Apple Store Awards 2021 spotlight some of the best apps and games for Apple platforms and devices

Each year, the App Store Awards spotlight some of the best apps and games for Apple platforms and devices. Think of them as the Oscars of the App Store world: an honor bestowed by the industry itself. You have to be damn good to win a prize – and sometimes it takes years of app to get there (consider the best iPhone app of 2021, Toca Life: World, which has slowly iterated and improved since launch. in 2018).

As another year ends, it’s worth taking the time to review some of the best apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac that you can download right now. Not all of them need to be published This Year: Many apps have received significant updates over the past 12 months, which has taken them to a whole new level.

If you’re looking forward to vacation downtime, ditch Instagram and be sure to download some of the apps and games on this list instead. It will be time well spent.

Toca’s Life World

Let’s start with Apple’s iPhone app of the year, Toca Life World. If you’ve never heard of this app then don’t worry it’s not just you but if you have kids you can probably tell them about it.

This is a world building app for kids. You can create your own character, go to different places and take on the role of different scenarios. It’s an app that helps kids learn to express themselves in a safer environment than something like Roblox. The game is free to play, although there are of course plenty of options for expansion packs in the form of in-app purchases.

It’s probably not an app that you’d download yourself (although it’s just as addicting for adults who could be entertained by, say, setting up a virtual house). But if you are visiting your family while on vacation, this is a great way to keep the kids busy so the adults can actually relax.

Procreate

While Apple didn’t name the Procreate iPad App of the Year, we still think it’s probably the best iPad app out there. It’s a digital drawing app, and this year their animation assist feature has made some major improvements. In fact, Procreate is an app that keeps giving: every two months it comes with a feature that levels up the entire creativity space of the iPad.

Procreate deserves special recognition this year for the way it implemented Animation Assist. You can draw subjects, create their paths, define perimeters, and press play to see your drawing come to life. Magic.

LumaFusion

While Procreate is in the drawing, LumaFusion is in the video editing. It’s a multitrack video editor that really shines on an iPad Pro with an M1 chip. It is an easy to use application that allows you to edit six video tracks and six audio tracks at the same time.

Think of it as Final Cut Pro X for iPad (something Apple still refuses to do). While you don’t get all of the same features or the plugin library, you can get pretty close with LumaFusion. This is especially great for content creators who are just starting out and want to edit videos on the go.

Carrot weather

After a few years apps tend to hit a kind of plateau, and that was the story of Carrot Weather: It was a sneaky and gorgeous weather app that had its followers, but it didn’t add much new.

But from 2021, Carrot Weather has really shaken things up. He made the app free and switched to a subscription model that offered stable income and a whole new modular approach to the app.

Carrot Weather users can now basically design their own weather app, creating different themes with the settings you want to display and the way you want them displayed.

Moreover, the Apple Watch app, with its many complications, is also very good (which is why it won the Watch App of the Year 2021 award). And the same sense of humor remains, although it’s probably best to make sure your phone is on silent before opening it in polite company, lest it start cursing you about. weather.

Arts and crafts

Years ago, Evernote was all the rage among note-taking apps. Now, Notion seems to have picked up on those honors, and for good reason, but the problem with Notion is that it doesn’t feel right at home on any Apple platform, especially the Mac.

Enter the craft industry. If you want a thoughtfully designed native experience for collaborative document editing and note taking on an Apple platform, this is it. It’s a relatively new entrant to space, but it’s already making big waves. The app is visually simple, beautiful, and it runs fairly quickly (including Google Docs-style collaborative editing).

Myst

Myst is back, baby. This adventure video game was first released in 1993. Almost 30 years later, it was named Mac Game of the Year 2021 from the App Store. Myst ‘The longevity of s is quite remarkable – it’s one of those games that gets updated and remastered for every new platform.

And now a nice new version is available for the latest Macs. The first-person adventure game is as it always has been: an immersive way to explore a virtual world, to go on adventures and, of course, to solve puzzles.

Cloth

If there’s one app that has really exploded over the past year or so, it’s Canva. The free graphic design website has taken over all iPhones and iPads as the app has improved even further, providing more functionality and flexibility.

Want to create a quick poster? Use a Canva template. How about an Instagram story? Or a LinkedIn post? Canva will do the trick. It’s no exaggeration to say that this is an essential tool for anyone trying to build a brand identity online without investing in a graphic design degree.

buzz

Dating apps come and go. Either they become a cultural punching bag like Tinder, or they stay in their own niche. But Bumble (with Hinge) has managed to stay relevant even in 2021. Nothing has changed much in 2021. But given Bumble’s commitment to privacy, this is one of your best bets for romance. assisted by application.

Peanut

Peanut is like Tinder, but for motherhood. It’s a safe community designed only to navigate the experience of having a baby and get through those difficult first years. It helps you connect with other parents who are going through the same path, so that you can share your struggles and find support.

You can find groups, connect with someone one-on-one, or you can join Clubhouse-style live audio rooms.

MARVEL Future revolution

Marvel’s Future Revolution is an MCU fan’s dream. It’s an open-world role-playing game that touches all of the highlights, from Battle for New York, The Avengers, to a new update inspired by the eternal.

This is a role-playing game, but the adventures it sends you are customizable. You can create, modify and improve your characters. You can choose their powers, and even design their costumes (there are over 400 million possible combinations, per hero). It is the best way to enter your favorite comic book universe while looking at your phone.