How do you organize your Apps?

[Jack Flash]

When I first started to use the AppStore I had a very disorganized system for managing my Apps. I decided to think over the problem and looked at the different kinds of Apps I had.

Eventually I decided on four categories; Productivity, Media, Games and Utilities. I assigned them pages in that order. While I limit myself to just 16 apps per page (and 68 total) I've found this is the optimal usage of the "canvas" the iPhone provides. To help locating an App I alphabetize inside the categories.

And example of my system can be seen below:

Productivity

1. Amazon Mobile
2. Bank of America
3. Calendar
4. eBay Mobile
5. Evernote
6. Feeds
7. Maps
8. Nimbuzz
9. Notes
10. PayPal
11. Safari
12. Stocks
13. Twinkle
14. USA Today
15. Weather
16. Wikiamo

Media

1. AppStore
2. Classics
3. Music
4. Now Playing
5. Pandora
6. Photos
7. Remote
8. Scribble
9. Simplify Media
10. Videos
11. YouTube
12. iTunes

Games

1. Amateur Surgeon
2. Chopper
3. Crossbones
4. Enigmo
5. Fieldrunners
6. JellyCar
7. MotionX Dice
8. Moto Chaser
9. Paper Football
10. Rolando
11. Snail Mail
12. Texas Hold’Em
13. Topple
14. Touch Physics
15. Trace

Utilities

1. Calculator
2. Clock
3. Keynote Remote
4. Light
5. Settings
6. Speed Test
7. TipStar
8. Units
9. WiFinder

Dock

1. 1Password (Utilities)
2. Mail (Productivity)
3. Things (Productivity)
4. Facebook (Productivity)

I keep a list on my Mac as a means of backing up this information. For the Apps in the Dock I record what category they were originally placed in in the event I switch something out.

So, how do YOU organize your App Store Apps?

 

[DavieBoy]

Good idea taking notes of what order my apps are in, I love to restore my phone to keep it sharp, then i go through hell figuring out where I had everything.


My dock is
Phone
SMS
Mail
Settings
These seem to be things I need all the time. Or they are the communication portion of my phone.

Also I never use the bottom row because I like the separation of Apps from the communication.

Page 1 - All the stock apps

Page 2 - Utility Apps
Remote, iCam, Remote Pad, AIM
PhoneFlix, TiVo*, IMDB*, eBay
Air Sharing, MobileFiles, Filemagnet, Flashlight.

I know i have 2 redundant apps, airsharing was free and is the best but i already paid money for filemagnet so it stays for now.

Page 3 - News, search and sports
NYTimes, msnbc*, Abc News, USA Today
Google, Wikipedia*, GraigSearch, Netflix Instant Queue.
ESPN*, Yankees*, Mets*, MLB*

Page 4 - Quotes, Jokes, ect
Simpsons Quotes* Groucho Marx Quotes*, Family Guy Quotes*, iChuck
Now Playing, Koi Pond, Hypnosis, Speed Test
Apple.com*, my job's website*, Google Docs of my 1000+ dvd collection*, Endless walls.

Page 5 - Games
Ironman, Lego Batman, Batmobile, Texas Holdem'
Asphalt4, Motochaser, Gromag Rally, Crash Cart
Guitar Rock Tour, Puzzloop, Bejeweled 2, Pool

Page 6 - Games continued
ToyBot, ToyBot 2, Pinball RC, Domino
iMindsweeper, Mr. Sodoko (thanks machiest), Air Hockey, Tris
BreakClassic, Labyrinth LE, Four Free, Checkers

Page 7 - More Games
Video Poker, Live Poker, 21 Pro, iSlots
Sol Free Solitare, Tunnels, Tic Tac Toe, Space Monkey
RhinoBall, Audi A4, OmNomNom, Zombie

Page 8 and 9 other junk
Adlibs, TouchReflex (Captain Marvel Icon), Shazam, Dark Knight, Lightsaber, ESPN Cameraman, Bubblewrap, MiniPiano, More Cowbell, App Store and iTunes store, Contacts, AOL Radio,iheartradio.....


* = website or webapp

 

[jmccullough108]

Great thread!

1st Page: Default icons, and contacts

2nd Page: Arcade bowl, cannon, dance, digidrummer, fieldrunners, flick bowling, flick fishing, icopter, ocarina, papi jump +, removem, rick pro, tap tap, tetris, wurdle

3rd Page: App Sniper, Balance, Facebook, iheartradio, newsstand, pandora, shazam, slacker, TWC, twinkle, wunder radio

4th Page: Cydia, Winterboard

 

[hellomoto4]

I'm not as organised as the rest of you!

First page is original apps, with contacts, and then my most favorite app.
Then it's just descending order from most to less used starting from page 2

 

[KRAPPS]

Cool thread ... love to read how others organize to get/implement ideas

Dock = Phone, iPod, Camera & Favorater

1st Page = most original apps except no Maps, Stocks, Notes, Contacts, Contacts, Weather, Settings .... then a "mixture" of app I use most: The Weather Channel, Byline, TextLater & Twittelator Pro

2nd and 3rd Pages = Utilities & Misc: Evernote, Air Sharing, Shazam, Mobile Fotos, eBay, Sportacular, i.TV, Easy Wi-Fi, Facebook, etc.

4th Page = Games

5th Page & Beyond = pending apps (KRAPPS) for review on blog

 

[domness]

My first page is the very original that comes with the iPhone, the dock is the same too (I sometimes hate change!)

The second page is for my most used other apps, ie. Twinkle, Cydia, Beejive, Facebook, MMS (And my own apps).

The third page contains random cool games, and my fourth page contains jailbroken apps.

 

[Watabou]

Well I'm kinda organized. I only have apps that I definitely use every day or so and some apps for fun.

On the Dock, its just Safari, Mail, SMS and iPod because I use them most often.

On the first page, its all the standard apps plus facebook.

On the second page, its all the games. Snail Mail, 7cities TD, Scoops, Tap Tap Revenge, 2079, cro-mag(I don't use this a lot but just keep it, in case I get bored), Fuzzle, Crash, Feint I, Monopoly, DropShip, Dr. Awesome and others.

On the third page are all the productivity apps/ media apps like Shazam, Pandora, NetNewsWire (which I use every day btw), Evernote, Air Sharing, Ocarina, USA today, Pianist, Now Playing, Palringo and I can't remember others. Haha.

Yep, I only have three pages of apps. I used to fill all nine but found my sync timings really going down and the iPhone slowing down at times.

 

[LostLogik]

Well I tried to be organized but find that new additions always muck that up because of the constant shuffling needed. But generally it is most used apps on page 1 and 2, followed by Utilities and Games. That's the loose line up but as I now have 6 pages, it sort of got a bit muddled.

Dock
Smart Dial, Mail, Safari, iPod

Page 1
Weather, Calc, Phone, Photos
Camera, Calendar, Clock, Contacts
Text, Notes, App Store, Facebook
Settings, OmniFocus, eWallet, NetNewsWire

Page 2
Maps, FourTack, Chords, PhotoFrame
BeatMaker, Noise.io Pro, DataCase, Remote
Truphone, Nimbuzz, Beejive, MyRail Lite
Mobile Files, BibleReader, PockeMoney, AppSniper

Page 3
Guitarist, iTunes, eBay, Google
NightTime, EasyWifi, Printer, HP iPrint
iNeedStuff, Shozu, iTalk, The Times (bookmark)
HandBase, COED&T, Jaadu VNC, Snatch

Page 4
TV Plus, Cube Runner, TanZen, X-Plane
WunderRadio, Scrabble, Photogene, Chopper
Crash Kart, iBlogger, Hanoi, MMS
Ocarina, Uno, BetaTesting game #1 (can't name), Whack'emAll

Page 5
Guitar Hero, Warfare Inc, BetaTesting game #2, Pro Football
iPint (why's that still there!!), MeterRead, YouTube, Dice
Stocks, Koi Pond, Shakespeare, Fieldrunners
Lux Touch, Sim City, BlueSkies, Inotia

Page 6
MyDelicious, iShoot, Model Train, BIA
BetaTest game #3,

 

[messedkid]

Dock: Music, Video, Mail, App store

Page 1: Default apps.

Page 2: Interwebs/social networking apps.

Amazon
google
facebook
myspace
beejive

Page 3: Paid-for games.

Crash bandicoot
Monkey Ball
Bejeweled2
Tetris
TapTarget (was free)
Topple (got it as a promo)
fingerboarding game (forget the name...forgot touch at home )
Simcity

Page 4: Free Games

alot!!

Page 5: Free Games cont'd

alot!!

Page 6: WoW apps.

Again...can't recall actual names.
Characters (armory)
Server Status (see if my server is up yet on tuesdays )
... (looking up items from instances/raid drops)
... (talent spec app...awesome murloc sound effect )

 

[Zincous]

I love this question. It's really neat to see how other people organize their apps. Since I have such a system for myself set in place.

Here's how I do it:

Dock- Phone, SMS, Mail, Safari
1st page- Stock apps
2nd page- My best/Favorite/Most used Utilities/productivity and social networking apps.
3rd page- My secondary useful utilities and productivity apps.
4th page- My best games
5th page- Next best games
6th page- Next best games
7th page- Next best games
8th page- Next best games
9th page- Random crap/just testing out apps before I delete them.

Each page is separately alphabetized. And the most I put on a page is 14. I use the two spaces in the bottom right corner as extra space and a place for me to place and swipe my finger to go through the pages (so I don't accidentally open up an app, and so I have room when moving all my apps around)

 

[Yasic]

I never know what's best for me but right now it's like this:

Page 1: Most used
SMS
Calendar
Photos
Camera
Weahter
Youtube
Calc
Contacts
Maps
Facebook
Fring
Files
Remote
Clock
App Store
Settings

Page 2: Web Tools
Translator
Geopedia
Mobile News
NYTimes
Locly
Wikipanion
Air Shairing
Several Links
Google Earth
teXXas
Hotcity
Television
Accu Weather
TV Movie

Page 3: Games for short gaming sessions
TanZen
Hanoi
Skippy Lite
Sol Free
Labyrinth
Tris
Brain Tuner Lite
Fuzzle
Bejeweled
Trism
Darts
Done Drinking
iShoot Lite

Page 4: Games for longer gaming sessions
DizzyBee
Cro-Mag
Monkey Ball
TapTap
Asphalt
ToyBot
Bugdom
vegasPool
RhinoBall
MotoChaser
iFishingLite
Armado
Touchgrind

Page 5: Music
Tuner
midomi
Guitar ToolKit
Karajan...
zxilophone
Pianist
Scratch
Band
Beatmaker
Decibel
Ocarina
RjDj Single

Page 6: Misc
Scribble
Notes
iTunes
Flashlight
Clinometer
Vringo
Speedtest
Stocks
nature SDS
Easy Relax
Drinks Free
Big Oven
iFitness
PhotoBuddy

 

[SFC Archer]

These are mine in order and my last page is all the left over stuff I do not use:

 

[Small White Car]

Page 1: Most Used
Page 2: Less Used
Page 3: Least Used

I find the idea of organizing by categories to be a bit strange. I want my most-used game next to my most-used productivity app. That way I'm not sliding back and forth constantly all day.

I go down to the other pages when I need them, but going back and forth constantly wouldb be really annoying.

 

[Jeremy1026]

Alphabetically.

 

[trentiles]

Page 1: Most Used
Page 2: Less Used
Page 3: Least Used

I find the idea of organizing by categories to be a bit strange. I want my most-used game next to my most-used productivity app. That way I'm not sliding back and forth constantly all day.

I go down to the other pages when I need them, but going back and forth constantly wouldb be really annoying.

Mine is set up the same way. Out of the 4 screens of apps I have I probably only use a handful of those on a daily basis, so those are up front.

 

[Small White Car]

Mine is set up the same way. Out of the 4 screens of apps I have I probably only use a handful of those on a daily basis, so those are up front.

I probably spend my time like this:

Page 1: 45%
Page 2: 50%
Page 3: 5%

I used to have a page 4, but as it was used even less than page 3 I decided I could live without those apps.

 

[KRAPPS]

I wish there was a way to organize these apps online/iTunes and then sync back to your iPhone ... freaking pain to drag those shaking icons through pages of apps in efforts to find its new home.

 

[OneMike]

I use 5 icon doc then four icons at the top and everything else organized in four category folders "apps," "games," "tools" and "settings."

Works best for me.

Without using the category app I folded the same order .