What's On My Smartphone
Many years ago, when smartphones were relatively new, I wrote a blog post about the essential apps that I kept on the home screen of my iPhone. Some of those apps are gone and a lot of them have long ago left my phone, having been replaced by apps that I now find much more useful.
The original list of apps was composed before I was even connected on Twitter. Since then, I had joined the vast number of twits, dumped Twitter, joined two other similar social-media apps, and dropped them for what I have now.
I maintain a very simple home screen on my latest smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy S24. I don't have the screen filled with tiles, preferring to keep wallpaper free of clutter. And I've set up my phone so that the tiles have no labels.
The Weather Network: for me, no smartphone would be complete without having the ability to check the forecast, whether I'm at home or abroad. and the bar that goes across the top of my screen gives me instant access to the current temperature and predicted weather for the next few hours. If I need more info, I just tap the bar.
E-mail: I have three e-mail accounts that I regularly maintain. My private account, my secondary account, and one for this blog, which I also use as a spam account. But because I don't want to have three tiles for e-mail, I've created a folder that holds my two G-mail accounts and a Yahoo account. The folder is kept near the top for easy access.
Bluesky: this social-media platform has replaced Twitter, Mastodon, and Threads. If I have to leave this platform, for any reason, my days of social media will become short-lived.
Signal: more secure than text messaging or What's App, I have several groups of people with whom I keep in steady contact, including my Paddlefolk, my kids, and my karaoke community. I use Signal probably more than I use Bluesky.
Nord VPN: I'm all for keeping my devices secure and this service provider does just that. Enough said.
Google Maps: because I like to know about places and how to get there.
Music: again, enough said.
KaraFun: this isn't the app (I have that but not on the home page) but it connects me to one. Since my favourite venue, Hummingbird Hall, stopped running karaoke, last summer, I've become a regular to George's Bar and Grill, in Munster Hamlet. This restaurant features karaoke every Thursday from 8 p.m. until midnight. It seems like a bit of a drive but from my house, it's about 25 minutes away.
Hosted by the karaoke company Shine, there's a QR code that they show on their monitors, which takes you to the KaraFun app that lets you pick a song and add it to the lineup. Because I don't want to have to scan that QR code every time, I've added the link to my home page. That way, I can grab a seat as soon as I come in and add my songs to the queue.
Merlin: DW and I have become birders over the past couple of years, and this app helps us identify birds through their songs or with photos that I can provide. We've used it extensively in our travels and when we kayak, and having it on my home page lets me quickly determine which birds are around me.
Duck Duck Go: this is now my default Web browser. And it's not owned by Google, Microsoft, or Apple.
YouTube: because I have my own channel (please subscribe!) and I follow several YouTubers, it's in a spot that's easy to get to.
Photo apps: again, I've created a folder to hold all of my photo and video storage and editing apps. I have the Samsung Gallery, Google Photos, and Flickr for storing my images; Insta360 Studio and Nikon WMU for accessing videos from my cameras; and DJI Fly, for controlling my drone and retrieving photos and video from it.
At the bottom of my home page, I have access to the phone, texting, my calendar, alarms, and the phone's camera.
That's it. I don't have any other pages on my phone, so all other apps are accessed from the search page.
What about you? What are your essential mobile apps?
Happy Monday!
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