The Top 7 Apps that Make You Smarter Every Day

Intelligence can be defined and measured in multiple ways. To an extent, it is subjective and mostly constant. However, you can improve skills like critical thinking, logic, and knowledge about various subjects. Several apps help stimulate and train the brain in these areas. By using these apps every day, you can acquire a certain degree of smartness.

Here, we’ll look at some of the best apps that can help you with that.

1. Deepstash

If you’ve ever wanted to read the most informative content on the web or learn about new books, Deepstash is the way to go. It is a social platform where you can share excerpts from articles, books, or create content of your own. The content is divided into psychology, data science, finance, health and fitness, and several other categories.

Deepstash presents the most complex information in a highly condensed format. Select your preferred topics, and the app creates a personalized feed for you. You can then learn new information by quickly reading the summarized cards instead of the entire article or book. You can ‘stash’ it and create your personal knowledge library if you like a particular idea.

You can opt for the pro version for handpicked ideas, intuitive filters, and offline functionality. This app brings the best of web and literature to you instead of searching for them.

Download: Deepstash for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

2. Blinkist

Reading books take time and patience. And fitting a reading habit into busy schedules can be pretty challenging. Blinkist helps fill that gap by offering key learnings from any book in a short 15-minute session. The app creates 15-minute blinks of every non-fiction book. Unlike Deepstash, it only focuses on non-fiction books.

Blinkist takes audiobooks and e-books and combines them to create just minutes-long blinks. You can even cover some books in just eight minutes. In the explore section of the app, you can find books based on your interests. Either use the search bar or select your favorite categories. Blinkist also features theme-based collections. For example, a collection called ‘This Is The Digital Age’ has nine handpicked blinks that talk about technology and its future.

However, you need to upgrade to the premium version to access Collections. You can choose to either read your blinks or listen to them like a series of podcasts. The app has other useful features, such as the option to save blinks, add them to favorites, and use a highlighter.

Download: Blinkist for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

3. Elevate

Elevate is an award-winning brain training application. It uses proven methods to help you get better at mental math, improve memory recall, vocabulary, and grammar. The app uses fun games and activities to improve your skills over time. The gamified approach of Elevate keeps you motivated to complete more activities.

Elevate uses a proprietary scale called the Elevate Proficiency Quotient (EPQ) for skill assessments. The training sessions gradually get harder with time. There are around 40 mini-games in the app. Therefore, the exercises will never get repetitive. According to Elevate’s independent study, using the app can boost your academic performance by up to 69{f5ac61d6de3ce41dbc84aacfdb352f5c66627c6ee4a1c88b0642321258bd5462}.

You can take the seven-day free trial to test if Elevate is worth your time. The pro version unlocks all the mini-games, a comprehensive EPQ report, and several other features. So, if you’re looking for a fun way to boost your analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities, this is a great option.

Download: Elevate for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

4. TED

TED is a non-profit organization that presents highly informative ideas in the form of short talks. Thought leaders compress decades of experience and knowledge into powerful 18-minute talks. The topics covered range from science and technology to personal growth and global issues.

You can use the app to learn about a new idea every day. That can drastically help you increase the sphere of your knowledge. Apart from detailed talks, the app also features a dedicated podcasts section. Here, you will find podcasts that focus on specific topics. For example, TED has podcasts centered around health, design, business, climate, and other interesting subjects.

TED has a category selection system to personalize your feed. You begin by selecting the topics you’re interested in, and the app populates your feed with relevant talks. You can also filter videos based on duration and around 100 languages.

Download: TED for Android | iOS (Free)

5. CuriosityStream

CuriosityStream is the world’s leading documentary streaming service. Documentaries are a comprehensive educational tool that can help keep your brain sharp. They allow you to learn new concepts and improve the depth of your knowledge. Learn about nature, astronomy, history, or nutrition through high-quality documentaries.

Apart from the numerous categories and titles, the platform has a special section for kids called the Curiosity KIDS. Also, new titles are added to the platform every week. That means you will never run out of content to watch. You can even browse shows by specific collections.

CuriosityStream is one of the best visual learning tools. With thousands of 4K documentaries, you’ll always have something new to learn.

Download: CuriosityStream for Android | iOS (Starts at $2.99/month)

6. Refind

Refind is an article curation app that can help you gain advanced knowledge about any subject. Like Deepstash, it creates a highly personal feed based on your interests. While signing up, you have to select topics, rate links, and follow thought leaders and publications. The more you interact with the in-app suggestions, you will get a more accurate feed.

A differentiating factor is the quality of content on the platform. However, Refind does not present articles in crunched format. Instead, it encourages you to read seven articles a day to become smarter in a specific niche. If you do not have the time to read an article, you can listen to it instead.

For example, if you’re interested in science, you can follow and read articles by NASA, MIT Technology Review, TED, and much more. Refind has one of the best content personalization. Therefore, you only get access to the type of content you like.

Download: Refind for Android | iOS (Free)

7. Uptime

If you find reading long articles and hundreds of pages difficult, Uptime is the perfect app for you. It summarizes a book, course, or documentary into ‘hacks’ that you can learn in just five minutes. Uptime delivers insights and summaries of each book in the format of Instagram-like stories.

You can access unlimited books, courses, personalized content, unlimited board creation, and much more in the premium version. However, Uptime will yield the best results if you use it as a complementary tool. After reading a book, you can revisit it on Uptime to remember the lessons and insights.

Download: Uptime for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

Learn More, Get Smart

The fundamental of mastering any subject or skill is to learn more about it constantly. Continuous learning and re-learning can indeed help you get smarter in that subject. Learning new ideas also helps keep the brain active and develop better critical thinking. Therefore, you can get a higher level of intellectual stimulation and improve over time with these apps.

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