"There's an app for that"

[UseLess]

...is a phrase which has always been associated with the iPhone. Having always been exposed to iOS and Android, I figured it was a good way of looking at things. However now that I've been using WP7 for the past 4 months or so, I don't think this is always appropriate. When I see a nifty app, I find myself saying more and more, "damn I wish my phone did that" rather than "damn I wish i had that app". Features on a phone are simply more seamless, and better integrated, than those of an app.

Say for example if Waze was on WP7. When I found a restaurant with local scout, I would have to click on it, copy the address, then go into waze and paste in where I wanted to go. Significantly more painful than if bing maps just had live traffic built in. I have Whatsapp, and I must say, its terrible! When I whatsapp someone, i want to be able to instantly swap to msn when they move to their computer...not have to swap apps! Skype app?! pfft, I want to skype someone from my phone call interface, not crank up some app to do it.

These are my opinions, and of course comparing iOS to WP7...because Andriod , with such an open nature, sacrifices other things for its ability to 'do anything'. Also, I don't count games as apps either.

In the main, for day to day uses, I look forward to the day when I almost never use apps - as it is currently, I only use a handful often.

I use adobe PDF (anyone got a replacement? Adobe PDF on WP7 blows) ,youtube, and yapf, and some others - all because my phone doesn't do what I would like it to, and personally I think these are features that the majority of people would want, and use very often.

I don't have a fb app, nor a shazam, nor a navigation app, nor a media player - all because my phone does it already. I can use 'search' to listen and find the name of the song for me, tap the marketplace link to download the song, and play it straight up - all nice and smooth, without any loading times. (While SoundHound can do it too...why do i need it?)

I do agree that there are some things that would make a phone bloated for them to do - I'm an engineer, so I have some specialty apps for engineering.

In general however I feel the saying "there's an app for that" is a cop out for "my phone doesn't do it".

What do other people think? Do you like having the flexibility of apps? (Bring on the flame =P)

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

I think that there's a whole generation of people now who tend to think that most daily challenges in life can be solved by having "an app for that" and if there's none then the task at hand must be of insurmountable difficulty and, therefore, skipped and ignored.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

An all-in-one app that does everything you need will never exist. The best that we could hope for is a bit of consistency. I believe it's something that Microsoft tried to do with WP7. Aside from that, apps will continuously be made with varying degrees of quality. Personally, I don't like gimmicky apps that waste your time. I prefer functional apps that serve a purpose other than to waste your time. I guess games can fall into that category but I don't consider them as apps.

I think it would be great if apps had a little more consistency with a smartphone's OS. It's the main reason I prefer first-party apps over third-party ones (e.g. apps made by RIM, Google, etc). They seem to get it right in terms of the app fitting in with the OS. Also, I'd prefer less apps with higher quality as opposed to more apps with lower quality.

[threetonesun]

Well, I have three different navigation apps, I use them for different purposes. I could share something to Twitter, Facebook, or Google+, but if all three were built into my iPhone, it would be full of loaded menus (I personally think Twitter is even a bit much for the sharing menus).

In the end, they're all apps, what you're really looking for is a well integrated system so that they appear less app-like.

[ichi]

I don't really care about whether funcionality is provided by the OS or through third party apps as long as it integrates nicely enough. That is, eg. if I'm browsing the gallery and I feel like modifying a picture with pixlr-o-matic I don't have to go to that app and then open the file, I just press a button in the gallery and pixlr-o-matic starts with the picture I wanted.

You might argue that the functionality pixlr-o-matic provides could be baked into the OS, but then when I say pixlr-o-matic others might say instagram, or whatever other app they prefer for whatever reason (eg. instagram's social features).

When it comes to messaging people, one single protocol doesn't cut it. I have GTalk, which comes with Android and is what I use the most for chatting, VoIP and video calls, but then some people only has Skype, or Whatsapp, or Viber... there's just no way any phone will offer all those services baked into the OS.

Same with sharing and cloud storage. I use Dropbox, Ubuntu One and Google Drive, and you won't find any phone that's able to integrate with all those services out of the box.

Good thing is, as soon as I install a client for those services I can just send files to them straight from, say, the Gallery app. The client becomes transparent.

Again, you won't find any OS that allows to share through Facebook, Twitter, Bluetooth, UbuntuOne, Google+, SMS, Mail, WhatsApp, Skype and Drive, all out of the box. While you might not be using every service out there, your personal choice of services doesn't have to necesarily match those bundled with your phone OS.

I mean, as long as apps integrate with the OS and you don't have to go every time to the drawer to explicitly lauch the app to get the funcionality, whether they are third party applications or out of the box OS features becomes largely irrelevant.

I could share something to Twitter, Facebook, or Google+, but if all three were built into my iPhone, it would be full of loaded menus (I personally think Twitter is even a bit much for the sharing menus).

Not really, at least in the Gallery app (which is the only place I remember sharing from) you just get a button for the most used share target on the top right corner. The share menu, while can be expanded to show all available services, only shows the top three ones you use the most.