Mother’s Day: These are our moms’ favourite apps and games [2019]

You’re probably wondering where MobileSyrup‘s scheduled App of the Week and Game of the Week posts are.

Well, this week we opted to combine the two and publish a special Mother’s Day edition!

The team at MobileSyrup decided to showcase some of the favourite apps or games that our mothers love using, whether it’s a brain teaser game, one that involves catching Pokémon, or something as simple as WhatsApp, we wanted the spotlight to be on them.

We’re wishing all of your moms a Happy Mother’s Day. Show your mom a few of these apps, maybe she might enjoy them.

Let us know what your mother’s favourte apps are in the comments below,

HQ — Trivia & Words — Brad Shankar

While my mum mostly uses her iPad to find cute dog videos and follow along with the Blue Jays updates, she does like to play HQ Trivia & Words. Even with a dwindling player base and small prize pools, she still finds playing a mobile trivia game quite fun.

In fact, we often play together whenever possible, which makes HQ a fun, collaborative activity. I give her the answers to many of the pop-culture questions (the Marvel-themed nights are my specialty) while she helps me with the random historical or geographical questions. It’s a win-win. This collaboration is especially useful in HQ Words, since we can coordinate on which letters are missing to solve the puzzles.

Download HQ — Trivia & Words for free on iOS and Android.

Toon Blast — Brad Bennett

Toon Blast is an arcade-style puzzle game that tasks players with collecting coloured squares. The game is fairly simple, but that’s what makes it so good to pass time.

The worst part about this game is how it can become so addictive. Once you get started with this game, you’ll likely find yourself pulling it out whenever you’ve got a few minutes to kill.

That’s my mom’s favourite aspect of this game, when ever she has some time to kill she can pull it out crush a level or two and then carry on with her day.

You can download Toon Blast on iOS and Android.

WordScapes – Dean Daley

My mom will spend hour-long car rides playing WordScapes, a puzzle game involving words. The game can be likened to a crossword puzzle but users only get to pick from select letters. This is a brain testing game that has my mom usually asking for help from the whole family. There always seems to be more puzzles so she never has to stop.

My mom isn’t typically one for games, but brain-testing challenges like WordScapes are right up her alley.

You can download Wordscapes on and iOS and Android. 

Pokémon Go — Patrick O’Rourke

This might sound a little strange, but my mom’s favourite app is by far Pokémon Go. She plays it with my dad and it helps them both have a fun excuse to get out of the house to exercise.

What is perhaps most surprising about my mom playing Pokémon Go is that she’s never really been interested in the series before. I think that’s likely because the games are so complicated. Unlike other titles in the longrunning series, Pokémon Go is simple and easy to pick-up and play. The fact that it is linked to real-world locations also adds an interesting twist to the typical mobile game formula.

I remain both shocked and impressed that my mom continues to play Pokémon Go while I haven’t touched the game in months.

Pokémon Go is available for free on iOS and Android. 

Epicurious — Igor Bonifacic

My mum loves to cook, and while there are a lot out of great recipe apps out there, there’s something to be said about the original. Since it first launched on iOS, her go-to has been Epicurious.

Conde Nast Digital recently gave the app a fresh coat of paint, and the new version is both beautiful and functional. One of its best features is that users can filter recipes according to their dietary restrictions. Another nifty feature helps demystify exactly how much time one should cook an item of food based on the ingredients.

Epicurious is available on iOS.

WhatsApp — Shruti Shekar

My parents travel a lot, and I lead a fairly busy lifestyle as well, so I actually WhatsApped my dad to find out what my mom’s favourite app was (my mom’s phone is out of service right now).

His exact response was: “WhatsApp. Because it keeps her connected with all the people. Especially her daughter. She says.”

He furthered the response by adding: “It helps to stay connected via text when she doesn’t want to talk and talk, when she thinks it is important.”

I know it sounds lame, but I am constantly in touch with my parents every day through the texting and voice app, and my mom and I have gotten a lot closer because of it. She also has a lot of friends and family that live all over the world and the app has helped her to keep in touch with them.

WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP service app.

WhatsApp is available on iOS and Android.

Pinterest — Ian Hardy

My wife — who is also a mother of two — loves Pinterest. She is by far the more creative member in our family and every holiday and special occasion she makes a point to head to Pinterest for ideas.

If it’s a kids costume idea for Halloween, inspiration on cake decorating, school projects, or an imaginative way to frame a new picture she captured, she goes to the app. Pinterest is a collection of interests from people around the world, and she says the app helps her make decisions faster about what, when and how to do things.

She also likes the act of ‘Pinning’ ideas, which is basically bookmarking.

Pinterest is available on iOS and Android.

Jon – Flipp

My mom isn’t a big smartphone user, but when I asked her what her favourite app was, she said Flipp without hesitation.

Flipp, for those who haven’t heard of it, aggregates flyers and coupons from a variety of stores. When you first boot it up, you can pick which stores you like to shop at, and the app will surface those flyers for you.

However, what makes Flipp unique is you can go through and mark deals from a variety of flyers and save them on the device. My mom loves this part because she doesn’t have a data plan on her phone, but with this, she can still use the app in the store. Plus, many stores have free Wi-Fi if she does need a connection.

My mom uses Flipp to expedite price matching, which most stores do as well. Before going to a store, say, for her weekly groceries, she uses Flipp to find the best deal on every item on her list.

If you haven’t tried Flipp, I highly recommend it. Mom or not, Flipp can help you save a bundle on groceries and keep you up to date on the latest flyers from several stores.

Flipp is available on iOS and Android.

imo – Aisha Malik

My mom’s favourite app is imo. She uses imo to talk to her friends and family, but also to talk to her coworkers. She loves the app because it allows for easy instant messaging regardless of the type of phone a person has.

She also loves the app because she’s never encountered any problems when sending photos or videos. The icing on the cake: she’s able to video call her friends who don’t have FaceTime.

Imo, is an app that allows users to send and receive text messages for free, as well as allows them to make group video calls. It is similar to WhatsApp.

Imo is available on iOS and Android.