Apps/tools I use on iOS
This is extension of my macOS overview. Best read it first as many apps below I use on mac too and describe in more detail there.
I only use 2 active spaces on my phone without any folders to minimize hand movement. Everything is optimized for reachability and partly aesthetics. I nearly always use dark mode as I prefer it unless I am outside and it's hard to read the text.
iOS for me is a consumption and communication device primarily so I try to offload heavy busy work to macOS.
I minimize push notifications I actually receive to only messaging apps. Mostly just Telegram. Everything else I have to go inside the apps to check what's new so as to not distract me from day to day life. I also keep it on Do Not Disturb nearly always too. Especially when I work on my mac and keep the phone on the side so as to not duplicate notifications.
- Fantastical use to manage my calendar and events. I like their widget to show my current schedule of the day.
- 2Do for personal tasks. Want to move away from it as the current sync takes too long sadly. But the mac 2Do app is unmatched currently.
- 1Password use it whenver I need to find some specific secret file like Passport photo or details.
- GitHub don't use often but is nice when I need to reply to an urgent issue.
- Wipr - Safari ad blocker. Works well.
- Safari absolutely love it for reading and opening pages. Works fast. I like keeping top used sites in bookmarks bar so I can open them fast.
- Telegram use it chat and read groups. Want to start using it more heavily by creating specialized bots.
- Apollo love the client and its custom gestures (like swiping back & forth by initiating the swipe in the middle of the screen and not on the side).
- Spark use it to check on mail. I don't have notifications set for email.
- Slack & Discord to check up on communities I am in.
- Photos does good job of managing and searching for photos I need. I have few albums I made for myself to make finding things easier too. Love its Memories feature and use the Photos Widget to remind myself of the past photos I took or saved.
- VSCO & Darkroom for photo editing. Don't pay for VSCO as it's quite expensive but they both do a good job at editing photos.
- Slidebox use it to quickly clean up photos, especially duplicates or bad takes.
- Instagram not a fan of how many ads IG pushes to the feeds/stories but I do love content of many accounts there so I still use it. Share some photos and stories of my life in there.
- Overcast use it to listen to podcasts I like. I love its smart speed feature to cut out on silent pauses.
- Audible listen to audio books there.
- NetNewsWire I do nearly all the reading of RSS on the mac.
- Books use it to read some books. It recently added a nice digital narration.
- V for Wiki love exploring wikipedia when I am bored. This is nice app for doing this. Typography in it is great.
- Google Maps 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 don't use it much but want to.
I use 2 widgets in lock screen.
I keep common shortcut actions as widgets on the side (just need to scroll left to access):
I color all shortcuts I use with gray color for consistency.
- Translate - Open Google Translate.
- Event - Create new event with Fantastical.
- Next - Show directions to next event(s).
- Ask - Ask Google Assistant.
- Places - Find (Work/Parks/Libraries/Groceries/Restaurants/Attractions/Cafes/Home) in Google Maps.
- 2Do - Make new 2Do task.
- Contacts - Type into Cardhop.
- Tweet - Start typing new tweet.
- Focus - Play rain sound using Dark Noise.
- Podcast - Play most recently played or first unplayed podcast episode.
- HN - Opens hckrnews in Safari in new tab.
- Photo - Open Camera app to take photo/video.
- Drive - Search Google Drive.
- Sort - Open Slidebox.
- Notes - Opens Ulysses Favorite notes.
- Saved - Open Telegram Saved Messages. Can replicate it by adding an action to send message to yourself (Telegram provides it).
- Mail - Create new mail with Spark.
- Home - Show public transport directions to 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.
I use 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 only use the 2 pages of apps and that's enough. The third page is mostly used as a way to test out new apps or develop apps of my own.
I actually stopped wearing a watch. But when I did I mostly used it to track my health and fitness and view useful information at a glance like current time and events.
I used 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 with Procreate or noting/sketching in Notes/Muse with Apple Pencil. I also sometimes use it as second screen with Sidecar.
I prefer using PS5 for playing games as the games there are much better. Some games I rarely play on iPad are:
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
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