Defaults
A "defaults" page is a personal inventory of the unassuming and reliable everyday tools that have quietly become essential to our routine. These apps are deeply integrated into our habits, and handle life's background tasks while we 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.
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.
- Mail Client: Gmail web client, Mail.app
- Mail Server: Gmail, iCloud with custom domain
- Notes: Apple Notes, Simplenote
- To-Do: Todoist, Reminders
- iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app
- Photo Management: Apple Photos
- Calendar: Google Calendar via Calendar.app
- Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive, Google Drive
- RSS: NetNewsWire
- Contacts: Apple Contacts
- Browser: Brave (development/work), DuckDuckGo (personal)
- Chat: Signal, WhatsApp, Messages
- Bookmarks: Browser's built-in tool
- Read It Later: Instapaper
- Word Processing: iA Writer, Google Docs
- Spreadsheets: Google Sheets
- Presentations: Google Slides
- 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's 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
- Terminal: iTerm2
- Launcher: Raycast
- Clipboard manager: Raycast
- Screenshots: Xnip
- Social: Mastodon, BlueSky, Reddit
- Search engine: DuckDuckGo
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Last updated: July 2025