My Apps of the Year

Last December, I was inspired by Lachlan to share my favorite app of the year. Actually, I cheated and chose two: Structured and Up Ahead, which I dubbed my favorite new app of 2022.

Independent app developers have continued to amaze me with their work in 2023, so I couldn’t resist doing another retrospective. Instead of picking just one or two picks, though, I’d like to cheat again and share the handful of the apps that I’ve enjoyed most this year.

New-to-Me Apps

Mango Baby

The app that’s had the most impact on my life over the past year has to be Mango Baby, a newborn tracker by Yilei Yang. It’s not a new release, but since my son Noah was born, Mango Baby has been an indispensable tool for keeping track of his care.

The app is so well-designed and makes it simple for me to log feedings, diapers, and more. The information I need most is always right at hand, often not even requiring that I open the app thanks to Mango Baby’s extensive set of widgets. Shortcuts actions allow me to log diaper changes hands-free, and the iCloud-based collaboration is rock-solid, keeping everything in sync between my devices and my wife’s.

I’m a fan of anything that helps my kid and makes my life a bit easier. Mango Baby does both of those things every day.

Sequel

After nearly giving up on the category as a whole, I finally decided to try Romain Lefebvre’s media-tracking app Sequel, and I’m glad I did. It feels like it was made for just the way I like to track things.

I mostly use Sequel for keeping tabs on shows and films, but it can be used to track video games, books, and audiobooks, too. The design is intuitive and puts your content at the forefront, and the app as a whole does its job well: helping you enjoy your favorite media.

Sequel has become my source of truth for where I’m at in a particular show, as well as my go-to way of seeing when new episodes are coming out. At this point, I can’t imagine how I’d be able to keep up with everything I watch without it.

New Apps

Bridges

I’ve been intrigued by the concept of Jonathan Ruiz’s link-saving app Bridges since I first heard about it in beta. On the surface, it works a lot like any other app in the category: You share a link to the app and save it to use later. But Bridges takes that idea a few steps further.

Beyond just saving links, the app enables you to organize and share them in really helpful ways. Sorting links into folders and categories makes it easy to keep everything tidy. And once you’ve compiled your list of links into a folder, you can share them all in a variety of formats with a single button press.

I use Bridges to compile the show notes for my podcast Magic Rays of Light every week. The app has made this process simpler, speedier, and just plain fun. Bridges is now a central part of my creative workflow, and I really enjoy the time I spend using it.

Chronicling

First-time app developer Rebecca Owen came out with Chronicling this summer, and it is quite the app. Self-described as a way to “track anything,” Chronicling is a flexible and powerful tool that’s been a pleasure to explore.

The open-ended nature of the app is its strong suit. It can be whatever kind of tracker you want it to be. While I imagine a lot of people will use it for habit-tracking, I’ve gone a different route. Chronicling has become my trusty tool for staying on top of my chore schedule, something I needed some external assistance with after the birth of my son. It helped a lot!

I plan on doing a full write-up of Chronicling and how it works in the new year, but suffice it to say that it’s one of the most impressive new entries I’ve come across in 2023. I’m constantly looking for new ways to use Chronicling it because I just like it, and that’s one of the best compliments I can give to any app.

Updates

A few of my long-standing favorite apps received major updates this year:

A few things you’ll notice these apps have in common is that they’re made by independent developers, they’re continually updated, and they offer versions for Apple’s various platforms that sync between each other via iCloud. I consider them the best-designed offerings in their respective fields, and each one has a unique identity and use case that makes my life better in a real way.

For me, 2023 has been an incredible year for discovering new apps and continuing to benefit from the apps I already love. Maybe that’s why this list is so long. 😅 But it represents a group of apps that have defined the year for me, and I’m grateful for each one of them and the great developers who work so hard to make them.

What have been your favorite apps this year? I’m always looking for new ones to try (and to write about), so I’d love to hear your picks! I’m always down to talk about apps, so feel free to reach out anytime.