You open your phone to check the time or a quick message. Next thing you know, an hour has passed and you’ve scrolled through endless celebrity dramas, cat videos, horrible news, influencer rants, and whatever else the algorithm decided to throw at you.
Even though you probably don’t want to keep wasting your time and energy on this mind-numbing content, you do it again the next day.
Doomscrolling, the habit of inordinately consuming time-consuming content on social media, has become incredibly popular. A survey from last year was found that 64% of Americans say they doomscroll.
Researchers have warned that doomscrolling can negatively affect many aspects of your well-being, including your mental health and attention. Expenses long periods Scrolling can lead to brain fatigue, difficulty focusing and disturbed sleep. And if a lot of the content you consume is negative or stressful, it can leave you feeling disappointedstressed and emotionally drained.
It’s hard to break the cycle of scrolling, but there are plenty of apps that provide content that’s engaging and productive.
Of course, you could always read a book or go for a walk (we have a guide on how to stop doomscrolling), but this list is for when you have a few minutes to spare and want something to do on your phone that isn’t endless scrolling.
Radio Garden
If you still want to feel connected to the world without scrolling through social media, you can check out Radio Garden. The app lets you listen to over 25,000 live radio stations from around the world.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, California
|
13-15 October 2026
Once you open the app, you’ll see green dots marking cities and towns. Tap any dot to listen to radio stations broadcasting from that location. You can add favorites or search for radio stations, countries and places.
Radio Garden is free, but also offers an ad-free premium plan for $2.99 ​​per month. The app is available on both iOS and Android.
Lift
Elevate is an app designed to help improve focus, memory, reading, math skills and other cognitive abilities. It includes over 40 games to train different skills you use in everyday life, from reading faster to comparing prices more efficiently.
You can track your training streaks and compare your brain’s performance over time.
The app offers a free version with access to three games per day, or a $39.99 annual subscription for unlimited access. It is available in both iOS and Android.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is an app that helps you learn new words every day. You can choose your difficulty level and choose categories that interest you, such as emotions, human body, business and more. Each word comes with a definition, example sentences and a guide on how to pronounce it.
The app also includes mini-games to help you test the words you’ve learned. You can set a goal for how many words you want to learn each week and create a regular learning routine.
Vocabulary offers a free trial and then costs $4.99 per month or $59.99 per year. It is available at iOS and Android.
Sheterra
If you’re a geography nerd looking to test your knowledge or just want to brush up on your geography skills, Seterra is for you. The app has over 300 different games to test your map skills. You can test your knowledge of world flags. Discover oceans, seas and rivers. and explore mountain ranges and volcanoes around the world.
Seterra allows you to track your progress in categories and view leaderboards for top scorers for each game.
The app is free and available on both iOS and Android.
NYT Games
The NYT Games app offers tons of word, logic, and number games that change every day to exercise your brain. You can play the crossword puzzle, try the word guessing game Wordle, group words with a common theme in Connections, see how many seven-letter words you can make in Spelling Bee, and more.
The app costs $5.99 per month for unlimited access and archiving, but some games like Wordle, Strands, and Mini Crossword are available to play for free.
NYT Games is available on both iOS and Android.
Drops
If you want to learn a new language but want to try something other than Duolingo, Drops is a good choice. The app uses visually appealing mini-games to help you build vocabulary and common phrases in over 45 languages, with bite-sized lessons designed to be completed in around five minutes a day.
Drops is designed for both beginners and experts who want to develop their foreign language vocabulary.
The free version of the app offers five minute lessons per day. You can get unlimited access and premium features for $11.99 per month or $79.99 per year. The app is available on both iOS and Android.
