These Are the 20 Best iPhone Apps to Download Right Now

Price: Free

Whether you're a big driver or just going on a long road trip, you should check out Waze. The app knows how fast users are traveling on the road and redirects you around traffic mid-trip, ultimately shortening your commute. Waze tracks more than just traffic; it also alerts you to construction, accidents, red-light cameras, and even police ahead on your route.

Price: Free

Every iPhone ships with Apple's suite of apps. However, if you happen to love Apple's hardware but not so much its software, the first switch you should make is your browser. Google's Chrome is the most popular browser of them all for a reason with a great incognito mode and o there features that make web-surfing on your phone less of pain. It's also constantly updated and is just one of the most jam-packed browsers out there.

Price: Free

Splitting a bar tab with friends can be a huge pain, especially when no one thought to bring cash with them. Cash is an app by Square that instantly transfers money between friends, for free, even between different banks. Using the app requires everyone involved sign up and connect their debit card — afterward you can pay your friends back instantly with just a few taps on your phone. In most cases, the money automatically deposits in your buddy's bank account and is instantly accessible. At most, they'll have to wait 1 to 2 business days for the deposit to clear.

Price: Free, but contract required

Take the delivery fear out of online shopping with Doorman, which ensures you never have another package stolen from your doorstep. Available in a number of major cities, the app provides users with an address where they can have packages sent. A Doorman representative receives the package (and signs for it if need be), and then alerts the recipient it has arrived via the app. App users can then schedule the delivery of their packages when they're home, anytime between 6 pm and midnight. Even better, Doorman will hold on to packages up to 30 days, just in case you're doing a little traveling and aren't home to receive that big box. Doorman requires a monthly subscription, with pricing starting at $3.99 per package or $19/month. The top-of-the-line subscription runs $29/month and includes package pickups as well as deliveries.

Price: Free

Vacations are great, planning them is not. Instead of using a dozen of apps to keep track of hotels, airlines, and destinations—just power up Google Trips. Planning vacations is a perfect application of Google's extensive search powers. It's simple design simply makes the decision a no-brainer. 

Price: Free

With iOS 8, Apple finally added the ability to install third-party keyboards on your phone, and Swiftkey is one of the best options available. The keyboard learns how you type and adapts to your unique tapping style over time, meaning you'll be able to type faster with fewer typos. If Swiftkey isn't quite your thing, you might also try Google's Gboard.

Price: Free

Evernote is essentially a virtual notebook you have with you everywhere—perfect for downloading whatever is bouncing around in your brain. You can make notes directly in the app, save images and articles from the web, upload pages from physical notebooks, and track tasks. Evernote can even handle audio files. The best part? Everything you add to Evernote is searchable, so you can find it next week (or even five years from now) quickly and easily.

Price: $3.99

It's not raining now, but should you bring your umbrella with you for a quick coffee run across the street? Dark Sky knows. The app is able to predict weather for your exact location, not just your city, down to the minute. The app also features stunningly beautiful maps bound to bring out everyone's inner weather nerd.

Price: Free

Remembering a unique password for every app and service you use is a nearly impossible task, and you should be using unique passwords. 1Password's new mobile version syncs with the desktop app to help keep your accounts safe by creating and storing a different secure password for all the services you use — all you have to remember is one password.

Price: Free

Apple's come a long way with its photo app, but it still lags behind the one built by its biggest competitor. Google Photos is a super-smart photo assistant that can store all your images in the cloud (a very less frustrating version of iCloud), and also intelligently organize photos using machine vision so all your snaps are searchable. Also, it creates mini-films when it notices a lot of photos from the same day or location. It's simply the best out there.

Price: Free

Beer lovers, keep track of every brew you drink with Untappd, a mobile social network of sorts. Check in different beers, rate them, and even send a virtual "cheers!" to a buddy when you like their most recent selection. Like Foursquare, you can earn badges for different types of check-ins, upload photos, find nearby bars with great selections, and share what you're drinking with friends.

Price: Free

Need to save money for an upcoming trip, pay down a loan, or figure out how you overspent so much last month last much? We recommend Mint, a much loved app that pulls all your accounts (credit cards, loans, banks, investments, and more) into one place. It gives you insight into how you're spending, giving you tools to set budgets, lets you break down spending by category, and offers reminders for upcoming bills.

Price (Instapaper): $3/mo

Price (Pocket): $5/mo

Reading on the internet can be an overwhelming experience with social networks, messaging, email, and personal assistants all serving up possible reads. Instapaper and Pocket help tame that information deluge. Pocket tends to be best with multimedia while Instapaper guns for the perfect reading experience no matter what.

Price (IFTTT): Free

Price (Workflow): $3

These apps are for pros but can make your smartphone experience one of a kind. The app creates, well, workflows with a series of "actions" that can do all sorts of things. Essentially, you create mini-apps that you can then run in an app, home screen or share extension. If all of this sounds somewhat daunting, you can also try out IFTTT (If This Then That), which also helps automate the ins and outs of your smartphone life. 

Price: Free

One of the app darlings of 2016, Prisma is a photo filter app that's unlike any other. Instead of tinting your photos which any photo app can do, Prisma loads incredibly detailed filters—many mimicking famous artists—to create truly unique pics. It's also been updated to support video and the most impressive thing about the app is that all of these effects can be applied super quickly, so you can share your latest creation as soon as possible.

Price (Overcast): Free

Price (Pocket Casts): $4

We're in the middle of a podcast renaissance, and you need the right tools to listen effectively. Overcast and Pocket Casts are your best options for iOS. Although Overcast is free compared to Pocket Casts ($4), they share a similar feature set though Pocket Casts has a slightly better design. Either way, you'll be a happy listener.

Price: Free

End-to-end encryption is what you should be looking for in any messenger you use. Although popular options like WhatsApp and Allo offer the feature, it's Signal from Open Whisper Systems that really gets the tech right. 

WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) and Allo (made by Google) are companies with an incentive to gather data on its users (they also store data), but Signal has no business model and exists just through donations and grants. If the government comes knocking for your information, Signal has absolutely nothing to give them, which is exactly the kind of chat protection you want.