
Mossberg: I just deleted half my iPhone apps - antr
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/20/12231176/walt-mossberg-delete-your-unnecessary-apps
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massysett
I guess for him the apps had a novelty they never had for me. I use a few apps
and the browser. I'm very happy with my iPhone.

Overall this reads like "my refrigerator keeps food cold, it is reliable for
years, the novelty has worn off" or "I went to the grocery store and bought
every cereal in the cereal aisle, there are too many, it's hard to find good
ones, the novelty of having all this cereal has worn off, let's go back to
when oatmeal was the only choice." I guess this sort of thinking is inevitable
when you hunt around for apps. Most people don't hunt around for apps. They
have a need, then they get an app. They're happy.

~~~
xlayn
I agree. I consider it a part of a more generic problem. The problem of "The
next best thing", to search for novelty; I would say the last NBT was maybe
Siri and I just use it to set lazy alarms...

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Yhippa
I recently wiped my Nexus 6 because the battery was draining (would die at 2
PM) faster than normal and I had some pretty bad issues with the camera. When
I reloaded it I resolved to use the website version of apps as much as
possible and not to download native apps.

My battery life now is superior to before. I suspect that a lot of the apps I
had were phoning home or disrupting WakeLocks like Facebook does.

I am officially appskeptic. A lot of the old apps I used to use I can do most
things through their mobile sites. For the ones I can't that I have to use I
go through the website.

I remember the days of the first iPod touch and early iPhone where Apple
championed web apps vs dedicated. I wish the trend would have continued that
way (even Windows Phone would be viable if so).

~~~
vanadium
Replacing the Facebook app on Android with Metal (or any one of numerous
mobile web wrappers as apps) alone resolved most of the problems I was having
with battery life.

The argument for apps over mobile web only works when the app respects _both_
the user experience and resources of the device as well as the mobile
experience does.

~~~
aroch
Google Fit and Now (and everyone's friend, nlpwakelock) are also frequent
culprits

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NietTim
Man...every single time I see a title like this all I can think is "Oh what a
special little snowflake you are"

~~~
zzalpha
Read a bit further. It's not really about him deleting apps (his case is an
absurd outlier...). It's really more about the fact that, when it comes to
apps, Apple and Google are the new Atari: mountains and mountains of
shovelware.

~~~
coldtea
> _Apple and Google are the new Atari: mountains and mountains of shovelware._

Apple and Google are just HUGE marketplaces where you can find anything,
shoveware included.

We don't call Amazon the "new Atari" because you can find tons of crap books,
and not just Shakespeare and awarded novelists.

It's absurd to expect not to find tons of shovelware in a app stores with 1
million titles. Plus, one man's shovelware is another man's "gem of an app I
use everyday".

The question is whether there are a few thousands of great apps (and the
answer is definitely yes) -- not whether all 1.5 million apps in there are
great.

~~~
drivingmenuts
For me, the problem is having to sort thru all the shovelware to find one or
two useful apps. It would be nice if:

1) there were multiple app stores 2) Apple would curate their own app store

I think that approach would solve so many problems. The first would see app
stores that were limited in scope (not all, but some). Some would curate, some
would not. The non-curated ones would be easily avoidable.

The second option needs to happen. The shovelware on the Apple app store makes
me want to avoid it as much as possible. If Apple would hyper-aggressively
curate their own app store, I think the overall quality would rise.

Of course, I realize this probably won't happen. Lockdown of the app store is
directly tied to their bottom line.

~~~
ac29
Android has multiple app stores, but they are invariably worse than the Play
Store. I'd agree that there is room for a curated app store, but the question
is, what criteria would be used to curate it? No one needs hundreds of weather
apps, but I'm sure you'd find disagreement on which are the best 5 or 10. And
if we're honest, eventually a portion of the apps would probably be
"sponsored" to appear.

Android also has the issue that installing from a third party app store
requires enabling installing off all apps from "unknown sources", which
presents a malware risk. It would be nice if you could insert trusted third
party app signing keys.

There is also the issue that device vendors are contractually obligated to not
install any third party app stores if they want to have access to the Play
store. Of course, I'm generally in favor of this, since 3rd party app stores
are generally awful (and certainly people don't really want a carrier or
device manufacturer based app store, which is what would happen). But, that
restriction also keeps 3rd party app stores from getting any traction, which
leads to developers ignoring them for the most part.

~~~
drivingmenuts
I was specifically speaking of the Apple app store (I'm sooo done with
Android), but the criteria for curation would apply equally to any app store:
it's up to the owner of the app store.

Personally, I'd hope Apple would keep only the five or ten best-of-breed apps
in each category; the apps that best showcase Apple's tech and UI.

~~~
coldtea
> _Personally, I 'd hope Apple would keep only the five or ten best-of-breed
> apps in each category; the apps that best showcase Apple's tech and UI._

So, basically keep, e.g. 100 categories * 10 apps, like 1000 apps, kill the
other 1499000 apps, and alienate millions of people and especially all those
programmers...

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flyinghamster
As I see it, the big problem is separating the worthwhile apps from the
useless (and sometimes semi- or fully malicious) ones. User reviews aren't
necessarily trustworthy, and unscrupulous publishers often game the system.

Then there is (at least on typical Android handsets) the undeletable
bloatware. It doesn't seem to be quite the problem that it used to be, but
it's still annoying. Though I have root, I'm wary of just deleting things.

I have about 85 MB of disabled apps on my current phone, and about 6 GB free
out of 16 GB main storage. A 64 GB MicroSD stores my media, so 16 GB is less
of a problem here than it is on a Nexus or an iPhone. It's too bad there's
such a ridiculous markup on built-in storage, SD slot or no.

I already occasionally purge apps that I don't use, though - and when I
install something new, I watch battery life like a hawk. If it shows any sign
of misbehaving, away it goes. If it needs ridiculous permissions (like
location information for a flashlight or a metronome) it doesn't get installed
in the first place.

In-app ads aren't a huge problem to me, but they annoy me anyway just because
of so many deceptive "Clean your phone of viruses!" ads (often with fake
"close" buttons) that bamboozle less-savvy users.

I'd like to see the FTC give the deceivers a good stomping, but in today's
political environment that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.

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catpolice
I've read a few articles like this that start with the assumption that storage
space obviously needs to be conserved. I always wonder what these people are
keeping on their phones. I always buy the version of the phone with the least
storage, and I do zero things to manage how much space I'm using and I've
never run out. Is it like large offline media libraries? I don't spend a huge
amount of time outside of wifi range and don't really have a problem just
streaming everything.

~~~
mbrock
Podcast apps tend to save everything for some stupid reason. My iPhone was
full and I noticed Overcast had saved like 3 GB of old episodes. Pretty
terrible UX.

~~~
jasonpbecker
The default in Overcast is to delete after listening and to save only 3
episodes from each subscription, which is quite sensible IMO.

~~~
joe5150
it still seems to...not do this correctly? I have it configured thus but still
have to delete 1GB+ of old episodes manually on a regular basis.

~~~
bdcravens
Are you sure the episode finished, or did you start another at the end of the
episode when it was essentially dead air?

~~~
joe5150
I think I usually just let it run until it plays the next episode, but I'll
pay better attention the next time I use the app.

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coldtea
> _Pokémon Go may be a sensation, but the novelty of the App Store is over_

It's been almost a decade since the App Store was introduced.

In what way would it still be a "novelty"?

It's now a tens of billions annual app marketplace.

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apatters
> For instance, I’d use Facebook and Twitter much less on my phone if I had to
> use them through the browser

This was the most interesting line in the article for me because I recently
had the same thought. But my reaction was to uninstall Facebook because I
_wanted_ to use it less!

It's one of the best computing decisions I've made in years. I still have
Messenger so I don't miss anything truly important. The FB web app is
perfectly serviceable for the rare occasion when I need to use it. My battery
life has improved. The rest of my Facebooking now happens solely on my PC and
all I really miss out on is scrolling through the same items in my feed 6
times a day.

The two simple acts of uninstalling Facebook and turning off push
notifications for email have given me back those periods of the day where I'm
alone with my thoughts. You know, those moments that people are always
lamenting have been destroyed by the smartphone.

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chickenfries
I feel like these purges are a relatively common practice? I've heard people
say things to the effect of "Oh, I had that app but I deleted it because I
never used it and I needed more space." That's usually what prompts me to
delete some unused apps.

This blog feels like it's a few several years too late.

~~~
davidiach
I use a 16GB iPhone and I delete apps all the time because of lack of space.
In a sense I see this as a strategic mistake by Apple, you can't have people
downloading and using lots of app and also sell most iPhone with only 16GB
space.

~~~
shoover
And then carriers will sell Android phones with 8GB in which the OS takes 5GB
and undeletable apps use 2+GB. But it runs quickly enough in a demo and once
you buy it you're stuck.

~~~
bdcravens
Aren't most expandable via SD?

~~~
wccrawford
Older ones were, but the new Nexus phones aren't, and I'm pretty sure I've
heard of others. I was horrified at first, but I will probably end up buying a
new phone before it really becomes a problem... And I bought a huge one this
time, too, so it really isn't a problem.

~~~
bdcravens
I have an S7 as my secondary (primary is 6S Plus) so I'm a casual user at
best, but the SIM slot appears to hold both the SIM and a MicroSD.

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cuddlybacon
> Over the past few days, I’ve methodically deleted 165 apps from my iPhone,
> about 54 percent of the 305 apps I had on the phone when I started culling
> the herd

I don't think I've had more than 50 installed at once. Having 305 installed
seems like the app version of being on Horders.

~~~
mcphage
Well, he points out that it's because he's a tech reviewer and trying out lots
of apps is part of his job.

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mark_l_watson
I have just gone, slightly, in the opposite direction. I used to install
almost no apps on my android phone. Now with Android 6 fine grain permissions
I have started installing a few useful apps.

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joe5150
Maybe unrelated but I think that the Music app used with Apple Music uses up a
lot of storage with caching that isn't surfaced in the app-by-app storage
usage. I have a 16GB iPhone (mistake) that I'm constantly deleting photos
from, deleting and reinstalling apps to bust caches, etc., just to find the
space I free evaporate when I listen to music.

~~~
ringwalt
Google Play Music is the same, at least on iOS (well, the storage usage is
accurate). It caches any song you listen to once or twice, until it eats up
all free space. Then your only choice is to purge the entire cache, except for
albums you've manually downloaded (which can only be set at an album
granularity).

~~~
joe5150
Well with Apple Music you can't manually trigger a cache purge (to my
knowledge) and of course you can't delete the Music app and reinstall it.
Maybe toggling Apple Music or iCloud Music Library off/on would do it? But I
tend to want to avoid ever changing iCloud-related settings on my phone once
they appear to be working correctly, due to my experience of them just falling
apart in the past.

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dingo_bat
I don't see the need to delete an app. Just the quicker access using the icon
is reason enough for me to keep an app. Memory is the cheapest thing nowadays.
I'm carrying around 64GB memory in my phone. Why limit myself, worrying about
space? Even older phones don't have this problem, you can put in an SD card
for plentiful storage.

~~~
bdcravens
Problem is that new apps are often put near the end, and you're swiping a
bunch of screens to get to what ostensibly are more frequently used at that
time. Personally, I prefer keeping it clean, and often when I upgrade, I'll
just start fresh without restoring. It's amazing what I really don't miss.

~~~
wccrawford
It's actually worse when they're alphabetized, and a lot of apps end up with
short names that don't match the name you saw in Google Play.

Facebook Messenger, for instance, is just "Messenger", removing the company
name. There's a built-in app named that as well, and I always forget which is
which.

~~~
dingo_bat
One of the worst offenders is Zomato food order app. Its icon just shows up
with "Order". It took me five minutes to find it.

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jmstickney
This comment/quote seemed interesting to me: "A WELL-DESIGNED APP IS MUCH
BETTER TO USE THAN A MOBILE WEB BROWSER, EVEN ON A LARGE PHONE" as The Verge
did away with their native app a long time ago.

I wonder how he feels about The Verge not having a native app.

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mcculley
The iOS SpringBoard needs a way to view apps by how often they are used (among
other views). That would make it easier to clean up the apps I've downloaded
and used only once.

~~~
Jtsummers
That would be nice. I've developed a system of (periodically) separating out
apps I know I use from ones I'm less certain about. So if I have a folder like
"productivity" and it has 10 apps, I'll pull out the 2 or 3 I know I used in
the past week and put them in a new Productivity folder. If the other apps
don't get used after a month or so, and have no good reason to stick around
despite their rare use, I'll delete them.

I have a handful of apps I use 2-3 times a year (like Eventbrite or Delta or
Airbnb), but I keep them because it's easier than redownloading when an event
comes up that does ticketing through them. Those go on the last of my
homescreens so they're out of the way until I need them.

