Ways to while away time on my phone à la Duolingo?

January 1, 2025 6:25 PM

I’ve been using Duolingo to try to divert some of the time I waste on Reddit to something that feels more satisfying and mentally healthy. Can you help me think of other apps/tools I can use along these lines?

I like that with Duolingo, I feel like I’m learning something at a slow/non-demanding pace. It’s certainly more challenging than mindlessly scrolling Reddit, but it progresses slowly enough that it’s not that much more of a lift for my brain than scrolling.

Are there other apps that may do a similar thing? Something else that slowly helps you learn a topic or skill? I want it to be all on the phone, so no needing to get out a notebook to figure out math problems or something. Maybe something that like, teaches you about identifying plants and then quizzes you on it? Just as a thought of something along the lines of what I’m looking for.

I already use my phone for reading library books from Libby, so I have that covered.

I’m not really interested in straight up games. I go through periods where I do crosswords or Wordle or what have you, but they don’t hold my interest that long, and that’s not what I’m looking for here.

Free or paid apps are both fine.

Thanks!

posted by imalaowai to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

I love Anki, a flashcard program available for both desktop and mobile.
- Over time, it notices which cards you're finding hardest and repeats them more often, so that you don't waste time studying what you already know.
- Whatever topic you have in mind, somebody has built a deck for you: art history, Morse code, foreign language vocabulary, geography, anatomy.
- Each session is a light lift, lasting 5-30 minutes, whenever you have the time and appetite for it.
posted by foursentences at 6:58 PM on January 1 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Brilliant?

Chess? lichess is a free app
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 7:06 PM on January 1 [1 favorite]

I've been using Lingvano to learn ASL for about 6 months and like it a lot.
posted by mezzanayne at 7:36 PM on January 1 [2 favorites]

I’m wondering whether one of my daily games would be of interest — Worldle, where you are given a silhouette of a country and given six chances to guess it. Each time you guess, you are told how far off you were (in km) and in which direction. It builds a body of knowledge, or can, which is different from the usual mini game thing.
posted by eirias at 8:00 PM on January 1 [1 favorite]

These are ancient but hey, the ideas still work: Stack the States, Stack the Countries, Presidents vs Aliens.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:10 PM on January 1

This is what Sporcle was made for.
posted by moosetracks at 8:40 PM on January 1

I'm wondering whether editing Wikipedia would work. It's not exactly what you specify, but it does mean you are learning through, for instance, finding citations. Here's the Citation Hunt site, though there are lots of other ways to help. I will say I haven't edited on a mobile and don't know how good the interface is, but do know there are long-term editors who do.
posted by paduasoy at 12:16 AM on January 2 [2 favorites]

Geography Quiz
Quizlet (Haven't used in awhile, so could have changed to something you have to outlay money on.)
Music Theory
Musicards
Studystack History (Not tried this one yet.)
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:44 AM on January 2

This is less edifying, but I've almost completely displaced my social media scrolling habit with Webtoons (an app for webcomics), which feels like it is destroying my brain less because each one has a continuous narrative rather than the way social media encourages you to rest your attention on an image/idea only momentarily and scroll on and on to the next random thing. I'm an aspiring comic artist, so I can also use it to as a reference to learn about things like effective poses/composition/coloring techniques, but that might not be applicable if that's not an interest you have.
posted by space snail at 9:44 AM on January 2

I use the Tenuto app to learn music stuff and every second of it is more satisfying than a minute on social media.
posted by johngoren at 10:44 AM on January 2

Morse Mania (IOS, Android) and Morse ICR (IOS).
posted by QT at 4:06 PM on January 2

Euclidea is a straightedge and compass geometric construction game that I enjoy quite a bit
posted by Dr. Twist at 4:15 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

I'll second chess. My preference is the chess.com app. I'm not classically a chess person but got the bug in 2020 after watching Queen's Gambit. The app always places you with an equally matched partner or bot and there are daily puzzles that teach strategy. What sealed it for me is that you can play 10 minute blitz games so it's not some drawn out thing. I'm still playing 4+ years later and I've even gotten a little bit better at it. You can pay but most of the functionality is available for free.
posted by cmaxmagee at 6:20 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You might like Kinnu - it's an educational app with a wide range of topics in a "read a little, quiz a little" format. It's free on both the App and Google Play Stores.
posted by erudite.aj at 5:24 AM on January 3

Best answer: Seterra. Learn your geography!
posted by wellifyouinsist at 6:05 AM on January 3