It’s hard to believe, but it’s been three years since my last homescreen post. It’s always fascinating to see how my homescreen evolves over the years. I first shared it back in 2019, then again in mid-2020, and finally at the end of 2020. Here’s hoping I can finally make this an annual tradition.
For a long time, I resisted using folders, but I’ve given in this year. I tried my best to stick with just 12 apps (including the Dock), but it’s just not feasible. While I don’t need every app in the folder, it looks better when full. Surprisingly, even with three years gone by, not much has changed.
Widgets
This time, I’ve settled on a stack of two large widgets—Fantastical and Things 3—replacing the two smaller widgets I used before. I experimented with multiple widgets of various sizes, but this setup has stuck with me the longest. It gives me a wealth of useful information at a glance. I still use the Photos widget, but it now lives on the Widget screen to the left of my main homescreen.
Stayed
Some apps are staples of my homescreen and haven’t budged: Photos, Overcast (even though the redesign was rough, the sound engine remains unparalleled), Music, MoneyWiz, and Revolut.
I briefly stopped using Ulysses when I tried replacing it with Notion, Craft, and later Obsidian. None of them worked for me. Recently, I returned to Ulysses, and as you might have noticed, my blog output has improved drastically. While the tool isn’t the only factor, it’s definitely helped.
One surprising change was my browser choice. For a while, I exclusively used Arc for personal and work browsing. However, after the team announced they are abandoning it (it will still get updates, but I wouldn’t hope for a lot), I tried several alternatives before returning to Safari. While it’s not perfect, it’s still better than most.
Removed
Only one app got completely removed from my phone — Audible. I’ve stopped listening to audiobooks altogether. My approach to reading has shifted—I now highlight extensively and take notes, which doesn’t work well with audiobooks.
Communication apps like WhatsApp, Messages, and Mail (and previously Telegram) now stay in the App Library or are accessed via notifications. They no longer need a spot on my homescreen.
Oura got promoted to the Lock Screen, but more on that below. Duolingo has a widget on the Widget screen and also sends notifications at the end of the day in case I forget.
The Hue app is another casualty. I still use the lamps, but I control them through the Home page in the new Control Center.
Some features, like my Brain Dump shortcut, were replaced by new lock screen buttons and the Action Button. Similarly, I removed the Camera app from my screens entirely after upgrading to the iPhone 16 Pro Max. I now exclusively launch the camera using the dedicated Camera Control Don’t Call It A Button Button.
Replaced
There were a couple of significant changes this year, but let’s start with the smaller one — Books got changed by Kindle, but that is changing all the time depending on which book I’m reading.
I’ve also changed my RSS reader and read-it-later service. For about a year I was using Readwise Reader for both. It was also getting all the highlights from Kindle. But the way it looked and worked was always bad, and I decided that too much automation is missing the point. So found the most functional, but good-looking app — Matter.
Another big change was my to-do app. Things 3 won for me just because it’s more simple and beautiful, and doesn’t have a subscription. But lately, I’ve been thinking about going back, since Things 3 doesn’t support natural language in the task name field. This is just bonkers. And in some little things Things 3 doesn’t click for me.
The biggest one is the notes app. After leaving Craft for Notion and later going to Obsidian and staying for a year, I was still not completely happy — it looks horrendous, whatever you do. The way it works with files (especially images sucks) and search on mobile is unusable. So again started to look at different apps — Notes, Craft, Tana among them. But surprisingly chose the one, I completely forgot about — Bear. The easiest way to describe it is Obsidian, but thoughtfully designed. It’s much simpler, but that is why I love to use it. And it allows you to change fonts, which I loved in Obsidian.
I also tried Craft after the recent 3.0 update, and it’s still not it. Too bulky, still too document focused, and occasionally a bit slow in terms of navigation and animation.
Added
There are a couple of apps I’ve always used that got promoted to the homescreen, like Citadele for banking, an app for our daughter’s kindergarten. Day One which I want to use, but somehow don’t even when it’s on homescreen, but I’m trying. Google Maps where I started to save places I loved or want to go to. So my map quickly becoming filled with all the pins.
I’ve also finally changed an app to track the TV shows I watch to Sequel. It’s beautiful and syncs with Trakt, so moving data would be easy when needed.
Masterclass is the other app I want to use more. I got it together with my Revolut subscription and like some content in it, but want to watch more.
There is a side of me that changes and two apps reflect that a lot — first, I started to listen to classical music and Apple Music Classical, which is included in the subscription, is spectacular for that. I go through the Essentials albums for multiple composers. Second is the Bible app, which I’ve never read in full and want to change it.
The last two apps shouldn’t be surprising to anyone — ChatGPT and Perplexity. First is just a default for AI. At first, I changed it with Claude, which seemed like a better model, but ChatGPT has a better product overall, nicely integrating with iOS and macOS. And also, Revolut gave subscription to the Perplexity Pro, which became my second choice.
Lockscreen
My lockscreen is simple. It’s the photo I made at the Barcelona Grand Prix. With Oura widget at the top, hence removal from the homescreen. Fantastical widget below clock for the next appointment and Pedometer and WaterMinder small widgets.
At the bottom, where Apple finally gave us the ability to change controls, I have a new Bear note button and ChatGPT button.
Buttons
There were 2 physical buttons added recently to the iPhone. First, the Action button which quickly became task entry button for me, now opening a new task window in Things 3. The Camera button for me is just a launch button and rarely take a photo button because when you press it, it shakes the phone. And I’ve turned off all the features inside the camera, since it is too finicky to use as a touchpad.
Conclusion
You might’ve noticed that my Homescreen looks dull, which is completely on purpose. It is a part of my strategy to use the phone less. At first, I didn’t like how the new tinting feature worked because it didn’t look good in any of the screenshots I’ve seen, but recently, I’ve decided to use it to my advantage.
Below you can see how my homescreen looks in 3 different modes: tinted, light mode and dark mode.
