Apps For The (Pop) Cultured

Whether you’re a self-proclaimed pop culture connoisseur or a casual reader of E! News, one thing is sure: you love media! Whatever your medium of choice is, be it film, TV, books, theatre, music, or art, here are 5 apps that you need to have on your phone, stat. 

Letterboxd

Letterboxd is the social media platform for movie buffs. Launched in 2011, Letterboxd allows you to discover new movies based on what your friends are watching. You can log, review, and rate movies you’ve seen, as well create film-related lists of pretty much everything. (My favorite list is one that curates pink and purple film posters.) You can also add films to your Watchlist, which will automatically update as you log them to your account. Available on the App Store and Google Play.

HQ Trivia

If you haven’t heard of HQ Trivia yet, it’s an app-based game show that lets you win real money. Granted, you have to have won at least $10 before you’re able to cash them out, but still: Real money. Every day at 9AM (or 10AM, depending on Daylight Savings Time), you’ll receive a notification to join the game, a multiple-choice trivia game that will ask everything from what is the smallest body of water to specifically-themed games, like Disney or musical theatre night. Recently, they’ve expanded to HQ Words and HQ Sports, if that’s your kind of thing. Available on the App Store and Google Play.

Genius

Pump up your musical knowledge with Genius—more than just a lyrics site, Genius allows members as well as the official artists to come together to annotate lyrics and explain the meaning or the history behind each line. If you’re a contributor, you can rack up points for every good and valid annotation you make. Much like Letterboxd, you can also discover new music based on what’s trending within the app. Available on the App Store and Google Play.

Heads Up!

Courteney Cox, Kendall Jenner, and Emily Blunt have all done it: played Heads Up! on Ellen. This is a great game to play with family and friends over the holidays—whether it’s a full-on contest between teams or while you’re at a restaurant waiting for your food to arrive. It has every category imaginable, perfect to sharpen your pop culture brain: superstars, blockbuster movies, fictional characters, love songs, television shows, and even the Bible. Available on the App Store and Google Play for ₱49.00.

Google Arts & Culture

In January 2018, celebrities joined the Google Arts & Culture craze: Upload a selfie, find out which portrait you resembled the most. Kate Hudson was a 50% match for Pierpont Limner’s Portrait of a Boy, Josh Groban’s art doppelganger was Pueyrredón’s portrait of Cecilia R. de Peralta, and Amanda Seyfried was apparently the spitting image of Harcourt’s One Summer Afternoon. Aside from this fun little feature, you can also see how artworks look in real life, go through immersive galleries by way of your phone, and find art by using the colors of your photo. Available on the App Store and Google Play.