Drink water… Drink a little more… One more glass… Another few sips. Ok, ok, *now* you’re done. We all know we have to drink more water. And now there are a bunch of water reminder apps to help with that. But even when we use an app, it can just be so boring to simply enter data. It’s still not motivating. Here are 3 apps to help you drink more water and make it actually fun!
Water Llama
This app is super cute and fun to use! As you track your water intake, you can see your progress filling up a cute llama! Then when you’ve completed your daily goal, the llama lights up in celebration. (Bonus, it’s developed by a small team in Ukraine!)
This app has a lot of nifty features. You can choose from a selection of fun characters, like Llama Lana, Beluga Hugo, Peacock Hancock, Panda Amanda, Turtle Tatum, and many more. And as you keep meeting your hydration goals each day, you can collect new characters.
When inputting your water intake, you can also select from a *wide* variety of beverages (for example, different coffees and teas, energy drinks, smoothies, even soup and yogurt). Not only that, it shows you the hydration % ratio in each beverage; this helps you see how much hydration it’s adding to your body. For example, a glass of water will count 100% toward your hydration goal. A cup of coffee has a hydration ratio of 60%, meaning if you drink 8 ounces, it will increase your body hydration level by 4.8 ounces. Milk on the other hand will actually supercharge your hydration levels, with a 130% hydration ratio – it can hydrate you better than water! Alcohol actually has a negative hydration ratio, since it’s a diuretic and makes you urinate more than you normally would. This can help you drink more water alongside your alcohol to stay hydrated! Who knew an app could help you drink more water and be fun and educational??
The app can calculate your recommended daily water intake based on activity level, weight, sex, and season of year. Or you can input a customized water goal in ounces.
You can also set the app to give you a reminder once a day, or use smart reminders. These will alert you if you don’t drink for a certain period of time. You can customize this to remind you every half hour, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, or 2 hours. And you can set a time window when reminders won’t be active, i.e., when you’re normally in bed. The app also comes with a handy widget for faster access.
Drink Water
The name might not sound that interesting, but don’t let it fool you! This app lets you fill up a fish aquarium with your water intake. Each time you add a drink, the aquarium fills up a little more and your fish leap with joy! As you meet your goals, you can unlock extras, like new fish or aquarium scenery.
Similar to Water Llama, there are lots of customization options. There’s a nice selection of fish to choose from. (There’s even a clownfish like in Finding Nemo!) You can set a time window when reminders can be active and choose your own intervals for reminders. And you can even specify if you don’t want the app to be active on any particular day of the week. There’s also an option to customize the alert sound that goes off when you get a reminder. You can choose from multiple types like a simple water droplet, the sound of water pouring in a glass, or even a big splash!
Unlike Water Llama, you don’t have the ability to specify beverage type, only beverage size. Even so, it’s still a fun app to help you drink more water!
Plant Nanny2
This is probably the most well known app on this list. As you add water intake, not only are you hydrating yourself, but you’re also watering a cute little plant character! There are a few different plants to choose from when you start. Additional plants become available when you stick with watering your plant. You can’t change your plant once it’s been selected and “planted”.
Meeting your hydration goals can help you accumulate seeds and clovers, which can be used for upgrades in the Shop. Once your plant has grown big and strong, it can be transferred to the greenhouse and you can take care of new plants. You can also increase sunshine levels to the greenhouse to help you get seeds from your grown plants.
This app focuses less on what type of beverage you’re drinking and more on pure intake. Just like a plant needs water, you need water! The app will calculate a suggested daily intake goal based on inputted weight and activity level. You will need to upgrade to the pro version of the app to customize your daily goal. You can choose to be reminded every 2, 4, or 6 hours, or you can set a custom reminder. It will not remind you between 8 AM and 10 PM; this does not appear to be customizable.
This app is the most similar to an actual game, with lots of items to unlock, ability to grow more and more plants, generate seeds from the greenhouse, and do quests.
Takeaway
So many water tracking apps are just that: they simply provide a way to track your daily hydration. But these 3 apps take it to the next level and provide an added incentive to do so! With cute characters and a gaming feel, they are a great fun way to drink more water!
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Cover image photo credit: IStockPhoto.com/5PH
