If you’re looking for the 10 best apps to install on a new iOS device, start right here — our picks will help you save money and enjoy your iPhone or iPad!
Happy holidays! If the new iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch you found under your tree is your first iOS device, this is going to be an especially exciting day for you: You also got the opportunity to start customizing your new phone, tablet, or media player from scratch.
Each of these devices comes with a large collection of pre-installed apps, all developed by Apple — that means they’ve been thoughtfully designed not to waste much space, and there’s no bloatware in the bunch. Many of these apps provide essential functionality, but others are optional and can be deleted if you want to make the most of limited on-device storage.
Having been a day-one user of each of Apple’s iOS devices, I’ve come up with a list of 10 “must-have” apps that are seriously worth installing. In a few cases, I’ve also flagged related or alternative options that might be better for your personal needs. Enjoy!
As crazy as this might sound coming from a long-time Apple user, it’s time to get past the rivalry between Apple and Google to embrace a simple fact: Your iOS device is better off with some of Google’s services. The original iPhone shipped with YouTube and Google Maps, both of which remain worthwhile more than 11 years later.
Apple’s iCloud is an expensive way to synchronize your photo library across multiple Apple devices — and unfortunately incompatible with Android and Amazon products. My advice is to use the Google Photos app instead, as it lets you sync photos and videos across iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows devices for free. Once opened, the app automatically uploads your latest photos to Google’s servers, where they’ll be scanned for faces, key objects, text, and other details that will make them easy for you to search anywhere. Consider grabbing Google’s free and useful image editor Snapseed, too.
Streaming video subscription services have become extremely popular over the past five years, enabling users to “cut the cord” with cable packages. There are a half-dozen options out there, but if I had to choose just one as “must-have,” it would be Netflix, which has a fantastic catalog of TV shows and movies, as well as its own original content. A basic subscription is $8 per month, and worth it.
My wife is also a fan of Hulu, which focuses largely on just-released TV shows for $8 per month with commercials, or $12 per month without commercials. Amazon Prime subscribers can also get a collection of free videos with the Amazon Prime Video app.
This is the rare “must have” app that you can hide in a folder and revisit only as necessary. As a free download, Movies Anywhere links your digital movie collections from iTunes, Disney Movies Anywhere, Amazon Prime Video, Walmart’s Vudu, Google Play, Microsoft Movies & TV, Fandango Now, and Comcast’s Xfinity together, enabling you to share most of your purchased movies across multiple apps.
You might wonder why this matters. One reason: As of press time, linking accounts will net you three free movies ( Happy Feet, The Martian, and F8: The Fate of the Furious). Another reason: Many movies you’ve purchased on other devices will become available in Apple’s free iOS app TV.
Arguably the best reason: Visit Vudu.com/disc from an iOS device’s Safari browser, and you can scan your old DVD and Blu-Ray box barcodes, then pay a small per-disc fee to instantly make them available as digital downloads.
