Buzz
Brushing your teeth may seem like a small task, but it's actually a vital part of your health. Wouldn't it be great if an app could make this chore easier to remember and more enjoyable? Sadly, every tooth brushing app I’ve come across is pretty awful.
Take, for instance, Disney Magic Timer (iOS/Android), a nearly decent app designed for kids. When you start brushing, a screen filled with bubbles appears. A cartoon toothbrush scrubs different sections of the screen for 30 seconds and gradually reveals a picture of characters from Monsters, Inc. When you finish, you earn half a gold star on your calendar for the day.
So, here’s what’s good: If you enjoy Monsters, Inc. and are easily entertained, the reveal of the picture keeps you engaged. This makes brushing more fun, meaning you're less likely to skip it. Also, the gold star on the calendar helps build a routine.
However, the app feels more like a commercial for cartoon-branded Oral-B products. Every time you brush, it asks you to scan a product. The adult version features news articles—an improvement over cartoons, I guess—but still begins with a product pitch: buy a bluetooth-enabled toothbrush to unlock premium features. Uh, no thanks.
I wouldn't mind these apps if they were a decent starting point. If there were an app that understood I’m using my own plain, regular toothbrush, that would be fantastic. It should either offer me something interesting to view or personalize based on my preferences—maybe pull my latest unread stories from Pocket? Or show me funny two-minute clips? It doesn’t take much creativity to imagine ways to make this app something I’d actually look forward to using every morning.
But what have the developers done instead? They’ve either made simple timers that work exactly like the one built into your phone—except now you have a separate app—or they’ve created children’s apps that are painfully literal: you brush your teeth while watching a cartoon character brush theirs.
It’s 2016, people. We’re capable of more than this.
