Apple’s standard apps – good enough or waste of space?

One of the great things about the Apple ecosystem is that there are plenty of opportunities for enterprising developers to complement or replace the apps that ship as part of macOS, iOS and iPadOS. But those opportunities seem to shrink with each successive operating system release. Are Apple’s default apps good enough or is there room for third parties to replace them?

I’m going to focus my discussion on five core productivity apps: Safari, Notes, Mail, Calendar and Reminders. And while iOS and iPadOS are key productivity platforms, I’m going to limit this discussion to macOS.

Browsing the internet: Safari

Safari’s main competitor is Google Chrome. Chrome is a great browser supported by a vibrant developer community that creates plug-ins to augment and extend its functionality. If you work on multiple devices across different platforms, Chrome is the standout choice – provided you have an account with Google that enables you to sync everything between devices.

If you are committed to the Apple ecosystem, Safari offers everything Chrome offers with a couple of nice extras. For example, Safari can autofill verification codes sent to text and email. The latest version that comes with macOS Sonoma will also delete those messages.

The ability to create Web Apps with Safari is a very valuable feature. I’ve created web apps for a couple of key services I use with Microsoft 365 with different clients and it saves me several clicks, helping me stay focussed on work as I don’t have to click around to get to the services I need to use.

If you spend all your time in the Apple ecosystem, I see little reason to not use Safari.

Information capture: Notes

Each successive version of Notes is better than the one before. But Notes is competing with a massive field of competitors. PDF editing, checklists, handwriting recognition and note links are there but Notes still feels very basic compared to other apps.

The key with Notes, or any note-taking app, is how it fits into your workflow and your specific information capture needs.

For example, when I was working as a journalist and conducting lots of interviews, Notability was my go to note taking app as it could record audio as I took notes with my handwriting synchronised with the audio – something that made the writing process after the interview much easier.

I’ve been using Notes for a while to give it a real run and while it’s fine for many things, it feels like a very basic app. If you’re looking for a real productivity tools, there are better options out there.

Getting the message: Mail

When webmail services exploded as Gmail, Hotmail and its successors, Yahoo! Mail and others become popular, the days of the email client seemed numbered. But Apple Mail continued to evolve, giving users an alternative. Where webmail becomes annoying is that most of us have mote than one email, address. In my case, I have a handful of different accounts that I need to monitor regularly.

The key with email apps and services is how they fit with your preferred workflow. For example, if you’re into the whole ‘Inbox Zero’ thing, there are email clients designed around that productivity model. In my case, I’ve built my email management practices around some of Mail’s features. The unified inbox, that brings incoming messages from all my email services into one place, coupled with the filter button that lets me quickly toggle the new of unread messages is my most important email management tool.

Smart folders for all of today’s mail and yesterday’s mail are useful for finding messages that have recently come in. I also have smart folders for messages from specific clients, based on their email addresses.

Finally, there are Flags. I use these to group messages pertaining to specific projects. That’s a manual process but I only need to do it for a relatively small group of messages.

In short, Mail is probably good enough of most people. But for those looking for more, there are subscription tools such as Superhuman that use machine learning (even though the developers insist on calling it AI – marketers gotta use the latest buzzwords!) to help manage email.

Staying organised: Calendar and Reminders

Calendar, like Mail, works well if you have multiple calendar services that you need in one place. Where Apple’s organisational tools fall down, in my view, is with Reminders. The addition of subtasks is welcome but not having tasks and my schedule integrated is a pain. What I want is a single pane of glass view of what my day has in store.

I kludge this now by arranging my screen with Calendar and Reminders arranges adjacent to each other. But it’s an annoyance.

These apps are a prime example of where developers can offer strong alternatives.

Final thoughts

Apple’s standard apps continue to add new features while remaining relatively simple to use. For most users (and I’m not thinking of power users) they easily pass the ‘good enough’ test. After about 20 years of using a Mac, starting with a white iBook, I’ve tried many different productivity tools. I leaned on Evernote for over a decade before ditching it completely this year after transitioning to Notes (as my needs are relatively simple).

I’ve tried alternatives to Mail but find that my combination of Smart Folders, Flags and use of the unread filter works for me. But I can also see how there’s room for alternatives. In particular, switchers from Windows will likely jump straight to Outlook as it’s a familiar experience. But the way Apple ties things together, such as the autofilling of authentication codes to Safari makes Mail much easier to use in my view.

Safari continues to add security features, integration with other apps and the introduction of Web Apps are all great features that enhance the browser experience without getting in the way.

The weak spot, in my view, is Calendar and Reminders. Despite the addition of new features over the years, they still feel like they’re escapees from a decade ago. Better integration of appointments and tasks and a revised interface are desperately needed in my view.

But what it really boils down to is what works for you? You want your computer to help you do what you want to do. Whether that’s playing the latest games, working on a spreadsheet, writing or clearing through life’s admin you want the apps you use to help you and not get in the way. And productivity systems are as individual as we are. Sure, there are tips and tricks we can learn from others but what works for me might not work for you.

The trick is to find apps that help you. Sometimes, you might need to adapt your way of working to get the best out of a tool. Other times, you may need a different app. Most of Apple’s apps work for me. What works for you?