Get back to work with peace of mind and work comfortably on the move using these apps.
If many users do not plan to work other than from their computer, working from a mobile is not impossible, on the contrary. Despite an admittedly smaller screen size, the smartphone can, when on the move, provide many services when it comes to performing certain tasks.
While it is obviously not possible to write a 100-page report or edit spreadsheets of several hundred lines, the simplest tasks can undoubtedly be performed from the screen of your smartphone.
In the following lines, you will find a selection of applications which, in our opinion, are essential on a smartphone used for work.
1. Office suites
For most people, it is unthinkable to use a smartphone for work. However, writing the draft of a letter or a report, correcting mistakes spotted in a document, or quickly editing the latter to add an idea before forgetting it can be done very easily from the screen of your mobile terminal.
If you use Microsoft tools in your work environment, moreover with a Microsoft 365 account, you will be able to find your usual applications as well as your work files, especially if they are stored on OneDrive. And Microsoft leaves the choice to the user. The Redmond firm thus offers its complete office suite in a single application, Office mobile, but also offers the possibility of downloading only the various applications that compose it individually, and that both on iOS and on Android.
Office mobile will have all the advantage, in addition to integrating Word, Excel and PowerPoint, of offering its Notes module (Sticky Notes under Windows 10), as well as several tools that will allow you to avoid the multiplication of productivity. Office Mobile comes with the Office Lens scanner, can generate text or a table from a photo, and allow you to sign your PDFs.
Download Office Mobile for Android (Free)
Download Microsoft Word for Android (Free)
Download Microsoft PowerPoint for Android (Free)
Download Microsoft Excel for Android (Free)
Download Office Mobile for iPhone (Free)
Download Microsoft Word for iPhone (Free)
Download Microsoft Excel for iPhone (Free)
Download Microsoft PowerPoint for iPhone (Free)
As an alternative, the various tools of Google’s office suite will allow users with a Gmail account to create, edit and manage all the documents stored on the account in Google Drive. Google does not offer any solution combining the different tools of its online office suite, it will imperatively be necessary, if you use each of the tools, to download them individually to your smartphone.
Download Google Docs for Android (Free)
Download Google Sheets for Android (Free)
Download Google Slides for Android (Free)
Download Google Docs for iPhone (Free)
Download Google Sheets for iPhone (Free)
Download Google Slides for iPhone (Free)
2. Note-taking applications
Not everyone needs to carry an office suite on their smartphone. On the other hand, having on hand a note-taking tool capable of synchronizing on different platforms will do a lot of service.
Whether it’s to quickly jot down ideas, or start writing a report, note-taking applications are one of the essential tools on smartphones. These digital notebooks can contain both written notes and images, annotations, etc.
If it remains difficult to recommend one note-taking application more than another (tastes and colors …), the choice will have to be made according to your work environment or certain specific needs. People with a Microsoft 365 subscription have every interest in opting for OneNote (even if the Microsoft application is free and available to everyone). They will be able to synchronize their notes with their professional account.
Download OneNote for Android (Free)
Download OneNote for iPhone (Free)
Likewise, if you have a Google account and mainly use the various tools offered by the American giant, choosing Google Keep makes sense, as notes created in Google’s application can be easily sent to Google Docs.
Download Google Keep for Android (Free)
Download Google Keep for iPhone (Free)
Once again, it’s all about taste (and habits), and the best is still to test the different solutions and the options they offer to decide on your choice of a note-taking application. Among the alternatives to Google and Microsoft, the very serious Evernote, whose reputation is well established, offers an interface as simple as it is efficient and will allow you to write, take notes in various forms (texts, sketches, photos, audio, etc.). All the notes are synchronized so that you can easily find them on other platforms.
Download Evernote for Android (Free)
Download Evernote for iPhone (Free)
Finally, you can also try Simplenote, an application renowned for its ultra simple and no-frills interface. However, don’t wait until you can do more than just enter text, Simplenote lives up to its name and sticks to the bare minimum, namely taking notes as text.
Download Simplenote for Android (Free)
Download Simplenote for iPhone (Free)
3. Document scanners
Wait until you are in the office or back home to use the multifunction printer to scan a paper document? Unless you need a very high quality document, this should in principle be a thing of the past. Scanning documents can now be done easily and in ample quality using your smartphone.
Also read: How to scan a document with Files on iPhone?
Dedicated applications such as Office Lens, Genius Scan and Adobe Scan will allow you to scan multi-page documents through the camera of your mobile device.
Each of these applications is capable of straightening ill-fitting document captures. The generated files, in PDF format, can then be shared very easily by email or even be stored in the cloud. And, best of all, you can even extract the text from scanned documents, each of them incorporating an optical character recognition (OCR) module.
Download Office Lens for Android (Free)
Download Office Lens for iPhone (Free)
Download Genius Scan for Android (Free)
Download Genius Scan for iPhone (Free)
Download Adobe Scan for Android (Free)
Download Adobe Scan for iPhone (Free)
4. Video conferencing solutions
Keeping in touch with colleagues and attending meetings remotely have become essential in recent months. The massive adoption of telecommuting and the abandonment of social interactions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have prompted workers to resort to video conferencing tools to maintain a semblance of a professional relationship.
Here again, depending on the requirements of your activity, advising one application rather than another remains difficult.
The simplest of these, Jitsi Meet, is free and open source. Accessible from any web browser, it is also available in the form of mobile applications. It does not impose any limit on the number of users, does not require any account or registration and above all, offers encryption by default.
Read also: How to make your video calls with Jitsi Meet?
However, there are other solutions, such as Google Meet (250 participants maximum) or Zoom (100 participants maximum), which will again have to be tried to decide on the tool best suited to your professional needs.
Download Jitsi Meet for Android (Free)
Download Jitsi Meet for iPhone (Free)
Download Google Meet for Android (Free)
Download Google Meet for iPhone (Free)
Download Zoom for Android (Free)
Download Zoom for iPhone (Free)
5. Collaborative communication apps
Access to a communication application combining instant messaging, audio and video calls and the ability to create private discussion channels between several members of a team is now one of the essentials.
Formerly reserved for Microsoft 365 subscribers only, Microsoft Teams is now available to everyone for free. Microsoft’s tool makes it possible to hold private conversations for two or more, to create discussion channels where it is possible to exchange ideas, files, documents and other content, but also to efficiently manage projects.
Teams, which can also be used to participate in audio or video meetings, also integrates with other tools, including of course those from Microsoft.
Download Microsoft Teams for Android (Free)
Download Microsoft Teams for iPhone (Free)
However, other alternatives exist. Slack, a solution similar to Teams, has a free version for small teams. It therefore only allows access to the 10,000 last published messages, offers a dozen integrations with other applications (Google Drive, Microsoft 365, etc.) and only allows you to make audio and video calls between two collaborators.
Download Slack for Android (Free)
Download Slack for iPhone (Free)
And if, however, these first two solutions do not satisfy you, you may find what you are looking for with Discord. Formerly reserved for an audience of gamers, the application has attracted a much wider target.
Also read: How do I set up and use Discord?
The application is free and also allows you to create chat rooms, text or voice, with the possibility of assigning roles with more or less responsibilities for each user present in the room.
Download Discord for Android (Free)
Download Discord for iPhone (Free)