Level Up: 12 Apps to Master Any Skill in 2026

Coursera: Grow Your Career

If your goal is to learn something you can put on your resume, Coursera is still one of the most powerful platforms out there. It partners with more than 350 universities and companies, including Google, IBM, Microsoft, Stanford, and others, to deliver structured online courses, Professional Certificates, and even full degrees.

You’ll find deep dives into AI, data science, business analytics, cybersecurity, UX design, project management, psychology, and more. Many Professional Certificate programs are designed to get you job-ready in less than a year, with hands-on projects that you can showcase in a portfolio. There's also now an AI coach that will help deliver personalized tutoring.

Coursera also offers different ways to pay for these courses. While some of the more specialized courses can be a bit pricey, they're well worth the money, and there are still plenty of free courses you can take. If you’re serious about a career pivot, Coursera is one of the best starting points.

Duolingo - Language Lessons

If you want to tackle a new language without feeling like you’re back in school, Duolingo is the easiest way to start. The app breaks languages into bite-sized, gamified lessons that cover reading, listening, basic speaking, and vocabulary, and its mascot, Duo, is very good at guilt-tripping you into keeping your streak alive.

The big change in the last couple of years is how much AI has moved into the platform, just like with every other app on the App Store. Duolingo now uses AI-powered conversation tools, improved voice recognition, and adaptive practice to target your weak areas and give more realistic speaking practice than before.

There are also podcasts, short radio-style shows, and even crossover events with other famous franchises to keep things fun.

If you want the full Duolingo experience, you'll need to subscribe to one of its plans. The good news is that it'll unlock everything you need to learn a new language, math, and even chess. Granted, the Duolingo app is not enough on its own to become fully fluent in any language, but as a daily habit builder, it’s hard to beat.

Skillshare: Creativity Classes

Skillshare is tailored for people who want to learn creative and practical skills without committing to semester-style courses. It’s built around thousands of short video classes led by working designers, illustrators, photographers, animators, freelancers, and other creative people.

Most classes are under an hour and focus on a specific outcome like designing a social media graphic, animating a loop, building a Notion workspace, or crafting a pitch deck. You’re encouraged to create a project and share it with the community, which helps you actually apply what you learned instead of just watching passively. Plus, you might even get some friendly feedback from people like you.

If you’re trying to build a creative portfolio or sharpen your side-hustle skills (branding, marketing, freelance basics), this is one of the most practical options.

Brilliant: Learn by Doing

Brilliant takes the “just doing” approach to STEM learning. Instead of long video lessons, it uses interactive puzzles, visual explanations, and step-by-step problem-solving exercises to teach math, data, computer science, and foundational AI concepts.

You move through guided paths where each screen is a micro-challenge: adjust a slider, test a hypothesis, manipulate a diagram, or fill in a missing step. If you get stuck, you can reveal hints and full solutions, which makes it feel more like a game than a textbook. The app gradually increases difficulty, so you’re always finding tough challenges without feeling overwhelmed.

Brilliant is especially good if you’re an adult who “wasn’t a math person” in school but now wants to understand statistics, AI basics, or logic for coding and data work. A subscription unlocks the whole library, and there’s a free trial to test if you like the format.

MasterClass: Online Classes

If you’re more inspired by people than platforms, MasterClass is the app for you. It packages lessons from well-known chefs, filmmakers, authors, athletes, and scientists into slick, documentary-style classes. You can sit with a negotiation expert, a bestselling novelist, or a Michelin-star chef and watch them break down their process so you can get started in a new career path.

Recent years have added Sessions, which are structured, multi-week programs that walk you through real assignments rather than just leaving you with theory, and AI-summarized takeaways for video lessons. You can download class guides and workbooks, complete projects at your own pace, and compare results with other learners.

MasterClass isn’t where you’ll learn syntax for Python or the finer points of accounting, but it’s excellent for other types of skills like storytelling, leadership, creativity, presentation, and mindset.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy remains the gold standard if you want serious learning without paying a cent. It’s a nonprofit with thousands of free lessons and practice exercises in math, science, economics, finance, history, and more, plus test prep for SAT, LSAT, and other exams.

The magic is in the mastery system. As you work through exercises, the platform tracks how well you understand each concept and serves up questions that target your weak spots. You get a dashboard, progress tracking, and clear recommendations about what to review next—very similar to having a patient tutor that never gets tired.

If your goal is to build a rock-solid foundation in algebra, statistics, or basic programming before taking on paid certificates, Khan Academy is where you start. It’s also perfect if you’re going back to school after a break and need to refresh the essentials.

Yousician: Learn & Play Guitar

Music is one of those skills many people want to learn but rarely stick with because they don’t have a teacher. Yousician helps with that problem by turning your iPhone into a real-time coach for guitar, bass, voice, and even ukulele.

As you play along with lessons and songs, Yousician listens through your device’s microphone and gives instant feedback on your timing and accuracy. You’ll see notes scroll across the screen, and the app highlights where you’re missing beats or hitting the wrong note. Lesson paths are designed by music teachers and move from basics into more advanced techniques, with weekly goals and challenges to keep your practice consistent.

It’s not a full replacement for a human teacher, especially at high levels, but for beginners and intermediate players, it’s a powerful tool that makes practice a lot more engaging than staring at sheet music.

Codecademy Go

Codecademy has been around for years, but it has grown into a much more complete platform for coding and tech skills. You can choose from career paths and skill paths in topics like Python, JavaScript, web development, SQL, AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.

Lessons happen inside an interactive code editor inside the app, so you write and run code as you learn rather than watching someone else type. As you progress, you build small but real projects that can become part of your portfolio. While the mobile editor is surprisingly capable for quick practice, you can seamlessly switch to the desktop version for more intensive coding sessions if things feel a bit cramped on your iPhone screen.

If your long-term goal is a job in software engineering, data science, or analytics, Codecademy’s structured paths and certification prep are a solid option.

Elevate - Brain Training Games

Not every skill has to be a hard technical one. Elevate focuses on the "softer" but incredibly useful areas like reading, writing, listening, speaking, memory, and mental math. It’s a brain-training app built around short, focused games that target specific skills, then gradually increase difficulty as you improve.

You get a personalized daily workout that might include editing sentences for clarity, answering comprehension questions, practicing quick arithmetic, or summarizing information. Over time, Elevate tracks your progress and surfaces detailed stats so you can see how your skills change week by week.

This is a great companion app if you already write emails, reports, or presentations all day and want to feel sharper, or if you’re studying in a second language and want to boost your reading and listening speed.

Babbel - Language Learning

Where Duolingo leans into gamification, Babbel leans into practical conversation. Lessons are built around real-world dialogues, like ordering food, navigating a city, and chatting with coworkers, and are typically around 10 to 15 minutes long, making them easy to fit into your daily schedule.

The app uses spaced repetition and speech recognition to help you memorize phrases and practice speaking, but it always aims at teaching things you can use in real life. Babbel is effective for getting beginners to conversational ability more quickly than some alternatives, which makes it a strong pick if travel or relocation is on your radar.

Udemy Online Video Courses

With a platform as expansive as Udemy, it doesn't matter what you want to learn; you can be sure that there's a course for it. As a giant course marketplace, it hosts over 250,000 courses covering development, IT, design, marketing, cybersecurity, Excel, game dev, personal finance, and more.

Each course is sold individually, and you get lifetime access to what you purchase, including future updates from the instructor. There’s also a subscription option in some regions if you’d rather sample many courses instead of buying them one by one.

Because anyone can publish, quality can definitely vary, but the rating system and reviews make it easy to spot solid, up-to-date courses. Look for recent update dates, high ratings, and detailed curricula. If you want to pick up a single focused skill, Udemy is one of the cheapest ways to get started.

Strava: Run Bike Walk

Strava is often seen as a tracking app for runners and cyclists, but at this point, it’s also a genuine training tool. It records your runs, rides, and hikes with GPS, then shows detailed maps, pace charts, segment performance, and heart-rate data if you use a compatible device — which naturally includes the Apple Watch.

On top of that, Strava offers structured training plans for common goals like 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon running, as well as cycling plans you can follow indoors or outdoors. Recent changes have added AI-powered route planning, improved mobile tracking for people without watches, and expanded Live Segments for real-time performance feedback.