A quick Google search for “apps for women” will yield lists featuring every possible application permutation: Ones that alert you about the nearest sale, ones that locate the nearest toilets, and ones that approximate your next period in the coyest, pinkest way imaginable. What all these do is paint a picture of a menstruating shopaholic who can’t hold in her urine.
Bumble
For starters, it’s feminist Tinder. As the app opens, it brags: “On Bumble, ladies hold the key.” On this app, when two people match, women are required to make the first move—within 24 hours, too, or else the match will expire. This is a good thing, considering that the app was made in response to how men on Tinder tended to veer into harassment territory when the women didn’t respond to their messages. On Bumble, you can forage for your share of men without the hostile environment.
Free on the App Store on iTunes. Coming soon to Google Play
Clue
Here’s a revolutionary period tracker that doesn’t shy away from the actual period and all that comes with it. Clue’s user interface—made of red, blue, teal, green, and purple—is completely devoid of the color pink, which is endemic to every other period tracker. It makes tracking your period feel like something that is okay, not something you should be shy about. Clue can also track your ovulation, sexual activity, and PMS, which will do wonders in helping you be familiar with your body and your cycle.
Free on the App Store on iTunes and on Google Play
Circle of 6
In settings like clubs or Bumble meet-ups, no app is better than Circle of 6 in preventing worst case scenarios. Circle of 6 allows you to have help within reach whenever you need it. If you need to get out of a sketchy date, the app notifies your network with just one subtle tap of your finger. If you find yourself somewhere you don’t know, you can send your GPS-detected location to your friends with a press of a button. Circle of 6 is an extra safety measure you can take by letting your friends keep tabs on you—but of course, the best prevention of assault is still to teach men that they should not be assaulting anyone, period.
Free on the App Store on iTunes. Coming soon to Google Play
Evernote
You’ve heard of this app. After all, it has been a staple on the App Store’s Top Free Productivity Apps for years and years now. Yes, this app isn’t for women only, but since the Internet insists that all we are good for is shopping, we thought it would be good to explicitly say that the female species also needs a good planner, and Evernote is definitely the productivity app that will fit her needs most. On the app, you can take notes, pictures, and videos, and you can organize them.
Free on the App Store on iTunes and on Google Play
Art by Dorothy Guya