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> In recent years, the number of apps that users have been installing on their handsets has declined. This is the case despite the increasing number of applicat

> In recent years, the number of apps that users have been installing on their handsets has declined. This is the case despite the increasing number of applications of all kinds that make a handset more useful. Among the reasons for this decline could be the low quality of the discovery process and the lack of innovation in distribution. All apps are distributed through one large monopoly store that has limited functionality; People are installing fewer apps, but that is very unlikely because of poor discovery. Infact, a lot of these apps would never be discovered if not for app stores/play stores. Then, there are networks many apps rely on, facebook and google ads, and best of all word of mouth. A more likely reason is the app fatigue and wariness of people being prompted to download apps for everything.

dob12 3y ago
Agreed. And it’s not only that we are supposed to install apps for everything, those apps are also completely contaminated with unnecessary micro transactions. You want to sell me a thing that solves a problem for me? Sure, here you have a buck or two. But nowadays everyone is forcing me to subscribe to a service. I’ve just seen enough of it.
rchaud 3y ago
The reason for this could also be that native apps constantly send notifications and use far too many device permissions. This annoys users, who then decide to use the website instead and discover a largely equivalent experience, minus the surveillance. Plenty of things that are apps work perfectly fine on mobile web: online shopping, and social media would be the biggest categories here.
oskarkk 3y ago
I can imagine that discoverability may be a factor. I've only ever used Google Play Store, and looking for good apps there can be extremely discouraging. The best apps are sometimes buried, you have no sorting options in search results or even in categories, almost no filters. The categories are very basic. I would want to sometimes look for apps with <1m downloads, that are <10 MB for simple apps, have at least X reviews, maybe recent updates, etc. And maybe filter for no ads, but that filter could be too bad for business for free apps (I understand that devs have to earn some money). I know that things I'm describing are more for power users, but a filter like app size (or just showing it right in the search results) would be a godsend for regular people with cheaper phones (and you have A LOT of cheap phones in most of the world). And smaller app size usually means better performance and less stupid "features". putting on my tinfoil hat But maybe smaller and more performant apps would mean less money for manufacturers. As with everything, when looking for a good app, I search "xxxxx android app reddit" in Google.
- ankit219 3y ago
  There are two major ways people find apps - facebook/Google ads and word of mouth in personal network or on the internet. I know playstore gets a lot of visitors, but mostly useful just for getting top interesting apps (curation) rather than really discover a great app. You can search for some use case and more often than not find one that works. Discovery outside app store is still discovery, and by sheer numbers, if the number of apps are large, individual app discovery will be low. I don't think features you describe are needed by many. Given the traffic to search pages and two companies heavily reliant on user analytics, we would have gotten it a long time ago, if thats what people were searching for. (Factors are images, videos, and reviews that people look at, and look at its prominence on app page).
  - asadotzler 3y ago
    You can not think what ever you want to not think but the fact is we can't know because of app store exclusivity. "Users are happy with Google search, no one wants a better search engine" would be the worst take of all time here and yet "users are happy with App Store, no one wants a better store" is accepted science. What a crock of shit. We all hate all of these services and the only thread of hope is that they will face competition enough to make them improve or be replaced. There was a time when this forum was full of hackers breaking down walls and not mega-corporation shills telling us to stop worrying and enjoy the manicured lawns.
    - ankit219 3y ago
      You should relax your tone mate. It's just an opinion. I may be wrong. To state more clearly, I think app store and google search are two separate use cases. You may see it as a search, but the jtbd is different. I guess you can take a punt and build the best experience possible for an app store, but it would not make much of a difference because users don't care about it. Not that they are happy, but thats not the primary way they learn about apps. As opposed to Google, which is the primary way they learn about topics or just about anything new. Hence, power users on Google are a thing and it's mighty important I get to the right result quickly, and hence I want to try out newer search engines. For an app download, the primary driver is "others are using it so I should try it too." It's not more difficult. Users may or may not be happy with the app store (and that is disingenuous framing), but they dont visit it as often to explore as they would on Google. Which is what makes the use case different. It's about what others are using, and you only find that out via interactions with other people or top lists. Hence, Reddit and other forums, plus Facebook ads, plus the sharing aspects and network effects which enable one user to bring other users. You can build a great product search experience on App store, and likely no one would bother with it.

dob12 3y ago

Agreed. And it’s not only that we are supposed to install apps for everything, those apps are also completely contaminated with unnecessary micro transactions. You want to sell me a thing that solves a problem for me? Sure, here you have a buck or two. But nowadays everyone is forcing me to subscribe to a service. I’ve just seen enough of it.

rchaud 3y ago

The reason for this could also be that native apps constantly send notifications and use far too many device permissions. This annoys users, who then decide to use the website instead and discover a largely equivalent experience, minus the surveillance. Plenty of things that are apps work perfectly fine on mobile web: online shopping, and social media would be the biggest categories here.

oskarkk 3y ago

I can imagine that discoverability may be a factor. I've only ever used Google Play Store, and looking for good apps there can be extremely discouraging. The best apps are sometimes buried, you have no sorting options in search results or even in categories, almost no filters. The categories are very basic. I would want to sometimes look for apps with <1m downloads, that are <10 MB for simple apps, have at least X reviews, maybe recent updates, etc. And maybe filter for no ads, but that filter could be too bad for business for free apps (I understand that devs have to earn some money). I know that things I'm describing are more for power users, but a filter like app size (or just showing it right in the search results) would be a godsend for regular people with cheaper phones (and you have A LOT of cheap phones in most of the world). And smaller app size usually means better performance and less stupid "features". putting on my tinfoil hat But maybe smaller and more performant apps would mean less money for manufacturers. As with everything, when looking for a good app, I search "xxxxx android app reddit" in Google.

ankit219 3y ago
There are two major ways people find apps - facebook/Google ads and word of mouth in personal network or on the internet. I know playstore gets a lot of visitors, but mostly useful just for getting top interesting apps (curation) rather than really discover a great app. You can search for some use case and more often than not find one that works. Discovery outside app store is still discovery, and by sheer numbers, if the number of apps are large, individual app discovery will be low. I don't think features you describe are needed by many. Given the traffic to search pages and two companies heavily reliant on user analytics, we would have gotten it a long time ago, if thats what people were searching for. (Factors are images, videos, and reviews that people look at, and look at its prominence on app page).
- asadotzler 3y ago
  You can not think what ever you want to not think but the fact is we can't know because of app store exclusivity. "Users are happy with Google search, no one wants a better search engine" would be the worst take of all time here and yet "users are happy with App Store, no one wants a better store" is accepted science. What a crock of shit. We all hate all of these services and the only thread of hope is that they will face competition enough to make them improve or be replaced. There was a time when this forum was full of hackers breaking down walls and not mega-corporation shills telling us to stop worrying and enjoy the manicured lawns.
  - ankit219 3y ago
    You should relax your tone mate. It's just an opinion. I may be wrong. To state more clearly, I think app store and google search are two separate use cases. You may see it as a search, but the jtbd is different. I guess you can take a punt and build the best experience possible for an app store, but it would not make much of a difference because users don't care about it. Not that they are happy, but thats not the primary way they learn about apps. As opposed to Google, which is the primary way they learn about topics or just about anything new. Hence, power users on Google are a thing and it's mighty important I get to the right result quickly, and hence I want to try out newer search engines. For an app download, the primary driver is "others are using it so I should try it too." It's not more difficult. Users may or may not be happy with the app store (and that is disingenuous framing), but they dont visit it as often to explore as they would on Google. Which is what makes the use case different. It's about what others are using, and you only find that out via interactions with other people or top lists. Hence, Reddit and other forums, plus Facebook ads, plus the sharing aspects and network effects which enable one user to bring other users. You can build a great product search experience on App store, and likely no one would bother with it.