Apple’s iPhone had a huge impact on the industry right out of the gate since it prompted a shift toward the touch-centric smartphone experience we all enjoy today, but the iPhone’s real game-changer came a year later courtesy of the App Store. By moving app portals off of the web and onto the device itself, Apple brought apps to the masses, allowing users to completely alter the iPhone’s capabilities with just a few quick taps. The app market took off from there, and it has since grown into a multibillion dollar business as well as the most important part of the smartphone experience.
As big as mobile apps have become though, the App Store is flooded to the point where finding great apps is quite difficult. We do our best to help by drawing attention to the top apps we come across and by publishing a very popular series on paid apps that go on sale for free. Now, it’s time to see which apps hardcore iPhone fans say they can’t live without.
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In a thread on Reddit in the iPhone subreddit, user Lev-J asked other redditors a simple question: “What apps can’t you live without?”
Every iPhone and iPad user has different wants and needs, but it’s always a good idea to pay attention to threads like this, especially when they garner a healthy number of responses. In this case, there were more than 370 responses at the time of this writing.
I dug through as many of the responses as I could, and I’ve compiled the 20 app suggestions with the most up-votes here in this post. You’ll find them listed below along with links to download each one.
1Password (free): Create complex passwords, store them securely, and sync them across devices.
Airmail ($4.99): The most full-featured iOS email client ever.
Spark (free): Another extremely capable iOS email app.
MacID ($3.99): Lock and unlock your Mac computer using TouchID on your iPhone or even using your Apple Watch.
ProTube for YouTube ($2.99): A great YouTube client.
MyFitnessPal (free): Track calorie intake and calorie burn.
Waze (free): Crowd-sourced navigation owned by Google.
Sweep (free): A sleek app that helps you stick to your budget.
Tweetbot 4 ($9.99): Widely regarded as the best Twitter app ever.
WolframAlpha ($2.99): Portal into all the data on the Wolfram|Alpha website.
VLC Remote Free (free): Remotely control your VLC Media Player on your Mac or PC.
2Do ($14.99): A to-do app on steroids.
Due ($4.99): Much better reminders app than the one that ships on the iPhone.
Workflow ($2.99): Automate… everything.
Pocket Casts ($3.99): A very well-made podcast player.
Calendars 5 (free): Great full-featured calendar app that’s on sale for free this week.
Scanner Pro 7 ($3.99): Document scanner that converts words to text.
Friendly (free): Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger in one app.
Afterlight ($0.99): A simple but capable photo editor.
Dark Sky ($3.99): Hyperlocal weather app with alerts when it’s about to start raining or snowing.
Looking for a few more app suggestions? Check out our recent post on 5 free iPhone apps that will actually change your life.
