These are the Mobile Apps I Rely On (Premium)

As with my PCs, I install the same basic set of mobile apps on each phone and tablet that I use. Here’s a quick rundown.

Smartphone

As you may know, I switched to Android in late 2017 and prefer this platform to iOS. That said, I have used the latest iPhones, and I purchased a refurbished iPhone 7 recently to keep up with the platform. Regardless, I use the same basic set of apps on each.

These are the apps I keep close at hand on the initial two home screens of each mobile platform. I also use the built-in app store, Phone, Messaging, and Camera apps in both Android and iOS.

Google Chrome. With its cross-device sync of both passwords (important) and bookmarks (much less important), Chrome is a no-brainer on mobile, just as it is on the PC. One nice thing about Android is that Chrome passwords sync with the system, too, so they’re accessible in apps. Apple does something similar in iOS with Safari, but the Android version is much more seamless.

Google Maps. We rely heavily on Google Maps whenever we are driving a great distance or to someplace unfamiliar. This app is indispensable.

Microsoft Outlook. I’m transitioning away from Google Inbox because the search giant is abandoning this wonderful app and web service. Microsoft Outlook is the next best thing, but I use it only for email, because of…

Google Calendar. This is one of those perfect apps where the look, feel, and functionality all comes together nicely. Plus, I like accessing my calendar in its own app (rather than using one app for both email and calendar as with Outlook).

Microsoft Skype. As much as I struggle with Skype’s issues, I do use it every day and rely on it. And so I use it on mobile too.

Duolingo. I use Duolingo most days for about 20 minutes in an ongoing effort to learn other languages (French and Spanish, depending on the year).

Google Photos. While I back up all of my phone photos to both Google Photos and OneDrive, I actually “use” Google Photos quite frequently, and I especially like the Assistant-based features like “Remember this day,” “Then & Now,” “Rediscover your memories,” and so on that pop-up almost every day.

Instagram. While I use Twitter most frequently at the PC—because it is basically work-related—-I use Instagram most frequently among social media apps on mobile. I love the photography in the app, and only follow a few people I know plus some photography/travel-related accounts.

Twitter and Facebook. I do access both Twitter and Facebook on mobile sometimes, so I keep them next to Instagram.

Audible. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I have an Audible membership by which I buy at least one new audiobook each month. I love Audible.

PocketCasts. This is a paid app, but PocketCasts is my favorite podcast player.

Google Play Music. I prefer this service to Spotify because the UI is better and you can very easily mix and match your own ripped music with that from Google’s catalog. I create playlists and download them to my phone for offline use (airplanes, etc.).

Pocket. I use the Pocket extension in Chrome on the PC—and the Pocket share target on mobile—to save web articles I want to read later. And then I read them in the Pocket app, which is excellent.

Aside from these, I keep a few travel-related apps handy in a folder for work and personal trips, like Trinet Expenses (which we use at work), Uber, Google Trips, and apps for several airlines, like United, American, and Delta. And while I mostly read on a tablet, there are times when I’m out in the world with just my phone and want to read. So in addition to Pocket, I have NYTimes, Apple News or Google News (depending on platform), Kindle, Google (for the feed) on hand too. I also keep Calm, Philips Hue, and MyLVHN (local healthcare) apps available on the second home screen for quick access.

Also, since both Android and iOS support a dockable row of app icons, I configure those similarly on both, with Chrome, Phone, Messages, and Camera arranged from left to right. (Plus Google Maps to the far left on phones that support five icons). One thing I really like about Android is that you can arbitrarily place icons anywhere on the home screens, so I place the apps I use the most towards the bottom right, where my hand will be, and fan them out from there. Android also supports nice time and weather widgets, which I keep on the first home screen; on iPhone, I need to keep Clock and Weather apps on the first home screen instead.

To be clear, these aren’t all of the apps I keep on my phone. I have many, many other apps I use only infrequently—Project Fi, Google Home, Google Wi-Fi, and so on—but I just keep them in All Apps on Android (or on more distant home screens on iOS).

Tablet

I use an iPad exclusively for consuming content each day. At home, this typically means reading, but I also sync movies and TV shows to the device when I travel so I have something to watch during downtime while flying or in a hotel. I prefer the iPad mini form factor, but my own mini was losing its battery life and the performance was terrible. So I recently purchased a 128 GB 9.7-inch iPad (2018 version). It’s OK, but if Apple ever does update the mini, I’d switch back immediately.

NYTimes. While I often find the bias infuriating, I’ve somehow managed to hold on to my New York Times subscription. And this is the first thing I read every day.

Apple News. While this one tends to skew towards a weirdly complete selection of news about Apple and its products, this is still a better overall news aggregator than the alternatives I sometimes use as well (Google News and Microsoft News).

Pocket. As on the phone, Pocket is one of my key apps.

Amazon Kindle. I use Kindle exclusively for ebooks and for a dwindling collection of periodicals (Consumer Reports, Car and Driver, and Maximum PC, all of which will expire in early 2019. I will only renew Consumer Reports.)

Google Chrome. And for the same reasons as on the phone.

iTunes Store. Apple offers different 99 cent movie rentals and $5 to $8 movie sales every Tuesday, and I will usually check at least once each week to see what’s new. For example, while writing this, I checked, and I rented “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” for 99 cents. There’s also a new $5 movie essentials sale going on right now. Nice.

TV. This is Apple’s app for watching the movies and TV shows you’ve acquired from the iTunes Store.

YouTube and Netflix. Two more ways to watch videos.

Google. For the feed, in which I find articles and save them to Pocket.

Beyond these, I keep a few other apps—Apple Books, iTunes U, and The Weather—and hide several other Apple apps in a folder. I uninstall most of the Apple apps that I can uninstall. But that’s about it: Everything fits on a single home screen.

I pin iTunes Store, App Store, Chrome, Kindle, Pocket, Apple News, and NYTimes, from left to right, in the dock.