List of applications and tools that make my iOS experience even more amazing
- Philosophy
- Applications
- Widgets
- Shortcuts
- Control Center
- Games
- WatchOS
- iPad
- My wonderful world of macOS
- Related
- Contributing
For me, an iPhone is essentially a consumption and communication device. Everything I can do on the phone, I can do faster and better on my MacBook. Thus I find it is valuable to give each of these devices a well defined purpose and use them appropriately.
With all the freedom and power that a smartphone brings, it also brings a lot of distraction. There is Twitter, Reddit, Instagram with their endless feeds of streaming live updating content or any other news outlet you prefer to stay on top of things. Staying on top of everything at all times is exhausting and addictive.
I use my phone when I am not using my computer. I use it to send & read messages, make photographs, check & write tasks I have to do, listen to podcasts, music, audio books, read wiki, write quick notes and more. I try to use the best tools that I can to get these tasks completed. And I mindfully spend my time on my phone to make sure I don't waste it.
Here is a list of apps that I use the most in my day to day life, sorted by category and their importance.
2Do - Flexible task manager
- My task manager of choice. I use tags to organize my tasks and work on tasks based on priority.
Fantastical - Calendar
- Prefer it to stock calendar app due to a cleaner design and ability to add events quickly with natural language.
Strong - Workout tracker
- Use it to track my workouts. I have few custom workouts I made that I can start and simply follow the exercises and the number of sets for the exercise as my workout progresses. I most usually start and track my workouts with my Apple Watch using Streaks Workout to start bodyweight exercise workouts and Workouts to start cardio workouts (Running/Cycling).
Streaks - Habit tracker
- Do something often enough and it becomes a habit. I use the app to track my essential life habits I want to complete each day. Get notification at 22:20 every day as a reminder to go to sleep and check on the habits.
1Password - Password manager
- Can't live without the app. It holds all my passwords and anything private so that I only need to remember one thing. My master password. It seamlessly integrates with the OS so I can autofill saved passwords in seconds.
Drive - Cloud Storage
- All my documents (files) are stored in iCloud. However Google Docs/Sheets are amazing tools for collaborating on documents.
GitHub - GitHub on the Go
- Use it respond or create issues on GitHub & keep up to date on activity of my watched repos.
Wipr - Safari ad blocker
- Use the app to block annoying ads and tracking in Safari.
- Use the app to track my ongoing subscriptions. I review it at the end of every month and update my budget for the month accordingly.
Paprika - Recipe manager
- I use the app to collect my favorite plant based recipes.
Safari - Browser
- One of the best features of Safari is fast access to bookmarks on opening of new tabs. Here are my top bookmarked sites I use:
Telegram - Messenger
- My favorite messenger due its speed, its ability to sync with a native macOS client and the many free and awesome stickers you can use. I use Pocket to add links I want to check at some point in time. I also use Telegram Saved Messages and send messages to myself (links/quick-todos) that are of higher priority than Pocket. Adding quick todo to Telegram is much quicker than 2Do and it is assumed that the todo/note will be dealt with as soon as possible. I also use Saved Messages to share media between devices.
Tweetbot - Twitter client
- My favorite Twitter client. Prefer it over official client for its ability to sync timelines with the macOS app, night theme and no ads. I do use the official Twitter app for searching as it has profile suggestions on searches that Tweetbot doesn't have.
Apollo - Reddit client
- My favorite client for browsing Reddit. I love how you can operate the app seamlessly with gestures. I also customized the app to work with my own gestures (i.e. swiping back & forth by initiating the swipe in the middle of the screen and not on the side).
Spark - Mail client
- My favorite email client that I love due its simplicity of UI and UX as well as separation of emails based on their type (Inbox, newsletters).
Slack - Team communication
- Only keep essential teams I am signed up on there.
Photos - Photo library
- The place for all my personal photos/videos synced with iCloud. I love its Memories features.
Slidebox - Photo & Album Organizer
- Use the app to quickly delete bad photos and sort photos into albums quickly. I try have all the photos in my Photos library be placed in some folder and this app lets me easily do that.
VSCO - Image editor and photo sharing
- Use it to quickly edit photographs I made as I much prefer its filters and editing options than other photo editors. I then post the edited photos I like to Instagram. I prefer to not edit the photos shot on the phone and only edit photos shot with a proper camera.
Instagram - Photo sharing
- Love it as a way to share my life through photographs, videos and stories.
- Use it to read books (PDF & EPUB). And listen to audio books I downloaded that Audible doesn't have.
V for Wiki - Wiki reader
- Amazing and beautiful Wikipedia reader. The typography of it and the design makes you explore and easily get lost in reading the wiki.
Medium - Online publishing platform
- Use the app to read articles in night mode.
Trello - Project management tool
- All of my ideas and projects live on Trello. The app makes accessing any Trello board I need quickly.
Overcast - Podcasts
- Lets me listen to the plethora of podcasts I love. I love its smart speed feature to cut out on silent pauses.
Audible - Audiobooks
- If I am not listening to a podcast or relaxing by playing music, I listen to books.
Reeder - RSS Reeder
- Use the app to read through my Inoreader feeds of blogs I follow.
Ulysses - Writing
- I use the app to make edits to my wiki. Since the wiki is a bunch of markdown files in a folder that I keep on Dropbox, I can add that folder to Ulysses as external folder and make edits to it.
Spotify - Music streaming
- Love using it due to superior music recommendation, UI/UX and social features like playlist sharing .
Google Maps - GPS, City Navigation & Traffic
- Use it as my main navigation app and a travel guide. Collect lists of places I want to visit and places I loved seeing.
Scriptable - Automation using JavaScript
- Lets you write JavaScript code and combine it with Siri Shortcuts. Can even edit the code on the mac and instantly run the shortcuts on the phone. Plan to learn how to use it well to write more sophisticated shortcuts.
Pushcut - Smart notifications that trigger your automation
- Didn't find a use for it yet.
I don't go over describing all the apps I use and you can see for yourself the apps I use in above screenshots. As I only have two spaces on my phone to minimize hand movement, I had to use folders (with blank names to reduce noise). Some of these folders are filled to the second level. Specifically these three folders:
Here are the contents of all of these folders with names of the apps inside, if you wish to try them too.
Here are the widgets I use:
I color all the shortcuts I use with one color (Grey) for consistency. All the top shortcuts I use are activated with widgets (as seen above).
- Translate - Open Google Translate.
- Event - Create new event with Fantastical.
- Trello - Create new Trello card optionally filling in Name/Board/List to save it to.
- Ask - Open Google Assistant.
- Next - Show directions to next event(s).
- 2Do - Make new 2Do task.
- Contacts - Type into Cardhop.
- Tweet - Make new tweet with Tweetbot.
- Podcast - Play most recently played or first unplayed podcast episode.
- Focus - Open Dark Noise app & play fire sound.
- HN - Opens hckrnews in Safari in new tab.
- Search - Search Twitter app (Tweetbot search is worse).
- Notes - Opens Ulysses. Will be replaced to activate Ulysses file search (when Ulysses adds such action).
- Places - Find (Work/Parks/Libraries/Groceries/Restaurants/Attractions/Cafes/Home) in Google Maps.
- Record - Start recording audio. Tap to stop. Then share it.
- Dictate - Start recording speech and transcribe it to text. Tap to stop. Then share the text.
- Drive - Search Google Drive.
- Likes - Open my Likes Spotify playlist.
- Streaks - Opens Streaks app.
- Mail - Create new mail with Spark.
I use a Test shortcut to prototype new actions/ideas quickly. I then duplicate the working prototype & give it appropriate name. I use the same prototyping idea with KM macros.
Here is how my control center looks:
I use Apple Watch as a way to track my health and fitness and view useful information at a glance like current time and events.
I use only one Infograph Modular watch face. It shows the current time and day, the weather and my current or future calendar events (with Fantastical). It also lets me quickly start cardio workout (running/biking) or bodyweight workout (with Streaks Workout). I can also start a timer or see the time of a timer if one is already running.
I mostly use my iPad for drawing & sketching with Procreate/Notes and Apple Pencil. And sometimes using it as second screen with Sidecar.
Most apps on my iPad are identical to my phone. The few apps that are iPad specific are:
I prefer using PS4 for playing games as the games there are much better. There were a few games on iOS I did like though.
- Lichess - Chess game with multiplayer and puzzles.
- Shapeuku - Shape puzzle game.
- Mind Cards - Strategy card game.
- DATA WING - A neon racing adventure.
- Human Resource Machine
- the Sequence - Build a sequence using special modules to transfer binary cell.
- the Sequence 2
If you found this interesting, I also have a similar repository going over what applications I use on macOS.
- Awesome iOS
- Sharecuts - Public repository of shortcuts for the Shortcuts app.
- Shortcuts Gallery
Suggestions and pull requests are highly encouraged!
I love finding new awesome tools and apps. If you have a favorite tool or app that you think I missed, please say it.
You can support me on GitHub or look into other projects I shared.
