The iPhones are expensive. Even the most affordable iPhone SE would set you back by $400. You won’t be able to fully utilize the power of your iPhones if you don’t have the right apps on your device. Of course, you may have installed the most popular and obvious apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Maps, and Uber. But there are dozens of other apps in the App Store that are incredibly useful, and you may want to install them. Here’s our list of the best iPhone apps of 2017. Every single one of them is worth installing and using. The list does not include popular apps like Facebook and Google Maps that you may already have on your iPhone.
1Password
1Password is a free and one of the best iPhone apps that every user should have. You should use a unique password for each app or service that you use. Unique passwords ensure that someone who has hacked one of your accounts doesn’t take control of all your accounts. But can you remember all the unique passwords? You can use 1Password to store all the different passwords in one place. The iPhone app syncs with the desktop app to help keep your accounts secure. You have to remember just one password.
Signal
The primary reason Signal makes it to the list of the best iPhone apps is security. If you are incredibly conscious about security, Signal should be your go-to app for messaging and voice calling. Signal is an all-in-one voice-call and messaging app. It uses end-to-end encryption. You can communicate with your contacts and send files. Users can also set the messages to self-destruct after a specific amount of time. Signal has been praised by privacy advocates around the world, including Edward Snowden.
Clips
Clips is a new video app from Apple. It allows you to quickly take video clips, add wacky filters, edit them, and share them with your friends and family. Its most interesting feature is Live Titles that lets you insert subtitles or captions to the video just by speaking. Its sharing feature recommends who you should share the video with, based on people in the video. You can also share them on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
Mint
Mint is arguably one of the best iPhone apps for keeping track of your personal finance. It pulls all your banks, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts into one place. The app gives you insights into how you are spending, how you are paying down your loans, and more. You can also set reminders for things like credit card and other bill payments to avoid late fees. Many people do not like planning and tracking their budgets. So, Mint may seem a bit boring to them. But it can make a significant difference in your budgeting.
Mobile Passport
If you are an international traveler, you do not want to get stuck in an endlessly long customs line after a long flight. The Mobile Passport app created by the US Customs and Border Protection can help you escape the long line. Open the app on your way back and answer a few simple questions about your trip. When you land at any of the 23 select airports, there is a separate lane for Mobile Passport, which is ridiculously shorter than the customs line
The Great Courses
There are hundreds of interesting gaming apps to help you kill your time. And then there are social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat to consume more of your time. But if you want to spend your free time meaningfully, to learn something new, get The Great Courses app. It contains high-quality lectures from top experts and scientists. For instance, you could learn about space directly from Neil deGrasse Tyson or learn photography from a Nat Geo photographer.
Prisma
Prisma instantly rose to the top of the App Store charts when it was released last year. The app uses a combination of artificial intelligence and neural networks to transform your photos into artwork that looks like pieces from famous artists such as Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Isaac Levitan, and many others. It has a simple interface that applies a variety of special effects to transform your picture into a work of art. You can save the pictures or share them across social media platforms.
IFTTT
Do you spend a lot of time doing repetitive Internet tasks? Why not automate them on your iPhone using IFTTT? The app allows you to create customized tasks or “applets” around the simple structure If This Then That (IFTTT). For instance, the app will automatically notify you the results of your favorite team when ESPN posts them.
Pocket is my favorite offline reading app, and undoubtedly one of the best iPhone apps. You can select and save photos, videos, and articles to Pocket for later viewing. Its clean interface allows users to enjoy the content without any clutter. The app syncs content with browser extensions to ensure that you are not locked to a single device or browser. Pocket also recommends trending content that you may find interesting.
AccuWeather
This popular app gives users timely weather forecasts. The forecasts include detailed summaries, radar maps, and animated weather information. It has a unique feature called AccUcast, which crowd-sources warnings on poor weather and road conditions to help you plan your day accordingly.
TripIt
TripIt collects and organizes all your travel plans and documents in one place. You can enter your plans such as trains, flights, and hotels in TripIt to let it build your itinerary. You can also connect the app to your Gmail or Outlook email addresses to let it automatically import travel-related emails. You can even share your travel plans with your friends.
Slice
It’s a one-stop app for all your shopping-related updates, including price-drop alerts and package-tracking. You can link the app to your Yahoo or Gmail account to let it automatically collect and organize the shipment details, receipts, and expected time of arrival.
Accompany
Accompany an app developed for business executives. It combines contact management, calendar, and other features to prepare you for the meetings. The app serves you detailed profiles for companies and people related to your upcoming meetings or events. When Accompany detects a new name in your calendar, you’ll get their detailed profiles. The app also delivers relevant data points such as a company’s SEC filings, quarterly reports, and recent news. Accompany sends a detailed Executive Briefing to your inbox the night before the meeting.
Enlight
Editing photos on mobile devices can be challenging and messy. Enlight makes the task much simpler than other photo editing apps. It combines powerful tools with simple controls to offer a better editing experience on iPhones. The app includes masking features, color and tone controls, filters, and other editing tools. You can overlay different photos for a double exposure effect, and fix the over- and under-exposed photos.
Infuse
Infuse is a mobile media player that can play a wide variety of formats such as MKV and MP4. It also supports DTS, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS-HD audios. It has to be in the list of the best iPhone apps. You can sync files via in-app file sharing or over iTunes. Infuse can even stream videos from NAS, desktop, Kodi and Plex. There is also a premium version that adds a host of new features and more video formats.
Evernote
Evernote is your handy virtual notebook where you can jot down ideas, information, lists, and more. You can take notes, save photos and articles from the Internet, and track tasks. The app can even handle audio files. Evernote is a cross-platform app that syncs notes across all your devices.
Duolingo
Wanted to learn a new language, but never tried it because it’s difficult and boring? Duolingo makes it incredibly easy and fun to learn a new language. It uses a series of mini-games and quizzes to teach you French, German, Italian, Hindi, Swedish, Spanish, and a variety of other languages. The app can also translate web texts for you. Duolingo includes translation exercises for short texts based on your skill level.
SoundHound
You hear a song while sitting in a coffee shop. You liked the song but don’t know its name. Just open the SoundHound app on your iPhone and hold up your device to that tune. Simpler yet, just sing a few bars and the app will get you the lyrics, name and artist. SoundHound also features a built-in voice assistant that you can trigger by saying “OK Hound.”
ESPN
ESPN is your go-to app for all things sports. It brings you latest updates about sports worldwide. If you consistently find yourself looking for latest score information, news on different leagues and teams, or even professional analysis, download the ESPN app on your iPhone. You can customize the list of your favorite teams to get personalized updates for all the leagues and athletes you are interested in.
Comixology
If you are into comics big time, this app has got almost all you need. Comixology is a combination of comic reader and marketplace. It features comics from giants such as DC, Marvel, and Image. You can buy the comics of your choice to read within the app or online. The app includes a panel-by-panel viewing system to guide users through a comic page on their iPhones.
Overcast
Overcast is for people who love podcasts. The app has some powerful podcast management features coupled with a clean interface. The app sends notifications of new episodes. You can play podcasts offline or stream them over the Internet to save some precious storage space. Its Voice Boost feature optimizes the sounds to ensure that you can hear both the loud voices as well as the quiet ones.
Flipboard is a news aggregation and curation app that deserves a place on your device. It aggregates the latest materials from your blogs, websites, and even social media news feeds and aggregates them into a magazine-like format. It delivers content into an easy to consume package. You can follow people and websites on Flipboard.
Prosper Daily
Online fraud has become a common occurrence worldwide. You don’t know when your credit card or online banking details get stolen. Prosper Daily lets you connect your credit card and bank accounts so that you can track spending and protect against fraud. The app uses crowd-sourced data from other users and predictive algorithm to spot dubious charges and suspicious activities. Now you know why it is one of the best iPhone apps out there.
RunKeeper
It’s a popular running app. RunKeeper uses your iPhone’s GPS to track your distance activities such as running, hiking, walking, and cycling. The app keeps track of your distance, speed, exercise time, and calories burned. It also lets users capture and tag photos on the go. You can also sync RunKeeper with many other apps and services to measure your progress.
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
This app gives users access to a detailed database of movies, TV shows, actors, directors, actresses, and others. It serves both the movie geeks as well as casual movie-goers who want to see the trailers, screen times, and user responses before catching a movie. Its clean interface makes it a joy to interact with the app.
Autodesk Sketchbook
The Sketchbook is a simple yet powerful app for drawing. It’s easy to use. Beginners won’t have a tough time with all the drawing tools and brushes in the app. When you are done, you can save your sketches to iCloud or Dropbox. If you want access to additional features such as symmetry and layer tools, you have to create a free Sketchbook account.
SwiftKey
This app features an impressive predictive engine to learn how you type. It excels in making autocorrects and autocompletes as accurate as possible. SwiftKey also has a gesture typing system. You can link your email and social media accounts to SwiftKey to let the app learn your typing quirks.
Best iPhone apps of 2017: Conclusion
These are the best iPhone apps that you should consider installing. It’s worth pointing out that there are dozens of other useful apps that are equally good for people with specific interests. For instance, someone obsessed with gaming may prefer Asphalt 8 and Clash Royale over Flipboard. A foodie may want to install apps such as GrubHub, Calorie Counter, Kitchen Stories, and Grill-It. Here is an even bigger list of the best iPhone apps.
