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15 Apps For Your iPhone That Are Better Than The Ones Apple Made

apple iphone
apple iphone

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Some of Apple’s default apps are better than others.

Luckily, the competition within the app industry is fierce and there are plenty of compelling and beautiful alternatives.

From fan-favorites like Spotify and Google Maps to lesser-known wonders such as Vesper and Humin, developers are constantly raising the bar of what our iPhones are capable of doing.

We’ve collected the best of the best.

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Instead of Voice Memos, use Recordium

Apple’s Voice Memo app is simple, but it’s easy to mess up when saving. Recordium gives you all the functionality of Voice Memos along with the ability to visually edit clips on the fly, annotate recordings, and even adjust the audio quality. It also syncs with cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive.

(Recordium, $4.99)

Instead of Notes, use Vesper

Vesper is an elegant and intuitive way to take notes that plays nicely with photos. Its simple design and the ability to tag and categorize your notes means most of your time will be spent writing instead of trying to figure it out, and that’s exactly how note-taking should go.

(Vesper, $2.99)

Instead of Calendar, use Fantastical 2

Fantastical 2 is an intuitive, well-designed calendar that can do everything you want it to along with some bonuses. You can toggle between a light and dark theme, dictate events, and it even fills in the details for you based on how you describe your appointments.

(Fantastical 2, $9.99)

Instead of Contacts, use Humin

Humin is an upcoming app that organizes your phone contacts in a way similar to how you’d remember them. Alphabetical lists are gone, replaced by contextual search terms such as “met last week” or “lives in Brooklyn.”

(Humin, Beta)

Instead of Music, use Spotify

Spotify is the king of streaming apps. With a massive on-demand music library that syncs across all devices and the ability to download tracks for offline listening through Spotify Premium, it’s entirely possible for it to completely replace Apple’s Music app.

(Spotify, Free)

For Amazon Prime subscribers, swap Music for Amazon Music

It’s not quite Spotify, but for Amazon Prime subscribers, Amazon Music is a great perk with promising potential. Amazon Music is all about curated playlists based on your tastes, but there’s also on-demand music and the ability to download tracks for offline listening.

(Amazon Music, Free)

Instead of Weather, use Dark Sky

Dark Sky gives you minute-to-minute weather predictions for your specific location up to an hour ahead of time, letting you know exactly when it will rain or snow. The weather animations and maps look clean and beautiful, too, which is a nice touch.

(Dark Sky, $3.99)

Instead of Weather, use Yahoo Weather

Yahoo Weather is an Apple Design Award winner, and it’s hands-down the most gorgeous weather app we’ve ever seen. The app takes advantage of your iPhone’s parallax feature for some nice subtle animations, and direct integration with Flickr based on your location keeps the app looking fresh.

(Yahoo Weather, Free)

Instead of Safari, use Chrome

Chrome has a clean design, voice search, and the ability to open unlimited tabs. Chrome also syncs with your bookmarks and favorites across all devices with the browser. Google even claims you can save up to 50% of your data usage using Chrome.

(Chrome, Free

Instead of Mail, use Gmail

Gmail puts the power of Google into your email, and it’s a solid, familiar experience for many users. Google lets you switch between up to five accounts, and the app also predicts what you’re searching for to speed things up.

(Gmail, Free)

For those looking for email in a chat-like format, use Hop

Hop is a lightning-fast app that re-organizes your emails into chat-like messages, but it always leaves you the option of viewing your emails in the traditional format too. It’s a nice way to blur the formality of emailing with the familiar style of modern messaging.

(Hop, Free)

Instead of Photos, use Flayvr

Nobody loves sifting through the wall of photos on your iPhone. Flayvr reorganizes your photos, breaking your collection down into specific events or locations.

(Flayvr, Free

Instead of Maps, use Google Maps

Google Maps is hands-down the best maps app you can use. Seamless integration with public transit, lane guidance, and top-of-the-line source data keeps the app reliable, fast, and just plain helpful.

(Google Maps, Free)

Instead of iMessage, use WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a feature-rich messaging app that does exactly what you want in a messaging app. And with over 500 million users, it’s not exactly a niche experience. The Broadcast Channels feature is an easy way to categorize your friend groups for group messaging.

(WhatsApp, Free)

Instead of Notes, use Evernote

For those looking to sync their notes across all of their devices, Evernote is the best way to go. You can scan business cards, save web clippings, record audio, and jot things down, all with the knowledge that whichever device you’re on will have your most recent notes.

(Evernote, Free)

Looking for some fun new apps?

Click here for the hottest new apps you may have missed.

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