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My default apps of 2024

Posted by Matt Birchler
— 4 min read

Last year I was the 27th of four hundred and freaking eight people to write about their default apps, and I though it would be fun to turn this into a tradition and revisit the list to see if anything has changed since last year.

✨ next to each change from last year

Category 2024 2023
Mail service Gmail Gmail
Mail client ✨ Superhuman Mimestream on Mac, Mail on iPhone
Tasks Things 3 Things 3
RSS service Inoreader Inoreader
RSS client Reeder Classic Reeder
Launcher Raycast Raycast
Cloud storage iCloud iCloud
Photo library Apple Photos Apple Photos
Photo editing Adobe Lightroom Adobe Lightroom
Web browser ✨ Vivaldi/Zen Arc
Calendar Fantastical Fantastical
Reading Readwise Reader Readwise Reader
Weather Carrot Weather Carrot Weather
Podcasts Overcast Overcast
Music Apple Music Apple Music
Clipboard manager Pastebot Pastebot
Passwords 1Password 1Password
Budgeting Google Sheets Google Sheets
Transcriptions MacWhisper MacWhisper
Mastodon Ivory Ivory
Movie discovery/tracking Letterboxd Letterboxd
Social ✨ Mastodon, Bluesky, & Threads Mastodon & Threads
First game I play each morning ✨ Puzzmo (Pile-Up-Poker) Knotwords
Screenshots CleanShot X CleanShot X
Video editing Final Cut Pro & Screenflow Final Cut Pro & Screenflow
Notes Obsidian Obsidian
Code editor Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Code
Terminal ✨ iTerm Warp
Search Kagi Kagi
Flight tracking ✨ United Flighty
Package tracking ✨ Nothing Parcel
AI chatbot ✨ It’s complicated ChatGPT

So all in all, not a ton of change, but let’s quickly hit on the things that did change from last year.

  • Most controversially, my email client changed to Superhuman this year. The pricing is ridiculous, but I think it says something that when I’d made my video about this app and went to cancel it, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I simply find it to be the best way to do email I’ve ever found, especially on my iPhone. On the Mac, I could easily use Mimestream full time and be happy, but the email app situation on the iPhone and iPad is dire. Apple Mail is unreliable and slow for me, I really dislike how Spark feels to use, and everything else feels bad in an assortment of ways. Here’s hoping Mimestream’s iOS app comes out this year and it awesome.
  • My web browser changed from Arc to a combination of Vivaldi and Zen this year. The Browser Company’s AI obsession started to push me away at the start of 2024, and it only escalated since then. In fact, their own loss of interest in Arc added to my feeling of distance from the browser I once loved. I still think Arc is great, but I don’t resonate with the people building it like I once did and if they’re ready to move on, then maybe I should too. I like Vivaldi for being very customizable and providing a great experience overall on a Chromium base which means it works with the sites and tools I want, but Zen has tapped into something special with me and despite not being as stable or functional as Vivaldi, I keep opening it up and using it a bunch. Watch this space in 2025.
  • On the social front, I continued to use Mastodon and Threads, with Mastodon being my main home on the social internet, but my Threads usage dropped a ton this year. Bluesky came in to fill the gap, and for me, Mastodon is where I talk with my core group of nerdy people and Bluesky and Threads is where I get out of that bubble and see what other parts of the world are talking about.
  • The first game I play every morning made a change this year from one Zach Gage project to another. Last year I was obsessed with Knotwords, and this year I really fall deep into Puzzmo, specifically their Pile-Up-Poker game which I thoroughly love and never want to stop playing.
  • My terminal app on my Mac switched from Warp to iTerm, which is free and more private. I also got introduced to things like Oh My Zsh, which let me add basically all the things Warp did to whatever terminal interface I wanted.
  • My flight tracking has actually shifted to the United app rather than Flighty. Flighty is very good, but as a regular United flier, I really appreciate how well their iOS app gives me exactly what I need at each phase in the journey. It has a live activity that’s more relevant than Flighty’s in that it counts down to boarding time, not take-off time, which is a more important time when I’m getting to my gate, and when I get to my destination it does a good job giving me a guide on where the exits of that airport are and how to get to rides hare spots.
  • I dropped off package tracking in any meaningful way this year. I do get emails from USPS, FedEx, and UPS, but that’s basically all I ever need.
  • Finally, my go-to chatbot changed from ChatGPT to “it’s complicated” this year. I think Claude is better for a lot of things, especially coding assistance, but it’s also not good for real time questions as it’s knowledge is continually a year or so behind the current date. ChatGPT on the other hand has added a real time web search that I’ve found quite useful and I find myself using on a surprisingly regular basis.

And that’s it for my default apps of 2024! Not a ton of change, but a few notable ones that I think were the right decisions for me at this point in my life. The one app on this list most on the bubble has got to be Superhuman, which simply costs too much and I’m praying we get a good Mimestream iOS app soon so that I can get off it and save hundreds of dollars per year.