With the recent release of the new iPhone, many have upgraded their devices. Of course, new iPhone owners are probably so busy enjoying the superior quality of the popular devices that they didn’t stop to think of the apps they may want to install. If you’ve just purchased a new iPhone and are looking through the app store for the best apps this year, we’ve got your back. Note that we won’t mention standard social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter because those apps basically speak for themselves. Without further ado, these are (in our opinion) the best apps for iPhone in 2021.
Best Entertainment Apps in iPhone
With the new iPhone’s edge-to-edge OLED screen and spatial audio, using your device for entertainment is inevitable. You can watch movies or an entire TV series on your iPhone or listen to your favorite music using a new pair of AirPods (if you got them). We’ve also added apps that can satisfy the bookworm in you, so you can use your iPhone instead of an e-reader or Physical book.
Netflix
Although the service needs no introductions (if you don’t already know what Netflix is, we don’t know what to say to that), very few people realize that they can watch on their phones. Especially if you have an iPhone 12 Pro Max, then you should be making the most of that 6.7-inch screen. Netflix on your commute or in bed, using the same subscription you probably already have on your TV or laptop.
Crunchyroll
If you’re a hardcore anime fan, then the modest variety available on Netflix will not satisfy your hunger for anime. Crunchyroll is a streaming app that is only focused on anime movies and TV shows. Users are given a choice between watching for free and enduring ads or subscribing for an ad-free experience. The app has one of the widest anime databases that is also 100% legal and piracy-free. It also provides an excellent selection of manga.
Spotify
You don’t need to sacrifice your storage space to download all your music. Spotify is the market leader in music streaming, with a wide database of legal music streaming and podcasts. Listen for free with ads or pay the modest subscription to get unlimited access without ads. The app also suggests music based on your preferences and allows you to share playlists with friends (with a collaborative option too, meaning you can all add your choice of music to a central playlist). All their music is high-quality, and their streaming never lags, which makes this the best music streaming app available at the moment.
TuneIn Radio
If you are nostalgic for the days when Radio was highly popular, you’ll enjoy this app that gives you access to thousands and thousands of global radio stations. The app is great for keeping updated on the news, or even for sports updates (which is what it’s most often used for). Listening to radio stations for free without any buffers is hard to pass up.
Kindle
Bibliophiles who are joining the ebook movement will love carrying around a library in their pockets. After all, isn’t that what Steve Jobs intended for the iPhone when he first introduced it? This by Amazon means you have access to all the best-selling books right at your fingertips, without needing to carry two devices. There’s a wider variety of books than those available on Apple Books and a lot more features. Even if you’re the type who loves the smell and physical feel of a book, this app will probably have you convinced.
Audible
Getting through your to-read list can be tough, we get it, we’re all busy. If you want to read more books but don’t have the time to sit down and concentrate, try listening to audiobooks. Audible has the largest audiobook library available today. You can access it all through your iPhone and listen to thousands of books while you’re doing mundane day-to-day activities (like doing the dishes or working out at the gym). One oddly useful feature that audible provides is that you can speed up the narration to get through books faster or slow it down if the book is dense and hard to digest.
Best Health, Fitness, and Exercise Apps
Who says you need a personal trainer? There are dozens of apps dedicated to fitness, exercise, and dieting. We’ve listed the best apps we could find to help you get in shape and stay on track.
Wakeout
There is no rule that says staying fit needs a gym membership or even dedicated equipment. Research shows that short bursts of exercise can be as beneficial as a long continuous workout. Wakeout provides you with short workouts that you can do wherever you are – you can even perform them sitting down or in bed. Sit with this app and you can get into shape without all the stress associated with it.
Ten Percent Happier Meditation
Meditation has proven very good for your mental health, which is just as important as physical health. Having a quiet moment to yourself is a short-term action that can easily give you long-term benefits. This app will help you get into the habit of meditation, with short introductory sessions and more advanced options for experienced users (although it is a bit expensive).
Lose It
One of the biggest struggles that society as a whole struggle with is weight management. This is the perfect app if you want to count calories and reach a certain goal weight. You can keep track of (and plan) your diet and exercise to achieve your desired weight loss (or gain). Lose It comes with a wide database of data, a barcode scanner, and it can really help with meal prepping or even if you just want to make sure you are on track.
Lifesum
This app will help you make nutritious meals and stick to a diet plan. There are many options that suit different lifestyles and goals, so you can customize the meal plans as per your preference. The app provides a wide variety of recipes to follow, so you can never get bored while on a diet. It also includes a food diary and nutrition tracker, and many other useful tools. The free version is useful, but we recommend getting a premium subscription to make the best use of this app. You will find yourself living a healthier lifestyle in no time.
Best iPhone Productivity and Utility Apps
We all need a boost in our productivity sometimes. Your new iPhone can be very helpful in organizing your busy workdays to help you get the most out of them. We’ve added our choice of apps that will help you stay on track, avoid procrastination, and be more productive overall..
Notion
It can be challenging for many of us to manage our day-to-day tasks and activities. This app will help you stay productive and manage your busy schedule easily. It can also be used to manage a team of coworkers by creating a shared workspace for discussion and task delegation. This is the ultimate teamwork and productivity app with rich features such as notes, spreadsheets, links, and much more. There is a free version, but more advanced users (such as enterprises) can opt for a premium plan to gain access to more tools and advanced features. You may even consider this to be one of the best apps for iPhone overall.
NordVPN
Cybersecurity is not a joke in this day and age. While iPhones are less susceptible to hacking, there are numerous reasons to consider using a Virtual Private Network. You won’t find a better app for that than NordVPN, which applies the highest level of encryption on all your internet traffic. You can also use it to access websites that you are geographically blocked out of. If you ever use public Wi-Fi you should know that your data is less secure. Using this app will ensure your data is always kept safe, and it is one of the most reliable and high-performing VPN apps we could find, and we think of it as an essential part of our cybersecurity measures.
Focus Keeper
Having trouble focusing on a task? Don’t worry that’s not uncommon, especially in today’s busy world. Roughly based on the patented Pomodoro technique, this app will help you focus on the task at hand and get more work done without procrastinating. We’ve tried applying the technique without using the app and found that we were more productive with the app. There’s a lot of psychology that goes into this phenomenon, but all we know is that it works well.
Deliveries
Online shopping is a favorite hobby for many of us, and some have even made a career out of it. If you need help tracking all your random online purchases and when they should finally be delivered, this is the perfect app for you. Although you have the option to manually enter data about your packages, the app has a clever feature that searches through your email and receipts to figure out what incoming deliveries you should be expecting. It’s almost as if you have an assistant to keep track of everything for you, only better. The app also notifies you of newly arrived packages and other information. The subscription is cheap at only a dollar per month, which is excellent value for such a useful app.
Best Photo Editing Apps
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that iPhones have better cameras. That goes for both the front and rear camera, so your selfies and artistic photos will both turn out much better with your iPhone. However, you may still want the option to edit your high-quality images. The following are apps we suggest you download to edit photos on your iPhone for the best outcome.
Adobe Lightroom
We all know that Adobe Photoshop is the ultimate software for photo and image editing. That’s what you use for professional work, so why not use similar software from the same company? This is not a basic photo editor – this app comes with many powerful functions and a variety of editing options that will enable you to produce high-quality, professional photos using your iPhone.
Afterlight
For lighter editing, you may want something simpler with many filters and artwork to help you create beautiful images from your photos. Afterlight comes with many functions and advanced tools such as text, filters, and frame options. It may not be professional-grade, but this app certainly gives you many options to create inspiring artwork out of your photos.
Facetune2
Getting the perfect selfie takes a lot of hard work to find the perfect lighting and position your face in the background correctly. This app will allow you to edit your selfie with a variety of advanced tools, even giving you the option to correct blemishes. That’s not all – Facetune2 has a fun feature that enables you to change some parts of your face (like giving you wider eyes or a shorter nose). This app will greatly improve your selfies, and it’s a lot of fun as well.
Best Video Editors/Animation
While we’re on the topic of great cameras, we thought you might want to download apps that allow you to create beautiful animations and edit videos as well. This section of the article is particularly helpful if you’re a vlogger (or planning to start vlogging) because all you’d need is an iPhone and a tripod, and you’re all set to record and edit your videos with one device.
Filmic Pro
While Apple’s native camera app works superbly, there are still some advanced functions that professional videos require. This is the perfect app if you don’t have the budget for a fully professional video camera but want to take top-notch videos. Filmic Pro comes with fully functional advanced features that will help you learn the ropes of filmmaking.
Stop Motion Studio Pro
This may be an app with a niche target market, but we thought it deserves to be listed here because of its versatility. The main purpose of Stop Motion Studio Pro is to create stop-motion videos, which isn’t as complicated as it sounds. There are millions of applications for these types of videos and it’s fun to make them using your iPhone.
Best Gaming Apps
Sure, you can play games on iMessage, but you may want more options. The iPhone 12 is an excellent alternative to using a handheld gaming console. However, you may want to download apps that are gaming-related as well. These are the apps we recommend you download to stay in touch with the gaming community even when you’re not near a console.
Twitch
Forget watching YouTube videos of people playing your favorite games professionally, Twitch is the go-to app for the live streams of gaming. You can find professional tournaments and even play some board games. It’s a great place to interact with other gamers, so consider downloading this app if you’re into this type of gaming-related media.
Xbox
Microsoft specifically created this app to allow you to control your Xbox One. While it’s a lot easier to use a gaming controller while you play, using your iPhone for typing or other tedious tasks is a lot more functional. You can even connect with your network of gaming friends when you’re not near your console.
Playstation
This is a management app for your PlayStation 5, allowing you to connect with the gaming community while away from your console in addition to storage management. Some games that are made specifically for PS5 allow you to use your iPhone as a second screen to improve your gaming experience with this app.
iPhone Weather and Travel Apps
Travelling has changed over the years, and like every other aspect of our lives, there is an app for it. Travel apps are great for planning your upcoming vacation, checking out the weather, or just keeping track of currency exchange.
WeatherPro
There are many weather apps that look amazing but provide little useful information and substandard service. On the other hand, WeatherPro focuses on providing ample information about the weather status in the location of your choice, with excellent aesthetics as well. If you travel a lot, knowing the weather beforehand is incredibly important. This app will give you the forecast in detail, even if you opt for the cheaper option (no IAP subscription).
Skiplagged
This might seem like it is redundant now, but if you’re hopeful that some day flying to and fro for travel will return to the pre pandemic levels, try Skiplagged. The app finds ways to get you cheaper flights so you can cut down on expenses. If you do end up using this app, make sure you limit your luggage to carry on only, because the app will likely book you tickets where you get off in the layover city instead of at the final destination. Other features include hotel bookings, and other cost-cutting travel offers.
Groupon
If you’re already on a budget, the best way to upgrade your travels is by taking advantage of deals when they are offered. This app provides discounts (by location) for weekend getaways, hotel bookings, restaurants, and many other travel expenses. Although it’s not travel-related, you can also use the app for cheap deals on classes or spas. Why pay in full when you can get the same service at a discounted rate?
Best Google Apps for iPhone
While we understand that if you wanted to completely immerse yourself in products made by Google, you would have bought an Android; there are still some apps and functions that Google does much better than their Apple counterparts. That’s why we’ve included a list of a few essential Google Apps you need to install on your brand new iPhone.
Google Chrome
While iPhones are arguably the better smartphone, there is simply no comparison between Apple’s Safari (the default web browser) and Google Chrome. It is an inherently better application, especially with regards to synchronization. Google allows you to access data from multiple devices, and it does this so seamlessly that once you try it there’s no going back. Many people have at least two devices, a smartphone, and a laptop, if not more. With Google Chrome, they can all be synced with one Google account, so if you’re on the go you can access the combined browsing history from all your devices on your iPhone with the tap of your finger.
Google Search
As the world’s largest search engine, it makes sense that you would want to download the Google app, which fits just as well in the iPhone as it does any Android. The app will make searching for any information online much easier than any other app you could use. Also, Google’s app syncs all your data across all its products (and devices), which is a useful function. It also suggests information (based on your browsing and search history) that it thinks you may need or find interesting. For example, it displays traffic and weather data ahead of your commute or articles related to topics you read about frequently.
Google Maps
Most people will tell you that Google Maps is the superior navigation app in all regards. Their maps are reliable and constantly updated, and you can use them worldwide. The app also gives useful information such as real-time traffic data (depending on your location) or user-generated reviews of places (such as restaurants, businesses, entertainment facilities, etc.) Sharing your location using Google Maps or even navigating using the drive function is relatively easy. Of course, it is available in multiple languages to make for an even more user-friendly experience.
Google News
A great way to stay up to date on all kinds of news from multiple sources is to have it all in one app. Google News is the best at providing you with a feed from all the best news sources that you can curate according to your preferences so you can always stay updated. The app will also suggest news articles based on your history.