What's on Our Mobile Home Screens — Revisited!

Last year we produced an article highlighting our phone homescreens. As digital marketers we are tied to our phones and our home screens reflect it. If you haven't yet, give our article from last year a read for context. It's cool, take your time (when you click this link it will open the article in a new window so you won't lose your place), we will wait for you.

*Pause*

Now that you're caught up on what was on our home screens last year, you can check out what has changed for us. 


Chris's Mobile ScreenPrincipal Chris Strom

Chris's home screen reflects the fast-paced nature of digital marketing. In keeping up with the times, Chris stopped using separate apps for text messages and Facebook messages, and now uses Facebook Messenger for both, this streamlines his communication proccess and keeps all of his personal messages in one place. Speaking of messages, one app you will notice is recurring on most of our homescreens is Slack. Since the last time we wrote about our home screens we replaced HipChat with Slack. Continuing in the business motif, Chris added a new app called Databox to his homescreen because he uses it several times a week to keep track of our clients' marketing/sales stats (if you haven't heard of Databox, we highly suggest it). For Chris's personal use he has moved Instagram to a top spot on his homescreen. Chris also added a weather app to my homescreen so he doesn't have to manually look up the weather forecast anymore (editors note: if he would just switch Apple he wouldn't have to add a weather app). This year Chris is putting all of those "get fit" New Years Resolutions to shame and he started using a Fitbit, so the app is now on his homescreen. Finally, Chris subscribed to the New York Times to support journalism. If Chris's homescreen updates are an indicator, we will be in for quite the update across the rest of the article.


Seth's Mobile ScreenProject Manager Seth Fendley (Myself)

Most of the changes you can see to my homescreen have come in the reorganization of folders. Also with my new iPhone 7 I have a few more tools at my finger tips such as Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. I have added a Rewards folder where I keep track of my various Rewards apps such as Frontier, Southwest, Wyndham, Ibotta, etc. Outside of the new folders there really are not a lot of updates to my phone. As noted earlier we switched from Hipchat to Slack so you can see that icon in the Productivity folder. One thing you will notice is I do not keep "work" apps such as Google Drive or any of the HubSpot apps on my phone. This is because I have begun using tethering more often if I cannot access WiFi. Tethering has allowed me to stay more connected than ever over the past year. Due to my wife's job I have been traveling more frequently and I maximize my work by using a laptop instead of trying to work on my phone screen which is smaller and can be more difficult to navigate. Last year, I did not have many apps on my phone because I only had 16GB of storage. My new iPhone has 128GB of storage so I would imagine my update next year will feature a significant change in the amount of apps I use because I will have space to be able to use apps more than before.


Laura's Mobile ScreenProject Manager Laura Moes

Laura has quite a few updates, she has split her updates into six different notes to help us keep track (Thanks for that Laura!). First, Laura added King Soopers and 21Day Fix (replacing her Weight Watchers app) to her Meal folder. Second, she added 1st Bank, Venmo, T-Mobile, VirginMobile, and Wallet to her Finance folder. Third, Laura moved all of her social media into one new social folder. The folder includes: Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Nextdoor, Slack, GroupMe, Team App, and Messenger. Fourth, Laura has some new additions to her Travel folder: she added Southwest airlines, uber, & a compass. Fifth, she added OverDrive for reading books & WunderList. Finally, she moved YouTube to front page and moved Dictionary into Games category. Laura also has a second homescreen page but she does not use them much -- Mazda Assist & MyMazda for her new car (Congrats!). Fox 31 News channel, and Companion app which is a safety app for walking home alone.

Laura uses the following apps the most: Calendar, Messages, Mail, Facebook, Camera, Clock for reminders, Phone, and FindMyFriends app to locate her family when they are out & about.



Danielle's Mobile ScreenProject Manager Danielle Best

Danielle is one of two of our Project Managers who have welcomed a new baby into their family in the past year. Congrats to Danielle! Due to this life change most of Danielle's changes to her home screen are due to her latest family addition.  Danielle added three baby apps: Wonder Weeks, Vroom, and Baby pics. Wonder Weeks breaks down the 10 developmental "leaps" babies make in their first 24 months so you know what they are learning, when, and also signals fussy weeks. Vroom offers activity suggestions based on age to help develop baby brains. Baby pics is a monthly filter for growth tracking. Two other apps Danielle added were Cartwheel by Target and Ibotta, both of which help you get money back for grocery purchases. Danielle noted she still prefers organizational buckets but she felt like she should probably rename them. While this is a picture of her home screen, she wanted everyone to know she has a few other screens, but the others just have one app or widget so she can clear the screen and see her son's face in the background :) (if you look through the organizational buckets you can see why!). 

 


Project Manager Courtney Williams

Courtney is similar to Danielle in that she uses three "home screens" because she does not want her main screen to be too cluttered. Courtney has added twins to her family since our last article (Congrats Courtney!) and she has also added a new Galaxy 7 to the mix. She wanted you guys to know she's still not an Apple fan. *Editors note, if you're keeping count, that's three team members with iPhones, two without, we have a pretty clear line between the ones of us who prefer iOS and those who do not. Back to the home screen update though. Courtney has added two baby apps. The first one is the one second everyday app which mashes together 1 or 1.5 second videos for a selected time period. It's really cool to use for the first year when babies have the most drastic growth. The second app is a lullabies app which Courtney says is a must for fussy babies and naptime on the go. It doesn't have annoying commercials like you get with Pandora. The school Courtney's girls' attend uses the Tadpole app to post pics and notes from their day at school. Courtney has also recently moved to Olympia, WA, and she has added the No Wait app which is very helpful to see which restaurants have a wait time in her area and she can "get in line" through the app. If there is an awesome breakfast place in town that doesn't take reservations (like Snooze), and she doesn't have to stand outside for 45 minutes+ waiting for a table thanks to the app. Courtney's final addition isn't an app, it's a widget, but still a very helpful change she made. Using the full view calendar widget on her third homepage makes it easier to see everything at a glance, especially when she had a ton of doctor appointments for her twins on a regular basis. 

Courtney's Mobile ScreenCourtney's Mobile Screen 2Courtney's Mobile Screen 3


Monica's Mobile Screen 2Monica's Mobile Screen[Bonus] Project Manager Monica Evans

Not really a bonus but since the last article we have a new Project Manager on our team. Monica's home screen then is an introduction into how she uses her phone as a project manager at ClearPivot. Monica has a very minimilistic screen. She uses two home screens to cut down on the content she has. On her 1st screen Gmail, calendar, and map in one bucket. Then photos, camera, phone and hangouts along the bottom. She also has messenger on the front screen. On her 2nd screen she has her social media apps in one folder and ride shares in the other folder. Monica also lives in Austin and for the last year they did not have Uber or Lyft so there were a bunch of Austin-specific ride sharing apps to keep track of.

In conclusion, there has not been much update to how we use our home screens as marketers. Most of our changes have come through personal app updates to our phones. Chris and Ryan have added a few tools which are helpful to their processes but aside from that it does not seem there have been many shifts in mobile tools for marketers.

If you have been reading through this article and noticed a must-have app that none of us are yet carrying on our phones, reach out to us on social media and give us suggestions. We are always looking for new tools and would love to hear from you!

This has been just a brief view into one aspect of our work at ClearPivot. If you like what you see and would like to learn more about our work, give our Case Studies e-book a download! You can hear about some of our previous projects and the results we have gained for them - both on our computers and our mobile devices.