The Swiss Army Knife Conundrum OR You have too many apps
I have a classic Swiss Army Knife attached to my car keys at all times. It’s small enough for me to carry everywhere I go, and I reckon I use it at least a few times a week for odd jobs out and about, where a proper toolset would be inaccessible.
But the tools within it aren’t great, obviously. The knives are sharp, but small. The scissors are fiddly. The Philips screwdriver protrudes out at a right angle to the main body of the Swiss Army Knife which is a PITA. Even though the tools aren’t as powerful or accurate or ergonomic as the full sized version, it’s still bloody helpful to have them with me. I sacrifice usability and portability to convenience.
This long-winded metaphor is how I’ve been thinking about my iPhone recently.
“Well, today we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone… are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone, and here it is.”
This is how Steve Jobs famously announced the iPhone in January of 2007. A lot has been said already about the first iPhone and I’m not breaking new ground here, but what strikes me now is just how simple it was compared to modern smartphones. There was no App Store, no 3G, no video recording, no selfie camera, no torch, no GPS, no copy and paste. Steve announced the iPhone by focussing on just three core features; iPod, phone, and internet communicator. The camera wasn’t even a major selling point! These features already existed in other devices, and in many of these devices you could say that these features were more capable. Heck, these features already coexisted in single devices before. Apple isn’t often first, but they often execute better than their competitors.
I had three Sony Ericssons before the iPhone was announced, and I loved them. And yes, they could all purport to be “on paper” as capable as the iPhone. But they didn’t have the new intuitive touch interface, or the large high quality screen, or the “polish” of an Apple product. They certainly don’t have the brand power of “iPod” behind them either.
The rest is history right? Smartphones are absolutely everywhere. They are the device “du jour” for almost every digital interaction in our lives. But I think the biggest impact on society came after Apple launched the App Store. Before this, the iPhone was a very thoughtfully designed device with a few core features. After this, every person and their dog was building and publishing apps for a bewildering array of functions and features. The iPhone turned truly into a portable computer, and this is where I think everything went to utter shit.
I will preface this next section by stating that there are apps out there on the App Store that are truly beautiful, intuitive, thoughtful creations, lovingly and painstakingly built by talented developers.
However. Most of them are completely unnecessary and still offer a worse experience than the original single purpose device or tool that they purport to replace.
I want to go back to my tenuous Swiss Army knife metaphor. I know my multitool offers an inferior experience in pretty much every way, but I enjoy the convenience and I never assume it is a replacement for a full size pair of scissors, or a power drill, or a kitchen knife. The issue we have with smartphones is that we’ve tried to create an app for pretty much every digital tool going. Digital SLRs replaced by the “camera app” and a whole heap of computational photography to compensate for skill and comparatively poor sensor performance. Bank branches replaced by digital app-based banks filled with automated decision making and AI support bots. Newspapers and quality journalism replaced by apps filled with clickbait headlines. Tickets for concerts and gigs that used to be collected from a real person at a box office, replaced by several different apps run by several different ticket resellers. Physical books replaced by ebook apps and ebook stores.
These are just high profile examples, but the app-iffication (sorry) of everyday life is pervasive and relentless. I want to buy a ticket to park my car and instead of using a purpose built, tactile, physical device that can exchange cash for a paper ticket, I need to download a proprietary app, accept the privacy policy, sign up for an account and exchange personal information, attach a vehicle registration, set up a payment method, enter the unique car park identification number, click pay, and pray that the spotty 4G signal will be enough to process the transaction.
I know this makes me sound like a total Luddite, but I would challenge even the most ardent technology evangelist to look me straight in the face, and tell me that these apps offer a better experience than a bespoke, discrete, single-purpose tool or device.
Which all leads me to my conundrum: do I value the convenience of a smartphone over the quality and experience of dedicated tools? In other words, should I be outsourcing all digital functionality to the iPhone on a daily basis, or would I get better results by removing apps and reducing the amount of “tools” in my “multitool”?
This question is valuable because I think there are some real upsides to reducing the app footprint you have on your smartphone. In no particular order I have these thoughts on potential benefits:
Less time spent on your smartphone and more time to focus on the “real world”.
Higher chance that you’ll learn something by seeking a more powerful or capable alternative to the app on your smartphone.
Better quality results or output from the tool you’re using to complete your task.
Bonus! Less personal information and attention you’re giving to the overall surveillance capitalist, advert laden, privacy nightmare hellscape that many of these apps create.
So with this in mind I’ve started looking for ways I can move away from an app, and use a proper tool instead, be it physical or digital or a combination of both. I’m looking at every app on my iPhone with a critical eye and asking myself a few simple questions:
Do I consider this app the best tool for the job? If yes, leave it on the iPhone.
If not, is it significantly more convenient / cheaper / quicker and does this outweigh its inferiority? If yes, leave it on the iPhone.
If not, look to replace the app with the relevant single purpose tool, I.e. Digital Camera, newspaper, notepad, desktop computer etc.
My goal is not to remove the iPhone from my life entirely, but to reduce its footprint in my life to what I consider its essential functionality. In time I hope to reap some of the benefits I discussed earlier.