What small tiny app have you found that not many people know about

Kyoyeou (Ki jəʊ juː)@slrpnk.net to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 197 points –

I'm curious to discover more stuff that exists in the App realm, there must be some small indie apps we don't know about everywhere

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Web Video Caster is probably my most used app. It casts just about anything to just about anything. It's worked better than anything else on my Chromecast and when I've needed to connect to Roku.

It supports IPTV, playlist creation, bookmarks, watch history, recent played, resume from last position, and a ton more.

The dev has been great whenever I've reported bugs and has added a few requests over the years.

Too Good To Go has been awesome since I heard about it on How I Built This. It's designed to reduce food waste, but I think that makes it sound less appealing than it is.

Participating eateries estimate how much product they will have to throw out at the end of the day. It's not bad stuff, but stuff they made too much of. Instead of tossing it, they set it aside, and you come take it for pennies on the dollar. No extra work for them, cheap mystery box of eats for you.

We've tried many fancy local bakeries we couldn't really afford, tried new local pizza places, got some great frozen treats and an ice cream cake from the premium ice cream place, and some great Jamaican takeout from a place near my work that'd normally be out of the way.

We also stock up on bagels from the Manhattan Bagel. They're normally around a dollar each, but we get 15-18 for $5 and then we freeze them. Been doing that for months now, saving a ton of money. Sometimes we get misshapen ones, it flavors we don't really like, but we still come out way ahead, or we learn different ways to use things, like the salt bagels we didn't originally like.

+1 for too good to go. It depends on where you go, but I have had good experiences.

It does vary by day and location, but the surprise is part of the fun. I'm between suburb and rural and there's a decent number of choices, and new things get added with some regularity. It also makes it fun to use while traveling.

I thought this is also a nice one to recommend here as it actually started as a European app, so it's nice that it's not US only, so non-Americans may actually have better luck for a change.

Too good to go sounds like a wonderful idea that will shortly get ruined by businesses trying to cheat the system

In my rural area’s 50 mile radius, there are just gas stations with to-go bags. The gas stations are, at best, convenience stores.

I uninstalled the app after seeing it was just an advertising opportunity for those gas stations.

I wish Too Good To Go was in use in my city. My friend lives in Oakland and she uses it all the time. She said it's a bit hit-or-miss, though. She's shown up at some places and they're like, "here's a bag, fit it up with whatever and we'll charge you $n for it." Once it was a shelf of stuff and they said she could as much stuff as she wanted from the shelf for the same price. Once when I was visiting her, we got a huge bag of baked goods. If nothing else, it can help familiarize you with areas and businesses you may not have come across otherwise.

The bagel place is like that sometimes where they haven't made the buzz yet and they let us pick. The Jamaican place has seemed the same every time, but it's a great portion of assorted items. We also got good stuff from a vegan, non-every allergen place. The prices were premium, but the stuff was really tasty, and even though we didn't have special diet restrictions, other family members do, do we could promote it to them. We've also gotten to try different things we don't normally order, like we get a big bag of pepperoni rolls from a pizza place, and the other place is the sausage food truck thing outside Home Depot which was actually really tasty.

Only once did we feel a place was a little less generous, but it still wasn't a bad deal for the price, just in comparison to other grab bags.

It's got us to try both local stuff we've never gotten to check out, and also things a little further away than we'd normally go to because it's a cheap adventure with really nothing to lose.

For me it's StreetComplete. It's like Pokémon Go, but you're doing actual map quests that help verify or correct information in Open Street Maps.

And if you do enough per month, you get free map downloads without a subscription if you use OSM the app.

I think it's only on Android though.

This is the most addictive thing I've done in a while. It's rare to find something where just two clicks can help in a bigger project, and at least where I live there are thousands on tiny dots to check

I wish they'd get people to verify transit schedules literally the only reason Google maps finds itself on my phone

Hah, bold of you to assume my local public transport actually has a schedule.

The Transit app has been quite helpful for me to replace Google Maps!

Traffick Cam: Help combat sex trafficking by uploading photos of hotel rooms from your travels

Traffickers regularly post photographs of their victims posed in hotel rooms for online advertisements. These photographs are evidence that can be used to find and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes. In order to use these photos, however, investigators must be able to determine where the photos were taken.

This apps seems to be poorly rated. What has your experience been?

There seems to be little information online about the organization who runs it, Exchange Initiative. They have an inactive Facebook account and an abandoned website. I don't see myself using this without having more assurance on its efficacy and privacy policies

I'm recently enjoying walkscape, which is an RPG where you have to walk in real life to progress in game activities, such as crafting or fighting.

It's in closed beta, but you can sign up for the next wave of beta invites and I got in pretty fast

Also, I downloaded streetcomplete but haven't really gotten around to it. It's an app where you map out your surroundings for open source maps with Infos, like opening times at a bank or the width of the street or the type of road, etc. A cool concept, but I always forget about it

I have been using walkscape as well. My walks with the dogs have almost doubled in length, just because I have a little incentive to achieve a goal in the game.

I've been eyeing walkspace since I discovered it on lemmy, it's just that because it's in Beta waves, I know when I'll get access to it, my hype to try it out will be gone. And I won't use it :/ so I'm waiting

Haha I was gonna suggest it too, it's been a lot of fun! Helps get me walking and the community are nice :-)

I geocache and some people don't know about c:geo. It's a really good app for geocaching because it has so many tools.

Indeed! I geocache and didn't know about it! Downloaded! I'll be running it to try!

c:geo is great! The official app won't show you caches over a certain difficulty (don't remember the exact number) unless you're premium. They're not actually premium only, you can see them on the website, it's just a bullshit restriction on the app.

c:geo is a lifesaver for that reason alone, imo.

Pocket Bard is great for setting adaptive music in D&D sessions. Pick a setting (town, cave, woods, dungeon, etc.), choose the activity the party is doing (exploration or battle), choose an intensity. The music will automatically adapt and fluidly change to match the situation. My only complaint is they somehow still haven't added a tavern setting.

Do you know of an alternative that allows custom music and sounds? I haven't found anything that works well.

Walkscape. It's like Pokémon go and runescape but without the emptional manipulation.

Or

Streetcomplete - gamify openstreetmap and help fill out the map.

I just got accepted into the beta for walkscapes. It's such a relaxing game and using steps vs distance is super nice to have as a tracking system.

I've been enjoying using both of these, and they make a great pairing. Go for a walk, check out the streets!

URL Check It acts like an intermediary to open in browser when you click on a URL. Its useful to kinda look at the URL before it opens and choose browser.

Audio Share Relays audio from PC to mobile through network

PCAPDroid Packet capture for Android

edit: typo

starred this comment, great recommendations

I'd also like to add:

WiFiAnalyzer: Find empty channels to put your network into, and also scan hotel rooms for hidden wifi cameras

GPSTest: Debug your GPS signal to see why its taking so long to lock on.

That sounds interesting, do wifi cameras show up differently compared to normal networks?

They tend to have hidden SSIDs. Just a network without a name that your phone doesn't see

I've been using Daylio for years.

It's designed to track moods and the activities associated with them, but it's adaptable, so I use it to track my headaches. It's very easy to use and it doesn't feel onerous to record the information.

I used to use it a few years ago! Then I forgot about it, and now I'm just using Obsidian, but it's a fun way to think about our days

Daylio has 10M+ downloads on Google Play

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I got a couple of apps I'd recommend in a heartbeat.

Spectdroid is a spectrogram app. Its unreasonable how often I'm using this app. I got some mild tinnitus that comes and goes and this app allows me to find out if I got some actual weird buzzing I'm the house or if it's just in my head.

And LocalSend is an amazing app for sending files between various devices and OSes over a local network. I no longer need to set up file shares, plug in my phone to a computer, or use cloud storage just to transfer over some files.

LocalSend is amazing. So easy to use! Impressed that google haven't been able to make a product as simple as localsend for Android.

Knowing Google, they will probably kill it after months of neglect.

I'm not sure what you mean; Google doesn't have anything to do with LocalSend, do they?

I honestly feel silly for not having looked up a solution like it earlier.

LocalSend

I've been using TrebleShot for that for a years now, but maybe I'll try LocalSend

Spectroid is great! I use it to tune my 3d printer.

Oh, that sounds cool! What is it you tune? I imagine some coil whine from heating elements maybe?

It's for the belt tension actually! Like a guitar tuner. It's just one tool in the process though as it is not just the frequency of the belts that matter. Instead the frequency/resonance helps get the belts into similar tension before doing more adjustment.

My partner introduced me to the Dutch "112" app (112 is the emergency telephone number in Europe).

I hope I never need it of course, but if I do it automatically shares my location and it allows me to chat instead of call if I would be in a situation that requires that.

Also, I really enjoy Jepster as my biking computer when cycling. The guy that built it is also very approachable when you find a problem, which is great.

And when you're planning to get kids have a look at "Kinder"...

Those type of stuff should come preinstalled in phones rather than fucking Candy Crush or Facebook.

PianOli: A little toy piano for your kids to play without being able to swipe out and mess with your other apps.

Flashlight: Flashlight from the Simple suite, that allows you to pulse or strobe your phone's torch. It can even pulse SOS messages.

Moonlight: Stream your entire desktop (e.g. gaming PC) to your phone using the sunshine (previously nvidia gamestream) protocol. Works fantastic.

Yidio to find movies and shows and where they are cheapest.

Transit to take public transit to get somewhere. It’s not designed like a typical map app.

Db meter to see if the audio around you is too loud. I use this a lot when at bars.

Onx/gaia for mapping/nav when off-roading and other recreational activities where youll be off network.

Could you explain more about transit?

It’s designed specifically to take public transit. It also uses your location data when on a bus/train to let other people know if there are delays.

During route planning you see the type of transit and what your connections look like. It also tells you when the next bus/train is arriving. Knowing the next bus is 10mins away vs 45mins is important.

I've been using Transit to get around the DC Metro area for a few years now. It's pretty damn helpful and reliable. Sometimes they're not accurate (buses don't show up in their system, or are in the system, but never show at the stop) but I expect that with public transit.

Either way, it's the best app I've found (for this area at least).

For anyone looking to play Super Mario Sunshine and wants to consider 100%, there's "Blue Coin Tracker".

Not only can you check off what you've found, but it's got screenshots, descriptions, and strategies to help you find it. Even links to YouTube clips if you're still stuck!

It's invaluable. The blue coins are pretty evil in that game.

This reminds me of tinyapps.org . I loved this resource in the early aughts.

If you travel a lot, Toilet finder.

Edit: and not an app, but a website: Pairdrop - really useful for cross-platform file sharing, especially when you just need to email to colleagues something you snapped with your personal phone, but yoe have overly tight IT systems in place at work that stop you from connecting your personal phone to your email or OneDrive.

Opener. Opens things in the app you want when iOS won’t.

Pretext. Markdown and Plain Text Editor for iOS. Simple and works. Can’t beat that.

Léon URL Cleaner

It's a simple app that strips extra unnecessary details like tracking tags from copied URL links. Highly recommended for sake of privacy, plus the cleaned links are shorter and tidier.

Trail Sense, it's all the "survival" tools in one great package. Do I use it often? No. Does it feel like unwrapping my favourite toy every time I open it? Absolutely.

I use the AR tool for sun positions every time I'm finding a tent spot or to watch a sunrise/set, and the bubble level is perfect for finding a tent spot that isn't tilted 2 degrees towards your head so you wake up with a headache.

That is a great use of this tool that I have not thought about!

If sunrise and sunset is your thing then the website suncalc.net works great to find what places will have the best views for different times of year.

I go watch the sunset as part of my solstice and equinox adventures so finding new places with nice views is fun.

It may have to start being my thing, I moved to a place on ground floor with no sunrise or sunset view. I never thought about it when moving, so now I'll have to supplement my sunset intake

sshuttle, the poor man's VPN. It creates an SSH tunnel to a remote host, and routes all traffic to a specific address or subnet through it.

kinder world, it's a plant-watering emotions-thinking about game that's a cover for a mindfulness app. really effective because cute animal characters.

I make an email app called Port87. It’s better than any other email apps (imo), because it organizes all your email for you.

It’s still behind a waitlist, because I’m working out the kinks (damn kinky software).

How is the labeling feature different from plus sub addressing (ex: johndoe+spam@email.com) and what platform(s) is the app for? If it says on your site, I missed it

Well, it is subaddressing, but has more related features on top of that. It automatically labels emails based on the address, and allows you to set some settings for that label, like mark as read, send push notifications, show in the “Aggbox” (the equivalent of the inbox), and screen new senders. That last one is important, because it means you can use labels for communicating with real people, and labels for getting email from automated senders (like your account email).

Right now, it’s a progressive web app. I’m working on a mobile app and IMAP support (so it will work with any email client). I’m also working on custom domain support, so you can bring your own domain and if you end up wanting to move somewhere else, you can keep all the same addresses you set up.

Grainstorm

It's a ridiculously versatile granular sampler synthesizer. Obviously not for everyone, but it's super fun to just make weird soundscapes with. Even with just your phone mic.

For iOS/mac, I love the Vinegar extension. It’s great for stripping YouTube down to just the video, provided you use Safari instead of the YouTube app. It also regularly updates. Yes, I know there are free ways to do this (it’s $1.99), but this is more about convenience and supporting a dev.

It’s been absolutely fantastic for me, I keep recommending it to friends but they don’t like the $1.99 price and yet keep getting upset when ads play. I’ve started replacing apps with safari links on my home page and YouTube is one of them thanks to vinegar.

FYI you can get ad-free youtube in safari for free with AdGuard

Unified Remote. It's a little janky, but it does you to turn your phone into a trackpad and/or keyboard for your phone. It works with swipe typing, and allows you to use keyboard shortcuts such as Alt+Tab or Win+Shift+Arrow.

Truly the best way I've found of using my PC from my couch.

Used for years, unfortunately it appears to be abandoned.

Yeah I wish they were still adding new features and stuff. But I haven't found a better alternative yet, so I guess that's what we have.

Try KDE Connect. It works over LAN, has KB+M input, media controls, file transfer, among many other things. It's available for many platforms.

I've tried it. There were three issues:

  1. Mouse movement was pretty choppy. Not exactly a dealbreaker, but it took a little extra effort to aim at buttons.
  2. There wasn't an easy way to do keyboard shortcuts. I googled the issue and people were suggesting to change the system keyboard to one that includes extra keys like Windows, Ctrl, etc. I really didn't want to deal with that.
  3. The interface was pretty hard to navigate. In the absence of extra keyboard keys, I looked into creating a custom script in the app to maybe do things like Alt+tab a different way, and I never found it. Both apps said it had to be configured on the other device.

Insight Timer is a meditation timer with the features I like:

  • timer
  • intervals
  • save as preset

it’s also got a huge marketplace of guided meditations, though I don’t use them

On Google Play, Insight Timer has 5M+ downloads and is Editors' Choice. It is not a small app, and it's constantly trying to get you to pay for premium. I have never cared about or noticed low quality audio until trying to use this app. It's been a very weird experience trying to relax and noticing how poor the recordings sound. I assume this is another upsell thing

ShareWaste. You can sign up that you have a compost pile or chicken to feed, etc, and people with food scraps can find places to "donate" to! I have 3 or 4 regular contributers to my compost pile!

ChildIDFile. Creates a secure file of your kid's information that lives only on your personal device but can be shared with police quickly. Hopefully you never need it

These have been around for quite a while, but I recently learned about clipboard managers. I haven't met someone who uses one, perhaps because it is an inconspicuous tool. Regardless, I love being able to quickly paste text that I use frequently!

I'm still testing them, so I can't really say "this one's the best", but here's one: https://hluk.github.io/CopyQ/

Chafa - I can turn pictures in ANSI art for my terminal

Syncthing - A godsend for me and I can't believe how easy it is to set up and have it just work, I was almost disappointed when I was setting it up expecting issues and then the mf just works perfectly fine without issue

Tailscale - Very useful to remotely ssh to my computer(s) even from my phone

Termux - terminal on android

This one you may have heard of and it's not exactly niche, indie or small but I'll add it anyways just in case: Too Good To Go - allows you to get cheap food and save it from going to waste. I use it a lot when I can't go to the university cafeteria and don't feel like cooking

Lots.

  • Spectroid: a realtime frequency analysis of sounds from microphone (Fast Fourier transform)
  • The Powder Toy: a falling sand sandbox, where you can play with and mix and react various elements.
  • Sketchbook: app to draw, lots of pencil styles

I'm not sure whether they fit the "indie" category, tho.