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Ask Slashdot: What Makes You Uninstall Apps?
jones_supa writes "One of the most important measuring sticks for the success of any software is how long a user keeps it installed after first trying it. Intel has an article about some of the most common reasons users abandon software. Quoting: 'Apps that don’t offer anything helpful or unique tend to be the ones that are uninstalled the most frequently. People cycle through apps incredibly quickly to find the one that best fits their needs. ... A lot of apps have a naturally limited lifecycle; i.e., apps that are centered around a movie release or an app that tracks a pregnancy, or an app that celebrates a holiday. In addition, apps with limited functionality, for example, “lite” games that only go so far, are uninstalled once the user has mastered all the levels.' Some of the common factors they list include: lengthy forms, asking for ratings, collecting unnecessary data, user unfriendliness, unnecessary notifications and, of course, bugs. Additionally, if people have paid even a small price for the app, they are more committed to keep it installed. So, what makes you uninstall a piece of software?"
If there's one thing I can't abide, it's apps running in the background, poking their noses into my affairs.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Real software only, thanks.
Or if it doesn't work, then why keep it
You dump it if it sucks and you don't need it or you have an alternative.
Word the question differently to get more useful replies.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Apart from notifications and ads I'd say impact on my battery would be a good reason to get rid of an app.
Many apps ask for far more permissions than needed.
I was once testing a 3270 emulator app to access a mainframe system over a vpn.
The emulator app refused to run unless you give it full access to your email.
When I called the vendor to ask why, they said it was so that users could automatically send support requests by email.
I can write my own email, thanks.
Uninstalled, and the vendor lost out on a multi-thousand dollar purchase.
#1 Zinga buys it.
#2 Freer software comes out that can fulfill the utility.
#3 ParanoidAndroid and AdAway are not capable of taming the program the way I'd like.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
I do wish it were easier to archive apps on iOS. On Android, I can use Titanium Backup, save a game off, and uninstall it. If I want to play it again, I can grab the APK from the TB archive, or if on a different device, install the game, restore the game save data.
On iOS, backups are all or nothing (although some games store their save game data in the Documents folder that one can back up in iTunes.) Next to a jailbreak and AppBackup, there isn't any real way to archive off a larger game like Chaos Rings when done with it.
Of course, the things that will cause me to toss a game:
1: If I see it trying to open up scads of behavioral tracking, analytic, and other spyware sites.
2: If it is worthless. Most games on iOS look good, but demand tons of "smurfberries" (or whatever currency you have to pay for) in order to advance. Want a decent plot in Zombie Farm, brains are a buck a piece. Want a good eatery in Zombie Cafe? Pony up for the toxins. Want decent armor in a MMO? Time to pay up. Want a better boomstick in Army of Darkness? Time for an IAP.
3: If it isn't maintained. Even an app that is fairly feature complete needs an update just to keep up with the latest OS looks.
4: If it is just a shell around a crappy, SEO-encumbered web page, like the Cracked app on Android.
5: If it requires activation or another account with them to work. For example, the Pixelmags apps on iOS. They need to just deal with Apple, not require one to have an account with them in order to read stuff.
See title
Recently I've had a spate of 'updates' to android apps that are asking for me to approve additional privileges.
One instance was a button on the main page to turn wifi on and off (rather than digging into the settings menu). This was quite useful.
Then it got an update and wanted access to post on my behalf, the internet, my phone lists and a bunch of other things. So I uninstalled it.
This has happened several times. I'm guess it's a common attack vector.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I uninstall apps when they change permissions to grab my identity, contacts, camera, etc. There's only one reason for that and it ain't good.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
There's this class of app that tries to be everything. I hate it. Yes, maybe some apps have a limited scope, but this is a good thing: I usually download an app for a specific use case. If it tries to do other things without my input or obscures what I'm trying to do, that's the point where I get sick of it and get rid of it.
On a PC there's no pressing need since I have lots of disk space, and it's easy to keep apps from running in the background.
On Android is another story. Very limited space, and apps can run in the background very easily and are hard or impossible to kill in some cases. I recently uninstalled outlook.com app since I never used it (I installed it intending to, but never did) and it was sucking battery life. I also uninstall apps which provide duplicate functionality that I already have in an app I prefer. Large apps have to really be persuasive to stay as well.
when it crashes my machine — it is done.
I don't uninstall, I just upgrade the platform. Then it's a matter of what will I reinstall. .... Gimp, Inkscape, Audacity etc. Oh wait, these are applications as opposed to apps, never mind.
few things need network connection or access to location or ..... the list goes on and on
Almost all pre-loaded software on a major PC brand (excluding Apple) is crippleware. In many cases the computer vendor has been paid to pre-install the software. So my answer to people about the first thing to do is to uninstall all that junk. It's just taking up CPU cycles, drive space, and making the computer take longer to boot.
The fastest way to get me to uninstall an app is in-game purchases (other than a one-time payment to purchase the full version straight up, with no further fees).
Give me a lite version to evaluate it, then let me buy it straight up. I loathe and detest in-game purchases for gold, gems, or anything else necessary to continue a game, or to speed it up.
I uninstall things that install "services" or "autoupdate" crapware (Java, iTunes, and Google's apps all do this)
I uninstall things that continue to run after I've closed them (Office suites, MMORPG launchers are guilty *glare NCSOFT*)
I uninstall things that I have given up on (more games)
I uninstall things that serve only a single purpose and that purpose has passed (data retrieval/recovery/formatting/rescue)
My "core apps" on Windows or MacOS X are:
VLC x64 or MPC x64 (I use both, latter more often because it doesn't nag for updating)
No web browser doesn't annoy and nag the user, MSIE actually is the least annoying for this, and it'x x64 mode is more secure than the 32bit browsers. Firefox, Chrome and Opera are very annoying about updating.
Steam (Games are installed or removed by Steam or GOG. Uplay and Origin are exceptionally annoying)
Adobe CS4 Suite.
Spybot S&D (It has an annoyance about not running a scan every so often though.)
Avast (It likewise is very annoying unless you run it in game mode all the time.)
Past that, I never install Flash or Java, and when something explicitly "needs" Java I have it as "click/prompt to run"
If apps want to stay on the system and be used more often, they have to be usable WITHOUT BEGING NAGGED TO DEATH AT LAUNCH. If there's an update, download the update silently and then install it when the app is next closed. Prompting to update at the beginning costs time. Most apps don't need to be updated at all at launch unless there is a critical problem that the user is in fact experiencing.
When I look at my friends phones I don't think they do uninstall apps, screen after screen of unused little icons that do marvelous things that no one remembers.
I think they just install stuff until they think their phone is too slow, then upgrade and start over.
"Proximity to wonder has blunted our perception and appreciation of it" --Tim Hartnell in 'Exploring ARTIFICIAL INTELLI
Fuck you. If I feel like it, I'll run version 1.0 until the heat death of the Universe.
It doesn't even have to be updates asking for more rights. I usually uninstall software I don't use once it starts bothering me with upgrades at all. On Linux, I never have that problem as I generally know which software I need and don't just try out new programs without a good reason, but on OS X and Android, where I mostly install things through their respective app stores, some applications will be asking to update themselves more often than I consider polite.
On Linux I usually apt-get update once a week (and I do the same with macports), but when particular app wants my attention even if I don't feel like upgrading - it gets old quickly.
A program or application i do not use may keep occupying its space until i need to store something else. Even if a program or application sucks as hell, there is a huge probability that it does not get uninstalled soon.
Do not look at the lifetime on a user's device. Look at the actual usage instead!
There is software that is expected to be only started once. But for the majority, a start-once-only usage pattern clearly marks a bad product.
The apps that almost every day release an update with no apparent change in functionality really get under my skin. I hate getting notified that there is a new update or a new version installed for special events the vendors have way too often. Those are the first ones to go for me.
Bugs
ayottesoftware.com
One particular weather app I tried worked well, had nice animation, and had the right balance of information that I wanted to see. It was well worth the cost of purchase.
Alas, it kept on popping up pleas for me to try all the other apps made by the same company. So I deleted it, and I'll never buy anything from those bastards again.
Working infosec for a dozen years or so, I tend to harden things by default. I view any app on my system as a potential vulnerability, so if I don't need it or aren't using it, off it goes.
When it tells me their app requires a login and they strongly prefer I do it by using my Facebook account by making it difficult to do it any way else. Or it's been installed only to find out everytime I do something they slap me in the face with a "share this with my Facebook account."
Usually, its not working as promised is the only reason I uninstall. Other things are there, but usually don't cause me to uninstall. Only its non working, as well as bugs in the software
An app that needs to update every week is not from a reliable developer. An app that wants attention every day is a pest. Freemium apps, apps that want me to install more apps or get "social" are lame. Also low value apps take precious space. Permissions creep is not OK.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Biggest one for me is when a formerly paid app switches to being advertising base. What I've found is that even if they offer a way to remove the ads by paying again, or grandfather the original purchases into an ad free mode that the apps tend to suffer redesigns that are motivated to support advertisers and that many of these redesigns impact the use of the apps even for paid users. I've already uninstalled a bunch of apps for this reason, such as Quickoffice Pro, OneTap, etc. and have been considering uninstalling apps like The Weather Channel.
Any app that is a barnacle attached to an app I have installed, gets uninstalled by default. If it's so unwanted it has to be attached to another app, I don't want it on my machine by definition. This goes triple for toolbars, optimizers and "safe surf" plugins.
Any app that pops up an advertisement.
Any app that pops up any other message more than, say, once a month.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
On iOS, if I decide I have too many apps for whatever reason, I will go through and anything I have not used for a while gets deleted.
If an application just has something going on like too many notifications, I will usually just turn that off for the app.
The other main point of deletion is if I launch the app for the first time and it annoys me for some reason or I can tell right away I'm not going to use it. Then out it goes.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1) Unjustified self-importance: applications that, even when not running, insist on having daemons running for updates or whatever else. If it's not core to the utility if the application then just fuck off.
2) Freebies that keep begging me to buy stuff. I'll either buy this or I'll take something for free. If the latter then don't be disingenuous.
3) stuff I paid for that gives me adverts. I paid for this, so fuck off when you either decide to use DLC or adverts to repeatedly well me shit that interferes with my user experience.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
It's kinda like playing whack-a-mole. I may install an app that seemed like a good idea at the time, and it might stay on my machine for years before I notice it and uninstall. But apps that piss me off get uninstalled, and nothing pisses me off more than an app that calls attention to itself. About the second or third time an app pops up with "you really want to be running the non-free version of this" or "there's a new feature that only costs..." or "We also offer..." it goes.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Bundling shite with them, like your sister site Sourceforge does.
Other than that, if it survives a day, it stays on my computer forever. I never worry about disk space, and if I've downloaded something that fulfilled a purpose once, I keep it around in case I need it again.
About the only apps I've "uninstalled" have been ones that lasted literally seconds after I realised that they bundled tons of unnecessary shit in their installers and/or weren't what I was after.
the computer's operating system does, now if an app is too annoying, or buggy and a piece of crap they get uninstalled pronto, or if i am upgrading to a newer version i uninstall first then install the new version, (i wont install over top of an old app because if there is some obsolete file that would linger and possibly cause problems
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...I replace the entire phone instead.
For the most part I don't ever uninstall an app. I get a new phone every year and a half or so, so why bother? If I don't use it, I just won't reinstall it on the new phone.
I downloaded the whip app. After I tried it out on my wife, I got a fat lip and so I uninstalled it immediately.
Reasons why I uninstall apps.
1. Ads
2. Ads with sound
3. Ads with motion
4. Ads that burn up bandwidth.
I don't care how much I paid for them. Too many ads and you're GONE.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Background processes are annoying, if I notice them (and they're not doing anything that helps me in an obvious way).
But the main thing that makes me uninstall apps is that I use them infrequently but they want to update frequently. If you want to update a lot, you had better make an app I use a lot.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Between the App Store and the Adobe Creative Cloud, I freely delete large apps when they're not in daily use. For example, I use Adobe After Effects about once every three or four months. It's a 1.8 GB app, and my SSD is pretty small. So I install it when I need to use it and delete it when I'm done with that project.
It's pretty handy—I definitely wouldn't have done that in the old days of slow CD-ROM installers and serial number stickers.
I may occasionally be looking for an app suitable to a particular task, and I'll find there may be a half dozen semi-"popular" options that I'll download and try, one after another.
If I'm familiar with the software's operating domain, I may expect that I can open the app and figure out how to get my task done in fairly short order. If I can't, I hope there are menus that may give me a hint. Failing that, toolbar buttons; but some employ mystery meat navigation, with no text or hover-tooltips to indicate what they might do, so you end up clicking blindly. Then you check for a "help" button or menu, and find there is none. You go to the website to look at the documentation which is broken up rather oddly, or it's a wiki that's almost devoid of content. If there's no generalized 'help' document, I'd hope the authors could at least create a document with a few screenshots / steps of the most typical use case.
After a while, you discover that figuring out how to use the app just isn't worth it. *CLICK*. Uninstall.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
The KDE "search" functionality is a fine example. If there were any way to uninstall Nepomuk, I'd get rid of it in a heartbeat. But no, this useless piece of crap is so deeply embedded all you can do is disable it. But disabling doesn't actually get it to stop sucking CPU -- you have to autostart to run "tracker-control --terminate=miners" to *really* kill Nepomuk.
The corpse is still rotting on my system, but it's dead now.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Another reason I uninstall apps is if they complain when I turn the phone or tablet on Airplane Mode, or demand to connect to the internet and keep bugging me about it.
I have the wifi and cell off for a reason.
If you can't cope with that - you're gone.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Anything that interferes with base system functions gets the banhammer immediately.
AOL was notorious for this years ago when the install process would replace most Windows DLLs with AOL-flavored ones. IT departments at work were pretty busy fixing computers.
Today you can't install anything on work computers unless you are an engineer involved in software development. As of WIN7 they have locked down the computers. You can't even save data to the c: drive, you have to use a thumbdrive.
I have a WinXP Netbook at home that I installed iTunes on. Over time the browsers stopped opening at all. IE, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, none of them worked. I traced it to some iPod apps running in the background even though iTunes wasn't open. After I removed iTunes it worked a lot better.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
You are asking what makes me uninstall apps, but I think the bigger question is, what makes me not uninstall apps. I don't install a lot of apps, and with most apps that I try out, I immediately remove them.
There's a simple pattern to what makes me keep an app: It does something distinctly useful in a way that doesn't annoy me at all. If it crashes on me repeatedly, it's gone. If it doesn't integrate well into my OS or it conflicts with other apps, it's gone. If it's slow or hard to use, or confusing, then I probably won't keep it. If it doesn't do anything that makes my life significantly easier, I won't keep it for very long.
I've been doing IT for a long time, and there are three big recommendations I would make for keeping your system in good shape:
If you push updates more frequently than I use it, then I'll remove it.
I do this with Ubuntu too. e.g. Libpurple wants to update? "I don't remember telling you to update a damn thing." *unstalls libpurple*
Duh.
* If I realize that it's been months and I've never actually used it
* If I thought it would do something useful, I tried it, and I realized it didn't
** Or if I got it thinking it would even work at all, tried it, and it didn't. That's totally a thing.
** Or if I got it and it didn't crash all the time then, but it does now.
** Or if when I got it, it didn't constantly bug me, but after an update, now it does.
* If I downloaded several apps to do something, then picked the best one and this wasn't it
* If at the time it *was* the best app to do something, but then later someone made a better one
* If, as mentioned, I got it for a particular trip, and that trip has now passed. Or I got it for a particular event, and the event is over.
When I need more space for porn, I uninstall unneeded crap. Then once I tire of old porn that makes room for new games, etc. Vicious cycle. :)
You have ads on your Android device?
Why?
Kid-proof tablet..
Here's a link to our paper at KDD 2013 looking at why people hate your app. We crawled user comments on Google Play for about 100k apps, and then did some clustering and linear regressions to probe what people say when they give you low star ratings.
It turns out that a lot of low ratings often come right after an update, when people find out that their app doesn't work anymore due to incompatibilities. We also found some odd anomalies, like people saying they love your app but gave you a 1 star rating. If you want the very short summary, jump to Table 6. We divided up the comments by app type. For example, for games, people tended to complain about (1) attractiveness, (2) stability, and (3) cost. For other categories, the complaints were less consistent.
so many apps have ancillary modules that sit in the background, sucking up RAM and CPU cycles. when I find one of these I always ask myself if I really use it. IF not, it's gone! boom. Constant updates are a real pain, too, but at least that can be turned off.
Get uninstalled, then, manually deleted from my system.
You know, the ones you uninstall and they leave files/folders/reg entries on your system, then claim its a "bug".
As a developer I'd like to know a little more about notifications and what users consider acceptable. For example in one of my apps, http://www.perpenso.com/calc/calc3.html, I have some one time notifications regarding optional calculator modes. I may point out that historically calculators may do A or B, and that this app does A. The handful of notifications that I have are related to very common user errors.
So, what do people think. Are one time notifications regarding common mistakes acceptable?
When endless 'upgrades' are nothing more than adding more tie ins to every god damn social media site out there.
When the ads become too intrusive.
On the laptop when they nag to go to the 'pro' version, even once.
When the underlying website is pure nuclear bullshit to start with, like Netflix.
When running a utility provides no real world benefit.
I recently gave up on Avast antivirus because it was consuming 60% of my internet connection on a regular basis to send/receive information from it's cloud network. It might have been a bug in the latest update, but it was enough to make me uninstall. I'm using BitDefender Free version now instead.
I agree w/ everything right up until the 2nd & 3rd Don't
I think that's pretty extreme.
Don't add nice wheels to your car
Don't upgrade your Rotors...
Don't change the colors of your house.
FFS
If not USING your PC is your idea of IT, I'm glad I dont' work w/ you!
Me personally, like making the PC personalized. I don't need to be super Admin at work or anything, but I get pretty pissed at employers who utilize draconian GPs to lock down PCs that people sit at day in and day out. Somethings make work easier, like AutoHotKey. The later, I only use every now (not even quarterly?) and then to create rapid text macros needed for doing manual manipulation of >20 records at a time. A rarity, but it saves hours!
Is it more than you use daily, or more than you've ever used. Like many I've used photoXXXX, (including bump mapping, texturizing, Masking, Merging multiple layers, color replacements, etc... not making Memes) but I don't use PhotoXXXX on a regular basis, maybe 2x a year. Should I uninstall / re-install that every time?
Just playing Devil's advocate here.
All time favorite apps for PC:
WINDIRSTAT / MS Office
All time favorite apps for Android.
Titanium Backup / Tasker.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
I pretty much avoid apps with any kind of in-app purchasing. If you think your app is worth the price of all the extra bits, well then allow me to buy the whole thing. I'm not interested in being nickeled and dimed to death for extra levels, abilities or features.
I have two app, the full paid http://www.perpenso.com/calc/calc3.html app with various calculators built into a single app and a lite app where scientific (including fractions and complex numbers) is built-in but other modes such as statistics, business and hex are in-app purchases. The fully paid includes everything and there is no advertising and it is offered at a bundled price point, about 60% of the price of all the in-app purchases combined, equivalent to 3 of the available 5 in-apps. There are plenty of users who only purchase 1 or 2 of the in-apps.
The problem as a developer is that some users only discover the lite app. I mention the fully paid app in the lite app's description and that it may offer a cost savings, yet there are a noticeable number of users who purchase all 5 individual in-app purchases. I don't think all of these users are trying to be supportive, that most just did not notice the fully paid bundled app.
If I had done as you suggest and only offered the fully paid bundled version I may have lost many of the smaller sales. I'd be interested in hearing any suggestions. In the future I plan to again use this 2 app strategy of fully paid bundle priced and completely a-la-carte via in-app purchases. The difficulty seem to be in making potential users aware of both versions so that they can select the best fit.
I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all single app solution. Am I missing something?
If an app doesn't need to be a service, then it shouldn't be running as a service. LED Light? Not a service, and I'm almost fed up with having to kill it every time I close Opera. I spend an outrageous amount of time killing things that I don't want running, and freeing RAM.
When your app runs like dog shit, demands unlimited access to all my data and my network connection, sends me incessant notifications, and keeps running in the background using hundreds of megs of RAM and choking my processor no matter how many times I kill it, I'm going to delete your app.
Android needs to fucking give control to the user. I should be able to tell an app to:
1 - NOT fucking run in the background
2 - NOT fucking start on its own for no reason
3 - NOT have access to certain things
4 - NOT send notifications
Google needs to tell OEMs that disable my ability to do the above to:
1 - FUCK OFF
If an app on your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop does any of the following:
- asks you for personal information about your friends
- asks you for a credit card where no financial transaction is intended
- requires you to log in more than once to get to the functionality of the application
- does updates when you are not idle
- does updates without asking if you have not given it permission to
- terminates but stays resident if you are not told precisely why
- if it downloads a client piece every time you open it
- if it patches every time you use it
- if it requires you to change your password without prompting
- if there has been a security breach
- if it has put hooks into your system like 'Babylon'
- if it spams your email with partner advertisements
- if it merely duplicates the functionality of readily available free or standardly bundled utilities or basic apps such as Paint.
- if it doesn't live up to its claims
- if the user interface is ham-handed involving unnecessary steps. (click, click, click, click)
- if the user interface treats you like a child by channeling through simplified paths to data and features that the developers only think you want but do not know
- if the user interface treats you like a child by replacing white backgrounds with bright colors, stock photos, large print, simplified design and few textual elements
- if the main application starts pulling in the functionality of other standard applications so that you are almost forced into using an integrated Suite by making your life even more annoying if you don't adopt their strategies.
- if the application makes upgrades without backward compatibility to early versions at the very least with a seamless emulator
- if the application does not provide a rigorous uninstall
- if the app doesn't work
- if the app isn't better than another that you already have for the same functionality
then TRASH IT!
Most of the apps that I trash however, I do so to make room for apps that are more important to me.
-
Normally, if I've picked up an app, I keep it. At worst, I'll tuck it away where it won't be in my way, but still available if I want to do 'that thing that I forgot the name of'. What will make me uninstall it is when it decides to do things I don't like: always run, phone home when I don't want it to, share info I don't want to share, etc.
If I had the choice, I'd probably uninstall most web browsers and media players, too.
1) Intrusive advertising. I can live with banner ads, or interstitial ads between levels when they're loading. On the other hand, not so OK with ads randomly popping up between screens for no particular reason *cough*GoSMSPro*cough*
2) Excessive in-app purchasing.
3) Doesn't meet my needs. Could be an important missing feature, it might just not work at all
4) No longer need it.
...suddenly when they are patching themselves without any explanation why.
Why does a simple puzzle game without multi-player support need access to my contacts? Uninstall...
Et cetera...
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Recent obnoxious examples include Facebook (the one bundled with my phone was 9meg. The current is 34m + almost as much data memory used up), and Amazon's app store (a 5 meg app that brings in more than 17 and sometimes as high as 49 meg tagged *data*, not cache).
I dropped amazon from my phone (an older HTC Evo, so it only has 160 meg or so for app+data) because of this, and just gave up on those apps I'd purchased through it (some of which were on google play). Even so, any time I need to update FB, I generally have to wipe the data out to make room for the download.
Sheesh...
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
I just came out with a new app - a Palm emulator. I couldn't think of everything, and there have already, just in the first few days, been requests for legitimate features that make sense to provide to users. Plus, apparently a couple devices might have problems, too. I'm going to have to put out at least a few more updates. Heck, a lot of the "getting your app noticed" advice say you should update regularly, to indicate an actively-maintained and healthy app.
So, how to strike a balance there? I guess I can't please everybody, sure, but there ought to be some maneuvering room...
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
Android has the "what's new" section, where developers can specify what's changed in the new version. A lot of apps seem to just use "Bug fixes.", but others are more transparent. Does that have any effect on your willingness to deal with updates?
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
That's putting it a bit too strongly. I just put out my first app a few days ago, and I've already gotten useful user feedback and requests for new features. Plus, small developers don't have the equipment budget to test the way larger companies do. (12 to 50 devices on a regular basis, with periodic tests on more.) Especially on a new app, there's going to be a period where things have to shake out.
Or do you simply avoid any app that hasn't been around a while?
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
Many of these features will be Windows-centric, so bear with me.
1) Update crawl -- if the app's "update" client which typically loads at boot-up makes my system run noticeable slower (and I can see small differences such as thousandths per seconds even when blinking my eyes, so Watch Out You) then I am already swearing at my computer and about ready to see how much of its mass I can cause to separate with the Newtons carried by my fist. Don't you dare let that "update" background thing actually impact my computer's performance, or I'll disable it.
2) Vulnerability -- And then when your app turns out to carry a vulnerability or other headache requiring weekly or monthly downloads of your newer "Fixed" version, my first instinct is to wish that you, your server, and your entire company will be consumed in some kind of natural disaster or distributed attack. You strike me as the stupidest people in the history of the world, fucking around with my computer like it's some god damn candy cane house.
3) Conflicts -- why the hell would your program install and then start shit with some other program that was here before you got here? I absolutely hate it when some CAD or financial or animation software acts like it is the LED-God's greatest gift to humanity, and then proceeds to elbow its way into my system in a manner that causes my other programs to lose functionality or requires that I make changes to my OS's settings. If it's the fucking important to you, package the software with a bench-test executable and a little README.TXT explaining how to use it, what result to shoot for, and how to free up system resources to get closer to that result.
4) Fucked up licensing. Fuck you, AutoCAD. Nobody in the entire industry respects your fucked-up and apparently half-brained, stupid approach to licensing your products. People on all levels bitch and complain because your DRM makes your software hard to install and use FOR PEOPLE WHO FUCKING PAID FULL PRICE FOR YOUR SOFTWARE. Fuck you. Any software that was authored by morons who put intellectual property before functionality and usability should just go jump off a bridge and end their life, because that is what they are saying: "here's what I chose to do with my life, but I'm defeating that for depressing material reasons". Just take some barbs and alcohol and leave us your designer shoes, please.
5) Anomalous behaviour. I will immediately wonder whether you aren't some kind of planted listening device. You'll get firewalled, then monitored for disk activity, unfirewalled, and watched closely. I'll feel like I'm losing productivity. Don't have your program do some weird shit like disk analysis if you're just a fucking text editor. Keep to your side of the fucking courtyard, the little prison courtyard that I treat my computer like, as a tense and evil warden who will willingly kill the inmates to keep the peace. Don't -- MICROSOFT -- don't fucking give me this "Update" application that even though I tell it "check for updates inform me and then sit there" will still somehow magically be totally fucking over performance of the entire system just by being open, even though its task of checking for updates and reporting them back to me is finished. DON'T have a program that is supposed to be doing nothing, actually doing anything. Because my assumption is "COMPROMISE!" and you'll get sterilized like a fucking tribble passing through a ring of flame throwers on its way out of an airlock into interplanetary space.
6) Persistence. If you are an app that asks me questions, you are canned. Period. If I go to the apps list and uninstall you for WHATEVER reason (find your place in the universe within the above list) you might still have a chance of getting re-installed. BUT NOT IF YOU QUESTION MY AUTHORITY. As soon as you go "Are you SUUUURE YOU want me uninstalled?" The answer is not only Yes, it's not only "YES, what Hell am I in, now, how do I root you and your offspring out from my system", the answer is without fail "YES, you ASSHOLE, NEVER show you
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
The reasoning behind why paid apps are less likely to be uninstalled is because the buyer feels "attached" to their purchase. This reasoning is exactly wrong and agreeing with it actually makes it easier to miss the larger point. I would argue the reason almost all of us uninstall apps are because they take more than they give. For example, games asking for recommendations before the honeymoon wears off, apps that change the rules half-way (e.g., ask for more system privileges in an update), apps that just ask for personal info up front but offer no real use (WiFi buttons with e-mail access), apps that sell you intangible things that you can only get at through the app (e.g., background tracks to rap against). All of these apps take more than they give. Furthermore, apps that try to hide this relationship are especially hated. So we uninstall apps that take more than they give, and how long it takes us to uninstall them depends on how well the app can hide this inequity. Apps that do a poor job of hiding the inequity at all never get installed.
Conclusion: word of advice to app developers: You want to put out apps that give more than they take, and ask for what they take up front. Deception in this regard is hated and is punished. No "please review me" prompts, no upsells, no in-app business, no fake currencies or intangible goods. Oddly, I don't care about ads, the relationship there is up-front to me, I pay for the app by looking at its ads, but others might find them too distracting.
--"You are your own God"--
Some games I'll play just out of boredom and it becomes a habit. It's as instinctive as flipping on the TV for some people. I find that the only way to break my "addiction" is to completely uninstall the game. It has a strange slap-in-the-face effect when I realize my comfort blanket is gone then I move on to something more productive.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
From TFA:
One of the most important measuring sticks for the success of any software is how long a user keeps it installed after first trying it.
I am an app developer for both iOS and Android. How can I know if a user has uninstalled one of my apps? Are those statistics actually available to the developer?
If Google buys it. I was a HUGE Waze user until Google bought it. I was a Waze user because of the damned ads Google put in its nav app, so I knew what was coming and uninstalled Waze. I tell you, that HURT, because as stupid as it sounds, I'd made little Waze friends and loved ratting out the cops. But no way I'm going to be nagged about "upgrading" to G+, or accidentally clicking on an ad while trying to navigate [again].
If Facebook buys it. (And I had been so happy to get Instagram on Android. Then they sold out.)
I'm so proud of Snapchat that I'm thinking of trying it because they DIDN'T sell out.
(dpkg -l) Apparently I don't uninstall anything, except old kernels because I made my /boot only a couple hundred megabytes. But kernels probably aren't really "apps," are they?
1. The installation process installed additional software that I didn't want, such as toolbars.
2. The application showed promise but disappointed, either through functionality or stability.
3. I find better software, free or not.
4. I haven't used it in a year.
5. I only needed it for a one time usage.
6. The application some how broke. Something changed and it no longer works.
7. Fear. I don't remember where I got the app and I believe that it might add to security issues.
8. I read something, somewhere that pisses me off about the company that created the app. Such as adding backdoors, adware, or stop offering free upgrades\
to something that use to be free.
the Market for updates?
I use (and paid for) a calendar app that updates often. NEVER nags me. When I have a moment, I'll look to see if there are any updates to my apps. I'll read what the changes are, see if people are having problems with the update, THEN decide for myself if I want to download/install the newer version.
Am I many versions behind? Hell yeah. But I'm a happy camper. And I LOOK for this dev's new apps when I've got the time. Because I know his apps won't bug me.
That fucking camera app, $5 and a huge user base, best one out there. Until it got to be every. time. I. opened. it. it wanted to know if I wanted some new ding-dong "buddy" (an Obama picture,or a swastika) and I missed SO MANY PHOTOS because of that. Cameras should be instant-on, no fucking "let's stop and show you our new BUDDY, go download it now since you're fully paid". / "Not today? Maybe you'd like to try some of our other apps?!" —I wrote the devs an email and uninstalled, and will NEVER use anything they code again. What a crackhead move! Now I'm back on freakin stock camera/camcorder, but at least I can get a picture.
Those "surveys" are wrong. The users can check for updates on their own. (Oh, and user reviews? I tweet them and link to the Market. Please don't pull a YouTube and nag people to sign up for G+ to rate.)
I still have a copy of old PSP. I use Photoshop, but both have their uses for me. The more complicated stuff goes to photoshop, but I know how to do certain things in PSP like second nature.
What is that drawing program ...CorelDraw 13 or something, which added photoshop-like features, and animation I think? Probably a voice recorder and navigation app, too. (Of course the AVG virus). WTF? All that horseshit in what used to be an illustration program? So I kept my old copy of Corel Draw, too. Looks funky, but works.
"Firefox" wants access for Near Field Communication, ability to delete contents of my storage, and ability remove accounts. Google Search update wants the ability to directly call phone numbers or send SMS messages (for search???), and add/modify calendar entries (from search??)
Firefox wants NFC for NFC sharing. Google Search is also the device's voice command prompt; it gains new privileges as Google adds new features to compete with Siri. It probably wants dialing so that when you say "OK Google, call Staisy", you'll get connected. probably wants calendar writing so that when you say "OK Google, remind me of a meeting with Milo at 3:30 on Thursday", you'll get it on your calendar. I'm not sure about Bluetooth though.
The problem is that the choices are to accept whatever the stupid app wants or to forbid it entirely. There is no middle ground of allowing the app but forbidding access to things I want to restrict.
Android 4.3 introduces App Ops, which you can download from Google Play Store. It lets you disable individual permissions for individual applications. It's hidden by default because it would cause too many existing apps to force-stop with a SecurityException.
Sucx0r = delE7ex0rz
Do I really need any other reason?
My favorite devs take full advantage of the What's New and assume I can go to the market, look for updated apps, and decide if I need the update or not.
Devs I don't know, I wait and see how the update works. When the comments used to be useful, I'd wait to see if the "updates" took an app from 5 stars to 1 star. (The stars themselves weren't always useful: commenters would leave it at 5 stars but say the update bricked their phone.) That whole PlayStore system isn't as useful anymore since you have to be G+ to rate/comment, but people use Twitter enough that I can usually count on Twitter (or AppBrain) to hear about any problems before I update an app.
But I truly appreciate when a dev is transparent about the update and has a Twitter account to address issues, get ratings, suggestions, etc. I'll buy apps I'd never use just to support such developers. I want to support those who don't use ads or nag screens. ZOMG and if they make the code TIGHTER so it's actually smaller and faster?! I'll sing praises for weeks on Twitter.
It's not really the ads themselves, or even ad-based apps. ( Though I do prefer paying directly for my apps versus being the price for them. ) It's that once an app that was originally a paid app is redesigned to be ad-supported, the focus and quality of the app tends to change. If I really wanted to block ads that way I'd could just tweak my DNS server.
Unsolicited notifications are never acceptable and I have uninstalled every app that has ever bugged me with one. As the other reply asked, why not include this information as a "tip of the day" when the app is invoked, rather than shove it in the notification bar where important stuff goes? Why do I need to know something about your calculator at some random time when I'm not even using it?
Actually I am currently putting up a dialog box while in the app and not using the local notification system in iOS. However I am thinking about using the local notification system rather than a dialog box since it would seem a cleaner and more functional implementation. Note that this local notification would *not* be generated at some random time, it would be generated as you startup the calculator app. I would not be using push notifications.
Is using the local notification system while in the app really that different than putting up a dialog box?
I went back to a decent feature phone (LG 840G). Cheap, capacitive touch screen (albeit low resolution), no contract, and has WiFi.
I find I use the phone completely differently in a rural area where I am now compared to living in a city when I was on contract. So all I really need is a decent maps app - GMaps touch (J2ME) works fine and a decent browser - Opera Mini, which is sluggish but serviceable.
Until Android can *reliably and consistently* restrict when, where and how network chatter happens, I don't imagine going back. At least not while living in the country,
Your application looks interesting. Do you plan on bringing it to Android any time soon, or is it worth $220 for an iPod touch?
Getting too specific about the bug fixes in a widely used app might encourage crackers to diff your old and new binaries to find a vulnerability that they can exploit. Don't give them any ideas.
Bonjour, Quicktime (I have used VLC forever and detest Quicktime), updaters... UGH!
I use an old iTunes. The new one is ridiculous anyway, but Bonjour is a problem waiting to happen. I understand fine if you've got one of those Air printers and an Apple TV and all that, but probably about 3/4ths of Apple's user base does NOT have all that stuff, and therefore has no need for those services which just slow everything down. Bonjour, IIRC, actually interfered with people's INTERNET connectivity. What an ultimate fail.
(The worst is the knowledge that Apple's just TERRIFIED we actual purchasers might share music with an unauthorized device, RMDE.)
ITA with you that iTunes causes way more problems than it solves. I use it to buy music I've heard on Spotify (though I'm starting to use Amazon more often); some music seems available only on iTunes, too, so I keep the old iTunes minus the bloatware to get those songs. But I hate it. I'd buy WAY more from iTunes if they dropped the vulnerable bloatware.
Developers need to understand though that pulling an update may eat some battery.
Then Google failed by not providing an option to download updates only when connected to a power source.
It may devour some people's allotment of premium LTE data.
Then Google failed by not providing an option to download updates only over Wi-Fi.
I thought the AdFree application required root. Not all Android users have rooted their devices.
I parse that as "Not all Android users own their devices."
Kid-proof tablet..
I really really really hate apps that try to pull stunts like grabbing GPS data when they don't need it, call home for no reason that benefits me, or runs when I didn't run it.
The worst apps that I frequently see are the crap ones that the phone companies seem to put on Android phones. The bastards who make those apps know that people hate them because they make them near impossible to remove.
The other good reason to uninstall an app is when they push in-app-purchases way too hard. I don't know how many apps that I have installed where the "free" app was basically worthless without the IAP.
The last reason that I frequently uninstall an app is when it makes me uselessly create an account. I don't understand this as 100% of the time I either use mailinator.com or a crap hotmail address along with the most crude and insulting usernames possible. These MBA people must not check to see if their 100,000 users are mostly fake and that the 100,000 emails they sent to the users were read more by their own marketing people than actual users.
You mean the app interrupting its flow to ask the user to update, not just making an update available in the market. I agree, that's rather different, and highly annoying. I didn't understand your wording of "asking to update themselves".
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
On some devices, the official way to switch from not-owner mode to owner mode requires unlocking the bootloader, which requires a factory reset, which in turn requires some reliable backup method.
Your application looks interesting. Do you plan on bringing it to Android any time soon, or is it worth $220 for an iPod touch?
I am currently working on redoing the iOS user interface a bit and implementing a few user suggestions. After that I do plan on an Android version.
... I'm platform agnostic. Personally I tend to look for apps on iOS first but I definitely appreciate Android and have a few Android apps that literally are not allowed by Apple under iOS, "Wifi Analyzer" for example. That said the iPod touch is a pretty cool little device if you don't need cellular, gps, etc. I hope you have a lot more in mind beyond a calculator app though. :-) One thing that makes me a little reluctant about the touch is that the iPhone and iPad just got refreshed and moved to a new CPU, the touch is still using the previous generation CPU. There has been no announcement but I can't help but wonder when the touch will get refreshed and updated to the current CPU.
Regarding an iPod touch
The developer is gone.
The software has not been updated in years.
Need to move on.
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Smoking, please. I'd always intended to start, so I guess at death is a good time as any. At least I won't die of cancer from that.
I'm an atheist and just felt like responding to your tag. See here for a funny. And good luck to us all, we'll all "soon" find out the answer.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
I look for an app to do something I want. I find umpteen poorly described ones that seem like they might fit the bill. I try three or four at a time. Despite a promising description, they don't really do what I want/crash/require too much set up/they forget all the options I laboriously set up last time/they demand inexplicable permissions. I delete them, and try another three or four or five. Eventually, by luck I find an app intended for a different purpose, in a different category that does more or less what I wanted. If I'm lucky, it doesn't nag me to give good feedback until I can't stand it, stop using it, and look for a better alternative.
Lack of space. Otherwise just ignore it.
Why not add the ability to revoke permissions to an app?
Great, so the flashlight app wants to read my contact list: how about NOPE? 2D game wants to access my camera? How about NOPE? Other OS's include the ability to reject permissions to an app.
Why not Android?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I can write my own email, thanks.
80% of the emails that I receive from customers originate with the "Email Support" button that appears with the integrated manual in my calculator app.
Now under iOS I only create a URL that defines "to", "subject", etc fields and pass that off to the system mail app, so my app never needs to see your contacts or your emails.
Would you find a similar approach, launching the system email app with some fields pre configured, disagreeable under Android? I'm planning on doing an Android version in the near future and I'm curious. Thanks for any suggestions.
1st and most critical is stability - does it crash/impact my system in any way?
2nd is security - does it require network access to work?
3rd is Privacy - does it want an email address/phone number/my email addressbook and such along with a continuous network connection - related to #2 security issues
4th is does the app do what it claims? I've seen many that claimed to give me a unicorn, fairy along with imortality and not one of them have done that.
5th and generally last - does it offer a killer feature?
Yes I do use a check list when testing to see if an app does work as it's supposed to while protecting my system. As an example, many may think I'm crazy for sticking with FF 10.0 but when looking at bugs and such, it's actually more stable then any of the later versions plus the benefit is that I can fix the damn bugs on my system and build it from source if desired. Yes I think the current dev methods stink - they're simply throwing shit against the wall/window just to see what in hell sticks.
Apps that are designed with a networking requirement or as a network client when they would make more sense as a standalone application tend to have an aura of Do Not Want about them for me. I don't like software that phones home or checks for updates as anything but a deliberate manual operation on my part.
that I see an advertisement.
When I run out of room on my 32GB iPad, I'll open up the Usage panel in the Settings app and look at the Apps in order of disk space. As pretty as Infinity Blade might be, I never play it and I've never seen my kids play it so its 1+GB goes. Smaller apps, those under 10MB or so will rarely be kicked out. The apps I write tend to be very lightweight, as in of the 100+ apps on my phone, my own apps like SVG Paths, TV Towers USA, etc. are all in the bottom 10 in terms of disk usage using around 2-3 MB apiece. I was working for a company last year and when I came in to update their iOS app, it was using 12+MB of space, by the time I was laid off it was down to 4 or so just by removing evolutionary dead ends of graphics that had accumulated and a half megabyte background texture for a dialog the user would never see.
Many of the apps that I use on Android ask me to rate/review the app. In many instances I would like to, but for me, it's not an option because they require G+ to rate an app. I refuse to join any social networks like G+ or Facebook. I value my privacy to some degree, and I don't want the drama of social networking. If I could rate your apps without a G+ account, then I would gladly do so much of the time.
Get the one from F-Droid. There is an open-source package repository and it has a bunch of useful open-source apps for Android.
You can be quite sure whatever you get from F-Droid is not an ad-ladden spyware. It doesn't have many apps, but there are some very good ones, and signal-to-noise ratio is much better than official app store.
--Coder
The biggest reason is when an app update wants escalated permissions it does not need (an app that wants permissions it doesn't need doesn't get installed in the fr0st p1st)
Other reasons include incessant, unnecessary, and unwanted notifications that can't be turned off; and excessive resource usage that kills battery life.
The android app store will show you what permissions it needs on the information page of the store for that app.
What you don't seem to be able to do is filter on permissions so that you can see the calculator app that doesn't want access to your entire storage area, for example.
"Google tends to be a bunch of over the top asshats by not providing filters for add free and foss apps, basically being a real pack of shit heads."
As opposed to Apple who forbid it appearing at all and attempt to take without obeying the license before they decided, since they can't just demand that they can void the license because they don't want to agree to it, to block all FOSS code from their store.
Or Microsoft who still insist that they have hundreds of patents which you have to pay for and also refuse FOSS applications.
If Google is a shithead for not promoting specifically FOSS apps on their store, what are Apple and Microsoft?
I didn't install it in the first place; it came with something else.
Disabling the screensaver or making other background changes to how my computer is set up - that's a big one for me.
Design and privacy. The reason I "uninstalled" Android.
The moment the app plays a loud audio ad, it's gone. Small un-intrusive ads, no problem, but full screen or audio ads, good bye.
I use CCleaner on my Windows systems. I does not run as a service. Since it does not run as a service it does not regularly display notices on my desktop telling me I need to use. So why does every single android app that does something similar, and almost every other app I try to install, want to run in the background and send me notices? This is the same reason I banned Adobe Reader from my desktops. Please Android developers, stop acting like your app is so important that it need to be constantly running and eating up my resources.
I've been owned by smartphones for 10 years, starting with the T-Mobile MDA (Windows Mobile OS), then the HTC G1, which I finally gave up for an iPhone. Here's my observations as a long-time mobile app user:
I had to ditch Google Maps on the G1 after a mega-update app caused it to stop working. For me, this wasn't just a matter of convenience. As a bus rider in the transit city from hell, aka Los Angeles, I depended on that app to work right, to tell me when the next bus was coming, or to come up with a better route. I'd been using the app for nearly five years at that point every day for the transit option. The MTA (bus co. from hell) rolled out an app of their own, but it didn't work on my G1 and it doesn't work on my iPhone. Google Maps works perfectly on my iPhone.
Anything which appears to be a memory hog or a battery drain gets killed immediately. With the iPhone, there's no issues with memory hogs, but some apps still think they have the right to drain my battery.
Anything that bothers me. If I'm not using the app at the moment, I don't want to see too many update requests or friendly "hellos" from your damned app when I'm trying to do something else. If I exit out of your app, that means exactly what the words say. Don't load your app into the memory of my phone, so it's still running in the background. Off means off.
Any app which overrides my sound, volume and audible preferences is immediately dead on arrival. Such as, an Android app released by the Carl's Jr./Hardee's fast-food chain had an annoying musical alert which was extremely loud and there was no option to shut it off. I installed the app at home and then walked over to a neighborhood coffee shop. Because there was a Carl's Jr. within the range of the app, it starts announcing itself loudly, while I'm eating in another restaurant. Uninstalled, in less than 10 minutes, because I had my phone set to silent by default, and any app which overrides my audio and notification preferences is DOA. The current version of the Carl's Jr. iPhone app doesn't have any of these flaws.
I don't mind reasonable notifications about upgrades and improvements, but dear app creator, you and I are not dating, and daily (or multiple times in one day) notifications from you are way more contact than you and I need to have with each other.
Sneaky practices like installing third party software without my knowledge or consent.
Bloat. I've gone through several antivirus providers over the years because of this, most recently Avast.
I just went through a round of this.
1) Doesn't work or PIA to figure out. Worse case, don't make me have to google more than once to get it working. Local help should help. Imagine that.
2) You bug me. Like TFA said if there's un-necessary notifications especially if I'm right in the middle of something and you interrupt me, you can almost ensure I'm going to delete it. If I can't delete it like a certain PIA app at work, I'm going to complain and make your life miserable as I can. Fucking app I'm thinking of grabs your cursor wherever you are. Middle of typing a letter and had about 8 points in your brain queue to write down? Too bad. Just to type in the password because there's an idiotic timeout to satisfy an audit question that doesn't even apply because the desktop locks after inactivity. Now good luck with whatever it was you were doing because your thought process is gone. About the time you get it back it will interrupt you again.
Evolution is fitting into this one. They pop up a notification that I got new e-mail, while they do that the normal app is locked. It's also crashing a lot lately. I'm about to replace it if I can.
3) Past upgrades weren't so nice. Postgres fits into this one. I upgraded a system about 10 years ago and it cost me about two days to find an older machine, move the old data files, dump the data to text files and reload it while I had to do more stuff to get the customer's app running again (SURPRISE!). All while the customer was breathing down my neck. Postgres - I still give you the finger over that one. Leaving me with no way to upgrade on that machine wasn't nice. Suppose I didn't have access to another machine? No BS like that with Mysql. Don't even bring up oracle. I only use them if there IS no other way. They're beyond a middle finger gesture.
4) Used to not charge, now you do AND there's little or no value added. I make my living in the IT industry and I know people need to make a living too. I get that. What I don't get is something that sort of works and a lot of people get to depend on it and now you want to charge for it. Tripwire is in this category. Used it all over the place. Great stuff. Then for the commercial version they wanted like $3 grand a machine and I manage over 900 machines. So $nothing to 2.7 million and that's just for one year? Sure, they did work on it but it still sucks. Especially with the dynamic pre-linking we have today. Support basically told me to pound sand. They made even Oracle look good (see previous item about oracle). Worse, they bought licenses for it, then wouldn't give out the licenses because it was only for a year. So the eventually expired. Money for nothing.
5) I'm paying you and you don't listen. I had an app that I paid for. Had a problem. He couldn't be bothered with helping me. Turns out I found a freeware version that was better. Adios Amigo!
One last app user's pet peeve. Don't be a douchebag and write an app that can only be used on a Wi-Fi connection. iPhone apps like the Carl's Jr. one I mentioned will hit up either a Wi-Fi connection or a cell-phone signal, depending on which one it finds first, without bothering me about it. Just pick one.
To all those developers demanding my location for absolutely no reason (looking at YOU NFL Video, among a plethora of others)...
Fuck You.
On my iThings, lack of free space is the biggest predictor of deleting apps, and I start from the largest ones (mostly games my kids have loaded) and work my way down. I am more likely to delete an app that was free.
Not sure what are you talking about re quick office.
It was bought by Google and is free, no ads. On android anyway.
Periodically, I uninstall apps on the leftmost screen. They're obviously not necessary.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
New releases that break functionality that I was using, or even remove that functionality entirely, are the main reaons I uninstall. Oh, and in the age of email and online support ticket systems having to call a US telephone number at international dialling rates for any kind of support is a huge no-no... I'm looking at you, Electronic Arts.
I do a lot of evaluation of special purpose tools.
Performance analyzers
Flowchart editors
Outline editors
Callgraph generators
I don't do this until I actually need a thing. Then I want it within a week or less. I often try out several multi-hundred dollar packages. Inevitably almost all of them fail.
The last thing I needed to do was generate a callgraph to document a subsystem I'd spent around 30 hours understanding. I didn't want to ever do that again. I went through a few ~1000 dollar packages that sucked. I ended up writing the callgraph myself in DOT.
Most commercial programs are too full of features, dialog boxes and other crap to really work for anyone except someone who uses them all day long. And there is a very short list of sotftware categories that deserve this type of complexity and learning curve.
Most apps are just NOT the center of attention, and the important thing is to remove everything obscuring the core utility.
-josh