Our 5 free and paid Android/iOS applications of the week

Like every week, I'm going to talk about 5 free or paid mobile applications and games that are worth a download. Depending on what phone you have, you will need to go to either the Google Play Store or Apple's App Store to get these. Apart from my own selections, a couple of apps come courtesy of our NextPit community and were actually shared by our active forum members!

From mobile games to productivity applications, here are the 5 free and paid Android/iOS applications that left everyone at NextPit impressed this week!

Disable Touch

Disable Touch is a free, ad-free application that allows you to disable the touchscreen on your smartphone. Now, if you're wondering why someone would want to disable the most used part of a smartphone, read on. Basically, the developer's idea behind this app is to let users play video content in the background, or with the smartphone in their pocket. In case you weren't already aware, apps like Youtube or Netflix don't allow playback with your smartphone screen locked. While some people work around this by simply not turning off the screen before they put their phones in the pocket, we all know this is definitely not an ideal thing to do.

With Disable Touch, just roll out the notification drawer, turn off the touch screen and voilà! To reactivate it, just go back through the same widget in the notifier's pane (which itself always remains active).

I did the test if this works on Youtube and Netflix, and am happy to report that the app works very well. Coupled with a good ad blocker, it makes a subscription to Youtube Premium (for streaming music, for example) reduntant. 

Disable Touch is very handy if you don't have Youtube Premium / © NextPit

You can download the Disable Touch application from the Google Play Store.

Focustime, divide your schedule to rule better

Focustime is an app that the NextPit Community helped me discover on our forum. It is a productivity application with a task scheduler inbuilt.

The idea is to set yourself a set number of specific tasks over the course of a day and then devote yourself fully to them in short 25 minute sessions.The purpose of this app seems to help you refocus your available brain time. With the app you can create multiple sessions with each session having its own dedicated timer. The countdown will resume from where you left off if the 25 minutes have not elapsed.

You can intersperse each session with short, pre-programmable, configurable breaks. Finally, a balance sheet and a history of all completed sessions appears towards the end of your day. Note that this app is completely free and there are no in-app purchase options.

Focustime will hep you refocus and help you complete your daily tasks. / © NextPit

You can download the Focustime application from the Google Play Store.

NextGam 

NextGam is an application made by French developer Simon Revenu, which could be summarized as an AlloCiné dedicated to video games. The app lists the main games and releases planned for the coming months, regardless of the platform (the app also takes into account the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles).

For each game, you can access a dedicated sheet with basic information about the release date, developers, trailers with info pages and related articles. You have the ability to follow the games you are most interested in and receive notifications for their respective releases.

For each game, a countdown timer is displayed at the top of the screen until the final release of the game. The app offers a search tool that offers to refine the selection by release date, by the level of hype around the game (from 0 to 100) then sort by platform (mobile games are also included) and by genre.

The application is free, a banner is displayed at the bottom of the screen but  as of now there are no in-app purchase options. The user is also not required to create an account to use the app. One issue that I did face on this app was that it did not work with my OnePlus 8T running OxygenOS 11.

I did, however, try the app on two other smartphones (Galaxy S20 and Asus ROG Phone 3) – both running Android 10, and I had no problems to report.

NextGam is a useful app if you are an avid gamer / © NextPit

You can download the NextGam application from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

Pointagon

Pointagon is an interesting little app that lets users create personalized challenges to be taken up in a group with your loved ones. You can choose a start and end date and define a set of rules.

What's nice is that the app plays on the competitive aspect by displaying a ranking of the most productive members and a victory counter. The app is supposed to contain ads but I didn't see any during my short use. An in-app purchase gives access to the premium version of the app, which is simply to get rid of the ads.

Pointagon is a good way to forget about the "relou" aspect of a task or an objective by playing together and by playing the game. / © NextPit

You can download the Pointagon application from the Google Play Store.

Look to Speak, "A look is in any country a language"

Look to Speak is a new experimental application from Google that aims to make communication easier for people with speech and motor disabilities. The application allows users to choose pre-selected phrases or words on their smartphone screen with their eyes.

Compatible with Android 9.0 and above, including Android One, simply point your smartphone slightly below your eyes, as if you wanted to take a sad selfie. You then have to look right or left to eliminate the proposals that don't interest you and arrive at the one of your choice.

Eight expressions, customizable and interchangeable, are at your disposal on the left and right of the screen. Each time your eye sweeps in one direction or another, the sets of expressions are halved and change sides until only the one you want to throw remains.

The whole thing works pretty well even if you still have to move your eyes without moving your head, which can cause eye fatigue after a few tries.

You can download the Look to Speak application from the Google Play Store.

What do you think of this selection? Have you already had a chance to test some of the applications on this list? What would be your apps of the week? Share your opinions in the comments!

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