In comScore’s 2016 Mobile App report, they estimated that 7 in 10 smartphone users keep their most used apps on their home screen. I found this shocking — shouldn’t everyone’s most used apps live on the home screen? The counter to that, however, could be considering most people use their Top 3 apps nearly 75% of the time, they reside in the persistent tray at the bottom of the screen so the actual “screen” doesn’t matter.
I’m in the 70 percent group that my top apps sit on my home screen. In fact, here’s a look at my home screen today, and why these apps are important:
Photos: I use my phone to take pictures more than my professional Canon.
Google Maps: My go-to resource to find businesses and drive times.
Waze: Moved Waze here a couple months ago. Best app for driving directions — hands down. One day will replace Maps.
Weather: I like to know if it’s going to rain.
NJ Transit: Bus and train tickets for my daily commute into New York City.
Pocket: Storing content I find throughout the day to read offline later.
Nuzzle: My favorite resource for discovering content people in my network are sharing.
Raise: Discounted gift cards and mobile wallet.
Yahoo! Finance: Tracking the market and my portfolios.
Mint: Money management and holistic view of my accounts.
Google Drive: Easy access to my work docs in the cloud.
Dropbox: Easy access to my personal docs in the cloud.
Kindle: Reading books on-the-go.
LastPass: Password manager that I can access on phone and desktop.
Spotify: My chosen streaming music service. Tried the others. Always go back to Spotify.
NYTimes: Best news app in the world.
LinkedIn: The best app for doing business and networking.
Twitter: My favorite social network; for sharing content. (Follow Me)
Instagram: My second favorite social network; for sharing photos with only people I know.
Slack: Connecting with team members and other notification integrations.
Chrome: My web browser of choice.
Phone: To call people.
Brewery Passport: Created it and love supporting it.
Winery Passport: Same.
My dock does contain the Top 4 apps I use every single day.
Evernote: Notes and other docs, including my to-do lists.
Messages: My preferred method of communication. The addition of GIFs has been amazing.
Calendar: I’ve tried others, but always end up back to Calendar.
Mail: To respond to all your great emails!
What does your home screen look like? Am I missing out on an app that should replace one of these? Let me know in the comments below.
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