There's a better way to use apps on your iPhone, but Apple won't let you do it yet

There's good news if you don't like to use those preinstalled Apple apps on your iPhone.

The company's CEO Tim Cook told BuzzFeed this week that it's exploring options to let you remove some of them from your device.

That's great!

But it's not good enough.

Apple gives you all the basic apps like Mail, Calendar, and Weather, but there's a better third-party alternative for each one. My home screen is littered with alternatives to the apps Apple gave me with my brand new iPhone.

I use Outlook instead of Mail. Spotify instead of Music. Sunrise instead of Calendar. And so on. Most of my Apple apps live in a junk folder that I labeled with a poop emoji.

Even though I mostly use alternatives, my iPhone forces me to use Apple apps when I click a link from an email or text message. That's because the iPhone still doesn't let you choose default apps for basic functions like you can on a Mac or PC.

So, for example, if someone sends me an email with an address and I click the link, I'm taken to Apple Maps instead of Google Maps. There's nothing I can do about it.

Apple may be good at making incredible devices, but its apps are pretty bad compared to what third-party developers have come up with over the years. In fact, the best way to use your iPhone is to ignore most of Apple's apps and use something else like I do.

But that won't be ideal until Apple allows users to choose their own favorite apps as defaults for basic functions like web browsing and directions instead of forcing you back into its own apps.