Top 3 Event Countdown Apps For iPhone And Android

Looking forward to things in life is a great way to remain hopeful and optimistic. We usually keep track of major events in our head: 2 years till I graduate and finally get out of this place, 6 days to the next pay check, 46 days till my child’s due date, 3 months to the next vaccination. Granted, we’re not always excited about all of these events (especially that vaccination trip), which is why we usually commit the events to our calendars, set a reminder, and forget about it.

But some things are more special than that, things that ignite passion and excitement. You always want to know exactly how far you are from that moment. That’s why we use countdown apps.

A good countdown app needs to be minimal, not overly designed, yet good looking. Most of all, an ideal app should not be overwhelming to use. True, most of the apps out there don’t meet these requirements. But in my quest I’ve found the few good apps that do. Read on to find out more.

1. Downcount For Android

Downcount is a minimal Android app based on Cards UI. There are no unnecessary flourishes or high quality stock images. It’s just the text and you. You add a countdown using the + icon, give it a name and a date, and save it.

The countdown will then be added to the list on the app’s homescreen. From here just swipe a card left or right to delete it.

The app also supports widgets so you can feature countdowns on your homescreen or even the lockscreen.

The State Of Countdown Apps

If you look around the Play Store, you’ll find a lot of countdown apps. Most of them are unnecessarily bloated. Downcount gives you what you need in the quickest way. So Downcount gets my stamp of approval.

Just like Android, iOS has a lot of Countdown apps, but instead, here many of them are surprisingly good. But not all of them may be right for you. Some of them are designed to be flamboyant and end up compromising on usability while others are wonderfully minimal and easy to use but require payment. Below you’ll find apps that try to strike the right balance.

2. Countdown+ Lite For iPhone And Android

You can’t really call Countdown+ Lite (iPhone, Android. I only tested the iPhone app) minimal; but it is functionally laid out. And God, is it feature rich. You can add events manually or import them from calendar or Facebook. The custom countdown event option is incredibly customizable.

You can tinker with how the countdown will be displayed, the fonts, colors, sounds, background image and you can also add a note.

The app will even let you track a countdown on the homescreen by showing the remaining days as the app’s badge icon. There are a lot of sharing options available as well. The free app limits you to countdowns till 1000 days and shows ads. You can upgrade to a premium account for just $0.99 to remove restrictions and add more features.

3. Lite All New Dreamdays For iPhone

The app developer Yao Liu decided to make a whole new app for iOS 7. But instead of just updating his old Dreamdays lite app, we ended up with such a mouthful of a name. If you’re listening, Liu, Dreamdays Lite 2 would have been a much better name.

But I’m willing to excuse the name because this app is gorgeous. The thin iOS 7 font, a non-existent UI coupled with high quality cover images makes for a wonderful experience. Just make sure you use a bright background (which you can import from your Camera Roll or from Wallpaper Club)  for the cover event if you’re customizing it because the thin font is hard to read on a white background. Every other event is listed below the cover image in a list with a related icon, title, and date.

Sure Dreamdays isn’t as powerful as Countdown+ but it has all the basics covered, it looks good, and is a joy to use.

What events are you looking forward to? Share them below!