2014 may be over, but there are still many apps that are successful thanks to their meteoric rise in the past 12 months. Here are just a few of the best apps to be released last year.
Hyperlapse
Created by the folks behind Instagram comes an app that was picked by a number of outlets as being amongst the best of 2014. Hyperlapse lets users create professional-looking time-lapse clips without the usual hassle.
Theme+
Spruce up a Windows Phone home screen with custom tile colours and designs using this gorgeous premium app.
HERE Beta
Free for Android users, HERE Beta is a mapping solution from Nokia that includes everything from voice-guided navigation to offline map support; a compelling location-based package. Expect that ongoing mobile app testing from services like http://www.bugfinders.com will improve this service as time goes by.
Wire
In the very crowded instant messaging market, Wire stood out in 2014 thanks to its beautiful interface and highly encrypted service provision, ensuring secure and private conversation between users on iOS and Android.
Glympse
While other location-sharing apps are locked into their own ecosystem, Glympse overcomes this by allowing people to give others their exact coordinates through a browser-based interface. This makes it much easier to find friends and associates even if not everyone has the app installed.
Swiftkey
Typing on the iPhone is not exactly a breeze, but with Swiftkey arriving fresh from Android, users had a good reason to try a third party solution. Excellent prediction and integration with social networking sites helped it get off the ground.
FireChat
This app made waves due to its instant messaging capabilities that can work on a P2P basis and thus survive even if mobile coverage is taken out. It had an impact in a number of protest movements in 2014 and means going off the grid does not mean relinquishing all communications.
Workflow
The practicality of this app is immense if you regularly have to carry out lots of actions on your iPhone to achieve a single goal. This app can automate everything, meaning you can quickly fire off a social media post to share a song you are enjoying, or convert a web page into a document for sharing without using endless menus yourself.
Opinion
Podcasting has been around for years, but the industry is still growing and this app makes it easy to record and edit your own shows, then upload them to the service of your choice, with thorough SoundCloud integration for good measure.
Replay
This video editing app may have Instagram users as its target audience, but it is fully featured enough to cater to any on-the-fly editor’s needs. Cut up clips, add effects and take the web by storm.
Star Walk 2
For fans of astronomy, this is the ultimate app to download. It helps with both the identification of constellations, as well as offering a rich three-dimensional model of the night sky to examine in depth and improve your knowledge in the process.