iPad and iPhone owners have over 2 million apps to choose from in the official app store. Some of them are free, some require payment, and not all are worth the price tag they come with. Some of the free apps are fantastic, while some paid apps are nothing more than a waste of time and money. Finding the right app for what you want isn’t that easy, and running through the app store takes time.

The iPhone is getting better with every year that passes; new features, both in hardware and system capabilities, mean that we can do so much more but, to get the best out of our devices, we need the right apps. We can listen to music, watch movies, set updates, order food, track our fitness, etc.

To help you out, we thought we’d have a dig through the app store and see what we could find, and the apps we list below are ten of the best must-have apps for the iPhone.

Top 10 Popular Apps for iPhone, iOS

iPhone Apps for 2020

There are several significant names on this listing, but you’ll notice we avoided recommending the big social media apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. It’s not because we don’t think they are worth having, merely because most people already use them. Instead, we found other apps that offer cool features, some free and some paid, that we think are worth the effort.

1. TikTok – Free

TikTok is one of the top-rated social video apps with a difference. Released in 2016, it took three years for the app to take off, and, in November 2019, the number of downloads passed 1.5 billion. It also came in third, after WhatsApp and Messenger, in the non-gaming apps list.

TikTok allows you to find and download short videos of people dancing, lip-syncing to their favorite tunes, and other talent videos, and you can even create and upload your own. It is a Chinese-owned app and is free to download and use. You can download this app without having to use the Unc0ver jailbreak on your iPhone.

2. Disney Plus – $6.99 per month | Popular Apps for iPhone

Disney Plus is proving an incredibly popular streaming service since its launch just a short while ago, in November 2019. It attracted more than 10 million subscribers every day and has only grown and grown as each month passes. The app offers you access to more than 500 Disney movies and more than 7500 episodes of Disney TV shows, including many classics.

You can find Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, The Simpsons, The Mandalorian, and many more. Already improvements have been made to the streaming service, including a pause/resume button. The app requires a subscription of $6.99 per month, although there is occasionally a free trial on offer. And, if you have Verizon, you get a full year’s subscription for free. Your container downloads the app from the AppCake app store.

3. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite – Free, in-app purchases | Popular Apps for iPhone

In 2019, The Harry Potter: Wizards Unite app proved to be the most popular augmented reality game, straight from the Pokémon GO creators. In the game, you have to fight to save the famous characters from the Harry Potter book and movie series, competing against weird and wonderful magical creatures and dark wizards.

The sport is performed by driving around in a real environment, following a map on your iPhone.Similar to Pokémon GO, the app has proved that AR-based gaming is here to stay and even grossed over a million dollars on its first weekend of launch. Free to download and play, there are some in-app purchases. You can download this app from the CokerNutX app store.

4. BillGuard – Free | Popular Apps for iPhone

Most of us can hold our hands up and say that we don’t look after our finances and perhaps should, at least, not all the time. BillGuard is one of the coolest iPhone apps, sharing many features with the biggest bank apps and further.

With BillGuard, you can easily manage your spending habits, as the app makes you aware of odd spending patterns and reminds you of bills that need to be paid, now and in the future. If you are getting charged for a service you may not even use now, the app will tell you about it, so you can do something about canceling it. It is a free app, and it is straightforward to use.

5. Duolingo – Free

One of the most popular learning language tools has always been Rosetta Stone, but not everyone can afford the fees charged. We don’t have to worry because Duolingo is an incredibly useful language-learning tool that is now free for the iPhone.

It may well be free, but there is no doubt that Duolingo is a premium app, that provides you with free lessons to become a pro at whatever language you choose. Learning is personalized to your specific style.

You can instantly see what you get right and wrong. There are virtual rewards to give you the incentive and motivation you need. With more than 38 languages to choose from, the app has now passed more than 300 million registered global users.

6. YouTube – Free, subscription available

YouTube hasn’t always had the easiest of times on the iOS platform, and, back with iOS 6, Apple made it disappear from the app store. Under the ownership of Google, it’s again on the app store, and it’s as strong as it ever was.

Most people have heard of YouTube, and millions of people use the desktop app every day to watch videos and upload their own.

There are millions of videos on the platform, from comedy channels, vloggers, how-to videos, and unboxing/reviews to movies, compilations, music, etc. It is free to use but ad-supported, and there is now the option of a subscription service called YouTube Premium.

It will cost you $12 per month, but you get an ad-free experience, download videos, watch them offline, watch videos on a locked iPhone screen, etc.

7. Houseparty – Free, in-app purchases

Houseparty is one of the world’s biggest apps at the moment, giving users an easy way to keep in contact with their friends and family, right from the comfort of their own homes.

It’s a contact app with a difference, though; instead of waiting for you to place a call and then waiting for invitees to attend, Houseparty will notify you when your contacts come online and let you know if there are any ongoing calls you can join in with. Or you can start an appeal of your own. There are in-app games to play with your friends and quizzes too.

8. Uber Eats Food Delivery – free

Uber Eats make ordering a dead meal simple, especially if you are already an Uber user. Look through the menus from restaurants or takeaways in your area, place your order and pay through the app (you will need to link a debit or credit card.) You get sent an estimated delivery time and a way of tracking your order in real time. Eating “out” has never been more relaxed.

9. GroupMe – Free, in-app purchases

GroupMe is another chatting app, but this time with a difference. If you are always taking part in group chats, GroupMe lets you bring them together and track them. Add people to your groups using their phone numbers, and they don’t even need to download GroupMe to participate in a chat – they can do it via SMS.

You can give your group names, and set up avatars, and if people send you videos or photos, you can save them to the app. And this is more of a design app for desktop computers, saving you from having to get your iPhone out to chat.

10. Meditopia – Free, in-app purchases

Meditation is a fantastic way of destressing, either before the day starts or at the end of it, and there’s no doubt that a few minutes a day can make all the difference. If you haven’t tried meditation yet, then Meditopia is an app worth looking at.

Rather than just focusing on helping you get a good night’s sleep or learning how to relax, Meditopia offers more than a thousand meditations covering a vast spectrum, including sexuality, body image, life purpose, and much more.

Even if you don’t have some deep issues right now, meditation is still a great way to wind down after a hard day’s work. It’s easy, but there are in-app purchases for some meditation exercises.

We gave this a lot of thought and didn’t just pick ten apps at random. The apps listed above are worth time and the effort to look at and the paid apps offer great value for money. They are just a tiny slice of what the official app store provides, but we had to stop somewhere.

Give these a chance; try them out, see what you think and share this with your friends to try some of the coolest apps on offer for the iPhone this year.