In this article we’ll cover all the most popular scuba diving apps in the market. At the bottom you’ll also see a gallery of some of the more popular dive apps categorized by feature. You can click on each one to get a brief overview and pros/cons of the app. We’ll start by first discussing the core themes and features you would look for in your diving apps.
The core themes you’ll notice when comparing the different apps in the market are:
The main issue I have with most apps in the market are their design. It’s not an easy task designing an app, and I imagine most of the developers behind these apps are more engineering minded and focused on the function rather than the look. That’s the core point that initially prompted me to start building Skuba. I wanted an app that was designed with intention.
Design is more than just how it looks. It’s about the intuition behind using it; The learning curve; How easy and fast it is to accomplish your task in the tool; And how usable the app is in different conditions, as divers aren’t always sitting in shade at the comfort of their home, and sometimes rely on these apps while under sunny or outdoor conditions.
You’ll notice that each app does 1 thing well and is missing something else. For people that rely on digital tools you’ll end up needing multiple apps for your different diving needs. This isn’t the end of the world, but it would definitely be nice to have everything in one place. That’s the second reason I stated working on Skuba. To have an all-in-one suite that does it all. It’s an ambitious project and it’ll definitely take time to reach that goal. So rather than needing an app for gas blending and an app for decompression planning and an app for nitrox calculations and an app for logging your dives, you’ll have 1 app that has them all with a consistent look, feel, and experience.
Many apps are either Android only or iOS only. It’s an extra layer of effort maintaining and developing an application that support both Android and iOS. And it’s even more effort to make sure the app performs equally as well on both platforms. With Skuba, you’ll have an app that priorities both platforms equally so no-one is missing out and bother get the best that Skuba can offer.
When planning your dives, you usually do a variety of basic checks and calculations like calculating your max operating depth for a given Nitrox mix, or if you know the max depth you plan to dive at, you’ll want to see what’s the best or maximum Nitrox mix you can use for that dive. Most apps in this category handle calculating best mix, MOD, EAD, END calculations. Some like Multi-deco show gas density. Very few to none have RMV/SAC calculators or a dive focused unit converter, or a no-decompression based gas usage planner. Skuba has all of those built-in
Various calculators from the Skuba app (Android and iOS)
Various screens from the Nitrox Buddy app (iOS only)