# Default Apps 2026

By Saurabh Kumar · Oct 21, 2026 · Tags: tools

Source: https://saurabh-kumar.com/articles/2026/10/default-apps-2026/

> Here are my Default Apps of 2026.

Apps I've been using regularly this year. This is my second year doing this.
Here is [last year's list](https://saurabh-kumar.com/articles/2025/11/default-apps-2025/). Inspired by
[Jeff Triplett](https://micro.webology.dev/2025/10/29/default-apps-here-are-my/)
and catalogued by Robb Knight's [App Defaults](https://defaults.rknight.me/).

### What changed since 2025

- **AI took over a big chunk of my day.** [Pi] is my core harness, I live in
  [Pi Web], and I'm trying [Pi Pocket] on the side. Agents now do most of my
  version control too.
- **Arc → [Zen]** for work. Close to Arc, well maintained, no feature bloat.
  Safari stays for personal browsing.
- **iTerm2 → [Ghostty]**, a thin layer over [herdr], a multiplexer built for AI
  agents. Setup in my [dotfiles]: [Ghostty config], [herdr config], and
  [notes on how I use herdr].
- **Raycast → [Tinycast]**, a tiny native launcher. Alfred is gone too.
- **Cursor is out.** Mostly [Zed] now, with its AI turned off.
- **Edison Mail → Apple Mail**, plus Gmail on the web when I need it.
- **Photoshop and Lightroom → [darktable]** and GIMP.
- **Pages → Google Docs.** I hardly open Pages anymore.
- **Perplexity → [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/) and [Newsboat]**,
  next to NetNewsWire.
- **Raindrop.io is gone.** My [TIL](https://saurabh-kumar.com/til/) and personal wiki replaced bookmarks.
- **New:** a tiling window manager ([OmniWM]), dictation ([Wispr Flow]), and
  [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/) in place of Zscaler.
- **More small Mac utilities:** Mole for cleanup, UsagePal for AI limits, Thaw,
  Amphetamine, and AlDente.
- **Todoist joined** and jj joined lazygit. Bullet Journal use dropped a bit.

### The list

- **Mail Client**: Apple Mail, Gmail in browser
- **Notes**: [Obsidian], [Simplenote]
- **To-Do**: [Todoist](https://todoist.com/), [Bullet Journal](https://bulletjournal.com/)
- **Photo Shooting**: iPhone, Canon 6D
- **Photo Editing**: [darktable], [GIMP]
- **Calendar**: [Notion Calendar](https://www.notion.com/product/calendar), Google Calendar on the web
- **Cloud File Storage**: iCloud + Google Drive
- **RSS**: [NetNewsWire], [Newsboat] in the terminal
- **Contacts**: Apple Contacts & Google Contacts
- **Browser**: [Zen] for work, Safari for personal
- **Chat**: Apple Messages, Slack, Discord, Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram
- **Bookmarks**: none. My [TIL](https://saurabh-kumar.com/til/) and personal wiki replaced them
- **Read It Later**: Safari Reading List
- **Word Processing**: Google Docs
- **Spreadsheets**: Google Sheets
- **Presentations**: Figma
- **Shopping Lists**: Amazon
- **Budgeting and Personal Finance**: [paisa](https://paisa.fyi/), with [ledger](https://ledger-cli.org/) underneath
- **News**: [NetNewsWire], [Newsboat], [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/)
- **Music**: YouTube Music on the web, not much
- **Audiobooks**: Audible
- **Password Management**: 1Password and Apple Passwords
- **Code Editor**: [Zed] with AI disabled, plus [T3 Code](https://t3.codes/) and others now and then
- **AI Harness**: [Pi], [Pi Web], trying [Pi Pocket]
- **Dictation**: [Wispr Flow], [Muesli](https://muesli.works/) for local transcription
- **VPN**: [AdGuard], [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/)

### Bonus Items

Important enough to include here, ordered roughly by how often I rely on each.

- Launcher: [Tinycast]
- Window Manager: [OmniWM], trying out [TrellisWM](https://trelliswm.app/)
- Ad Blocking: [AdGuard]
- Terminal: [Ghostty] + [herdr] with zsh and [Starship]
- Search Engine: DuckDuckGo and Google
- Version Control: [lazygit](https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit) and [jj](https://github.com/jj-vcs/jj), trying [Hunk](https://github.com/modem-dev/hunk) for diffs. AI does most of it now.
- Screenshots: [CleanShot X](https://cleanshot.com/)
- Mac Cleanup: [Mole](https://mole.fit/), a CLI that cleans caches, uninstalls apps, and frees up disk
- AI Usage Tracking: [UsagePal](https://github.com/Halloweedev/usagepal), a menu bar app that tracks my AI subscription limits
- Menu Bar: [Thaw](https://github.com/thaw-app/Thaw) to hide the clutter
- Keep Awake: [Amphetamine](https://apps.apple.com/app/amphetamine/id937984704)
- Battery: [AlDente](https://apphousekitchen.com/) to limit charging
- Local Dev: [OrbStack](https://orbstack.dev/), [Bruno](https://www.usebruno.com/) for APIs
- Mastodon Client: [Mastonaut](https://www.mastonaut.app/)
- Code Repositories: GitHub
- Reading: Kindle
- Writing: [WriteText](https://writetext.io/), [Obsidian], [Zed]
- Design: Figma, [GIMP]
- App + Server Monitoring: Sentry
- Brainstorming: [Obsidian]
- Video Calls: Meet, Zoom
- Snippet Sharing: GitHub Gist
- Project Management: Linear, Jira

[Obsidian]: https://obsidian.md
[NetNewsWire]: https://netnewswire.com/
[Zed]: https://zed.dev/
[AdGuard]: https://adguard.com/en/welcome.html
[Zen]: https://zen-browser.app/
[Ghostty]: https://ghostty.org/
[herdr]: https://herdr.dev/
[dotfiles]: https://github.com/theskumar/dotfiles
[Ghostty config]: https://github.com/theskumar/dotfiles/blob/master/ghostty/ghostty/config
[herdr config]: https://github.com/theskumar/dotfiles/blob/master/herdr/herdr/config.toml
[notes on how I use herdr]: https://github.com/theskumar/dotfiles/blob/master/docs/HERDR.md
[Starship]: https://starship.rs/
[Tinycast]: https://github.com/abue-ammar/tinycast
[darktable]: https://www.darktable.org/
[OmniWM]: https://omniwm.app/
[Wispr Flow]: https://wisprflow.ai/
[Pi]: https://pi.dev/
[Pi Web]: https://pi-web.dev/
[Simplenote]: https://simplenote.com/
[GIMP]: https://www.gimp.org/
[Newsboat]: https://newsboat.org/
[Pi Pocket]: https://tannermidd.github.io/pi-pocket/