App Defaults - 2025 Edition
I read this article about default app choices by Robb Knight a couple of years ago and thought it sounded fun. Seems like a good time to update it after a couple of years. For comparison, here’s the 2023 original. (I’ll also note when something has changed.)
The general theme is to use tools and services that are cross-platform. I don’t like the idea of being locked in to any particular OS long-term, and my wife and I use different OSes right now, so cross platform sharing is especially important.
- Mail Client: Mail.app
- Mail Server: Fastmail with custom domain
- Notes: Obsidian
- To-Do: Todoist
- iPhone Photo Shooting: iOS Camera
- Photo Management: Google Photos. I used to use iCloud as well, but paying twice just for the benefit of using the native photos app on my phone seemed silly, and Google Photos has good family sharing across platforms.
- Calendar: Google Calendar. I used to pay for Fantastical. But the Google Calendar app is fine. Another example of a service I use because the cross platform family setup works so well.
- Cloud file storage: iCloud Drive. Although I’m increasingly moving towards getting myself a NAS thing and dropping cloud providers.
- RSS: Reeder backed by self-hosted FreshRSS.
- Contacts: Contacts.app
- Browser: Safari
- Chat: WhatsApp
- Bookmarks: Safari
- Read It Later: Safari Reading List, but I’m not a heavy user of this, and could easily switch to something else if push came to shove.
- Word Processing: Obsidian and Google Docs
- Spreadsheets: Google Sheets
- Presentations: n/a
- Shopping Lists: Todoist
- Meal Planning: Google Docs
- Budgeting & Personal Finance: Google Sheets
- News: The Guardian, BBC News, Mastodon (via Ivory)
- Music: Spotify, and some local files synced in Apple Music. Spotify makes me feel deeply uncomfortable now, but every time I try Apple Music I experience all sorts of papercuts.
- Podcasts: Overcast
- Password Management: 1Password
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2 December 2025