My friends were paying full price until I introduced them to this community-run app

Published Aug 13, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT I am an author and features writer at Android Police. I primarily writes guides, how-tos, and roundups on the latest smartphone apps and features for Android Police since joining the team in early 2022. While my work often diversifies depending on the topic, you'll often find me writing about the newest entertainment or hidden utility Android apps or discussing my paranoia about digital privacy and poor smartphone practices. I will occasionally dabble in Samsung's latest features in One UI. On the games side, my area of expertise is in action RPGs and gacha games, but I will play and study the occasional competitive shooter. But most of all, my appetite for new stories still goes unquenched — as shown with my personal love for the Trails series. Before joining Android Police, I studied chemistry and graduated with an honors specialization in Chemistry in 2016, leading me to spend many hours toiling around the lab as an undergraduate. Eventually, all those hours spent at the lab led me to develop my analytical mindset. So now, if you give me a problem, I will relentlessly tackle it to find a solution. My favorite pastime as a student was always writing reports, presentations, tutorials, and literature reviews, which guided me into completing a graduate certificate in technical writing in 2019. Thanks to my current role with Android Police, I learned to appreciate user security and privacy, leading me into studying Cyber Security. My first Android phone was the Samsung Galaxy Note II in 2012, which gave me a taste of how a small piece of powerful hardware can open up endless opportunities for my favorite hobbies. Though if you ask about my purchasing regrets, I will always say missing out on the Google Nexus still stings to this very day. I've also been a gamer for over 20 years, starting with Super Mario Bros. on the NES. Thanks to those early influences, I now own over 15 devices for gaming, ranging from handhelds to consoles. Nowadays, you'll find me studying spreadsheets and assembling data to theorycraft new teams and builds for Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Wuthering Waves, and Zenless Zone Zero. You'll also see me digging deeper to uncover the truth behind AI as a field: which part is actually useful, or it just a bunch of bloat being sold with your phone? It's been a tough year with tech pricing. This year, I've had to swallow some big bills due to the increased prices of RAM and storage. Unfortunately, this isn't a new tale; the cost increase has been steadily rising since 2021/2022. Still, waiting it out isn't always an option, especially if the tech you've grown accustomed to, like your desktop, laptop, or smart TV, breaks down and needs to be replaced. Even in 2026, prices are still rising. But that's where searching for deals, refurbished products, or limited-time offers becomes really helpful — and thankfully (especially to my American friends), I found this old app that does all that. Slickdeals is community-run. The platform has been around since 1999, but the app launched in 2012 and 2013 for iOS and Android. The app is also lightweight, so you don't need the best-of-the-best Android phones to use it. Slickdeals is a bargain-sharing app It's free and depends on crowdsourcing I happened to find this app while searching for a deal-tracking app. Unfortunately, it wasn't as helpful for me because Slickdeals' primary audience is US consumers. But it's not like it wasn't helpful at all. Instead, it was something that helped my US friends, especially because a few of them have very old computers and phones lying around. Usually, Amazon and Best Buy are my main go-tos and sometimes offer similar deals during major sales events like Prime Day that are easy to share. While these retail options are decent, sometimes they aren't enough. That's when my friends and I started looking into Slickdeals more. Slickdeals is community-driven; this means published deals rely on people upvoting (or downvoting) to gain visibility, as well as people posting them. The team even refers to themselves as the Reddit for deals, since it works similarly. As such, the highest-value deals also tend to be posted on the front page, so if you want to browse a broader selection, navigate toward the front page from the bottom of the app. This also makes it easier to see than to peruse different deals separately. In my opinion, the highlight of Slickdeals is being able to customize your alerts for specific products. It's also what most of my friends preferred and found most effective for tracking. Essentially, as soon as a price drop appears in the app for a particular item, you're notified if you set up alerts on the Alerts page. In the Alerts section of the app, you can choose the brand, category, or a specific store, set the alert type and frequency, and pause the alert. If the product is no longer relevant, you can delete individual deals in the same section. The process was simple, and the app's notifications never felt intrusive enough to need muting. Not only has that aided me in finding discounts, but it also helped me learn about restocks — since that's contributing to the rising costs problem (resells of out-of-stock items have really hurt me as a collector). Sometimes user-submitted links are replaced with trackable, affiliate-based links. This is how the platform stays free. Clicking those links to buy a product may earn the owners a small commission. You can technically save a posted deal, but that's given me mixed results. Some deals expire quickly when the item is in high demand, so checking later wasn't helpful. Instead, Slickdeals has a decent browser extension you can use on your desktop or laptop. So if you split your screen time across different devices, you might want to set it up to stay active while you're in your web browser — in case you are worried about missing a deal. However, the alert aspect of the extension primarily works with major retailers when visiting those websites. More niche places that offer refurbished electronics may not appear. Slickdeals is great for saving money But the platform has some downsides Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police | BirskNata / Shutterstock As enjoyable as it is to help my US friends, the deals didn't always land with me. I have clicked on some posted sales that redirected me toward buying it from the US retailer instead. Since I started using the app, I've found that browsing deals while outside the US isn't always that helpful, so I go back to using RedFlagDeals or specialized social media accounts that post them. Another is visibility. While my friends and I are interested in tech, the front page deals sometimes weren't relevant to us (I have seen ads for products like gym equipment, Lysol, and children's toys). That's mainly because the app is broader — plus, it's not going to be perfect, since not everyone will upvote a deal or product unless it's popular. For niche-brand shopping, you might need to be diligent about tracking it to see it, rather than relying on the algorithm. That also means international merchandise is almost a no-go, since this app focuses on locally available products. In the last few years, I have ordered quite a few items directly from China to save money. The idea of that app is to find deals and then spend. Sometimes that's not the best practice unless you are only targeting the products you want to save money on. I've been in that situation too many times, seeing a great bargain and immediately snagging it. It turns out I didn't really need it, but I was afraid to pass up something I thought I was getting at a good value. Essentially, that means Slickdeals might do more harm than good if you're tempted by a deal on the front page rather than focusing on what you're shopping for. With my friends, it's become a good app for finding computer components, rather than keeping tabs on Amazon and Newegg, since those parts are either too expensive to begin with or out of stock. Keep finding your own money-saving hacks There's still a limit to the deals you can find on Slickdeals, and if you're browsing Android Police internationally, the app might not be relevant to you. If you're trying to squeeze out as many savings as possible on a new phone, we suggest taking advantage of strong trade-in offers from manufacturers and following cost-saving strategies, such as buying open-box items to avoid payingfull price. While MVNOs and big tech events like Made By Google can sometimes show good promotional deals on the surface, that may not be enough to cover the cost of your next purchase or even future-proof a phone upgrade — which is why comparing it to other options is usually worth it.