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May 16, 2024Revive Your Inner Genius: Top 55 Apps for Creative Thinking [2024]
At times, even the best creative thinkers need a little boost, as it is normal for them to experience creative or writer’s block. This is where the help of creative apps comes into play. If you are a producer, writer, artist, or someone who wants to own a creative app, this list of apps will inspire you regardless since they are developed to spark creativity in your mind. As humans, we can run out of inspirational ideas, images, or tunes, but with the help of creative apps, you can avail yourself of these at your fingertips. These apps help you with creativity, depending on how effectively you use them, which is also an art and talent.
Now is the perfect time to dive into the world of creative apps. We’ve curated a list of the top mobile apps for iOS and Android, each one a potential spark for your creativity. With so many options to choose from, the possibilities are endless. Get ready to ignite your creativity in 2024! Let’s jump right into the list.
Top 55 Apps for Creative Thinking
1. Brainsparker (iOS & Android)
Brainsparker is widely used for its ability to provide individuals with creative ideas. It kicks off your innovative side, providing you with endless, inspiring results. This iOS application helps you overcome creative blocks and provides fresh ideas to ignite your creative side. This app provides you with courses and more.
This app contains over 200 cards that have thought-provoking words and phrases. To produce a new card, shake your phone, and the deck of cards will be shuffled. By providing you with a variety of random words, quotes, images, actions, and questions, the app aims to stimulate creative ideas.
2. TED (iOS & Android)
TED talks are known for their inspiring speeches and their ever-growing solutions to living and helping expand your world. This app offers powerful, thought-provoking ideas and knowledge on several topics. No matter how many what-if situations you end up with, this app can help you ignite a sense of possibilities.
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3. Procreate (iOS & Android)
Procreate is a highly acclaimed painting app that has been created specifically for creative professionals to bring their ideas to life. With its intuitive interface and over a hundred handcrafted tools, Procreate offers a wide range of options, from pencils and paint brushes to spray paints and pastels, to help artists add finesse and depth to their designs. Whether you’re looking to create sketches or illustrations, Procreate is the perfect app to help you achieve your artistic vision.
4. Brushes Redux (iOS & Android)
Brushes Redux is a painting app created by Christoffer Hoel that uses accelerated OpenGL technology. It can be used on both iPhones and iPads, making it convenient for designers who need to work on the go. With a range of brush sizes, experimental Apple Pencil support, and various paint options, Brushes Redux is an excellent choice for digital illustrators and painters.
5. Inkflow Visual Notebook (iOS & Android)
Inkflow is designed by the digital creative firm Qrayon. It is one of those apps for creative thinking where users can capture innovative ideas in no time. Use it on iOS or Android. This digital visual notebook allows you to organize your content, brainstorm new ideas, and create prototypes, layouts, and different kinds of sketches. With this, you can capture ideas and use them later when you have time to think about them.
6. SketchBook Pro (iOS)
Sketchbook Pro is popular among educators and students due to its user-friendly interface and free availability. Additionally, its enterprise version allows for managing multiple licenses for an entire school.
7. Curator (iOS & Android)
Curator is known as the top creativity application tool for bridging the gap between creative block and flowing with ideas. With this app, you can organize your thoughts virtually, store your inspiration, and later export them into a PDF or directly share them within the app through e-mail or other methods.
8. Coffitivity
This app is one of those apps that help you organize your schedule to help you relax and think more clearly. Coffitivity contains cafe sounds to boost your productivity and creativity. Although it is not really an app that sparks creativity in your mind, the wonders of calming cafe sounds can help you in various ways.
9. Canva (Android & iOS)
Canva is known for helping individuals create remarkable presentations and other content. They have expanded their features by creating Instagram reels, short advertisement videos, and more. By using this app, you can most certainly spark your creativity and gain new skills. Canva is also beginner-friendly, helping you gain inspiration and bring your creative concepts to life.
10. Pinterest (Android & iOS)
Pinterest has always had its own aesthetic and influence on people. It is a visual, creative playground for individuals of all ages. We added this to the list of apps for creative thinking since it has a collection of images that will be difficult to find on normal search engines. With this app, you can pin your favorite images (known as pins) and discover new ideas, techniques, and styles that you can later apply to your tasks and projects. Additionally, you can create your own visual concept board so others can view it. With Pinterest, you can discover your own personal aesthetic and boost your creativity to a whole new level.
11. Adobe Illustrator (iOS)
Adobe Illustrator is an empowering app for creativity in many ways. It provides a wide digital canvas for creative individuals to translate their ideas into stunning graphics. Adobe Illustrator offers limitless scaling and manipulation, so you can freely experiment with new concepts and shape new ideas. Illustrator offers a seamless experience that allows you to expand your reactive palette to new possibilities.
12. Tayasui Sketches (iOS & Android)
Tayasui Sketches is one of the best creative apps for artists who love graphic design and digital artistry. They can have the real-life feel of brush strokes and different kinds of textures applied to their designs. These realistic brushes and tools mimic the traditional media that allows users to loosen up and focus on the joy of creativity since they know they will be backed up by the innovation this app offers. With this app, you can explore different artistic skills that you have and create new concertos, organize your work, and create new oaths towards your creative success.
13. GarageBand (iOS)
GarageBand is a powerful music creation app that can spark creativity in anyone, even those without musical experience. This playful exploration can lead to unexpected sonic combinations and melodies, igniting creative ideas that can be translated into other artistic endeavors like writing, drawing, or even sparking innovative solutions to problems. GarageBand is a creative playground where anyone can experiment with sound and rhythm, potentially unlocking hidden talents or providing a fun and inspiring way to approach creative challenges.
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14. Paper (iOS & Android)
Paper by WeTransfer is not just a note-taking app. It’s a digital canvas that encourages creative exploration. It offers a less rigid interface than traditional document editors and comes with freehand drawing tools. Paper lets you brainstorm visually, jot down ideas, and experiment with layouts – all in one place. This flexibility allows you to explore concepts non-linearly, make unexpected connections, and spark fresh ideas that might not emerge through traditional writing alone.
15. Adobe XD (iOS & Android)
Adobe XD goes beyond just prototyping and design by offering features that can jumpstart the creative process for individuals. Its intuitive interface allows for rapid experimentation and iteration. Users can create multiple artboards to explore different design layouts, and user flows, fostering a “what-if” scenario that encourages them to break free from conventional ideas. This visual feedback loop can be instrumental in igniting creativity and propelling designers and other creative professionals toward innovative solutions.
16. Bez (iOS)
Bez is an iPad app that allows you to create vector illustrations. It is designed to boost creativity by providing a versatile and user-friendly platform for exploring ideas visually. With its touch-friendly interface and support for Apple Pencil, Bez gives users the freedom to experiment with different shapes, curves, and colors, making it a great tool for artists and designers. This creativity app has been loved by several individuals and has allowed them to come up with concepts like none other.
17. Notability (iOS)
Notability can spark creativity in individuals by acting as a versatile digital canvas for capturing and nurturing ideas. With its multimedia note-taking capabilities, you can brainstorm visually by sketching concepts, jotting down text snippets, and even recording audio snippets of fleeting thoughts or voice notes for improvisation. The ability to organize your notes with digital notebooks and drag-and-drop functionality allows you to freely explore connections between ideas, fostering a non-linear and exploratory creative process. This creativity app also creates a studious atmosphere for individuals, almost making you want to study and learn even more because of the aesthetic.
18. Issuu
Issuu is an app that inspires creative individuals with ideas, creative outcomes, and results. It provides a sense of discovery and growth by providing visual inspiration and a sense of discovery. By browsing digital magazines and a collection of publications on a wide range of subjects, you can encounter layouts, design strategies, and different techniques and apply them to your projects. This exposure ignites new ideas, sparks connections, and pushes creative limits.
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19. VSCO (iOS & Android)
With VSCO, you can go beyond just photo filters and edits. This creativity app allows you to create unique and custom filters to apply to your photographs and edit with precision. VSCO landed on the best creative apps list because it inspires photographers and editors with new solutions that are different and fresh from their regular concepts.
20. Brain Wave (iOS & Android)
Brain Wave is an app that uses audio with binaural beat tones with slightly different frequencies played in each ear. The idea is that the brain waves synchronize with the binaural beat frequency, potentially influencing your brain state. You may wonder why this is part of the creative app list. This app is for those interested in frequencies and tones, who can use them in their projects for whatever they like.
21. Mural.ly (iOS & Android)
The Mural.ly app ignites creativity in individuals by allowing them to combine text, images, videos, and sketches on a virtual whiteboard. This interactive format lets individuals free-mind map ideas, visually organize thoughts, and build upon each other’s contributions, ultimately sparking new connections and innovation and helping turn individual ideas into fleshed-out concepts.
22. Dribbble (iOS & Android)
If you feel your creative path is slightly stuck in some places, Dribbble is a powerful app that can expose you to new, innovative solutions. You do not have to be a professional to use this app. It is beginner-friendly and perfect for those who want to create easy projects. You can create your own designs. The app just helps you polish your ideas to feel more confident. This app made it to the apps for creative thinking because it has successfully changed several people’s lives regarding creativity and application.
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23. Minecraft (iOS & Android)
Although the Minecraft app is an online game, you will be surprised by how it sparks one’s creative side. The simple block-building aesthetic sparks individual creativity through a unique blend of limitations and open-mindedness. While the game provides materials and tools, it doesn’t dictate what you create. This freedom allows players to unleash their imaginations, building anything from sprawling castles and intricate pixel art to elaborate working contraptions and even functioning computers within the game’s world.
24. Big Brain Academy (iOS)
Big Brain Academy is not an app built for creativity, but it does a remarkable job of doing so. By playing the games provided in the app, you train your brain by focusing on memory, speeding up information processing, and analyzing. It is a memory game with unique approaches to solving queries. Through this app, you can think outside the box, which allows you to think and be creative.
25. Blek (iOS & Android)
The Blek app can spark creativity in individuals by providing a unique and flexible digital canvas for artistic exploration. Unlike traditional painting tools that can be limiting, Blek’s node-based system allows users to experiment with a vast range of brushes, textures, and effects by simply connecting and manipulating nodes. This removes technical barriers and lets users focus on their creative vision.
26. Behance (iOS & Android)
Behance is a platform for discovering exceptional work by establishing artists and designers across various disciplines. These apps for creatives inspire and allow you to explore new ideas for your own creative vision. This interaction can lead to valuable discussions, collaborations, and a healthy dose of friendly competition that can push your creative boundaries.
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27. Scribblenauts (iOS & Android)
With its core mechanic of creating objects simply by writing them into existence, Scribblenauts ignites creativity in several ways. It breaks down mental barriers by encouraging users to think outside the box. If you can imagine it, you can create it. This freedom allows for the exploration of unconventional solutions and fosters a “what if?” mindset.
28. SimCity (iOS & Android)
SimCity is a game where you create a world of your own and can interact with people from all over the world. How is this meant to end on the top apps for creative thinking? You may ask. Our reason for adding this to the creative app list is that you can explore ways of making an entire world with no boundaries. You get to think more like an architect experimenting with ideas to construct new houses and buildings, including the interior and furnishing.
28. SimCity (iOS & Android)
SimCity is a game where you create a world of your own and can interact with people from all over the world. How is this meant to end on the top apps for creative thinking? You may ask. Our reason for adding this to the creative app list is that you can explore ways of making an entire world with no boundaries. You get to think more like an architect experimenting with ideas to construct new houses and buildings, including the interior and furnishing.
29. Creative Ideas – DIY & Craft (Android & iOS)
Creative Ideas—DIY & Craft landed on the best creative apps list as it offers a lot of inspiration and guidance when it comes to creativity. The app name states it either way: You can skip the blank canvas and let the app introduce hints and ideas that will kickstart your imagination to a whole new level. By providing you with visual examples, you can craft creations that can even turn your side projects into an actual business.
30. Pixelmator (iOS)
For all those creative photographers and editors out there, this app is certainly for you! Pixelmator is beginner-friendly and offers a vast collection of brushes for your imagination to go wild. It does not just stop there, though. You can get the real-life feel of the brush strokes and see the textures of your creative masterpiece. Whether it is quick designing and editing you wish for or professional photography editing and more, this app can truly spark your imagination.
31. Enlight (iOS & Android)
The Enlight app may not involve colors or editing, but it allows you to improve your educational skills through a think-outside-the-box strategy. This app prepares students for examinations and tests and acts as a little virtual study buddy to motivate them to learn better.
32. Microsoft Loop
Microsoft Loop is an app that allows you to connect, think, and plan with teams and bring them together. Through this creatives app, you can share your ideas and come up with better concepts together. Loop provides a flexible and powerful canvas where you can freely sync across several applications.
33. Trello (iOS & Android)
Trello offers collaborative features where individuals can share their creative boards with others and invite diverse perspectives. This helps them gain intellectual and thought-provoking ideas to make a creative breakthrough.
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34. Ideament (iOS & Android)
Ideament empowers individual creativity by functioning as a bridge between brainstorming and organization. By allowing users to convert mind maps, concept sketches, or flow charts into a structured outline and the other way.
35. Assembly (iOS & Android)
The Assembly app can spark creativity in individuals by fostering a collaborative and inspiring environment. It likely allows you to share ideas, prompts, and creative assets, such as images or sketches, within a centralized platform. This can lead to a mountain of ideas as you build upon each other’s work, sparking new perspectives and unexpected solutions.
36. Exify (iOS & Android)
Yet another creative app for photographers and editors. The Exify app allows individuals to explore their lenses and edit pictures to enhance their visuals. This app can lead to unexpected combinations, inspire new ideas, and create a springboard for creative projects, such as incorporating a captivating sound effect from a movie trailer into your music composition or a building shown in your next painting.
37. Draw Pad Pro (iOS)
DrawPad is a must-have for all drawing and graphic design projects. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced designer, you can start with a blank canvas or select from a variety of logos, invitations, and advertising templates. You can edit both raster and vector images and create image layers for non-destructive edits.
38. Glorify App (iOS & Android)
This may not be your regular creative app, but the Glorify app allows you to medicate and gives you daily affirmations to achieve mental peace and a state of clarity. This can inspire your mind to clear unnecessary thoughts and create a connection with your beliefs.
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39. FL Studio Mobile (iOS)
Here is another creative app for those individuals who have a more musical and artistic side. The FL Studio Mobile app helps you create new tunes and rhythms based on your style. You can edit and add effects to your masterpiece, combined with the ability to record performances, layer tracks, and build complex arrangements on the go. It allows creators to capture fleeting musical ideas.
40. Audio Evolution Mobile (iOS & Android)
Audio Evolution Mobile offers mobile music production that can ignite creativity in several ways. It features a drum pattern editor, and you can experiment with different sounds and concepts with this application. Experimenting with features like real-time effects and virtual instruments encourages users to explore new sonic possibilities and find unique sounds that fuel their creative vision.
41. Ulysses (iOS & Android)
Ulysses is one of those creativity apps that can help you organize your thoughts and work, creating an ideal working environment. It indirectly sparks creativity by enabling a distraction-free and focused environment.
42. Bear (iOS)
Bear is another app that made it to the apps for creative thinning list since it creates an environment for individuals to promote imaginative thoughts. This app allows you to organize and sort your files, maintain a clear head, and easily assemble your notes. This collectively supports capturing fleeting ideas, building upon them, and exploring different creative avenues.
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43. Evernote (iOS & Android)
With Evernote, you can quickly jot down your ideas and allow it to organize them. Additionally, you can tag and keep up with whatever thoughts you have and add tasks. Also, once you are done, you can cross out to feel a sense of accomplishment. You can even add pictures and revisit your old ideas with a better and clearer mind.
44. Grammarly (iOS & Android)
Grammarly is a well-known tool that helps individuals with language corrections and more. People use this app almost every day. Whether you are writing a book, completing an assignment, or need to check for errors, this app can do that for you. Grammarly made it to the creative apps list since it also sparks creativity in your mind by initiating concerts and ideas you can later improve in your own way.
45. MindMeister (iOS & Android)
MindMeister is an app that allows you to freely connect thoughts and concepts using mind maps. This visual approach allows you to see the bigger picture, spark new associations between ideas, and uncover hidden connections that might not be apparent in a text-based format. The app also includes image and color integration, which further enhances the brainstorming process and makes it easier to capture fleeting ideas and visually represent complex concepts.
46. XMind (iOS & Android)
XMind includes AI features so that your thoughts will flow freely with no blockage. You can story-tell and create interesting concepts that will surely help you with your creative projects. Features like mind maps, rich text editing, and the AI-powered “Inspire Me” function allow you to capture fleeting thoughts, explore connections between concepts, and generate unexpected ideas.
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47. Forest (Android & iOS)
48. Skillshare (iOS & Android)
Skillshare allows you to explore new artistic paths that you may not have considered before, such as calligraphy, watercolor painting, 3D animation, and game design. By learning new skills and techniques, you not only gain fresh perspectives but also unlock hidden creative potential. Whether you’re an experienced artist looking to improve your skills or a complete beginner interested in discovering a new passion, Skillshare offers a supportive and inspiring environment.
49. Coolors (iOS & Android)
The Coolors app sparks creativity in individuals by providing a fun and accessible way to explore color palettes. It breaks free from the monotony of picking colors one by one, instead offering a visual playground where users can experiment with different color combinations. It also features random palettes that can also help you boost your creative side by exploring new hues and pairs that complement each other.
50. Typewolf
With Typewold, you can explore ways to create your own personal fonts and sell them off if you wish. This app gives you the freedom to explore new and professional fonts.
51. The Noun Project
The Noun Project app is added to the list of creative apps since it sparks creativity in individuals by offering a vast collection of beautifully designed and categorized icons. By browsing through these icons, users can encounter unexpected visual metaphors or symbolic representations that can ignite new ideas and associations. The noun project offers a visual connection that might spark your project’s new direction. Its function and curated collections further enhance this process, allowing you to find icons related to specific themes or keywords, feeding their creative exploration in a focused way.
52. Unsplash (iOS & Android)
The Unsplash app can inspire creative individuals by providing a vast collection of stunning, high-resolution photos beyond stock photo cliches. These captivating images can spark new ideas by igniting visual storytelling for writers, serving as mood boards for designers, or offering unexpected color palettes and compositions for artists.
53. Autodesk (iOS & Android)
From sketching apps like Autodesk SketchBook that allow for freeform exploration with a variety of brushes and tools to professional design software like AutoCAD that facilitates the precise execution of ideas, these apps empower users to translate their visions into reality.
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54. SimpleMind (iOS & Android)
SimpleMind is a mind-mapping app that can be a powerful tool for sparking creativity in individuals. It has the ability to visualize ideas, foster non-linear thinking, and encourage exploration. By creating mind maps, users can visually brainstorm, connect seemingly disparate concepts, and unearth new ideas through diagramming relationships.
55. Camera+ (iOS)
Camera+ can spark creativity in individuals by going beyond simple point-and-shoot functionality. Its manual controls allow users to experiment with shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, mimicking professional photography techniques and encouraging a more deliberate approach to capturing a scene.
Are You Ready To Get Creative?
It’s important for us to have access to creative apps that can stimulate curiosity, ignite passion, and encourage imagination. These kinds of apps can help us explore new ideas and break through mental blocks. They enable us to gain new insights into our creativity and develop the concepts floating in our minds. One of the best features of these apps is the ability to easily erase and redo our work for continuous improvement.
If you’re searching for the best app to suit your preferences, you can refer to this blog for inspiration. Additionally, if you’re interested in generating app ideas, this list of apps can serve as a great starting point for creating your own.
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