Best To Do List For Mac And Iphone 2018

As Mac users, we’re spoiled when it comes to managing our tasks. There are several cross-platform and web-based task management tools we can use. But, even better, this is a category of apps that are well-represented by Apple developers. In fact, the options are plentiful enough that choosing just one productivity app to use is not easy. And for those of us who naturally focus more on process than outcomes, it can be downright debilitating to land on the best productivity app.

To Do List For Mac And Iphone
2018 Best Mac Applications
Best To Do List For Mac And Iphone 2018

Managing Knowledge Work in 2019

There are a couple of factors to keep in mind when choosing the best productivity app for Apple users. First, thanks to the focus from development teams, this has been a competitive space. Teams like the OmniGroup and Cultured Code have taken turns making the product of choice for many app users, and we’ve all benefited from having more than one option.

Don't be fooled by its minimal design–Dropbox Paper has lots of advanced features tucked away that are easy to access and intuitive to use once you're familiar with the app. Use it to create new documents, edit existing ones, see all your team activity in one organized list, post and reply to comments, prioritize documents and so much more. The Best To-Do List Apps of 2018. The free Gneo to-do app for iPhone is a treat for the fingers. But it may have put form over function, and serious task masters will likely want something.

Second, how knowledge workers manage their work has had a lot of attention. Since David Allen first published Getting Things Done in 2001, personal productivity became a household term. However, over the past 17 years, there have been numerous other types of “systems” and methods shared online. It turns out that not all knowledge workers care for GTD’s long list of lists and specific processes.

As a result, there are a lot of other styles of tools available to choose from today. Some folks make a case for ditching your task manager and using the calendar instead. Others swear that habits are more important than goals and projects. And no matter what system you use, Pomodoro timers can help maintain your focus and energy levels while you work.

And let’s not forget the resurgence of pen and paper — do you bujo?

Choosing a tool to meet your needs in 2019 requires a level of self-awareness about how you do your best work.

What We’re Looking for in a Task Manager

In many ways, our list of criteria has not changed much since 2014 when we first published our recommendation for this space. A task manager needs to be easy to get our ideas into, it should offer several organizational options, and it needs to be available on all our devices.

However, other considerations have melted into the background. Do we need to look for apps that offer syncing? It’s pretty much a solved problem now and implicit in all our favorite tools.

And although some of the newer alternatives to this space deserve a look, our recommendation will be limited to those tools that are genuinely focused on managing projects and tasks. Here are the criteria we considered in more detail.

Easy input: no matter what productivity method you practice, getting tasks, reminders, and ideas into your system must be as smooth and frictionless as possible.
Multiple types of work: a good task manager handles everything from large complex projects, to smaller projects, to single recurring tasks. While how you focus your time may be better suited to using a calendar, we still need a place to document all the required tasks for a specific goal.
Various methods of view: the best task managers allow the user to configure a view of their tasks that fits their needs. This is a tricky one as we don’t want too much customization, lest we succumb to fiddling. Still, some flexibility is required.
Flexible organization: not everyone needs tags or folders, but for those who do, it’s usually essential.
The ability to document: this may be a factor that not all people consider, but documentation is a need in this space. Much of the work we do as knowledge workers requires some related information. If our task management tool allows us to include resources and commentary, that is a vital addition. Otherwise, we need to store all that information in another location.
Aesthetics: while function is more critical, with two equally capable options, form can play an important factor. We want to want to use our tools!

Contenders for The Best Productivity App

We considered the following productivity apps when coming up with our recommendation.

OmniFocus (Mac/iOS): as our previous recommendation, the most powerful of all the GTD-esque Mac apps is at the top of our list. It continues to offer the highest level of customization and power features that many people find essential for their workflows.
Things 3 (Mac/iPad/iPhone): now in version 3, this continues to be the most aesthetically pleasing task management app for Apple users. The recent redesign not only looks good, but it feels great as well. The subtle animations and clever keyboard navigation are top-notch.
2Do (Mac/iOS): another very solid and enjoyable option that is only for Apple users. Unlike other products, 2Do is developed and supported by a very small team. However, it sports a pleasing interface and offers a sweet spot for customization without being too fiddly.
Todoist (Mac/iOS): the first cross-platform service included, Todoist is a very solid — and very popular — option. Although it started as a web-based service and is not focused solely on Apple users, its feature set and design are good enough that it makes the list.

To be sure, there are plenty of other options. The productivity category of the Mac App Store is full — ridiculously so — but there is a lot to sift through, and not all of it is high quality.

There are also plenty of web-based applications that may suit your needs best (see Asana, Basecamp, Flow, Remember The Milk, or Trello). Many of these are more focused on teams and less on personal productivity. We’re of the opinion that native apps offer the best experience overall. (That said, if one of the native apps offers a web version, we’d classify that as a “bonus” and not a caveat.)

Our Pick for Best Productivity and Task-Management App Is Things 3

After a lot of deliberation, our choice for the best GTD product for Apple users is Things from the team at Cultured Code. The launch of Things 3 in 2017 was a complete rebuild, and it is one of the most pleasing and satisfying pieces of software I’ve ever used. While not as customizable as some of the other options, Things is just so well-designed and hits enough of our criteria that it comes out as our top choice.

However, this is a difficult choice to make. There are really no wrong choices here. While Things is our choice as the best option, you cannot go wrong with any of the contenders. OmniFocus is still a powerful tool that may fit better for those with more complex needs (aka, “power users”). While not quite as powerful as OmniFocus, 2Do offers more flexibility and options than Things wrapped in a nice interface. And Todoist is a very solid option that works well with a team and gives a consistent experience across devices.

All that to say, whatever your preference, you’ll find a solution that fits for you, and Things 3 is the one we’d recommend before all others.

Let’s look at why.

Good Design

While aesthetics were at the bottom of our list of criteria, the look and feel of Things 3 is so good that I want to start there. To be clear, the design of this app goes far beyond how it looks.

Things has always been a pretty app, but Things 3 brought that aspect of being pleasing to another level. It still looks as sharp as can be, but it’s the feel that makes it stand out.

A lot of apps use animations to add cues to their interface; Things makes it buttery smooth. Animations are tricky. When done right, they can add context, give subtle hints about what is possible, and add delight. Done wrong, they scream “gimmick” and corrode the user’s trust. Cultured Code nailed the balance between subtlety, utility, and delight with the interactions included in the latest version of Things.

Things 3’s dark mode is one of the best dark modes available. You can select between a dark mode (which is more of an extremely dark grey mode — very soothing on the eyes at night) and a true black mode, designed specifically for the OLED displays on the latest iPhones. Usually I like true black themes (even on the iPad Pro), but Things’s regular dark mode is stunning.

When we talk about the design, we should also include the navigation of the app itself. Any good Mac app includes keyboard shortcuts that enable the user to be more efficient. Things 3 nails this as well.

Open the app and just start typing. Anywhere. Rather than force you to open the Quick Find modal, Things starts displaying search results when you type anywhere in the app that is not an input. Sure, Quick Find can be invoked with the standard CMD+F, but the designers of Things apparently ask the question of whether the user should have to take that step. Why not just show people what they need immediately?

It’s this kind of careful consideration that makes the experience what it is. A pleasure!
The rest of the application’s navigation is also good. One has to search to find a piece of functionality that is not available via the keyboard.

In fact, Things 3’s keyboard support — especially on the iPad — is trailblazing. You can navigate the entire iPad app with the keyboard — jumping in and out of tasks and their notes, moving between projects, searching for specific tasks, and jumping between your Inbox, Today, or Upcoming views. Plus, these keyboard shortcuts are uniform across both iPad and the Mac, meaning you don’t have to develop special muscle memory for each device you use. On many occasions, I’ve been left wishing Things’s keyboard shortcut support would become the default for all other apps I use on my iPad.

When it comes to design, there is one characteristic of Things that got my attention more than any other. That is…

Project Documentation

When I first gave Things 3 a look, this is the feature that sold me. A long time ago, Things was my first task management tool as a new Mac user, but with the slow development times at Cultured Code and a lack of sync support, I made a move to OmniFocus. For the better part of 5 years, I never gave Things any further consideration.

When I first tried Things 3, something clicked for me. I wrote about it in my initial review:

In all the services I’ve used over the years, there has been a gap between managing the actual tasks and the information that is required to work on those tasks. There always needed to be a secondary piece of software required. That might be apps like Yojimbo or Evernote or Ulysses, or it might be parts of the macOS (files/folders in Finder). Things 3 is the first tool that made me think there was a chance I could handle it all in one place.

And indeed, a project in Things feels very much like a blank document rather than a rigid checklist. There is space for notes and reference information that does not feel like a simple free-form text field that is a second-class citizen in the apps UI.

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Easy Input

Things, as well as many of the apps in this space, do a good job of making it easy to get stuff into it. Using the Quick Entry dialog, you can quickly type a (customizable) shortcut and enter in a new task. Most task management apps offer this feature, but what I like about Things is, again, the usability. The form includes all the necessary fields, while also including excellent support for using just the keyboard.

Even better, with the Things Helper, you can create tasks from a currently selected item in other apps. Using this, Things will include a link back to the original item. Using one master inbox for all your inputs becomes a lot more feasible with this type of functionality.

On iPhone and iPad, Things is increasingly supported by other third-party apps thanks to its behind-the-scenes URL scheme. Our favorite email app for the Mac (and increasingly for iPhone and iPad as well) plays nicely with Things; inside Spark, you can simply swipe an email in your email list to send the entire email message (or just a link) to your Things inbox so you can act on the email as though it were a task.

The Structure of Your Life

One of the aspects of Things that has always been important is how it structures the tasks that make up your life. At the highest level, it uses GTD’s Areas of Responsibility. That allows you to structure your projects, tasks, and checklists according to the various roles you play (project managers, designers, and accountants, but parents, volunteers, coaches as well).

It’s possible to set up a similar structure in other task management tools, but I’ve always appreciated the treatment given to areas in Things. It even gets its own icon!

This approach to the foundational structure in Things makes it easy to focus on one area at a time. So if you’re at work and don’t care to see your chores around the house, you can view a specific area with all its contained projects and miscellaneous tasks.

Further down the structure, each project is also given a nice visual treatment. Again, this concept of a blank document works well. A project can include notes at the top of the “document,” and then you can include its tasks, sub-tasks, and headings.

This allows you to include any background information or reference materials required at the top of the project. From there, you create the tasks required to complete the project. If your project has specific categories of tasks or is broken into segments, Things lets you create headers to add structure to the project itself.

Further, each task can include notes or documentation, and tasks can be recurring or include a checklist. Add it all up, and you get this beautiful document of what needs to be done. You can set this view up to sit on the side of your screen as you plug away.

A Wrinkle In Time

Another aspect of Things 3 that I admire is the consideration of how to use time. Yes, you can assign a due date for tasks or projects, but you can also specify a time when you want to work on your tasks (but they are not necessarily due). This is how you add items to Today.

What’s great here is that this separates intention from deadlines.

To Do List For Mac And Iphone

This implementation in Things is very well thought out. If I have a task I want to complete tomorrow, I set that value in the task itself (all from the keyboard, mind you).

But, if a fire breaks out tomorrow and I’m unable to get to this task, it simply rolls over to the next day. Most other task managers would treat this as an overdue item and give you a glaring read badge. Things just shrugs its shoulders and lets you get to it when you’re ready.

This is a far friendlier way of allowing you to address intention when managing your tasks. Due dates are still there for when needed. For me, hard due dates are rare, so the more relaxed approach to time in Things is welcome.

What Could Improve

Things is not perfect, and it’s not for everybody. Compared to some of the other options, a lot of people will find it too rigid. Whereas a tool like OmniFocus allows you to configure things in a myriad of ways, Things only gives you a minimal set of options.

Nowhere is this more apparent than creating custom views. Where OmniFocus or 2Do allow you to build highly customized and specific views for your tasks, Things has almost no options at all. If you like to focus on one day at a time, the Today view is a good option. But if you want to look at all items set for Today that only apply to your job, then you’ll have to use tags in order show / hide sets of tasks.

The same is true for viewing an entire area of your life. If you view an area that includes projects and single tasks, you cannot see all the tasks for the entire area. All tasks for a specific project can only be viewed by clicking into the project itself. Once you do that, you’re down a level and lose the high-level view.

Apart from the lack of customization (which, I should add, some people would see as a positive feature), there are a few other missing features in Things. First, the lack of Markdown support or any other formatting is a bummer. The way Things treats your projects like a document is one of the biggest attractions of this app, so it’s surprising that there are no options for writing more readable content. How much more useful would the notes be if you could add headers, bold or italicize text, or even include file attachments? The best option I’m aware of is to use an app like Bear to store note attachments for each of your tasks.

As well, other apps in this category provide options that some folks will not want to be without:

Tasks in an area or project are not connected to one another and there is no option to make them sequential: you tackle one at a time in any order. For projects that require tasks be completed in a specific order, this can be problematic (especially for teams).
On that last note, there are no collaboration features of any kind. It’s task management for individuals.
Again, there is no ability to attach a file to a task. Things does support URL schemes for macOS and iOS, but that usage must also be supported by the external app. So Mail.app will provide a link, but Ulysses does not. Files in Finder will include a link, but if that file is moved, the link is not updated. So the usage here is limited.
Things does not support located-based features, such as reminders.

All things considered, these are small items that do not take away enough from Things. It’s the most enjoyable way for Apple users to manage their work. Period.

iPhone and iPad Apps

One last item to mention is the different versions of the product. Apple users in 2017 are people using more than one device. How does Things shape up on an iPad or iPhone compared to the desktop? That’s an important question to answer because of the multi-device reality of our day.

Personally, I downsized to two devices over the last three years. Where I used to use all three options, I currently only use a phone and a laptop. And in my usage, Things is perfect. Where the desktop app allows me to see what I need as I go through my day and throw new stuff into the inbox for later processing, the iPhone app is a wonderful experience for planning.

My morning or evening quiet times start with meditation and prayer but often end in review and planning. Things on my phone gives me a very nice view using Areas, Projects, and tags. And where the keyboard navigation is spot on in macOS, the touch-based navigation (and accompanying animations) on iOS are just as good. And so too is the support for drag and drop. Things is above all else a very smooth feeling app.

Drag and drop in Things for iPad works a bit differently than in OmniFocus for iPad. OmniFocus was one of the first iPad apps to support drag and drop, where you could drag multiple lines of text in from a notes app like Bear and each line becomes its own task. Things, however, takes the dragged text and inserts the text as a note inside a new task.

Which method you prefer will really depend on how you work. It’s very easy to create project templates for OmniFocus that can be dragged and dropped in — simply type out each task as a new line inside a text document and save that document somewhere accessible on your iPad. Then, drag in your tasks and you have a pre-determined list of tasks.

Things requires an extra step to create a task using drag and drop on the iPad, but the app assumes you’re bringing in background information from a different app and want to summarize that information as the task name. For those looking to use Things as an increasingly complex task manager, this may be the superior form of drag and drop implementation.

Runner-Up: OmniFocus

As part of the upgrade to version 3, OmniFocus 3 has changed in many ways — and for the better. If you were using version 2, there have been very few changes that would force you to change your workflows and setups, but many ways you could likely enhance them. For those new to OmniFocus 3, it is the same, extremely powerful, task manager with even more flexibility than before.

Capture

OmniFocus has many ways to capture tasks — from quick entry and services on the Mac, to the share sheet and 3D Touch on iOS — and of course you can use AppleScript, URL Schemes, and Shortcuts too. Naturally, there are also buttons to add new (inbox) tasks inside the app. With the customizable inspector on iOS, you can really set it up to meet your needs. OmniFocus is also integrated into many other apps, which means you can easily capture from a whole host of applications including Drafts, Airmail, Spark, and more! On the Mac, OmniFocus has a powerful quick capture window, allowing you to add one or more tasks, along with tags, dates, notes, and projects as you get on with your work.

Structure

OmniFocus will let you configure your system however you like. You can keep it simple with just a few projects as lists, or make it more granular with folders and setting your projects to parallel, sequential, or single action. One feature that sets OmniFocus apart from other task managers is infinite depth. A project contains actions, but by adding sub-tasks to those (which can also contain sub tasks, and so on) you can create a very complex hierarchy of tasks should you need it.

Perspectives

Hand in hand with the tags comes perspectives. After all, what good does it do to categorize your tasks if you can’t find them? Custom perspectives are a pro feature in OmniFocus, but they’re most definitely worth it. You can craft a series of rules and nest them if necessary. This lets you view a list of all of your available projects ordered by due date, or tasks tagged with errand but not supermarket. You can also set custom icons and colors for each perspective, allowing you to represent your tasks in an iconic fashion. As perspectives can be starred to show in the sidebar on macOS, or added to the toolbar, these icons make sense. On iOS, the perspectives are shown in the home area of the app, so they’re at most one long press on the back button away from wherever you are in the app.

Notifications

Notifications are an important part of every task management system, and OmniFocus has lots of choices for notifications. You can set it to notify you by default for all defer dates and/or due dates of tasks, and also modify these on a per task basis. On top of this, for each task you can add extra notifications such as Latest Start, so if you have an estimated time set for a task it will notify you that amount of time before the due date to get it done. You can add notifications relative to the due date of a task, so if you want a heads up two days before something is due you can have that happen without needing to set a fake due date — and if you use this with a repeating task, those notifications will repeat with each instance of it.

The last option is for completely custom notifications at fixed times and dates. This is extremely useful for projects that have a due date far enough away in the future where you might forget about it, and you want a reminder to work on a particular action on a specific date without setting a fake due date. While you can use notifications at specific dates and times on repeating tasks or projects, they will disappear in the next repeat.

Review

Review is ingrained into Getting Things Done with the idea being that you should review all of your active projects on a regular basis, typically weekly. OmniFocus has the review feature built in, and by default projects come up for review weekly. Review doesn’t have notifications nor does it prod you or force you to do it, so if you don’t need review you can ignore it entirely. On the Mac, you just see a little colored stripe next to the review perspective in the sidebar if one or more project is due for review, and on iOS you see how many items are in the Review perspective. On the Mac, you can un-star it to remove it from the sidebar, and on iOS you can move it right to the bottom of all of your other perspectives.

Reviewing a project is simple. You’re presented with the whole project and all remaining actions. At this point you can add any other actions that come to mind, complete any you have done, and delete those you won’t do — as well as add or modify due and defer dates and tags. From the project inspector, both in the review mode and everywhere else, you can modify the review frequency. This means for some projects you can set them to come up once a year for review, others once a month, and some even as often as every day. Once you’ve completed your review, you mark the project as reviewed, and it will disappear from the review section until the next time it should show up.

You can also use the pro feature, Focus, on the Mac to restrict what you see in the review section. This is really useful for those of us who like to use one system to manage both personal and professional obligations. You can select folders, or a range of projects, focus on them, then go to the review section and only the subset of that selection which is eligible for review will appear.

Aesthetics

Looks aren’t everything, and, perhaps more importantly, what makes an app look good varies from person to person. I am not a fan of massive amounts of whitespace in a productivity app. I prefer to have as many tasks, projects, and other information displayed as possible. I feel that OmniFocus strikes a nice balance between showing you all of the information you need, whilst not overwhelming you.

With version 3, OmniGroup removed the fiddly custom theming in favor of being able to offer light and dark themes that can switch automatically with the system colors on macOS Mojave. Inside of the light theme, you can also choose to have a dark sidebar, which naturally focuses your eyes on the tasks in the outline area. There are two sections of the sidebar: the perspective icons that are always visible (and you can choose which perspectives, including the defaults, to show) and the second area offers more information, such as lists of projects, tasks, or a calendar view in Forecast. If you choose, you can collapse the sidebar. In the center, you have the outline view, where your folders, projects, and tasks are shown. Pro licence owners can set this to show these items with either column view or the default fluid view which is reminiscent of iOS. On the right, you have the inspector, which allows you to edit whichever items you have selected.

OmniFocus for iOS looks somewhat different depending on if you’re using an iPhone or iPad. The former is limited to a single view at a time — be that the home menu, the outline, or the inspector. On iPad, you can see all three at once in full-screen landscape mode, or unpin the menu and the inspector if you want just the outline view with your tasks and projects.

Other Options for Consideration

If you just need a place to store your projects and tasks, but want a little more customization than Things offers, there are a few other options to check out as well.

Todoist

Todoist is a major player in the GTD arena and is the only major player to be available on macOS, Windows, iOS, Chrome, and Android. Todoist is one of the fastest GTD apps as well, as it includes natural language parsing for quick input of tasks. Todoist has been designed to work with many automation and integration services, including (but not limited to) Dropbox, Google Maps, Workflow, Zapier, a range of email clients, and 1Password. And lastly, we love how the Karma system works to keep you motivated and completing tasks throughout the year (not to mention the incredible report Todoist generates and sends you when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st).

Where we feel Todoist falls short is in its design and its differing approach to making your GTD list feel more human. Todoist doesn’t offer the same design chops as Things 3, nor does it provide a view of your calendar. Further, Todoist uses differing levels of priorities to differentiate tasks, while Things chooses to split your tasks into “Today” and “Evening” groups instead. While you can emulate these views in Todoist through the use of custom filters, it’s not nearly as intuitive as the beautiful execution in Things.

2Do

Like Things, 2Do sports a more pleasing interface than OmniFocus or Todoist. But where Things is more simplistic and includes carefully considered constraints, 2Do offers the ability to tweak what you see in the app and how you use it. It’s similar to OmniFocus in that regard, but with a nicer looking UI. If OmniFocus is the second choice for the power users, 2Do is the second best choice for everyone else.

Conclusion

Sometimes I imagine going back in time to visit the 2007 version of myself and showing off the task management software of 2019. What a stark difference!

No matter your method of productivity, Apple users can find a service that fits their tastes. Things is currently the best of the bunch and we’re happy to recommend it. Two or three years from now? Who knows, but we’re looking forward to seeing what the amazing community of developers can do by then.

You may have the latest and greatest iPhone XS Max, but what good is it without awesome iOS apps? Not much good at all. Even if you don't have Apple's new top-of-the-line device, a major reason for owning an iPhone is the wealth of apps available for the platform. The question is, which ones should you install? We've got you covered. The experts here at PCMag have tested a vast number of apps, sorting the good from the bad, to come up with this massive list of the 100 best iPhone apps.

If 100 apps are too many for your attention span, check out our much shorter and sweeter 12 must-have iPhone apps. There you'll find essential and well-known apps.

The apps included here will run just fine on the past few generations of iPhones, large or small. However, if you have an iPhone X or later, some apps let you do new, different things. The newer models include better cameras, Face ID, and more-powerful AR capabilities, which can make a difference for some apps. Inside the new phones' guts, the newer processors also make many activities feel much zippier.

Our favorite apps cover a range of activities, including photo editing, social networking, messaging, getting organized, and staying healthy. There's even one that helps you fill your gas tank cheaply. We've broken this list into 12 relevant categories, so you can browse just the app types that most interest you. Each app name is linked to its page on the App Store; if we have a review of the app, that's linked in the description text.

In the past, this list also featured the coolest video games the App Store had to offer. The iPhone gaming scene has become so robust that we decided it deserved its own separate, expanded list: Check out our feature covering the 50 Best iPhone Games. The selection is sure to be beefed up even further with the upcoming Apple Arcade streaming game service.

Be sure to revisit this page from time to time. Cool new apps arrive on the App Store all the time, so we update this list when we make new discoveries. Have you become enthralled with an app we failed to mention? We'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment and we might add your suggestion during our next update. We didn't forget Android users either; we have a separate roundup of the 100 best Android apps as well.

Best iPhone Communication Apps

Facebook Messenger

Free

Whatever your take on the social network of record, its messaging app is without equal. You don't need a phone number to use Facebook Messenger, you can use it on any device without the need for your phone to be present as it must with WhatsApp. It works on every platform, unlike iMessage. It also has many cool features, like audio calling and video chatting with AR masks, stickers, and even mobile payments. You can even play games through it with your contacts. Oh, and all of that's free.

Gmail

Free

Google's email app is a wonderful communication tool. Like our other Editors' Choice, Microsoft Outlook, it now lets you read mail accounts from Hotmail, Yahoo, and others via IMAP. It doesn't integrate your calendar the way Outlook for iPhone does, but Gmail does make your entire email database easier to deal with than the preinstalled Apple Mail app. It's smooth and fast, and even gives you five seconds to undo sending.

Kik

Free

Many messaging apps require you to give up your phone number to those who you chat with, but Kik only requires a username. And with a bot store already boasting more than 6,000 bots, Kik beat Facebook Messenger and Skype to the punch in the field of artificial conversationalists. Group chat, photo and video sharing, and gaming add to this youth-focused app's appeal.

Microsoft Outlook

Free

Microsoft Outlook's light and flexible mobile email app supports nearly every email account you might have, includes an integrated calendar, and provides a Focused inbox that shows you only important messages. Frequently updated, the app includes an ancillary Apple Watch app and supports 3D Touch. Unlike the rest of Office Mobile, the Outlook iPhone app is totally free.

Skype

Free
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Skype is one of the best free communication tools for the iPhone. The app lets you make video calls and supports rich texting with animated emojis. A good selection of bots gets you info you can use as well as entertainment. As with other versions of Skype, you can call or chat with other Skype users at no charge, or buy credit to call any other phone number, landline, or mobile.

Snapchat

Free

Sexting and security worries aside, the visual chat app Snapchat can be a lot of fun to use—if you can figure out its very nonstandard interface. Snapchat should not be used as a private and secure messaging app. Rather, it's a simple app that you can use to swap funny, ephemeral visuals with your friends. Messages sent through Snapchat disappear from the receiver's phone after a short time. Snap a picture, draw or write on top of it if you like, choose the amount of time the recipient can see it, and send away. Just bear in mind that all digital media is reproducible.

Spark Email

Free

Spark sports a slick interface and organizes your email into logical categories like Personal, Newsletters, and Notifications, though you can switch to a more standard full inbox view if you like. It handles multiple accounts, but doesn't combine categories for them as Outlook does. The app is very configurable, with customizable swipe actions It also lets you pin improtant stuff and snooze emails to deal with later.

Viber

Free

The ability to seamlessly transfer calls from mobile to desktop and vice versa was an early differentiator for Viber, which lets you exchange sticker-emblazoned texts as well as make calls and engage in video chats and calls to standard phones for free. And though it requires your phone number, it does encrypt communications.

Best iPhone Education & Reference Apps

ASL App

Free

The ASL App is a free iPhone and iPad app specifically made for learning the basics of American Sign Language, and it's a welcome introduction. It uses videos to teach you the alphabet, various useful words and phrases, and the required gestures. The free version covers the basics, and in-app purchases add advanced material in 99-cent packs. $9.99 gets you everything the app offers.

Bing

Free

People often forget that there's more than one way to find webpages, directions, videos, and photos on the Internet. There are actually plenty of good reasons to try out alternatives to market leader Google, and the Bing app for the iPhone shows several of them. Bing has a design that's gorgeous, clear, and simple to use. Feature-wise, Bing's app can keep up, and adds voice and camera input along with local info. What's more, the Bing app's home screen offers local guidance and news suggestions, rather than just a blank search box.

Chegg Books

Free

Every college student is familiar with handing over several 100-dollar bills and lugging many pounds of textbooks from the campus store. Chegg's goal is to take some of the pain out of that process. The app lets you rent, buy, or sell books. The company offers study apps, too.

Duolingo

Free

Could your learning a new language somehow add value to other people all over the world? It's a strange idea, but one that's playing out when you use the free language learning app Duolingo, which now has an iPhone app as well. As far as free, mobile apps for language-learning go, the Duolingo iPhone app is easily the best. A recent update makes your next lessons available offline, so you can continue learning even when you're not connected to the Internet.

Elevate

Free, with premium subscription for $39.99 per year

Elevate offers training in writing, listening, speaking, reading, and math. You can set your goals, and after you've completed some engaging exercises, it graphically shows your performance in each of these categories. Unlocking all content costs $39.99 per year, but you can try everything free for 30 days. Go ahead: Make yourself smarter!

Rosetta Stone

Free app; $79 for three-month subscription

Rosetta Stone, our top pick among advanced language-learning programs, offers a mobile app that mirrors the lessons available online. When you log into the mobile app, you're able to pick up your learning from the place you left off. Its simplified interface is easy to navigate and effectively lets you keep up your practice while on the run. It's not cheap, but it's the best way to learn a new language.

Wikipedia

Free

Half the fun of having a smartphone is looking things up when you're in the middle of a bar bet—and hopefully being right. Wikipedia is the go-to source for fact-checking in the mobile age, and the Wikipedia app usually returns results faster than a mobile search engine.

WolframAlpha

$2.99

WolframAlpha is like a math and science version of Wikipedia. It's an outstanding source of knowledge and computation about virtually anything, from basic algebra to the depths of the universe. It's like a search engine for algebra, physics, engineering, and so much more—even nutritional information. As you might expect, the app requires an Internet connection to work.

Best iPhone Entertainment Apps

Crunchyroll

$6.95 per month

If you love anime (or live-action Asian TV), Crunchyroll is the ad-free streaming service for you. It offers tens of thousands of episodes, shows simulcast from overseas, and numerous services fans crave, including social interaction features. We do wish, however, that it had a Netflix-like recommendation feature.

Downcast

$2.99

Downcast's iPhone app shines with excellent features, smart downloading options, and a great interface. It's worlds better than the stock Podcasts app from Apple. Downcast is suited for people who want a lot of control over their podcast listening experience, and it's that fine level of control that makes it our Editors' Choice. Downcast lets you customize not only how often the podcast catcher checks for new episodes, but also where you are when it does, using geo-fencing. For example: 'Check for new episodes when I arrive at work.'

Hulu

$7.99 per month
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Hulu is the best service for legally streaming new and classic domestic and international TV programs soon after they air, and the service offers up some excellent films as well as a notably extensive anime collection. You can even stream live content with a Hulu with Live TV subscription.

Netflix

$8.99 per month

Netflix, like many of the other apps included here, has become a cultural phenomenon. Original, exclusive series, such as The Crown, House of Cards, and Stranger Things, are viewed by many as superior to much of what's available on broadcast or cable. Add to those the host of favorite standbys in both television and cinema releases, and you've got a must-have service. And now you can download much of the content for offline viewing. Note that this is one of the few apps included here that costs money, with subscriptions starting at $7.99.

Pocket Casts

$3.99

There are plenty of fantastic podcasts you can listen to on your iPhone. Unfortunately, Apple's own podcast app hardly does them justice. Good podcast discovery and rich settings and options, including the ability to sync your listening experience across multiple devices, make Pocket Casts one of the best podcast catchers and players on the iPhone.

LiveXLive

Free, with premium subscriptions starting at $3.99 per month

Slacker Radio is now LiveXLive. It always seems to pound just a few beats harder than the rest. The revamped app combines the company's live music and video streams with Slacker Radio's knowledgeable DJs and deep music well to produce one of the most complete streaming music services on the market today.

SoundCloud

Free; $4.99 for SoundCloud Go

SoundCloud has become an audio phenomenon. The app provides a gorgeous and clear interface to the tunes. If you want more than the mainstream or want to upload your own music, you can't ignore SoundCloud. The SoundCloud Go option removes ads and offers unlimited offline track saving; the $9.99 per month SoundCloud Go+ adds a huge library of commercially released music.

Spotify

Free; Premium subscription $9.99 per month

All of earth's music-on-demand! Spotify offers a massive catalog of every conceivable genre, and even creates playlists based on your listening history. Now you can use it to listen to podcasts as well as music, and download content for offline listening. Easily switch between your listening devices from any other device. Listen for free with ads or pay $9.99 per month for ad-free listening as well as other premium features like 320Kbps high-quality audio.

TuneIn

Free; $9.99 for Premium per month

Internet radio remains one of the wonders of modern global communications: Listen to broadcast and Internet-only radio without geographical restrictions, and even without temporal restrictions: There are dozens of Internet Radio stations that can take you back to the 40s and 50s, if you're a fan of the Fibber or Jack Benny. TuneIn Pro offers the very best portal to all this, and throws in an MLB radio option, as well as other sports. Oh, and you can also get your Radiolab fix in it, as it also supports podcasts. A free, ad-supported version is also available.

Twitch

Free

Twitch's iPhone app may not allow you to stream your own gameplay videos, but it is the best way to watch your favorite streaming personalities and chat with fellow gaming fans on your mobile device. Twitch is the service to turn to if you want to watch countless people, from professionals to hobbyists, streaming every video game you can think of. It's also mostly free of the harsh copyright restrictions that are currently kneecapping competitor YouTube Gaming. Twitch on iPhone is a great portable portal into the Twitch community.

Vimeo

Free
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Vimeo is the grownup's version of YouTube. With a higher quality level in general, you'll find art films and independent projects, as well as animation, sports, music, instruction, and comedy. No more being overwhelmed with cats, memes, and skateboard wipeout videos. Not to mention the ads and the uncivil comments found on the incumbent internet video service. Fave and share, follow users who post videos you like, add to your Watch Later set, and save videos for offline viewing. Among some slick interface features is a PiP player, for while you explore other parts of the app.

Best iPhone Finance Apps

Coinbase

Free
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Get in on the cryptocurrency craze with this full-featured and well-designed app. See current rates and set up digital currency wallets for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. You can use Touch ID or Face ID (on the iPhone X) to secure viewing of your account, and set price trigger alerts.

LevelUp

Free
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LevelUp can save you a few dollars the very first time you use it. The app provides the easiest possible way to pay at your local salad bar, café, or doughnut shop. You won't be billed until the beginning of the following month, either. You can also order ahead through the app, and find participating nearby businesses. No more waiting in line!

Mint.com

Free

Mint.com helps you keep detailed accounts of your finances by connecting to all your financial accounts and tracking all the money you earn and spend. The iPhone app gives you deep insight into how you're spending your money and whether you're sticking to the budget you've created. It's one of the best personal finance apps you'll find.

Qapital

$3 to $12 per month

Proper budgets are serious business, but who says they also can't be a fun game? Personal finance iPhone app Qapital entices you to save through gamification and tiny actions you take every day. It makes saving for goals easy. Just be ready to open a new savings account that entails a low monthly fee.

Venmo

Free

Devices like Square and built-in services like Apple Pay Cash make it easy for you to pay businesses without cash or cards. But if what if you just want to pay back a friend for a fun night on the town? With Venmo, you won't have to scrounge up dollar bills or remember how to write a check. Just download this app, enter your bank account or debit card data, connect to your friend, and start letting the money flow. Venmo also talks to Facebook so you can share your wildest transactions with the world.

Best iPhone Food & Travel Apps

Airbnb

Free

Despite some controversy in some areas over hotel laws, we've had nothing but good experiences, clean rooms, and friendly hosts via Airbnb. The app has all the capabilities you could ask for and more. Travelers can book their stay, chat directly with the host, get exact directions, and explore fantasy accommodations like furnished tree houses. Hosts can vet potential boarders, manage their calendars, and promote their properties through the app. It's a win-win proposition.

GasBuddy

Free

Yes, driving by yourself with a combustion-engine vehicle is so passé, but those of us who still occasionally use that old 20th-century mode of transportation universally want to pay as little for fuel as possible. Gasbuddy shows you the best prices at the nearest stations. I discovered that I could either pay $3.19 per gallon in Manhattan or hop over to New Jersey and pay $2.37. With a big enough tank, that could cover the cost of the tunnel!

Google Maps

Free

Another one from the dominant force on the internet, Google Maps may well have the most up-to-date and detailed geographic information of any organization around. Its turn-by-turn directions by car, foot, and public transportation are hard to beat. The app integrates with your Google account so it knows your home and work addresses to determine commute times. Offline maps, street view, and indoor maps are nifty plusses. After a shaky start, the iPhone's built-in Apple Maps now matches most of its strengths, however, and competitor Here WeGo offers another good alternative if you're concerned about privacy.

GrubHub

Free

Most cities have plenty of delicacies to offer, but going out and getting them can be a pain. If you live in or are visiting any of GrubHub's 1,100-plus covered towns in the US (or London), you can have tasty local food delivered directly to your doorstop with the GrubHub iPhone app. After merging with competitor Seamless the service now offers a choice of over 45,000 takeout restaurants. We love how it texts you to tell you when your food will arrive, lets you tip inside the app, and lets you tell restaurants to save the earth and spare the plastic utensils.

Hipmunk

Free

The Hipmunk iPhone app, a spinoff of the Hipmunk website, is a travel booking app for flights and hotels. What makes Hipmunk unique is it incorporates accommodation options from alternative sites such as Airbnb and HomeAway, two services that let homeowners rent out their private real estate by the day or week.

Kayak

Free

Kayak is a wonderful multipurpose travel app, helping you find and purchase flights, hotels, car rentals, and more. A companion Apple Watch app keeps your plans an alerts on your wrist. Another perk: detailed maps of more than 100 airport terminals.

Maps.Me

Free

When visiting far-flung places, you can't always get your iPhone connected to a data signal, yet you need to figure out where exactly you are. For those times, there's the Maps.Me offline map app. It lets you download an entire city or country's map data with one click, so you don't have to worry about getting lost when you haven't got mobile or Wi-Fi data. The app shows local transportation and dining choices, and even offers bike directions. It's based on the open-source OpenStreetMap projects, which means a big corporation isn't recording your every move when you use it. You can remove the small, unobtrusive ads that support the project for just $3.49 per year.

OpenTable

Free

OpenTable has long been a choice service for making dinner reservations without picking up the phone, and with TouchID support, the iPhone app now has a whole bunch of new features. You can not only make a restaurant reservation, but also pay for your meal at the end of it using Apple Pay. The redesigned interface makes use of the Plus iPhones' extra-large size, too.

Transit

Free

Transit has become the go-to-app for city dwellers and travelers to cities who want to get around like natives. Without even requiring you to tap anything, transit instantly shows all the public transportation options around you. It also lets you know how long the nearest Uber car will take to get to you, and its map shows you the location of nearby Car2Go cars. For anyone who craves the most efficient way to get around any of its 125 included worldwide cities, Transit is a must.

Weather: The Weather Channel

Free

None of us will be able to bend the weather to our will like Sean Connery in 1998's The Avengers, or Thor in the other Avengers. Instead, we rely on weather apps like The Weather Channel's offering to keep us alert to the weather's whims. This excellently designed iPhone app provides all the weather information you need, and it even works with Apple Watch.

Weather Underground

Free

Sure, iOS has a Weather app, but you should forsake it because Weather Underground is far better. It succeeds because it sticks to what it does best: clearly presenting lots of hyper-local information in a simple and highly customizable interface. The rich data in this excellent app will keep the most info-hungry meteorology geek satisfied.

Yelp

Free

The most comprehensive business-reviewing app, Yelp turns out to be an invaluable tool for finding restaurants, stores, and services nearby, especially when you're in a town you don't know well. YAnd you can find good local spots worldwide with it, not just in the US.

Best iPhone Health & Fitness Apps

Cyclemeter

Free, with $9.99 Elite upgrade

Bicycle-ride tracking app Cyclemeter collects a wealth of data, is very accurate, and contains several well-thought-out features. Cyclemeter is a free download, but to unlock all its capabilities you'll need to pay $9.99 for the Elite in-app purchase. It maps and records your bicycle rides, then compiles all your data into excellent graphs. Despite its name, Cyclemeter doesn't just record cycling. Other activities, from cross-country skiing to running, also come preloaded. And now you can control many of this fitness app's functions from an Apple Watch, and store your workout data in iCloud.

Headspace

$12.99 per month

There are other components to fitness than huffing and puffing on the jogging track. Relieving stress is high on the list, and meditation can aid in that goal. Headspace offers hundreds of guided meditations that can reduce anxiety and increase mindfulness. In-app subscriptions for more courses start at $12.99—still a lot cheaper than a shrink!

MyFitnessPal

Free, with premium subscription for $9.99 per month

The free health app MyFitnessPal is one of the best all-in-one calorie counter and exercise trackers for the iPhone. A simple design and interface make using the app a quick chore rather than a fatiguing project, which is essential when trying to reach a long-term fitness or weight goal. The selling feature of this app is its exhaustive food and nutrition database, which trounces every competitor's that we've seen. For ad-free use and some additional capabilities, there's a $9.99-per-month in-app subscription, which is a bit steep.

Pear Personal Coach

$3.99 per month

The Pear Personal Coach app talks you through runs, at-home workouts, yoga routines, and even training programs for running races. Real human voices make the audio part of the experience excellent. After a 30-day trial, there's a $3.99-per-month subscription cost.

Runtastic

$4.99

Don't be fooled by Runtastic's name. Runtastic PRO isn't just for runners—it's for anyone who wants to track an activity, including cycling, hiking, skiing, kayaking, or just walking. Runtastic spits out a wealth of information about your activities and route. Maps of your route, for example, have mile markers on them, and you can pull up detailed charts to see your speed, pace, elevation, and more for each leg. When you wear a supported heart-rate monitor while using the app, it will show you that data in your final outputs, too. Audio feedback, music integration, and much more make this one of the best running (and sports activity-tracking) apps.

Strava

$7.99 per month

Runners and cyclists who thrive on competition love the Strava app. After a major overhaul and release, this app is better than it was before. Whether you're competing against yourself to beat your best time, or looking at the long list of strangers who have smoked you on some nasty uphill stretch of your favorite route, Strava brings a fierce competitive angle.

Touchfit: GSP

$4.99

If you need someone to kick your butt into shape, MMA World Champion Georges St-Pierre may be the one to do it. His iPhone workout app, Touchfit: GSP, coaches you through a series of exercises for a total body workout. After each set, you 'touch in' to tell the app whether it was easy, hard, very hard, or impossible to complete. The app uses that information to adjust your workout to make sure you're always challenged but not pushed beyond your boundaries. You're sure to feel sore tomorrow.

WebMD

Free

WebMD is much more than a diagnosis app, although you certainly can use it to input symptoms you are experiencing and find some clues as to what's ailing you. It also contains listings for healthcare professionals and pharmacies in your area, as well as first-aid guides—simple instructions for dealing with emergencies. This free reference app is one you hope you don't need, but the moment you do, you'll be glad you downloaded it.

ZocDoc

Free

If you haven't been scrupulous about staying in shape using any of the apps above, had some accident or illness, or just contemplating a butt-lift, ZocDoc can hook you up with the right physician. It not only finds you an appropriate doctor or specialist, but makes appointments a snap and lets you see other users' ratings of the doctors you're considering. The app knows which doctors take your insurance, recommends checkup types, and keeps track of your medical visits, even if you didn't make the appointments through ZocDoc.

Best iPhone Lifestyle & Hobby Apps

5miles

Free

Before the Internet, if you wanted to buy a used item or strange service not available in a local store, you crossed your fingers and hoped it was in your newspaper's classified ads. Now, 5miles adds a twist to Craigslist, letting you specify how far you want your search to reach. It's a wonderful, if occasionally seedy, digital marketplace that resembles Pinterest in its card-like presentation. 5miles's mobile marketplace connects nearby buyers and sellers. Enter a bustling bazaar of goods, services, housing, and job offers right on your iPhone.

Dubsmash

Free

Dubsmash lets you create and share short videos of you lip syncing to an audio clip. It's silly, pointless, and a lot of fun. Sometimes that's what you need. The app is more than a goofy idea, though. The huge catalog of user-submitted sound files includes everything from questionable political quotes to famous movie one-liners to animal noises. If it's good enough for Hugh Jackman, it's good enough for you.

ESPN

Free

ESPN's free app lets you check the game quickly, and discreetly when necessary (that is, with your phone under the dinner table), for your favorite teams in more sports than most other apps. Get scores, news, and a live Twitter-like feed from top analysts. It covers baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, ice hockey, cricket, racing, rugby, WWE, and more.

Flipboard

Free

Flipboard is an app that curates content from your social networks and Web partners (think periodicals and blogs) based on your interests and turns it into stunning magazine-like digital pages. The app is free to download and requires a free user account. Flipboard absolutely shines on the iPad, taking advantage of swiping gestures with both visual and interactive grace, but it's still elegant on the iPhone despite the smaller screen.

Groupon

Free

Who can resist a deal? Groupon finds nearby deals for you, sometimes at massive savings. Find discounts on goods, things to do, spas, restaurants, and getaways. See what other users thought of the deals, and check out the super-cheap 'door-buster' deals. You can even pay with Apple Pay!

iBird Pro

$14.99

Birding has hit the big time. One recent study named it the fastest growing outdoor recreational activity. Paramount for birders is being able to identify the species they're seeing and hearing, and the iBird Pro app lets them do just that. Each species includes illustration, photos, and several recordings of the species songs and calls. You can search among its 940 included species by common or Latin names. When you're carrying binoculars and possibly a telephoto camera, not having to lug a field guide is a big plus. No internet connection is required, so it's a fairly big download.

Kickstarter

Free

The king of crowdsourcing offers an iPhone app worthy of royalty with this free entry. Whether you're a supporter or a creator, the Kickstarter app provides everything you need. It doesn't, however, let you sign up as a creator, which you'll still have to do on the web on a computer. Be careful, though, you could be so entranced by its engaging interface that you overspend your crowdsourcing budget.

LibriVox

Free, with $1.99 Pro upgrade

LibriVox is a volunteer project that records public-domain audiobooks. It's a great way to take in some Dickens or Twain while resting your eyes. You can either stream or download. Browse by author or genre or just search for what you want to hear. You can even set a sleep timer if you yearn for that childhood feeling of being read to sleep. A $1.99 Pro version removes the brief audio ads.

NASA

Free

NASA has released many iPhone apps, most of them with a specific focus (NASA Television, ISSLive, NASA Space Weather) but this app is the space agency's flagship app, and, in that role, it aggregates a wide range of NASA content. Space enthusiasts and curious minds will love how it packs a wealth of news stories, features, images, video, and information about the space agency's activities into this one mobile app.

On Now US TV Listings

Free

Television watching is a lifestyle choice that's indulged by more than a few. This app makes it easy to find out what's on, when it's on, and what channel it's on. Dig into episode summaries, set alarms for when your favorite shows are on, and even see what's available on-demand. If you're a confirmed couch potato, this is the app for you.

Best iPhone Photo and Video Apps

Adobe Photoshop Express

Free, with in-app purchases for some features
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Adobe is known for creating the highest-quality imaging software around, and Photoshop Express follows in this pedigree. In a clear interface, you get excellent lighting and color correction tools. Not only are there classy preset effect filters, but you can create your own custom ones, too. The only drawback is that some features require an Adobe account.

Apple iMovie

Free

Apple's mobile video-editing app is the perfect tool for making those snaps and clips from your last vacation watchable—and enjoyable. iMovie makes it easy to do a surprising amount with your media, including freeze-frame, filters, titles, trimming, and adding background music. And now it's free.

Facetune

Free, with in-app purchases for some features

Need to make someone's face more beautiful in an iPhone photo? Facetune gives you an abundance of tools for doing just that. Smoother skin, better hair, happier smiles, and even a more prominent jawline are all possible with this powerful app.

Flickr

Free

2018 Best Mac Applications

Not only does Flickr have one of the largest communities of passionate photographers, but its iPhone app has a good number of photo correction and effect tools. The app does a great job of showing you responses to your photos as well as the stream of photos from accounts you follow. It even takes advantage of the iPhone's 3D Touch.

PicsArt

Free, with in-app purchases

PicsArt may be the most imaging-tool-packed app of all, and on top of that it includes its own social community. Overlays, layers, clone stamp, curves, and masks are all at your disposal. And though with so many tools the interface is still in some places more cluttered than those of some competitors, it's streamlined compared with earlier versions.

Prisma

Free

Prisma, which takes prosaic smartphone photos and uses AI to produce truly artistic results, understandably made a big splash on the Internet this year. Make that street scene look like a Van Gogh or that portrait like a Picasso. Really! This is one app you've got to see at work to believe. It does its magic on its servers rather than locally, though, so you may have to wait.

ProCamera

$4.99

Where most iPhone photography apps focus on what you do after you've shot a photo, ProCamera is more concerned with the shooting itself. The app shows an interface that resembles that on a D-SLR. You can change the ISO, EV (exposure value), shutter speed, and white balance. A stabilizing option waits for the phone to be still before snapping a photo. Brilliant.

Best iPhone Productivity Apps

Any.do

Free, with $45-per-year Premium subscription

List-making and task-management app Any.do has a unique feature called the Any.do moment that encourages making a habit of reviewing your daily tasks. Geolocation reminders actually work in this app, and it's an overall great app for jotting down tasks and goals.

Asana

$11.99 per person per month

PCMag's favorite collaboration tool also has a great iPhone app. Asana not only shows you your tasks and notifies you about status changes, but even let you create new tasks, projects, and kanban boards. You can add comments, files, and images from your iPhone, and you can do all of this offline for syncing when you're reconnected.

Dropbox

Free, with premium subscriptions starting at $15 per month
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If your files live all over the place—your office computer, home desktop, laptop—having a dependable syncing program is a must. Dropbox, the service that lets you store your files in the cloud and access them from anywhere you have a signal, fills that role nicely with a Dropbox iPhone app. It has a simple interface, easy uploading, and swift syncing across all accounts.

Edison Assistant

Free

Formerly EasilyDo, this free iPhone app works as a personal assistant and automation machine, taking care of a variety of tasks, like adding new contacts to your address book, tracking packages, and monitoring some of your social networks for important news.

Evernote

Free, with premium subscriptions starting at $34.99 per year
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The Evernote iPhone app lets you make notes on the go and find information stored in your account anytime, anywhere. While Evernote has been a leader in the note-taking and syncing space, current plans limit the very best of the service to the highest paying members only.

IFTTT

Free

If this, then that—shorten that little tag line to IFTTT, and you've got one of the best apps on the market. This amazingly simple yet powerful iPhone app can automate just about anything you'd want to do in your digital life. for example, if I add a new contact in Gmail, then save that person's contact information to my Evernote account. If you're turning your home into a smart home, you definitely want to keep the IFTTT app on your iPhone, as it can help you manage a range of devices, so that if you get into your smart bed, then the app can turn the lights off for you.

Microsoft Office Mobile

$6.99 per month

You probably don't want to write that report or edit that spreadsheet on your smartphone, but you'd be surprised how smoothly Microsoft Office Mobile makes doing those things. Your documents are saved to and synced with the versions on OneDrive, so you can fluidly move from one form factor to another. You can get the familiar Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for on-the-go productivity. Requires an Office 365 subscription starting at $6.99 per month.

Todoist

Free with $29-per-year premium subscription

Todoist lets you geek out on organizing tasks and offers support for a wealth of platforms and integrations. The paid version adds task labels and reminders, location-based reminders, the ability to add notes and upload files, and a unique productivity chart.

Best iPhone Security Apps

Dashlane

Free, with premium subscriptions starting at $39.99 per year
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Like LastPass, Dashlane puts your login credentials at your fingertips with this iPhone app—and literally if you have an iPhone with TouchID. Some users may find it simpler to use than LastPass, though you pay to use it on more than one device. It keeps all your username and password combinations safe. It can also generate strong passwords. As with any password manager, all you have to remember is one strong password to unlock your Dashlane account, and all your other passwords will be accessible to you to unlock all your online accounts.

Duo Mobile

Free

Duo Mobile adds a comforting layer of security to your most critical logins. It works well with sites like Yahoo and services like LastPass or Dashlane, by requiring you to tap a button on your iPhone to permit logins from new devices on any of your Web accounts. And if you use an Apple Watch, tapping that will log you in, too!

Kaspersky Safe Kids

$14.99 per year
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Implementing parental control on iOS devices is tough, but Kaspersky Safe Kids manages the job, and, unlike some competitors, it's tenacious. Your kids won't be able to remove it. There's no limit on the number of devices or child profiles. And the app offers unusually flexible control of device usage time, along with geofencing and an alert system.

LastPass

Free download, with $1-per-month premium subscription
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The venerable password manager LastPass—a favorite here at PCMag—is one of the top 100 iPhone apps because it lets you access, manage, and create unique passwords wherever you are. The app syncs with other installations of LastPass, such as those on your laptop or desktop computer. Granted, it's a bit clumsy to use compared with Dashlane.

NordVPN

$11.95 per month
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With internet service providers getting more and more snooping privileges, thanks to the FCC, you're well advised to protect your privacy with a VPN. NordVPN is our favorite, and its iOS app sports one of the sleekest interfaces of the lot. It can give you some peace of mind while you surf on you iPhone using the coffee shop's Wi-Fi.

Onion Browser

Free

You can use a VPN, but that means relying on an often relatively unknown company to keep all your browsing private through a single encrypted proxy server. Tor offers real privacy by routing encrypted internet traffic through multiple anonymous endpoints, obscuring your identity from the sites you visit. It also offers access to the scary darknet, a sort of alternate internet that's devoid of government or corporate oversight. There's no official Tor browser for iOS, but Onion Browser is suggested on the project's page, and that's good enough for us.

Signal

Free

Signal offers the easiest way to send secure messages. The ZRTP protocol it uses for calling is thoroughly tested as is the open source Signal protocol for sending text. The organization that supports it is run on grant money by volunteers and is disinterested in monetizing Signal's users or their data. It's so trusted that messaging apps from Facebook and Google use it for their secure messaging options.

Best iPhone Social Networking Apps

Cloze

Free

The iPhone app Cloze collects tweets, emails, Facebook posts, and other bits of communication from your contacts, and prioritizes them based on people who are most relevant to you. In other words, even if your boss isn't chronologically at the top of your Twitter feed, she will be at the fore of your Cloze view. It's a wonderful tool for getting relevant information about people in your network, and its Web app has even more features and insights to love.

GroupMe

Free

Create private groups consisting of family, friends, or coworkers and communicate in many different ways. The app is very flexible, letting you start with a simple chat to which you can add people, setting up a group with an avatar, or using a QR code to join. Your group can even have its own notification sound, and turning a photo into a text meme is a snap. It's an attractive alternative to Facebook Groups.

Instagram

Free

Despite—or maybe because of—its limitations, Instagram has surpassed Flickr as the number-one photo sharing service on the Internet. Its social discovery aspects are addictive, it offers excellent image-manipulation tools, and it now supports video, as well as still photos. The company keeps adding more features, like direct messaging, Snapchat-like Stories, and, finally, pinch-to-zoom. In keeping with the times and trends, the app now supports Handoff to switch between your Apple Watch and your iPhone.

Free

LinkedIn provides an effective online network for keeping up with your contacts. It's easy to rely on LinkedIn more than your own address book for finding otherwise long-lost colleagues and business partners. Anyone in the job market will want to stay on top of LinkedIn for both its networking aspects and its wonderful database of job listings. It works well on an iPhone, although I like the full-sized LinkedIn iPad app even better.

Mention

Free, plans starting at $29 per month

Mention scours the web day and night to find new instances of search terms of your choosing, and alerts you when it finds them. The search-and-alert program is an alternative to Google Alerts, taking the core concept from that competitor and blending it with social media monitoring tools, resulting in a supremely rich package for businesses or anyone in a branded-persona line of work.

Free

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, but don't be fooled by that description. It's for shopping, and that includes virtual window-shopping. Pinterest lets you organize and share all pictures of anything you find online or in your life. With Pinterest on your iPhone, it's easy to snap photos in the real world and upload them to your boards. You can watch what others are pinning on Pinterest, and often, you can purchase the items by following a link out to the retailer's site.

Toot!

$2.99

PCMag's Max Eddy is our in-house Mastodon fanatic. You don't know Mastodon? It's the open source alternative to Facebook and Twitter, but it's not for the fainthearted. The Toot app lets you get your Mastadon on your iPhone, with a fun design, account switching, and never any ads.

Tumblr

Free

Less restrictive than today's dominant photo-sharing app, Instagram, Tumblr goes beyond photos, letting you post blog entries, GIFs, videos, and more. But more important than posting is reposting, which fosters a lot of user interaction. The service avoids the negative trolling of other social networks through its design of reblogging rather than commenting.

Twitter

Free

For a long time, Twitter Inc., the company that owns the 280-character social network, didn't make its own app. Dozens of third parties did, however, but not all the resulting apps were worth using. So when Twitter released its official Twitter app—and it worked well and loaded quickly!—users folded the new tool into their iPhones happily. If you tweet, it's a no-brainer to have this app. If you don't tweet and have been on the fence about joining the masses, the iPhone app makes it easy and convenient to get on board.

Twitter Periscope

Free

Live streaming is the hot new way to constantly document your life and share it with the world. Twitter Periscope app makes it easy to find interesting new streams or start broadcasting one of your own. You can save streams and revisit them later, and privacy options mean your face will only be seen by a select few if that's what you want. Welcome to the future of vlogging.

Best iPhone Utility Apps

1Blocker X

Free, with $2.99 upgrade available
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No one likes ads, but ads on the mobile Web are especially obnoxious, eating up your time and your data. It's now possible to throw off the yoke of privacy-compromising trackers, pop-over ads, and the like with iPhone ad blockers. If you're willing to pay, 1Blocker will deliver the most powerful and flexible ad-blocking experience on the mobile Web. If you're not willing to pay, it's still pretty great.

Converter Plus

Free

This all-in-one calculation app, Converter Plus, delivers numbers on nearly everything, from currency conversions to loan interest figures. It converts metric to imperial measurements for temperature, cooking volumes, length, and more.

Cortana

Free

Sure, your iPhone comes with Siri, a perfectly capable voice-controllable digital assistant, but if you want reminders and preferences synced with a Windows 10 PC, Cortana on the iPhone is a great option. With this smart app, you get time-, person- and place-based reminders, travel notifications, and a personalized news feed. Your daily glance reminds you about scheduled appointments, packages, stocks, and your favorite teams' performance. Now you can even instantly continue reading a site you were viewing in Cortana on your PC.

Firefox

Free

Firefox, the open-source browser, has come to iPhone, and it's a very worthy download indeed. Its tab layout is much clearer than Safari's, and it lets you sync your favorites and more with desktop Firefox, the PCMag Editors' Choice browser. Reading View clears away those annoying mobile ads, and Reading List saves articles for later, when you have time.

Gboard

Free

Third-party keyboard for the iPhone got off to a slow start, with options that didn't equal what was available for Android and Windows Phone, but Google's Gboard delivers on letting you use swipe text entry, find GIFs for your text messages, and, of course, pull up search results.

Microsoft Office Lens

Free

You can throw out that flatbed scanner if you get the Office Lens app for your iPhone. This iOS app can clean up shots of documents and whiteboards, and convert them to editable text using OCR. You can mark up your scanned image and then save it in PDF, photo, Word, OneNote, or PowerPoint format. You can also directly share it to email or to any app on the iOS Share Sheet.

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