My iPhone Home Screen – Mid 2019

Every half a year or so I like to post a new update on my home screen. I’ve done a few of these posts before, however my home screen does change quite a bit over time. So, in this post, I’ll take you through my new home screen and what I use the various apps for. I’ll also link my wallpaper for those who want to use it too.

My iPhone homescreen.

You can find my background here. I’ve kept it the same since my last post, as I like the simplicity.

First row

Photos keeps the spot on the top left. I use photos a lot, so it’s helpful to have in a place that I know and that is easy to access.

I’ve began using WeekCal to view my schedule, however, I use the Fantastical widget. WeekCal has a great weekly overview that let’s me easily see my schedule that Fantastical only offers when in landscape mode. However, I prefer the widget of Fantastical. Therefore, when I want to view what’s coming up in my day, I use WeekCal. If I want to quickly see when the next event is, or how long I have left in the current one, I use the Fantastical widget.

Waze is a great app that I use whenever I need to somewhere – it offers me quicker routes to avoid traffic, as well as warns you about speed cameras, potholes, incidents, and so much more. I really like the community driven aspect of it, and it delivers surprisingly accurate information. It’s saved me tons of time when driving by letting me avoid large traffic jams.

Carrot Weather is still my go to weather client. The developer is always adding features, and more data sources, and I have found it to be pretty accurate in the UK. I also really like the widget, which lets me easily see what the weather conditions will be like in the next 24 hours and over a few days. The rain forecast can also come in handy, showing you detailed information on how much it will rain in the next 45 minutes (very helpful in the UK). I also have it set up to give me a notification in the morning, and in the evening, so I know what the weather for the upcoming day is.

Second row

Despite using Twitter less, Tweetbot is still the client I use when I want to browse. Whilst I have found that the official Twitter app is becoming much better, I still prefer the interface of Tweetbot. However, I do use the official Twitter app a lot more now, and it may replace Tweetbot as my go to client.

Snapchat is of course used to communicate with friends (not a big fan of it however), as is Whatsapp. Youtube is also self explanatory.

This row is more of a ‘social row’ – my most used social media apps are along it.

Third row

Evernote is still on my home screen – it’s a brilliant app that has all my notes in it, so I want quick access. I’ve found that I’ve been using the camera feature to take pictures of my notes a lot more, and make them easily searchable – the handwriting recognition in Evernote has improved dramatically over the years, so much so that it is able to decipher my scrawl.

Spark is still my email client. It just works, unlike many others I have tried, and features are added every now and then. I’ve had no issues with it, and really like it – managing multiple emails is easy, and I like that you can set default signatures for each email.

I’ve been using Habitica since before the start of 2019 to improve habits and hit my goals. Recently, I’ve been using it a lot with the pomodoro technique to get more done in less time, and found that it has had great results. Habitica essentially gamifies your goals, rewarding you for completing them, and punishing you for breaking them.

Things remains my tasks app. I’ve written tons of posts on Things, so I won’t go into too much depth here. The killer feature for me is the ability to set both a schedule date – when it appears in the ‘Today’ view – and a due date. This let’s me keep on top of tasks, so I know when I need to hand them in whilst being able to schedule them in to complete earlier.

Fourth row

1Password makes it easy to keep all my passwords in sync across my various devices. It’s tightly integrated with the system, making filling in passwords a breeze, and I love it’s two factor authentication support. It makes it easy for me to manage hundreds of different passwords across my devices.

Shortcuts lets me automate tedious tasks on my iPhone and iPad. It saves me a few minutes everyday, and is handy to have when you want to automate the completion of tedious tasks.

I wear my Fitbit Charge 2 daily. Whilst the Charge 3 is out, I have no reason to justify upgrading to it. Whilst in my Mi Band 3 review, I said that I would most likely move over to that as my smart watch, I went back to the Fitbit as I didn’t want to lose the data I had recorded over the year I’ve owned it, and Fitbits backend systems are much better than the Mi Bands. Therefore, I’ve kept using the Charge 2 for now, and most likely into the future as well.

I started using Monzo near the end of last year, and it’s become my main bank account now. With the recent addition of ISAs, Monzo makes it easy to save and budget. The app is brilliant, and exchange rate is better than PayPals for foreign currencies. I’m really glad I moved over to Monzo – it’s let me save much more money, as well keep a closer eye on my spending habits.

Fifth row

Lire is still my RSS client. Whilst I don’t really like the way feeds are organised, the full text extraction works well, so I have stuck with it. I’ve also been using RSS feeds in general less – Apple News, to the right of Lire, is where I get most of my news now.

I don’t really listen to many podcasts anymore, but when I do, I use Overcast. The smart speed feature is great to get through more content in a shorter span of time.

Finally, I have the App Store, which I use to check for updates and discover new apps, and the Settings app, where I like to check on the battery and screen time statistics.

Dock

Apollo takes the first spot on my dock. I use Reddit a lot, so I like to have quick access to my favourite Reddit client. Whilst the app does have a few bugs here and there, the developer is very active, and I really like the multitude of control options the app offers. It makes it a lot more pleasurable to use Reddit on the mobile.

I then have Safari, the browser I use. I don’t use a third party one as Safari is adequate, and the default choice when I tap on a link to open it. I also have Messages on the dock.

Marvis Player is what I use to listen to music. I use iTunes to load the music files onto my phone, and it essentially acts as a better skin for the default Music app. It also works if you subscribe to Apple Music. I really like the interface of the app, and the features it offers – it has lyrics right in the app, as well as powerful sorting features.


So that’s what is on my home screen – you can view my previous home screen post here, or view all of them here.

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