The 7 Best PS Vita Apps to Download in 2023

Twitch

This video streaming service feels right at home on the Vita’s diminutive screen; the purple and white Twitch logo and interface will be familiar to anyone who has used Twitch on the web. You can search, browse a list of games, surf various channels of streaming content, and log in to your Twitch account all from the main screen.

Neither the touch screen nor the joysticks work in the Twitch app; instead, you’ll use the D-Pad to navigate to your menus and other selections, pressing the X button to select them. The app itself is fairly snappy, and while videos load slowly, they do appear after a short delay. 

WeatherNation

While this weather app has a few bugs and a quirky design sense, it does indeed show the weather. The app starts by asking for your zip code or city to set a “home” screen. This doesn’t seem to work, and after a few failed attempts, it lets you skip. Once you do, you’re taken to the main screen of whatever zip code you failed at entering in the interface. It’s weird but still usable.

You’ll see the temperature, “feels like” rating, and precipitation overview, with a high/low readout and a percent chance of precipitation on the left-hand side of the screen. To the right, you can watch a live weather video from a random location, or pre-recorded videos in a Weather On Demand section. The sound is distorted, with the former, but the latter is fun to see. You can pull up a rain, ice, and snow radar map, too. You can zoom in and out on the map with the PS Vita shoulder buttons. 

Wake-up Club

This clever app is a social alarm clock app that gamifies how well you wake up compared to other users. Whether or not there are others out there using this app is questionable, of course, but the Wake-up Club app still works nicely.

It will track how many “successful” wake-ups (defined by you turning off the alarm within 5 minutes of it sounding) you and other users have completed in a row, and will place you on a leaderboard based on how many times you’ve done that in a row. You set up an alarm time, repetition, sound and volume, then decide whether it will be a regular alarm or a Club alarm.

If you choose the latter, you'll need to stay connected to the internet and leave the Vita on the app screen while you sleep. The standard alarm doesn't require a network connection. The app also has a timer you can use, with big, easy-to-read numbers on it and virtual buttons you can use to set the time increment. If you want to gamify your alarm clock or just use your Vita as one, Wake-up Club is the way to go. 

LiveTweet

This app is exactly what you’d think: a Twitter client for the PS Vita. You can log in with your Twitter account, then browse your main feed, see your direct messages and @-replies, and check out the lists you make or follow. You can even perform a Twitter search or tap through to various trending hashtags. You can tweet to your followers, too, using the onscreen keyboard.

The touch screen, D-Pad, and left joystick all navigate through the interface, while the gaming buttons do various things, too, like clicking through to hashtags and user names. Photos are supported, too, but GIFs are relegated to a static frame. Still, if you need your Twitter fix on your PS Vita, LiveTweet is a fairly full-featured way to do it.

Imaginstruments

This quirky little music-making app may seem somewhat primitive now that you can get professional-level sequencers for your iOS or Android device, but it’s a fun diversion from gaming on your PS Vita.

The main interface consists of two sections, one with drums and pre-made keyboard sequences, and one with bass sequences. On the drum/keyboard screen, you tap the screen up and down a column to choose how that specific instrument sounds (bass drum, hi-hat, snare, cymbal, keyboard).

On the bass screen, you tap buttons to choose the specific sound and sequence while moving the symbol around onscreen to change its parameters. You can change the main note the bass sound hovers around (called a “keynote”), too. A settings button lets you set the scale and tempo on the fly. 

Crunchyroll

This anime-streaming app works well on the Vita, as well. You can browse and search for your favorite anime titles using the shoulder buttons, D-Pad, or left joystick. The touch screen doesn’t work here, either, but the interface is a bit more responsive than the previous two entries above, and videos are a little faster to load.

If you’re a serious fan of the anime art form, this app will keep you pretty happy on your PS Vita. You can watch videos for free with ads, or log in to your Premium account. There’s also a 14-day trial you can access on the Vita screen.