Do We Really Need an App For That?

Apps are the make-or-break item of smart phones and tablets. There is an app for everything and some of them are quite bad. There was a recent story out about how Facebook is trying to get its employees to use Android in hopes of making the Android Facebook app less awful.

But what if we didn’t need an app for everything? What if developers could write code once, and run it on any device? You don’t have to update your apps, the updates just happen. Developers can do this with HTML5, but none of us want to run from the browser, we want an app. If you’re a friend of mine you’ve likely heard this rant before. You also know that I’m a huge hypocrite, and still use apps all the time.

I’ve decided to try and put my money where my mouth is, and ditch some of my most used apps in favor for the mobile version for a week trial. Here is what I am dropping and what I’m keeping. I’m only doing this with my frequently used apps, because the rest are used maybe 1% of the time (ex: I use Yelp and UrbanSpoon only when traveling).

Switching to Web:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Gmail – The lack of push notifications is going to kill me I think
• Pinterest
• GoodReads
• Weather
• Notes – Going to keep this on Google Drive
• Calendar
• Forums – I use TapaTalk to communicate with my team
• Peapod – Where I order groceries from

Keeping the App:

• Trillian – No mobile site available, and it’s the primary method I use to talk to my husband
• Spotify – No mobile site available, and even if it was I don’t think it would interact with my car’s bluetooth correctly
• Nook – No mobile site available
• Comixology – To use it on my tablet requires Flash. iPads do not have Flash.
• Waze – No mobile site available, and even if it was I don’t think it would interact with my car’s bluetooth correctly