Sometimes we just spend too much time trying to make a choice and end up more confused that we were at the beginning. The good news is that there are a few social apps to help you make small and big decisions easier. I “was introduced” to these apps for the first time about a month ago. We couldn’t set up a date to gather for a few drinks with the Lovefone team, and Pete, one of our colleagues, suggested we should try the group scheduling app, Doodle. It turned out to be a simple and efficient tool. The only thing we had to do was to tick the dates when we were available for the next week in a pool created in Doodle. Thus, we saved the time usually spent playing email ping-pong and it was easy for us to agree. Needless to say, the winner was the day when the majority of us were available. We used the web interface of the tool, which is available for everyone with a desk computer, is free and can synchronize your calendar with other calendars. Though, for £1.99, you can buy the Doodle app for iPhone from the iTunes store.

«If you’re trying to find a convenient time to meet several people, try a simple scheduling app like Doodle. » – The Wall Street Journal

Later on, I stumbled upon another decision making apps, most of them pretty entertaining and addictive. I chose to present you two of my favorites. Seesaw - For all the decisions you need to make every day, on the flight.

This app allows you to get instant help from your friends, whether what you need to decide is which music album you should buy, what to cook for your birthday party or which flat you should rent.

You can either add choices from your phone or through the web (via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) by launching a question accompanied by pictures, multiple choice questions or Yes or No questions. What I like most is that as you can share your choices through the web or the phone, your friends don’t need to have a Seesaw account or to be logged on anything. The Seesaws' social network is based on users’ mobile phone contacts, and this makes it easier to reach them anywhere, at any time (and doesn’t condition them to be present in the app or connected to the internet). You can also help, giving feedback to others and commenting on their choices. What’s more, you can even discover what dilemmas other people have and sometimes these dilemmas are really funny.

According to Venturebeat, Aaron Gotwalt -cofounder and chief executive of Seesaw believes that unlike being just a simple pool, this app helps you “make decisions with the help of the friends that matter most”. “Seesaw is designed to help you make those decisions quickly with the help of people you know and the much smaller number of people you care about"

This means that although there are many other decision making apps out there, similar to Seesaw, such as Polar , Loop - Social Polling , or PeepAdvice , this one is different. Its focus is on helping you get your friend’s opinion and not just anyone’s opinion in the virtual space. Shortwave - is another social app that will help you make choices, this time an even more visual app involving video sharing. Or, as TechCrunch put it - a Reddit style iPhone app. The app is somehow similar to the well known Vine video app. Though, its aim is to facilitate conversation, not just to share content and specific moments. You can start yourself a conversation on any topic, in order to ask for advice, or you can choose to explore threaded video conversations initiated by others.

There is the choice for the conversation to be public or private, and you can choose to have private conversations only with a specific group of users. Compared to other “decision making apps”, the conversations are sustained through videos, making this app a more personal experience. As with any other social networks, not all conversations are completely relevant or interesting. You can choose which one is worth staying on top between the most popular, by vote, to either “float” or “sink” each video. Also, when browsing the video answers in a topic, you can easily skip an answer as soon as it starts to bore you. In an article for Techcrunch the co-founder of Shortwave -Aditya Avadhanula, argues that the app can also be a great environment for talent (such as musicians) to get discovered.

This is because the best content should rise to the top through user voting, and also because of the social dynamics of following other users and discovering new users in each thread — when someone participates in a thread, “You’re bringing your fans and friends to my party and I’m bringing my fans and friends to your party, and it’s the same party in the end.”

I’m pretty sure that, for most of us, decision making is not an easy task. Sometimes we’d rather have little to no choice in the matter. It seems easier. Here come these social apps designed to make decision making easier. Let us know if you’ve tried any of them and which is your favorite, and we’ll give you to choose between some discounted phone repairs, depending on your needs.

Lovefone Blog

Social apps to help you make choices

Published

May 07, 2014