So, you're ready to buy a new iPhone, perhaps the iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro? What are you going to do with it...talk? The iPhone can do so much more than voice-to-voice or FaceTime communication. By exploring Apple's App Store, you can unearth apps that turn your iOS 16-powered handset (soon to be iOS 17-powered) into a fitness tracker, encyclopedia, or language-learning tool. If you can think of a potential iPhone use, it probably exists in app form.

However, finding those apps can be difficult. The App Store is packed with apps—it's millions deep. Some are wheat, some are chaff. Don't waste your time with chaff. Instead, use this guide to find the iPhone's top apps and hidden gems. After all, eventually you may be using these same apps with your Apple Vision Pro headset.

Our favorite apps cover a range of activities, including photo editing, social networking, messaging, getting organized, and staying healthy. There's even one that helps you cheaply fill your gas tank. We've broken this list into 12 relevant categories, so you can browse just the app types that most interest you.

In the past, this list also featured the coolest video games the App Store had to offer. The iPhone gaming scene has become so robust that we decided it deserved its own separate, expanded list: Check out our features covering the best iPhone games and the best Apple Arcade games. We show Apple's tablet line some love with the best iPad apps, too.

Cool new apps arrive on the App Store all the time, so we update this list as we make new discoveries. Have you become enthralled with an app we failed to mention? We'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment, and we might add your suggestion in our next update. And don't worry, Android users, we haven't forgotten about you—we have a separate roundup of the best Android apps, as well.