Working from home (WFH) successfully means seamlessly integrating into your work environment. Productivity apps are of utmost importance to remain efficient and manage time better.

Here are our five top productivity apps for working from home.

Live Transcribing

Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), manually transcribing is a thing of the past. The Otter app (Android and iOS) is life-changing; it records audio and transcribes in real-time, with options to jump ahead or back by 5 seconds and add notes at certain points. You can also add speaker names, share to a group, generate a word cloud, etc. While these services cannot be 100% accurate, Otter remains one of the most accurate transcribing apps out there. Its basic free plan includes 600 minutes per month at a maximum of 40 minutes per session. You can upgrade to 6000 minutes/4 hours a session.

Scanner

Now that you don’t have access to an office scanner, you will be amazed at how good smartphone apps are for doing just that. Check out these free apps in particular: Scannable on iOS (works on iPad) and CamScanner for Android. Both allow you to scan as if you’re taking a photo, and then crop, change the colour, etc and save it as a JPEG or PDF, which can then be exported, shared or emailed. CamScanner lets you add a signature or watermark, etc; and Scannable lets you save to PDF without adding its logo.

Word processor

If you don’t have access to Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) that gives you yearly access to the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc, the next best option is Google Drive. It is free, comes with 15GB of free cloud storage with a Gmail account and includes Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, etc. It works across multiple platforms and saves to the cloud, so you can pick up where you left off from any device. This ensures you will never lose work if anything happens to your laptop. You can invite others to collaborate, make notes and track changes.

Project Management

If you’re part of a team working remotely but need to work together for internal projects, the best service to look at is Asana. It has a simple, clean user interface that supports drag and drop. You can view lists, boards, timelines, calendars, files, progress, portfolios, progress, workload, inbox and tasks. It sounds like a lot, but it’s comprehensive and has reporting tools, too. It is free for up to 15 people, which can be upgraded for larger teams. Available as Android and iOS apps.

Security

WFH has meant users don’t have access to proper security provided by a company network once you’re physically in an office. One of the best ways to keep safe is to use a password manager like 1Password. The last thing you need is an account getting compromised or worse, locking you out. 1Password acts a vault for all your passwords and generates secure passwords for each service you sign up to. It is protected by your Master Password, and works across web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Bonus: My Vodacom App

Vodacom customers can stay in control with the My Vodacom app. Check out your bill, your balances and your upgrade date, plus you can recharge or buy bundles to stay connected 24/7 and link all your accounts to have full transparency of all your bills. Download the My Vodacom app for free and browse the app for free too – it's zero-rated, so you don't need data to use it, but you will need data to download it.

Please note: While these apps may be free to download, the data required to do so is not. You can buy data bundles from the My Vodacom App