The only 28 apps you need to have on your iPhone home screen (AAPL)

By: Business Insider

December 01, 2015 at 14:11 PM EST

Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Which are the best apps you should be using?

We scoured the home screens of a dozen tech executives and sifted through the 100 best apps you can download to find the 28 essential apps for your homescreen.

Assuming you don't sort your apps into folders, and assuming you have a big iPhone like the 6S Plus, that's how many Apple allows you to see before having to flick to the next page of apps (six rows of four with four additional apps permanently stuck on the bottom of the screen).

You'll want to personalize some of our picks based on your habits. For example, you may want to use Hailo instead of Uber if you live in Europe. And you may want to use Chase instead of Mint if that's where you specifically bank.

Here are the best of the best apps, which deserve the most coveted real estate on your iPhone.

First, to download all these apps, you're going to want to have the Apple App Store handy, which is an app in and of itself. So go ahead and stick that on your home screen.Business Insider

The official Apple App Store will let you download or update any app on your device. So keep this shortcut handy.

Price: Free

Available on: iOS. It comes pre-loaded on your phone once it's activated.

You might as well keep the native Settings App on your homescreen too. You'll constantly need it to change things like location settings or to add WiFi information. Also keep the "Safari," "Phone," "Camera" and "Messages" native apps on your home screen, because you'll use these for most text messages, web-browsing, and to place most calls.Business Insider

Use these apps for basic phone functions, like setting your alarm, connecting to WiFi, sending text messages and calling friends. There are some substitute apps you could swap. For example you could use the Rise alarm clock app, but most people enjoy using Apple's native alarm clock app well enough.

There are a few other native Apple apps you'll want to keep on your home screen. Calendar is one of them, although you could sub a calendar alternative like Fantastical 2.YouTube/Screenshot

Fantastical 2 is an easy-t0-use iPhone calendar app if you're not satisfied with the native Apple calendar app. It will keep you organized and it will turn whatever you type into a calendar date.

For example you can type, "Meet with Alyson for lunch at Business Insider at noon and Fantastical will plug it in.

Price: $2.99 for Fantastical 2

Available: iOS

Facebook Messenger will help you easily chat with friends, even if their numbers aren't in your phone book.Facebook

Facebook’s decision to break Messenger out of its main app in 2014 turned out to be a very smart move. Messenger now has 700 million users worldwide, and it’s become much more than a way to send text messages to friends.

Messenger can now send money, make video and phone calls over the internet, and send stickers and animated GIFs with ease. When Facebook’s virtual assistant “M” becomes available outside of San Francisco, Messenger will be able to do anything from order a pair of shoes to call your cable company for you.

If the future is one app that does everything, Messenger is poised to be a big winner.

Price: Free

Available on: iOS, Android, web

Instagram is the best way to see what's going on with your friends, and with the people you wish were your friends.iTunes

Even after its acquisition by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012, Instagram has proven that it’s focused on what’s gotten it this far: the community.

“Calling Instagram a photo-sharing app is like calling a newspaper a letter-sharing book, or a Mozart grand era symphony a series of notes,” Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom recently told The Guardian. “Instagram is less about the medium and more about the network.”

Price: Free

Available on: iOS, Android, web

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