Let’s make one thing clear: we love mobile apps. They make our lives easier and our iPhones and Android devices more fun to use. We would even go so far as to say that some applications are absolutely essential to our daily lives.
And yet, that doesn’t mean we don’t also get irritated by some of the recurring annoyances that mar many otherwise fine mobile apps.
From intrusive ads to impenetrable interfaces, there’s a whole list of complaints we could muster about today’s apps. But when we talked about our biggest complaints, these seven irritants stood out from the rest.
These are the biggest app annoyances plaguing our mobile devices today.
Free games
I’m more of a casual gamer, so maybe the world at large has long made peace with free games on their mobile devices. But nothing turns me from a casual gamer to a non-gamer faster than the scourge of these freemium offerings.
I understand that people want to get paid for their work. Heck, I am willing pay people a mutually agreed flat rate in exchange for goods and services. What I can’t stand, though, is someone constantly coming up to me, hat in hand, suggesting that I ask for something that will make the game a little more playable. Maybe the game quality is something that should have been addressed before I downloaded your app.
The worst kind of model is when you’re full of microtransactions that promise to increase your chances against other opponents. Games should be won or lost based on skill and strategy, not who’s willing to run up the biggest credit card balance for the tainted taste of victory.
In my mind, “free to play” has come to mean “cost to enjoy”. There isn’t any type of app I turn away from more. — Philip Michaels
Subscription models
While we’re talking about dubious payment schemes, we’re talking about the growing number of apps that use subscription models instead of one-time payments. My colleague John Velasco wrote about your issues with subscription-based apps It’s been a while, so I’ll summarize his criticisms, with the conclusion that when multiple apps charge you a monthly or annual fee, those costs really start to add up.
In many cases, you’re not even paying for new features, just the ability to continue using features you’ve grown accustomed to. Subscription fees also rarely follow the laws of gravity, as they almost always go up, but never come back down.
Part of the problem here is the way mobile app stores were set up many years ago, where developers could charge a fee for their initial release, but subsequent updates were expected to be free. It would be preferable to return to the old model in the App Store where you pay a fixed fee for a specific software version and upgrade fees for future versions. (Or, if you didn’t pay for the upgrade, you just kept using the version you had, without any new capabilities.) We’d sure like to see Apple and Google take this approach, instead of forcing more developers to resort to subscription in order to guarantee any future income. — PM
Separate mobile and desktop apps
Not only are apps charging more and more for subscriptions, but for many of the photo and video editing tools on my phone, I’m now paying for features I already paid for with the desktop version. The desktop subscription doesn’t cover the mobile app, and it looks like it should do so via some kind of bundle.
I use a bunch of tools that are part of CyberLink’s Director Suite 365 package on my laptop, paying $29.99 a month for access. If I want to use the mobile versions of PowerDirector or PhotoDirector, that’s a separate charge. What I would like to see is an agreement that covers both versions. — John Velasco
Excessive file sizes
Freeing up space on your phone can be a challenge at times, but it’s made worse by the fact that some apps are much larger than they have a right to be. I’m not talking about apps that end up getting bigger because you’ve downloaded or saved stuff, like my 5.5GB Audible library. I mean apps that are great simply because they are.
My biggest pet peeve was Paramount Plus on the iPad, which took up 600MB by itself, never mind any of your offline downloads. Paramount has recently shrunk to 483MB, which is much more manageable, though still larger than Disney Plus and Netflix combined (425MB). There’s no need for that, if you ask me.
And Paramount Plus is far from the only offender. Uber Eats needs 383MB, YouTube is 291MB, and my robot vacuum control app is 402MB.
On their own, these file sizes are manageable, but throw in dozens of other apps and things start to take up a lot of space and make me wonder where all this data is coming from. —Tom Pritchard
Constant notifications
Mobile apps are an attention game, where developers have decided that if my eyes aren’t glued to their app, they’re somehow missing out. This is the only explanation I can think of that justifies all the notifications that make my phone ping constantly.
Some notifications are good. When a Lyft driver arrives, I want my phone to announce it. But I’m less interested in hearing about new ride-sharing promotions, a distinction Lyft can’t or won’t make. Likewise, I don’t want to hear about Instagram… well, ever. But that doesn’t stop the social network from letting me know when a mid-level star has a new Insta story to share.
Yes, you can manage notifications from your phone’s Settings app. On my iPhone, for example, I can send non-urgent notifications to the land of wind and ghost that is the notification summary feature. But specific push apps? These are deleted immediately. — PM
Asking for feedback
Another bad habit of particularly necessary applications is the almost constant requests for revisions. Again, we understand that’s the cost of doing business in the world of mobile apps, where high user ratings mean high placement in app stores. And we’re happy to do our part to help, most of the time.
But sometimes, we don’t want to break our flow to take a break and write a five-star review. (And sometimes that review won’t be five stars, if we’re being honest.) And so we hit the Not Now button, only to realize too late that we’ll be inundated with review requests between now and when we finally find out and let’s take advantage of this review.
Here’s a humble request: in addition to this Not Now button, add an opt-out button. It would be an indication that you respect the time of the app users and that you don’t want to prevent them from enjoying your app. -PM
Inconsistent function releases
It’s exciting when a great new feature is added to an app you use regularly. But what’s less exciting is when this function, for example, body temperature measurements for the Thermometer app in Pixel 8 Pro — is not available in your country. Or when the update happens on the company’s servers instead of the phone, meaning it can take days or weeks between when a new skill is released and when it’s actually available for testing.
It feels much better as a user to have a solid guarantee of when a feature will be available, rather than the all-too-common uncertainty of when it will be ready for you and your device, if at all. —Richard Priday
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