Apps

5 free productivity apps for students

Apps to help you ace those classes!

Published

July 25, 2018

Isa Rodriguez

Every student knows (or should know) that part of excelling in school work is not just studying hard, but also studying smart. Luckily for kids today, there are now apps that help make a student’s workflow easier and more efficient.

From task reminders to instant citation makers, here are my top five picks for free productivity apps that will help any student.

Forest

Sure, having a smartphone is convenient, but it can also be pretty distracting. Trump the urge to fiddle with your phone when you’re supposed to be doing something else — like studying — with this app.

Here, you’re tasked to grow trees, and eventually, a forest. The catch? If you leave the app, your tree dies.

The premise is as simple as that, but it proves to be an effective way to keep focused and grow a lush virtual forest. Download it here.

DropTask

Group projects and assignments can be daunting and unorganized tasks. Lucky for you, there’s DropTask to help.

DropTask is a unique task manager that will work on your phone or your laptop. It allows you to organize every single thing in your school life. Group together certain assignments and even share tasks with classmates to ensure smooth workflows and efficient task distribution.

It also helps that it has a pretty colorful visual design, perfect for those who aren’t so fond of normal lists and notes. Download it here.

Google Keep

For a lot of things in school, note taking is something you can’t get out of. Might as well find a way to make this activity easier, right?

One great app for this task is Google Keep. It has an easy interface that allows you to organize notes like post-its, plus it allows for plain text, lists, and even photos.

Google Keep has a dedicated app, but you can also open it up via your web browser. It syncs everything to Google Drive and saves offline edits so you’ll have only one set of updated notes. It’s the small victories in life, kids. Download it here.

Exam Countdown Lite

When exam season is around the corner, scheduling and meticulous planning are key. Make sure you have all your bases — erm, subjects — covered with this app.

Exam Countdown Lite takes care of your test scheduling woes. It allows you to take note of all the important dates and organizes everything in a way which allows you to see everything, including countdowns to the very second your exams start.

The app also has alarms, social media integration (so you can share your deadly schedules to the world!), and even note-taking capabilities. Download it for Android or iOS.

Citationsy

We all know that research papers are hard and formatting is especially a pain. Say no more: We have just the app for that.

This ingenious app not only formats citations in more than 1,500 styles (which includes APA and MLA), it also does this by scanning the book’s barcode. Yep, that easy.

Unfortunately, this free app is only available for iPhone and iPad users, which you can download here.

Of course, we found something for Android study folks. Citation Maker is a good alternative app; unfortunately, it doesn’t support barcode scanning. Download it here.

Happy studying! 🤓

Apps

ChatGPT will soon allow NSFW conversations

The platform will start age-gating users in December.

Published

October 16, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

Every day, we inch closer and closer to the strange reality of Joaquin Phoenix’s Her. Today’s AI-powered chatbots have inevitably adapted to address our more carnal desires. Some, such as those offered by xAI, are even explicitly designed to only flirt with the user. Soon, ChatGPT will offer the same thing: a way for adult users to… well, be adults.

Through a post on X, OpenAI’s Sam Altman reiterated ChatGPT’s impending drive to introduce age-gating in December. Keeping younger users from the platform will open ChatGPT to more “mature” conversations. Altman specifically names “erotica” as one of the potential uses of a looser platform.

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have…

— Sam Altman (@sama) October 14, 2025

Additionally, ChatGPT is rolling out an update which will make the platform more personable and comparable to actual conversations. This includes using more emojis or talking like a friend.

The platform is also adding more safeguards when it comes to mental health issues, given that more people are using it as a makeshift therapist. Recently, Altman made sure that ChatGPT treated mental health with more delicateness. To some, especially those without such issues, the platform became more unusable. To bring back how it used to be, the platform will add better tools to detect whether the user is in “mental distress.”

Finally, OpenAI is implementing a backend solution to mental health by creating a new council of researchers and experts to accurately determine the impact of AI on mental health. Currently, it’s still unknown how much this new technology is helping (or harming) our wellbeing.

Apps

YouTube is getting a redesign

The update looks a bit like Liquid Glass.

Published

October 15, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

What’s your favorite YouTube design? I still hold a bit of nostalgia for the silver era, but the practicality of the current minimalist design is remarkable. Now, it’s time for a change. YouTube is refreshing its design starting this week.

Much like Apple with Liquid Glass, YouTube is going for a more transparent approach. The new design lets more content through the interface. It also features rounder buttons, in contrast to today’s blockier features.

The comments section is also getting a bit of an upgrade to allow for more structure between original posts and replies.

For engagement with actual videos, some videos will now have custom like animations. The update gives an example of a music video which puts out a musical note when liked. Adding a video to a custom playlist or the Watch Later list is also more natural.

YouTube is rolling out these updates starting this week. It will also be available for web, mobile, and TV users.

Apps

ChatGPT Go now available in the Philippines, more Asian countries

Access to more popular ChatGPT features for an affordable subscription plan

Published

October 9, 2025

GadgetMatch

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

OpenAI has officially launched ChatGPT Go in 16 Asian countries, including the Philippines. This is the most cost-friendly subscription option yet at just PhP 300 (~ US$ 5.15).

This development gives users in the serviced regions greater access to ChatGPT’s advanced capabilities at a more affordable price.

To get started, simply visit chat.openai.com or download the ChatGPT mobile app, then create an account and select ChatGPT Go as your plan. The payment process is simple.

On the other hand, those who already have accounts may simply upgrade to Go.

The launch comes amid strong growth adoption of OpenAI’s tools in the Philippines. In fact, the country ranks among the top five countries for weekly ChatGPT users in Asia.

In addition, the top five use cases locally are tutoring, editing, personal writing, “how to” advice, and creative ideation.

At PhP 300 a month, ChatGPT Go subscribers will gain access to ChatGPT’s most popular features, including higher message limits, image generation, file uploads, and memory.

These are all powered by GPT-5, OpenAI’s most-advanced model.

Specifically, here’s the perks for the Go plan compared to free:

10x higher message limits
10x more image generations per day
10x more file or image uploads per day
2x longer memory for personalized responses

ChatGPT Go will join existing subscription options Plus (PhP 1,100) and Pro (PhP 9,900).

Plus is for subscribers who need more advanced thinking models and features like deep research, agent mode, and Sora video creation.

Meanwhile, Pro is for professionals, researchers, or organizations who need enterprise-grade scale, pro-level reasoning, and the most advanced features.