Default Apps for 2025

I find it (weirdly?) fun to list and take stock of all the apps that make one’s “productivity stack”. I enjoy reading about other people’s set-ups (a habit my wife won’t ever understand), so why not also put my own out there?

This is inspired by Default Apps posts by Chris McLeod and “uses” pages like this one from Robb Knight. I will likely turn this into separate page one day, a living document updated regularly.

Additionally, this January 2025 edition serves as a good follow-up to my iOS 18 Public Beta: Personal Computing Tools Audit from August 2024, where I tried to fit my personal productivity needs entirely or almost entirely into Apple’s stock apps. Some of those did not last, as you can see below:

• 📨 Mail: Apple Mail (recent app/OS updates made me realize I’ve been using Apple Mail all wrong; more on that some other time)
• 📆 Calendar: Fantastical on desktop (no subscription, still riding that one-time purchase from years ago), Apple Calendar on mobile
• ✅ To-Do: Things (eventually gave up on Reminders; Things just feels like home)
• 📝 Notes: Apple Notes
• 🧭 Browser: Safari
• ✍🏻 Journaling: Apple Notes (experimenting with journaling using the Forever ✱ Notes framework; if it doesn’t work/stick, I will probably be back to Day One)
• 🌅 Photo Editing: Photomator
• 📑 RSS, Read Later, News: Readwise Reader
• 🔐 Password Management: Apple Passwords
• ☁️ Cloud Storage: iCloud
• 💸 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Google Forms for data entry, Google Sheets for data storage and analysis (I should write more about this system of tracking personal and family finances, I love it so much)
• 🎵 Music: Apple Music
• 🎙️ Podcasts: Apple Podcasts
• 📚 Books: Kindle
• 👨🏻‍💻 Blogging: Ghost, iA Writer
• 🤖 AI: mostly using Bing Chat for some initial desktop research, sometimes as a search engine(!); ChatGPT is not available in Hong Kong; Apple Intelligence doesn’t really count, does it?
• 📢 Social Media: mostly lurking on Threads and BlueSky; pretty much given up on posting (exception: links to these blog posts) — my short thoughts and dumb takes belong in my journal, not for everyone to see

All in all, I’m happy that I’ve mostly eliminated subscription software from my set-up (1Password, Pocket Casts, Lightroom, and jury’s still out on Day One).

And if you want to discuss any of the choices, tell me why I’m wrong, or just share your own — the blog comments are now open to all subscribers!