18 Essential Social Media Marketing Apps for Your Smartphone
One of the greatest things about digital marketing is you can work from anywhere, anytime you want.
You can schedule social media updates while you’re poolside on a tropical vacation, at home on a sick day, or during the seventh inning stretch at your kid’s game (as long as you put your work down when the game starts back up).
However, to take advantage of how connected we’ve all gotten, you need to have the right tools in your “mobile office.”
Given how increasingly mobile social media has become, social media marketing apps can help you do more than just check in when you aren’t in the office.
Working within the environment where your content will be consumed lets you experience, create, and preview content the way your audience will see it.
Plus, effective management of networks like Snapchat and Instagram require a certain amount of mobile usage.
It’s time to get well versed in the social media marketing apps in your pocket that will help you do your job.
Sure, the social media channels’ official apps cover the basics of watching over your brand, but you can do more for your social strategy, anywhere and anytime.
These are the apps that will help you do it.
1. Iconosquare
Iconosquare is a great tool for managing your overall Instagram strategy and presence. Content planning and scheduling on the mobile-first platform becomes easy, whether you’re uploading original content or reposting another user.
You can manage multiple accounts, posting, optimizing, and analyzing your performance from mobile. The app lets you view analytics and save hashtags and other content.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
2. BeLive.tv
Live video is a content format that people continue to favor, helping you stand out in increasingly competitive social media algorithms.
Another key advantage of live social video is that it can be broadcast from anywhere. It’s perfect for capturing brand moments on-the-go, especially for your Facebook page.
BeLive.tv’s mobile apps let you use their freemium service to broadcast live to your brand’s Facebook followers, allowing you to add branded frames and split-screen interview formats to your broadcasts.
Going live through third-party apps gives both you and the viewers a nicer and more organized experience, making it easier to foster engagement with video in real time.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
3. Smarp
Thanks to brand trust challenges and increasingly stingy newsfeed algorithms, peer-to-peer social shares are becoming all the more important aspects of your content distribution plans.
And if you’re going to get your whole company in on the effort, you’ll need to make it easy for team members to share brand assets on the go.
Smarp’s online employee communication and advocacy software makes it easy to turn everyone at your company into brand ambassadors and share content on social media.
With their mobile app, all team members can easily view, publish, and suggest curated content to share on social media.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
4. Adobe Spark Post
One of the more difficult types of content to create outside the office is engaging designed graphics, especially if you want something animated.
Adobe Spark Post is going to be the best competition to your go-to designer in the office.
The app offers tons of templates and ideas, smart design features that simplify working on the fly (and a small screen), and it lets you add animated effects to social media graphics that you really need to grab attention.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
5. Slack
Social media marketing isn’t just communicating with your audience.
You also need to stay in touch with your team. Talk with the rest of marketing to delegate and collaborate, send updates to the rest of the company, and get feedback from anywhere.
For that, there’s nothing better than Slack. Their mobile apps are kind of amazing, from smart notifications to advanced search, and general ease of use.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
6. Anchor.fm
Anchor.fm is an audio recording app for micro-podcasting, audio broadcasting, Q&As, and more.
You can either use it to create original content like a podcast or to create audio content to export and share natively on social media.
Features like sound clips and transcriptions make it simple to create audio for social media.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
7. Ads Manager
If you want to play, you need to pay. And if there’s one thing you have to sit down in an office for, it’s running ad campaigns, right? Wrong.
Every part of a Facebook ad campaign, for example, can be done from mobile through their Ads Manager apps.
Optimize copy or adjust budgets from anywhere, since every minute is crucial. Or upload media from your phone to use in future campaigns.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
8. Boomerang
At this point, Boomerangs have become a content format in their own right, separate from the picture, GIF, and video that it combines.
This video flip-it-and-reverse-it content creation app, made by and for Instagram, is perfect for creating personal, original multimedia.
It’s easy, and it’s just plain fun.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
9. Trello
If you’re using Trello for project management to keep your social media marketing team organized and on track, the mobile app is a must.
From your phone, you can track in progress social media projects and tasks, update your team, and check in on what you should be working on.
It even supports offline work.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
10. Anders Pink
Although it has many compelling use cases, you might want to think of Anders Pink as your social media scout. It looks at your social media followers and can show you what topics and articles they’re most engaged with.
From there, it’s easy to push out shares that are pre-selected to be of interest to your audience, which is much smarter than spraying and praying.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
11. Snapseed
If you’re creating and sharing visual content on your smartphone, you also need to be able to edit it there.
Given how easy it is to enhance photos taken with your built-in camera, there’s no reason not to improve it before hitting “publish.”
Snapseed is a wonderfully advanced yet easy to use photo editing app that lets you fine-tune visual content. If you’re creating and posting from your phone, not having to send it to a computer for editing is so much simpler.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
12. Google Analytics
Your social media strategy surely involves driving traffic back to your website or other web properties. How’s that working out for you?
Use Google Analytics’ mobile app to check in on your website.
Make sure it’s performing properly, see how people behave once they’re there, and monitor the impact various social media initiatives have on your owned properties and its various conversion goals.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
13. CoSchedule
CoSchedule’s social media management software is excellent at providing you an overall view of your marketing calendar.
From the app, you can get a bird’s eye view and manage and edit social media posts.
You can also use CoSchedule’s mobile app to schedule and post content to Instagram, which many schedulers are not yet capable of.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
14. IFTTT
IFTTT (which stands for “if this, then that”) is an automation tool that lets you build connections between different tools and online services.
Setting up and triggering the right integrations between your important social media apps, as well as many other platforms you use throughout your day, you can create custom time-saving social media shortcuts for your team.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
15. Amplifr
Amplifr’s social media scheduling app takes advantage of AI to help you make the most of your social media strategy. It will help you make sure you’re posting at the best times with optimized messages and makes it easy to reuse high-performing content again.
The mobile app also has detailed analytics to see how you’re doing at any time.
Get On: App Store | (On Android, Amplifr can be accessed only via a browser)
16. Ripl
Ripl is another app that makes it so easy to create multimedia, that there’s no excuse not to.
Its specialty is shareable, professional social media videos and animated graphics.
With their focus on social media performance, there are tons of templates to help you get started. You can share animations straight from the app, and you can even track engagement on them within Ripl.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
17. Restream.io
Live video is one of the best ways to get attention right now, but there are multiple places your live audience is hanging out. Sure, there’s Facebook Live, but you’ve also got YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, Periscope, and more, each with its own audiences.
Using a service like Restream.io lets you broadcast to multiple platforms at once.
To use Restream.io on your mobile, there are companion apps you can use that can connect to the right kind of server.
18. Mention
To monitor any topic, name, or keyword on social media, a monitoring app like Mention is key to finding all important conversations for your brand to interact with.
Their mobile app allows you to monitor and engage in conversations, collaborate with your team, and view insights to help your social strategy.
Get On: App Store | Google Play
Get Out of the Office
With apps like these, it can actually be beneficial to get out of the office and out into the real world for your social media strategy. Creating, publishing, and executing on the fly has never been easier.
What are you waiting for? Download these apps and log off your desktop.
More Social Media Marketing Resources:
Image Credits
Screenshots taken by author (via App Store), June 2018
DoubleTake app records from multiple iPhone cameras at once
Phone makers continue to cram better lenses and more cameras into their phones, and now app developers are catching up with some of the technological possibilities. A new app called DoubleTake from Filmic lets you record from multiple cameras at once on the latest iPhone handsets.
Which cameras you can record from depends on which iPhone you have, but they're all available to the app. It works with the iPhone XR, the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max from 2018, and the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max from last year.
Install the app on the iPhone XR, for example, and you get simultaneous access to the front-facing camera and the single rear-facing camera. Install it on the iPhone 11 Pro or the iPhone 11 Pro Max, meanwhile, and you can access the ultrawide camera and the telephoto camera as well, for a total of four possible video sources.
Even as phones have added more rear cameras in recent years, they're usually presented to the user as a single camera in the interface, with the additional lenses allowing for extra zoom and focus effects. With DoubleTake, each camera can be accessed individually.
That opens up a host of new possibilities for budding mobile film-makers – recording what's in front of and behind the phone at the same time, or recording a wide shot and a close-up shot alongside each other, perhaps.
DoubleTake offers a picture-in-picture mode for recording the front and back cameras simultaneously
Filmic
All the available cameras can be viewed on screen at once, giving you the opportunity to select the right shot before filming starts. Each video feed can be recorded as a separate file, or recorded in split screen or picture-in-picture modes.
On top of the multi-cam features, the DoubleTake app offers focus lock and exposure controls on the multiple camera feeds. Video can be recorded at a maximum resolution of 1080p at 24, 25, or 30 frames-per-second.
"While delivering a professional multi-camera studio experience, DoubleTake by Filmic Pro was designed for content creators of all skill levels and for multiple genres of content from professional broadcast-style news interviews to YouTubers capturing multiple angles during live events, concerts or any situation that requires more than one perspective to capture the moment," says the official blurb.
And Apple obviously likes the technology too – the app's features were demoed at the iPhone 11 launch event back in September.
DoubleTake is free to download and install, with no in-app purchases to interrupt your movie-making process (and it will always remain free, the developer told The Verge). Eventually, Filmic says the functionality will get rolled into the Filmic Pro app that offers a host of other tools for mobile filming, and which will set you back US$14.99.
Product page: DoubleTake
Best drawing and art apps of 2020
Whether you use the iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil, the Galaxy Note and its S Pen or a third-party stylus with your existing device, tablets and phones can be used to create real art. But it's not just about the hardware — it's the apps you'll use with it.
Mobile device owners have a plethora of art and drawing apps to choose from, and it's tough to separate the gems from the fool's gold. Here are 15 of our favorite drawing apps, ranging from free and easy to use doodling tools, to high-end professional suites that can turn your mobile device into a handheld art studio.
Astropad Studio (iOS: $11.99/month)
The first Astropad app did a fantastic job of turning your iPad into a video graphics tablet for your Mac, making for an excellent companion for anybody using Adobe Photoshop and similar software. Astropad has since upped its game with the new Astropad Studio, a subscription version of the app aimed squarely at graphics professionals using the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil.
Designed to work through Wi-Fi or a USB connection, Astropad Studio boasts improved responsiveness, gesture controls, keyboard support, and more.. The app comes with a free 7-day trial, after which it will cost you $11.99 per month, or $79.99 for a year's subscription.
Download Astropad Studio: iOS
Pixelmator (iOS: $4.99)
Pixelmator's iOS port delivers a powerful image editing and digital painting tool to mobile devices that syncs well with its bigger macOS version.
Pixelmator on iOS supports editing images of up to 100 megapixels in size, with numerous color correction and manipulation tools and effects, as well as handy presets for fast edits. On the painting end, the app comes with more than 100 different brushes, simulated paint effects, layers and layer effects, and support for a variety of active stylus devices like the Apple Pencil.
You can import and export Photoshop files, JPEGs, PNGs, and other popular image and photo formats, and iCloud support means your projects can sync across devices and to your Mac.
Download Pixelmator: iOS
Autodesk Sketchbook (Android, iOS: Free)
The Sketchbook app has all the power and ease of use you could need, as well as a unified the experience across Android and iOS. Sketchbook comes with a variety of drawing tools and brushes, all of which you can customize on the fly, pinch to zoom, a gallery organizer, and support for saving and storing your works to Dropbox or iCloud. In addition, users can create a free Sketchbook account to gain access to more features such as layer and symmetry tools.
A premium Sketchbook subscription unlocks more pro tools such as an expanded brush library, and more powerful layer and selection tools.
Download Autodesk Sketchbook: Android, iOS
Adobe Photoshop Sketch (Android, iOS: Free)
Adobe Photoshop Sketch is a free app that provides users with a set of expressive drawing tools. Users can choose from utilities that mimic a graphite pencil, ink pen or marker. The app supports a variety of Bluetooth styluses on the market such as Adobe Ink, Pencil, and others by Wacom and Adonit.
Sketch aims to replicate the analog drawing experience, augmented with a few digital flourishes such as a color picker and an undo history. Users can import in assets from other Creative Cloud tools such as custom brushes and colors, and your creations can also be exported into Creative Cloud as layered PSDs to Photoshop, or flat images for Illustrator.
Download Adobe Photoshop Sketch: Android, iOS
Adobe Illustrator Draw (Android, iOS: Free)
Adobe Illustrator Draw is a versatile vector graphics drawing app that can be further enhanced with Creative Cloud integration. You can mess around with five customizable pens and stylus support for popular devices such as Adobe Ink. You can also enjoy the ability to create up to 10 layers to create images on the app.
Users can import in assets from Color CC and Shape CC, and can export drawings straight to Illustrator CC on the desktop, or PNG files to Photoshop CC. That allows you to begin a creation whenever inspiration takes you, and then flesh it out fully on a desktop rig.
Download Adobe Illustrator Draw: Android, iOS
Ibis Paint X (Android, iOS: Free)
Ibis Paint X gives mobile artists a good arsenal of tools to work with on their phones or tablets, all for the low price of zero bucks. The app comes with 300-plus adjustable brushes, 58 filters, 46 screentones and 27 blending modes, unlimited layers, as well as tools for stroke stabilization, rulers, symmetry, and recording your drawing process videos to share to YouTube. An in-app purchase removes advertising, and an optional Prime Membership subscription unlocks extra fonts, materials, and filters.
Download Ibis Paint X: Android, iOS
MediBang Paint (Android, iOS: Free)
MediBang Paint is a Japanese multi-platform art app built with manga and comics art styles in mind. The app comes with the features you'd expect from a solid mobile art app, including layers, rulers, a wealth of brushes, and snap guides and tracing aides. In addition, you'll find numerous tools for things like comic panels, screen tones, lettering fonts, and more.
The app's multi-platform support also means you can create a cloud account to transfer works between platforms, allowing you to start a sketch on a phone or tablet, and then refine your work on desktop versions of the app or share it with a collaborator.
Download MediBang Paint: Android, iPad, iPhone
Concepts (Android, iOS: Free)
Concepts by TopHatch is another really cool mobile art app that combines the ease of pen-and-paper-style drawing with the powerful tools of a vector graphics app. The free version is already a perfectly serviceable drawing tool, coming with five-layer support, an infinite canvas, vector brush tools, and support for a variety of Bluetooth active styli from Apple, Adonit, Fifty Three and more. A $7.99 in-app purchase unlocks the Pro Pack which adds a ton of new features, such as CAD-style tools, import and export options, transformation tools and a variety of object libraries that simplify work.
Download Concepts: Android, iOS
Infinite Painter (Android, iOS: Free 7-day trial)
Infinite Painter might not have the easy name recall of the Adobe or Autodesk brand, but it's garnered a well-deserved cult following among Android users. Infinite Painter features 80-plus natural brushes and the ability to create custom ones, infinite layer support, paper textures, a variety of transformation tools and perspective aids, color blending, pattern and gradient tools and more. Works can be exported into PSD, PNG or JPG.
The app is free with a 7-day trial, after which premium features are available as in-app purchases. While originally an Android exclusive, Infinite Painter has since made the leap to iPad screens, operating under the same free trial model.
Download Infinite Painter: Android, iOS
Adobe Fresco (iOS: Free)
Adobe Fresco is Adobe’s latest drawing app aimed specifically at tablet users, offering a combination of pixel and vector brushes, as well as tools that simulate watercolor, oil, and other traditional media. Users can import their projects from Adobe Sketch and Adobe Draw, save their work to jpg or png, and export time lapse videos of their work process.
Adobe Fresco really comes into its own by subscribing to unlock premium features, such as cloud storage, an expanded brush library, the ability to import their custom brushes, and the ability to seamlessly move between Fresco and desktop Adobe apps like Photoshop.
Download Adobe Fresco: iOS
Affinity Designer (iOS: $19.99)
A powerful vector graphics design and drawing program, Affinity Designer is built to work on mobile and desktop platforms, but the iPad version takes advantage of Metal acceleration and pressure, tilt, and angle sensitivity on the Apple Pencil to provide a capable mobile design and drawing suite.
Affinity Designer lets you work with precise vector and raster modes as well as a wealth of selection, editing, history and workflow tools, all of which you can export to a variety of file formats and edit with the desktop version. Pricey and overpowered for someone who’s just dabbling, this app is definitely aimed more at the professional or hobbyist user.
Download Affinity Designer: iOS
Tayasui Sketches (iOS: Free)
Tayasui Sketches is another app that aims to mimic the feel of pen and paint on paper, with a simple slide cabinet interface for its brushes. Painting tools handle quickly and naturally, from pencil to marker to watercolor. Numerous gesture controls allow you to easily undo, redo, zoom, move the canvas and more. In-app purchases unlock further features, such as layer editing, more drawing tools and stylus pressure support for a variety of peripherals.
Download: iOS
Artflow (Android: Free)
The ArtFlow digital art studio for Android comes packed with features and tools, both in free and paid tiers. ArtFlow's free version is already a solid drawing app, with nine customizable brushes, a symmetry tool, color picker, six-step undo and support for two layers.
A premium version massively expands the tool selection, with more than 50 brushes, expanded history support, the ability to create up to 16 layers, stylus pressure support and custom palettes. That premium version has more features than any normal user would probably know what to do with, but it's great for seasoned and aspiring digital artists looking for an Android art app.
Download ArtFlow: Android
Procreate (iOS: $5.99)
More than just a clever play on words, Procreate brings a fast, feature-packed digital arts studio straight to your tablet. Procreate features support for ultra-high def 4K canvases, up to 128 layers, 250 levels of undo and redo, and more than a hundred customizable brushes.
From transformative tools to video capture of workflow, multi-touch gesture commands and GPU accelerated filters, Procreate offers impressive performance to artists. It's overkill if you're just looking for something to doodle with, but if you're in the market for a robust, professional-quality art app on an iPad, Procreate deserves a look.
Download Procreate: iOS
Artrage (Android, iOS: $4.99)
Where many apps try to take fullest advantage of the digital experience, ArtRage tries to do the reverse, delivering a set of drawing and painting tools firmly rooted in the analog art of applying graphite on paper or paint on canvas.
ArtRage features a series of tools that aim to mimic real world painting tools and mediums, such as oil paints, watercolors, a palette knife, paint rollers, and so on. The painting engine is designed to mimic the effects of paint thickness, thinner and other real-world behaviors of tools and media. That said, ArtRage doesn't totally eschew digital features, with layer control, a recording feature and undo/redo.
Download ArtRage: Android, iOS
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