Got a new iPhone? Here’s a suggested way to organize your iPhone apps
As iPhone users, there are probably many ways to organize your iPhone apps, and most of us have probably experienced a few. But more than eight years later, I’m still using the method I first tried in 2013 (that screen size! those icons!).
Instead of organizing my apps by what they do, I organize them by where I am when I use them….
For a while, I thought there was a more logical way to organize my apps: by category. For example, I had many chat programs in a folder called Chat, quite imaginatively. Camera and other photography-related apps were in a folder called Photography. and so on.
But as the number of applications grew, there came a time when the cracks in this approach began to show. First, there was the matter of remembering how I classified the application. When I first started using Dropbox, for example, it was almost exclusively for business use, so it went into the Business folder. But later it became a more common tool.
Second, while a number of apps may fall into the same category, it can group apps I use all the time with apps I never use. For example, I used GarageBand a lot (to pretend I knew how to play an instrument…) and it was in the same Entertainment folder as my Kindle, which I only used if I forgot to take my physical Kindle on the go.
To be clear, I still use Classified Folders, but only for apps I never use. My most frequently used apps are organized by usage.
Organize your iPhone apps by context/location
For example, I have programs at home that I use all the time. While my Mac is my primary device when I’m at my desk, in the evenings I use my iPhone just to check email or listen to music.
There are other apps that I use almost exclusively when I’m on the go. BBC News and guardian, for example, these are the news apps I use to quickly catch up with the world when I’m at home using a website on my Mac. WordPress on my phone is another example of an app that I only use when I’m mobile – it’s used when I have an idea for a post I want to write, and I just create a new post to jot down some notes. use it as a query when I’m sitting at my desk.
The third big category for me is travel. I use apps like Google Translate and Revolut extensively when I’m in another country (the card is used because it gives the best exchange rate and I use the app to freeze the card between uses). There are also apps that I only use in a certain country, like the Western Union app to send me money to Buenos Aires – so I have a subfolder for that, given that I’m in the habit of spending a month there every day. year
So I have three main screens:
They each have the main apps I use in each of these situations, and the Dock is used for the main apps I use everywhere.
Of course, it’s safe to say that there’s no need to organize apps at all: just keep the ones you use the most on the home screen, then use search for everything else.
I tend to use search for apps that are used out of context (like accessing a travel app while at home) or apps that are rarely used because they’re in an app. But I think it’s a much more convenient experience to have instant access to apps that I can use in any situation.
How do you organize your iPhone apps? Thanks for sharing your approach on our social networks.
Photo: Marten Bjork/Unsplash
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