It’s that time of the year again: Thanksgiving, the day where people all across the United States get together to celebrate the union between the native peoples of North America and European Settlers. It’s the time when families from coast to coast, town to town, get together simply just to be together. Thanksgiving means good food and better times – though we’ve all heard or had our share of Family time horror stories! When it comes down to it, Thanksgiving is about family: the good, the bad, and even the sometimes ugly. But we also all know that Thanksgiving requires a lot of planning beforehand, a lot of cooking the day of and through it all you have to remain pleasant and engaging. The good news is that modern technologies can be leveraged to help your Holiday go off without a hitch! Today, we’ll take a look at some of the best apps for Thanksgiving on the market. All of the apps we will talk about were chosen for their exquisite designs and superior coding, as well as for cleverness and effectiveness. 1. Yummly [Free] Yummly is easily one of the best Recipe and Grocery apps on the market. It has a great design which makes use of appropriate color schemes and conventional phone gestures to create a truly seamless experience. It curates hundreds to thousands of recipes and adds more every single day. Users can easily scroll through this comprehensive database, viewing ingredients within the app and import the ingredients directly into Yummly’s shopping list. The shopping list itself is great, with two views: by Aisle and by Recipe. But the best part is the customization options. Yummly allows users to easily add in dietary restrictions and allergies. Yummly’s Algorithm uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to eliminate recipes that don’t match your needs. PLUS the algorithm learns from each user, studying which recipes are looked at and which ones saved. Each datapoint allows it to offer users recipes more in keeping with their preferred style and flavor palate. AND it’s free! 2. Heads Up! [Free, with in-App purchases] Everybody loves games but sometimes we all get bored of the traditional games stored in everyone’s closet: Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, even a deck of cards. The problem with a lot of Game apps is that they’re 2 players or players don’t interact with one another in any significant way. Heads Up, on the other hand, is designed to be played by large groups and forces people to interact and have fun with one another. To play, a user selects from a list of categories, puts the phone to their head (so they don’t see what it says) and the rest of the group offers hints to help the ‘victim’ guess what the phone says. Obviously, from a design perspective, the requirements are simple – as are the coding needs. But this game is a ton of fun and will have your family talking about your Thanksgiving for years. 3. Team Stream [Free] There’s another beloved aspect to Thanksgiving: Football. Other than Turkey, food comas, and drunken embarrassments, football is one of the central tenements behind a good Thanksgiving. This is going to be even more noticeable this year, with the recent explosion in the popularity of Fantasy Football. Bleacher Report released its own app to help you keep tabs on every football development out there. The coolest part of this app are its Search Protocols. It serves as a dedicated Football aggregator. It pulls breaking news from all major news outlets (local and national) as well as Twitter (the great Aggregator itself), and the top Sports blogs on the net. 4. Lush [$2, iOS only) Booze – it’s what brings us together. Or something. Either way, good alcohol (and plenty of it) is a pretty general requirement for most Thanksgiving Households. While a jack and coke is a crowd favorite, many people are really getting on the Cocktail bandwagon. While the fact that Lush is for iOS only and that it costs $2 are both serious drawbacks, it maintains one of the largest databases of cocktail drinks and recipes. Search through hundreds of recipes by ingredients, serving glass, and (naturally) drink name. It will even help you pick out what the best drinks for you are. If you love cocktails, this is the app for you. 5. SnipSnap [Free] Obviously, Thanksgiving can cost a lot of money – heck a whole Turkey can easily cost over $100. Plus, the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday – the biggest sales day of the year. Snip Snap let’s you download online coupons or photograph printed coupons to digitally store them. But the true genius behind SnipSnap is its geolocation feature: I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can never actually remember which coupons I have for what stores (in my wallet or on my phone!). SnipSnap uses your phone to track your location and automatically let’s you know when you have a coupon for a nearby retailer. Finally, the Ultimate Saver can get the ultimate savings! Like the idea of a Thanksgiving app, but none of them are working for you? Why not build your own? Apps are relatively inexpensive to build and quick to develop. Plus, monetization is easy with this type of app! Give us a call at 408.805.0495/408.621.8481 (or click to contact us) to build your own app in 4 weeks or less!