15 Creative iOS App Ideas to Start With as a Beginner

Struggling to come up with creative iOS app ideas that are both easy to code and suitable for a wide target audience? Will this app win the users’ hearts? Is that fancy idea too complex? Indeed, the search for the perfect concept that will appeal to users of all levels can be challenging and time-consuming. 

To save you from the struggle, we have curated a list of innovative and beginner-friendly concepts to ignite your creativity and kickstart your app development journey. 

Let’s dive in and discover the next big thing!

Contents:

1. Tips for choosing the right app idea

     2. 15 Best iOS app ideas to start with

• Task list app with gamification elements
• Language learning app with interactive exercises
• Fitness tracker app with customizable routines
• Travel planner app
• Budgeting app
• Meditation & mindfulness app with guided sessions
• Local business directory app
• Habit tracker app
• Localized chat app
• Music learning app
• Wearable app
• AR/VR integration app
• Voice assistant app
• Parking space finder app
• Calculator app

     3. Conclusion

Tips for choosing the right app idea

With a wide target audience to consider, it’s important to select a concept that is both engaging and accessible. So here are some general tips to help you narrow down your options and choose the best iOS app ideas for your development journey:

1. Identify your interests and passions: Start by exploring topics you are passionate about or have a personal connection to. Developing an app around a subject that excites you will keep you motivated throughout the development process.
2. Consider user experience: Think about the user experience you want to create with your app. Focus on designing a seamless and intuitive interface that is easy to navigate, especially for beginners. A user-friendly application will appeal to a wider audience and increase user engagement.
3. Start small: As a beginner developer, start with simple iOS app ideas that are manageable and don’t overwhelm you. Begin with a basic concept and gradually build upon it as you gain more experience and skills.
4. Seek feedback: Share your idea with friends, family, or fellow developers for feedback. Gathering input from others can help you refine your concept and make improvements to enhance the overall user experience.
5. Research market trends: Keep an eye on current market trends and identify popular app categories. Conducting market research will help you understand what users are looking for and ensure that your idea has the potential to attract a wide audience.

Here are the most downloaded mobile apps from the Apple App Store this year:

15 Best iOS app ideas to start with

Task list app with gamification elements

A task list app with gamification elements is a great idea, as it combines productivity with fun and motivation. It’s not very hard to build and requires basic knowledge. At the same time, many people could leverage the app: students, professionals, and individuals looking to enhance their productivity and time management skills.

What essential features should you include?

1. Task management: Provide users with the ability to create, organize, and prioritize tasks with due dates, reminders, and categories. They should be able to add descriptions, attachments, and subtasks to each task for better organization.
2. Progress tracking: Show users their progress and productivity statistics through visual charts, graphs, or progress bars. Provide insights on their task completion rates, streaks, and overall performance.
3. Rewards and incentives: Offer rewards, discounts, or virtual rewards to motivate users to stay productive and complete their tasks. Users can redeem their points for rewards within the app.
4. Gamification elements:

• Points system: Award users points for completing tasks, meeting deadlines, and achieving goals. They can earn rewards or level up based on their points.
• Badges and achievements: Offer badges, trophies, or achievements for reaching milestones, completing challenges, or maintaining streaks.
• Leaderboards: Implement leaderboards to allow users to compete with friends or other users based on their productivity levels and points earned.

Additionally, you can integrate social sharing elements into your iOS app design ideas so the users can share progress or tasks with friends. Another non-essential but engaging feature is customization. Allow users to customize the app’s theme, colors, backgrounds, and avatars to personalize their task management experience.

Language learning app with interactive exercises

E-learning has become increasingly popular in recent years: 90% of businesses offer their employees some form of digital learning. It allows learners to access educational content anytime, anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection. This flexibility in learning schedules and locations makes it convenient for people with busy lifestyles or those who prefer learning at their own pace.

If you want to dive into e-learning development, consider a language-learning app — these iOS app ideas combine education with engagement and interactivity.

What should you include?

1. Language courses: Provide users with a variety of language courses for different proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced). Offering content in multiple languages caters to a diverse audience.
2. Interactive exercises:

• Vocabulary building: Include interactive flashcards, word-matching games, and image-word association exercises to help users expand their vocabulary.
• Grammar practice: Add grammar exercises, fill-in-the-blank questions, and sentence construction activities to help people improve their understanding of grammar rules.
• Listening and speaking practice: Incorporate dictation exercises, pronunciation drills, and speaking challenges to enhance users’ listening and speaking skills.

     3. Gamification elements:

• Progress tracking: Show users their learning progress, achievements, and completion rates through visual progress bars, badges, or level-ups.
• Rewards system: Reward users with points, virtual coins, or badges for completing exercises, quizzes, or challenges. They should be able to unlock new levels or earn prizes based on their performance.
• Leaderboards: Implement leaderboards for friendly competition or other learners based on language proficiency and progress.

    4. Personalized learning: Offer personalized learning recommendations, study plans, and practice exercises based on goals, interests, and proficiency levels. Use algorithms to tailor the learning experience to each user’s needs.

To spice up your beginner iOS app ideas, you can add role-playing exercises, and virtual conversations to help users practice language skills in real-life situations and improve their language proficiency. Also, think about building a system for connecting with fellow learners, joining language learning communities, and participating in language exchange programs.

Fitness tracker app with customizable routines

People get more and more concerned about their health. They seek ways to gain muscle, cook healthy food, or lose weight. You can create a fitness app to help them reach goals, set preferences, and adhere to schedules. 

What features are essential?

1. User profile: Allow users to create a personalized profile with age, gender, weight, height, fitness goals, and workout preferences. This information can help tailor workout routines and suggestions to meet the individual needs of each user.
2. Pre-designed workouts: Offer a library of pre-designed workout routines created by fitness experts or trainers to choose from. These routines can cater to different fitness levels, goals, and target areas (e.g., weight loss, muscle building, endurance training).
3. Workout tracking: Think about tracking workout progress by logging completed workouts, tracking sets, reps, weights lifted, and duration of exercises. This feature can help users stay motivated, monitor their progress, and make informed decisions about their fitness routine.
4. Customizable routines: Provide users with the ability to create, customize, and save their workout routines based on their fitness goals, time constraints, and exercise preferences. People should choose from a variety of exercises, sets, reps, and rest intervals to design a routine that suits their needs.
5. Integration with wearable devices: Allow users to sync their fitness tracker app with wearable devices, such as smartwatches or fitness trackers, to track their activity levels, heart rate, calories burned, and sleep patterns. This integration can provide users with real-time data and insights to optimize their workouts and overall health.

To motivate your users to train consistently, create a fitness community within your app. Let people share their custom workouts and support each other.

Travel planner app

These iOS app ideas help users plan, organize, and manage their travel itineraries effectively. You can attract various types of travelers, whether they are planning a vacation, a business trip, a weekend getaway, or a backpacking adventure.

Here are some key features you should consider:

1. Trip planning: People need to input details such as destination, travel dates, accommodation preferences, transportation options, and activities they want to include in their itinerary.
2. Itinerary creation: A detailed day-by-day itinerary is a must, with scheduled activities, sightseeing spots, dining reservations, and other important plans.
3. Activity recommendations: The app can suggest popular tourist attractions, local excursions, restaurants, and events at the destination based on user preferences and interests.
4. Map integration: Incorporate interactive maps to help users navigate the destination, locate points of interest, and optimize their travel routes.
5. Feedback and reviews: Users should be able to leave reviews and ratings for accommodations, activities, and dining experiences, helping other travelers make informed decisions.

Weather updates will be a nice touch as people will be ready for any change of plans because of rain, for example. When working on iOS app design ideas, you can make your users’ lives easier by allowing them to import travel documents such as flight tickets, hotel reservations, travel insurance details, and passports within the app for easy access.

Budgeting app

A budgeting app is a powerful tool that helps people manage their finances effectively by tracking income, expenses, savings, and investments. You can target a wide range of users who want to stay organized, set financial goals, and make informed decisions about their money.

What are the key features of these beginner iOS app ideas?

1. Expense tracking: Allows people to record and categorize their expenses, view spending trends, and receive notifications for upcoming bills or due dates.
2. Income management: Users can input their income sources, track earnings, and view a breakdown of their total income for budget planning.
3. Budget planning: With this option, users set budget limits for different categories (e.g., groceries, entertainment, utilities) and receive alerts when they exceed their budget.
4. Goal setting: Offer people a feature to define financial goals (e.g., saving for a vacation, paying off debt, building an emergency fund) and track their progress toward achieving them.
5. Savings tracker: Users can monitor their savings contributions, set savings goals, and visualize their progress over time.
6. Bill reminders: Receiving reminders for bill payments, subscriptions, or other financial obligations is essential to avoid late fees.
7. Transaction categorization: Automatically categorize transactions based on predefined rules or learn user behavior over time to improve accuracy.
8. Security features: Implement robust security measures such as encryption, biometric authentication, and data protection to ensure financial information safety.

There are other options you can integrate to improve the user experience in simple iOS app ideas. For instance, generate reports, charts, and graphs to help people gain insights into their financial habits, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions.

Meditation & mindfulness app with guided sessions

Stress is our permanent companion — work, everyday routine, constantly changing plans, relationships, etc. People need a tool to get away from all of this and restore their mental health. 

This is where you come in: offer them a meditation app to reduce stress, improve mental well-being, and cultivate inner peace. Your app can provide a variety of guided meditation sessions, mindfulness practices, relaxation techniques, and tools to support users in their mindfulness journey. 

1. Guided meditation sessions: Provide a library of guided meditation sessions led by experienced meditation teachers or mindfulness experts. Users can choose sessions based on duration, theme (e.g., stress relief, focus, sleep), or instructor.
2. Mindfulness practices: Offer access to exercises, breathing techniques, body scans, and other practices to cultivate present-moment awareness and reduce mental chatter.
3. Personalized recommendations: The app can offer personalized meditation recommendations based on users’ preferences, goals, meditation experience level, and feedback from previous sessions.
4. Breathing exercises: Various breathing exercises such as box breathing, deep breathing, or pranayama calm the mind, reduce anxiety, and enhance focus.
5. Mood tracking: Users can record their moods before and after meditation sessions to observe changes in their emotional state and overall well-being.

To stay ahead of the competitors with simple iOS app ideas, think about integrating additional features like offline access and community support. The first option will allow people to get help wherever they are, even without an Internet connection. And the community can become a safe harbor for them.

Local business directory app

With this app, you cater to regular users and local businesses. People can search and discover small businesses in their area and support them. You need little information to start, just contact details, reviews, operating hours, services offered, etc.

Here are some key features that you can incorporate:

1. Search functionality: Users should be able to search for businesses by categories, keywords, location, or specific services.
2. Business profiles: As we mentioned before, each business listing should include essential details such as address, phone number, website, photos, descriptions, hours of operation, and reviews.
3. Reviews and ratings: These iOS app design ideas won’t work without user reviews and ratings for businesses they have visited, helping others make informed choices.
4. Map integration: Integration with mapping services like Google Maps is essential to locate businesses and get directions easily.
5. Filters and sorting options: Users should be able to filter search results based on factors like distance, rating, price range, or business type.
6. Bookmarking and favorites: Allow people to bookmark businesses they like for easy access later on.
7. Contact businesses: Integration of contact forms or direct calling options to get in touch with businesses.
8. Advertising opportunities: Local businesses can pay for featured listings or ads to increase visibility to users.

For monetizing these iOS app ideas, you can utilize various revenue models such as charging businesses for premium listings, in-app advertising, affiliate marketing, or offering subscription plans for advanced features.

Habit tracker app

Studies say you need around 66 days to develop a habit. You can offer a habit tracker app to make this journey easier and help users build and maintain positive habits by tracking their progress over time. These apps typically provide users with features such as setting goals, monitoring daily activities, receiving reminders, and analyzing data to track and improve habits effectively.

Let’s take a closer look at the essential features of these beginner iOS app ideas:

1. Goal setting: Users set specific, actionable, and measurable goals for the habits they want to develop or break.
2. Habit tracking: People need to track their daily activities and mark whether they have completed their habits for the day.
3. Reminder notifications: Help users upkeep a habit by receiving reminders at specified times.
4. Progress analysis: Users can view their progress and insights through charts, graphs, and statistics to understand their habits better.
5. Streaks and rewards: The app can motivate users by rewarding them for consistency and maintaining streaks of completing their habits.
6. Habit categories: Users can categorize their habits into different groups such as health, fitness, productivity, wellness, or personal development.

In terms of additional features, you can opt for data synchronization and integration with wearable devices. It will help motivate users and remind them about the habit anywhere: at home or on a journey.

Localized chat app

It’s one of the best iOS app ideas where you connect users based on their location, allowing them to communicate with others in their vicinity. It can be useful for individuals who want to connect with people nearby, such as finding new friends, organizing events, or seeking recommendations for local businesses.

What features are essential?

1. Geolocation-based chat: It’s the base of your future project, where people see and chat with neighbors, based on their current location.
2. User profiles: The profiles with information about users, such as interests, hobbies, and other details will help each other get to know better.
3. Group chat: Users can create or join chat groups based on specific interests, locations, or events.
4. Event planning: Enhance chatting by allowing people to organize and promote local events, gatherings, or meetups through the app.
5. Notifications: This feature helps users stay up to date with nearby events or important updates in their area.
6. Privacy controls: Users can control their privacy settings and decide who can see their location and profile information.

To support local communities, consider adding business directories to your simple iOS app ideas. People will discover and recommend local businesses, restaurants, shops, and services to others in the community.

Our team recently designed branding for New Shtetl, a social platform for local communities. The company caters to occasional and household needs and provides a safe space for people to socialize, share information, and solve problems. If you want to build a similar app, be sure to check out their case.

Music learning app

If music is your second passion, then think about building a music-learning app. With its help, beginners will learn to play musical instruments, improve their music theory knowledge, practice singing, and enhance their overall understanding of music conveniently and interactively.

What features are must-haves for these iOS app ideas?

1. Instrument tutorials: Provide step-by-step guides for various musical instruments, such as guitar, piano, drums, violin, etc. If you want to keep it simple, pick one or two items and concentrate on educational elements. Users can learn basic techniques, chords, scales, and songs through videos or interactive guides.
2. Music theory lessons: Offer lessons on music theory, including topics like notation, rhythm, harmony, scales, and composition. Add quizzes, exercises, and explanatory materials.
3. Practice exercises: They add interactivity to your app. Consider integrating practice sessions to help users improve their musical skills. This could include activities like ear training, sight-reading, finger exercises, and rhythm drills.
4. Song library: Offer a wide range of songs and difficulty levels for users to practice and play along with. Access to tabs, chords, sheet music, and backing tracks for popular songs will be a nice touch.
5. Virtual instruments: Include virtual alternatives that users can play on their devices, allowing them to practice anywhere. This feature can be useful for learning complex techniques or experimenting with different sounds.

An optional but useful feature will be customization. Allow users to customize their learning experience by choosing their preferred learning pace, setting personalized practice routines, and selecting specific topics or instruments to focus on.

If you pick this idea, check out the Guitar tuner case. Our creative producer explains the process: discovery, design, and development.

Wearable app

It works specifically with wearable devices such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart glasses, and others. These apps provide users with convenient access to information, features, and functionalities directly on their wearable devices, rather than having to rely solely on their smartphones.

Here are some key points to consider when working on these iOS app design ideas:

1. Utilize sensor data: Many wearable devices have various sensors such as accelerometers, heart rate monitors, GPS, and more. Leverage these sensors in your app to offer users unique features such as fitness tracking, activity monitoring, location-based services, etc.
2. Notifications and alerts: Make use of notifications and alerts to provide users with timely updates, reminders, and notifications directly on their wearable devices. This is useful for real-time information, messages, and notifications.
3. Integration with smartphone apps: Wearable apps often work with companion smartphone apps to provide a connected experience across devices. Ensure seamless integration between them to allow users to switch between devices easily.
4. Health and fitness features: Health and fitness tracking is a popular category for wearable apps. Include features such as step tracking, calorie counting, workout tracking, sleep monitoring, and other health-related functionalities to appeal to users looking to improve their overall well-being.

Focus on providing the target audience with quick and easy access to essential information and functionalities. Your simple iOS app ideas should be seamless, intuitive, and optimized for the smaller screens and limited input capabilities of wearable devices.

AR/VR integration app

These apps leverage the capabilities of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies to create immersive, interactive experiences for users. They blend the virtual world with the real world in the case of AR or transport users to entirely virtual environments in the case of VR, offering a wide range of possibilities for entertainment, gaming, education, training, marketing, and more.

Consider the following features:

1. Interactive elements: Incorporate interactive elements to make the app more engaging and enable users to interact with the virtual environment or objects. This can include touch controls, gestures, voice commands, or even motion tracking for a more natural and intuitive user experience.
2. Real-time tracking: AR integration apps often require real-time tracking of the user’s environment, movement, and position to overlay virtual objects on the real world. Utilize technologies such as SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) to accurately track and map the user’s surroundings to create a seamless AR experience.
3. Content creation tools: Consider including tools for creating custom AR or VR content within the app. With their help, users will customize their experiences, create personalized content, and share their creations with others.
4. Social interaction: Incorporate social features into the app to enable users to share their experiences, collaborate with others, and engage in multiplayer AR/VR environments. This can enhance user engagement and create a sense of community within the app.

Before getting started with these iOS app ideas, identify specific use cases and industries where AR/VR integration can add value and create unique experiences. This can include areas such as gaming, education, training, tourism, retail, healthcare, real estate, and more. Tailor the app features and functionalities to suit the needs of the target audience.

Voice assistant app

These apps perform a wide range of tasks, such as providing information, setting reminders, controlling smart home devices, sending messages, making calls, and more, all through voice commands. Moreover, they are useful for users with special needs, like bad eyesight. Here, you can utilize AI and natural language processing (NLP) in your app to understand and respond to spoken commands or questions from users. 

Consider including the following features:

1. Natural Language Processing: You need sophisticated natural language processing capabilities to accurately interpret and understand spoken commands from users. This involves analyzing the context, intent, and nuances of the user’s speech to provide relevant and helpful responses.
2. Integration with APIs and services: Voice assistant apps typically rely on integrating with various APIs and services to execute tasks and provide information. This includes connectivity with weather services, news sources, navigation apps, calendars, and other platforms to deliver comprehensive responses to user queries.
3. Personalization and context awareness: To enhance the user experience, consider incorporating personalization features to learn user preferences over time. Additionally, context awareness capabilities enable the app to remember previous interactions and provide more relevant responses.
4. Voice recognition accuracy: Focus on optimizing the app’s voice recognition functionality to ensure high accuracy in understanding user inputs. Implement robust algorithms and machine learning models to improve speech recognition capabilities and reduce errors in interpreting spoken commands.
5. Security and privacy considerations: Given the sensitive nature of voice interactions, prioritize security and privacy measures in the app to protect user data and ensure confidentiality. Implement encryption protocols and secure data storage practices for handling personal information.

If your target audience is diverse, ensure that the voice assistant app supports multiple languages to cater to a wider user base. This can involve implementing language recognition and translation features to facilitate seamless communication with users from different linguistic backgrounds.

Parking space finder app

With these beginner iOS app ideas, you help users easily locate and reserve available parking spaces in real-time. It can be useful in urban areas where parking can be challenging to find, saving users time and frustration by providing them with convenient options for parking their vehicles.

What are the essential features?

1. GPS integration: GPS technology is a must-have to accurately pinpoint the user’s location and display nearby parking options. This feature allows people to view available parking spaces in their vicinity and navigate to their chosen spot efficiently.
2. Real-time updates: Ensure that the app provides real-time updates on parking space availability, pricing, and restrictions. This can be achieved through partnerships with parking lot operators and sensors that track occupancy levels in real-time.
3. Search and filter options: Implement search and filter functionalities that allow people to specify their preferred criteria, such as location, price range, duration, and type of parking (e.g., garage, street, valet). This helps users find parking spaces that meet their specific needs.
4. Booking and reservation system: Enable users to book and reserve parking spaces in advance through the app. This feature streamlines the parking process, especially during peak hours or in high-demand areas, ensuring that users have a guaranteed spot when they arrive at their destination.
5. Payment integration: Integrate secure payment gateways into the app to facilitate seamless transactions for parking reservations. Support various payment methods, such as credit/debit cards, mobile wallets, and in-app payments, to cater to different user preferences.
6. Reviews and ratings: Incorporate a rating and review system for parking spaces and providers to help users make informed decisions. The feedback can enhance transparency and trust in the app’s recommendations.

These iOS app ideas have a common monetization type: charging a commission fee for each parking reservation. You can partner with parking lot operators and take a percentage of the booking fee as your revenue.

Calculator app

A calculator app is a simple yet practical idea for app development that can cater to a wide range of users. Here are some key points to consider when creating such an app:

1. Functionality: You should provide basic arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Also, include advanced functions like square root, percentage, exponentiation, and others to cater to different calculation needs.
2. User interface: Design a clean, user-friendly interface that is intuitive and easy to use. Include large buttons for number input, a clear display area to show calculations, and options to switch between basic and advanced calculator modes.
3. Calculator modes: Implement different calculator modes to serve various purposes, such as a scientific calculator for more complex calculations, a currency converter for international users, or a tip calculator for restaurant bills. Offer a variety of features to make the app versatile and convenient for users.
4. Memory functions: Include memory functions like memory storage, recall, and clear to allow users to store and retrieve intermediate results during calculations. This can be useful for keeping track of multiple calculations or values.
5. History and editing: Incorporate a history feature that displays a record of past calculations for reference. Enable users to edit, copy, or reuse previous calculations to save time and effort.
6. Offline accessibility: This ensures that users can use the app anytime, anywhere, even in areas with limited or no internet connectivity.

Consider monetizing the calculator through in-app advertisements. You can also offer a premium, ad-free version with additional features or customization options for users willing to pay for an enhanced experience.

Conclusion

These are the best iOS app ideas from our point of view. Simple concepts such as a calculator app or a tracker app can serve as great starting points.

However, it’s crucial to remember that alongside innovative ideas, a solid grasp of programming languages, UI/UX design skills, and making informed tech choices are also essential components in the journey towards creating successful applications. By taking the time to learn these foundational elements and selecting the best IDE for iOS app development, you can set yourself up for success and build the next breakthrough app in the ever-evolving world of mobile technology.

Do you need a functional and engaging iOS app? Reach out to us and together we will build a top-notch product for your target audience.