Why Do I Have So Many Apps?
Unbundling & Simplicity
App unbundling isn’t working. In one of the most common measures of app success, monthly active users (MAUs), the unbundling strategy is falling flat on its face. So, why exactly is this trend continuing with no signs of slowing down in sight? Facebook has Messenger, Paper, and Slingshot in addition to its famous acquisitions, Instagram and Whatsapp. LinkedIn has Connected, Jobs, Slideshare, and Recruiter. Google Drive has Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Foursquare split its app into Swarm. When this movement began, there was much discussion to be had. Let’s continue this talk and see what it means for the PM world.
“You have a lot of apps on here.” One of my friends told me that while looking at my iPhone a few years ago. I honestly didn’t put much thought into it until about a year and a half ago when the big tech players started splitting their mobile applications up into smaller, digestible pieces. The question is whether this effort is worthwhile, both for the users and companies involved.
Unbundling makes getting tasks done easier
For the user, some advantages become immediately apparent. An app that does one thing is inherently more simple than one that does many. Even though phone real estate seems to continue to grow (despite the average hand size remaining steady), insufficient space doesn’t allow your phone to operate like a desktop computer. Clearly, stripped down interfaces get the job done more efficiently; everything on mobile works better with simple gestures.
In an ideal world, a good set of apps is like a professional toolbox. Imagine owning a standard high quality hammer. When you want to set some nails down into a piece of wood, your thought process is probably similar to the following:
(1) My hammer would work well for this.
(2) Let me go get said hammer.
(3) Use this hammer.
(4) Put it away when I’m done.
Today, most people use their phones in a similar way. Something prompts you to pull your phone out of your pocket and go to a specific app for an intended purpose. After you’re done, the phone goes back in. In many ways, the smartphone is a personal toolbox in your pocket.
Big tech companies can innovate faster
On the company’s side, there are a few pluses to be had as well. Making a separate app allows them to experiment with features without upsetting their large user bases. As all developers know, you can satisfy 99% of someone’s needs but piss them off in that remaining 1% and they will give you a 1-star rating. With a smaller set of customers, the product team can work on retention and user satisfaction through iterations, similar to how a startup would operate. From a development perspective, it’s easier to attempt a different approach to a feature in an all new app than to try to shoehorn it into an existing one. Finally, to promote the new creation, the firm’s already expansive user base allows it to direct traffic to its new sister apps through deep linking, bypassing the mess that is the app store.
Unbundling still has its issues however
My device is jam packed. How many apps can someone really use usefully? Most people hate having a plethora of applications on their phones. In addition, the average smartphone user doesn’t have his apps organized to maximize efficiency. Switching between apps in a constellation can also be confusing at times. These issues can easily lead to users deleting your app off their phones.
For app creators, building new apps requires resources that can be used to drive other projects with more sure projected profits. Additionally, brand identity can be lost across a number of apps. Companies also need to worry about cannibalization. Apps can cannibalize each other’s user bases if they do the same thing (Facebook & paper for instance). Lastly, the app that is unbundled may not actually provide value for users. You can spot this issue by observing the symptoms of a disengaged user base. Paper debuted at #2 in the app store only to fall to the mid 1400s two months later. Slingshot started ranked #4 and fell to the 1000s a month later. Swarm, the most notorious offender, started off ranked #62 and fell out of the top 1500 in 2 weeks. The lesson is clear: you can’t unbundle just for the sake of unbundling.
Ultimately, we’re still not sure how things will shake out
If you measure victory by app adoption, unbundling has not been a flat out success thus far. To be honest, Facebook Messenger is probably the only application that has clearly taken off as an application of its own. This is essentially because Facebook forced its user base to use the app if they wanted to message other users on their phones. Data shows that many of these applications see big spikes when they initially launch, only to see a decrease in MAUs. If this is the case, why do these companies want to direct user niches to separate applications that detract from the synergies and branding that they’ve built up over the years?
I’d argue that these companies are not, and should not be using MAUs or revenue as the most important indicator of success at this stage. Instead of user adoption, what if the criteria for success was how much is learned from the experience? In this case, I bet all of these companies are doing a decent job. In fact, I don’t think these the goal was necessarily to create separate applications but rather to run these spinoffs as experiments on a smaller test base, then integrate their successful components into the larger application. Whatever the motivation is, it’s pretty clear that this trend is still in its early stages. It will take some time to figure out where things are going. As a PM, what this means for you is that you should keep track of what your peer applications are doing with their interfaces and user workflows. Hidden within these app constellations are techniques and approaches that may be essential to your own projects even if they are not mobile applications.
Thoughts? Feel free to comment.
