Your users are begging you: Please don’t make me download an app

Don’t build a mobile app

I know what you’re thinking. “But every serious product needs a mobile app!”

No, it doesn’t.

Your users are already screaming “I don’t wanna download another app.” They just won’t tell you directly. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I’ve learned this lesson the hard way.

The download dance nobody wants to do

Here’s what you’re actually asking your users to do when you proudly announce your new mobile app:

🙃 Check storage space (again)

🙃 Delete photos from cousin’s wedding

🙃 Wait for download and install

🙃 Accept 12 permissions they don’t understand why you need

🙃 Create yet another account

🙃 Verify email

And by then? They forgot why they even wanted this in the first place.

Meanwhile, the web just... works.

No storage drama. No permission circus. No “this app is incompatible with your device” because someone has that one Android model from 2019 that you didn’t test for.

“But if we build an app, we’ll be on their home screen! That’s daily visibility and instant access!”

Is it thou?

Do this exercise with me: Count the apps on your phone right now. I’m guessing around 100. Now count how many you actually opened this week. Maybe 10? After a while, you become blind to everything except what you’re actively looking for.

Here’s a sobering stat: 70–80% of people stop using a newly downloaded app within 3 days. And that’s not even counting the ones who never download it in the first place.

Your beautifully designed app icon isn’t special. It’s just adding to the chaos in their app drawer, sitting next to 47 other apps they downloaded and forgot about.

“Apps make us look legitimate!”

I hear this one a lot. Listen. No one cares.

Your users want their problem solved, not another icon to manage. They don’t need you to prove you’re a “real” company by having an app. They need you to solve their problem quickly and efficiently.

Stop adding to the digital junk drawer they’re already struggling with.

“But native gives us more control!”

For what exactly?

Unless you’re building a game or need the gyroscope for some specific AR feature, you’re just burning money on separate iOS and Android teams. And even then, one of them will inevitably complain that the button looks weird on their specific phone model.

Here’s what the modern web can do:

• Push notifications ✓
• Camera access ✓
• Offline mode ✓
• Payments ✓
• Location services ✓
• Everything you think you need an app for ✓

Want to be on their home screen? Progressive Web Apps have got you covered. If someone actually wants you there, they can install it. No app store gatekeeping. No waiting for updates to be approved. Just works.

At Deep Holistics, we faced this exact decision. We’re building a product that’s quite data heavy — tons of medical information that needs to be organized, correlated, and communicated clearly.

The pressure to build a native app was real. “Every health tech company has an app!” they said.

But we chose web over native.

Why? Because app fatigue is real. Nobody wants to spend 5 minutes downloading another app in the middle of the night (if they even have the storage space and mental bandwidth for it), when they could spend 10 seconds logging into a website to see their test results.

Our users need quick access to critical health information. They don’t need another app cluttering their phone.

The Bottom Line

Stop building apps just because you think you should.

Start building solutions that actually respect your users’ time and device space.

Your users will thank you. Even if they never tell you directly.

Original post: LinkedIn⁠, Substack⁠