedules and make it easy to adjust your medication list over time. Many have extra features too, like a calendar for doctor’s appointments or details about the side effects and interactions of each of your medications.
- Apps for selling stuff. These are perfect if you need to declutter or make a little extra money. We’ve covered these in-depth in a separate post.
- Health tracking apps, for you or the senior. Most of these apps focus on tracking steps. Some pair with a device like a Fitbit, while others function on their own. Many allow you to record other important information too, like your weight and any health conditions.
- Manage My Pain. This app is designed for people with chronic pain. It allows you to track pain levels over time, offering insights into what might be causing pain flare ups.
- Talking Parents. This app is designed for co-parenting, but can also work well for coordinating caregiving efforts. It includes features like secure messaging, a personal journal, accountable payments, and accountable calling. The way the app keeps records could be important for avoiding family conflict. It is a paid app, however, costing either $5.99 or $19.99 per month.
Apps for Entertainment
Let's round off by talking about apps that can help you relax or keep you entertained.
This area is actually just as important as the more wholesome-sounding topics, like mindfulness, habit forming, planning, and the like. After all, we all need time out. Time to relax and unwind.
And, while playing games on your phone gets a bad rap, doing so is still a fast and easy way to tune out for a while. That's sometimes exactly what you need.
There's an endless selection of entertaining apps and games out there. The best ones will depend on your preferences. Here are some ideas to get you started.
- Audible. Amazon's Audible remains the most popular choice for audiobooks. It costs between $7.95 and $22.95 per month, depending on how many credits you want. There's a free trial too. Credits are used to purchase audiobooks for you to keep (even when not a member). While you're an active member, you get to use Audible's Plus library. This new feature gives you access to a large collection of audiobooks to listen to.
- Kindle. This is one of many eBook services, but it's an incredibly popular one. You can buy books directly or sign up for Kindle Unlimited, which gives you unfettered access to an ever-growing library of eBooks.
- Netflix, Disney +, Hulu (etc.). You can take your pick of movie streaming apps. They all have different price points and selections.
- Merge 3 Games. Evermerge is my current favorite. I never expected to like these games as they're very mindless. Sometimes though, if I'm mentally exhausted, a mindless game is perfect.
- Match 3 Games. Candy Crush is probably the most well-known of these. Personally, I prefer Gardenscapes and similar games. The general idea is that you're clearing a board by matching three or more items. The puzzles get harder as you go - just be careful, as these games are often addictive.
- We featured a variety of other games in our list of apps for seniors.
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