My Favorite New Apps of 2023 (Premium)

I went into this article knowing full well that 2023 was a year of change and that I would have lots of new apps to write about. And then I actually looked, and even I was surprised by the amount of change I’ve made. There is no doubt that I have started using more apps—and related things like games, services, and even browser add-ins—this year than in any previous year.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that constantly testing new things is a part of this job I take both seriously and literally. That I am always testing not just the apps and services I use, but also the workflows that make me efficient. And that change is hard, even for me: I celebrate it every time I do make a change, but I also recognize that testing something new and sticking with what I was already using is great too. It’s important to know that what I’m using, and how I’m using it, is the best choice for my needs.

Last year, I wrote up five apps (well, hour apps and one game) in a recap of my favorite new apps of 2022. But this year’s write-up is notable not just because of the sheer volume of picks, but because I reversed course on two of last year’s picks in 2023. That level of churn is likewise unheard of, but looking back at them now, my decisions were both sound and necessary. God, a year.

Anyway. There’s no time like the present. So let’s dive right in.

Windows

Windows Package Manager. Because I review so many laptops and switch between computers so frequently, I automate the process of setting them up as much as possible. And in April, I documented how I used Winstall to create a bulk app install script for the Windows Package Manager (winget). It’s worked wonders ever since.

Clipchamp. When Adobe Premiere Elements failed me on multiple PCs this past July, I examined a few alternatives and was blown away by how good Clipchamp, an in-box web app included with Windows 11, worked. And I’ve been using it ever since: Every video I create, including those for our Eternal Spring channel, is made with Clipchamp now.

Google Drive. When Microsoft escalated the enshittification of OneDrive in Windows 11 version 23H2, I experimented with Google Drive and found it to be vastly superior. And so I switched to Google Drive entirely for all my day-to-day document storage and subscribed to the 2 TB Google One tier.

ImageGlass 9. In 2022, I switched to the free web version of ImageGlass for image viewing, and in 2023, I switched to the paid version in the Microsoft Store: It’s just $9.99, and it works exactly the way I want.

Web browsers (Windows and mobile)

Bitwarden. In February, I dropped the autofill and password managers built into my browsers and smartphones and switched to Bitwarden, creating “one version of the truth” for my passwords, credit cards, and other personal information. And once I was sure it worked exactly as I wanted, I paid for Bitwarden Premium, which is just $10 per year, which let me add my wife as an emergency access contact (among other things). It’s on every PC, tablet, and phone I use.

DuckDuckGo search. Given my poor experience with all non-Google search engines in the past, I surprised myself in November when a routine experiment with DuckDuckGo Search stuck. I’ve been using it successfully ever since and have almost never felt compelled to check the results against Google because it works so well.

Bonjourr. I’ve been using the Momentum Plus extension as my web browser home/new tab for years and have always enjoyed its minimalist UI and beautiful photography. But I recently saw a similar extension called Bonjourr highlighted by Google, tried it, and decided it was time for a change. Not that there’s anything wrong with Momentum, but Bonjourr is, if anything, even more minimalist and offers some nice customization options, including the ability to display web links more naturally as buttons instead of a plain text list.

Amazon adBlocker. When my wife complained that Amazon search results were enshittified with paid sponsorships and other ads, I told her there must be a browser extension that can fix that. And there is: Amazon adBlocker keeps the ecommerce site clear from sponsored products, sponsored brands and other ads. And so now we both use it.

Mobile

Artifact. I have been dissatisfied with news apps like Google News ever since there have been such apps, and I am angered almost daily by the non-tech stories that pop-up routinely in the Tech section of whatever app I try. But my quest for a personalized news feed that actually works may have just come to a close: Last month, I discovered a personalized news app called Artifact (iPhone and Android) that works much better than any similar app I’ve used and offers extensive customization capabilities. The problems with news feed apps are many, and Artifact isn’t immune to the need to train it, especially in the beginning, to focus on only those topics and publications I want. But it’s already made a huge difference in my news gathering each morning.

Nomad. This service sells pay-as-you-go eSIM-based international data plans for reasonable prices, and my October experience using it in Mexico was enough of a positive experience that I’ll do similarly when we return in February. Assuming that goes well, I will then switch my $50 per month T-Mobile plan to a $15 per month Mint Mobile (or similar) plan and just use Nomad when I’m outside the country. Nomad is having a 20 percent off sale right now, but if you use my referral code (PAUL65GE), I’ll get a $3 credit.

Super Duolingo. After a break last year during which I used a different language learning app, I switched back to Duolingo and my wife and I joined the paid Super Duolingo membership because we use it so much. This service has had its ups and downs over the years, but Duolingo is today vastly improved over the versions I used in the past. It’s making a big difference in Spanish, and I’m currently on a 250+ day streak.

Video games

On March 2, 2023, I turned off my Xbox Series S before flying to Mexico City, and I haven’t used it since (other than to install, update, and then not actually play the latest Call of Duty). (The previous Call of Duty title was one of my picks last year, which I now regret.) What I have done this year since then is make two changes: I spend far less time each week playing video games, and I’ve shifted how and where I play games to include PCs and mobile devices. And now I have a healthier relationship with games.

As part of this shift, I subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes console, PC, and cloud streaming games, and I’m looking forward to the Activision Blizzard titles I’ll have access to in the coming. But my favorite games this year were all nostalgic: The Making of Karateka, Quake II Remaster, Half-Life 25th Anniversary, and Black Mesa, a Half-Life remake/modernization I bought a few years ago but only now started playing.

Waiting in the wings

There’s a lot more potential change to come in 2024.

After experimenting with Google Docs over the past few days, I dropped Microsoft Word (again) and switched. No, not to Google Docs, but to Typora, a Markdown editor I have used on and off for years, and paid ($15) for last year. The issue for me is output: What I use for writing has to spit out clean HTML for WordPress, and Google Docs just makes that too hard. Typora does not. So we’ll see if it sticks: If so, I’ll add it to my 2024 apps recap.

Though I have only expanded my use of Notion dramatically this year because it works so well, I fully expected to switch to Microsoft Loop for notes and to-do’s this year because of its Word-like keyboard shortcuts and seemless Office and OneDrive integration. And it seemed like it was going to happen: Loop for Windows came to the Microsoft Store in August, and Microsoft declared Loop generally available in November, after at least two years of development. But no. Loop is still buggy and functionally incomplete, and so I keep using Notion. Maybe that will change in 2024, but now the bar is higher because Notion is nearly perfect.

I’ve been a loyal Brave user since my switch in mid-2022 and I recommend it highly to everyone because of its superior security and privacy features, minimalist UI, full Chrome compatibility, and unique settings sync implementation. But I do what I do for a living, and part of that requires me to test other browsers, which I do regularly. There’s little chance I would ever switch back to other traditional browsers like Chrome, Edge, or Firefox, but two more modern new browsers are interesting enough that I may consider switching once they become more feature complete: The DuckDuckGo browser, and Arc Browser, which invited me into its beta program on Windows recently. Both share Brave’s security and privacy focus, which is important to me, and each diverges from the traditional browser user experience to some degree. We’ll see.

Finally, with Elon Musk doing everything he can to ruin Twitter, I’ve spent much of 2023 figuring out how to replicate the following I have there (127,000 followers) on a different service. I joined Mastodon back in November 2022, and I check-in there throughout the day as I do on Twitter, and I now have about 3600 followers there. But Mastodon can be just as toxic as Twitter—if you don’t believe me, just criticize Mastodon on Mastodon—and it’s not clear that it will ever replace that service. I “joined” Threads in 2023—as an Instagram users, it was hard to avoid—but I can’t seriously use the service until it opens up an API that will let me auto-post to it each day, as I do now on Facebook, Mastodon, and Twitter. That’s coming in 2024, and while I’m not exactly a Meta or Mark Zuckerberg fan—the only person who makes him seem decent by comparison is Musk—it’s possible that Threads will become a viable Twitter alternative in the coming year.