Reverting to Apples stock apps

Software
124

I don’t believe so. I use Apple’s stock apps on all my devices for all my work, both professional and personal.

That said, third party apps often offer more features and are sometimes easier to use, but I have found that:

  • Many underestimate the capabilities of Apple’s stock apps and never invest the time to learn their many features and to create efficient workflows and muscle memory.
  • The deep ecosystem integration, including with Siri, is excellent.
  • There is no additional cost.
  • The new Apple Intelligence and Siri will make the stock apps even better, especially search.

Are they best in class? No. Are they good? Yes. Can you run your personal and professional life with them? Depending on your specific needs, yes.

7 Likes
125

I use a lot of the stock apps. Safari, Mail, Calendar, Notes, Journal, iWork, and Terminal. But I’m also a heavy DEVONthink user, and very invested in the Omni Group’s apps, especially OmniFocus. I’ve tried switching over to Reminders a few times, but OmniFocus works the way my brain works. It’s the one reliable system that I always know is there for me.

I switched over to Passwords from 1Password a couple years ago and haven’t looked back. I accept that it’s a risk if Apple ever screws that up, but I’ve got backups so I feel like the risk is mitigated somewhat. The overall user experience with Safari is very good.

I still wish Apple would incorporate more of what DEVONthink does into macOS, but I don’t really see that happening at this point.

2 Likes
126

Every time I see this headline I think it’s talking about a stock-tracking widget lol

I think the only stock apps I still use regularly are Contacts, Preview, Finder, Disk Utility, Messages, TextEdit and occasionally GarageBand. That’s about it, and it’s mostly utilities.

3 Likes