App of the Week: Valentine’s Day Edition

Here are three smartphone applications to help with your Valentine’s Day planning.

Author:: Seth Fiegerman
Publish date:: Feb 13, 2012 3:00 PM EST

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of a weekly series in which MainStreet spotlights one new smartphone app that can help readers manage their money, shop better or improve their job search. Check back each week to find out how to make your smartphone even smarter!

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Given that Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, we’ve decided to abandon our usual App of the Week format and spotlight a few recently released apps that should make this special day a little less stressful.

Helpful Romantic

This app is intended for the person who is lucky enough to have a date on Valentine’s Day, but clueless about how to show that date a good time. Helpful Romantic offers more than 100 suggestions for fun and creative activities based on how much money you want to spend and how much effort you’re willing to put into it. The app is available for the iPhone and currently costs 99 cents, down from its usual price of $1.99.

Crowded Room

If you’re worried you might end up spending this Valentine’s Day alone, there’s an app to help with that too. With Crowded Room, users can pick out a destination they’re interested in visiting next and then see a list of anyone else using the service who has also expressed a desire to go there. There’s also an option to view “suggested” people nearby who have similar interests and mutual friends, based on information the app pulls from each user’s Facebook profile. The app is available for free on the iPhone and Android phones.

Lovestagram

Finally, there’s Lovestagram, which isn’t an app itself but rather an extension for one of the most popular photo-sharing apps on the market, Instagram. The website lets people turn their Instagram pictures into special Valentine’s Day e-cards, which you can send to that special someone. It’s more thoughtful than sending a Hallmark card and it’s free. Did we mention the website was created by the girlfriend of one of Instagram’s co-founders? You can use that line as an icebreaker on your date if you need one.

For more great apps that can help with your love life, check out MainStreet’s roundup of the best apps for dating.

Seth Fiegerman is a staff reporter for MainStreet. You can reach him by e-mail at seth.fiegerman@thestreet.com, or follow him on Twitter @sfiegerman.