An app that teaches Arabic through humor, a hidden touch button built into your selfie-camera area, a service that helps deaf and hard-of-hearing users and an open-source tool that turns Android devices into advanced document scanners: here are four useful apps you may not know aboutHedi Biran| Related TopicsThe Rylo app (formerly "Nagish") provides an AI-powered solution for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The system enables users to conduct phone calls through real-time speech-to-text and text-to-speech conversion, allowing conversations to flow much like they would between hearing individuals.GalleryThe Rylo app (formerly "Nagish") provides an AI-powered solution for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community (Photo: Screenshot)The service performs end-to-end automatic transcription, with conversations stored locally on the smartphone to protect user privacy and allow users to revisit message content at any time. The app supports multiple languages and offers additional tools, including voice-message transcription, spam-call filtering and a customizable glossary. Since October 7, the app has been available free of charge in Israel.Basma is an innovative Israeli app that turns learning Arabic into an enjoyable and accessible experience. Its unique approach is simple but effective: teaching through jokes. Instead of memorizing dry rules, users are exposed to the language in an entertaining way that helps them remember words and expressions.The app offers short lessons accompanied by simple grammar explanations and interactive games designed to build vocabulary and speaking skills. In addition to jokes, it includes advanced features such as speaking practice, flashcards and even the option to receive help from a human tutor for live conversation practice. Learned new words? The app saves them for future review. It is suitable for beginners, including those unfamiliar with the Arabic script.How do you turn the selfie-camera cutout on your smartphone into a useful productivity tool? Notch Touch: Dynamic Gestures does exactly that, using the area around the front-facing camera to create a hidden virtual touch button.The app precisely maps the notch area and allows users to assign smart gestures such as single, double or long presses. These can trigger a wide range of shortcuts, from system functions like taking screenshots, locking the device, opening the camera and turning on the flashlight, to controlling music playback, launching selected apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram, enabling Do Not Disturb mode or quickly calling a contact.Tired of slow and cumbersome scanning apps from hardware manufacturers? ScanBridge for Android offers a fast, modern and intuitive scanning experience.ScanBridge: a smarter scanning tool for Android (Photo: Screenshot)Using the AirScan/eSCL wireless standard, the app connects easily to any scanner on a home or office network without requiring drivers or additional software. Alongside a design that blends seamlessly with Android’s interface, ScanBridge offers features including multi-page scanning and organization, mobile cropping, full control over resolution, color settings and duplex scanning, as well as quick saving to PDF or image formats.The app is open-source and free of ads or tracking. It is available for free through F-Droid, while purchasing it on Google Play for 5.60 shekels (around 1.8 dollars) provides priority support and helps fund ongoing development.Comments