Banca — the beautiful currency converter app for iPhone and iPad has been my favorite converter app for a long time. It is the sister app to Unitica, another beautiful app by Aleksandar·Vacić. Banca is like that hunk from college that arrives late to a party, but arrives with a bang.
Banca was recently updated for iOS 8 with version 6.0 that brought in two amazing features to the app. First, the app now has a Today extension that sits comfortably in your Notification Center. But don’t just dismiss this like the other apps. Banca’s Today extension is so good. Let me take a moment to tell you about the workflow. You know those times when you’re browsing a site and you see an amount mentioned in a foreign currency (usually USD)? Well, just copy that figure to your clipboard, swipe down to reveal Notification Center and boom you have your converted value ready for you. Banca automatically detects which currency is copied to the clipboard based on the currency symbol (GBP, $, Rs. etc.) and then uses that for the conversion. It remembers the last used pair in the app and shows you the converted value by default. You can, of course, single tap the arrow to expand and view the other currencies too. Long press on the converted currency value copies it back to the clipboard. The update also includes support for iPhone 6 & 6 Plus, including a special landscape view for iPhone 6 Plus. There are some beautiful animations crafted in the app and the first time you view the Today widget, you can see tiny circles that guide you about the functionality offered.
Banca 6.0 is available on the App Store for just $1.99 as a Universal app.