App of the week: Plant Nanny

Welcome back to our weekly spotlight on helpful apps. We focus on a variety of products that are useful for work, personal use, or both, providing our own thoughts on the apps and what you can do with them. This week we turn to healthy living with Plant Nanny.

An intro to Plant Nanny
Your body is made of 70% water, so keeping up with the daily recommended intake is key to a healthy life. But a busy schedule makes it hard to keep track of how much you’re drinking, so it’s difficult to tell if you’re getting enough. Plant Nanny makes it easy and fun to take note of your intake.

When you first start up Plant Nanny (available on iPhone, Android and Windows phones) you input your weight and lifestyle – sedentary, regular, or active – and the app calculates how much water is recommended for you. Then you can choose a cute animated plant to look after and a stylish planter to keep it in.

When you drink a glass of water, you input it into the app and it “waters” your plant. It will send you reminders throughout the day to drink more. If you reach your daily target, your plant levels up and grows. When your plant is all grown up, you can move it to your garden and start a new one.

Our review
Plant Nanny was designed with children in mind, but I think it’s a great way for adults to keep track of their water intake, too. Sometimes work gets so busy that I forget to drink enough water, and I’m especially bad at choosing the healthier option over soft drinks at the weekend. One of our readers recommended Plant Nanny to me last year, and I’m so glad she did.

My first plant, Bill the Devil’s Ivy, opened my eyes to just how little water I was actually drinking. Now I always have a glass at my desk and I don’t even think about it any more (except when I’m watering my virtual friends, of course).

You can unlock new plants and pots by growing more, which is a great little reward for keeping up with a healthy habit. It’s cute; it’s easy – my kind of app.

The verdict
If you’re trying to be a bit healthier and want to be sure you’re drinking enough water, there are loads of apps out there to help you keep track. But Plant Nanny turns it into a game. Who wouldn’t want to see a little flower smiling back at you from your phone just for drinking water?

The app is free to download and comes with free options to start. While some options require an in-app purchase, you can unlock more plants and pots by growing new ones.

Overall, I think it’s a fun and interesting way to utilise your phone for a healthy lifestyle. And to this day Bill still smiles at me in my virtual garden!