“Almost half (49%) of smartphone users in the U.S. downloaded zero apps in the last month.”
-ComScore Report, 2016
I read this stat earlier this month and was shocked. Not at the statistic itself, but mostly because I fit into that bucket of the 49%. How could I have not downloaded one single app in the last month? Or in my case, the last 6+ months if I was being honest.
I’m someone who considers herself pretty decently involved in technology. I’m a user experience (UX) designer, I use my smartphone all the time (maybe even a little too much), I’m constantly on my laptop for work and for fun, I follow almost all the tech blogs because of my interest in design, and my Twitter feed is predominantly UX or tech accounts.
And still, at that time, I had no new app downloads. Luckily, that isn’t the case anymore!
Inspired, I went and I downloaded not one, but THREE new apps from the App Store. Two of them were productivity apps because I was feeling unmotivated, and I have this unhealthy love of organizing and planning, making lists, looking at calendars… anyways. The other was a game, because, well it’s a game. They’re fun.
Out of the three that I downloaded, I really only use one now. Which apparently is normal because another 2016 study showed that “more than 75% of app downloads open an app once and never come back.” I’m another statistic! Oh well.
The one app that I still use is called: Quadro (formerly known as Actions).
Image Source: Macworld
The Touch Bar would change and provide the user relevant options depending on what application they were using on their laptop. For example, if the user was in Photoshop, the Touch Bar would show Photoshop actions like Layer Properties, Brushes, Color pickers and more. Outside of the Photoshop app, those actions wouldn’t appear.
Dope, right?
Sure, if you could pay a minimum of $1,799.00 +tax.
Enter: Quadro.
I only have the free version (for now), but let me say. It is amazing. Quadro syncs with your computer via your wifi and essentially acts as a Touch Bar without ever having to pay the price for a new Macbook.
Setting Quadro up is a breeze. It took me about 5 min tops. They walk you through exactly what you need to do along with graphics that make everything simple and clear.
Once Quadro is connected to your Macbook and opened on your phone, your phone screen will change with various options depending on what app you’re using on your computer. For example, I’m using notes right now to write this article. Quadro looks like this:
If I wanted to, I could tap any of the actions shown on this screen on my phone and Quadro would perform that action for me on my Macbook.
When I’m on Chrome, Quadro phone app updates and looks like this where I can close the window or tab, open a window or tab, zoom, move tabs, and so much more.
What’s most amazing is that I have yet to find any real kind of latency for my own personal uses of Quadro. It’s fast, it lets me perform actions that I might have to right click to do or don’t even see the option to do. It personalizes my uses of different applications on my Macbook and updates to show relevant actions depending on what application I’m using on my Macbook. What’s cool is that it also works the other way around too. From my Quadro phone app, I can open applications on my Macbook, like Spotify. And I can do it while standing anywhere that my wifi reaches.
A con for using this app is that the phone screen has to be on for it to be connected. As soon as the screen is shut off, the app will disconnect from the Macbook and reconnecting does take a short second or two when you turn your phone screen on again. It can be a real battery drainer.
Quadro is for iPhone and iPad only for now. It has premium options priced at $15/year that allow you to set up your own palettes, create automated workflows by chaining commands and tasks together, and plenty more (See here for full list). I haven’t quite gotten to that part of the app yet, and not fully sure I will because for me right now, the free option is enough.
Quadro makes me feel more in control with my work and more powerful as a user. Not to mention that it’s fun being able to sit and perform actions from one device to another giving me that extra cool factor when I’m doing work with friends. The team over at Quadro even knows this too; stating on their App Store description that Quadro is best at “making your co-workers blush with envy :)”.