Is Your App Necessary?

These days there's an app for just about everything. But if you take a closer look, you'll find that many of them serve little purpose.As an iPhone user, I have roughly 60 apps, some paid, some free. But of those 60, only 5-10 get used on an regular basis. I also work in social media, so when I came across apps for  social media gurus and agencies, I was intrigued.
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Twitter and YouTube updates aren't reason enough to download

At first I was interested to see what they had to offer.  The majority of these apps had icons along the bottom for the following streams: their blog, Twitter feed, YouTube videos and  slideshow presentations. The problem is, none of this content is unique to the app. All of it can be found elsewhere in more convenient apps or on the web.

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The text in the slideshow presentation is difficult to read on the small iPhone screen

If we consider how their target audience would use this app, it doesn't seem that convenient. Most tech-savvy individuals use an RSS reader such as Google Reader to read all their blogs in one place instead of opening up individual apps for each blog. Their audience also likely uses a Twitter app to glance at all their tweets and a YouTube or Vimeo app to watch their latest subscriptions. The notion of visiting someone's app just to view their latest tweets or videos seems a bit unrealistic. Finally, viewing a presentation on a smartphone is hardly practical given  the screen size, whereas viewing a presentation on a larger iPad or tablet, could be a great option.

Knowing this, I can't help but think, what is the point? None of these features are unique to a mobile app and don't provide any exclusive benefit for downloading.

It appears as though many of these individuals and businesses create an app for the sake of having an app. Whether it's to build their credibility or prove they can do this for their clients, it seems these apps were not created with their end user in mind. Even though many popular  bloggers and social media agencies I admire have their own apps, I can't think of a reason for downloading them.

Anyone who builds an app should take a hard look at the purpose behind it. With today's hectic world, if your app doesn't provide utility or a unique advantage, it might be best not to have one at all.

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