This summer, I've committed to trying a bunch of apps to help me learn new skills, without spending a fortune. These eight apps can be used from the comfort of your phone and can help you nurture your new fixation in no time.
1 - Skillshare for a Bit of Everything
Skillshare is a resource and app that you can use to discover, watch, and learn new creative skills such as drawing, animation, calligraphy, music, photography, and more. The app offers online courses through guided content and professional-led classes, making learning skills and creative software accessible for beginners.
What I like most about Skillshare is that, with a free trial, you can preview the first class for all courses available (and see details such as instructor, course duration, project details, and level), then decide if you're up for committing to the app and its offerings.
If you want to unlock subscriber-only classes, you can upgrade your free plan to Skillshare Premium ($31.99/month or 169.99/year). This will allow you to download videos offline and participate in discussions with classmates. You can also track your achievements and pick up classes/videos where you left off.
Skillshare has a web app and is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
2 - Babbel for Learning New Languages
Want to move away from Duolingo as your preferred language-learning app after its heart system update? Try Babbel! This is a user-friendly language-learning app that offers 13 languages, including French, Italian, German, and European Spanish up to varying CEFR levels.
Babbel is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
3 - Mimo for Coding
Mimo is a fun, gamified education app to help you code, whether you're starting with your first line of code or just want a refresher to strengthen your foundations. You can learn HTML, Python, JavaScript, SQL, and more, completing short projects to improve your coding skills.
You can track your progress by earning XP with every lesson completed and maintaining a learning streak. Another feature that cemented Mimo as one of my most visited education apps is its "Playground," which allows you to code and test projects and environments as you learn.
With a premium subscription ($9.99/month or $89.99/month), you can skip ads, access more paths and projects, and get certificates for completed courses.
Mimo is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
4 - Yousician for a Virtual Music Companion
The app isn't intimidating, even for beginners and you don't have to worry about falling behind on fast instructions. The app can help you learn basics like tuning and chord progressions if you're just getting started with a stringed instrument. Singers can use karaoke-style lessons to sing along to melodies and learn new techniques, while an instructor-led guide is available in most lessons. Yousician also has a virtual coach who listens to your progress and gives feedback, making the experience feel more two-sided.
As someone who has trained in singing for years, I found Yousician to be a good way to warm up my vocals and go through some foundation lessons to keep my vocals in good condition. Picking up and playing the guitar was also relatively easier than other music apps I've tried before, and even when I'm not scrolling through lessons, I use the app to quickly tune my instrument.
Yousician is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
5 - Planta for Better Gardening
Planta is the perfect app for wannabe green-thumbs looking to pick up gardening as a hobby. As a beginner plant parent, I wanted to do a decent job growing my outdoor garden and be consistent with plant care, which is when Planta came into the picture. This gardening app helps you cover all the basics. Create a virtual garden to keep track of your plants, get reminders for watering (depending on each plant), find ideal locations to keep plants, and take photos to check your garden's progress over time.
Planta is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
6 - Kitchen Stories for Spicing Up Cooking
Kitchen Stories is a virtual recipe library that can help you keep track of and discover new recipes that you want to try cooking. Whether you're hosting a dinner party for friends or trying your hand at cooking different cuisines, searching for recipes and finding a reliable blog or video can take some time, and may not always turn out the way you want. Kitchen Stories can help streamline your cooking process, storing all your recipe cards in one place while also creating shopping lists for ingredients you would need for your favorite recipes.
After trying the app's recipes for about a month of meal prep, I was successfully able to switch up my meal plan and try new recipes from Kitchen Stories chefs that were easy to follow (and tasted delicious). My meals also turned out consistently tasty without any disasters, unlike what happens when I sometimes try out new viral recipes.
Kitchen Stories is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
7 - Sky Guide for Stargazing
If you're a novice to stargazing, Sky Guide can be a good app to help you get started. This AR constellation app helps you identify and learn about stars, constellations, and planets, helping you quickly level up your knowledge. The AR mode on this app is extremely user-friendly and lots of fun to use, and is suited for whichever level of stargazing you're on. It comes with a compass that makes navigation easier (especially if you're, say, out hiking).
Sky Guide has in-app resources about moon phases in your location, alerts for aurora or ISS sightings, and takes you through what's visible in the sky for the night depending on what you're using to see (including telescope, camera, binoculars, and the naked eye). What I like about Sky Guide is that the app's AR mode can be used even if you're not outdoors, so you can continue discovering constellations and stars (and their placement) sitting on your couch. You can use Sky Guide on Apple Vision Pro for a better experience if you have one.
Sky Guide is available on the App Store.
8 - DailyArt for Improving My Art Knowledge
DailyArt is an art history and education app tailor-made for art nerds. This app delivers daily tidbits about art history through one piece of fine art every day, accompanied by a short story detailing its history, praise, and artist. The app is also a free resource to learn more about your favorite art pieces, artists, and art styles, hosting over 4,000 collections of art that you can scroll through.
Along with DailyArt, I use apps like Poesie (which delivers you a poem a day) to read and learn more about art history in a condensed, quick way. I've also added the DailyArt widget to my iPhone home screen, not only to make it look much prettier but to quickly access my art dose of the day.
DailyArt is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
Browsing the education category in your phone's app store can help you find some valuable, free apps that can help develop (or revisit) a skill in your free time. You can also try online learning platforms like Coursera or Harvard University's free courses if you're looking for something more academic.
Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/free-apps-im-using-this-summer-to-pick-up-new-skills/?utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=HTG-202506140700&utm_source=HTG-NL&user=amltLm5hZ3kyQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ&lctg=02f46df6687a5c6b6c6a51453f460af32dc1bbe4d7321e3d7b193ec97761583e