How to earn money from mobile apps

There’s been plenty of talk about how abusive our relationship with smartphones has become.

Despite the fact that excessive phone use has been reported to negatively impact our lives – social, mental and physical – we struggle to tear ourselves away from those tiny devices.

Google, whose operating system Android is the most widely used in the world, has realised it created a monster and is making amends by inputting some features that will reduce our use of smartphones. They’re dubbed digital wellbeing features. But be that as it may, many of us find solace in the content that our phones serve us every day.

However, have you ever wondered, considering you’re already spending so much time on your phone, if you can actually make money from this – at the very least enough to cover the costs of data bundles?

Well, the short answer is yes. Using the following apps won’t make you the next millionaire, but they could put a few extra coins into your wallet, and who wouldn’t want that?

1. Money

The first app on our list is a very appropriately named Money.

From its name, you might imagine that the sole purpose of this app is to mint money, and in a sense you would be right. But more accurately, Money gives you a set of tasks to complete before you get rewards in the form of points.

These points, once accumulated to a given number, can then be redeemed for dollars that are sent to a PayPal account of your choice.

The lowest threshold is 5,000 points, which translates to $5 (Sh500).

The tasks include short online product surveys, daily attendance where for just clocking in you get 20 points, game and app reviews, video watching and review, and testing services.

The app is available on iOS and Android, and can be a useful way of spending your idle time. Or earning lunch money.

2. Foap

This app will have a good number of you jumping up and down in excitement, especially if you’re a social media photo connoisseur. That’s most of us, right?

The lengths to which we go to get that perfect angle for that umpteenth selfie seem so wasteful when we imagine that it’s only for Instagram or Facebook, and no one’s paying us for it.

That’s why Foap is a godsend. The app is on both iOS and Android, and basically pays you for photos taken on your smartphone, whether you’re a professional or an amateur.

You’re required to download the app and then take photos through it. You then wait for marketing and advertising agents to buy the photos you post for various project. Clients pay Foap $10 (Sh1,000) per photo, while Foap pays you $5. Just be sure you’re OK with having your photos somewhere out there.

You can also participate in various photo contests that the app’s portfolio of corporate clients runs to win extra cash.

3. SlideJoy

Of all the apps mentioned here, SlideJoy requires the least effort. All you need to do is install it and use your phone normally.

What’s the catch? Your eyeballs. What this app does is that it embeds itself on your lock screen and serves you up with ads that you may or may not respond to. In essence, you get paid for allowing it to run on your phone, whether you respond to the adds or not.

4. Pact

Pact is an interesting app, though it sits on the opposite end of the effort spectrum from SlideJoy.

The app is centred around your fitness goals and rewards you when you achieve them. We’ve all experienced the lack of motivation to get up and hit the gym every now and then; Pact comes in to give you that extra push. You basically use the app to set a pact with other users – whether it’s around healthy eating or exercising.

The app then tracks your progress using various metrics like GPS and photos, and at the end of the week, if you’ve met your goal, you get paid anything from $0.30 (Sh30) to $5.

If you don’t meet your goals, you lose and have to cough up the cash you committed to your pact mates – quite the motivator, don’t you think? You can download the app on iOS and Android.

5. Apptrailers

This app should have all the movie buffs smiling. Apptrailers serves up movie trailers, and rewards you with points once you watch them.

The least amount you can earn is $0.50 (Sh50) and starts at 500 points. You can also choose to redeem your points for gifts instead of cash.  

hustle@standardmedia.co.ke