If you have a smartphone, you probably know what apps are — but did you know they can actually help to make caregiving more manageable? A smartphone is like having a mini-computer with you at all times — and the best caregiving apps help manage the many aspects of care that barrage and overwhelm most caregivers on any given day. Caregiving apps can help you maintain and update important information, get an appointment and medication reminders, keep a log of activities, coordinate various caregivers, jot down notes from doctors or other care providers, and stay in touch with and pass on updates and photos to family and friends.

The world of caregiving apps is growing, and it needs to. Caregivers need every tool at hand to manage all that caregiving throws at you.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the most impressive and helpful apps for managing a loved one’s care. Disease-specific apps (for those with a loved one who has Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, for example) are also available. You may find that a single app doesn’t offer everything you need, so be sure to try a few. Most are free, or quite reasonably priced, and they can help make your caregiving life much easier.

CaringBridge is just that — a bridge that allows you and your loved ones to stay in touch. It’s a perfect app for a family that rallies around a loved one in need of care, and for those who are facing surgeries, rehabilitation, and procedures that go along with conditions such as cancer, heart disease or diabetes. The app offers space for multiple caregivers and family members to share pertinent information, such as updates, encouragement, and arranging care. There’s a guest book offering a place for journal entries, medical updates, photos, stories, and tributes.

CaringBridge specializes in keeping loved ones connected. By focusing on this important goal, the app’s designers have created a product that not only passes along information but is also a holding place for good thoughts, encouragement, and photos as well as medical and caregiving updates. These features make CaringBridge a uniquely thoughtful and comprehensive tool.

Get the app:

• iPhone/iPad (free)

Lotsa Helping Hands is a caregiving app that helps you create a community of care around your loved one. You can invite family, friends, volunteers, and care aides to join and then manage everything from sitters and errands to appointments and family gatherings using an interactive calendar.

There’s also a section of the app called “Helping Hands,” which serves as a message board and a well-wishes wall where caregivers, family, and friends can leave messages of encouragement for the person receiving care or for someone else in the care circle. This app lets you choose a coordinator and a community member page where you can update contact information, birthdates, and list best times to call. These features make Lotsa Helping Hands a good resource for creating a vibrant care community.

Lotsa Helping Hands has much to offer caregivers and their loved ones. The webpage offers real support, stories from other caregivers, a newsletter and additional features that complement the app.

Get the app:

• iPhone/iPad (free)
• Not available on Android

The Caring Village app is designed specifically for family caregivers to help them easily coordinate and keep track of their loved one’s care.

Caring Village CEO and Co-founder Mike Behrman say he was inspired to launch the app after he and his wife became caregivers for his mother-in-law, who has dementia. “We realized that the most important thing we needed to do was communicate effectively with other family members, her care professionals, and neighbors,” he said in a news release.

The app is meant to enable family caregivers to do just that via a secure messaging system where users can create “villages” among friends and relatives to help coordinate the specifics of a loved one’s care. Caring Village users can create customizable care plans for their loved ones plus personalized to-do lists. The app’s features also include a centralized calendar, document storage, a place to list medications and a wellness journal that allows you to share entries with the rest of your “village.”

Reviewers say the app is easy to use and gives them peace of mind about staying on top of their loved one’s care plan. As AARP’s Anne Marie Kilgallon was quoted as saying in a Tech Crunch articleearlier this year, “[Caring Village is] all about the connection between family, care givers and care recipients.”

Get the app:

• iPhone/iPad (free)
• Android (free)