Mobiles make life easier. And Smartphones do more than just that.

The number of things we can now do by just tapping a few times on our smartphones is staggering, and we’re only adding to it year on year. If you have been a smartphone user (which you probably are in this day and age) you are already aware of mobile payments, navigation, file sharing, and numerous other most common problems that are easy to sort out with a smartphone.

So here’s a list of some lesser-known but common problems that can be resolved in a more unusual manner thanks to your smartphone and the applications available to an average user.

Location based reminders

“Remind me to buy batteries, when I am driving by the store.”

Setting time-based reminders is among the simplest uses of a smartphone. You enter a task and set a date and time to be notified about it at the right time. But what’s equally important is to be reminded of the right task at the right place.

Your phones are smart enough to prompt you when you are at or near a place where one of your tasks is pending. And yes, there’s an app for that- well, actually there are hundreds of them. Take your pick.

Advanced bookings

“Confirm and deliver the tickets of the premier show to my house, so I can avoid the rush at the ticket counter, or having to travel to the theatre just to be told they’re sold out.”

In an increasingly connected world, businesses have realized the importance of providing their customers the ability to reach out to them via mobile.

Some businesses have made provisions for their customers to book a bus, plane, cinema or concert tickets via web or mobile. While others have filled this gap in their system by signing up with third parties to allow their customers to easily ensure a booking from home. This reduces uncertainty, allowing you to plan easily and more readily try out whatever they’re selling.

The applications of this range from making restaurant reservations to booking concert tickets. You can either print the ticket, or have them delivered to your home depending on the nature of service, and pay via credit card or in some cases, pay on delivery.

Monitoring Health

There has been an explosion of health and fitness apps available for free or small premiums in the app stores.
You can calculate just about any health related metric via a health & fitness app connected to wearable sensors for precise measurements. This includes your heart rate, caloric burn from exercises, and even sleep. Even if you rely solely on your phone’s inbuilt sensors, you can track your movements and hence distance traveled via GPS or the inbuilt gyro meter. This helps you keep track of how active you have been and how it will affect your body. By manually entering your food intake, you can further keep track of how much protein, carbs or fiber you’ve been consuming.

All in all, this information will make your efforts more measurable and allow you to practice better control over it.

Sending and Receiving Money

The paranoia over mobile banking is all but gone by now, and with it comes the increasing demand of being able to quickly and frequently transfer money. Either you are sending money home or just shopping online, the number of ways to conveniently and securely make transactions from your mobile is only increasing every year. One particular invention which merits a mention here is Square. It allows you, an average Joe, to accept payments for your services (like guitar lessons in your basement, or yoga classes in some park) by credit card instantly- and safely, for your customer.

The best thing about the mobile app market is that even when it seems saturated, innovation is frequent and limited only by your imagination. New ways of doing something- anything, allows app-owners to carve out a new niche for themselves, or at times even force existing players to catch up. Over the last 21 years that we’ve been in this business, we’ve helped many clients materialize their vision and build successful tech-startups.

With the advent of smartphones, entrepreneurship is more exciting than ever before.