The 12 Best iPhone X Apps of 2024

Best iPhone X To-Do App for Most People: Things

While there's nearly an endless supply of to-do manager apps (heck, there's more than one on this list), Things rises because it finds the sweet spot between control and complexity. It also provides the right amounts of each without overwhelming users.

Best GTD-Compatible To-Do App for iPhone X: OmniFocus

Like Things, OmniFocus is a popular and well-designed to-do manager. However, it has a different set of priorities. Where Things tries to stay simple, OmniFocus is feature-rich and robust.

The app fully integrates with the "Getting Things Done" method of task management. Called GTD, for short, this method encourages users to write down any tasks they have, as well as all their associated information and scheduling. GTD users will spend a good deal of time on the front end organizing work.

As a result, the software requires a robust feature set to fully implement all aspects of the GTD process. If that's your favorite methodology, OmniFocus is as close to an official iPhone X GTD app as possible.

Best Email App for iPhone X: Spark

If you pay attention to iOS apps, you know that email has taken on something like the role of an antagonist in the world of iOS. App designers seem to believe everyone hates their email, and they want an app to solve their problems with email.

Managing email is a little less painful when you're using Spark. There are features for scheduled send, snoozing emails, and a Smart Inbox that only notifies you of important emails.

Best iPhone X App for Busy Note Takers: Agenda

Agenda takes a different spin on a notes app than most other applications; it calls itself a "date-focused note-taking app." Notes are organized by project and date, and the dates are a big part of Agenda. Rather than simply collecting your jotting into a library, Agenda creates a to-do list from the items. With tight date integration, Agenda makes a functional journaling app, a capable to-do manager, and general iPhone X note-taking app. The date and note combination seems obvious, but Agenda is the first iOS note-taking app to execute the combination effectively.

It's essentially a to-do manager plus a note-taking app with some calendar features. And that's a holy grail, viewing all that information in one place with one perspective and only one app. The app is also highly functional in the freeform, which can be rare in flagship apps. Agenda particularly shines with Pencil support, but we'll have to look to the iPad Pro for that feature.

Best iPhone X App for Password Management: 1Password

Everyone needs a password manager. Your online security will skyrocket with unique passwords you don't have to remember.

With the auto-fill in iOS 12, 1Password is as close to perfect as we have in a password manager. Face ID authentication isn't unique to the iPhone X anymore, but having access to Face ID makes the app more secure and easier to use, which is a rare combination of achievements to reach simultaneously.

Best iPhone X App for Podcasts: Overcast

Overcast is the best app you can use to listen to podcasts. The app's interface is carefully thought out for maximal user effectiveness. Features like Smart Speed intelligently manage a podcast's playback speed to shorten silences without speeding up speech, while Voice Boost provides a pre-built EQ curve designed to amplify voices, which is great for a loud listening environment.

Best iPhone X App for Editing Portrait Mode Photos: Focos

By default, the iPhone X's Portrait Mode is a one-and-done process. You take the picture, the blur is applied, and that's that. iOS doesn't provide a built-in method for editing the Picture Mode effect after the fact.

Focos fills the gap, building a tool to tweak both the level of blur and the blur mask. It mimics the effect you'd see when adjusting a lens' physical aperture. More magically, you can also change the focal point after the shot by recreating the blur mask on a different object or manually adjusting the effects on the image's depth mask in real time.

Those are just the free features. Paid users get access to a whole tier of image editing tools on top of the focus adjustments.

Best iPhone X App for RAW Photos: Halide

The iPhone X camera is more powerful than it initially appears, with more features than the built-in camera exposes.

Uniquely, Halide sticks important information in the iPhone X's "ears." It embeds a live histogram for image analysis. Is it extremely valuable? Not exactly, but Halide is a near-perfect photography application besides that selling feature.

The controls are ideally placed and configured, RAW capture is pixel-perfect, and navigation within the app is smooth and immediately comprehensible. If you're serious about taking photos on your iPhone X, Halide is the best camera app for iOS.

Best AR Messaging App for iPhone X: Giphy World

Plenty of apps have tried to usurp Snapchat as an AR messaging platform. While Snapchat might be in a weakened state thanks to self-inflicted damage, it's not quite gone yet. But if it does go down, Giphy World is a fun replacement.

Best Use of AR for Education on iPhone X: Jig Space

Learning with holograms is one of those things you constantly see in sci-fi movies. With Jig Space and augmented reality, that kind of thing is becoming possible in our daily lives. You can use the app to learn about various subjects, including how a lock works, manipulating each part of the mechanism, and viewing it from alternate angles. Jig Space takes advantage of AR's three dimensions successfully, and the low-poly models that AR is limited to don't hurt the quality of the visualizations.

Best Late-Night Outdoors Companion App: Night Sky

Pointing out constellations is a lot more fun when you're not making them up as you go.

Night Sky was one of the first augmented-reality style apps to appear on iOS. It has shown the way for others on the platform seeking to mimic its success, but it's stayed dominant nevertheless.