One of our modern challenges is to keep track of the things we actually want to spend on with the enormous amount of digital content available. Sofa is a sharp iOS app that wants to solve the problem with a simple yet customizable hub to organize movies, TV, music, books, podcasts, apps, games and more to check in the future. Along with a new banking update that landed today, we’ve entered the free iOS app for a closer look.
We have all probably tried to keep a basic note or reminder list on the iPhone with things we want to watch, listen to, read or try in the future. Sofa, created by Shawn Hickman, is based on the idea that the approach quickly becomes cluttered and inefficient, and a dedicated app specifically designed to organize content provides a much better experience.
In a new update released today, Sofa 2.13 got the option to add apps, audiobooks, and board games. Other handy additions are automatic backup on iCloud Drive, new export / import options, 11 new themes and the option to copy deep links.
Practical with sofa for iPhone and iPad
Sofa uses a very clean and simple user interface built on a single homepage. The top contains ‘The Pile’, which is a place to save things quickly or keep an eye on / organize later. Below you have a tile for ‘activity’ and next to it ‘themes’.
Below the top section, it’s right in ‘My Lists’. The standard list includes: shows, audiobooks, board games, books, movies, music albums, podcasts, TV shows, and video games. You can tap the + icon in the middle right to quickly add a new list or organize your lists into groups.
As shown above, it is also easy to edit an existing list by tapping the … icon in the top right corner. You can change from grid to list view, sort, rename or delete the list.
One UI choice that makes the app very easy to use is the floating + button that stays in the top right corner, whether you’re on the main screen or in a list.
Sofa has built a great integration with services like Apple Music and the App Store (as well as other books, movies, etc.) to pull in pictures, details and more. One thing to keep in mind is to tap on “search” before the results appear (no auto-suggestion in the search).
It’s easy to add content and choose which list you want to put on. There are even quick links to content such as apps and music in the App Store or listening in Apple Music.
If you manage the content while researching things, you can tap the… icon next to any item in your lists on ‘Mark as done’, ‘Sign in and like’, ‘Move to …’, ‘Copy Deeplink’ or Remove’.
Themes, widgets and more
Sofa is a beautifully designed free app and uses no ads. Shawn offers a number of themes to support development. There is a neat mechanism to preview one of the 70+ themes throughout the entire app for 30 seconds before switching again.
You get a classic light, dark and black theme with the free version with further themes between $ 0.99 and $ 1.99. You can browse the different themes according to creators, eras, places, colors and seasons.
Other thoughtful touches include multiple Sofa app icons to choose from, iOS 14 widgets that can be customized to display a specific list (in small, medium, large) and auto bank backup enabled (synced with iCloud Drive).
Enclosure of the sofa
I found Sofa to be a pleasure to use. It has a clean, thoughtful and intuitive user interface, fun customization options and no ads. It is a wonderful experience to organize your personal inventory of media and more that you want to study, as well as to keep track of what you have read, watched, listened to, etc.
There is no downside to trying out Sofa, as you get the full feature set with the free version, and you can support the development by picking up some custom themes for just a short or two bucks.
I highly recommend downloading Sofa for iPhone / iPad and taking a turn.
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