Has anyone else gone on an app diet? I have, because being minimalist extends out to our digital world. If you have a Dropbox account with a thousand worthless old files your brain will experience that same haunting nightmare as an attic full of garbage, but before I went inside my apps I wondered why do I need so many stupid apps.
When the 2G came out it was simple and perfect (once MS Exchange was brought on board with the 16GB). Next year the 3G with the app store, and we realized that developers could do it better than Apple so we flooded our phones. In the hayday of standing in line for the new iPhone (3GS through 5S) apps reached their peak. Phones were packed full of great apps and great games…unfortunately also junk apps and junk games.
But lately I’ve just gotten sick of all the apps, my strategy is to only use useful apps, and have what I refer to as ‘power’ apps which multifunction and consolidate multiple apps into one.
Take Safari, an overlooked app. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Nextdoor, YouTube, Google+, Instagram…all great apps with nearly perfect matches on Safari. Really the only one that is nicer would be Facebook, but using Safari saves your battery and constant notifications, out of sight out of mind so to speak, so the benefits outweigh in my opinion. That’s seven apps into one.
Messengers…holy moly…I had 10 of them. Messages, FB messenger, whatsapp, kik, line, snapchat, hangouts…etc…I had enough. I slowly phased everyone out of those apps…a long and hard process but I’m down to two apps. Messages for people that have my phone number, and FB Messenger for those that don’t…love it (kinda…I really want to be down to one).
Games…iOS and tech saved me on this since most good online games save to their own cloud (i.e. Order and Chaos, Clash of Clans, Hearthstone…etc…) or others save to iCloud as a separate file (i.e. Galaxy of Fire, Grand Theft Auto, Bard’s Tale…etc..) so no need to keep the game on your phone once you get bored of it. Resurrect on demand.
Now, page two is my phone is what I call temp apps, those that will be deleted once they do their job. I’m going to San Diego for a conference next week so I have United, Loew’s Resort, the conference app, and Uber. The moment I land back here in Denver next Friday all four get deleted.
Point is, at one time I had over 300 apps on my phone…and now they all fit on a page (with the caveat of the apps I still can’t delete from the phone in a folder titled secondary), and I gotta tell you it’s mental minimalist freedom.
When the 2G came out it was simple and perfect (once MS Exchange was brought on board with the 16GB). Next year the 3G with the app store, and we realized that developers could do it better than Apple so we flooded our phones. In the hayday of standing in line for the new iPhone (3GS through 5S) apps reached their peak. Phones were packed full of great apps and great games…unfortunately also junk apps and junk games.
But lately I’ve just gotten sick of all the apps, my strategy is to only use useful apps, and have what I refer to as ‘power’ apps which multifunction and consolidate multiple apps into one.
Take Safari, an overlooked app. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Nextdoor, YouTube, Google+, Instagram…all great apps with nearly perfect matches on Safari. Really the only one that is nicer would be Facebook, but using Safari saves your battery and constant notifications, out of sight out of mind so to speak, so the benefits outweigh in my opinion. That’s seven apps into one.
Messengers…holy moly…I had 10 of them. Messages, FB messenger, whatsapp, kik, line, snapchat, hangouts…etc…I had enough. I slowly phased everyone out of those apps…a long and hard process but I’m down to two apps. Messages for people that have my phone number, and FB Messenger for those that don’t…love it (kinda…I really want to be down to one).
Games…iOS and tech saved me on this since most good online games save to their own cloud (i.e. Order and Chaos, Clash of Clans, Hearthstone…etc…) or others save to iCloud as a separate file (i.e. Galaxy of Fire, Grand Theft Auto, Bard’s Tale…etc..) so no need to keep the game on your phone once you get bored of it. Resurrect on demand.
Now, page two is my phone is what I call temp apps, those that will be deleted once they do their job. I’m going to San Diego for a conference next week so I have United, Loew’s Resort, the conference app, and Uber. The moment I land back here in Denver next Friday all four get deleted.
Point is, at one time I had over 300 apps on my phone…and now they all fit on a page (with the caveat of the apps I still can’t delete from the phone in a folder titled secondary), and I gotta tell you it’s mental minimalist freedom.
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