If one of your New Year’s resolutions will be to learn something new, you can get a head start by downloading the latest learning apps.

We’ve compiled 8 recently released applications designed to increase your knowledge or help you learn a new skill. Featuring intuitive design, gamification, augmented reality and artificial intelligence, learning has never been so fun or so easy!

Related: The 15 best new apps for event planners

1. Learn how to develop an app

Google’s App Maker is an easy-to-use platform for creating apps, available as part of G Suite for Business. It’s designed to help businesses develop apps for internal use without having to hire a developer.

Drag-and-drop widgets enable users to rapidly assemble features without writing code. Google has used the functionality to efficiently build more than 300 apps for its own use.

Says Google: “Whether you’re looking for better ways to onboard new team members, staff projects, or approve employee travel requests, App Maker helps you build an app for that in days instead of months.”

Master App Maker in 2017 and you can increase your productivity as well as your skillset.

2. Learn how to code

If you want to take things one step further and actually learn how to code, check out a new application called Mimo.

Mimo offers mini-lessons in a host of web development languages including Swift, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, SQL and more. Because the lessons take no longer than a couple of minutes to complete you can work learning to code into your daily routine.

The app is gamified as well, meaning players collect points, badges and other achievements as they progress in the app. Even if you are totally new to coding you can start learning through Mimo’s introductory programming courses.

The app is free to download and includes two free-to-complete courses. Full subscription, providing access to all the courses is $49.99 per year.

Mimo

3. Learn about the White House

If the US election has got you interested in American politics, you might enjoy a play with a new augmented reality app that gives you a tour of the White House.

You will, however, require a US dollar in order to use the app, called 1600. Place the dollar bill on a flat surface, point your phone’s camera at George Washington and as if by magic, a tiny interactive replica of the White House appears.

Explore a year inside the iconic building, experiencing events like Egg Rolling on the lawn with the First Lady and press conferences in the Rose Garden with President Kennedy. You can even play at being president, opening up the Oval office or releasing secret service agents onto the roof!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3e_RM-QsXk

4. Learn a new language

Duolingo has been offering great gamified language-learning tools for a while now, but just recently it unveiled an exciting new AI-powered feature.

Duolingo Bots offers the opportunity to have “spontaneous conversation” with chatbots in either French, German or Spanish. Right now, you can only interact with the chatbots via text, but the company does have plans to add spoken conversations in the future.

Unfortunately, the bots lead the conversation and are looking for specific answers so it’s not as natural as a real-life conversation, but it’s great for practising in a low-pressure environment (they won’t laugh at you if you get it wrong!)

Duolingo Bots

5. Learn how to be more thoughtful

Want to do good things in 2017? Nobly describes itself as a “pay it forward” good deed app.

Users are encouraged to record acts of kindness either experienced by them or performed by them. They then tag their friends in order to inspire them to carry out good deeds, creating a “chain of kindness.”

Central to the app is the “deed feed,” which is like a philanthropic version of Instagram with its photos of users’ good deeds. Guaranteed to make you feel warm and fuzzy no matter what the January weather has to throw at us.

Nobly

6. Learn how to meditate

If Christmas is starting to stress you out already and you want to start the New Year calm and relaxed, try Pause. It’s a mindfulness app developed in partnership with Danish mental-health company PauseAble.

Combining principles of mindfulness and Tai Chi with haptic feedback from smartphones, Pause lowers stress-related chemicals in the brain by slowing down users’ movements.

To play, you just drag a blob across the screen. It sounds easy, but it’s not as simple as you’d think. If you go too fast, you’ll be told to slow down, but if you go too slow, you’ll be told to speed up. It’s a great way to meditate and focus without attracting strange looks from your colleagues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-CrRpQ80aw

7. Learn about a subject of choice

Whether it’s for professional or personal development, Degreed can help you obtain expertise in the subjects of your choice. It’s like an Open University for the smartphone generation.

Degreed helps you find the best learning materials from thousands of platforms such as YouTube, Audible, Khan Academy and Lynda.com. Choose the topics you’re interested in, such as marketing, finance or web development, and receive daily curated doses of learning tailored to your goals.

Degreed includes learning tracking, so you can see everything you’ve learned in one place, from how many books or articles you’ve read, to videos watched and courses undertaken. You can even collect points to further motivate your learning.

Degreed

8. Learn how to improve your posture

Putting the world at our fingertips, Smartphones are wonderful things but the more we use them, the more strain we put on our necks. And if you do decide to use an app to help you learn something new, here’s an app you should download alongside it – Posture.

While your phone is in use, the app sends you reminders about your posture so that you can build the habit of viewing your phone at eye level and avoid developing neck strain.

According to Posture’s makers, we look at our phones up to 85 times daily, which adds up to a whole two hours per day. What’s more we hold our phones in a way that can cause up to 60 lbs (27kg) of strain on the neck (that’s the equivalent of 4-6 medium size bowling balls – ouch!).

Posture

Related: 9 Time-saving Zaps you need to set up

Conclusion

It’s never been easier to learn something new, so put down that mince pie and pick up your smartphone! What will you achieve in 2017?