What’s on your phone, Caiubi?

Editor's note: Every week, I publish the phone's home screen from a blog reader. Want to participate? Fill out this form. Want more? Check out the archive. All app links go to the App Store, Play Store, or F-Droid.

What is your name and what do you do?

My name is Caiubi Nogueira, and I have a bachelor's degree and teaching certificate in psychology. I am currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology at UFRN. In my (non) spare time, I work as a designer and motion designer.

What phone and operating system do you use?

Galaxy S24 Ultra with OneUI 7.

Tell us a little about your wallpaper.

My wallpaper is of my fiancée. In addition to being a reminder of a happy moment, it also represents the companionship in our relationship. And the shade of green looks cool with my phone case and watch (green Galaxy Watch), hehe.

The wallpaper on my home screen is a photo of the sunrise that I took with a Mavic Mini in Tenente Laurentino Cruz. This is the highest city in Rio Grande do Norte (RN) state in Brazil. It's usually our place of refuge.

Why is your home screen the way it is?

I migrated from iOS to Android in early 2025. For a long time, I didn't understand the functionality of the home screen because I found it much easier to simply search for the app in the library.

For the past few months, I've only put the apps I use most when I pick up my phone on the home screen.

As I write about it, I'm thinking and rethinking the usefulness of each element on the home screen. For example, I keep the Apple Music widget and app icon even though clicking on the widget takes me to the app. I hadn't realized before that it could be redundant.

But I also think that my memory has gotten used to it this way, so it's okay to keep it. Especially because I've been putting my phone aside more and more in my daily life, as I spend more time on the computer.

Tell us a little about the widgets you use.

Before, the first one was purely aesthetic. I lived in a city — Mossoró (RN) — that didn't have much climate change: it varied from intense heat to excessive heat. I moved to Natal (RN) and although the weather is still somewhat predictable, sometimes it rains unexpectedly.

Below is a gallery with some “stories” that OneUI itself organizes. I think it's nice to keep memories of certain moments.

Just below is a stack of widgets: Apple Music, for faster music control; Waterminder, to record water consumption (I'm very afraid of one day having kidney stones); and Pocket Casts.

Which apps do you use the most?

Definitely WhatsApp, even though I don't like it and don't want to. But it must be a common choice here. After that, the ranking is more of the same: Apple Music and Google Maps.

When I stop to film with my phone, I like to use Blackmagic Camera because of some of its more manual features.

In my free time, I also play Brawl Stars.

What is the most obscure/strange/surprising app you use that you would like more people to know about?

By far, Readest. It's a free, multi-platform *.epub cloud-synced reader. For a long time, I looked for one that would work across devices to organize my reading.

When I used iOS, I really liked the native app experience, but it bothered me too much to have to find the page of the book even when I went to the iPad.

Readest not only syncs your reading progress, but also keeps your highlights, comments, etc.

It's definitely the best app I've come across in recent years. And I discovered it here in Manual!

Finally, any message?

In this space, I thought a lot about my phone screens. The constant accumulation of apps often turns screens into chaotic and unintuitive spaces. Now, I plan to do a deep clean of the ones I actually use and, of those, which ones need to be at the forefront of my use.