App defaults
This "defaults" list is inspired by Robb Knight's collection of app defaults posts, where a huge number of bloggers share their default apps and services. I like how these lists make it easy to find and explore other personal blogs and setups, similarly to what happens with "now" or "uses" pages.
These unassuming and reliable everyday tools are deeply integrated into my habits/routine, and handle life's background tasks allowing me to focus on what actually matters. My approach is to stick with default apps until they can't do what I need, only switching when the built-in option genuinely can't handle my use case.
- Mail Client: Mail.app
- Mail Server: iCloud Mail with custom domain
- Notes: Apple Notes
- To-Do: Reminders
- iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app
- Photo Management: Apple Photos
- Calendar: Apple Calendar
- Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive
- RSS: NetNewsWire
- Contacts: Apple Contacts
- Browser: Safari
- Chat: Messages, WhatsApp
- Bookmarks: Browser's built-in tool
- Read It Later: Instapaper
- Word Processing: Google Docs though I prefer to write markdown via iA Writer
- Spreadsheets: Google Sheets
- Presentations: LaTeX Beamer for maths, Remark for anything else
- Shopping Lists: pen and paper, Reminders
- Meal Planning: n/a
- Budgeting and Personal Finance: custom spreadsheet
- News: ABC News, The Guardian
- Music: Spotify
- Podcasts: Apple Podcasts
- Password Management: Bitwarden
Here are some extra categories I also wanted to include:
- Weather: BOM, Apple Weather
- Reading: Physical copies from local library, Kindle
- Book tracking: Goodreads
- Code editor: Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text
- Git GUI client: Sublime Merge
- Terminal: Ghostty
- Launcher: Raycast
- Clipboard manager: Raycast
- Screenshots: Mac's built-in tool
- Search engine: DuckDuckGo
- LaTeX editor: Overleaf
Edit October 2025: replaced Spotify with Apple Music, and stopped using Signal, Xnip and Simplenote. Still using the DuckDuckGo browser on my laptop but had to go back to Safari on my phone as some core functionality is still unsupported, e.g. adding events to my calendar from the browser or persistent website blocking via Freedom.
Edit August 2026: back to Spotify after trying Apple Music for quite some time, switched to Apple Calendar and iCloud Mail, added LaTeX tools.