In our Apps of the Year series, The Next Web team shares personal recommendations for our favorite apps of 2014.

Sometimes you pick a favorite app because it’s beautiful, and sometimes you pick a favorite because it does its job flawlessly. PushBullet doesn’t quite fit either of those, but I use it virtually every day, making it one of my most used apps. It was updated to look a bit nicer on the desktop recently though, which helps.

Essentially, it’s a multi-faceted Android/desktop/Chrome app that allows you to do a whole load of things, like see notifications from your phone on your desktop, respond to SMS’s and ‘push’ content seamlessly between all your devices, whether that’s links, documents (images, docs, etc.) or just plain old words.

For anyone with lots of devices, the ability to push to one specific one, or all at once really is handy. There’s also a universal copy-and-paste option, allowing you to copy text on your phone and paste it on your PC, or vice versa. If anyone else you know is also using the app, you can add them as a friend via their email address, and you’ll then be able to push them things too. If they’re not already using the app, they’ll get an invite.

There’s also a PushBullet IFTTT channel, allowing you to automate even more of your tasks, and a set of PushBullet Channels within the platform that allow you to receive updates about specific topics.

It’s truly incredibly convenient for anyone that spends many hours at a computer each day – and on top of all of that, it’s free.

➤ PushBullet | Android

You can see the rest of the ‘Apps of the Year’ recommendations in this series here

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