Enough of the Apps!

Ok websites, I get it, you want me to get the most out of your site by downloading your app. But please tell me this, what makes your app that much better than what I can currently do by visiting your page in a web browser from a desktop? Oh, use a few icons, integration with hundreds of more apps I don’t have the space to download? Give me a break already!I’m annoyed by how many websites limit their functions to mobile users. Just last night this became apparent to me when I received a message from a friend on Facebook. I forgot that I didn’t have Messenger installed so when I went to reply back, I was taken to the app’s Google Play page which made me feel like I was almost forced to install it if I want to talk to my friends on the site. That’s not cool. Even when I visit the site through Chrome, I’m greeted by a message saying that soon I won’t be able message people without the app. This is a problem I see many are going to have till phones start improving storage. The one I have only has 8 GB and for whatever reason the card slot isn’t working right, so I can kiss that extra space good bye.

What I don’t understand is why these apps are so huge. I have games with so much to do that takes up less space. 311MB for Facebook’s app, 147MB for Messenger, that’s 458MB right there, almost half a GB for two apps which doesn’t offer much to begin with. Facebook’s app takes up an insane amount of space for what little room a lot of smart phones has to offer. They were  just an example, but if you take a look at other apps like Twitter, Pinterest, Outlook, Instagram, they range from a minimal 46.72MB for Instagram up to 75.23MB for Twitter, the space they use adds up quickly. For comparison, you can get just about all the functionality of those apps on a desktop browser. Firefox for example takes up 90.3MB and I get all the same functionality (aside from sites like Instagram) without sacrificing storage space. That isn’t much since you can do so many things on there and all at once.

Firefox takes up 90.3MB of space on a desktop compared to apps taking up hundreds of MB on smart phones.

I don’t hate these apps, in fact I love them, but what I don’t like is not having room for other great apps because developers keep bloating them with useless junk that should be offered separately. To each, their own I guess.