Single-Serving Apps
Some love for software that just does what you want it to.
Everyone has been there: You’re killing time, scrolling through your phone’s settings when you realize your internal storage—which seemed infinite when you first bought your phone—is almost full. There’s a kind of stomach-churning concern you initially get thinking about freeing up space by deleting photos and relying on cloud storage, so you move on. That 3 GB of cached data on Instagram is enticing, but no: that’s a daily driver, and it’ll just fill up again. What to let go of instead? Most phones have features that allow you to sort apps by use date, so you start there. Bingo: a dozen apps you haven’t used in over a year that alone aren’t worth much, but together net your phone some breathing room.
Maybe you’re fastidious enough to audit your life with regularity, de-cluttering your physical and digital spaces into something streamlined, organized and efficient. Problem solved… Until you get the urge to play that cute horse racing game you deleted a few weeks ago and now have to be patient as it downloads—wait, 31GB?! You’re organized, but also in an unintentional download/delete/re-download cycle.
To be fair, while some apps are begrudgingly forced upon you (your doctor‘s office switching to yet another telehealth app, or your city government rolling out its own e-ticketing system to “solve” public transit), the majority of apps on your phone are there by choice; some you use every day, but most you probably don’t. We explored some great examples of the latter—what we consider “single-serving” apps—by canvassing our team, friends, and followers. These examples are thoughtfully designed and efficiently coded, even if they can also prompt thoughts of “I haven’t used this in months, I should probably delete it to free up space…” Their crime? Doing exactly what you need them to do and not asking for anything else. They deserve some attention, too!
The Masters Tournament
Recommended by Tom, Director of Client Partnerships
Funnily enough, this blog post was Tom’s idea in the first place, but when he first recommended The Masters Tournament app for iOS as his example of a great single-serving app, I smiled. It’s no secret Tom loves golf, but I would come to realize that he was far from the only person with a deep appreciation for this app.
“There’s this trend where people download it for the week of the tournament and then delete it afterwards, but everyone’s sad to see it go. Not just because the tournament is over, but because it’s kind of the first and last example of an app that does exactly what you want it to do in the niche you’re using it.”
“Every year it peaks the charts, gets featured by Apple, and gets extremely high praise as being the best app in all of sports. It‘s available on the web, every Apple platform (minus native Mac) and Android. It supports live activities, widgets, and I think it even has a brand new Vision Pro experience this year.”
Even as someone with almost no exposure to golf (outside of Everybody’s Golf 🔥), and no fewer than 3 months after the tournament was over, I downloaded The Masters Tournament, and it was clear to see why it’s a favorite. A lot of attention to detail was spared when designing it, and the level of polish is admirable. It was easy to see why, too, when I inadvertently ran into one of the apps’ developers, CM Harrington, when posting about it on Mastodon.
“I had that gig for 3 years while at Imaginary Forces. We took it from just the website, to all mobile platforms. It looks like you‘re still using our 3D models (which were so good, EA used them!), which is amazing!”
Flighty
Recommended by Jillian, Sr. Project Manager
Almost everyone on the Lickability teams loves Flighty, and it’s sort of a case of “what else hasn’t already been said?”
“I want the most reliable and stable app possible for something that can be so stressful. I think the only reason I don’t keep it around all the time is that I can’t book flights directly through it. My workflow is usually pricing things out with Google Flights, suffering through the airline sites, then ditching everything ASAP once I have an opportunity to add everything to Flighty. If I was flying all the time, it would always have a home on my phone. ”
It’s so well-designed Apple basically Sherlocked it by integrating flight tracking and boarding passes into iOS and Apple Wallet respectively, but we still feel Flighty is even better. 😉
Air Canada + Aeroplan
Recommended by Lily, Social Media Manager
Who would have thought an airline’s first-party app would have fans... To be fair, my answer comes with a few asterisks.
- Until very recently, I owned an Android phone which disqualified me from some of the better air travel organization apps like Flighty.
- Before 2024, I had never left the country or even owned a passport.
- Can we all agree that the experience of booking and managing flights is, on average, frustrating at best?
In 2024, I travelled to Montreal with my best friend and arrived the day before Halloween as a birthday trip for the two of us. It ended up being an amazing trip, but we were each a little nervous to embark on international travel, even if it was just to our northern neighbors. When I say Air Canada’s Aeroplan app alone left me better prepared than the US or Canada’s tourism websites combined, I mean it.
Our flight path was a bit complicated, with a very tight connection at LAX, so I downloaded the app to familiarize myself with the itinerary. After inputting my info not only did it pull in data from my connecting flight, but it saw my inbound country and walked me through what to expect: clarifying what to do if I was travelling with a passport vs a NEXUS pass, showing a cleanly-rendered diagram of Montreal International Airport and where I should go to get bus and metro passes, where I would eventually go when it was time to exit the country through border control, how long I should expect to spend there, etc. Clear, helpful suggestions.
I haven’t had a chance to get back to Canada since then, so my experience is with the Android version only, but I doubt the iOS version is any less impressive feature-wise. To me, this is the gold standard for app functionality and thorough, thoughtful consideration about how to create informed and empowered travelers. To put it as succinctly as possible: in what universe does an airline’s app ever have an App Store rating of 4.8 stars??
Paku Air Quality & AQI Map
Recommended by Kyle Bashour, friend of the team and creator of Paku
As a native Californian, I’ve unfortunately had to use Paku during the last half-decade of rampant wildfires. Paku is used to view air quality, AQI, and environmental data collected from the PurpleAir consumer sensor map. I don’t own a PurpleAir sensor, but one isn’t required just to use Paku. Isn’t that funny, though: Having to use a qualifier like “unfortunately had to use” when describing such a great project? The app’s creator, Kyle Bashour, made a good point when suggesting the app to us in the first place.
“Paku is single serving for many - useful during a wildfire smoke event, not as much the rest of the year.”
Saying the quiet part out loud: it’s an app you hope you never have to use, but has also become an unfortunate necessity for many. To that end, Paku is elegantly designed and leverages widgets, home screen notifications, thoughtful color schemes, and displays data in a way that’s easy to digest without obfuscating clarity in the name of accuracy, or vice-versa.
SolarWatch
Recommended by Eric W., IT Acquisitions Manager in Denver, CO
While writing this blog post, I learned a solar eclipse will be visible in thin strips of Greenland, Iceland and Spain on August 12, 2026, so it was funny timing when an avid hiker and photographer friend of mine, Eric, told me about SolarWatch.
(Shout-out to friend of the team and SolarWatch creator, Engin)
“Since moving to Denver a few years ago I’ve been testing a lot of trail map and sunrise/sunset apps to plan for photo walks. I stumbled on SolarWatch a while ago and love it for researching golden hour times in really specific locations. It’s got a really robust system for tracking eclipses too which I wish I’d known about it in years past. If that was the only reason I used it, it probably wouldn’t live on my phone. But for my use case I’m using it at least once every few weeks. It’s a nice app all around.”
SolarWatch also holds a very special place in my heart for having maybe the best bit of promotional merch I saw given out at WWDC26. 🌞
Timeshifter
Recommended by Sam S., Sr. Operations Coordinator in Chicago, IL
I’ve known Sam for years. A bit after we first met, he took a job teaching English in Japan. Despite the radically different time zones, we spent a lot of weekends playing videogames and catching up. After finishing his teaching stint, he split time between Japan/Australia and the US, visiting friends and family before returning to work for a nonprofit while he pursued post-grad studies.
“My sleep schedule and circadian rhythm were atrophied to say the least. I was already juggling a ton, but going from +8/+9 all the way to -5 time zones and back was about as bad as you could ask for. I stumbled on Timeshifter and thought ‘I don’t see how this will work better than just powering through it and staying up,’ but it legitimately worked. I don’t fly much of anywhere lately and I couldn’t be happier, so I don’t keep it on my phone. But it’s an immediate re-download if/when I do get jetlagged.”
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Even if some apps don’t live on folks’ phones forever, leaving a meaningful impact by solving a problem in a convenient and efficient way—kind of the major point of smartphones and apps in the first place, right?—is a triumph in itself.
