Windows and iOS Cross-Platform Apps

By Samanthia, 27 April, 2026

Forum
Windows

Hi all,
I thought it might be a good idea to creat a list of all the apps that everyone is using that are cross-platform between Windows and iOS. Ideally, I would like to keep this list to apps that people have used and liked, or at least apps that you know are accessible on both OS's.
I will start us off by telling you about the newest notetaking app I've discovered. It's called Joplin. It is extremely accessible on both Windows and iOS. You have to use a cloud server like OneDrive or DropBox to sync your notes, or you can sign up for their cloud service, which gives you access to some additional collaboration features. However, you don't have to. it works just fine using OneDrive.
Here's the link to the website where you can find liks to download it for all the different platforms. I think there is also a Mac version and an Android one too.
https://joplinapp.org/
Now, everyone else tell us what you're using for everything!

Options

Comments

By Brian on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 - 00:11

All of these should be easily found on the iOS App Store. As well as the Microsoft store.

• Firefox
• Outlook (I am considering switching to Thunderbird)
• Simplenote
• OneDrive
• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom (the video conferencing app, not the iOS magnifier)
• ChatGPT
• Be My Eyes
• Xbox Mobile (I mainly use this to keep track of achievements I have acquired in the games I play)
• YouTube (the one you get through Microsoft edge on Windows. I like it because I don't ever get ads)
• Netflix *
• eBay *
• Amazon *
• Discord *
• LinkedIn *
• google maps *

Note: the apps with a, *, trailing them are apps I use on my iPhone, while I use the web browser versions on my Windows laptop.

By emassey on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 - 06:09

Todoist is accessible on iOS and Windows (as well as other platforms) and is a very good to do list manager. It can also group tasks into projects and sync with Google Calendar. I also use Syncthing to sync folders between all my devices, including iOS and Windows ones. It also runs on Mac, Linux, and Android, and it syncs folders between devices without storing anything in the cloud. This means that it is always free, and you can sync as much as you want as long as your devices have enough space. For iOS, the app for Syncthing that I use is called Synctrain. With Syncthing, I can use any app I want on either platform to edit and view files, without having to use the same app on both. For example, I could create a file in Pages on iOS and then edit it in Word on Windows as long as I saved it as a Word document first. The Windows Phone Link app can also give you iOS notifications on Windows and lets you send and receive messages from Windows, although I have not used it.

By esengece on Wednesday, April 29, 2026 - 12:07

I also use Yandex disk and Google drive applications to transfer files between both iOS and Windows. Additionally, I use WhatsApp on both simultaneously. For media playback, both have VLC Media Player. I prefer Avast SecureLine VPN as a VPN service. Both have Google Chrome as a web browser. Be My Eyes, Chat GPT, gemini applications are also available.

By Callum Stoneman on Thursday, April 30, 2026 - 14:12

I also use To Doist on my Windows laptop and iPhone. On iOS it's extremely accessible. On Windows it's accessible with JAWS (the trick is to turn the virtual cursor off), but seems to be not great with NVDA.

@Brian, what do you mean by the YouTube version you get through Microsoft Edge?

By TheBlindGuy07 on Thursday, April 30, 2026 - 14:33

What? I have a friend who's nvda only and he uses todoist everyday??

By Brian on Thursday, April 30, 2026 - 16:09

on Windows:
1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Go to youtube.com.
3. Press Alt by itself.
4. Down arrow through this list until you find More Tools. Press right arrow, then up or down arrow until you land on, "Apps (collapsed)",then press right arrow. Press enter on the "Install YouTube" option.

This will put a YouTube app on your computer. It could be found in your start menu under the letter Y heading for all your programs. It may, or may not auto pin itself to the start menu as well.
This is basically a web app, running off of the Microsoft Edge engine.

I am not sure if it is due to extensions I have through Microsoft edge, some kind of privacy protection Microsoft defender is doing (not to be confused with Windows defender), or a combination of both. All I know is that when I use my YouTube app, I, "never", get ads on YouTube. Never.

Edit: Apologies. I had to update the instructions. Apparently Edge has undergone a few updates to their menu layout since I last did this. 😣

HTH.

By Prateek Dujari. on Sunday, May 3, 2026 - 15:23

First, thanks to Brian for sharing that podcast and that very interesting method to share files between iOS and Windows PC. However, it’s too cumbersome as the podcast to himself acknowledges that each time you turn on your computer it’s quite likely that your IPV for address is gonna be different. Meaning you have to every time go to those multiple key strokes and steps on your Windows computer to land on and note down the IPV for address for that particular session when your computer was turned on. I would say most personal PC users don’t just leave their computer Running 24 seven and if they do, they should not simply because of the spinning cooling discs inside, etc. So anyway, I find that cumbersome and personally to me. Unacceptable. Installing and connecting to iCloud on my Windows PC and integrating it into file explorer seems to be the best method personally. Seamless two-way transfer of files with this iCloud method. Far fewer steps and swiping and typing, etc. and each time you turn on your computer and or your phone, it’s already all set up, not requiring you to go through that whole IPV for podcast method all over again. further, I found that the Google Drive called the Drive app on iOS just consume tons of disk space on my iPhone like 7 to 10 GB! This is atrocious. But if you have a file transfer system set up between your iOS and your Windows PC using iCloud, there is no absolutely no extra iCloud app to install on your iOS give you giving you back all those many gigabytes that Google Drive iOS app alone, discounting any files I have there,for example otherwise consume. to my personal go to method is this iCloud method. I have only the free complementary 5 GB but based on your needs, you can subscribe to the very very economical subscription of like $.99 a month or whatever for some insane amount of gigabytes, storage space, etc.

By Prateek Dujari. on Sunday, May 3, 2026 - 20:30

Well, the very detailed instructions online very easily found searching for “set static IPV for address on Windows 11”. Step-by-step. With this set, the user would just save the new static IP address as a source in the Files app on iOS and then directly click on that source each time to get immediate access to the PC C Dr. It sounds pretty good to me. Although I am totally comfortable with using the cloud. However, for those who may not want to use the cloud for such a file transfer between iOS and PC, this sounds like a good option.

By Khomus on Monday, May 4, 2026 - 05:09

If you set a host name, you might also be able to do it. E.g. my NAS is foo, so if I point my Mac's browser at foo.local, it connects to the NAS' web-based manager. So give your Windows machine a host name, and as long as you're on the same network, from iOS, instead of an IP address, do "name.local".

Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. It apparently depends on the particular software you're using or the phase of the moon or something. It's worth trying though. Note if you're doing this between Windows machines you can leave off.local from the end, but Mac OS and iOS require it. So on Windows to get to the files on my NAS I could do \\foo, on Mac, it's \\foo.local or whatever Mac uses, it's been a while since I set up the connection in Finder.