In an age where “iPhone withdrawal” is an acknowledged condition and not a T-shirt slogan, the extent to which iOS has come to dominate modern life is self-evident. The iPhone and iPad have evolved to become vital instruments of everyday life, and it looks that way for the foreseeable future.
What makes these gadgets so indispensable is the plethora of apps available to users, with the endless possibilities they can facilitate. At the touch of a button, you can herald a taxi, speak face to face with relatives on the other side of the world, initiate a flirtatious exchange with a stranger, or find out the name of a hip-hop song without suffering the indignity of having to Google the lyrics (thank you, Shazam). And these are just run-of-the-mill examples.
To prevent you from wading through the galaxy of apps available on the App Store, we’ve selected the best iOS apps out there, and broken them down into categories for your convenience.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Social
Candid(free)
An anonymous social network sounds like a dreadful idea, but Candid’s users are surprisingly polite. Choose at least ten groups (Technology, Books, Music and so on) to get a constantly updated feed of posts from people with similar interests. Our selection included Instagram-style photos, quotes from books and songs, and complaints about awful bosses. You need to choose a pseudonym if you want to post content. Trolls are bound to take advantage of the anonymity, but abuse is policed pretty successfully.
InterNations(free)
InterNations is a social network for expats, with 2.3 million members spanning 390 cities from Abu Dhabi to Zurich, and it’s finally launched its own app. Use it to sign up to the InterNations community, find and chat with expats nearby, discover events in your area and join groups based on your hobbies and interests. Some of the app’s functions are buggy – events won’t sync to the calendar, for example – but it’s still easier than using the site in your mobile browser.
Reddit(free)
It has taken a baffling 11 years for Reddit, the self-proclaimed “front page of the internet”, to launch an official app. This seems odd, as the social-news network is second only to Twitter for breaking news stories, often from unofficial (and not always accurate) sources, so it lends itself perfectly to the instant-access nature of mobile platforms. The app’s expanded view is more attractive than the text-heavy website, but you can switch to Compact view if you’d rather see more stories onscreen at once. Register for free to post, comment, save and share stories, or join a community to get the latest news on everything from astronomy to zoology, via more cat memes than you can shake a pouch of Whiskas at.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Fitness
RunGo(free)
Get turn-by-turn directions while you run (or drag yourself red-faced and sweaty) around your local streets or one of thousands of cities worldwide. Alternatively, use RunGo as a guided tour – the app’s audio and onscreen navigation gives details of landmarks as you pass. You can create your own routes in advance or save a route you’ve just run, then get stats on your distance and speed. It costs extra to download city routes for offline use, but the in-app purchase (from 56p per route) is signposted clearly.
Strava(free)
Users of this cycling and running tracker covered an amazing 2.8 billion miles in 2015, and the app’s enduring popularity is down to the fact it appeals to all levels of fitness. It’s incredibly simple to use for newcomers, yet offers plenty of depth with a huge array of data including calories burned, average speed and heart rate, for those who enjoy analysing their exercise. Strava’s huge community of users also provides a wealth of virtual friends and rivals to compete against, with regular challenges for both running and cycling, and leaderboards for your area. It certainly puts the fun back into fitness.
Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal(free)
User-friendliness comes up trumps with this fast, simple calorie counter for iOS. It has the largest food database, with more than 5,000,000 items, meaning you rarely have to go through the ardour of manually adding your snacks and meals. Users type in their height and weight, in addition to their weekly weight loss goal (1lb, 2lbs etc), and are given a corresponding calorie limit. Exercise is acknowledged and rewarded with an increase in the daily calorie allowance.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Health
Sleepfulness(free)
“Mindfulness” broadly means meditation, which has always been a great way to tackle sleep problems. This new app contains ten free tracks to help you nod off, which you can listen to at different times, such as when you’re going to sleep – or when you can’t. All claim to improve the quality of your sleep and therefore your overall health. Sadly, some intriguing extra tracks (such as “Relieving Stress”) are only available as in-app purchases and cost a couple of quid each.
Eat This Much(free)
How much fat, sugar, carbohydrate, fruit and veg are you supposed to eat now? Received wisdom seems to change by the day and may not suit your tastes or budget. Eat This Much helps you find your ideal balance and stick to it. Enter your diet goals and favourite foods, add a budget and information about your dietary needs (vegetarian, allergies and so on) and let the app generate meal plans to match, with recipes that you can save and customise. You can set up nutrition targets for weight gain, muscle building and fitness training as well as plain old weight loss.
Lifesum(free)
Lifesum is a good all-rounder, promising to simplify healthy living. And it does so, cleverly: Lifesum takes your lifestyle goals and health data to create a plan for a healthier, happier life. The app is replete with exercise tips to help you work out better, advice for eating more nutritional food, motivational boosters, and a monitor for your progress. Users laud the tailored recipe suggestions, which, they say, make dieting more enjoyable. On top of this, it offers a sleek, aesthetically pleasing interface.
Best apps for iP
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Education
TED(free)
If you fancy watching something cerebral on your phone or tablet, the new TED app is your brainy friend. Redesigned and rebuilt “from the ground up”, it lets you browse, stream and download more than 2,000 talks from the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) library, either on your mobile device or your TV via a Chromecast. Notable improvements include the ability to watch videos in landscape mode; curated playlists organised by topic; and simpler, faster navigation. As well as talks by “remarkable people”, you get episodes of the TED Radio Hour podcast – and all the content is completely free.
Mimo(free)
Some say coding is “the new literacy”. We think that’s going a bit far, but the art of building websites and apps is increasingly important in our digital world. This new app aims to help you learn and master coding through interactive lessons and practical assignments. Mimo is essentially a digital textbook, with 11 courses (and more to come) on topics including HTML, CSS and ‘Programming for Absolute Beginners’, each with two free chapters. If you want more, you’ll have to cough up £4.49 for a monthly subscription.
TinyCards(free)
Like any self-respecting pop-culture classic, languages app Duolingo now has a spin-off. TinyCards is a kind of pan-learning version of Duolingo. Like its older sibling, TinyCards is the teacher you always wished you had at school. It works with your brain rather than against it, turning learning into a game – and it really works. You can master thousands of topics, from the periodic table to the countries of Africa, by progressing through interactive challenges using multiple-choice quizzes and animated flashcards. Challenges are based on educational-psychology techniques, such as “spaced repetition”, and incorporate lovely details such as a “memory bar” (similar to a battery-life icon) that you strive to keep topped up.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Music
Animoog(£22.99)
This pricey app recreates a fully functioning Moog synthesiser – the backbone of Beatles albums and the seventies disco sound – on your iPad. With the equivalent model Moog costing £4,000, the app is worth buying an iPad for.
Foobar2000(free)
Foobar2000 is the long-awaited app version of one of the best free alternatives to Windows Media Center. Like the excellent free PC program, Foobar’s app is fast and lightweight and supports any audio file format, including Apple and Microsoft formats and MP3.
You can customise its appearance, play songs in a gapless stream and use automatic volume adjustment. Fans may also like Foobar Controller, which lets you control Foobar’s PC program using your Android phone.
Music Memos (free)
An app for musical doodling, Music Memos is great if you want to record musical ideas on an app with a bit more flair than the standard issue Voice Memos app. The app is incredibly user-friendly, you simply press the record button in the centre of the screen and record high-quality audio.
The software then registers the tempo of the audio you’ve recorded, allowing you to add a virtual drummer and bassist to your recordings. They speed up or slow down according to your performance, and their style and sound can be adjusted to better suit your vibe. A versatile and capable app – and what’s more, it’s free.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Photos
Raw(free)
Get professional-level photo-editing, workflow and even sales tools on your iPhone or iPad using this new app from photography-sharing site 500px. The app is a camera, editor, filter creator, metadata tool, gallery, marketplace and licensing manager rolled into one. The editing tool is particularly impressive, with exposure and colour slider controls that rival PC-based tools. As its name suggests, Raw supports full-resolution RAW files, so for best results you need a device with plenty of storage and memory.
Imgur(free)
If you crave being the first person to find all the best photo memes and GIFs with which to litter everyone’s Facebook pages, Imgur is your answer. Its updated apps for Android and iOS boast a redesigned layout with easier-to-find buttons for sharing content and voting for favourites. Just sit back and swipe through an endless stream of animated fun, adorable animal pics and random weirdness. Most useful of all, the Imgur app now provides a prominent camera button so you can easily add your own kitten, party trick or bizarre facial expression to the Imgur party.
Motion Stills(free)
“Motion Stills – Create with Live Photos”, to give Google’s new GIF-making app its full name, is a rotten tease for iPad users. The App Store says it’s ‘Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch’, and indeed the app installs and opens on all iOS devices. But unless you have a newer iPhone, it won’t do anything else. This is because Motion Stills requires Live Photos, the iOS 9+ iPhone feature that briefly records video and audio before and after you take a photo. Motion Stills turns the result into a looping GIF that you can share online or in messages. It automatically chooses the best start and end points, and even separates the still background from the moving foreground. It’s utterly magnificent and Google has hinted it’s coming to more devices soon.
Slow Motion Camera Extreme(£2.49)
Create high-quality slow-motion videos using this popular iOS app, now available on Android. It comes with its own built-in editing tools and works with front and rear cameras (slow-mo selfie, anyone?).
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Video
Vimeo for iOS(free)
The high-quality video-streaming service has redesigned its iOS app with a fresh design that makes it even easier to browse and watch ad-free, HD content on your iPhone or iPad. Gone is the “dreaded hamburger menu” in favour of a navigation bar along the bottom of the screen, while the new mini player lets you continue watching videos as you scroll through the app. There are now 16 video categories, which are curated by the Vimeo team and include interesting sub-categories such as ‘Drones and Aerials’. It’s also simpler to upload clips and manage your privacy settings, and you can download videos to watch offline should you lose your internet connection.
Kronicle (free)
Timelapses are halfway between photography and video. They’re usually created by shooting a series of photos over time – perhaps by taking one photo per day from the same spot – and then using the frames to create a video that shows the months flying by. Kronicle is a gorgeous new iOS app that lets you use photos from a historical archive to create timelapses (‘Kronicles’) spanning years or even decades. Alternatively, you can collaborate with other users to create a Kronicle showing the same place through the eyes of many people. Filters and framing effects are laid on, but the app’s emphasis is on Instagram-style sharing rather than editing. Explore and comment on other people’s Kronicles from around the world, and get inspiration from the Popular section, as well as the Facebook page. An Android version is due to follow soon.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: TV and film
Now TV (free)
Sky’s pay-as-you go entertainment service is getting better and better, with loads of great TV shows and films to watch on demand, as well as live streaming of Sky channels. The latest update to the Now TV mobile apps makes it easier to binge-watch your favourite television series, without needing to go back to the main list to manually select the next episode. As with Netflix, as soon as you’ve finished watching one episode, the following instalment will start playing automatically. Now TV even tells you how long is left until the next episode ‘expires’ from the service, so you don’t risk missing it. Signing into the app has also been made easier.
Android TV for iOS(free)
Apple and Google aren’t exactly the best of friends, so we’re surprised to see a new iPhone app that works with Android TV (it’s obviously already available on Android). This lets you use your phone as a remote control for your Android television or set-top box (assuming you have one – they haven’t exactly rocketed off the shelves). You can skip back and forth through programmes, navigate menus and switch between using a touchpad and a D-pad so you can play Android games onscreen. Although the interface looks rather basic, the app does offer the useful ability to operate its controls using your voice when you can’t be bothered to pick up your phone, but surely iPhone users will prefer Apple TV.
BBC iPlayer (free)
The Desktop version of BBC iPlayer has long offered the option to ‘rewind’ live TV channels, so you never miss a moment of your favourite shows, and now the Live Restart feature is (finally) available on mobile devices. Just start streaming an ‘On Now’ programme as you would normally, then tap ‘Restart this programme’ to replay the bits you missed: the handy recap, the resolution of last week’s cliff-hanger, that first early goal and so on. Remember that you now need a TV licence to watch iPlayer, whether you’re viewing shows live or on catch-up. The BBC also says that Android 7 (Nougat) users may be experiencing problems with downloaded programmes, which it hopes to fix soon.
Anytime by Utelly(free)
Utelly’s new Anytime app lets you access multiple services from a single hub. Soon we’ll need an aggregator for all the aggregators. Or we could just choose the best one – and Anytime is a serious contender, with a good choice of UK content as well as US films and TV series. It’s free, with no in-app purchases, and lets you find and play catch-up and on-demand films and TV programmes from dozens of services, including 4oD, ITV Player and YouTube, as well as subscription services such as Netflix. Browse recommendations and trending content, track favourite programmes and customise the built-in player to suit you. It’s a must-have for your iPad.
Tubi TV (free)
As a rule, services that offer films and TV shows for free either do so illegally or feature such rubbish that they’re not worth the bother. Tubi TV bucks this trend (sort of) with a large selection of movies and series that aren’t completely awful or unlawful. Although the app has none of the blockbusters mentioned in its description, such as Gladiator and Star Trek, its categories range from Action and Horror to Comedy and Nature, and include such gems as 1962 spookfest Carnival of Souls and some decent music documentaries. You need to sit through ads to enjoy the free viewing, but you don’t need to register or enter any card details.
Serist (£2.49)
A TV app that doesn’t let you watch TV but still costs over two quid? Actually, this telly to-do tool is great. Build a feed of programmes you want to watch and get notified when new episodes are coming up.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: News and podcasts
BBC News(free)
The BBC News app has long had filmed reports embedded in its stories, and now it’s gone a step further with a dedicated section for videos. The new ‘Ten to Watch’ playlist presents a round-up of top stories in video form, for those times when you’d rather watch the news than read it. The update is part of the Beeb’s Project Newstream, which aims to bring new formats and storytelling methods to the 34 million people who browse BBC News on their mobile devices every week. The videos in ‘Ten to Watch’ change throughout the day. The feature is being rolled out gradually, so you might not see it yet.
News Pro(free)
Personalised news feeds have been around since the earliest days of RSS – the technology that ‘fed’ articles to your Desktop (assuming you could work out how to use it). Apps such as BBC News have made it easier by letting you add favourite topics to a My News screen. Microsoft’s News Pro is similar but, unlike BBC News, it draws headlines, articles, video and more from dozens of sources around the world.
News Pro isn’t quite a match for the BBC’s app, at least at first sight. That’s due in part to the strong US bias of its headlines and sources, and also the rather random nature of its default ‘Highlights’ news feed.You can fix both problems by allowing News Pro to get to know you. There’s an option to sign in using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, which helps the app get an idea of your interests. You can also rate articles and subscribe to topics (see the Mini Workshop on the right). Soon your feed will look less like a Donald Trump photo album than it did when you first opened it (unless Trump is your favourite subject, of course).
News Pro has huge potential. A text-only ‘Speedy view’ option makes articles a pleasure to read, and you can annotate and comment on stories when sharing them. The app is fast, and the number of sources grew in the few days we were testing it, but it’s crying out for better ways to organise content. You can’t easily switch from the Highlights to a specific topic, for example, and it took us a while to work out that you subscribe to topics by searching rather than choosing from a list. But News Pro is evolving fast, so it’s one to watch.
Castro(£3.99)
Find and download individual episodes of podcasts without having to subscribe to the whole series. You can create playlists of episodes and get recommendations from friends. And whilst rival Overcast still wields some important advantages over it, namely its voice boost and smart speed.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Money and insurance
1Tap Receipts(free)
Mobile apps have made life easier if you’re self-employed or you just like to stay on top of your spending. Instead of stuffing your receipts in shoeboxes, you just scan them using your device’s camera. 1Tap Receipts goes a step further than most scanner apps by extracting relevant data from your scanned receipts and adding it securely to your tax return on your behalf. The app also includes encrypted cloud storage for your receipts, an HMRC tax calculator and invoicing tools.
Circle Pay(free)
Mobile payment is a relatively new technology, but companies such as PayPal, Amazon, Apple and Google are already on board, providing apps that let you send and receive funds instantly using your phone or tablet. It’s very useful for splitting the cost of dinner with friends, for example – simply transfer the money to your friend using your phone. Circle Pay lacks the reassurance that comes with a big name (although it’s backed by Barclays and Goldman Sachs), but it’s very easy to use.
Cuvva(free)
This useful app helps you get insured to drive a friend or family member’s car for the day. There’s some initial messing about involved – Cuvva needs to verify that you’re over 21 and have a full UK driving licence (Northern Ireland excepted), and you’ll need to submit a selfie and your address when you register. After that, Cuvva is quick and easy to use. Enter the number plate of the car you’re borrowing, specify your hours (one hour minimum, up to 24 hours), get your quote and buy your insurance.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Productivity
Polymail(free)
Fans of Dropbox’s excellent but defunct Mailbox, rejoice; this third-party email app is a worthy replacement, despite lacking an Android version. Link it to your
Gmail and iCloud accounts and get all the features you wish they offered natively: email tracking, so you know when a message has been read; scheduled sending; the option to archive a message by pressing Enter; and a snooze button for messages you want to come back to. Like Gmail, it also lets you ‘unsend’ a message if you have sender’s remorse, as long as you’re quick. It also supports the business-focused Google Apps email service.
Speedify(free)
What’s faster and more stable than Wi-Fi or mobile data? Using both at once, according to Speedify. The app combines all your available connections to achieve the best possible internet speeds on your phone or tablet, which can significantly boost streaming video and other bandwidth-heavy activity. The app lets you set a data limit, but even so we urge caution: it can quickly eat through your allowance, and it only lets you use 4GB of data free per month. It also requests permission to modify system settings, which you may not want.
Simplenote(free)
The text editor that prides itself on ease of use is now open-source, so you can actually edit the app’s code if you’re that way inclined. The new version uses Google’s now-familiar Material Design layout, so it’s even faster and sleeker than before. As ever, Simplenote saves automatically as you write a note or list, even when you’re offline, and lets you tag and search the contents of notes. Then, when you’re online, it syncs across all devices you’ve installed it on, including PC.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Creativity
Storyist(£10.99)
This app for creating “submission-ready” screenplays and manuscripts isn’t cheap, but it’s one of the best writing programs out there. Designed to turn your iPhone or iPad into a powerful writing environment, it comes equipped with an abundantly capable text editor and automatic manuscript and screenplay formatting. So just in case the next chapter of your book comes to you on the commute home, you’ll be prepared for some on-the-go storytelling. What’s more, you can sync your work with iCloud and Dropbox or just export it to PDF.
Pattern (£2.29)
This new app from former Facebook designer Andy Chung lets you create illustrations, floorplans and even website designs on your iPad. Its value lies in its simple, classic design tools, eschewing the usual roster of fancy brushes and loud effects.
Yes Chef(free)
We wish we’d thought of this idea: a voice-controlled cooking app that obeys your instructions and speaks recipes out loud, so you don’t have to touch your iPhone or iPad with messy hands. Brilliant – it’s just a shame there’s no Android version yet.
You can also access the 350,000-strong recipe collection by tapping your touchscreen, but then you’d risk getting cake mixture on your iPad. So, instead, start by telling it what you want (say, “Chef, how do I make paella?”) and then move through its audio steps by saying “next step”. The app can even respond to verbal questions such as: “How long should I let this simmer for?” – so you can interrupt it to ask for help.
Recipes are searchable by popularity and food type as well as by keyword, and they cover a big enough range to keep all cooks happy, from beginners to specialists.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Art and science
Google Arts & Culture(free)
Google’s wonderful museum app finally works in landscape format on iPads. With that oversight fixed, it’s a must-have for anyone who longs to flit from gallery to gallery across the world. You can virtually explore more than 1,000 museums across 70 countries using 360-degree panoramas, or in VR (virtual reality) if you have a Google Cardboard headset. Search for artefacts, scroll through the history of art and browse by artist or even colour. If you’re ever in South London, use the new Art Recogniser tool to identify paintings at Dulwich Picture Gallery. More galleries will be added soon.
Stephen Hawking’s Pocket Universe(£2.99)
Explore the universe with the legendary Professor. Content is divided into six topics including Space-Time, Black Holes and the Expanding Universe, each with stunning illustrations and an integrated glossary.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Security
Secret Calculator Plus(free)
If you just want a nice-looking iOS calculator app, here it is. But those sums have a James Bond secret. Tap in your chosen PIN code and the calculator opens a vault for content you don’t want anyone else to see (or delete).
This isn’t just a place to hide naughty photos. Secret Calculator Plus contains excellent tools including a private browser, a photo and video viewer and album creator, plus a note-making tool for writing private notes, licence numbers and so on.
Unlike many similar apps, it doesn’t attract attention by calling itself ‘My Private Stash’ or suchlike. However it does display an advert for a Pro version (available via dreaded in-app purchase), which may give the game away, so make sure your PIN code is a good one.
Blink(free)
If you’ve got an Apple computer, use this tiny app to keep tabs on your Mac from afar. It’ll alert you when your Mac’s screen is woken up. Is your spouse snooping? Or has your cat walked on the keyboard again?
Truecaller(free)
Nuisance calls are a plague, but Truecaller fights the menace by warning you if an incoming call is from a notorious number, and automatically blocking certain numbers. The service began life as a web forum in 2009, and has since amassed an international user base of 250 million people, who have helped create a database of spammers and con artists. This new version makes Caller ID available offline, so you can get spam warnings even without an internet connection. You can also add tags to calls, and suggest better names for anyone who rings you.
Best apps for iPhone and iPad in 2017: Miscellaneous
Mojemo(£1.99)
This 5,000-strong searchable database for emoji goes far beyond smileys and sparkles. Text a weather emoji to your mum, send your friend a “beer” and post increasingly sporting emoji during the latest game.
Vehicle Smart(free)
Described by one happy user as “the must-have app for all motorists in the UK”, Vehicle Smart lets you check MOT and tax information for any car from your phone or tablet – for free. Just enter the vehicle’s make and registration number to see its full MOT history, including advisory and failure notices, tax status (including costs) and mileage, including distance travelled per year. Vehicle Smart puts all this essential information at your fingertips in a clear, simple manner, which makes it the ideal companion when you’re looking to buy a used car or you can’t remember when your MOT or tax is due.
VisualRuler(£1.49)
Your bank card and driving licence are the same size – card sized – so this app uses them as a reference. Take a photo of anything next to your card, and this app tells you the object’s measurements. No card details are stored.