Back in 2014, Apple released HealthKit, an app that let people keep track of a vast array of health and fitness data – everything from blood alcohol levels and sodium intake to body temperature. What you couldn’t track, however, was your period. Not one person at Apple had stopped to think a period tracker might be useful. And that’s because Apple, like most tech companies, is dominated by myopic men.
Four years later, female engineers are still very much a minority in Silicon Valley. However, progress is slowly being made and the future of tech is looking decidedly more female-friendly. Take the dating app Bumble, for example, which was started by Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd and has been designed with a women-centric interface. When two users of the opposite sex match on Bumble, the woman must send the first message, bucking the convention that men make the first move. Focusing on women has paid off; Bumble had a stellar 2017 and is valued at more than $1bn ($710m). And Bumble is just one of a growing number of apps designed with women in mind. From pedicure-scheduling to confidence-boosting to pill-planning, when it comes to a female need, there’s now often an app for that. Here, Guardian writers recommend some of their favourites. Arwa Mahdawi
myPill
Even if you’re lucky enough not to be emotionally debilitated by the hormonal surges of the contraceptive pill, you still have to contend with the waves of panic that come with forgetting to pop it. iPhone reminders and alarms can too easily be swiped away into the ether, or become a source of office-disrupting embarrassment. But myPill not only fires off silent reminders, it continues to show notifications after you’ve dismissed them. The virtual packet allows you to mark off the pills you’ve taken, meaning you can check whether you really did take “Monday” or simply imagined it (it happens), as well as being able to visualise the month ahead. Rachel Aroesti
Clementine
Most of the time, my anxiety is a low-level background noise – I can usually ignore it. But on particularly stressful days, my anxious thoughts can seem deafening, which is where the hypnotherapy app Clementine comes in. It is pitched as a fix “for the modern woman”; it is by no means a cure-all, but the “confidence boost” session can work a charm. It asks you to imagine what success would look like and prompts you to work towards it, rather than getting bogged down thinking about what could go wrong. At just five minutes long, this session is also easy to integrate into everyday life. Similarly, the “take a breather” session has prevented many potentially regrettable decisions being made in a frenzy of stress; I just click play and within five minutes, I am feeling level-headed again. Coco Khan
Workout for Women
Many women felt more angry than usual last year, and I was no different. I cast about for a physical outlet and found an app called Workout for Women. It offers a mixture of cardio and body-weight exercises, with the added benefit that you can hide away at home as you puff through your press-ups.
You can donkey kick and squat while a voice from your smartphone keeps you from lying down and wheezing. Since using it, my endurance for these horrible exercises has shot up – ignore the slightly dubious “bikini body” title of one challenge and it’s pleasingly tough.
Of course, you could do these moves without an app, but I am part sheep and need the bossy orders and digital encouragement. I feel stronger and it’s addictive. Bella Mackie
Clue
As with a lot of my friends, my period used to take me by surprise every month. Despite 20 years of menstrual bleeding, I never had any idea when mine was due. But the period-tracking app Clue has changed my life. Over the course of a few months, it gets to know your cycle – you input which dates you are bleeding – and predicts when your next period is due. It can track your energy level, appetite, skin, digestion – and it can tell you when you’re most fertile. I’ve planned holidays around it. Carmen Fishwick
Treatwell
“Meeting cancelled, manicure scheduled,” reads one of Treatwell’s many taglines – and while this hair-and-beauty booking app isn’t exclusively for women, the marketing and design is skewed that way.
Aside from the ability to make appointments quickly and (thankfully) discreetly, the app also encourages user reviews – creating the recommendations that women have relied on other women to provide since time immemorial. Through it, I have found exceptional threading artists, discounted LED facials and waxers who don’t double-dip (all essential and not always easy to come by), usually within walking distance of wherever I happen to be. Leah Harper
Hormone Horoscope
Do you use horoscopes for clues on whom to snog and when? Does your period dictate when your next tantrum is due? This is me. This is how I discovered Hormone Horoscope. The app tracks where you are in your menstrual cycle and offers information and advice based on the body’s hormone levels. Day eight? More oestrogen. Beware: you’re probably going to buy something you can’t afford. Day 23? Bound to be feeling volatile. I’m not sure I’d plan my life by it (that’s reserved for astrology), but it does provide context to the highs and the lows, and it has helped me to understand my body better. Amelia Abraham
Skin Matters
There’s a lot of buzz around the idea of elimination in beauty – parabens and sulphates being the main betes noires – but it’s hard to know where to begin. This nerdy app is designed by facialist Joanne Evans and explains which ingredients to look out for, which to avoid and why. All you do is give your age, gender and skin type. It’s pretty basic, doesn’t allow for other factors (such as your heritage or family history) and directs you towards Evans’ products. But there are more than 2,000 ingredients listed, most of which I hadn’t heard of, and the explainers are pretty comprehensive, making it a decent beginner’s guide to what’s what if you’re trawling through the small print in Boots. Plus, you can change your profile depending on how your skin feels at any given time. Morwenna Ferrier
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