3. Purpose of an App

There seems to be an app for almost everything. Here are some types of apps available

Social networking

These types of apps connect to the servers of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Their interface makes use of touch and finger swipes. New messages arriving in your online personal account can be sent every few minutes to the app. When a new message arrives, it triggers a sound or vibration on the mobile device so users do not need to be constantly checking for updates.

Chat apps

These are designed to connect to a chat or instant message service. For example 'Whatsapp' allows customers to exchange messages without having to pay for standard SMS text.

Photo-sharing

These apps are designed mainly to share photographs and videos. For example 'Instagram' is an online mobile service that allows its users to share pictures and video on a number of social networking platforms such as Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook

Education and information

These apps download and play content from various information services. For example 'Ted Talks' contains thousands of fascinating 15 minute presentations by experts covering a huge range of interests. Another one is 'Khan Academy' offering educational lectures.

Information services.

These are designed to download and present specific information. For example a weather app can download local weather.

Many mobile devices have built-in GPS (global positioning system) and with your permission, the app can send your location co-ordinates to the server. The server then sends back information specific to your location. A popular example is 'Google Maps'.

Games and entertainment

There are hundreds of game apps now available. Most connect to a server so players can compete or compare each others' score etc.