Get the Scoop on Water Tracking Apps

Too busy to keep track of your hydration? Trying to keep track of your water intake for training? Looking for a fun way to encourage healthy hydration habits? There’s an app for that!

We at the Nuun offices were curious about how water tracking apps, so we tried three of the most popular free options, so you don’t have to!

The Three Contenders:

Aqualert App: Available on Apple and Andriod devices, Aqualerts promises to be easy to use, providing a water tracking and reminders to drink water throughout the day. Its design looks colorful and straightforward.   

Plant Nanny: Plant Nanny aims to motivate hydration by providing an adorable plant mascot that thrives when you drink water. It’s as cute as a water drinking app can be, and there are a variety of plants to choose from, making the experience more personal.

Daily Water Tracker App: This app advertises itself as clean and customizable with the ability to set up your own water drinking reminder schedule. The blue and white color scheme feels sleek compared to its colorful counterparts.   

First Impressions from Testers:

Aqualerts: Testers rated this app as “somewhat easy” to use and enjoyed the daily tracking/goal feature. However, testers also noted that the notifications were too frequent to be helpful and that the customization options made the experience more difficult than it needed to be.

Plant Nanny: Useres said that this app was “very easy” to use and of all the apps we tested this was the only one that our testers felt they might recommend to a friend. Everyone also agreed that the plant was cute, however users in our test group felt the app lacked a scientific approach to water consumption and tracking. Everyone wanted more data behind the tracking system.

Daily Water Tracker App: Testers described this app as “Easy” to use and they reported an overall increase in daily water consumption. They enjoyed the celebratory noises and graphics when water was logged, however testers reported that the most useful features seemed to only exist in the paid version of the app.

Reviews After Three Weeks:

Aqualerts: Our testers liked the progress graphs, and some of the sounds and effects the app had. Overall though they felt the reminders to drink water were too frequent and the ads on the app were very annoying. None of the testers planned to continue using the app when the test concluded.

Plant Nanny: Reviewers overall reported a slight increase in water consumption with this app and most had positive things to say about the fun and cute factors of the user interface. But people didn’t like that if they recorded their water all at once instead of over the course of the day then the app would chastise them for “drowning” their plant.

Daily Water Tracker App: Testers of this app really enjoyed the cheerful tone of the app interface, but everyone said it was slow to load on their phones and that the inability to look at previous days’ water intake defeated the purpose of the app.

Overall, no one felt the use of these water tracking apps were worth the effort it took to use them and the annoyance of their persistent reminders. Perhaps the Nuun crew is too hydrated to benefit from water reminders, or perhaps being in touch with your body and drinking when you’re thirsty is the best way to stay consistently hydrated, but none of the apps yielded clear benefits for our test team.