Friday March 29th, 2024
Download SceneNow app
Copied

11 Awesome Apps By And For Egyptians

Now if we could only get an app that could silence all the car horns in the country.

Staff Writer
App developers work hard to find aspects your life they can improve on by having you slap your greasy hands all over an insanely expensive piece of glass. Most of these work well enough for us here in Egypt but sometimes you come across a situation so specifically Egyptian that it takes an app made by those who have experienced whatever it is firsthand, to help. Here are our picks for the 11 greatest apps by, and for, Egyptians.

Raye7 iOS, Android
We all know about the revolutionary, super ride sharing app that's taking over the world but why ride alone when you know that sharing is caring? Raye7 is a carpool app started by Egyptian entrepreneurial siblings Samira and Ahmed Negm and was recently named the 2nd best mobile startup, in the world! “We are now focusing our efforts on how to deliver this service to as many organisations and companies possible," Ahmed Negm, one-half of the sibling team told CairoScene after his app's big win, "We want to have all Cairo commuters turn their traffic problem into cash.” Combining ride sharing with carpooling saves time, the environment, and forces you to be more sociable. Start riding together and you’ll never know what good friends you’ll become. 

 
Eventtus iOS, Android
Eventtus is a one-stop portal for all the event needs you could possibly have as both an attendee or a planner. It allows an organiser to manage, sell tickets for, and build a dedicated app for their specific event; attendees can then download the app for instantaneous access to updated schedules and info. When we interviewed founder Mai Medhat about her trip to the US for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit she talked about her app's adventure and recognition from none other than Barack Obama, saying, “I think they saw the full journey of how we started, how we bootstrapped from nothing until we raised investment, and how we got more traction and launched in different countries, with clients that are big names."
 
Beitko iOS, Android
Finding a place to live in Cairo is stressful, to say the least. Beitko relieves the pressure by giving you a simple, in-depth, and aesthetically pleasing method for finding a house or apartment. Realising that buying, selling, and renting properties in Egypt was a nightmare, co-founder Adel Nasr discovered a digital void he sought to fill. 
 
 
Rakna iOS, Android
Uber is great, but for those Egyptians who have their own cars, it’s only handy in very particular, and inebriated, situations. For the rest of us, the freedom of driving yourself may be worth it if it wasn't for parking. Rakna is an on-demand valet service that makes parking and picking up your vehicle as easy as catching a ride with Uber. "We had a very primitive idea and kept changing it, and we looked at other apps abroad until we reached this," co-founder Ahmad Zaki told CairoScene in an interview in February, "We want to be a platform just like Uber; we connect people to valets."

 
Selah el Telmeez Android only 

Once upon a horrendous time, you’d sit around the sofra and endure the longest hour of your life answering grammar questions from Selah el Telmeez­ while watching the Arabic teacher sip on the tea and biscuits your mom made. Not anymore. Selah el Telmeez, Egypt's most famous textbook, has an app so that you can do all your studying digitally. “We always see kids spending a lot of time on their phones, iPads and electronic devices, so we wanted to reach them through this type of medium,” co-founder Mostafa Hamdy explained to CairoScene in an interview. "So we created tests that the students answer based on the Egyptian national curriculum.”
 
 
3ash iOS, Android
There’s no shortage of gizmos and applications to help you not be a fat blob but not one of them really seems to get what it’s like, trying to be fit (or at least fitter) in Cairo. A new app created by Ahmed Elhadary, takes into consideration all the special circumstances of Cairo. 3ash is specifically tailored for Egyptians keeping up to date with which facilities to use, and how many calories balah al-sham and konafa actually have. "We were confused about which facilities to use, so we decided to gather information about all facilities and make it into an app to make people's fitness journey easier," founder Ahmed Elhadary told CairoScene.

 
Iqraaly iOS, Android
Egyptians have to devote a huge amount of attention to the environment around them, lest they get squished by a microbus or moistened by takeef drips, let alone all the time we spend stuck in traffic. This leaves little time to catch up on our reading, that’s where Iqraaly comes in. Providing you with news and audiobooks from a freakin’ vast collection, you can finally stay informed and culture without cluttering up your bookshelf (which was just for show anyway).

 
GoodsMart iOS, Android
Adulting is hard, and getting out of the house to make sure you don’t die of starvation is damn near impossible sometimes. Goods Mart saves your life by delivering groceries right to you. Unlike other grocery delivery services, which require you to actually be home, Goods Mart sets you up with a handy strongbox that will keep your betengan safe from looters until you get home.
 
Otlob iOS, Android

You already have Otlob downloaded no your phone, there’s no other way that you could possibly be alive right now without it. Allowing you to order from more than 500 restaurants in Cairo and backing you up with kickass customer service to track down your food just in case. 
 
 
Instabug iOS, Android
The biggest Egyptian app of them all, Instabug is a developer's app, helping the biggest names in putting icons on your homescreen make sure their apps don't suck. The Egyptian app designed for users to report bugs by simply shaking the device, has conquered Silicon Valley and has been buzzing across international media since its founders Omar Gabr and Moataz Soliman set up business in 2012.
 

 Saba7 3ala Sa7bak iOS, Android
 

 Say good morning to your friends with an app because it's the future now and you should use apps to do everything.