We are excited to present our updated list of “Applications We Use – Our Favorite Tools” for 2023. This overview includes the tools we love and frequently utilize, revising our previous articles from 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. These tools are essential for our daily development process and for sharing ideas effectively.

Development

We use some development tools to develop our apps and our upcoming software tools for app developers and publishers, like our App Store Manager or Android Release Notes Creator.

  • Gitlab – offers a broad set of functionalities and allows us to store and maintain our code.
    So, we intensively use the issue tracker to plan our development tasks and maintain our product backlog, using the CI/CD functionalities for our automated build, test, and deployment into various stages.
  • TexturePacker – create optimized sprite sheets for your apps with this excellent tool
  • Visual Studio Code – we changed our IDE to an offline editing
  • Google Firebase – as a development platform for our tools
  • Pencil – we create our mock-ups with this graphical tool
  • Draw.io – to create mock-ups and charts as well as diagrams online
  • Android Studio – we develop apps once in a while
  • Flutter – whenever we create apps – Flutter is our open-source UI software development kit
  • SourceTree – to navigate through GIT
  • Sentry – track errors in published apps (new)

Design tools

We sometimes use pen and paper and a scanner to create our artwork. But if we are digital, we have some favorite applications.

  • Inkscape – most of our artwork is vector-based. So, our primary and beloved tool for creating our graphics is Inkscape. Because, in our opinion, it is the best free and open-source vector graphics editor
  • XnView – is an easy and fast image viewer with great batch tool features. Therefore, we often use it to transform, resize, or convert multiple images automatically.
  • Flashback Recorder – To capture screens and edit them for a release on our YouTube channel
  • Movavi Video Editor – for Mac – helps us to cut clips, tutorials, and videos.
  • Aseprite – a very intuitive sprite and pixel art tool
  • Canva – to create marketing campaign material
  • Desygner – a graphic design tool for non-designers with easy-to-use UI and thousands of free templates to start with
  • Midjourney – the AI graphic generator of our choice
  • Synthesia – recording and creating our videos with spoken word (new)
  • AppScreens – create and translate app screenshots for App Store Connect and Google Play Console without a hassle (new)

Resources

We prefer to create infographics and so on ourselves. But sometimes, we access publicly available resources:

  • icons8.com – a perfect source for many things: icons, illustrations, photos, music, and design tools
  • Pexels – amazing free stock photos
  • Huge icons – really nice icon set (new)

Communication

We are a distributed team and work most of the time remotely. Therefore, a sound communication tool is a must.

  • Slack – is our leading communication platform. For this reason, we use it to share ideas, make decisions, and messages.
  • Hubspot – our CRM, contact center, and email marketing tool
  • Discord – for more team communication, without 45 minutes time frames
  • Signal – for mobile and desktop communication
  • GitBook – to provide our documentation
  • Folge.me – we create step-by-step guides quickly with Folge.me

Helper tools

Our development and marketing often use these small applications for different tasks.

  • TinyPNG – compressing images and being aware of the quality. This makes applications and websites smaller and faster
  • Littera – creating text and font sheets for our apps. Upload your font and create image maps
  • BeFunky Collage Maker – creating lovely collages for our tweets and social media activities
  • EZGIF.com – we create animated GIFs with this little tool and resize the video
  • Convert CSV – do some CSVs need conversion? We use this online tool
  • Deepl – our favorite translation tool for almost any correspondence
  • Convert Case – useful for converting texts from right to left and left to right.
  • Material Color Design Palette – define the colors of your material applications
  • Total Commander – the all-time classic for large file operations
  • Grammarly – to improve writing skills
  • Wifi FTP Server – to access our mobiles and move large numbers of files
  • WinSCP – as a reliable FTP client

Marketing channels

There are many options and channels to market your app ideas. We primarily use the following:

  • Facebook – we share our articles and blog posts there
  • Instagram – find pictures of our marketing campaigns on Insta
  • YouTube – we published many videos and tutorials on YouTube
  • LinkedIn – Find our business there
  • Medium – sometimes, we publish articles there

Applications we use

Our “Applications We Use” blog series is updated annually. We want to emphasize that we do not receive any compensation for adding an application or service to our list. These are simply tools that we enjoy using frequently.

Feel free to follow us somewhere or give us your feedback about the tools you know and use and would recommend for us.

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